My Little Fairy

I just had to share these photos.

We had these taken a couple of days ago. A woman had set up a little kiosk in the mall and was taking pictures of little girls as fairies and little boys as knights. I just had to take Gigi. She picked out the dress - the blue one of course! I am really happy about the way they came out!

Grasping

J grabbed the toys on his bouncer seat today! Now, he has held toys before today, but only if they were placed into his hand.

Today he deliberately reached for his toys! You could actually see the concentration and determination in his eyes! It was amazing to watch.

I'm so proud of you little man!

Free Stuff!

You know I LOVE Free stuff!!

• You can go to this website to receive a booklet by mail of over $27 in savings on great home care products from P & G.

• Go here for a free sample of Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond True Delights

• Fill in your info here for Splenda samples.

• Some free Playtex infant care items can be obtained here.

Enjoy!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Best wishes for a prosperous new year!

Monday was Chinese New Year.

Well, we never did get around to finishing our paper lanterns from last week, but the dragon Gigi made looked great on our dinner table.

The Chinese character on the wall is "Fu" and means "luck". We also put one on the front door.

As you can see, I cheated and ordered the food from a take out restaurant. Sorry, but with the exception of fried rice, I don't know how to cook Chinese food. At least we did have some of the traditional foods. Lo Mein noodles (for long life), dumplings (for wealth) and oranges for dessert (to ensure a "sweet" year). The rest of the food is just stuff we like to eat; sweet and sour chicken, chicken chop suey and wonton soup.

We all wore new, red shirts and made sure to open the windows to let in the good luck.

Gigi and J also received their red envelopes from my mom which contained their "good luck money". Unfortunately, I don't get money on the New Year anymore - that stops when you get married. :(

The food was great and we had fun!

Preparing for the New Year...Again

Monday is Chinese New Year. So, once again I've been cleaning. Ridding our home of the "bad luck"that may be hiding in our home to make room for all the "good luck" that the new year will bring. At least this time around is much easier since I just did a big cleaning at the end of 2008.

On our trip to the library yesterday, I checked out several books about Chinese New Year.

Today, Gigi and I read them together. Although I do not follow all the traditions of the new year - and honestly I don't even know them all - I want to expose Gigi to it since it is in our blood.

We made this paper dragon together which we will use to decorate our dinner table on Monday.

We started to make a paper lantern, but did not finish it. I will post pictures of it once it's completed.

This worksheet was from one of my new Scholastic books. Gigi had to connect the dots in order from A to N.

We will probably do one or two more things before Monday.

Chance of Snow?!?!

The weather forecast showed a chance of snow flurries last night. I was so excited! Gigi has never seen snow in real life - only on t.v. and in movies. Our winter here is usually typical Spring weather for those up north, so this was going to a VERY rare occasion. Unfortunately, by mid-afternoon, the chance of flurries was canceled. We were still due to get a cold front though, which I was actually happy about.

Well, this morning we woke to a frost-filled backyard.

Even this little bit of frost of rare around here. Hubby was actually able to scrape off a small pile of frost that had accumulated on a ball that had been left out in the yard.

It was just enough to form a small "snowball" for Gigi to hold.

Unfortunately, even the effects of cold fronts don't last long down here.

My Scholastic Books Arrived!

Today I received my shipment of Scholastic items that I had ordered on January 3rd. While I am very happy that I finally received them, I am equally as disappointed that several items were missing. Now, I understand that since these were dollar items, they have a limited quantity and once they sell out, they're gone. However, I would have expected an email notifying me that me order was going to change. Instead, they just shipped out whatever they had in stock. So, of the 18 items I originally ordered, 6 were missing.

Still, I am very excited about the books I DID get. Some of the books I am really happy about are:

1. A desktop reference flip book - has the alphabet, numbers to 100, shapes, colors etc. Great for Gigi who sometimes has trouble remembering what a letter looks like when she is trying to write a word.
2. Follow the Directions...and Learn
3. Learn the Alphabet - Puppet Pals
4. A to Z Letter Formation Practice Pages
5. ABC Poem of the Week
6. Irresistible Sound-Matching Sheets & Lessons That Build Phonemic Awareness

I am really looking forward to incorporating these into our daily lessons...that is, once we get back to actually HAVING daily lessons! We will get back there eventually. I believe my goal to get back on track with school was by mid-February. I'll have to start planning some things now.

Strawberry Season!

Strawberry season is officially here! I am so excited - I LOVE strawberries. This morning we headed over to Goodson Farms, which is just a quick five minute drive from our house.

We bought our usual flat of strawberries. This should last one to two weeks, maybe. These are so sweet, they need nothing added! We just wash them and eat them! Delicious!!

Love is in the Air

With Valentine's Day just about a month away, I figured it was time to put up the decorations.

Now I know it may seem silly decorating fro Valentine's Day, It's not like it's a major holiday. Plus, I am kind of against it - only because I feel you should tell and show the people you care about that you love them EVERY day.

Last year was the very first time I ever decorated for this day. Mainly it was because I was kind of sad to see all the Christmas decorations get packed up. I still wanted something festive around the house, so I decorated for Valentine's Day.

Well, I did it again this year.

Only this year I added a flag which I made myself yesterday morning. It's very simple, but I am still very proud of it!

The Sweetest Sound

One of the sweetest sounds to ever reach my ears - the first REAL laugh of my boy. Not the normal "ha ha" he's been doing for weeks, but a real out loud chuckle! So sweet!

I did record it, but unfortunately I can't seem to get the video to upload here. If I can figure it out later I will add it.

Can anyone help?

Lazy Sunday

Not much to report here today. Sunday's are reserved for lounging around in our pajamas, eating breakfast at 11am and tearing apart the newspaper.

J was not too thrilled with our Sunday so he slept a lot. Have you noticed, he too has my ears...poor thing!

Gigi played quietly in her room for a while and when I went to check on her this is what I found:

She sure has an interesting sense of style! Of course I told her she was beautiful.

Hubby made a pizza ; chicken and spinach alfredo pizza! YUM! I ate more than I should have.
Then we played a game of Monopoly Town with Gigi. One of the many gifts she received for Christmas. It was a really cute and fun game! Gigi won!

Not much else to say today!

A Night at The Drive-in

Last night we piled into the van with pillows, blankets and popcorn and headed over to the drive in. First, I must say, I LOVE the drive in! Here are a few reasons why;

1. We can bring our own food and snacks
2. We can recline in our chairs
3. We can snuggle up under blankets
4. We can bring the kids
5. I can nurse J comfortably
6. If Gigi acts up - no one knows!
7. If J cries no one knows
8. It's only $9 for hubby and I to get in
9. Both kids are free!
10. You can watch two movies
    

So, last night we went.

They were showing "Mall Cop" and "Marley and Me".

Mall cop was funny. I figured it would be - I like Kevin James, plus it was a Happy Madison production. Still, not as funny as some other Adam Sandler movies, but worth the laughs.

Marley and me surprised me - pleasantly. I was expecting a comedy with a dog in it. It was SO much more than that. It was about life; marriage, careers, friends, moving, having kids etc.
It had so many moments that seemed to have been plucked right from our own life. It really touched home and pulled at the heart strings. I was really impressed by this one.

Scholastic Give Away

Scholastic has a new department made just for little ones. It's called "Little Scholastic". They have lots of great books for babies and toddlers, including loads of tactile books which were always a hit with Gigi.

Right now, while supplies last, they will send you one free book when you send them an email requesting it. I've sent my email, now I just have to wait. I will let you know if and when I get it and what I think.

I love free stuff!

Let it Fly

The annual "Let if Fly" flag football tournament was this weekend. Hubby plays with some friends on Sundays and they enter the tournament every year.

Unfortunately, this year their quarterback had a broken finger and couldn't play. Plus, i guess two other regulars were not able to make it. So Hubby was playing with three people he had never met before - let alone played football with before.

Still, they did pretty well. They won their games on Saturday. On Sunday they won their first game but then lost the second. So, no play-offs for them this year.

The kids and I went on Saturday to cheer. Gigi had fun running around and picking the grass from the floor then throwing it in the air like confetti.

J seemed to have a pretty good time just lying around playing with one of the rattles he got for Christmas.

If nothing else, the weather was great and it was nice to be out in the fresh air.

A Day of Outside Fun

I am a bit embarrassed to admit this, but we don't get out much around here during the day. When we are out, we are usually running to dance class, karate or the library or doing some random shopping. When we are home, we usually stay in our pajamas. Well, today was a beautiful day. It was bright and sunny but nice and cool also. The house was clean, the fridge and pantry stocked with groceries for he next week. So, I decided it was the perfect day to go outside and have some fun.

First we took out Gigi's new bike that she got for Christmas. She actually reaches the pedals on this one- it is the Radio Flyer Fold 2 Go trike. She had lots of fun and actually got up quite a bit of speed! I walked with J in the car seat stroller.

for some reason she just HAD to bring Amen with her. "Amen" is what she named her little Precious Moments doll that says a night time prayer.

Eventually I convinced her to let Amen ride in the basket on the back of the bike. After a while, I think Gigi's legs were getting tired because she started just sitting on the bike, not moving. She even stopped to check out some ants.

So, since it was still early I asked her if she wanted to go the park.

We loaded up in the car and went to the little park that is next to our community center. It's not a bad park, but I don't like that there is sand there for two reasons: 1. All that sand gets into your socks and shoes 2. There are usually loads of ants that have made their homes there. We don't go to this park very often because of the sand even though it is a quite two minute ride for us. Plus, there never really seems to be other kids for Gigi to play with there.

Gigi still had fun and was NOT happy when I told her it was time to go.

She did quite well climbing the ladders and stairs, which last time we were here she could not do at all.

She wanted to swing and at first was very adamant about not needing help to get onto the "big Kids" swing. This is her NOT needing help.

She eventually decided that she didn't want to be on the big kid swing. She wanted to go in the little swing and be pushed. I happily obliged.

J slept through the entire park adventure.

I was really glad I was able to get motivated enough to get out!

"Make Your Memories Last Forever"

That's the tag line of Makit - a company that helps you make plates, mugs etc. into a lasting work of art. You buy a kit, decorate a template, send it back to them to get processed and then you receive the artwork your created on usable dishware! How cool is that?

Want something else cool? If you request a catalog and enter the promo code "Learn08" into the comments section, they will send you one free kit to try them out!

I just received mine today. If it works out well, I think these will make some great gifts for relatives! You can even do hand prints, which I think is always cute.

I don't know how long they will honor this give away, so get yours now. Good luck and have fun!

The Greatest Show on Earth!

The circus is in town! Hubby took Gigi to see the Ringling Brothers Circus. I though it would be something nice for just the two of them to do, plus Gigi has never been to a circus before. J and I stayed home.

They went early so they could get up close to some of the animals and some of the performers. Gigi was pretty excited to see the elephants (or as she says - elphlants) since they are her favorite animal.

Hubby said she seemed pretty overwhelmed when they went inside to see the performers. There was probably too much going on for her. She gets easily distracted in those situations, making it hard for her to focus on any one thing so she usually kind of tunes out a little bit.

Still she was brave enough to shake this clown's hand. I would have been afraid - kind of scary if you ask me!

She even took a picture with this performer:

She thought the clown noses they were giving out were pretty funny and brought them home.

Once the show started, daddy spoiled his little girl and bought her things that mommy might have said "no" to. They ate popcorn and cotton candy - sometimes together!

Gigi even got a wizard's hat!

I was surprised to learn though that they actually left early! Apparently, it just didn't hold Gigi's attention the way I thought it would. Once she was done with all her treats, she kept asking to go home saying, "I'm done." Who would have thought a circus wouldn't be exciting enough for a kid?