Christmas 2013

Christmas time this year has been exciting and challenging.  This is the first year that both girls understand who Santa Claus is and what he does and how he relates to Jesus' birthday.  It is also the first time they understand that Santa knows when you are good or bad and can have an effect on the amount of presents you receive at Christmas.  The Elf on the Shelf landed on our doorstep right after Thanksgiving and I had a difficult time reading the elf's story because the girls were too excited to sit and listen so I had to give them a quick short version.  Emily named the elf "Mia and the Castle", which is it's full name.  I tried to call the elf Mia and she corrected me saying, "No mom, it's Mia and the Castle."  The way it works is the elf comes from the North Pole to watch over the children.  Every night the elf magically returns back to the North Pole to report to Santa whether the girls were good or bad.  The girls are not supposed to touch the elf because he could lose his magic, but Avery wasn't buying it and touched him whenever she wanted, constantly saying, "See mom, he don't lose his magic."  What do I know, right?  This year is also the first year that Emily "wrote" Santa a letter telling him what she and Avery wanted for Christmas.  On her list was: roller skates, a kitchen, and a doll house.

Santa emailed daddy a video letter and the girls watched as he told them both were on the Nice list.  They were very excited and every time they didn't do as I asked I would tell them Santa would take them off the nice list and place them on the bad list.  They didn't believe me because Santa had already told them they were on the nice list.  Maybe Santa will wait a little longer to place them on any list in the future.

Emily and Avery helped make Jesus' birthday cake as well as the cookies for Santa.  I hope we will keep this new tradition every year.  We went to Ama and Apa's house for Christmas Eve and went to Christmas mass with the family.  They loved all the gifts they received, especially the tricycles.  Apa and Ama also gave the girls kites which will be fun to fly come spring time.  On Christmas Day the girls woke up pretty cranky until they remembered Santa brought their gifts over night.  Emily was really nervous on the days leading up to Christmas because we don't have a chimney.  She was afraid Santa wouldn't be able to get into the house.  I showed both girls the plate of cookies that we left out for Santa so they could see the evidence that he had a snack but they didn't care, they were too busy wowing over their gifts. They did get their kitchen as asked but were very aware that some of their listed items were not there, particularly the doll house.  After opening gifts we went over to Nonna and Papa's house and received many more gifts including Emily's favorite gift from Uncle Garrett, a drum set.  We were very blessed this Christmas and thank God for all that we have.  Happy Birthday Jesus!

Creative Differences

As Emily and Avery grow in age it is easier to see the differences they have in personality and also in creative interests.  We encourage the girls in their interests and try to introduce new ones, sometimes with failure but most of the time with success.

In these recent months I have noticed that Avery has a better attention span and interest in puzzles and intricate games.  I didn't think she could put a puzzle together by herself until I saw her do it with my own eyes.  When I noticed her enjoyment in puzzles I bought a couple more of them and she completed them in one sitting, so I have resorted to downloading puzzles on our iPad, which Avery calls her "padio".  Avery also loves role playing as does Emily, but Avery is better at role playing with her dolls and dinosaurs.  She loves to talk for them as well as play with her Animal Farm that Santa bought her last year. This past Thanksgiving Avery was front and center when we were preparing food and wanted to help.  While mommy cut the potatoes Avery's task was to place them in the pot of water before they went on the stove.  Once she was included in the process she enjoyed eating the finished product more than before her involvement.  She also helped me bake cookies for fun and was enthusiastic about rolling out the dough, using the cookie cutters and decorating the cookies.  Avery still loves her dinosaurs although we aren't watching "The Land Before Time" every day.  She is popular among her classmates which is really cute to see when I drop her off in the morning.  The only problem is that she is not a morning person and hates when her friends yell "Avery" and then run up to her.  Animals are a love of Avery's, she is not afraid to go up to animals and pet them and she especially likes reptiles.  During book week at school she made me buy her a book about the animals in a swamp.  The book has a big alligator on the cover which hooked her as soon as she saw it.

Emily has always loved music.  Since she was a baby she has loved moving to music and even now although shy I still catch her getting up and dancing to songs on Nick Jr.  I have noticed that she likes more rhythmic music as the slow music makes her sad.  There was a version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on YouTube that I would play for her and every time she heard it she would cry as if she was depressed.  Emily has always had a great memory and she uses it to remember songs she hears.  The girls love to watch Netflix and most of the shows that Emily enjoys have theme songs that are very lively.  Avery just discovered the classic Scooby Doo episodes which I thought would be too scary for them.  I was right in that Emily hates to watch Scooby Doo but she happened to watch one episode where the characters were investigating a phantom in a rock concert hall.  Of course the episode has music and because of it, that is the only episode that Emily will watch.  She picked up on the song that was playing and she sings it around the house.  We thought it was something she made up until I heard it while she was watching the show.  Amazing seeing as how she had only seen the show once.  Aside from music Emily has become interested in art.  Now she isn't a great drawer, she can only draw stick figures but she loves to color with crayons and markers and use paints.  Coloring inside the lines is still in the works but she likes to be abstract about her art.  She doesn't exactly draw or paint anything but she loves the colors going everywhere.  Using scissors to cut paper is also a task she likes but again not for anything completely constructive, she just likes to cut paper.  Unlike her sister, Emily does not like all animals.  I have noticed that she likes big animals but is afraid of small animals.  Every time her dad takes our parakeets out of the cage Emily will run to her room, shut the door and will not come out until they are put up in their cage.

I am curious to see as they grow and develop how their interests will change or stay the same.  I am waiting for the right time to place the girls in a dance class or gymnastics.  I can't wait to see what the future holds!

Halloween 2013

Halloween was fantastic this year because dad was able to trick-or-treat with us and the weather cooperated.  Emily was quick to pick her costume which was a a really cute princess Rapunzel dress.  I was happy with her choice because we can always use it as a play item later.  Avery was a whole other story, she wanted to be a pink dinosaur, a pink elephant, a Powerpuff girl, and a pink horsey.  Everything I showed to her she didn't like and didn't want to try on.  I learned quick that when searching for dinosaur costumes that T-rex is the most popular choice therefore triceratops is practically nonexistent in the costume world.  At the last minute I found the cutest mouse outfit which she seemed excited about when I brought it home.  On the day of Halloween the girls were able to wear their costumes to school.  Emily was very excited to wear her dress to school and her new crown she got for her birthday.  Avery of course threw a fit when I tried putting her costume on and I had to bribe her to dress in it.  I got the cutest picture with their costumes complete.  After school we had the quick pizza dinner and around 6:30pm we went out and started our adventure.  We only went down the street and then back up the other side.  Avery took her mouse ears off halfway through the trip and kept saying "That's not enough candy" every time someone gave her a treat.  When we got to the end one of our neighbors had a spooky mask on which threw Emily for a loop and had her running back home.  She didn't want to come back out afterwards; her Halloween was over.  Avery was done trick-or-treating but stayed outside to pass out candy. It was a fun and relaxing Halloween!  A memory I have to remember: Avery didn't think she had enough candy after our trick-or-treating so she decided to put some of our candy we were to pass out in her pail.

Selfies and Fun Prints

In a previous post I mentioned Emily really liked taking pictures.  We all went to a local restaurant to celebrate Alex's birthday and towards the end of our meal Emily took Andrea's phone and started taking pictures of the family.  Here are some of those pictures:

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween is just around the corner and the girls went with their school on a trip to the pumpkin patch so I didn't take them myself this year.  I did pick up a couple of pumpkins from our local market and we got ready to carve them all together this year, including dad who seems to always be working turnaround in October.  Thankfully he didn't have one this year so he got to join in on the festivities.  Along with daddy joining us we also had Andrea come home one weekend so she was able to join in our carving as well.

Avery loved helping carve pumpkins especially taking out the guts of the pumpkins.  Emily wasn't interested so much so I had to coax her into the picture to so she would know later why I don't have pictures of her physically helping.  Overall the girls had fun as well as daddy and our pumpkins came out great.