On the Third Night of Chanukah my Doggie Gave to me....

A blue car to take on a road trip baby! I took you to the play area at the mall today for the first time. It took you about 20 minutes to warm up to the idea and not be afraid of the other kids playing. You ended up LOVING playing in the blue 'Car-car'. You are car obsessed and when we drive anywhere you point out the windows saying 'car-car!!' over and over again! I remember about a month ago seeing your buddy Abby playing in a car at Chuck E Cheese and thinking "Finley's never going to be able to sit in a play car for 5 minutes and just move the steering wheel back and forth!" but sure enough, that's what you did today! You are either eerily like Abby or all little girls are as amazing as the two of you!

On the Second Night of Chanukah my Father Gave to me...

A beaded purse and bracelets to make me all girly! Yup, you are into 'dress up' now...at least your version of it. This includes finding all the links in the house and wearing them as bracelets. It's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning and from nap, you also wear them in your bath and all around town. We seem to lose a few here and there but your little wrists are always so colorful and well decorated.

You love it when I am folding the laundry and you spy a new shirt or hat that you insist on wearing. You love wearing a nice warm toque (it's the Canadian in you) in the house while hanging out. You also like trying to dress your dolls or have them wear some of your bracelets. You don't know how to do it other than sticking these things on top of them, but I give you that helping hand that you need.

You also love this little beaded purse Mimi gave to me. Every night after bath it is now a mandatory part of the routine. Walk around naked with some bracelets and a beaded purse. You are a real woman about town! We've just got to find you a suitable cocktail dress!

On the First Night of Chanukah my Mother Gave to me...

A bump on my forehead for all to see! Yup, if any of you are keeping score, it's furniture 4, Finley Zip. But aside from the bump a lovely First night of Chanukah was had by all.

Tonight we went to the Children Discovery Museum's Chanukah Party. You decided you needed some beauty rest so we got there a little late but we saw the Rabbi light a giant Chanukiah (read: menorah) made out of JELLY DONUTS! (read: soofganiot). (I am going between hebrew & english here...bear with me...Jewish Folk music and being surrounded by Rabbi's and Chabad brings it out of me!) Anyhow, we played at the museum a little, and you loved drawing with the chalk on the sidewalk! We may have a little budding artist since lately all you've got on the brain is CRAYONS! You tried your first latke at the party and you seemed to really like it. You kept taking more and more bites and then ten minutes later I noticed your cheeks looked pretty full...yup, there was all the latke. Right back at ya mum. Some other highlights were playing in a puddle and you looking like a future bowling all star when you played with the balls.

After the party we came home for dinner and then bath...where you received your first Chanukah gifty....a Jewish rubber ducky! You kinda liked him... then when bath was over you went to greet your bear Bella who was sitting in the dining room (she helps you eat your vegetables) and before I could catch you...BONK...that was your forehead into the corner of the wood dining table. Oh it crushed me, as they all do, hearing you cry and in pain like that. But we got you to take some medicine and ice to the head and you were back to normal quite quickly. Your head on the other hand, is the largest blue and purple goose egg to date. At least this one is to the side a little, where your hair covers it, as opposed to the others that all made their home smack dab in the middle of that pretty little punim of yours (read: face).

Then we lit the candles (you selected two orange candles- how did you know that is my favourite color), sang some songs and opened more gifts in your room. What did you get? What else...BOOKS. Your favorite. We knew that you were back to normal when you showed us what all the animals did and how the fish swim and how to sign orange.

Now you are in bed, sleeping away your bumpity bump while I write about it to get it out of my system. Chag Chanukah Sameach Chamuda Sheli. (Read: Happy Chanukah My Sweetheart). Thank goodness we have 8 nights to make up for the first. :)

Here are some photos that documented the day:

Look What I Did!!!

Oh you were mighty proud this morning! I was in another room and I heard you in your playroom knocking things around and a couple of "Oh-oh's" here and there as things dropped but I let you do your thing. Next thing you know you came to get me, grinning from ear to ear and pointing toward the playroom and trying to drag me there. I followed you and you took me straight to your moose. You decorated his antlers with your bracelets! All by yourself! You were so proud of your accomplishment. Thank you for sharing it with me. Who knows what you are going to come up with next!

Bathtime Fun

I remember the days of washing your teeny 5 pound body at the kitchen sink. You used to cry through your bath and we'd do it as fast as possible to get you all warm and dry again. My, how times have changed! Now your 20-something pound body loves the bath and it's a special treat because it's playtime with Daddy too. Every night Daddy gives you your bath and you two have your own special rituals. When he has to be out for an evening I have to ask him what the latest routine is!!

These days bath time includes singing the song "This is how we wash our face, arm, toes, back etc." You love that song and know all the body parts and can demonstrate washing them! Then you love to try and drink from the shower nozzle. It's so funny! And you try to get Maddie to drink! Maddie loves hanging out right next to you at the tub and you splash water everywhere and she laps it up!

After bath Daddy takes you to the changing area in the master closet where you love to run around naked (and sadly, pee all over the closet!). When the time is right that will be perfect potty training time!! Then you beg for the lotion. I don't know if you just want to play with the bottle, or if you want to rub it in, but you get slathered in it each night before your jammies. And who can forget Bah-Bah time when you play in the sheepskin rug.

Anyhow, you really love bath time with Daddy and I am so glad you two get that time to spend together. Squeaky clean fun!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Wow, last night was such a wild little night. It rained all day here in the desert, an uncommon sight for sure! I took you out in the back yard and we reached out under the covered deck and felt the rain dribble on our fingertips. I taught you the sign for rain and explained how it was water falling from the sky. You giggled at it but wanted to get back inside to watch Hi-5. Ah well, I tried.

But then, as we sat in the living room, the power went off for a few seconds and the TV went off. You turned around to look at me and said "Uh-oh." It was so cute. It came back on right away so all was fine. But then it went off again, for about 10 seconds, and luckily I was right by your side, because it was so pitch black I couldn't see a single thing in front of me and you could have really hurt yourself if you tried to walk! I scooped you up and when the lights came back on you had a very frightened look in your eyes! Of course this had to happen on the very occasional night that daddy went out for dinner with friends!

So I grabbed you, we collected flashlights and candles and sure enough, the power went off for an hour! I plopped you in your highchair with an apple and a flashlight as I ran around lighting candles in all the rooms! We then enjoyed a shadow puppet show since we had all these flashlights! Got to make the most of a bad situation, right? I locked us up in the playroom with Maddie, who was also pretty nervous, and we played with some toys but all you really wanted to do was run around the house with your pull toy! That was a definite no-no so I tried to get creative and make other fun things to do with the pull toy just sitting in the playroom.

Needless to say it was quite a challenge, and dinner consisted of cheerios and crackers, apple and avocado. Not your most nutritious one, but I just wanted to keep you happy and not freaked out! The lights finally came back on for bath time and we managed to finish the night like normal...and Daddy rushed home to see you before you got into bed.

Thanks for handling it like a pro. You are my brave little girl and I am so very proud of you.

Bah Bah White Sheep...

Every night before and after your bath (and might I also mention sporadically during the day) you love to snuggle up in the sheepskin that is in the master bathroom. Is it the Kiwi blood in you? In fact, yesterday Daddy was vacuuming and hung the "Bah bah" (as you refer to it) over the shower and when you walked in to the bathroom you were clearly disturbed. 'This is not how things are supposed to be' was what the look on your face was telling me! Once it was in it's usual place you dove right in, rolled around, petted it, smiled at it, and invited your doggie (as you call her "Mandy") to join you on the rug.

It's a wonderful sight to see each night and although I try capturing it on video and photos it never does justice to how adorable the moment is in person.