Happy New Year

We took Draya to a New Year's Eve party at M's mom's house. Draya had lots of fun playing with I & G and watching videos. We were naughty and kept her up past midnight - but she had had lots of sugar and was still going very strong. We had wanted to sleep over but Draya convinced us to go home instead. We all slept in the next morning and had a quiet New Year's Day. All was good until she got REALLY cranky that night.
On Jan 2 she was back a daycare - still a little tired. Her teacher noticed that she wasn't being herself, that she was "acting her age" (2 & 10 months) as opposed to acting like she's over 3 (as I guess she usually does - yay Draya!)
It was a busy first week back at work for both Mommy & Daddy! Draya, on the other hand, enjoyed theme days at daycare, including " wear jammies & watch movies day" and "bring a toy day". On "bring a toy day" she took her new stuffed Shrek and Donkey. She also insisted that Mommy buckle them both into the car - one on either side of her. It was very cute!
Yesterday E & S & A & M came to visit. Draya was quite entranced by baby M and his toys. She really likes babies.
Christmas AND New Year's photos coming soon...

Christmas Vacation 2007 Highlights

Dec 22 - We joined Uncle R, Auntie K, G, Nana, Papa & Auntie S at Uncle C & Auntie K's house. We has a lovely dinner and opened a few gifts. The cousin's played happily together. Afterwards we stopped off at the Solstice party. G was still their so she & Draya had great fun chasing each other around while we grownups visited. Much fun was has by all.

Dec 23 & 24 were spent cleaning the house, doing some last minute grocery shopping, wrapping gifts and prepping food for the 25th.

Dec 25 - Christmas morning we opened gifts at home. Draya wasn't particularly thrilled about being woken up at 8am. Once she had some cereal in her we told her that Santa had visited. She ran to the window to look outside. We pointed her towards the living room where she quickly got the hang of opening gifts. Needless to say she made out like a bandit. Mommy & Daddy & Santa were all very generous. Highlights included an indestructible kids camera, 2 pairs of Cars jammies, a load of toy food and the movie Finding Nemo. Then we went to Grandma & Grandpa's for brunch & more gift opening. Highlights from there include a doll's house & a toy helicopter (to go with her Tomas lego). Then we went to Nana & Papa's for dinner. Draya took her nap in the car between parties. Gift highlights from the evening include a doctors kit, some wonderful books (Winnie the Pooh goes to the Doctor is the favourite so far), a stuffed Shrek & Donkey & a princess hat that she calls her 'barbie hat'. Draya and G were both pretty wound up by the end of the night and Mommy felt a little bit like she had been run over by a Christmas train - but it was still a wonderful day!

Dec 26 - Uncle R came over to set help Mommy & Daddy with some technical things and them Mommy & Daddy's friends M & S came over for the afternoon, dinner & games. Draya finally got to watch all of Finding Nemo, and Bambie too.

Dec 27 - We all went to Grandma & Grandpa's for brunch & a visit with Uncle K, Auntie L & W. The cousins has lots of fun playing together. Draya kept trying to steal W's new truck. She also really liked the dress-up trunck that she received. That night L & A came over for dinner & games.

Dec 28 - Mommy made stew and we all went over to TL & D's for dinner. Draya adores baby W. I think she's itchin' for a baby brother or sister but we're not quite ready to give her one... yet.

Dec 29 - L & P & I & G, L & M & B, T & H & J all came over for dinner & a kids gift exchange. Draya received a wonderful game called Hullaballo that she & the girls immediately opened and played in our bedroom. It's all about shapes and colours and pictures and even though it says that it's for ages 4 & up she actually did pretty well at it. She also got 2 great books and a cute ladybug dress-up set. She has been using the skirt from it to play ballerina.

Dec 30 - Draya got up and insisted on playing Hullabaloo first thing... in the bathroom. We had a quiet day at home because mommy is sick with a cold.

We accidentally left our camera at Nana & Papa's on the 25th so we're missing photos from all of the days after that. But, Daddy picked it up today so Mommy will download Christmas Day photos soon.

Next up... New Years Eve at Morgan's...

Imaginative Play Time

Draya has the most amazing imagination!
She loves puppets and will often use her bare hands as puppets. Now, when she washes her hands in the sink her hand puppets ‘take showers’. Her hand puppets also often initiate conversations with us and with her.
Nana gave her a pink sponge scrubber to use in the tub. She has christened it ‘Scrubby’ and last night she played with it and her water baby for almost half an hour. Mommy moved the scrubber around but it was a silent companion. She talked to it and her baby continuously. At one point Scrubby ‘fell’ while dancing to ring-around-the-rosy and she hugged it and kissed its owie.
She is actually a big fan of playing ‘Doctor’ these days. Usually one of her babies will be sick or have an owie and she’ll insist that Dr. Mommy or Daddy take a look and treat them. I for-see a toy doctor kit in her future… probably for Christmas…
We have a large rock in our front flowerbed and Draya will bring smaller rocks from the front yard to it so that they can see their mommy.
She also stopped on the way to the park recently to assemble a pine cone family with mommy and daddy and grandpa and baby and others.
Draya also enjoys hide & and happily squeals “Can’t find me” as she tries to hide behind Mommy.She also likes to knock on doors to be let in. The she makes her playmate knock on the door so she can let them in.

Who says TV teaches bad habits?

Draya is a big fan of the Treehouse show The Big Comfy Couch. One of the 'bits' in every show is the Ten Second Tidy where Loonette stands on the couch, looks down and says "Who made this big mess?". The camera zooms in on her (usually) and she says "Who? Me? Well then I better clean it up - it's only fair". So, now when there is a big mess in the living room (or elsewhere) I say to Draya "Who made this big mess?" and she says "Who me? Draya? I'll clean it up - it's only fair" and helps me tidy. It's great!
Sometimes she'll even pick up after herself without being asked. A few nights ago we were playing with her little people. I went to work in the computer room and Draya came in a little while later carrying a shoe box full of all of her little toys saying "I cleaned up!".
I am so proud! I wonder how long it will last? :)

Easter Weekend Update

As the Easter weekend draws to a close our whole family is ready to go back to work and daycare. Daddy is starting a new temp job and Mommy and Draya will be back in Spruce Grove after an almost 2 week hiatus. Some relaxed moments have been enjoyed, some partying has been done and a few productive things have been accomplished. Maybe not everything we had planned to do... but some.
On Friday night Draya & Mommy visited Nana. Nana gave Draya a wonderful velcro vegetable set(like this - without the fruit) that she has been playing with/scattering all over the house all weekend. It's great!
Saturday we celebrated J's 2nd BD and visited with H & T and our other friends who were party guests. Much fun was had by all - especially the children who had loads of cool toys to play with!
Easter Sunday dawned and Draya enjoyed a few chocolate eggs and some of her favourite Pocky. The Easter bunny also brought a wonderful (rather messy) bubble wand/toy, Shrek & Shrek 2. Since it was a special day we watched both movies, the first in the morning and the second that night. Draya absolutely loves the Shrek 3 trailer on line and she actually sat and watched each movie most of the way through. She only lost interest for a while during the second one when Shrek turned into a man... she's an ogre fan.
During the afternoon on Sunday we went to Grandma & Grandpa's for a nice Easter lunch and visit. Draya received a belated birthday gift from her Uncle Dave - a Duplo Thomas the Train - Percy at the Water Tower that is really neat and some Easter stickers, markers and paints from Grandma that were also a big hit.
Today we all went shopping. Draya was mostly well behaved but Mommy & Daddy were still exhausted after the excursion. One of the things we purchased was the main Thomas the Train set to go with her Percy. It is so cute and we're going to have fun playing with it too :)
I'll have photos to post as soon as I download the camera. Happy (belated) Easter everyone!