jordan

we made it safely to jordan w/o much trouble thanks to poor Senorita having a fever which caused her to sleep lots of the 25 hour and then more when we got to the apt at 4am. she stayed close by me for the first week and then in week two was brave enough to venture downstair to cousin Reem's house, just down the steps and around the patio. But she is having some fighting issues with Reem and Omar and keeps pushing them and hitting themsxaaaaaaaaaaaaaasdfgguhjipouyv ;;;l,//./i/////.,mjbgf she's kuii8yuiiiiop[[[[]]]]]]]]]]] she had to type that

update

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote about Senorita. The Saints' victory had me in a stupor till March. I'm still enjoying being home with her. We've been working on an ABC book cutting out magazine pictures and placing them on the correct letter, in Spanish. We have also been cutting animals and pasting them on a long cardboard. Lately she's been wanting to move her animals (28 bears, 24 pandas 20 dogs, 10 bunnies 7 monkeys, 5 ducks 40 other animals) from her bed to the sofa. It's quite a workout to do that. This week she's been just dealing with pandas mostly, putting them to sleep and at the table to eat. I got Dumbo from the library a few weeks ago and she kept wanting to see the "elephant movie" but this week she's wanted Lola Pancho (Plaza Sesamo) mostly. Last week we did the big floor farm puzzle she got for Christmas--every day we did that. We were doing walks back in April picking weed flowers but now it's too hot and has been for weeks. Her napping has stopped since January, with the exception of her falling asleep while we picked up Bekher from school, leaving a bit earlier and waiting. We could do that when the weather was cooler but it got too hot this past month. She won't nap at home, with a rare exception. [From July thru Dec I had to ride around in the car to put her to sleep and then in January she stopped wanting to nap.].

The boat picture is the on the ferry that she wanted to ride and we had to wait a long time because of course we made it just a smidge too late; as soon as we left the dock, she didn't want to be on a boat and cried for the whole ride.

We went to CA/Disney at the end of March. Some photos are here too. She has a boyfriend, Gabicito who's in one of the photos, with stripes.

Here are some recent photos

the fun got funner!

so after the wonderful Bobby Hebert parade of the last post, we celebrated that Sat. night by going out to the French Quarter and then watching the game at home on SuperBowl Sunday. Since Senorita hadn't had a nap that day, we bathed her and she fell asleep by game time, 5:40ish. I sat and watched the first quarter with the parents and Ahmed; since the Saints weren't doing so well, Brenda left for Walmart and I retreated into the bedroom like I'd done with the 2 other playoff games--to begin my praying for other people. T was sleeping on the bed and I lay across the bottom/foot area to pray. I'd go in to see what the clapping was about when I heard it or the fussing. I saw the halftime show and the on side kick to start the 2nd half! Yay. Then Tifany called in the 4th quarter and as I was hanging up the phone in the TV room I saw the interception TD. I jumped up and down so much and began hyperventilating. A friend called then a cousin rang. We had to call Brenda to come home from WM (Come home NOW! David yelled into the phone). I watched the Colt's final drive and the wonderful kneel down by Brees. I'm jumping and crying. We watched the post game celebration and then woke up T and all piled into the jeep to go downtown, cheering and honking. It was Wonderful!

saints parade

it was so much fun

saints parade video

New Years

T got a baking set for Christmas and she wanted to "mezcla chocolate" so we made cupcakes. The bottom 2 pictures are from right before the Sugar Bowl in the fan play area. B is wearing a foam taco from Taco Bell, the sponsors, as a game prize for participating in the football obstacle course. He's standing in front of the armchair quarterback game. It was fun.

late Christmastime pictures

This is eating at my mom and dad's for dinner.
This is T and cousin A playing in the cribT and cousin G at Muggy and PawPaw's house
T opening some play food at home
B with his new DS game system and me with my new pots; T with her puzzles!

sleeping

Since we'd gotten back from Jordan in July I've had to ride around in the car for her nap. I did that for many months until around early December when she didn't want to nap any more. Now she'll take occasional naps after watching the aforementioned Toy Story or other video, or on the way to pick up B from school, which is at 3pm and kinda late for a nap. So on days when she doesn't nap I try to bathe her early and then get to sleep by 8, which occurs in my bed after watching Toy Story and/or Pooh and then maybe reading a couple books (these days she wants Herbie the Hippo and Cruzer the Crocodile in Spanish). But oftentimes, too, she just wants to fall asleep to football which is a good thing we have the NFL network! I try not to be lying down with her as she drifts off into slumberland and she does very well with just staying in bed and calling for me sometimes without getting out of it. After she sleeps, I put her in her crib--which is soon to be dismantled because she tries to climb out of it and I know another family that needs it-- and she stays in her bed all night sometimes but this week she's been waking at the 2-3AM hour which is when I bring her in bed with me/us.

Toy Story & conjunctions

For the past few weeks, she's been wanting to watch "Buzz & Woody" which we have in English and then purchased in Arabic. Nemo and Pooh have been on the back burner because she's all consumed with Buzz and Woody! She still asks for Dora and occasionally Nemo now and will want Pooh AFTER she watches Toy Story at night. She's a character.

I've noticed with her language that she's been using "by" and "and" and "so" recently...

We started again with playgroup, in the nice new big room, and we stayed much longer than our group time because of the big room.

new language development & interests & news

I am amazed at her language development over the past months. If I tell her to say "gracias" and it's to a person who doesn't speak Spanish, she'll say "thank you" instead of gracias. It's also cute how she'll say thank you/ you're welcome even though she's not the one who is supposed to say you're welcome. "wha that means?" "wha that is?" she's asking a lot. I tell her how to say that in Spanish and she'll say "que esto". ... she's getting to be more aware of bobos and if I accidentally scratch her or poke her, she might say "ow, no hit me, mama" OR she'll say "I forry" which she does sometimes even though she doesn't need to say that for hitting something. She needed band-aids tonight for bobos on her fingers, I think from paper cuts.

She says fo-ah for sofa, pienda for pierna (leg), no instead of don't (as per in Spanish).

Oh and this past month she's loved Winnie the Pooh and Buzz/Woody from Toy Story...along with Nemo and Dora too. She's not liking to take walks too much in the stroller but she'll sit in her push car or walk herself to look at the Christmas lights around the neighborhood.

She's slept in the bed with me this week while Baba works and her crib is full of stuffed animals she was playing with one day (and B slept in his room with his friend J and then cousin A). So she's slept mostly through the night but awoke around 6/7 calling out things in Spanish/English (zapatos, haga do yit, guantes, laughing or crying--apparently vivid dreams). For some reason for the past 2 weeks she's woken up needing gloves and while the gloves on, gloves off, cream on her hands, cream on my legs, then gloves again episode hasn't repeated in the past few days, she still wants gloves.

with the cousins

T loved playing with cousin A, letting her rub her hair while almost falling asleep. A and B decorated their cupcakes with my homemade frosting and sprinkles, and A,B,G, and T loved the lights at the Tammany Trace park area

Santa Claus

She loved Santa at the 3 parties she saw him--family party, tot group party, and taekwondo party.

toilet training

She's doing pretty well with the potty. She doesn't want to wear diapers while going out and we've successfully gone out to Michael and Jessica's for the Christmas party, out to Lela's to see Nye and Debbie, and to the tot group Christmas party and then to the mall today. At the mall she announced she had to pee so I dropped everything with Baba and picked her up to run to the bathroom. We made it in time! Yay. She's gone to her nap the past 3 days without a diaper and of the 3 days, today she didn't wake up with a wet bed. But she slept for about 2 hours each day and that's when she awoke crying that she'd wet the bed. But today I had to wake her up to go get Bekher from school so we had a dry bed.

feeding & bathing her baby

painted nails

As she delayed going to bed tonight, she pulled out my fingernail polish box under the dresser and as always she played with the bottles. But tonight she had to open the bottles and paint my toes, fingers and some of her fingers. It was my first manicure from Senorita!