"Maman, Mouse wants chocolate."

She's getting smart. She knows she can't have chocolate, esp. at night. So the other day, as she was carrying her mouse, she said "Maman, Mouse wants chocolate." Hah! Maman is still smarter and not falling for that. I wonder how long it will last until she outsmarts me?

She's not really into dolls. She has the idea, but can take them or leave them. Mouse, however, she loves (as well as tiger and baby jaguar). She sleeps with all 3 every night now. The other day she wanted to carry mouse, but he had to be swaddled in her blanket and she carried it like a sling. She kept hugging it to her saying, "Shhhh, Mouse, don't cry, it's ok." She also lays Mouse in bed and says "Go to sleep now Mouse!"

She also has a Raggedy Ann doll with whom she has a love/hate relationship. Well, not hate, but she doesn't always love it. Last night (with Papa gone) she was in the big bed fighting sleep and said "Maman, Mouse is scared of Raggy Ann." I asked if the doll was scary? She said no, but Mouse was a little scared.... I guess we're at the stage of "transference" - is that the right term? Where she uses others to explain her feelings?




On another note, she still loves the camera. More photography skills:
This was after about the 4th picture she took of Chakapu. Chakapu finally looked up. They also have a love/hate relationship...


On a different note, we were listening to PRESIDENT Obama's inauguration speech on the way home today, and I said to Angelina "We have a new president now." She said "Presents? I want PRESENTS!" I said "No, a PRE-SI-DENT" but she wasn't having it. She wanted PRESENTS! I guess it is kind of a present...

Photographer Angelina is at it again

It's getting hard for me to take pictures. As soon as she sees the camera, she MUST have it (remember, persistence....). Mine has seen enough abuse (remember the fall in the river in Thailand?), so I let her play with it. She did pretty well:

Papa at work





And her artistic shots




I'll leave off the really cool one of water on the glass shower door, since I was in the shower at the time. I guess she's paying me back for all the naked bath pictures I've taken of her.

Our visit with Santa and why I love Lavaca, part XIV

Let me preface this by saying Angelina doesn't really "know" Santa Claus (Pere Noel). Not for any philosophical reason, we've just never gotten 'round to talking about him. Maybe that makes us lame-o parents, but in any case, Santa Claus is a foreign concept. Of course, if I thought threats of Santa not coming would help her behave, I'd be talking about Santa left and right....

So on to why I love Lavaca. This wasn't actually in the 'hood, but close enough to ride our bikes, so it counts as a reason to love it. The city hosted a Winter Holiday Spectacular! at HemisFair Park. Santa was there for pictures (and no waiting in line), there was a snow slide, then in the evening Movies by Moonlight (aka Slab Cinema aka Angela and Rick, our neighbors) showed "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "A Christmas Story," and "It's a Wonderful Life" on the lawn. One of the great things about San Antonio was that it was 75F (24C) during the day and only a little cooler once the sun went down. Great for watching outdoor movies! (Not so great for snow...the environmentalist in me cringes at the idea of trying to create a "Winter Wonderland" when it's in the 70sF, but the mom in me admits it was kind of cool...) Of course, today it's 46F (8C) and super windy. Then later in the week it'll be in the 80s again.

So back to Santa. Angelina is normally quite happy to talk to any random person. Wherever we go she says "Hi" to everyone she sees. Apparently the big red suit and white beard threw her off and my arguments of "He's just like Opa" didn't fly. We walked up slowly, she ran behind me and clutched my pants, afraid to even look. Santa was wonderful and chatted with her and did everything to make her comfortable, but she wasn't having it. We stuck around for awhile, she took my camera (as usual), and started taking pictures. So we now have about 20 pictures of Santa, and some of Santa with a little boy named Raymond, to whom Angelina kept saying "Smile!" as she clicked away, but none of her with Santa. She even told the other kids to go sit with Santa. But not her.

To be honest I'm kind of glad she doesn't know to "ask Santa" for presents. But I don't know how long that will last. For now, I think she'd be happy with a huge bowl of tortellinis.

More fun witth photography

Try as I may, I can't convince her to turn the camera around. At least not very often.