California and Airplanes

First Stop: Martina, Hannah and Matthew's house (aka, Uncle Chris and Aunt Debbie's house). Matthew and Uncle Chris were out at the UCLA football game, but that was ok. More time for the girls to play. From trampoline to dress up to dance....how much more fun can you have?




Then it was off to Aunt Loretta and Uncle Bruce's house for all the rest of the family. Despite being dead tired, she was raring to go. She just HAD to wear her new "pretty dress" that we'd bought that day. And seeing Opa? That was the highlight. She wouldn't get too close, and she wouldn't sit on his lap, but she kept walking around telling everyone "There's Opa!"

Next Day was the Annual Tamale Making Party. Nanny starts bright and early, which was no problem since we were on Texas time. Fortunately, cousin Hannah spent the night so Angelina was happily occupied while we helped Mom set up. While we made tamales, all Angelina cared about was her cousins.



You've never seen a kid so happy! (see videos below) 3 girls and 3 boys to entertain her and abide her every wish.....there are advantages to being 5 years younger than the youngest cousin. She was the STAR!






She's now a football player. Particularly funny as she had no clue that she was significantly smaller than the other kids, she jumped in to tackle (more like a rugby scrum) with the biggest of them.





And tease? Yes, she can beat Matthew at his own game. He teased her by holding the ball just out of reach. So when she got the ball, she did the same to him.




All day playing with cousins, what could be better?







Having a new grandma! She has Nanny, but she doesn't realize that Nanny = Grandma, while her friends have two grandmas. She calls them Grandma, but Felice often reminds her "that's MY Grandma." So, apparently Angelina decided to adopt her own - Cousin Gloria. Gloria walked in and immediately Angelina said "There's Grandma." I said "No, that's Gloria." No. Grandma. We went back and forth and I gave up. So all day she called Gloria Grandma. As Gloria has no grandkids, she was quite happy to adopt one. But it wasn't just that day. She's been talking about "grandma Gloria" since we got back. I even her heard telling Wiley and Felice all about HER Grandma Gloria.

Alas, the time came to say goodbye. Angelina does not do well with goodbyes. While we'd see some of them the next day, Hannah, Martina, and Matthew all had school/practice so this was our last time with them. She didn't want to say goodbye, got rather grouchy and stomped away. Same when Gloria left :(


On Monday she saw a picture from her baptism with a bunch of cousins and said with wonder and excitement "Look mommy! All my cousins!" She is sooooooo excited to have cousins!!! She wouldn't let go of that picture all morning.




Since everyone was in school Monday, and since Angelina had been asking to go to the beach, we headed off to Little Corona Del Mar for the tide pools with Nanny. There wasn't much sea life in them this time, but it was a gorgeous (tho not super warm) day and playing in the sand and sea was more than worth it.





Then off to Aunt Denise and Uncle Kurt's for another dinner. This time a little more subdued (I think she knew more goodbyes were inevitable). Still, she had fun playing with Kyle and Camille while we checked out the old toys Denise had saved from our collective childhood....many were passed down from Tim, so at least 50 years old!




We had a final breakfast with Opa, just Frédéric, Angelina, and I, which was wonderful. The whole point of the trip, afterall, was to see and spend time with Dad. All the parties are fun, but it's also nice to have some one-on-one time too. She enjoyed entertaining Opa who clearly enjoyed entertaining her. Of course, Angelina went into her now familiar grouchy not talking mode when it was time to say goodbye. Though frustrating, in a way it's sweet. It's her way of coping with being sad to leave.

Then it was another airplane trip and back home! Followed the next morning with "Mommy, I want to go to California." And daily since with "Mommy, I want to see Hannah/Martina/Matthew/Kyle/Camille/Nanny/Opa" Even Uncle Chris got a mention (sorry Ryan and Justin, you have to play football with her to get a notice).

For the whole collection of photos, including a few from Halloween, see California Nov 2009

Halloween Fun

Last year we were in CA and Angelina loved it, but I don't think she fully remembered it. This year, on the other hand, she knows all about CANDY. I had hoped she'd wear her Astronaut costume from last year, but she was not interested. She wanted to be a princess. Note that she doesn't really know who the princesses are or their stories, but she likes the pretty dresses. Thanks to the neighbors who have a box of costumes, we had this Snow White dress on hand. Our first outing was to Bubblehead, where they had a costume contest. She loved playing with little eggplant Melody and Gladiator Lucian, her two favourite friends these days.

Next day we went to Circle Fest at the Circle School - she actually didn't get into the Halloween part of it as much as just had fun playing on all the playground equipment.

Since the Snow White costume is a bit big, I decided to try to find her another princess outfit and settled on this pink concoction. I'm not sure whom it's supposed to be, but she loved it. On Halloween, we joined her two other favourite friends, Wiley and Felice, for the King William/Lavaca party at the Villareal's. Ok, so it wasn't really the KW/Lavaca party but pretty much all the kids from these neighborhoods were there. It was overwhelming to say the least! But lots of fun.

She loved going house to house asking for candy. But later was confused. See, at the party, she seemed overwhelmed by all the kids so had made her way to a back room with toys and only a few kids. Meanwhile, most of the kids left to do more trick-or-treating. Eventually she wanted to go to but then we were on our own. The neighborhood was packed with truck loads of kids being dropped off, but none of whom she knew. So she'd wander up with a pack to a house, they'd get their candy and turn around and she'd follow, missing the candy! It was pretty funny....

Eventually she got too tired to carry on, so when we went back to the party we didn't stay long and made it an early night. However, since she had candy on the dress, she just HAD to wash it that night. I learned why: She wore it the next day. And the day after. And.....

Lucky for us, she's rather snobbish about her candy. She likes the idea, she opens it, but ends up throwing it away because she doesn't like it. She prefers her Swiss chocolate. I'm not complaining. The Villareals told us about the Halloween Fairy who visits the house Halloween night, takes away the candy and replaces it with a toy. And we added, "Gives the candy to the poor kids who didn't get any." (hey, a bit of social justice never hurts) Since she doesn't REALLY eat it, we may not have to go that far. For now, out of sight out of mind works.

Fun with Cousins

More pictures and stories to come....

A weekend in California with the cousins, Angelina had a BLAST. The crash video was taken first. She was a bit shocked initially, but that lasted all of a few seconds, as you can see from the next video.

Namaste

Angelina has taken up a fondness for Oga, otherwise known as Yoga but no matter how many times we correct her, she insists it's OGA. It all started with Mommy's prenatal yoga, which she liked but then got bored. It's a little slow for this high-impact aerobics type kid.

I happened across a kids' yoga and thought it'd be fun to try out. She loves it! Only problem is it's hard for me to do it with her as a lot of the poses are on your belly. Not so good at 7 months pregnant....


Instead, she does it with Papa.





updated with some more photos

Airplanes! Airplanes! Airplanes!

Nearly every day for the past 6 weeks (kind of since our Mexico trip), the first thing Angelina says when she wakes up is "I want to go on the airplane!"

She's fixated on it. I think part of it is that when we went to Mexico it was early morning and dark...and by the time we came back the sun started rising later, meaning it was more often dark when she woke up. So I think she associates that with flying on the airplane.

Or, she just wants to travel.

So, this has been constant. Until Sunday. On Saturday we had a party for our friends Dawn and Rich visiting from Phoenix. Angelina was a little convinced the party was for her...and of course Miss Party Girl had a blast. So, first thing she said when she woke up Sunday was "Mommy, where are all the people? I want a party!" Well, at least we were past the airplane craze.

Or so I thought.

Later that day it was the beach. "I want to go to beach!" (it's 2+ hours away so not something we do often).

All day Monday "I want to go to the beach!"

Monday night, she puts 2 and 2 together "Mommy, I want to take the airplane to the beach!"

oops.

This morning she wakes up, throws the blanket off her head and asks "Is it time to go on the airplane now?"


I wish we had a trip planned soon, but we have nothing planned for quite some time!

We're going to China!

Not really. We're not actually going to China, but Angelina begs to go daily (along with the beach).

See, we've discovered Ni Hao, Kai-Lan. My friend Trudi's almost one year old loves it, so she lent us a DVD. I now have a love/hate relationship with Kai-Lan myself. That's because Angelina loves it so much, she asks to watch it over and over and over and over and over.....We don't have network/cable TV, so it's not like she's a TV hound. But all I hear these days is "I want to go to China!" which really means the episode where Kai-Lan, her grandfather Ye Ye, and all her friends fly to China. She could easily watch it 5 times in a row if we let her. of course, though, she also loves all the other episodes.

It's a cute show - not unlike Dora. Kai-Lan speaks Mandarin and English, teaching her friends lots of Mandarin words and Chinese culture. Each episode teaches them about behaviour - they sing "When you feel bad, what do you do? Calm, calm, down." Or when one friend is grumpy because he doesn't like his role, they talk it out, learn to fix the problem, make everyone happy. Or in another, one doesn't want to try the Chinese noodles because they're different, but they convince him it's good to try something new.

All in all, not bad lessons. But if I have to hear about going to China one more time, I may scream!

And on that note, it's all about the airplanes.....

A belly shot

Here I am at almost 31 weeks pregnant with my good friend Dawn, almost 29 weeks pregnant.


Unfortunately Dawn lives in Phoenix now so our kids won't be playing together as often as we'd like. We were lucky to have this visit!



On the plus side, Baby Desmond (Kyle and Marisa's new baby) will only be a few months older than Allegrini #2, so there will be another playmate around. (angelina took this photo...)


Angelina is so looking forward to being the Big Sister. She's still convinced she's having a brother. Maybe she has some sixth sense about it?

Finally in her own bed

Ok, so this isn't really her bed and she DOES sleep in her own bed now. But for some reason she loves to lay in this blanket box.

Kind of like Chakapu I guess, who always seems curled up in a basket....

Princess or ?????

(sorry for the fuzzy pic, another camera pic)

She has discovered the treasure trove of costumes at our neighbor's house. So I walk in and she's looking beautiful and sweet as ever in a Snow White (Neige blanche?) costume. Then I take out my camera phone and as I try to take a picture she shoots me an evil look....

A Day at Sea World

One of the perks of Frédéric’s work is that every year they have a "Family Picnic." It takes place either at Six Flags Fiesta Texas or Sea World. For $7 each, we get free parking, admission to the park, lunch and at Sea World, a special show. Not a bad deal! So we happily take advantage of the opportunity.

We otherwise probably wouldn't go, too expensive and too exhausting. But Angelina loves it!
I forgot my camera so these are just from the phone. They have a kids playground with lots of cool stuff.


The kids' water area was tons of fun, but nothing compared to the rides! I was skeptical, but when she saw the sky tube> she was hooked. As soon as we came down, she said "I want to do it again!" Alas, we didn't want to wait in line, so we checked out the wave pool, river tubes, more slides.....

needless to say, it was a long and exhausting and totally fun day!

Making Pizza

We've finally discovered the trick to getting her to eat. It's not that she's picky, as at some point or other she'll eat just about anything (except meat), she just doesn't *want* to. Well, that is unless she helps cook.

So now, she cooks with us. This is a challenge, a big mess, and sometimes a risk (hot stoves and all), but with care and caution and lots of patience, it works.

Especially fun was rolling out pizza dough with Papa.


And apparently peanut butter sandwiches at the volleyball tournament were a big hit too.

Be Careful What You Wish For

There was a time when everyone seemed to be worried about Angelina's lack of development. Given her problems at birth, and though she showed no sign of having lost oxygen, the heavy sedation did have its side effects. So when at nearly 18 months she still wasn't walking and talking, it seemed everyone under the sun was concerned.

Well, except 3 people: Papa, Nana (her babysitter), and her doctor. Though the latter did suggest an evaluation by Early Childhood Intervention just for reassurance. Everyone else though, were convinced something was wrong. Random people would wonder at her age "She's not walking YET? She's not talking YET" Nooooo.

And then, at just about 18 months, it all began.

And now? Well, let's just say NOT talking is certainly not a problem. No, this child talks NON-STOP. As I picked her up today and she, as usual, rattled on constantly about something, I asked Nana "Is she like this all day?" "Oh! Gosh!" she said "Angelina NEVER STOPS!" Talking? Oh yeah. She has that down no problem. The question is now, how do we get her to stop, at least once in awhile?

As for walking, she has two speeds: snail and cheetah. She's either moving inch by inch, taking in all the world around her, or she's racing down at lightening speed as we all try to keep up, out of breath.

I can't believe I ever worried about either. One thing is clear, she's Mistress of Her Own Destiny. She will decide what she'll do and when she'll do it - a challenge for us now (which is why she's still not 100% potty-trained), but should serve her well as an adult, provided she learns proper personal controls and all that.....

I shouldn't be surprised. It was pretty clear from birth that she had the stubbornness of a mule (or an Allegrini or a Rohr.....).

For now, she's Hurricane Angelina and we'll figure out how to, um, appreciate our little whirlwind. In the meantime, she makes us laugh and laugh and laugh.

The Princess

We don't have TV. Or rather, we don't have cable. We do have DVDs, so the only shows she watches at homes are ones we've chosen to buy. I know at daycare she does watch TV so she's seen the whole range on Nickelodeon.

I read recently that the process for little girl fascination goes as follows:
2 years old - Dora
3 years old - Disney Princesses
4 years old - Hannah Montana (or is it Bratz?)

And sure enough, at her 3rd birthday, she was overwhelmed with Disney Princess stuff. I thought she wouldn't know what it was, but she did. She didn't know all the names, she just knew they were princesses. I'm not so thrilled with this trend.

See, as annoying as some find Dora the Explorer, I love her. Her mission is usually to save someone/clean the sea kingdom/rescue some animals/save Friendship Day/explore the world. And, she does it in multiple languages! Can you see why I like her even though she tends to yell a bit?

As much as I like all things Disney, the princesses, on the other hand, are all about finding Prince Charming who will save them from a life of drudgery. Now, I'm not opposed to my own Prince Charming, but I happen to prefer the idea of a little girl who goes out to save the world, relying upon her wits and her friends over the beauty who sleeps until the prince kisses her....(though I wouldn't complain if Angelina took to sleeping a wee bit more).

And Hannah Montana and Bratz/Barbie? Well, I honestly don't know much about them, except from photos of little girls dressed far too grown up.

I'm not really a prude, but I'd like my Princess to have her own power, intelligence, and inner strength to take on the world.

As for Angelina, well, turns out she's not so into the princesses afterall. She DOES however, like to call herself a princess. She loves to dress up in frilly dresses and twirl around. She also likes to explore, and play in the mud, and use tools, and definitely does not wait for someone else to guide her. No, she's ready to tackle the world on her own.




Lately, however, she's decided just being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be. She's taken to saying "I'm the QUEEN!"

The fish

This child can spend her entire life in the water. She's a fish. Nothing makes her happier than playing in water.

She spent the better part of the weekend looking like a prune from so much water.

The upside for us? She actually sleeps!!! As you'll have noted before, watching her sleep is not something we can do often. Quite the contrary - she almost never stops until after we're worn out and sleeping ourselves. But the trick we have discovered is water. Swim swim swim. And lo and behold, she sleeps!

Scaring the waves.....and our trip to Mexico

Angelina did her best impersonation of "Sully" from Monsters, Inc: she said she was "Scaring the waves!" I'm not sure it worked, but she had fun trying.

After our "vacation" that wasn't a vacation in Switzerland in June, we decided we needed a mini-break. Our criteria: someplace close enough that we don't waste all day travelling, so can do in a weekend, someplace "easy" - no trekking through jungles or cities, someplace Angelina would enjoy that was all about "play" and not "seeing important sights," and someplace American Airlines flew to so we could use frequent flier miles.


We chose Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, despite it being hurricane season. Hurricane season is a two-pronged problem: (1) If a hurricane hits our destination site, well, it wouldn't be a fun trip and (2) If a hurricane hits anywhere on the Gulf Coast, I have to work and can't travel.

Fortunately, we were spared on both accounts, and though it was the rainy season, we had plenty of sunshine, beach time, and ocean time.


Neither of us are really "resort" people. I normally prefer a good jungle trek/stay in small locally-owned cabina/discover a little out of the way local restaurant. However, given we had such a short time and a toddler, we decided on an all-inclusive resort.



We probably would not have enjoyed it for more than the 2.5 days we were there, but for that time, it was perfect: play in the pool, play in the waves, play in the sand, eat, sleep, play some more, never having to wander very far afoot.

And she even made friends - everywhere she went.....

Check back later for more pictures....

For Nanny - a place to play

When Nanny was here she complained that Angelina didn't have a table to sit at/play on. I had planned to get one, but couldn't find one I liked except this Ikea one. However Ikea is 1.5 hours away..... I convinced Nanny to wait, that I really would get one. So here it is! I was working near Ikea this week so made a rather large shopping trip. It's amazing what you can fit in a little civic if you try. For now, Angelina is happy with her new table and chairs. Especially as she directed Papa how to play.

As you can tell, we like to mix and match colors.

A climber

Why am I showing boring video of our attic ladder in a messy dirty closet? SO you can see what Angelina climbed, all the way to the top, by herself. NOT WITH PERMISSION.

Yes, we have a climber in our midst.

Normally there's a gate across the doorway and we climb over it (and all the stuff) to get to the attic ladder. But in my 24 week-pregnant state, that was too hard, so I moved everything out so I could get to the ladder, not realizing the 3 yr old I left happily watching Dora would follow me....

I was in the attic when she started to call to me. I kept telling her to wait, I'd be down in a minute, etc. After much yelling back and forth and finally "mommy, come help me!" and I realize that voice is not nearly as far away as it should be, I look down to see her at the next to the top step. Did I say this ladder is 12 ft high?

Instead of doing the smart thing and reaching down to her, I yelled for Frederic to come help (he had been watching a movie with headphones, so missed all this). She started to climb back down, but when she saw him climbed back up. Finally I realized the safest thing to do was to reach down and help her into the attic. Thankfully, my panicked scream didn't scare her into letting go. In fact, she wasn't scared at all (except maybe when she saw Frederic and realized she did something bad). So she checked out the very messy, very hot attic, and climbed down (with Fredo close by). Hopefully she'll be uninterested in the attic from now on.


I should have known better, she tries climbing ladders all the time, but this ladder is not easy to climb. She clearly has no fear!

More HeadScarves and Clones

I don't get this fascination with headscarves....today it was a blanket trailing behind her like Princess Diana's wedding veil.

And it's very clear whose child this is!




Nanny's visit
Despite being here a little more than 2 weeks, I neglected to take pictures. I don't know why, perhaps because Nanny was happy to pass Angelina off to me when I got home so didn't have a chance. At least that's my excuse.

So on her final day, I tried to take some pictures. Angelina very happily chose to wear her pretty white dress. Alas, she refused to smile for the camera. We tried to take some at home, no luck. FInally, at the airport we tried again. You can see the result here. She was rather cranky and not so happy Nanny was leaving, so smiling for a picture was not high on her list. Picking her nose, on the other hand....