All I want for Christmas is...Cookie Monster?

I hope I can remember all of Kate's cuteness in my memory forever. I want to remember that this is the year she began to understand Christmas, Santa, Snowmen, Elf on the Shelf, gift-giving and all about this great holiday season! We are trying to teach Kate that Christmas is about baby Jesus. She liked singing Happy Birthday to Jesus while in the car. Kate even came up with her own mix of Jingle Bells-Twinkle Twinkle-Happy Birthday.

We took Kate to see the lights on 55th Drive and Candy Cane Lane. I must say that 55th Drive puts Candy Cane Lane to shame and our new tradition will include taking Kate to see the lights out in the Foothills instead.

I tried taking Kate to see Santa and she was so excited. Kate was in her beautiful Christmas dress and faux-fur coat all decked out to see Santa. However, when we arrived to see Santa, she clung to me very tightly and would not let go of me and sit on his lap. Nana and I even sat by him and held his hand and talked to him but Kate would not give and refused to take a picture with Santa. Oh well.

When I grew up the tradition was to wait until midnight to open presents. Chris had to wait until Christmas morning to open presents. So with Kate, we decided to let her open a gift, or two, on Christmas Eve, and wait until Christmas morning to see what Santa brought her for Christmas. We hosted Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. It was fabulous. Delicious food (tamales and Pozole) for dinner and mini frittatas, mini hashbrowns, sausage and mimosas for breakfast! Christmas Dinner was hosted by Nana and Papa.

Kate riding her tricycle in her dress and fancy jacket; so classy she took off her tights...

The Howard-Hausman-Arnold family was very blessed and SPOILED by Santa this year!

On Christmas morning this house was filled with gifts for Kate. Kissy must have reported to Santa that Kate was a good girl. The grandparents must have been blinded by her cuteness. Maybe I should just write what she didn't get?! Kate got a "jumpy" (trampoline) and a barbie big wheel. She got a Melissa and Doug easel that has a chalk-board on one side and dry-erase board on the other. It also has a place to hold a roll of paper and bins for paint, colors, chalks and other messy things. Kate got a really cute pink retro Kitchen with tons of faux food and pots and pans, and an apron of course. She got books, puzzles, Sesame Street toys, and tons of other little toys. Our home is no longer ours, it is really just a place to hold all of Kate's things. The best part? When Kate was pulling out goodies from her stocking...she pulled out stuffed animals of Big Bird, Elmo and Zoey...and she said, where's Cookie Monster? I want COOKIE MONSTER!!!!! Dang kid.

Kissy enjoyed his last night with us. He had a bud light, a bowl of pozole and a tamale before he left us to go back to the North Pole.

So other than not getting Cookie Monster it was a very successful and happy Christmas Morning for Kate, and all of us. We are so blessed. I know this blog is full of the material items Kate received, but I am truly grateful for having a beautiful, funny, smart, and healthy happy daughter. She is surrounded by so many people who love her and I hope she knows how blessed we all are to have each other. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tamalepalooza 2011

Growing up I never helped in making tamales. My grandma always made them and I think she preferred making them by herself. One year while I was away at the U of A, Chris had called and told me that he and Gary helped my mom make tamales. I was in shock that my mother, a bit of a control freak, allowed others to help her make tamales. I think that was 13 years ago. Well here we are and the new family tamale making tradition continues, including Kate. Papa (Gary) is the one who began calling it Tamalepalooza and we had aprons made for the family members. Bum Bum is "Masa Boy", Papa is "Hoja Boy", and now Grandpa Mike is "The Meat Squeezer" - to affectionately remind him not to squeeze the juice out of the meat so we don't have dry tamales (like we did one year).

I love that Kate can now partake in this fun family tradition! Happy Tamale-making everybody!

I go see her?

I love Kate and her Kateisms. She makes me laugh everyday, what a funny girl she is turning out to be!

What is in a typical day for Kate? Hmmm, let's see.

Bright and early every morning I hear, "Maaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaa!" I either (a) go running to Kate and ask her how she slept and then I rub her back or (b) Chris and I convince her to get out of her bed and open door (as we are laying in bed yelling instructions to her).

If I get up to to do morning routine with Kate, she always asks where her daddy is. If I tell her that he is sleeping she says, "I go see her?". I correct her by saying, "yes, you can go see HIM". Everybody seems to be a "her" right now. We asked her if Santa was a boy or girl, and she responded "girl". That is another thing, Kate is really getting into and understanding Christmas and Santa Claus. She is also really into pretending. Kate loves to pretend to bake and give cupcakes to everybody. However, be prepared to eat the cupcake correctly by peeling the cupcake liner off first and then taking a bite! She loves to pretend it is somebody's birthday and sing the birthday song and then of course hand out cupcakes to everybody. She is still into her babies and loves pretending to bathe, feed, and change their diapers. She even tried to change one of my Santa figurine's diaper today. I catch her singing all the time, right now her favorites are 'twinkle twinkle little star', 'happy birthday' and 'jingle bells'. She even sings to her babies which now include more stuffed animals (monkey, 2 Olivia's, pillow pet, baby pillow pet, Brobee, heart, and elephant). She sits them down and I hear her say, "I'll be back okay guys?"

She is SO verbal, and to think how worried we were about her language development! Kate talks nonstop, asks questions nonstop, and is just a little chatterbox. We are constantly asked "what are you doing?" When we explain what we are doing she responds, "oh, okay"...like she knew all along. Kate is also counting to 20 (not perfectly, but getting pretty good). She even counts objects and has number correspondence up to 11. I just cannot believe how fast she is growing up and what a bright, beautiful, funny, and independent little girl she is turning into. What a blessed family we are! We love you Kate Ava!

3rd Thanksgiving

Kate celebrated her third Thanksgiving surrounded by all who love her!

Nana and Papa hosted Thanksgiving dinner at their home. Nana always does a beautiful job decorating and makes everybody get into the holiday spirit. This year she did her outdoor rustic theme and it looked right out of Home and Garden magazine.

Kate especially loved the pumpkin pie and kept asking for "more pumpkin pie please".

She was so polite and sweet so how could we resist? What she did not want was Mimi's pistachio midwestern concoction which we affectionately named green death.

Don't worry Mimi one of these years Kate will try it and probably love it!

After dinner was done, Kate wanted more pie! Even Olivia (the pig) had some pie. Happy Thanksgiving Kate; mommy and daddy are so blessed to have you as our daughter! You are a happy, funny, beautiful, and a super smart little girl. You bring us so much happiness and we thank God everyday for you!

Yo Gabba Gabba LIVE!

Mimi, Nana, and I took Kate to San Diego Civic Theater to watch Yo Gabba Gabba LIVE.

It. Was. AWESOME!

Kate loved every minute. So did I. Honestly, I don't know who loved the show better, Kate or me.

Mimi and Nana loved watching their granddaughter watch the show. Kate's eyes were huge when she saw DJ Lance Rock come out from the huge electronic screen. She wanted to dance on stage with all the characters, but especially with DJ Lance - or "Yo Yo" as she calls him. Kate went crazy, as did I, when Biz Markie came out on stage to rap with the crowd. For those of you who don't know who Biz is, just google "Just a Friend". He was very popular when I was in middle school.

Yo Gabba Gabba LIVE was an AMAZING production which I highly recommend and I will take Kate again if she is still into them next year. There was a ton of singing and dancing. Crowd interaction. Fast-paced and the perfect amount of time to keep the kids entertained. They even had leaves falling and "snow" during songs. Kate went crazy with all the confetti and streamers coming from the ceiling. By the end we were exhausted, but Kate was a trooper and really enjoyed the show. She was so cute the next morning when she woke up and said, "I go sit in chair, eat popcorn and watch Yo Gabba Gabba live?" She melts my heart!

Christmas Pictures

Oh what fun it is to take Christmas pictures...NOT! Don't get me wrong, I am a total ham and LOVE the camera. Kate and Chris on the other hand, not so much. This year we decided not to partake in the Christmas photo and have Kate be the main attraction. Of course. What else is new right? Our friends, the Kings, let us use their gorgeous home as the backdrop. We just let Kate roam and I took photos. A total of ten minutes, it was perfect for all of us. One of these days we will all be able to sit for a family photo. Until then, Merry Christmas from Kate!

Kate had so much fun playing with the water fountain; too bad she got dirt all over her dress!

Kate show me your teeth...this is how we get Kate to smile for the camera.

I thought the combination of Kate in a dress riding her tricycle was cute; it shows her "I'm a princess" side and her tomboy side.

Look at me mom, here I go...

Show me your teeth Kate...

Kate, please don't break the lawn decorations...oops. Sorry Jody and Suzy!

That's all folks!

Roots

We took Kate to visit two families in Somerton recently. One family she visited was my godmother's family, the Mendez'. The second family is our new-found Balderas family; my biological grandparents house. Ironically the two families live next door to each other; their backyards face each other. This is ironic because as a child I was running around and playing at the Mendez home as I grew up very close to them, and all the while my biological grandparents probably saw me running around and did not know that I was their grandchild.

Well now Kate can run around in both backyards and mingle among both families. What a lucky and blessed child to have so many family members who love her!

Trick or Treat!

Kate dressed up as Olivia the Pig for this Halloween 2011. We practiced early on with trying on the outfit, which she LOVED. We also practiced saying, "trick or treat" and of course "thank you" after she gets her candy and "Happy Halloween!" We went to my mom's house and she was so excited...I kept going over the routine so she wouldn't freak out such as telling her first bath, then costume, then candy. This settled her for a while until she had the costume on and we hadn't eaten dinner yet, damnit...so then I had to throw in "dinner then candy". Life with a 2-year old...I'm telling you! So then after dinner we told Kate she had to wait until it was dark to go trick or treating. She was pretty patient and kept saying, "wait dark..." So then we were off to trick or treat...I think the build up must have been a let down because as you can see from the pictures she was pretty somber. I think, Nana, Mimi and I were more excited. Well, she looked so cute how could we not be! Things pretty much went downhill as we walked out the door. Kate did not want to get out of her wagon or say "trick or treat" like we had been practicing. When she did get out of the wagon she wanted to pull it, in the street of course. Then when we finally got her to walk hand in hand with one of us, she still would not say trick or treat and she wanted me to hold her most of the time. Oh well, we have many more years to practice and get it right!



Happy Halloween!

Halloween Pictures

For those of you who really know Kate, know that she does not like taking pictures. I have tried to train her to sit (sorry it sounds like I am talking about a dog) by telling her to look at the camera and say "cheese". However, Kate is very curious about herself...she always says, "I see Kate" or "I want more Kate". So by the time the camera is clicking she is running towards the camera to see herself...so vain. But with a cute face and LONG lashes such as hers who can blame the girl?

Anyhow, I talked myself into taking her to JC Penney's to take pictures. I had a coupon that waived the sitting fee and thought I could get one or two good pictures to send off for Halloween. I bought her a cute tutu and really wanted some festive pictures of her. So on the big day I prepped her. We practiced taking pictures at home. I got her excited about her outfit. We get to the studio and the girl taking the pictures is really nice and good with kids. Kate seemed to warm up to her. We lasted about 5 minutes and these are the pictures we got.




The photographer told Kate to hold the apple and look at the camera; she also told her not to eat the apple because it is not real. When we showed Kate the pictures she said, "don't eat apple, not real...".




This one, well...Kate was told to stand on the red dot and look at the camera. She did, literally. Relax Kate!



The photographer told Kate to put her hands on her hips and shake her booty. She kind of did and then ended with a "tah-dah".



This is the end result!