Christmas and other surprises

Dear Catalina,
Wow we've had a busy couple of weeks.  I apologize for not writing more.  You continue to amaze us, of course.  You now quite frequently speak in full sentences, count to ten, and say your abcs.  You also sing along to many songs, tell jokes, and are all in all adorable. Your potty training took a bit of a backslide the last few weeks, but we're still pushing ahead.  Not sure why, but you've taken to screaming and crying when we try to sit you on the potty preemptively to avoid wet pants.  I hope you get over that.  You've also taken to show really strong preferences for whoever stays home with you on a particular day.  So on the days that Daddy is home, when I return from work, you want nothing to do with me.  When I stay with you, you prefer that I be the one who cuddles you and puts you to bed.  You are so fickle.  I don't know that I've ever heard of a kid quite like you in this regard.  Hopefully it is also a stage that you will outgrow!

So a few weeks ago--December 11 to be exact, your daddy got a call from Uncle Zak telling him how your cousin Jesse was removed from Uncle Jesse's house for reasons I won't go into.  Anyway, Uncle Jesse asked Daddy if we could provide a temporary home for cousin Jesse.  Of course we agreed, and on the night of the 12th, drove down to Phoenix to pick up cousin Jesse.  Jesse will be three in January, so he is a little over a year older than you--and quite a big kid.  You were so excited (at first).  You wanted to see him and touch him.  We joked that you thought you'd just gotten a new pet.  Jesse wasn't nearly as interested in you as you were in him, but he was pretty patient for a 3 year old all in all.  As we expected, your fascination with Jesse ended after a few days.  I'm sure you realized that having another kid around could potentially take away from the attention you receive from Mommy and Daddy.  By day four you were pretty much done with the whole ordeal.  Fortunately for you, they found another temporary home for Jesse back down in Tucson so you were able to have all the limelight for yourself once again!  You still ask about Jesse and we hope that we can visit him fairly often so you can have a relationship with your cousin, but I think you are pretty happy to have life back to normal again.

So yesterday was Christmas!  You are much more involved with Christmas this year than you were last year.  You have visited Santa 3 -4 times.  Although you talk a big talk about wanting to see Santa and talk to him, when the time comes you find him a bit more intimidating than you imagined!  The first time we went to see him was at the library.  You were so excited and we stood in line to talk to him.  When it was your turn, you got scared and wouldn't sit on his lap.  You did manage to muster up enough courage to shake his hand and stand in front of him for a picture.  The awesome part was that they were offering craft stations at the library.  So we went to make candy canes out of pipe cleaners and wreaths out of paper leaves and paper plates.  As soon as you were done with your candy cane you took off running back toward Santa. I had no idea what you were doing. Most of the kids had finished speaking with him by then.  You walked right up to him and handed him the candy cane you had made.  It was totally your idea and soooo sweet.  You won a few fans that day!

You still didn't quite pick up on the excitement that mommy tried to infect you with about the whole Santa Christmas thing, but you did manage to talk about Santa and worry about him getting burned in the fire. I think all in all you had a good Christmas.  Santa brought you a little kitchen which you seem to enjoy and Nana and Poppa got you an easel which I think you will enjoy more and more as time passes.  It is so funny, though.  With all your new toys, you really just want to play with mommy and daddy mostly.  Toys impress you for about 10 minutes and then you just want love and attention.  You are so darn sweet.  Don't get me wrong, you have your moments, but usually if you know you've offended us or hurt our feelings, you will reach out and say "I'm sorry" giving us a big hug and kiss.  I feel so lucky to have you in my life.  I know Daddy feels the same. 

You are so awesome.
Love,
Mommy

"All done red shirt!"

Dear Catalina,
I thought I would use this space to tell you a bit about your budding sense of style.  For months now, you have let your father and I know, in no uncertain terms, that you would like to choose your own clothes.  For the most part, we give you this small bit of freedom.  You have your favorite shirts and ensembles--and we find it mostly harmless that you want to express yourself in this way.  Occasionally we have to put our collective foot down because you want to wear your bathing suit (you always want to wear your bathing suit if given the option) and it is too cold outside, but sometimes we even let that go.  We have had a few mornings when Mommy wants you to wear something in particular and you absolutely refuse, throwing yourself on the floor in a fit of rage, but these moments are actually few and far between (well they used to be anyway).  For the most part, you have quite a keen sense of style.  In the picture above you are wearing a dress that you picked out yourself while shopping with Daddy.  You had more than a few compliments on it.

For the last few weeks, though you have decided that it is up to you to decide not only what you will wear for the day, but also what Mommy and sometimes Daddy will wear.  There is one shirt that you always want me to wear, "Mommy, purple shirt, Mommy, purple shirt" and you generally take it fairly well when I explain that the purple shirt is dirty.  One morning about a week ago; however, you were still in bed and I came over to say goodbye before leaving for work.  I was wearing an orangish-red shirt--pretty harmless I thought.  You went into a panic!  You said, "All done red shirt, all done red shirt" and even ordered me to "take it off, Mommy!".  Your daddy and I had a really hard time controlling our laughter.  I guess you were trying to tell me something??  You finally left off complaining about my wardrobe choices and I left without further incident.  The big question is, what are we in for when you get to be a teenager??

Sometimes your love of clothes goes a little too far.  Here is a video Daddy recorded when he was trying to do your laundry.  You had picked out a pair of pink pants that you liked and were not happy when Daddy tried to wash them!

Even with your little quirks (or perhaps because of them) you are still so adorable. 

I love you to the moon.
Mommy