Happy New Year

Skiing!

Off We Go

First time on the slopes, 2 days after she was eligible

Giving a little love to their sister on her first day of ski school

The Big Girls with Dad

NYE (C)

Christmas

Christmas Eve at Discovery Museum.  Maybe my favorite moment of the holiday for all its simplicity.

Thanks to their school, C and D were focused on keeping Santa healthy 

Sleeping Bags!

Ponchos!

Puppet Theater 

Merry Christmas Every One

And then she was three...

The Loviest Christmas Present Ever

(Please excuse any repetitiveness--if I don't get this posted soon my blog will be dead!)  You are 39 inches tall (90th percentile) and weigh 33 pounds (75th percentile).

You love ballet.  You love to do "Animal Action" (BIG BLUE TAPE!) and you pay very good attention in class.

You love swimming.  And you are pretty good at it too.  You are probably 8 months ahead of C and D's 'ribbon getting' and they aren't half bad at swimming.

You are the most talkative kid in the world and you will chat up adults you know with no problem.   Except in school.  You are mute in school.  You love school, you follow directions and you retain all the information you get there, but you apparently do not say a word.

You like to spell your name.  "Mom this says L-I-L-A.  It is MINE."

You still like to suck your thumb when you are tired, (and yes you still try to stick your hand down my shirt, and when I don't let you, you often tell me that all the little Paulas' Moms let them stick their hands down their shirts.) So when tired, you put one hand in your mouth and one hand on your neck.

You are likely going to be more athletic than your sisters.  You share their enthusiasm, but you also have girth, balance, hand-eye coordination, and strength on your side.  Did I mention girth?

Your peaches and cream skin, your puckery lips, your belly, your bum.  Who knows if they are pretty or not, they are begging me to squeeze them, to kiss them, to grab them.  The way you scrunch up your nose and pucker your lips when you are trying to tell me something.  You have this weird little sing song move where you squint your eyes, make a pinching motion with your fingers (right near your eyes), and jump from one foot to the other.  I'll eat you up I love you so.

Your favorites:

• Color: yellow, followed by green, and maybe pink
• Food: ANYTHING SWEET, though you are a great milk drinker.  You will generally try anything but your veggie likes are less diverse than your sisters'.
• Song: Harriet the Hippo (a kindergarten song) and any other song by C's amazing, stupendous, fantastic kindergarten teacher;  Run for the Roses, All the Gold in California, The Cave, Firework, Five Little Speckled Frogs, Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light, Any Christmas song, Any silly song your sisters teach you, and "Twinkle twinkle, traffic light, on the corner, shining bright. Red means stop, green means go, yellow means very very slow."
• Book: Cool Dog, School Dog; Dinosaurumpus ("say the ROAR quietly!"); Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox, Olivia books, "Stop that Pickle!" 
• Show: Chloe's Closet, Dora
• Character: Dora
• Toy: Critters, T.Y.Yopa Porky Talk (Porky Talk is her middle name)
• Games to play: HIDE AND SEEK, Sorry!, Airport (pretend), playing with dolls, tball, climbing up anything and everything. 

Favorite sayings
"I tink..."
"Shh Shh Shh" (with finger to mouth, when she wants everyone to listen to her)
"no no no no" (with finger to my mouth, when she wants it tone her way and not mine)
"Just one time."
"Just one minute."
"Dos minutos!"
"Does this have nuts in it?"
"Can I watch a Bideo? Just one? Chloe's Closet?"

Your bedtime ritual (after reading) consists of you getting into your crib (yes still crib, yes still a sleep "slack"---why do people get rid of these so soon I don't know?!?!).  Then you have me leave for a minute with the light still on.  Then I come back, turn off the light, and sit for about a minute and you say "Ok, you can leave now." And then usually "Are you exercising tomorrow?" And if I say no: "Ok, then I want you to be here when I wake up."  Occasionally you also ask for a "big hug and a big kiss."

Lately you have started this bizarre thing where before you tell me to leave the room (or say you are done with other things) you quietly say to yourself "1,2,3, red light red light, green light, green light." And then "Ok, you can go now."

Lila crafting her very own "holiday card"

Thank you for the super cool glasses Sproles family!!

Hard to find a good hiding place with that S curve body

I can still remember all the reasons I wanted a boy.  I cannot remember why I did not just want you.  I absolutely, positively, unequivocally adore you.

December

Just landed from Thanskgiving in Texas...let the season BEGIN! (Their mom, after traveling alone with them, looked a tad less perky)

Getting the Tree

Decorating the Tree (And my unsuccessful attempt at non-flash photography)

How an almost 3 year old decorates a tree

First hot chocolate of the season

Presidio Tree lighting

Father Daughter Dance (C in blue)

D hanging the stockings

Winter Solstice Concert (D, those are mostly 2nd graders near her, though yes, she is that short)

C at Winter Solstice Concert

Team Dodson en route to their hot chocolate pop-up

Holiday Treats for Kids in Need!

$92 raised for Larkin Street Youth Center! 

Lila's First Christmas Pageant

Looking out the window of the Polar Express

Gingerbread house making to benefit Habitat for Humanity at C and D's school

Visiting Santa at the Tom and Jerry tree

L's bell from the Polar Express

Oh, Chippy!

Snow at the Academy!

At the Academy of Sciences seeing Reindeer (with Ford)

C and D headed to the Nutcracker!

Ice Skating

D and L put together their own "Holiday card photo shoot"


Christmas Countdown

Father Daughter Dance 

This was actually pre-Thanksgiving but it sort of kicks off the holiday season for us.  C and D wore their “Christmas dresses” (Thanks Gram and Sam!) that they picked out themselves. Not sure how many more years I have of little girl dresses so I will take all that I can get.  They made a critical mistake upon arrival of getting in line for the "picasso" of caricature drawers--it took too long and tired them out. But they still had a great time.

I should note that while in Houston over Thanksgiving we passed by a debutante ball.  C and D asked what it was and were told, “It is like a Father Daughter Dance for older girls.”  Do you need to ask what they said next?  (Sorry ladies, not gonna happen.)


 Elf on the Shelf
o   Maybe the highlight of the season.  “Chippy” as we named him, turned up in the most unusual places each morning (could a giant male elf be the reason), prompting C and D to say “Ohhh chippy.”  Definitely a great new tradition

 Presidio Tree Lighting
o   We went to a Presidio tree lighting ceremony.  Not an overwhelming event but simple and sweet.

Holiday Parties

o   We actually got invited to a few this year!  I often feel like losers who know no one in December, so it was such a thrill to be included in some celebrations.

Polar Express 

The jury is still out on this one.  I drove them all the way to Sacramento to ride the Polar Express--which is essentially a train that drives to a cardboard North Pole the backs up against the freeway.  Hard to believe given that tickets sell out in 10 minutes online each year.  But the conductor is sweet, the chefs dance, and the kids loved getting the bell from Santa.  They did NOT like the 'phantom hobo' who came in and out of the train car because they had never seen the movie. And the drive home was LONG. 

Ornament Shopping
o   When I was little we used to go to SF once during the Christmas season and each kid picked out an ornament at a store that was only open in December (wish I could remember which street as I can picture it very well).  I like this tradition, and I also let them each get an ornament when we visit a new place.  We never got to keep our ornaments though, and I want the kids to take them with them when they have their own trees someday. So I write their names on the ornaments each year (and hope they don't break all of them).

Hot Chocolate Stand
o    The best new tradition, thanks to Andrew.  We sold hot chocolate, apple cider, and cookies to raise money for a youth center we have worked with in the past. (and the hot chocolate was damn good, if I may say so!)  The girls did a great job of selling too.  

 Tom and Jerry Tree
Tom and Jerry are a couple around the Castro who, for over a decade, have decorated the outside of their house in the most unbelievable way for Xmas.  Giant presents, giant Tom and Jerry stockings, giant tree, ferris wheels and toy trains.  Santa appears every night to hand out candy canes and talk to kids.  And they don't accept donations. They do it for the children of SF.  Worth a trip every year.

 Ice Skating
o   I took C and D out ice skating a few days before Christmas.  I came to the same conclusions that I forgot I had come to last year.  1.  Ice skating is hard, and DANGEROUS.  The whole time I kept thinking “please don’t break your wrists.”  Why I do this each year I am not sure, but I probably will again next year, because the other conclusion I come to is that 2) C and D, while not world class athletes, are tenacious little buggers. And I love 'em for it.

 Nutcracker
This year my mom very nicely took C and D.  (Ask her why she ended up paying for the tickets twice!) They had a great time, though I may put the kibosh on Gram's well intentioned tradition of getting a nutcracker every time you go.  (We are overflowing with nutcrackers now and I am running out of storage!)

Academy of Sciences –Reindeer and Snow
We took Ford and had a great day seeing and learning about snow and seeing and learning about reindeer.  I miss those days of taking everyone on an adventure, and to have a boy along with us made it extra fun.

School Parties

Our pre-school has the sweetest parties.  The kids sang some great holiday songs from Xmas and Hannukah and L seemed to love it.  C and D's school doesn't do specific holidays (a bummer IMO) but they had a very sweet Winter Solstice celebration (yes, you heard that correctly.  Incense sold separately).  I love to see D belt out the songs even though she is almost the tiniest thing up there, and C  had a chance to be 'thankful for the trees.'

Meeting Santa

No tears this year at our picture.  Just L making sure Santa knows her demands: "I WANT CANDY FOR CHRISTMAS."

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