Celebrating Advent (cont’d)

Day 3 was a dinosaur eraser that Ally put on her Christmas tree.

Day 4’s surprise was a tiny kangaroo

December 5 was an ornament for Ally’s tree

Day 6 was a gold coin and a dollar bill.

Day 7 was a single sock


Day 8 was the match to Day 7’s sock so now Ally has a pair!

By Day 9 Ally knows we are going to take her picture so she poses before she starts to open the drawer!
The surprise was some small capsules. You put them in warm water and watch for 30-45 seconds and they transform into dinosaurs!

And of course our aspiring Paleontologist knew exactly was dinosaur each one was.

Birthday Party #20

Roxie turned 6! And all the Guatemala Girls were at her house to celebrate at the snowman themed party.

Rosa was having fun at the craft the table, Gabi and Ally were playing. At one point all the girls were downstairs and the moms were upstairs and we stopped talking to listen to the peals of laughter and giggles and friendship.

Cheryl got her hair cut in a new short and sassy do! Alice hammed it up for the camera.

Rosa (who was unable to attend Ally’s party)  brought Ally’s birthday gift and Ally was thrilled to open it at home after the party – what a nice surprise to get a gift late!

Beauty Treatment

These are sock hands.

Ally does not like to wear mittens, and frankly on the playground it is not safe to wear mittens and climb on structures and hang like she does so I don’t fight it too much. I just make sure she always has a pair in her pockets if she gets cold.

But recently her hands have been getting really chapped. The red cracked and hurting kind of chapped. We tried lotion but it burned and she cried. So I suggested a “beauty trick, like mommy and mama do” and we slathered her hands in Vaseline and then covered them in socks right before bed. Then Ally sleeps with the socks on her hands and wakes up in the morning with soft hands. She has done this for several nights now, and loves the way it feels. She also likes that Vaseline is not cold like regular lotion and it does not hurt her chapped skin at all. It feels funny like glue she says, but good and the socks are comfy on her hands.

I was really channeling my Grandma Mimi who swore by Vaseline. She used to slather it on her face at night!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Ally posing for a before shot in front of the bare tree.

Her Bumble ornament with her Bumble shirt!

For the record Ally has watched Rudolph 2 times as of December 1. Becky and I are going to keep track of the number of  times it is watched this year.

decorating the tree – Becky putting up one of her Grandma’s mouse ornaments.

For a while Ally sat and hung ornaments all along the bottom.

The finished tree.

It is always a joy to open up the ornaments and reminisce about each one.

The Start of Advent Season

Ally was SUPER excited on December 1 to open the first drawer of our Advent Calendar.

Day 1 was a Christmas beading kit to make a necklace.

 

Right before bed we hauled up our Christmas decorations from the basement. Ally was thrilled to have her little tree in her room again. I love her pose! We let her put 6 ornaments on it before bed.

In the morning day 2 was opened – a $1.00 bill and a chocolate coin.

Aunt Cindy sent Ally a Frosty the Snowman Advent calendar to count down the days until our Disney trip. Ally insisted on opening that window up right after the drawer one.

We have been going to church this year, and every week we get an email from the youth coordinator about Sunday’s service and the children’s activities. This week it said that the church tradition for Advent is to have each class / age group light the Advent calendar each week. Ally is in Godly Play 1 and they were scheduled to start things off in week 1. The emailed asked that you arrive at church 15 minutes early to practice. I talked to Ally about it on Friday and again on Saturday and she was excited about doing something in front of the whole church with her class.

We got to there as requested at 1045 and were the first ones there. The coordinator and one of the teachers asked if Ally wanted to do something really special since she was there first. She said yes and they had Ally light the candle. The picture below is during the practice. I really wanted to take a picture of the event, but I figured that was not really the right thing to do in church. Ally was so proud of herself and for her role in lighting the candle.

This Sunday was a service project for the children and they leave the service to make bag lunches for the homeless, this happens once a month. The children come back and join the service for communion. Ally took communion with us, at this church they pass the bread and then the wine to you in your seats in the pew. After the bread Ally looked at me and said “that was yummy” she was quite excited for the juice in the little cup too, we had to wait for everyone to get their wine/juice and they we all as a congregation drank together. I know Ally did not really understand what it all meant, but I was very happy to have her exposed to the experience.

This week after the service there was an Advent themed craft event. It was all set up in another hall of the church, and Ally quietly asked me if we could go in there after the service. I asked why and she said “they have crafts in there” that’s my crafter girl! We usually leave church immediately after the service to get to Ally’s swimming lessons on time. But its hard to say no to Advent crafts! So we stayed a bit and let her do 2 crafts and then got to swimming – just in time.

 

Ally in her car seat on the way to swimming she is eating her 1st craft – decorate a cookie. It was loaded with sprinkles. The next picture was Ally’s other craft was a candle project – very cute in a walnut shell with fake moss and berries.

Later in the evening we talked about Advent and how it’s the church way of talking about Christmas, and at home we use an Advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas and at church they use the candles to count the weeks. I explained to Ally that this week, week 1 was Hope and each week has a theme at church. We talked about what hope meant and she is quite proud that she lit the candle.

We put out our Christmas decorations as well and when putting up our Nativity Becky explained each piece and Ally was soaking it all up and quite proud that she knew some of the story of the birth of Jesus. And interestingly she totally understood that Jesus had 2 dads; one who gave Him life and one who took physical care of him.  Just like adoption and Ally’s own life story with parents.

First Skating Lesson

Saturday morning Ally went to gymnastics from 9-1015 (it was a make up class from when she was sick a few weeks ago) and then we drove across town to the skating rink for her very first skating lesson!!!

A flyer came home in her backpack from school for some very affordable skating lessons for 14 weeks. We would have to pay for rental of the skates or buy some, we thought. But when we got to the rink they had bins of skates for kids to try on and if you found a pair that fit they were yours! The lessons are sponsored by our town’s youth hockey program and it turns out they do this every year – just turn in your skates at the end of the year and pick out a new pair next year! Sweet!

We were told to wear snow pants and mittens and bring a bike helmet. Ally’s old helmet was too small so we went to Target the night before and she picked out this really cool cat helmet!

All dressed and ready for the lesson to begin. Ally told me she was a little nervous. I gave her a big hug and told her I was nervous for her too, but that I knew she was going to have a fun time.

When she got on the ice the teachers showed the kids how to stand up once they fell. The lesson started with learning how to get up. There were about 30 kids and 2 teachers. The instructors are clients of mine and they live right down the street from us, which is nice.

Ally fell a lot. And would try to get up. and try and try and try

She did manage to get up and make progress across the rink. She had a huge smile on her face the entire time. I was so proud of her.

The class lined up on one side of the rink and then skated across to the other side. Ally was pretty hesitant (slow) and at one point looked back and realized she was last. But she kept going and made it to the other side and back again. One of the coaches gave her some help on the way.

But she did it! As the class went one she managed to stay up more and more. One parent commented on what good form she had – Ally was not hunched over or knees bent, but stood up straight and tall.

Her look of happiness and excitement after class. She came off the ice and told me that she even managed to twirl “sort of” she said. I saw – she did a rather large circle which would pass as a spin or twirl.

In the car on the way home Ally exclaimed “I can’t wait to tell mama” and then said “I did not know I could skate!”

She had a blast and can’t wait to go again. We will miss class next week for Roxie’s Guat Girls Birthday party, but with 14 lessons its ok to miss a few.

I was so proud of her for doing this new activity.

Power Outage

Thursday night we lost power! This is the very first time we have ever lost power in the entire time we've lived in our house - 8 years! We have under-ground power lines which is why it never happens. But the power company had a problem with a transformer and an entire portion of the city lost power.

The electricity went off while we were at gymnastics, which had power and is on the opposite side of town. I had a voicemail and texts from neighbors and friends checking in to see if we were ok. so we were prepared when we got home that it would be dark.

It was dark - I got the flashlights and lanterns and candles out and lit.

Ally was totally fine with it - especially when we said she could watch some TV - on her dvd player!

Here she is in the dark:

 

Then the lights came back on and she stayed in the same position and did not even acknowledge that there was electricity again until her show was over!