Highlights of Christmas

Christmas 2017 looked something like this:

1.  It snowed!  It did not snow on Christmas, it only snowed for one hour, and the snow melted an hour later.  Nonetheless, it snowed!  Snow in December in the valley definitely put me in the Christmas spirit.

2.  My mom sent Katy an advent calendar stuffed with lots of little surprises, including an entire set of Daniel Tiger figurines. Daniel Tiger was a very new favorite of Katy's at the time, so it must have been Christmas magic that moved my mom to buy Daniel Tiger figurines for the calendar.   

3.  Aunt Lynda visited, which made Katy so happy that she ran to the door shouting, "Mi amiga Lynda, Mi Amiga Lynda!"  Lynda did not disappoint.  She spent the evening decorating a gingerbread house with Katy.     

4.  Chris and I attended his office Christmas party without Katy, which was a big deal because we have zero family in the area to babysit for us.  A night out without Katy almost never happens when we're home.     

5.  I made cake balls to share with friends and family.  I now understand why pre-made cake balls cost so much.  The chocolate cake balls turned out better than I could have hoped for - rich chocolate flavor with a hint of mint, but not overly moist or sweet.    

6.  I made custom boxes for my cake balls.  When it takes three days to make something, you do not haphazardly throw it in an ill-fitting box.  Besides, a couple hours making boxes doesn't seem like much when you just spent three days making the box contents.  Katy added the final touch by writing names on the name tags.  Seriously, we killed it with the cake balls. 

7.  We enjoyed looking at Christmas lights from our bikes, first as we rode through a local town's massive Christmas light display and later as we rode through our lovely neighborhood.  Chris wrapped battery powered lights on the bikes and Katy's trailer.  I played Christmas music through our wireless speaker sitting in my bike basket.  It was pretty much the most perfect way to look to Christmas lights. 

8. Santa came to our house on December 23, something we could pull off because Katy has absolutely no sense of time, even when an advent calendar is involved.  Santa brought Katy a dollhouse.  She was excited to see the doll house came with a miniature Cozy Coupe to match her own. 

9.  For the second year in a row, we ate chicken fajitas for Christmas Dinner.  It wasn't intentional, but I suspect this is how some family traditions start.

8.  We drove to my parent's house on Christmas Eve.  I resorted to bubbles in the car to keep Katy happy during the 8-hour drive.  We arrived just in time for everyone to take a nap.  

9.  On Christmas Eve, I suddenly became anxious about leaving Katy for several days while Chris and I went on an anniversary trip.  I let Katy sleep with us in a double bed.  It should have been a night where no one slept well, but somehow the three of us slept soundly all squished in that bed together.  It was perfect.

10.  We spent the latter part of Christmas Day with Chris' family.  And just like that, Christmas was over.    

Halloween 2017

Last year, the Sias family had matching, homemade Halloween costumes.  This year, Katy was given the choice between a cow costume and a pirate costume left over from Chick-fil-A events.   Katy picked the pirate, a very good choice.

El año pasado, la familia Sias tuvieron disfraces de Halloween con una tema y que hicimos.  Este año, Katy eligió entre dos disfraces que ya usó por eventos de disfraz en Chick-fil-A: una vaca y una pirata.  Katy eligió la pirata, una buena elección.  

At Chick-fil-A...

...And later on Halloween!

This was the first year Katy understood, and was excited by, the rewards of trick-or-treating.  The prospect of handfuls of candy motivated my introverted child to willingly and audibly utter trick-or-treat to stranger after stranger.  It was adorable.

Este año fue el primer año que Katy entendió, y estaba emocionada por, los premios de trick-or-treating.  La prospectiva de golosinas motivó mi niña introvertida a decir "trick-or-treat" a extraño tras extraño.  Era muy linda.  

Over a month post-Halloween and Katy still has candy in her Halloween bucket.  She goes several days without even asking for a piece of candy.  When she does pick a piece of candy from her bucket, she bypasses the chocolate and goes straight for the Dum-Dums, Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Pops, and Sweet Tarts.

Mas de un mes después de Halloween y Katy todavía tiene golosinas en su cubeta de Halloween.  Katy va por días sin pedir un golosino.  Cuando Katy elige una golosina de su cubeta, ella elige Dum-Dums, Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Pops, y Sweet Tarts sobre los chocolates.  

This week we are potty training.  I placed the bucket of Halloween candy in the bathroom as an incentive to use the potty.  To demonstrate how the reward system works, I rewarded myself with a piece of candy after successfully using the toilet.  For a split second, Katy looked hurt that she did not receive a piece of candy as well.  As soon as she remembered the potty she does not want to use, however, all looks of jealousy vanished.  She happily informed me that I could eat candy and she would eat carrots.

Esta semana, Katy esta aprendiendo como usar el inodoro.  Puse la cubeta de golosinas en el baño como un incentivo a usar el inodoro.  Para mostrar Katy como funciona la sistema de recompensa, comí un golosina después de usé el inodoro.  Por un momento, Katy parecía triste que no recibió una golosina también.  Pero cuando recordó su orinal, que no quire usar, me dijo alegremente que podría comer golosinas y ella podría comer zanahorias.   

Katy's lack of interest in eating her Halloween candy, especially the good candy when given a chance, makes me think she still has a thing or two to learn about Halloween.

La falta de interés de Katy a comer sus golosinas, especialmente las golosinas mejores cuando ella puede comer uno, me hace pensar que ella todavía tiene uno or dos cosas más para aprender de Halloween.

Something Else New

Algo Más Nuevo

In March of this year, I started something new on my blog.  Keeping up with the Spanish translations I started then has been a challenge, but it's teaching me a lot about humility (i.e. not being afraid to make loads of mistakes) and a lot of new Spanish vocabulary.

En marzo de este año, empecé algo nuevo en mi blog.  Haciendo los traducciones en Español que empecé es difícil, pero me esta enseñando humildad (a no tener miedo de hacer muchos errores) y muchos palabras nuevos en Español. 

A few months later, I started something else new.  I started writing for the RGV Mom's Blog.  Here's a link to my profile and blog posts in case you're interested in reading something without a shameless parade of pictures of Katy.

Unos meses después, empecé  algo más nuevo.  Empecé a escribir para el RGV Mom's Blog.  Este es el sitio, en caso de que quires leer algo sin un desfile de fotos de Katy. 

Still Learning to Share

Todavía Aprendiendo a Compartir

Katy frequently tells me that Esli, the daughter of a family friend, is kind.  While trying to take a picture of the kiddos at the museum recently, I captured Katy being kind to Esli in return...

Katy's still learning to share. 

Katy siempre me dice que Esli, la hija de una amiga, es amable.  Mientras intenté a tomar un photo de los niños un día en el museo, tomé un foto de Katy siendo amable con Esli...

Katy todavía esta aprendiendo a compartir.  

Fall Travels

Viajes del Otoño

Another successful Thanksgiving in North Texas. This time both my parents and my in-laws were out of town, which made for lots of time with Chris' siblings and cousins.  We even made it to the zoo one day.

Pasamos día de acción de gracias en el norte de Texas.  Este año, mis padres y mis suegros fueron viajando y por eso, pasamos mucho tiempo con los hermanos y primos de Chris.  Incluso fuimos al zoológico una día.  

We also celebrate Chris' birthday.

Festejamos también el cumpleaños de Chris.

Katy and her cousin Elijah had a great time together and even rubbed off on each other a little.  By the end of the weekend, Katy was saying a couple of new phrases in English and Elijah was eating carrots.

Katy y sue primo Elijah tuvieron much divertido jugando juntos y se influenciaron uno a uno un poco.  Al final del fin de semana, Katy estaba diciendo dos phrases nuevos en Inglés y Elijah estaba comiendo zanahorias. 

I tried taking some pictures of the cousins together.  Elijah was not impressed by my photography antics.

Lo intenté  a tomar un foto de los primos juntos, pero Elijah no estaba impresionado con mis intento de hacerlo sonreír. 

After we arrived home (in a record 6.5 hours!), Katy informed us that Tia Vanessa is her other mother.  Yep, she loves her family as much as we do.

Después de llegamos a nuestra casa (en 6.5 horas!), Katy nos dijo que Tia Vanessa es su otra mama.  Ella le ama as su familia como nosotros. 

Christmas Tree Crafts: Under the Sea

Starting in September, I led Katy's Sabbath School class and Adventurer's class, the Baby Birds, in making crafts for a tree in the Christmas Tree Forrest at the International Museum of Art and Science.  The Christmas Tree Forrest is an annual display of trees decorated according to a designated theme with entirely handmade decorations.  This year, the display includes 20 tress decorated by different groups.

Each week for three months, I planned a craft and tested it at home on Katy to make sure it was age appropriate.   Thankfully, Katy loves doing anything involving art and was therefore a very happy and willing test subject.  After weeks of making ornaments, it was finally time to decorate our tree.  Big thanks to Sylvia for spending an evening with me turning the crafts into true ornaments by adding safety pin hooks and pretty little bows

Our tree, "Primary Colors Under the Sea," turned out so colorful, full, and beautiful.

Although Katy's Sabbath School Class helped make the tree's ornaments, the Baby Birds class made most of the ornaments.  For this reason, I registered the tree under the Discovery Club name and included a placard explaining what the Discovery Club is and our club motto, "Because Jesus loves me, I will always do my best."

The placard also lists the different ornaments the kids made and what we used to make them.  I spent a lot of time thinking of different ways the kids could use different materials and mediums to decorate the tree.

Below are close up pictures of the different ornaments the kids made.  I love the variations and imperfections in the different ornaments.  It gives them loads of character.

Octopus; acrylic paint, cardstock, plastic jewels, and wiggly eyes.

Shark: paper cup, newspaper, cardstock, and wiggly eyes.  I love how the teeth turned out on these!

Whale: acrylic paint and cardstock.  The gradient color scheme of the blue paints made for such a great finished product.

Submarine: crayon, marker, cardstock, and a plastic straw.

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Jellyfish: contact paper, tissue paper, cardstock, and ribbon.  The ribbon tentacles look so neat flowing down the decorated tree.

Turtle: crepe paper, plastic plate, cardstock, and wiggly eyes.

Manta Ray: acrylic paint, cardstock, and wiggly eyes.  I like how simple these are, and the kids seemed to enjoy painting them with bubble wrap.

Fish I:  cardstock, popsicle stick, confetti, and wiggly eyes.

Fish II: markers, coffee filters, rubbing alcohol, popsicle sticks, and wiggly eyes.

Fish III: cardstock and stickers.

Snake: pipe cleaner, paper straw beads, cardstock, and wiggly eyes.

Fish Scene: watercolors, newspaper, cardstock, bottle caps, foam, sandpaper, and foil paper.

Pelican: watercolors and cardstock. I love how watercolors turn out, even when toddlers are the ones painting.

Starfish: cardstock and pom-poms.

Crab: acrylic paint, cardstock, miniture plastic cup, and wiggly eyes.

Seahorse: tissue paper and cardstock.

The tree topper includes our Discovery club mascot, a dolphin, jumping from the water and wearing a scarf as seen in our club logo.  The sun in the topper is made from the kids' handprints and turned out so cute.

I finished off the bottom of the tree with some wrinkled paper to look like sand at the bottom of the ocean.

It was fun introducing the kids to different methods of painting, as well as lots and lots of wiggly eyes.  Even better, these kids have now have their artwork on display in a museum before reaching the age of five.  They are an accomplished group of toddlers and preschoolers.  Perhaps best of all, however, our group won first place in our age category, Kindergarten to 2nd grade.  Here are some pics from the reception for the event, at which the kids received our award certificate and cash prize.

This project consumed a lot more time than I initially intended, but it was so fun and the final product is just beautiful.