Little Miss Bossy Pants

Over Christmas, we noticed a disturbing habit creeping up in A's everyday interactions, but midst all the chaos of traveling and having so much family around, we didn't have the chance to really talk to her about it as much as we probably should have. This disturbing habit or bossing people around has now become part of her MO, and we're working overtime trying to figure out how to break her of it. The difficulty came, once again, over the holidays, when she would say something bossy to an adult, and everyone would crack up. Admittedly, it's pretty funny when a 2-year-old tells an uncle or grandparent to "Stop eating! Not prayed yet!" or yells at the bugs on the ceiling, "No, bugs! Do not play up there! Come down, bugs!" (see Dr. Suess' Go, Dogs, Go! for the source of that comment.)

However, once you get home to the day-to-day routine, it ceases to be cute when she tells her father, "No, do not sit there. My seat!" or her mother, "Put baby Ky-ky down in his seat, mommy. I hold you now." She has also started telling us, "Wait for me, mama! Do not go upstairs!" or my husband's favorite, "Do not do that, daddy!" We have told her over and over again to ask nicely, disciplined her for telling us what to do, and tried ignoring her when she tries to boss us around, and they all work for a couple hours... but unfortunately, this is a habit that's going to take quite a while to break, maybe even years. 

Christmas 2012 Memories and Recap

There are fewer things a toddler loves more than opening presents, and A is no exception to that rule. I felt like we spent the whole month of December opening gifts and trying to find places to put the new toys. Fortunately, since she's mostly into puzzles, books and similar activities, those kind of toys don't take up much room. We did get her a trike, however, and that seems to be taking up a lot of room in the living room.  We started out our "Christmases" with J's family Christmas the Saturday before. A made out like a bandit, with such awesomeness as snow fort builders, Sesame Street memory games, the classic Fishing Game and her favorite - Violet from Leapfrog. I normally don't like talking and singing toys, because they're annoying, expensive and get neglected after a few days. This one is the exception. This little purple dog is A's new best friend - it even says her name! She knows her favorite food, color and animal and sings to her at night. A-bug sings along with all the songs and actually has mini conversations with her. She just loves that thing. It traveled with us all over the state of Virginia.

Which brings me to stage 2 of our family Christmas this year. On Sunday, we headed out to make the long journey to VA, where my mom grew up and where we have always gone for Christmas since I was a little girl. There's something magical about spending Christmas in the mountains, and it's always beautiful, even if there's no snow. My grandparents only get to see A and now K every 6 months, so it's very special to spend Christmas with them and all my cousins, aunts and uncles. We always have Christmas Eve dinner all together, eat brunch on Christmas morning and have my grandma's family's reunion on Christmas night. In case you didn't gather, there's a lot of eating :) A got a lot more adorable and fun gifts, including a totally cute winter parka from Emmy, coloring books from Uncle Trev and Mimi, and tons of clothes from Great-Grandma Moore, Uncle Trev and Uncle Zak. K also received lots of adorable clothes and some really sweet toys. A also received a little red trike from Great-Grandma Moore that she wanted to ride everywhere - we were more concerned about her running into the wood-burning stove, but she managed to avoid it the entire vacation *whew*.

Friday after Christmas, we headed over to the eastern part of the state to see my cousin get married. I could tell many stories about this leg of the vacation , but I'll summarize by saying that the hubster is even farther from letting me rent an RV someday to camp in than he was before this trip, and that's saying something lol. But we had a good time, got to see my dad's side of the family and a beautiful wedding. A fell in love with "the princess" who was actually my cousin's new wife, Kim. She loved the big, beautiful dress and veil, and wanted to take pictures with and talk to the princess all day. She was very sad when we had to leave the princess, but it was very sweet and adorable. We were also able to meet up with a friend of mine and meet her sweet family that night. Living 15 hours away makes the ability to visit few and far between, so we took advantage. She has a daughter close to A's age, so we had a great time and the girls loved playing together :)

Sunday we headed back to my grandparents for a few more days. Josh and I got to see Les Mis, without the company of any small children, which was very nice. We spent more time with family, which was lovely, and packed up to head back home on Wednesday morning. It was a long trip back, and we were very ready for our own bed, but all in all, it was a wonderful, family-filled Christmas.

Now it's time to put away the Christmas decorations, find homes for the new toys (and donate many of the old, but don't tell A-bug that!) and figure out what to do with all this candy, since we're trying to eat better in this new year. Today, I will try out one of my Christmas gifts, Zumba for the Wii, and later this month, I will most certainly enjoy my Spa Day from my lovely husband. My parents gave us extra cabinets for our kitchen which we are extremely grateful for, and will be installing shortly :) It was a great holiday season, but I'm glad to be back to our regular routine. I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas break as well!

A with Gigi and Grandma

Playing with her snow fort builders :)

Opening up her new best friend - Violet :)

Playing with a new toy with Emmy

Reading a Christmas morning story with Mimi

Smiling big before family pictures at the wedding

A with her cousin Grace and Granny

A and "the princess," Kim and my cousin
Paul, who was the groom.

A with Uncle Zak and Tita

Making silly faces with uncles Trev and Zak

Kisses from daddy <3

Meeting Missy and her daughter :) A was all worn out lol

Great-Grandma Moore and my sumo baby boy

Mr. K and Papa Moore

Auntie Gail with K and A

Papa and A 

Snowy Discovery

Last year, I think A was really too little to understand snow and get excited about it, but this year is totally different. On the first "real" snow of the season, I let her run outside for a few minutes to check it out. She was thrilled. She danced around, and kept turning around to see her footprints in the snow. We had accidentally left a baseball sitting out on the deck the night before, and it had a little hat of snow; A looked at it and gasped, "Mommy, look! Snowed on ball, too!" :) A few minutes later, an airplane flew by rather close, heading into Detroit Metro. A raised her hands towards the sky in disbelief and said, "Planes fly in snow, too?" Apparently she believes that the whole world should stop when it snows. I know a few southerners who feel that way as well, but the world must go on. :)

After rubbing her hands in the snow and tasting it, she determined she really liked snow, and we came inside to get warm. Hopefully, we will have many more snowy adventures this year :)

Trying to catch the snowflakes on her tongue :)

A-Bug's Christmas Program

I have been feeling so old. On Sunday night, A-Bug was in her first ever Children's Christmas program. The first of many. Unfortunately, the 2 minute video is too big to share on the blog, and all the still shots are on my hubby's iPhone (I'll try and fix that soon.) But she did adorably, if not fabuously :) She got a little "stage struck" when she walked out and saw all the lights and people, and didn't exactly sing like she normally does, but she did clap with her usual level of exuberance. She does love to clap. The adorableness was exacerbated by the bells they all had hanging on their arms. It was just too cute. If you're friends with me on Facebook, you should be able to view the video by clicking here.

After the program, the church had a Christmas Cookie Fellowship for everyone - nothing like adding sugar to the adrenaline rush all the kids already have lol. Here are some shots from that. A-bug loves being around people, and she was truly in her element here.

A and her friend, Baby B

Aria and her "Aunt" Kara

Family shot :)

Me and my baby girl <3

A with our pastor's wife - Joyce Hands

Playing ring-a-round-the-rosie :)

K sporting one of the leftover mustaches from the play lol

K and my sweet friend, Katie.

  

Comedienne in the Family

Everyone loves to tell me how funny and entertaining A-bug is. Trust me, I know. Here are some classic examples from the past couple of weeks.


Several days ago, this conversation happened while I was changing her diaper.
A: "Look, mom! A star!"
Me: "Yes, Aria a star! Is the star purple?"
A: "Yes, mom! Good job! Star is purple!"

Yesterday, A-bug was having a crabby day early on and she told me, "I can't like him (K) today. I tired."

Earlier this week, A was playing with her magnetic dress-up doll which she loves. Every time she got a complete outfit on her, she would say to her doll, "Oh, you're so pretty!" And then, when she would start to take the clothes back off she would say, "Please, excuse me!" as if she was afraid the doll would be offended that A was removing her clothes. It was hilarious.

Today, A-bug stood at the window watching all the rain come down. She looked up at my sadly and said, "It's raining, mommy. I cannot go play outside." I felt so bad, I almost let her go out. Almost.

One of A's favorite things to do on the computer right now is to watch the iTunes visualizer to The Piano Guys. She gets very upset if we have to turn it off to do something else lol. You should see her dance to "You Don't Know You're Beautiful." It's pretty awesome.

Today, A slipped and fell while doing something she's been told over and over not to do - try to climb into K's crib. Of course, she hurt herself and was devastated, but instead of getting angry per her usual MO, she reached over, held K's hand and said to him, "It's ok Ky-Ky. I cry, but it's ok." I almost laughed out loud.

Recently, A likes to pretend that cookie cutters are hats for some reason, so all morning she's been putting cookie cutters on K's head and singing happy birthday to him lol. He's not impressed.

Josh: "A, do you wanna play the cello when you get older?" A: "Oh cello! Yes daddy, i lub cello! I eat strawberry cello (jello)!" LOL

Playing with some of mommy's old jewelry while mommy
finished sorting the laundry. Gotta distract her lol...

I love my silly girl :)