Cute things update

Emma is good about taking her time outs like a man. She wont put up a fight, knows where to go and she will just sit there until I come get her. She has even come to fear them, it seems threatening her with a time out is the only way to get her to stop misbehaving. Well, she now has gotten into the habit of giving poor Gato timeouts. She usually wants to give him time outs when he gets on the table and eats her food or starts scratching the furniture. It really is the cutest thing to hear, "Gatito time out". She will come find me and drag me to where he is and make me put him in the bathroom. She then squeals "two minutes". See her time outs last two minutes, they say you are supposed to give them a minute per age. (Soon it will be three minutes!) Anyway, there are times when Gato is doing nothing and she wants me to punish him. Oh, they are such a riot to watch. All he wants is to be near her and she just wants to punish him. She will even do this crazy witch laugh and say "Emma's crazy". I wonder at times about her.
Emma also loves to wash her hands. I mean LOVES. I bought a 12 oz bottle of soap not even two weeks ago and it is all gone. Emma will just pump, pump away, and yesterday I caught her washing the paws of all her stuffed animals. I mean Eeyore, Pooh, Owl, Tigger, Owl, Curious George...and theses are not plastic, but stuffed animals...sigh, we had to literally ring out Tigger to dry. It was sweet how she carried one by one to the bathroom and held their paws under the soap and then pumped away. I didn't get mad at her because she was just playing, but I need to return the fancy soap I just bought at Home Goods and get some of that Target refillable soap.
E is really sweet and talking more, you can't pull a fast one on her or she will correct you. Her latest craze is watercolors. She will spend 30mns just painting in her books and I think for her birthday I will get her some nice watercolors and fun paint brushes and like 10 smocks! Sigh, they say those paints are washable, but I found out last night, they are not!
And finally, I think E is well on her way to being potty trained. We found that she can pry herself away from her cartoons to go pee, which she wasn't doing a month ago. She can pull her roos off and put the training seat up on the toilet and do her business. The only thing we haven't tried is going out in public with just roos on. I'm not sure how to tackle that. I mean how do you tell her to hold it?

Angelina ballerina cakes

From Cake Central

The Cake Store

From Amelia's House

Becca's Cake Artistry

Liez Cakes and Etc

Cakeadelic

cake by Claudia Behrens

For E's NY party I will be throwing a small Angelina Ballerina fete and have been looking online for some inspiration for her cake. I am not a cake decorator, in fact I usually just slap some glaze on my cake and call it a day. And while I usually work towards making yummy cakes, I want to at least try and make E a somewhat fancy bday cake. My mom's friend has spoiled me by making all of E's bday cakes and all my shower cakes but she lives in Tampa and I live in NY. Anyway, while researching cakes, I found some really brilliant ones online, most of which are from the UK. I seriously doubt my cake will look anything like these, I will be happy if I can get two even layers, but I do hope that above else, the flavor will be simply delicious.

it's getting closer!

I have been getting sentimental lately as I look at E and am amazed at how much she has grown. She has been in my life for almost three years and the time has gone faster than a blink of the eye. I am starting to get a little stressed as her parties approach, that is right, I said parties. She will be having a small NY party her small little community of well wishers and my closest friends up here. It will be an Angelina Ballerina party. So fingers crossed everything comes out lovely. I have bought my first bag of fondant and will be practicing making fondant bows and butter cream frosting.
Anyway, I have been pining for this little bunny for a while now..the thing is, it is almost 30 dollars and you just get a kit...Id still have to make her, and we all remember that Boo doll I made last year...anyway...you can find her here at Miko Design.

Book of the week, My Name is not Isabella

I picked this book up because E has a little friend named Isabella whose B-day is coming up and I wanted to see if this book would be a good gift for her. I did not expect to fall in love with this book. It is just wonderful! Isabella is Emma! This little girl has such a thirst for knowledge and imagination and creativity, that I felt as if I were looking at Emma one year from now. On each page Isabella tells her mom that her name is not Isabella but rather a famous woman such as Sally Ride, Annie Oakley and Rosa Parks. This book will ignite your little one's curiosity to learn more about these powerful, historical, female figures. This book will give them an insight on just how remarkable these women are. The illustrations are just as wonderful and the text is filled with humorous tone. Apparently there is a boy version of this book called My Name is not Alexander, which I'm dying to look at.

party favors

give it to me momma, I got this

she can be so focused when she wants to

So I started working on E's party favors for her Princess and the Frog Party in Oct. I realized that if I don't start now, I will be swamped and miserable the night before her party and I want to enjoy her day! So as I'm modgepodging away, I just am filled with the urge to stop and do something low key, to buy premade party favors and do things that are less involved than decoupaging tiny 2 x2 wood squares. Then I find this picture of my dad and me that was taken during Halloween probably around 1987. I remember that night. I remember I either waited up late for my dad, or woke up in excitement because he had promised to do carve the pumpkin. See at our house my dad was the crafty one. He knew how to sew, and cook and embroider. He also loved holidays and loved decorating the house and I know that is where I get my love for the holidays. So I'm looking at this picture of me and my dad and I notice the small detail of how the eyes of the pumpkin have a red velum lining, so as to give it this glow when lit form inside. I just smile when I realize this small, perhaps innocuous detail, and I know that I have to continue with my insane party details because its in my blood and I can't not go all out. Perhaps only one or two people might notice my efforts, but I know E will one day smile at the thought of how her mom worked hard to make her feel special, she will look back at these pictures of her helping her mommy and she will smile and feel loved.

chana chana

In Spanish there is this little song you sing to someone as you rub their booboo. "Chana changa, colita de rana, si no sana hoy, sanara manana". It roughly translates to, "chana chana, little froggy tail, if it doesn't heal today it will heal tomorrow. It of course rhymes in Spanish. My mom would sing it to us growing up and now I sign to E. She loves it and did the sweetest thing the other day. She accidentally hit me and starting rubbing my cheek and singing the song. She then kissed me, rubbed my head and said "you're ok, good girl". She has also done the same thing to her Minnie doll that she threw on the floor. She can be so tender, it breaks my heart. This morning she was singing the Dumbo song while describing what animals where doing what. She also really loves bandaids. I mean i think she thinks they are like jewelry. She will fake an ouch just to get one. Her latest kick is getting them on her little booty. She starts saying "ouch colita, bandaid bandaid!" I indulge her, as I cant think of how that could harm her. Its is expensive though, those character bandaids aren't cheap!

D.C.

I rather have the adult umbrella, thank you

fine, I will take myself to the Museum of Natural History

working hard to not look like a tourist

you can give me the ol' stink eye all you want, I aight turning around.

hat, Old Navy
dress, some place in Mexico
model good looks, all mommy

We love D.C. It is our town..we have been several times and on this trip down we thought it would be nice to stop and show my cousins the sights. It was really HOT. I mean I had to bust out the umbrella to shield me from the sun. E had a good time. Unfortunately the zoo is under construction and since it was so hot, most of the animals were hiding. We took the kids to the Air and Space museum and they really did enjoy their time. E napped during that time, but managed to wake up towards the end of our stay at the museum and she even got a chance enjoy their exhibition on how planes fly. Her and I waited on the lawn outside while the rest of the crew finished up. E was so sweet playing peek a boo with me. It was a nice time.

'tude

So da ninj busted out this past Sunday with her first "no YOU pick it up!" We were both a little shocked, slightly amused, but mostly curious as to where she picked up this 'tude. I thought for sure I'd have another 2-3 years of a sweet baby girl. And her new thing is she wants to be alone, as in please give me some privacy. When I am in her way, she pushes me away and tells me to "mama go cocina". Ah...I cant wait to see what the teenage years bring.

Ju Ju

bikini, Janie and Jack
flip flops, Gymboree

In D.C. I got Emma a toy snake and she loves that thing. She calls it Ju Ju b/c she thinks it is Mama Odie's snake from The Princess Frog. She was dragging that thing all over D.C. and when she got to Tampa, Logan quickly became a fan. E has no problem sharing, in fact she is quite content to find the next thing to play with. Logan is the opposite, everything is his and he cant bring himself to share his toys. I learned that Ju Ju is the one toy Emma is willing to throw down for. Logan tried to take it from her and she had had enough. She pushed him and took her snake away. I was secretly proud that she stood up for herself, but I am trying to instill in her that one must not hit or push.

da beach

I must say going to beach with E gets easier each year. She isn't as "wild" and can contain herself a bit more. She still runs around like a mad woman but sticks to running just on the sand. She is more cautious when it comes to running into the water. Logan handed down his life vest and that truly has made it much easier for E to swim and for us to enjoy the water. She loves to swim and actually has made huge improvements. We can see her trying to kick her legs, though it still looks as if she is bicycling under water, and she uses her arms more efficiently.

Kate Jackson Park

Here are some highlights of just how cray cray she gets when it comes to water.

practicing to be the next Tropicana Juice spokesperson
swimsuit, Old Navy-I love this bikini, I just wish the swimmers weren't granny panties

strut!

parkour!

Emma loves water, she loves to splash around and there is this nice park nearby that has both a playground and water area. It was were she had her b-day last year and will most likely have it this year.

We are back, sort of

she loves her princess towel.

you can see the struggle for the noodle, which is E's btw.

I got this papa, you can let go now.

living the high life.

swimsuit, Old Navy
jelly sandals, Gymboree
body, by Mac n Cheese!

We got back last sunday from our road trip down to Tampa. It was a lot of fun for Emma but a lot of running around for me. I must say Emma loves Florida, its beaches, pools and spalsh parks. She was so happy when we pulled into the driveway and she recoginzed that it was Grandma's house. She started yelling "yeah Grandma!" an waving her little hands up in the air. It was so loud my mom could hear her from the front door.
For me I was a little anxious. I had been dreading the return home because it was going to cement the fact that my father was no longer with us. I guess living in NY made me feel as if he were still in Tampa, on the sofa, waiting. As we pulled up and I saw his green truck I just crumbled. But E's cheers made me snap out of it.
All in all it was great, she got to be with her cuz login, who is such a trouble maker, but they do love to play with each other.