Life

Since it's been so busy, I've only been doing highlight posts.  I still need to write up Thanksgiving and our trip to Singapore, but I wanted to make sure I didn't miss too much of our everyday life.  The girls are growing so fast, and I know that what they're playing with this month, won't be the same soon.

Elena is in her favorite clothes phase.  The first hurdle is getting her out of her Peppa Pig pajamas, which she sometimes tries to wear all day.  She has created a persona for herself which is to be addressed as Princess, not Elena.  To achieve this persona, she puts on a crown, wings, and adds some maracas.

I pick my battles with the Peppa Pig pajamas.  A couple times I've let her just keep them on when we're going over to our friend's house who does toddler music and family Spanish for us.

When I can get her out of her pjs, she usually opts for a Mickey or Minnie shirt.  Sometimes, if she really wants to mix it up, she'll let me put on her ponies shirt.

Elena also went through a phase where she was to be addressed as doctor.  Vivian was very patient with this phase and even paid a visit to the doctor's "office."

In the real world, I took the girls to the dentist, and tried to get Elena to cooperate for her first check up.  She loved the waiting area.

But when it was her turn to go in she refused to open her mouth.  She just put her hands over her mouth and kept saying, "No thank you."  So, on the plus side, my kid is polite.  On the negative side, I don't know if all her teeth have come in yet.

Vivian got a clean bill of dental health, but the dentist did want to put sealants on four of her molars to make sure they didn't get cavities.  They have a pretty nice arrangement there.  Vivian got to pick her sunglasses and snuggle up with a blanket.

Vivian also got some more fun outings to the movie theater.  We took her with us to see Doctor Strange and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  We really liked both films, even though only one got the first class treatment.

She couldn't resist being goofy when we were shopping for glasses frames at the mall.

The official 30 day mourning period for the King ended, so now it's slightly more okay to wear color, but a lot of people are still wearing black, and many are still wearing black ribbons or armbands.  The Nichada Loy Krathong event went on, but without music and generally more subdued.  Vivian really wanted to float her krathong, and Young wanted to go, so the two of them rode their bikes over to the lake together to put the krathongs in.  

Vivian also had a lot of fun activities at school, including her Girl Scout Lock In 

and International Day, where I helped out in the 3rd grade U.S. room.  My activity was telling the students about five places you could visit in D.C. and then letting them vote for their top choice.  Vivian said it was the best activity, and not just because I was running it ;-)

I think the kids mostly loved going into the "voting booth."  Vivian had lots of fun school activities after Thanksgiving as well.  In December, the school does Celebrations of Learning in P.E. and in the regular classrooms.

Vivian's class wore green this year for the P.E. COL.  For her class celebration, she read her original poem entitled "Betrayed" in which she takes Cinderella to task for betraying the prince who just wants to marry her.  Vivian has become quite a writer.  She participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time this year and met her 3000 word goal with a story about mermaids and a bad guy stargazer.  It is very dramatic.

The school also had a really exciting author/illustrator visit with Jennifer and Matthew Holm.  They gave a great talk for parents on the history and current roles of graphic novels, and they met with the students in small and "large" groups to talk about their work.  The largest group Vivian was in was her class.  She got lots of opportunities to talk with both Jennifer and Matt about how they do what they do.  It was awesome.

I love Jennifer Holm's book Turtle in Paradise, so I had to get in on the action too.

Matthew Holm decorated one of the chalkboard walls at the school too, so after basketball practice on Saturday Viv and I stopped by to get a picture of her with Sunny from Sunny Side Up, her favorite book by them.

She's also holding her half eaten banana waffle, her special after basketball treat.  The girls' life here is so great.  We're excited about our next post, but this one will be tough to leave.