Happy New Year

Sophia and I rocked in the New Year with the east coast at our friends' house here in town. Since we all have kids now, the party started in the five o'clock hour and lasted until a little after nine. I sipped sparkling wine while Sophia ran around with the big kids, we ate pizza, watched the ball drop and loaded up into the car to drive the five minute drive back to our house. It was a fun evening with friends - the only person missing was Franco (who was at work in Cabo San Lucas).

Here we are when we first got there, so Sophia was sure to cooperate:


I love her "cheese" face. Why does she close her eyes?

Santa Claus Came to Town

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. This was the first year that I'd say that Sophia was really into Santa, so we enjoyed putting out cookies, milk and reindeer snacks. She was excited to get goodies in her stocking (it's amazing that she isn't hounding us to eat the chocolate) and get that "blue camera" that she requested. Our family and friends were SO generous and gave her so many wonderful gifts. Sophia is seriously spoiled, and there is no doubt about it. Luckily she still doesn't expect it and is a gracious gift receiver. She loves all of her toys and clothes and asks me to remind her all the time of who gave her a particular toy and tells me that we need to send a thank you because it is so nice. (We are still working on those.)

There are just too many pictures from the holiday to post here, so they are in our online photo album (just click on the flashing photos up in the corner of the page to go there). Franco was home and we visited with lots of family in a just a few days. Sophia came down with a cold, so she was a little uncomfortable, but she recovered pretty quickly and (miraculously) I was spared of this one.

Sophia's First Haircut

OK, it is not her actual "first haircut" but it is the first time I took her to the salon. We went to a kiddie place and it wasn't too bad. Next time I'll just make her an appointment with the lady that I see, though, because it didn't cost any less.


I had her take it a little bit shorter so the weight would stop pulling on Sophia's beautiful curls.

They give you a bag full of hair, a certificate and do it up cute with product and a flower. However, I did not appreciate the glitter gel that the lady put in without even asking.

More Christmas Crafts

Our second Christmas craft was making candy canes from beads and pipe cleaners. One of my girlfriends gave me the idea on her blog. Sophia did a really good job remembering the pattern. She made about six in all. Here is the one she gave to daddy:


And, of course, she hung it on the tree:

Fun stuff.

Surprise Lunch With Santa

We went to lunch to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday at a place called Shirasoni's Japanese Steakhouse. Don't ask me the exact name of the kind of Japanese cuisine it was, but it was the one where they put on a show on a big skillet in front of you. I liked it... it was interesting and the food wasn't bad. Sophia and Nadia ended up loving it because Santa showed up.

Who knew Santa had time to stop for lunch in Brentwood? We were planning to see Santa the following day at the mall for a nice picture for our Christmas card. However, since the big man came to us, we ended up getting a decent enough picture without going to the mall. Thank you Shirasoni Santa.

MyGym

Sophia goes to a parent participation class at MyGym once a week. She started just before Halloween. Sometimes we have a hard time getting out the door, but once she is there she has a great time.

She loves the ball pit. "Mama, bury me!"

Here she is at the end of circle time, right before they break for playtime:



Here she is at gymnastics time, swinging from one "island" to another on a rope:





Here she is at playtime again, swinging on an awesome swing:


I enjoy watching her so much and am so proud of how well behaved she is during class. She spends much of the afternoon after class asking me about the children in class who were not behaving. It is a mystery to her why they don't listen to their mommies.

Pardon the blurry pictures. I was using my phone to take pictures rather than disturb the class with flashes going off.

Santa Visit - Take One

Last year we could not find Santa when he visited our town and was forced to find him at the mall in Sacramento. This year I found a flyer saying that he would be visiting Toys R Us over the weekend, so we thought we'd drop by to say hi. Unfortunately, Santa was just making a quick visit so he did not bring the elves that set up a nice backdrop for pictures. All dressed up and standing in the middle of a store...

In order to brave standing next to a man that she hardly knows, Sophia brought along her friend Dumbo. Thank you to Dumbo for the moral support.