The Princess-Dooper Hero-ArtistClaira has many interests. But almost every single day you can find her pulling out a sheet of paper or a coloring book and "caw-ring". She is really good! For awhile her people...looked like a perfect drawing of a spider :) What I'm surprised with the most is how fast her 'style' in drawing is changing and improving! Oh yeah, and other times she flying around the house saying "No, I not Crare-ah. I DOOPER HERO!"
At Grandparents house we had a major paint-a-thon. We went to Michael's and bought all the 23 cent ceramics they had. Carissa and I paint stakingly painted 2 Christmas village cottages. This year I'm starting a tradition with them of building a Christmas village, adding pieces each season. Already in it's first year it's a nice piece of property! I'll have to load a photo soon.
This year's Santa photo was not as dramatic as last year. Although this time Claira's screaming was because she had to put on that beautiful fancy dress. But later on in the night she was loving the dress and twirling around. Ellia looked absolutely gorgeous in her soft red sweater dress & her red pants are the same satin ones from last year! Skinny minny.
This year a mom of Ellia's school friend invited us on their family's Christmas tradition of taking an old train (in Santa Clarita Valley) to a tree farm and cutting down your own tree! How quaint I thought. It was beautiful weather & the train ride was lots of fun, Santa strolled through. The tree farm was really organized and had tons to choose from. It was fun picking out our own. I knew we needed a small one. Unfortunately I was so concentrated on height I didn't pay attention to the tree trunk I'd be needing to cut through! After photos and videos and much documentation of this quaint throw-back tradition-we set about actually trying to cut the thing. Ellia and I tried our hardest. I realized I also chose to cut in the worst spot: a knot! Her friend's father helped me cut a lot of the trunk then I got the glory of knocking it down. You can't beat the smell of those freshly cut trees! And now it's sitting on our porch & the scent greets me every day!
Mommy & Me DayEllia has been needing some time on her own lately and/or time with just a parent and no sibling to wheel and deal with. It's another facet to this huge age of 5 that is definitely the starting point toward the onwards & upwards ages. She is older now & more importantly, wants to be older (or at least be all that 5 is supposed to be in her head) Before the age of 5, Ellia was just thankful for when Claira was old enough to do things with her. And their age combination always had common ground. It still does today, it's just that age 5 brings with it this sense that "I'm older and you're not." Ellia now wants the feeling of things that she can do but Claira maybe cannot. So the morning her 2nd tooth fell out, she said she wanted to stay home and rest. She knew that a few days prior I had stayed home with Claira, just the two of us, when she was sick. It definitely stuck in her head as something she wanted for herself. I figured, well I don't have to work today & time flies by so fast. I don't want to regret not slowing down to feel her life & experience who she is right on that day.
I take tons of photos and videos of them & one of my biggest regrets as time has flown is not getting in enough of them. A friend of mine has a blog and I notice that she has a good amount of photos of herself, hugging and squeezing and loving on her babies. When I see her photos I know they are going to be great time capsules for not only her but also for her children. I can imagine her daughter will look back and say "Mom! You were a looker!" In this photo Ellia wanted to look off from the camera and stare so I did the same thing. We were going for the "I'm too cool to look at the camera" album cover shot. ;)
This was an impromptu stop at the Cerritos Sculpture Garden when we were on our way to pick up Claira. Ellia loved that we carved out another moment for just the two of us. She, of course, wanted to play "Baby" and to play "Doggie". These are the two activity requests I get from the girls every single day. Here's how you play & listen carefully because it's so very complex: "Baby" = Ellia puts her head in my shirt and pretends that she's not born yet. Claira curls up into an egg and pretends she's a baby bird that's going to hatch. Claira hatches first & I peel the shells off her. She coos and makes her sweet, soft baby face. She starts flapping her wings. Then Claira's little sister is born. Ellia takes her head out and starts cooing and ga-ga-gooing. Then I'm supposed to teach them to crawl. They make it a few feet and then they fall flat on their tummies. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Eventually after I've repositioned them onto all fours they have learned to crawl. Then I have to teach them how to either walk or to fly off the cliff/bed."Doggie" = I'm supposed to be a little girl at the park with my Mommy and I see the little puppies. I ask the puppies "No leash? Where's your owner Doggie?" Then I'm supposed to ask my Mommy "Mommy can we have a Doggie? It doesn't have an owner. Can we take it home?" Very much like "Baby" except that they are both Puppies and I lead them on a leash/bathrobe belt.
The Nature Girl
Much like her Mama, Claira is constantly scanning the ground for 'nature things'. Especially leading up to her birthday! But I'll always remember lugging the Christmas tree we cut down (Ok, maybe not lugging. The thing was a shrub at the most.) But I have an image in my head of looking back to make sure Claira was following us & she was still doing what she had been doing the entire time we were getting the tree: Kneeling quietly in the dirt finding/collecting little nature things. Her head bowed down concentrating and her arms craddled to her chest to hold as many tiny pebbles, tiny sticks, tiny flowers, etc as she can.
Here she is on a walk in our neighborhood (we were looking for twigs for her party). But whenever Claira sees flowers she absolutely has to pick them. And she always wants to make sure everyone is supplied with one to keep for themselves. So adorable cuz Ellia could care less if she's gonna get her fair share of flowers but Claira has to make sure. She usually exclaims "Loook! Boweeers...*gasp* MOOORE bowers!"
This is the day we stopped off at Frontier Park & during our visit I was blessed with the brilliant idea to have her birthday party there. We had fun in the dandelion patch. Claira literally would have picked every single one, methodically, if I hadn't stopped her.
There's a beautiful tree on a little hill and golden leaves spread about. The crisp grey sky. It made for a great portrait of my Nature Girl.
