The countdown is on! The girl is two months away from her fourth birthday! Woohooo!
[[image:2012-yaya46month-01.jpg:Purple flowers:center:0]]
It has been an action-packed month, since Vin’s sister Jo was here for over two weeks. (More on that later)
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
I won’t go into the details of all the goings-on while Jo was here (stay tuned for that), but it’s been a busy month! Yaya keeps getting bigger and saying funnier things. I just don’t believe she used to be as small as her little brother! Little Miss Pot-pet (chatterbox) will talk your ears off, it’s hard to believe that she didn’t even speak until she was 27 months old!
Food status: still no change. What can we say? She does seem healthy enough. Bananas, toast, butter, and lots of whole milk (with a dash of chocolate soy milk) seems to be working for her. She does like her frozen mangos, digestive cookies, sour cream & onion potato chips with pizza and fries occasionally. I guess that’s sort of variety. Maybe I should try to capitalize on colors. Red is her favorite color, so maybe if i presented red food to her (red apples, pasta in tomato sauce, etc.) maybe she’ll agree to try it? We’ll see. She still says she’ll try stuff when she’s four so maybe we start there?
Potty training status:we have been mostly diaper-free at nights for the past 2 weeks or so! Woohoo!It all started in the hotel in Indiana, where she slept on the bed with us in a long sleeve pajama top and no diaper. She’s adjusted well! She goes potty before going to bed, and gets up in the middle of night to potty if she has to go. So far, no accidents, alhamdulillah! Here’s hoping this continues!
Princess and fairy phase: Yaya has incorporated a princess and a fairy role in her multitude of role-playing. The costumes seem identical to me (perhaps minor footwear differences, if that?), take a look:
[[image:2012-yaya46month-08.jpg:Fairy zoning out:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya46month-09.jpg:Princess Yaya and her little brother:center:0]]
So still lots of role-playing and play acting, complete with costume changes. Yaya included her Auntie Jo in all of the games as well – so everyone always had a role and was clear on how to play it! These days she prefers to be the girl version of the character that she’s playing, e.g. “Girl Pocoyo” or “Curious Georgina” and she adjusts her costume to account for the gender change. For example, Girl Pocoyo wears the footed jammies, hat with flaps and a dress over the jammies (always a conversation starter!).
While Jo was here, we travelled around to see family members, and road trips in the car means music. It’s always fun to drive around and hear Yaya singing along with Elton John to Benny and the Jets or Yellow Brick Road. The girl is better at picking up lyrics than I am! Not as much artwork this month as Bossy Boots Yaya was having way too much fun directing Auntie Jo around in her games.
Yaya’s adjustment to being a big sister is getting better and better. She always includes Adik in all her games and she still is (overly) affectionate towards him. It’s nice that Adik is starting to be old enough to want to try to play with her so he’s always laughing and smiling at Yaya. We have not seen “little girl baby” anywhere this past month! Yay!!
The following is a collection of photos taken in the past month – mostly in Indiana. I tried to pick only the ones of her by herself and will include the group pictures taken during Jo’s visit in a separate entry.
[[image:2012-yaya46month-02.jpg:Yaya and an elk in Elkhart:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya46month-06.jpg:Hey, who painted this elk?:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya46month-04.jpg:Pet the Mama Bear:center:0]]
Yaya was going to hug the Mama and baby bears, but the metal was too hot in the sun.
[[image:2012-yaya46month-03.jpg:Amongst the flowers:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya46month-10.jpg:Sitting by a creek (don’t jump in, Yaya!):center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya46month-05.jpg:One of my absolute favorite shots:center:0]]
[[image:2012-yaya46month-07.jpg:Trying to sit like a lady in her new sparkly dress and matching shoes:center:0]]
It’s been yet another amazing month. Yaya, you are a good girl and a great big sister, and we’re proud of you! You’ve come a long way! Happy birthday, baby girl! We love you!!
[[image:2012-yaya46month-11.jpg:Arrrr mateys! Time to walk the plank!:center:0]]
