And so Yaya is now 55 months old. Five more months before her first half decade!
[[image:2013-yaya55month-05.jpg:Let’s make orange juice!:center:0]]
* Mouse over the pictures for captions
Food status: no change. Although I did catch her tasting one of her own boogers, and she almost tasted a strawberry ice lolly. I did not however, reward her with a new toy for the little booger stunt. A small win: she ate pizza by picking it up and biting into it like a regular person (like Peppa Pig, apparently). Normally we have to cut the slice up into little fork-sized pieces. God forbid that the child gets her hands dirty in order to eat! We felt that having her handle her food with her own hands was a big win though. Also, Yaya has been helping Papa squeeze oranges and tangerines into juice. Sadly she will not taste the fruits of her own labor, preferring to drink her “favorite” orange juice (which is Simply Orange OJ).
We started traveling for work again this month – Yaya took to it like the seasoned traveler that she is. It’s really great that we don’t worry about long trips with regard to Yaya. It was really cool – when we went back through the same route back to New Jersey, we go through some tunnels on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Even though it has been almost 15 months since we last made this journey, she counted down and yelled “TUNNEL!!!!” when we went through the tunnels, just like she used to. It is amazing how much Yaya retains and how good her memory is.
This past month she has been very obsessed with coloring. I print (free) coloring pages off of the web for her favorite cartoon characters and that can really occupy her time. She colors with crayons, markers and color pencils although access to her art supplies can sometimes be limited when Adik is running around. Road trips are a combination of naps, conversations, and her entertaining herself with coloring or artwork, or “the big thing” (the iPad). It’s really great and definitely something we are very thankful about. Let’s hope that Adik wil learn from his big sister and become just as good a traveler!
Yaya’s art classes are now over (poor Yaya) so we will have to find her a new class to attend. I would love to sign her up for a multi-media art class where they might do painting, pottery and other things. The class she just had was a drawing class. It would have been nice to expose her to more things than we can organize at home, but most of the classes are offered for kids older than 6 so we took our only option. This month Yaya has been working with Play-Doh. She doesn’t like to just make the things (like burgers, or spaghetti, or whatever else that we have molds for). She’s been making these colorful penguins, using a penguin cutter and her own creativity. She makes colorful penguins with eyes, and different body patterns and such. She certainly is able to do more with play-doh without using the tools that come with it, than I could! I remember making lots of plasticine worms and snakes but anything more than that was kind of beyond me. It is awesome how creative Yaya is, and how independent she is too! I was always (still am) a rule obeyer and would stick to doing things the way it’s supposed to be done. Yaya just wants to do her own thing and see what interesting things she can come up with.
Regarding bedtimes – Yaya has started wearing 2-piece ‘jamas! So far, she has stuck to 2-piece ‘jamas that are still footed (don’t ask – I had to scour the web to get her these) but hopefully this means she will eventually transition into regular ‘jamas. Wish us luck!
Yaya and Adik are definitely having an awesome time together. Yaya gets overly excited and is always on the verge of going overboard, risking Adik’s life and limb. But they do enjoy playing together and running around, laughing. Definitely one of the best things in life for us all. I hope they keep getting along well and keeping each other company, occupied, and out of trouble.
Anyway, let’s get to the pictures:
[[image:2013-yaya55month-02.jpg:Poor under-the-weather Yaya:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya55month-03.jpg:Let’s ride the scooter! (Isn’t she just way too big for it now?):center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya55month-06.jpg:Yaya is amazing at Play-Doh:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya55month-08.jpg:Let’s play!:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya55month-09.jpg:Pouting when she doesn’t get her way:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya55month-10.jpg:Digging for gold:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya55month-15.jpg:Close up with slight “got milk” moustache:center:0]]
Yaya made some silly faces for the camera:
[[image:2013-yaya55month-11.jpg:Sillyyyyyyyy Yaya!:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya55month-12.jpg:Blablablablabla:center:0]]
Here are a few of my favorite shots of Yaya and her brother:
[[image:2013-yaya55month-01.jpg:No Adik, I’m playing with the big thing!:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya55month-04.jpg:Something is apparently very intriguing off-camera:center:0]]
[[image:2013-yaya55month-07.jpg:Where could they possibly think they’re going in the suitcase?:center:0]]
And here’s one with Papa:
[[image:2013-yaya55month-13.jpg:Morning chit-chat with Papa:center:0]]
Thank you for a wonderful and fun month, little girl! Happy 55 month birthday, baby girl! We love you!
[[image:2013-yaya55month-14.jpg:Casually relaxed Yaya says see you next month!:center:0]]
