Graham Cracker Houses 2009

We made our graham cracker houses a little later this year than previous years. We had trouble trying to be more creative than last year. This is what we ended up with.

A nativity set A lighthouse with a boat and gummy bear sailor

Daniella's sayings

Dani decided that baby Jesus was hungry and needed to eat some of her sandwich.

A week ago on Sunday (20th) I was running late for sacrament meeting because of my primary duties. Dani was a little upset that I wasn't there yet. Nana was visiting and she decided to bribe Dani with chocolates to be reverent for the prayer. Dani was reverent during the prayer but as soon as it was over she shouted out "AMEN! MORE CHOCOLATE!".
This Sunday she did something similar, but it was in anticipation for the sacrament. We had already been served the bread and right after the next prayer she yells "AMEN! WATER NOW!" At least I know she likes being there.

On the way home from a birthday dinner last Monday, Dani was patting her Daddy's hand saying pat-a-cake. So Dad decided to help her finish the rhyme.

Dad: Pat-a-cake pat-a-cake, bakers man. Bake me a _

Dani: -cake. fast you can-

Dad: Pat it and-

Dani: roll it. mark it with D and throw it in the kitchen and bake cookies!

Christmas Party

Our Ward had a fun Ward Christmas party this weekend. We started by visiting Santa in the foyer. Though Dani was terrified of him again this year, she still talks about the gift he gave her.

Then we moved on to the gym to find a table. While waiting to eat there was a small room just to the side of the gym labelled "Santa's workshop" for kids to make graham cracker houses, or structures out of candy and toothpicks. We made a toothpick square and Dani ate it quickly.

Then everyone was invited to get their food and eat at the individually decorated tables. After everyone went to get their food the Primary kids sang, then an singing group, and then a dancing group performed excerpts from the nutcracker. Dani even tried to copy the motions by waving her arms and tapping her feet.

Afterwards a few people from the ward performed a couple special musical numbers. After the performances Dani decided to dance on stage like the "dancers" and "papa bear". It was nice to have such a child friendly party. She loved it and still talks about the dancers and the big bear.

Funny Saying

When Dani is going potty she says she is "pottleing". Then last night as we were walking to the car Dani saw a man smoking and then said "This man . . ." (she thought for a second and continued) "foggle-ing". We learned about fog about a month ago, I'm not sure I want to teach her about smoke.

Processing through play

The last few months Dani's play has been a representation of what she is learning. A couple weeks after Halloween (Nov 16) the nativity set was arranged as below. The wise men on the right are "trick or treating" and the angel is flying in an airplane to Texas. I have no idea what the cougar is doing or why Mary is walking away, this is just how she left it when she had to go to bed.


Then last night Dani was playing with her baby doll, Barbara. We overheard her saying "Bahbwah pee potty" and then a few seconds later using her comb and saying "wipe bahmin" and adding "Ahhh!" as if Barbara felt better.
I particularly thought it was funny how she created Barbara's toilet with the coaster holder and Tupperware. It is somewhat similar to Dani's little potty with a bowl that can be emptied.
For those who may wonder, no, I never did wipe her bottom with a comb and we are unfortunately not flying to Texas soon. Those were just part of Dani's creative additions.

October 18-24 Dressing up

Monday, Oct 19th we watched Dani's friend, Michael. Dani was very excited to show off every one of her toys. She then decided to get dressed up by wearing the strings from her bead set as a scarf and wearing our car wash mitt which we just got. She was very proud of this playful look.At one point this week I was stressed over something trivial and Dani just starts singing "happy family". It made me remember that we do have a happy family and that is what is important. She still says "happy family" almost everyday, especially when we are all together. This week I was in charge of the preschool/playgroup again. The focus I chose was pumpkins. We hid paper origami pumpkins, and tossed them in the air on a blanket, we opened a pumpkin, read pumpkin books, planted pumpkin seeds, and played "ring around the pumpkin" as well as a few other quick activities. If you are interested in the link for the playgroup blog, email me or leave me a note and I'll send you a link. Here are the 26 pumpkins I made. Each one has a letter of the alphabet on the bottom to match to a board. A few of them I accidentally made upside down.I attempted to get Dani to draw with shaving cream this week, but she wouldn't have it. She is very concerned about touching something that has texture that she is not allowed to lick of her fingers. As long as she can lick it, she will touch it. Otherwise, she will yell at me to wipe it off her hands.

This week Dani was using 3 word sentences more often. I also noticed that she is starting to use names more. Instead of just saying bye she said "bye Michael" and instead of just saying Thank You she said "Thank you daddy". When she knows she is going to be in trouble, she now says with a disappointed tone "Oh Dani!" because this is what I say when I see she has made a mess, or broken something. I didn't realize how often I said it until she starts using all day long.

After the pumpkin preschool/playgroup, I made pumpkin muffins from the little pumpkin we cut open and Trent carved our pumpkin for us. That night the bishop came to visit. I was grateful that the apartment was somewhat picked up after the busy day.

While we were waiting for Daddy to come home on Saturday, I decided to grab my Sarongs and make a fort. Dani enjoyed creating her own house between our couch and chair.


She used the small window as a door for the duck to go in and out of the house.


I decided to help her dress up with a sarong as well. I loved doing this type of thing as a kid. When we were supposed to be going to bed, my little sister, little brother and I would do a little fashion show by doctoring up our pajamas with belts, blankets, or t-shirt pulls (from the 80s). Dani insisted on having her "shirt" (washcloth) on during the pictures.
She then asked me to put more sarongs on her. This picture was taken as she realized Dad just walked through the door. Notice she is running toward him with a huge smile.

Halloween Week

I am so behind on the journal part of this blog. It will take me a while to catch up.

Sunday October 25 Daniella had lots of fun in nursery. It was the first week she participated with the activities and was very proud to make a book about Jesus. She told me all about the pictures she colored and what they meant after we left.

While browsing parent blogs and trying to figure out what to do with Dani, I found a way to make puzzles more challenging and entertaining. Dani only has two puzzles, and one of them has become very easy because it has the same picture underneath. To challenge her a little and add a new element to the puzzle, I traced the puzzle pieces onto a white piece of paper and added the names of the puzzle pieces (horse, cat, dog, cow etc) and had her put it onto this piece of paper in the correct place as she was taking them out of the puzzle. I was pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoyed this and being able to help her problem solve by using the first letters in the animal names to know where to put them.



This week we were studying the letter P. Unfortunately this was the last week I really put effort into a letter of the week. I really need to start back up just so she has more focused time again. She is much happier when I give her a little extra attention in teaching. Anyway, we played with pumpkins and made the letter P out of pumpkin seeds.

This was the first year I had Fall decorations.

Dani LOVED to play with the pumpkins and asked me to take pictures of her while she was playing.

She insisted on her animals being in the picture with her. Our jack-o-lantern was carved with an image of a cat which Daniella was very excited about. Here she is showing me the small pumpkin.


After creating a "house" last week with sarongs, Dani decided the space behind her glider was a house for her stuffed animals and she asked me to take a picture of her back there. She seemed really excited to have her picture taken this week.

That Friday we drove to "Albuturkey" and stayed in the "ho-tel". Halloween we went trick or treating with Trent's Aunt, Cousin and her children. Dani went up to the people and their cars and said "trick or treat" multiple times until she was acknowledged. She said "thank you" after every hand out and quickly was saying everything without being asked. She had lots of fun playing with her second cousin and ever since that night has been very interested in trick or treating. It was also lots of fun that Trent's brother, Scott, and his wife were able to come with us. I wish we could see family more often.