Still Enjoying the Bracelets

While Dani was playing this morning, I noticed the "Bryson", her puppy, and "Lamby" her sheep had bracelets around their ears. When I got around to playing with her, I thought it would be fun to use the rest of her bracelets on her other animals/toys for one of her pretend parties. She picked out which toys to use, and put the bracelets on each one. Notice that Alice only has a "crown" because her head was too big. This is probably one of her favorite pictures.

Bracelets

Last Thursday, I was putting on a bracelet my Mom made me that haven't worn in at least a year. Dani saw it and told me how beautiful it was.

Later that evening she told me again how beautiful my bracelets were and that she wanted a bracelet. I told her grandma could probably make her some and she demanded that we call grandma immediately. Unfortunately, this conversation happened fairly late at night and putting her to bed was more urgent than calling grandma.

A couple days later, she remembered my bracelet and reminded me that we needed to call grandma so she will make her a bracelet. She did not trust me that I had already called grandma while she was sleeping to let her know that Dani REALLY wanted a bracelet, she had to call herself. Jess answered and the first thing out of Dani's mouth was asking for a bracelet. Within a few days a package arrived in the mail from Grandma and Jessica. I loved her reaction to opening this present.

The day the package came Dani had been dressing up like Fancy Nancy with all her "accessories" and learned the word "gorgeous". The entire evening I heard her playing with her bracelets saying how "shiny" and "sparkly" they were, that they were "beautiful" and "gorgeous" and "lovely". She still gets excited putting them on and picking them out to wear to church or around the house.

Dani even cherishes the box they came in and she uses it to store her treasures. She loves to show off her bracelets to everyone she sees.

Thanks Mom and Jess! You made Dani a very happy little girl.

Alice's Story

At Aunt "Jessa's" suggestion, I decided to start a journal with Dani and ask her to help contribute in various ways. Today we wrote a story together. I will underline my additions that were used to help move the story along or clarify things.

Alice's Story

Once upon a time there was Alice hop hopping to my bed. Alice is a princess who likes to hop like a bunny. She found a monster in my room, a big, yellow, furry monster named Elsy Belsy. Alice ran to her house to hide in her kitchen. The monster was too big for Alice's house. So, he couldn't chase after her. Alice was mad at the monster because the monster took her bed suit and put it up on the basket. Alice was having a baby and the monster took her three babies. Alice asked Flamingo to get back her babies and get back her swim suit. Flamingo used her rope to catch the babies and her swim suit. Alice, Flamingo, and Ladybug used nets to catch the three swim suits. Flamingo and Ladybug changed the three babies into swim suits. Then, they changed the monster into a yellow swim suit, and they turned the pillows into a red swim suit. Bolt caught the babies and Alice's swim suit. He used his long nose to catch them. Everyone was happy.

The End

This pictures shows the main characters in Dani's story (Bolt, Ladybug made from a balloon, Alice, and Flamingo).

It is interesting to note that her characters often are pregnant and will at times have "tractions" (contractions). So Alice having babies was not surprising. You can see we are getting ready for August.

Art Mediums

Since we had so much fun drawing on my dry erase board, we've been trying out a different art medium for each week. Last week it was play dough. At first Dani was very gentle with the play dough. So much so, that the play dough did not even deform as she played with it. It took a while for her to become comfortable enough to break it into pieces. I really need to work on hand strength and letting her explore more.

We used "tools", like cookie cutters, a rolling pin, and a straw, which helped her explore it more. Dani loved to pretend to bake with the play dough, but she mostly requested that I create things, like this play dough version of our family.

This week we used chalk on the balcony and then squirt bottles to wash it off. Here is Dani dressed up in her favorite outfit.

Zarabella

This past weekend we have watched a little dog for a friend from church. Her name is Zarabella. This is a picture of our first visit with Zarabella. Dani brought her puppy "Bryson" along to visit too. Zarabella comes up to Dani's knees, so she is a fairly small and easy to manage dog.

Normally Dani is scared of dogs, and she was scared of Zarabella the first time she met her, but has since come to love her and loved visiting her. Zarabella is a fairly shy dog and will not approach Dani on her own, which makes it a lot easier for Dani to love her. She feels more in control with Zarabella than other dogs that come and greet her quickly. While Zarabella's family is out of town, she doesn't like to eat much. In fact, she would only eat if we hand fed her food from the fridge. Food left out does not get touched, no matter what the food is (hot dogs, cheese, peanut butter, mac n cheese etc). Dani's favorite part was feeding Zarabella, so in a way it was nice that she waited for us to get there to eat. Dani would put the hot dog chunk on the floor and say "eat it! eat it! Zarabella, eat it!". She got a kick out of it when Zarabella would take food out of her hand, but her squealing of excitement sometimes scared Zarabella into dropping the food.

Since this weekend, Dani has been much less afraid of dogs in general. She is not one to go up to a dog, but she will not scream if a dog is being held near her or comes within 3 feet of her without touching her.

Fourth of July Celebration

On Saturday the 3rd, our Ward had a breakfast in the courtyard of our building. Dani was all excited about being able to eat pancakes like in the book "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" by Laura Numeroff. During the readings and musical numbers, Dani ran through the grass with other toddlers.

That evening we got take out barbecue and had a picnic at a park near our condo. Dani love picking the clover flowers for Mom and eventually had a whole bouquet full.

It was a little overcast which made the picnic nice and cool, but not nearly as cold as last year's 4th of July. We were considering going to watch fireworks, but it started to rain and we still had church in the morning, so we decided we'd try the next evening.
We enjoyed our time at the park. It sure is nice to have Dad with us!