SHAKE THAT BOOTEE

One day I came home from Brammy's house and I had learned a new thing; how to shake my BOOTEE! Yeah! First I told Jenna, my teacher, when she was helping me use the bathroom. She thought it was really funny. Then I started doing it around the house, just to feel it out, see what kind of results I would get from mom and dad. The results were favorable, so now I do it everywhere and usually when I am excited. I have even perfected the bend of my butt, so that I can spank it while I shake it. It is definitely one of my best dance moves yet.

My New Camera

Santa Claus brought me some really great gifts and I have been having a blast perfecting my skills. My digital camera is the bomb, and I can take 60 pictures in about 2 minutes flat. Here is me and my family through my eyes. Pretty cool huh? My next step is figuring out how to record music to my movies with my new Barbie keyboard. Notice the fabulous chair that is just my size? I obviously was a very good girl this year.

My Newest Cuz

It's been a busy week with all the last minute shopping I've had to do to get ready for Christmas. And to top it all off, my new baby cousin Maddie arrived on December 23rd! She's so cute and tiny! She was even smaller than me and I was pretty small. She'll be big in no time and I can't wait to play peek-a-boo with her and sing songs and all that other good stuff.

Snow is White!

I woke up this morning and was paralyzed with amazement when I looked out the window. It was raining, but the rain was white! Dad told me it was snow. A little later I put on my warmest clothes (no gloves mind you- my mom hasn't bought me any yet!!) and Dad and I went into Central Park. We were some of the very few who ventured into the park. The playground was a virtual ghost yard. All the other kids were too afraid of the snow to come out to play. Not me of course.

By the way, for the 80's generation out there- don't I look like a young Madonna in the below shot?

Art Appreciation

I love to draw and I value fashion too. So much so that I often like to make myself into a piece de resistance. Or something like that. My sketchbook wasn't enough. When I have a pen in hand I am so given into the temptation of using myself as a canvas. Just one of my very few flaws.

Peppers and Drumstix

Thanksgiving was a long day and A LOT of food. For hors d' oeuvres I had red, yellow, and orange sweet peppers. Yum! I love peppers. I also drank a lot of water. My friend Heidi was there. I tried to share my peppers with her, but she doesn't like peppers, just stuffed peppers, and she says that she only likes the stuffing, not the pepper. Too bad for her. I'll eat her peppers. I love peppers. For dinner I ate meat, but I would only eat meat off the bone, so I ate the drumstix. That means I ate a lot of meat because a turkey leg is BIG. No messing around there. And I don't mess around.

Restaurant Entertainment

For those of you who don't know, my mom's numerologist told her that I have the same numbers as Martha Stewart, which is why I love to spend hours cleaning at school (and my teachers love me for it). I always fight it out with other students as to who gets to wash the dishes after lunch. I usually win.

Besides cleaning, I am also teaching myself about spices. I get the most practice when I go out to restaurants. At this particular restaurant I am making fabulous fresh pepper, garlic, salt, and dried arugala mix. My parents aren't bothered by my experimenting, because they don't have to clean it up or pay for it- you don't get charged for spice consumption when dining out and it keeps me occupied so that they can eat. Above is a picture at a yummy Italian restaurant in Chelsea. This is the first time we ate out as a family with the new baby. What fun.

Me and Baby Sister

I really love my baby sister. I like to put my face right up next to hers and give her kisses. I have been singing her songs, really loudly, right in her face too, just to make sure she hears them. I also like to share my food with her, I tried to feed her a cracker the other day, but mom got really upset, and I thought I was being so nice, sharing like a big sister should. It is a little confusing with my baby sister, because I am trying to be so nice to her and hanging out with her, but mom gets a little spastic when I do. I think mom is having some personal issues. Doesn't everyone just want to be loved?

Where's Waldo....uhm, Tassy?

With a new person in the family spitting up all the time, and having power blow-outs (no that isn't me anymore) we sure have a lot of laundry to do. We did seven loads of laundry over the weekend and boy was it a chore. I really like it though because I get to help dad and he gives me rides in the cart. Can you find me?

Me at Mohonk

About a week after Tula was born, we went to the Mohonk House for a long weekend to enjoy the fall foliage in the Adirondacks. It was great because I was able to hang out with Mimi and Pops a whole lot- I even got to sleep in their room. Pops always has gummy candies on hand, so I follow him around everywhere. I dig treats the most. Besides eating candy, I ate a lot of meat and noodles and corn. MMM, I love corn on the cob. I needed lots of food because I hiked a lot around Mohonk Lake and around the huge building- the long, wide hallways are great for running in (even though there are signs that say "Parents, don't let your kids run in the hallways."). I also was able to go on my first rowboat ride- don't I look smashing in my life vest?

I'm a Big Sister!

After waiting since January, I finally have a little sister! It is a pretty big event and I'm somewhat fragile right now, but it is neat to have a little baby around. She has really little fingers and toes and she sleeps all the time. I love to give her tisses on the cheek. I'm going to write more later because I want to hang out with my fam right now. You can see more pictures of Tula.

Breakfast with Aunties Laura and Nora

I am such a lucky little girl because I have two beautiful Aunts with rhyming names (and they both even look alike)! I went to brunch with them and had such a wonderful time because they both love me so much and are very attentive. I love them too. We talk and play and joke around, I couldn't be happier sitting between the two of them.

The Baby is Coming

I don't know when exactly the baby is coming, but mom says any day now. Mom was due on October 3rd, but her original due date was October 10th, so it's any body's guess as to when the baby will arrive. She went to the doctor's the other day to see how the baby was doing inside her belly and they told her it was about 8 and a half pounds. That's a big baby! I guess the baby is doing just fine and doesn't want to come out. I am somewhat ambivalent about the whole process, but I will be very excited to have a baby to play with. Mommy says that I am still her favorite daughter, but not for long. Pretty soon she will have two favorite daughters.

Getting the Angst Out

I've been learning so many new things recently and I've been a little stressed out about about the news that my little sister is arriving any day now so I've been finding different ways to get all my energy out (especially because I don't get to go to the playground very often). I've found that this works really well for me...(make sure your sound is on)

By the Way...

So my mom has been pregnant for the past nine months and it's been pretty rough for the last month especially. She doesn't take me to the park anymore because she can't chase after me. I also get yelled at for really stupid things, like throwing my food on the floor and spilling water everywhere and drawing on stuff, like the couch and walls. We still do fun stuff- like eating bananas together for breakfast, we just don't look as good doing it anymore. I hear it is going to get worse before it gets better- like no sleep for a couple of months when my baby sister does arrive. I am really excited about kissing her and giving her the pacie. Oh yeah, since mom transcribes my posts for me, this picture should explain why I have been AWOL recently.

Splashing in the Wawa

When I wasn't practicing my breath stroke, I was doing a lot of splashing in the pool. I had a lot of fun with my fellow mermaid Nora. We did a lot of swimming, kicking, splashing, and tanning together. She is still browner than I am, but she kind of cheated because she had tanning help pre-vacation and I didn't. Could you imagine me walking into NY Sun Club asking for 15 minutes in one of their beds?

Waterbug

Here is a great little video that shows me learning how to swim in a non-traditional kind of way...think Blue Lagoon, but with suits on. I love the wawa. "Swimming in the Wawa" is my new favorite ditty. My true Scorpio traits come out when I am around the water. On vacation one day I was in the wawa for three hours straight!

The Beach and Boardwalk

It has been a couple of weeks since I visited this fantasy land in Santa Cruz, but I still dream of the Big Macks. No, we're not talking meat here folks, but pint sized rigs that kids like me can drive around, and for only 75 cents!! The deal of a lifetime is what I call it.

There is some really great people watching around these parts. While walking down the main street of Santa Cruz, I have seen more piercings and tattoos that I have in my whole life. Don't believe it when they say that NYC has the most interesting people, because I live there and in my two weeks in this place I have seen more whack jobs that in my 2 years in New York. In NYC I have never seen anyone standing stalk still in the middle of the sidewalk, midsummer, wearing a pair of ski goggles looking like they are tuning in alien signals from another planet.

Just Call Me Ariel

Since my last swimming update, I have become the quintessential mermaid. Whenever someone is in the pool, then so am I. I can swim for hours on end, and it just isn't enough for me. I like to jump off the wall and kick my feet and splash; being in a pool is great fun. Too bad I didn't have a water birth- I think that I would have preferred it to the hospital birth. I think that I am a wonderful addition to any pool, so feel free to invite me to yours anytime (if you have one of course).

Drawing in Capitola

Whenever I go to a restaurant, I am handed crayons and told to draw while everyone else talks to each other and eats lots of food. I am given food, but if I make a peep, I am often shushed. If I want to run around it is even worse, because then I actually get strapped into my seat. But when I am really fed up and want to leave, all I have to do is scream and make a racket and I am immediately whisked out of the restaurant and on to other more important things in life. The picture above is the first time where I have cooperated and colored all by myself. Watch out Met, here I come.