Drawing pictures

She's finally at a point where she can draw a picture and it has some resemblance of a thing... here she has drawn a picture of me. Glad to see she has me with a smile on my face. Thought this would be good for a few laughs. (By the way, the circle in the middle of me is my belly button.) OH, and she says that girls have eyelashes, boys don't. So I'm definitely a girl.

More fun with video - the dancing diva

I had so much fun with this. She was goofing off at my mother's house and I decided that I'd put it to some music. Nothing special - just a cute and fun video. Hope this puts a smile on your face for the day.

And by the way - the music ROCKS!

Christmas from the eyes of a child

Christmas had become, over the years, a day that was pretty much like any other day of the year for us, except that we didn't have to work. But it wasn't exactly special in any way that made me really look forward to it.

After we had adopted our daughter, it came alive again. To hear our daughter singing Christmas songs (even if the words coming out of her 3 year old mouth weren't exactly right) was so much fun. And she wanted me to sing them for her so she could learn. It held magic for her... and in the end it held magic for me.

I remember the day care she attends used to have a gentleman come in to the daycare dressed as Santa (he had his own nicely trimmed white beard - so if there was to be any checking out if it was real... it would be real). A good friend of ours was at the daycare dropping off her little girl when Santa showed up... and she related what happened.

Santa walked into the daycare in the section with the 1-2 year olds, and Kenzie just about hyperventilated... she could hardly talk she was so excited, and kept saying "Santa! Santa!"

As soon as he sat down, she crawled right up in his lap. When he put her down and picked up the next child, she crawled right back up in his lap. She was not going to be denied any time with this magical person. The daycare personnel got the biggist kick out of her... and when Santa was going to leave, she wanted him to pick her up and hold her.

She was so cute at that early age. I dearly love the fact that now she is so verbal she can tell us what is on her mind and how she feels. And sometimes, what comes out of her mouth is hilarious. Such as when she was helping her daddy open up his present and blurted out "A massager, Mama!" I think she was happier to see this than her daddy was.

I wanted to share a composite of her Christmases from the last 3 years. I hope you will enjoy seeing how much she has grown. It isn't necessarily in chronological order, just to warn you.

The Multicultural Festival

Our fair city has a Multicultural Festival every fall. On October 1st, we went to the complex where they were holding it. We always like going to this festival, especially to hear the different musical pieces.

Here is a demo of martial arts from China.































Here we were sitting down and resting. It was hot that day - in the 80's. Indian Summer has come and on that day, we were sweltering, except in the shade where a nice breeze would cool you off. Unfortunately, it was nothing but asphalt where all the events were taking place, so the ambient heat was increased by the radiant heat... or something like that. Gee, I almost sound smart...

Here is Kenzie playing with a Chinese yo-yo. Well, that's what I've heard them called. She was good at it - Mommy just made a mess of it every time I tried to "throw" it.




















Here she is listening to - and loving - a type of African music and dance that was imported to South America with the Portuguese slave trade. (I have forgotten what it was called - if I find the paperwork on it, I'll change this post and put the correct name for it here.) Surprise, Kenzie really LOVED this. It also incorporated a type of "dance" that involved martial arts. She began beating her balloon with the yo-yo like it was a drum, "playing" along with the musicians.




































They asked that they get volunteers to come up and form a circle. The group was to clap their hands and to sing a musical phrase after every time the one singer sang something. Then they got up and walked in a circle , stopped and watched the martial arts dancing. Kenzie just had to participate - she couldn't wait to get up and join in the group.























Of course, instead of clapping, she was making her yo-yo work. I think she might have been trying to imitate the way they have held teh musical instruments here... She has her own style, and she follows no one. I really love that about her. Probably until she is 12 and begins to think she knows it all... and then "her own style" will drive me crazy.






The last event of the day involved group dancing to Eastern European music. Again, she just had to join in. She got the biggest kick out of "dancing" with the group. The smile she has is worth a thousand hot days in the sun.


I'm looking forward to next year's event. I think Kenzie will enjoy participating in more dances as she gets older.