Feliz Dia de Reyes

Leaving the scene of her latest crime while screaming like a banshee.

Baby S awoke to this sight this morning and something tells me that we might have caused our daughter's first sense of deja vu. Check out how our tree Angel kind of looks like it has a really bad hangover. It's been like that since Christmas but P did not want to fix it or remove it. He says that the Angel lives dangerously and fits right in this family. I love the way he thinks.

OK, let me get this straight, these are ALL mine? Oh, Santa Claus visits on December 25, then the Three Kings visit a selected part of the world's population on January 6. Mama, isn't Baba half Jewish? There has to be some gift giving holiday in there as well.

When I was doing forensic interviewing, we used Chevron toy cars to qualify (assess knowledge of colors, prepositions, numbers, etc.) the children. I am not a toy person, but those cars became one of my favorite toys. We purchased the Jeep and RV during our last trip to Southern California in October 2007. I purchased the red convertible during my last work trip to the Bay Area. I never thought that they would be a big deal for Baby S, but our girl is currently obsessed with cars, or what she calls them, "vroom vrooms."

Baby S really liked this toy and I'm kicking myself for not opening it sooner.

She is holding the car wash part and quickly figured out that by placing a block through an opening she would be rewarded with the sound of water (one of her favorite things in the world).

Another hit, and it does not surprise us because if it has lights and sounds Baby S is all over it.

Baby S only opened half of her toys and she was out. We are going to let her set the pace for the rest, because she was clearly overwhelmed. BTW, we usually celebrate Dia de Reyes by giving each other something small. The idea in celebrating this Holiday is to keep part of my culture alive through our children. However, we REALLY needed to get those presents from past Christmas out and organized. We still have to mail JJ's present, and I should be able to get that out tomorrow.

The best thing about today is that I can finally get rid of the Christmas tree. I was ready to get rid of it on December 26, but a very miffed P reminded me that ever since we have been a family, the tree stays up until DDR. It was rather insensitive on my part not to remember that, being Baby S's first DDR and all. In my defense, I was just desperate to regain that part of my house. Our previous houses were larger and the tree was not in the way. We are planning to forgo our dining room table and use the area as Baby S's play area.

Let's see, she is not even 20 lbs., and is barely 30 inches tall, but she has her room, her bathroom, half of our room, the living room, and now the dining room. Maybe P and I should move our bed to the garage and allow her to take over the master bedroom as well. :)