Helaina's newest favorite movie

Well, if you know who this Disney Princess dressed in yellow is, you'll know Helaina's newest movie obsession. She's Belle from Disney's Beauty & the Beast. It was on TV Thanksgiving night so we taped it and Helaina has been mesmerized ever since. She loves everything about the movie, every character from Beast to the little teacup Chip. She especially loves the end of the movie where Beast is magically transformed into the prince. The first time Helaina saw the end of the movie it was a little iffy for her. The scene where Beast "dies" with Belle hovering over him is actually quite intense for a 4-year old.

We found lots of Beauty & the Beast clips on You Tube and this is Helaina's favorite - the ending. The first time we watched the entire movie I was so engrossed in the end myself that I forgot Helaina was watching for the first time too. After bad-guy Gaston stabs Beast things get intense quickly. As Beast is fading away he tells Belle that he's glad he got to see her one last time (this is where I started crying), then Belle pleads with him not to leave her and she professes her love for him (boo hoo some more). Finally I snap back into reality and realize that Helaina's seeing this for the first time. Just as I'm turning to her to explain that Beast doesn't really die, she turns to me, starts to whimper and I see that she has tears running down her cheeks! I put her on my lap and explain that Beast doesn't really die. As she's wiping away her tears, Beast begins his transformation into the Prince. Helaina starts clapping and squealing and all is well again with the world. Phewww!

Helaina's Beast imitation. "He just cranky, Mommy."

Fighting with bad-guy Gaston. Every time Helaina sees Gaston fall off the cliff into oblivion she says "Bye bye to him." - every time.

"At least I got to see you one last time." (cry, sob)

"Don't leave me now. I love you." (cry, sob some more - me though, not Helaina). Helaina will explain to you how Belle had to tell Beast she loved him before the last petal fell off the magic rose.

With Beast's transformation into the Prince complete, Helaina jumps for joy up and down in front of the TV - again, every time!

Yah, I'll have to start looking for a few Beauty & the Beast items to go under our Christmas tree. Luckily there is enough Disney Princess stuff in stores to fill an entire castle. Jim told me that he picked up a Lenox Belle Christmas ornament at Macy's for Helaina - good stocking stuffer for Christmas Eve. But who knows, maybe by Christmas Helaina will have a new favorite movie she adores!

Happy Birthday, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Tree Lighting & Happy Shopping

Happy birthday to me - although you'd think it was Helaina's - my little helper with blowing out candles and opening gifts. This year my birthday fell the day before Thanksgiving so I had a "working" birthday that included housework and food prep. Too tired at the end of the day to go out (and who wants to go out to eat the night before Thanksgiving), so we had a pizza and cake that Helaina & Jim got for me at Wegmans.

Another birthday celebration with family on Thanksgiving. That's a gazillion-pound raspberry cheesecake from Big Momma's that Jim got for me - at my request! It's the first time we tried this specialty cheesecake shop and it won't be the last. Yummy, creamy, smooth raspberrylicious!

The night after Thanksgiving is traditionally the tree-lighting ceremony downtown and we always take Helaina. It was cold and windy but we bundled up and braved the weather. The Rescue Mission always sells bells for the kids to ring. Jim bought one for Helaina and she was excitedly jumping and shrieking waiting for her bell. The woman selling them said to her "Ahhh, you're so cute you can have two of them!" so Helaina was a double bell ringer in the crowd.

Counting down to the big moment - ten, nine, eight, seven ....

... 3, 2, 1 - lights, a smile on her face and an oooo and an ahhhh.

It is pretty impressive each year.

We ventured out a little on Black Friday and then on Saturday to do some shopping. These pictures were taken Saturday with Helaina on the carousel and then seeing Santa for the 2nd time this year. She went right up to Santa but seemed a little shy while talking to him - did I say Helaina seemed shy??!!

And oh yah, Anna has some exciting news to share - she's going to be a big sister next year. Beth is expecting her second child around 4th of July. I wonder if this baby will have the same mop of unruly curls that Anna has!

Funny Helaina:

One night last week while I was giving Helaina her bath she kept taking the wet washcloth and sticking it to her chest. Then she got a silly smirk on her face and kept saying "my bwat" - or so I thought. Finally I said to her "I don't understand what you're saying - my bwat, is that it?" Her reply: "Yup, my bwat, my bwat. You know that white thing that holds your boobies!" "Oh (I said laughing hysterically), you mean my bra!" Yah, that's right. Too funny.

Thoughtful Helaina

One of Helaina's homework assignments (yes, there is occasional homework in pre-k!) was to write down something that she would give to a child less fortunate than her. One of their units this month is (obviously) on Thanksgiving and they've been talking about what they are thankful for and how some children in the world are not as blessed as they are. In preparation for her assignment we explained to Helaina how some children don't have lots of toys to play with or warm clothes to wear in cold weather, and may even not have enough food to eat. We talked about when she was in China with her nanny's how she had to share toys & clothes and how she didn't have a bedroom to herself. She listened intently to us and then thought a few moments before she decided what a child may need:

Spaghettios! Too funny.

One night last week we lost power at about 8:00pm. It went out twice within 15 minutes but came back on after a few minutes. Then at 8:30 it went out and stayed out so I called Grid to see what was going on. I was told there were substation problems and the power would be back on by 11:30pm. Uh oh. Helaina's not a big fan of power outages and it was close to her bedtime. I knew for certain that she wouldn't fall asleep in her room if her nightlight and ceiling fan weren't on. We got out the candles, flashlights and a lantern and tried to make it fun but she was acting a bit leary about the whole situation. At one point her and Jim were sitting on the couch and she said "Daddy, can you put the TV on?" How funny is that, as Jim explained to her that the TV was also one of the things that wouldn't work with the power out. At 9:00 I was thinking to myself that Jim and I were most likely going to have company in our bed that night when thankfully the power came back on.

You would have thought that Helaina had been given the best gift. She started clapping, shrieking, stomping her feet and yelling "Yaahhh! The lights are back on! The lights are back on!" All was well again in her little universe and she went to bed with a smile on her face.

Cookie baking time

Helaina and I made cutout cookies this morning for Thanksgiving. I could have saved some time and just rolled Helaina in flour and confectioners sugar - the mess would have been much quicker, yikes. She had fun, though.

Using the cookie cutters was fun ...

... but her favorite part was decorating. We took our yummy white buttercream frosting, separated it into five bowls then had at it with the food coloring. I dropped in the color and Helaina swirled it up. She loved decorating the cookies with sprinkles, colored sugar, mini m&m's and mini chocolate chips. Two m&m's for the cookie, ten m&m's for her mouth.

This evening we attended a Families With Children From China dinner and auction. Helaina had fun seeing her buddies and running around like a nut. We had an authentic home-cooked Chinese dinner and Helaina was obsessed about eating with chopsticks. That ended pretty quickly though when she couldn't get the food in her mouth fast enough.

We thought the fortune in her fortune cookie was right on spot!

Very cool school project - Helaina's teachers helped the kids make portraits last week. By the looks of the pictures I think the teachers did most of the work. Helaina said the kids helped out with some of the painting. She had braids that day with red rubber bands in them, just like in the picture!

Some of Helaina's class paintings hanging in the hallway at school.

Strong Museum of Play

Jim took Friday off and we headed down the thruway for our yearly trip to the Strong Museum of Play. Helaina loves it there and can run around and be as loud as she wants to - for hours. First stop, Sesame Street, sitting on the famous steps.

Next stop, Elmo's World.

On TV with Abby Cadabby.

This little theater area had a dressing room and costumes, but Helaina loved opening the curtain and stepping out onto the stage. Jim operated the lights and spot-lighted them onto Helaina as soon as she stepped out.

The Strong Express train, a must every time we visit. This is the first year Helaina wanted to ride by herself so Jim didn't have to squeeze himself into the tiny train.

The favorite of every kid at the museum is the kid-sized Wegmans. Grap a shopping cart, select your items, then check yourself out using the pint-sized scanners and registers. Too funny.

Jim was so proud of Helaina doing her weather report (anyone who knows my husband knows of his obsession with everything weather-related).

Meteorologist Jim at his dream job.

Helaina operating the giant.

Oversized magnetic Mr. Potato Head.

The last thing Helaina does is the carousel ride on the way out. This time she chose to sit in a swirly tea cup type thing instead of a horse, go figure.

Funny Helaina:

While I was making dinner tonight Helaina and Jim were in the family room watching TV. The SU football game was on and Helaina had been "tolerating" it for quite a while. I kept waiting to hear her protest and ask for the channel to be changed when all of a sudden I heard her say "He tackled him." I couldn't believe what I heard. Now she's learning football plays and I'm sure Jim was quite proud.

Speaking of proud, Helaina had her flu shot the other day. She fussed and fumed a bit, cried a little but then got over it. At home when we were removing the bandaid she said to me "I didn't cry a lot. Were you crowd of me?" "Crowd" of me, ha. She was trying to think of the word proud. And yes, Helaina, I was very crowd of you!

Polka dot Tuesday

Helaina selected her outfit for school on Tuesday. She has some new shirts that she really loves and she wanted polka dots on top of polka dots that day. When I "gently" mentioned to her that there was somewhat of a clash and that the top and bottoms didn't match too well she told me "It ok, Mommy. They all polka dots." So she went to school dressed as a polka dot explosion - gotta let a gal express herself.

She's got a look on her face that almost says "Yah, go ahead, tell me that my outfit doesn't match and see what happens!"

This is what happens when an active 4-year old no longer takes "official" naps - asleep on the couch waiting for dinner to be ready.

But, after a bowl of macaroni drenched in parmesan cheese Helaina's 2nd wind takes hold. Dancing to the Fresh Beat Band - her absolute favorite music band - wearing her pink Kiki skirt under a Target tutu dress. I call Helaina a tomboy in a tutu lately - tough gal and a girly girl all rolled into one.

Helaina knows all the dance moves to all the Fresh Beat songs. She is a hoot to watch as she goes through the motions and plays her home-made "drums" and her Backyardigan's guitar, just like Kiki and Marina.

The Squishing of the Squash

We went to the zoo Saturday morning to attend the annual "Squishing of the Squash". Certain animals get pumpkins to squash, eat, play with - or attack, like the lions did. We were most interested in the elephants, of course. The 3 girls (Siri, Romani and Karina) all paraded out into their enclosure holding tails, so cute ...

... then they posed, so adorable ...

... then they had at it.

It was a blast to watch. Each elephant had a different technique - stomping on it, mouthing it or poking at it with their trunks. Romani, the youngest, seemed the most interested for the longest amount of time. At one point she picked up a giant piece with her trunk, put it in her mouth and held it there, finally dropping it when she realized it was way to big to chew on.

It was so entertaining watching them. This was the first time we attended the "squash squishing" event and it was worth the trip.

The lions were funny too. Their pumpkins were coated with peppermint scented oil. 3 pumpkins were already in place in their enclosure as we waited for them to be let out. This female saw the pumpkin immediately, ran right at it and pounced on it.

The male wasn't very interested in his - he's just too darn cool to play with a pumpkin!

The barn animals enjoyed their pumpkins.

This wolf obviously ripped his apart and then, uuhhmm, did a pee pee in it! Helaina thought that was funny. "He shouldn't potty in his pumpkin!"

Even the meerkats and the gross-looking, hairless, blind, white-skinned moles (eewww) had tiny pumpkins to nibble on.

The cafe even had frosted pumpkin cookies for sale - key word here for Helaina being "frosted".

No trip to the zoo is complete without squatting on the miniature iron elephant. Helaina's beloved elephant Siri came to the zoo with us.

Our little penguin faced beauty.

There was even underwater pumpkin carving in the penguin pool.

Saturday night we celebrated Aunt Cynthia's birthday.

Helaina was tired and wound up so I gave her the camera and had her snap some pictures. I had to delete about 25 photos she took but a few were ok - like this one of Jim and Uncle Jack.