First Recital

Vanessa unknowlingly performs all the time. She sings and dances and acts. The other day she broke out into song -- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star -- and when I went to get the video camera (which is usually wasted effort), she decided to give her first singing recital.

Prima Donna

Vanessa is all toddler these days. Lots of "No!" and "I can do it all by myself!" with splashes of "Don't do that!" Like any egocentric toddler, she's very concerned with her own needs and ideas. At times it's very enjoyable to watch. On the flipside, when I'm tired, it can be challenging. :)


Along with those fun toddler traits, though, Vanessa also loves to dress up. Santa brought lots of dress-up stuff for Christmas. It was one of the first gifts opened. "Super Vanessa" was created instantaneously. Super Vanessa used her impressive skills to open the rest of her gifts and to conform to our Christmas practices. Her strength to pull and push and "try real hard" increased substantially.

Santa also brought princess stuff. She describes her dresses as "beautiful princess dresses" and loves putting them on.

You may notice the star Vanessa is wearing in a couple of photos. Out of her many headbands that she'd often rather not wear, she loves this one because of the star. She seems to be really interested in stars recently -- she keeps trying to wear winter boots that no longer fit, only because they have shiny stars on them. We made buttery spritz cookies in the shape of stars, so perhaps that sparked her obsessive interest.

As seen in the evidence below, it's important at this time to begin to instill the importance of looking in the mirror to assess the results of dressing oneself. Here she's wearing a skirt as a dress and a tiara all cockeyed. If you look closely, her hands and parts of her face are stained royal blue from finger painting. No matter how disheveled her look might seem to many, she's assured it is perfect. Love her confidence!

And these days Vanessa loves to be naked all the time. She's gone through small stages of this before, but now, in very cold and often single-digit temps, she insists on staying naked ALL the time. Fortunately we've been staying indoors. And when I say naked, I mean butt naked -- no diaper or panties.

When playing one morning, Mommy was able to convince her to put on something. She chose a head piece and wore it as a skirt. My explanation for its intended purpose prompted a performance of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

She's fantastically five!

The Nativity Story

Vanessa learned more about the Nativity this season. As if the story isn't amazing enough, she decided to add her own twist. On Christmas you saw the picture in which Vanessa added Baby Jesus to the scene. Now here's a picture of what happened a little later. Without our noticing, Baby Jesus was moved to the side and then the Cookie Monster ornament taken from the tree was added. This reminded me of the story about Vanessa's cousin Ben adding Tigger to their scene when he was about 3. However, I'm not sure what it means when Cookie Monster was put in place of Baby Jesus rather than standing and celebrating with the Shepherds and Wise Men like Ben's Tigger. The next morning I told Vanessa that Cookie Monster must be visiting for a playdate. :) I can hear the Wise Men singing "C is for cookie . . ."

And Vanessa's choice for Cookie Monster was extra interesting to me since she doesn't seem to like him (which is great in her mommy's book.) I think she likes being able to recognize him though.

Happy Birthday Ben!

16 years old!!!!!!