Happy Halloween 2010!

Halloween is so much fun with a 3-year old! Long gone are the days when I'd dress up Andrina and take her trick-or-treating as a baby. Now she's a little kid and she really gets all of it! Andrina has been looking forward to today--getting to dress up as Thomas the Train again and get candy! Kids know what's best in life and they savor all of it! Here's some pictures from our day with our little girl:

getting the pumpkin ready to carve

Andrina & her friend Audrey trick-or-treating at the commons
getting dark out now

the fun of dumping out all the candy and seeing the loot!

our happy little family

and we forgot to get a picture of Andrina with her jack-o-lantern

so we had to take it right before she went to bed.

Notice her wet hair and jammies!

Andrina & a Baby Giraffe

I have adorable video footage of Andrina feeding carrots to a baby giraffe. But I can't get it to upload. I've tried several times without success so I will have to be happy with the best still photo Tom or I got of her feeding the baby. I wish it had uploaded. It's so precious to hear her sweet little voice saying, "here you go baby" as she puts a carrot in the baby giraffe's mouth. We've got a great kid who's a sweetie!

Here you go baby!

Gymboree Halloween Party 2010

Such a busy day! This was the last of the day's activities, the Halloween party at Gymboree. Andrina loved it, of course. She's such a happy kid that she is pretty easy to please. Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that I get to give her 100% of me so much of the time. Otherwise, she wouldn't have had me to be with her at three different places today. I love being with her and going to her activities with her. Although, she's such a sweet and loving child that she makes it so easy to be with her!

playing bobbing for apples with Ms. Jessica

with Gymbo!

Preschool Halloween Party

It's been a very busy day for us. First there was a Halloween party to take Andrina to at her school. Then we went to a pumpkin farm, followed by a party at Gymboree. Here's pictures from Andrina's class party:

So happy to be dressed as Thomas the Train!

Going trick-or-treating with her class
Trying to get in on the mummy dress-up

Ms. Gina wrapping up Andrina as a mummy

and ripping out of the mummy wrappings

Kuiper's Farm 2010

More pumpkin farms! I love how October is all about visiting pumpkin farms! Here's pics of Andrina from Kuiper's Pumpkin Farm:

Gotta play on the jumping pillow

Andrina has to play on the train of course!
"Driving" a tractor

Playing in the corn box

Driving a pink tractor

at the top of tractor tire mounain!

Going down a slide

By lots of pumpkins

Making Ghosts

Andrina with two little ghosts that she made hanging in in of our trees

And here she is making them
And proudly showing off her work!

New Skills

Andrina has been changing by leaps and bounds lately. Here's a summary of her development I've noticed over the past month:

Listening/Paying Attention: I remember months ago watching Andrina at preschool while a book was being read. She paid no attention to it. Today I picked her up from preschool and the teacher was reading a book to the class. So I stayed in the hall and watched (Andrina's back was to me so she didn't know I was there). Andrina paid attention to the book through the end and then even answered a question correctly that the teacher asked about the story!

Emotional Development: I have not seen Andrina suck on her fingers for about a month now. And yesterday when we were together I had something on my mind and I was not paying attention to her because I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts. Andrina came up to me and said, "Mommy, are you ok?"

Physical development: Andrina has much better balance on a balance beam. She can walk several feet and stay on it. She pursues and accomplishes climbing up the ladders and rock walls that are for the "big kids" on playground equipment. They are about 6 feet of climbing. Andrina is also now comfortable to jump off of equipment onto thick mats by herself at Gymboree.

Social Skills: A few months ago various kids that were not much older than her tried playing with her at playgrounds. Some would tell her their names, others would come up to her and try to take her hand to lead her to go play with them. I would tell Andrina that it was ok to play with the kids and that she could say to them, "I'm Andrina. What's your name?" Well two days ago not only did she do this but we were the only people at a playground when I girl about 7 years old came and was playing by herself on the monkey bars. Andrina said to me, "look, there's a girl over there!" and then ran over to her and said, "I'm Andrina!" The girl was not interested in playing with her but I was impressed with Andrina's progress. It was very cute too!

It's still surreal to me to see her grow and develop before my eyes. Just these changes feel like they happened overnight.

"Go Away Please"

Apparantly, not only can Andrina say the sweetest things that melt my heart, but she can also say things that are borderline heartbreaking. Case in point, tonight after her usual bath, milk, brushing her teeth, reading a book, and cuddling routine that we share this is what happened:

Me: "Goodnight Andrina, I love you"
Andrina: "go away please, it's time for me to sleep"

Wow! She's getting so independent. Oh well, at lease she said "please"!