Oh Sugar, Sugar

Yesterday, Annabel had a Valentine's Day party at her pre-school. As per the usual custom, everyone in the class exchanged valentines. Here are the contents of Annabel's goody bag:


I was surprised to see all that candy! Keep in mind that Annabel's class consists of a bunch of kids between the ages of 18-24 months. Pixie stix? M&Ms? Lollipop? Pixie Stix?!??!

I'm not saying that I've never given Annabel sugar to this point. She's had some bites of my desserts when I eat in front of her (cake, cookies, brownies, etc). I'm not that strict! But in general, I try to keep those kinds of sweets out of her diet. Needless to say, all this Valentine's candy will have to go to Chris's candy jar at work.

I think the balloon is a cute idea, and you probably can't tell from this picture, but the valentine with the basketball includes a little sticker. That's cute too. For Annabel's classmates, I gave a snack bag of Annie's Bunny Grahams.


So what do you think? Am I being overly sensitive? What did you include in your kids' valentines for their friends and classmates? Post in the comments, people!!

Cheers,

Wordless Wednesday

Pizza!

Last week we went to a fundraiser at our local CiCi's. Annabel came too and ate her first pizza! Now, she's technically had a bite of pizza here and there, but usually either spit it out or refused to eat more than a bite cuz she wasn't so sure about it. This time, she was enjoying it! I figure if she's good with CiCi's, then we need to introduce her to REAL pizza. Carmine's anyone?? Yumm!!






Does she like it? I think that's a yes!

Cheers,
Cathy

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Sharing the love of reading

The other day, Annabel's NeNe (our friend and neighbor, Renee) stopped by for a quick visit. And Annabel promptly requested - or more accurately, demanded - that they read a book together.









This girl loves to share her books!

Cheers,
Cathy

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What a day!

This was Annabel all morning yesterday:




I realize that all these photos were taken during just one part of the morning (trying to eat mid-morning snack aka second breakfast cuz she wouldn't eat her first one earlier that morning). However, I did not have the wherewithal during her earlier tantrums and crying fits to grab my phone or camera to take pictures at the time. A missed opportunity to capture such precious moments of her childhood! Oh well. I have a funny feeling that I'll have many more chances to capture that particular aspect of growing up. Goody. ;-)

Cheers,
Cathy

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Crazy for blocks

For Annabel's first Christmas, her friend Joshua gave her a set of toddler friendly, Lego-like building blocks. However, being that she wasn't quite one yet at the time. And that there are lots of pieces in the set that would have inevitably ended up in all the hidden nooks and crannies of the house, we didn't bust it out until this year.

And it's a hit!









Hours of non-stop fun with her building blocks. She even plays with them by herself while I cook or take a shower. Better than TV!

Cheers,
Cathy

Ba Ngoai bonding time

We are so blessed that Annabel has such loving grandparents. And since I posted a few pics of her with her Ong Ngoai last week, this time we'll focus on the grandmas. Her Grammy visited a couple of weeks ago, but I have no pictures so I'm blaming all the bad weather that weekend and my typical forgetfulness (Chris tires of asking me whether I remembered to videotape the latest cute thing that Annabel does, because of course I didn't). She's coming back this month (hopefully!) and I'll take lots and lots of pictures then so that I can do a Grammy-post.

Annabel also loves her Ba Ngoai. We see her every Friday, whether it's at our house or we go to hers. A couple weeks ago, Annabel got to eat "mi" (which is the Vietnamese word for noodles) for the first time at Ba Ngoai's house. And she loves them!

It was pretty fun watching her experience the noodles. She kept pulling them out of her mouth to see how long they were. Gross, but funny!

Annabel also got in a little work time at Ba Ngoai's computer. She has to keep up correspondence with her many fans, ya know.

And of course, Ba Ngoai's favorite is to get hugs from Annabel! Isn't that everybody's favorite?

Macee wants in on the hugging action too. Although honestly, she's still not too sure about the mini-person, she still loves Ba Ngoai!

I love this picture because I was telling Annabel to give Ba Ngoai a kiss. But she still wanted to know if I was taking the picture, so she just sort of leans in to let Ba Ngoai kiss her. What a ham!

We love you Ba Ngoai!

Cheers,