“Momma, I’m full of love.”

Goddamn I love this kid.

www.flickr.com/photos/captainmina

Enjoy!

Turkey

Gravy

Mashed potatoes

Stuffing

Salad

Rolls

Pie

that’s not THAT bad, is it?

Even more exciting… Thanksgiving is like the levee between me and Christmas.  Once it’s gone, the holiday flood begins in earnest.  This year, Mina is really starting to get who Santa is and what he does.  We really haven’t talked about him much yet.  However, she has repeatedly told me that she would like Santa to bring her a dollhouse.  Ok.  My pirate-fireman-astronaut loving little sports girl?  Wants a DOLLhouse?!  Damn.  Ok, fine.

So, in the interest of making YOUR lives easier (I’m mostly talking to the grandparents here, but any of you are welcome to take part,) here is the dollhouse she’s getting:

Lucky girl, right?

It comes with a bit of furniture, but if you’d like to buy Mina something for Christmas, I’m sure there are cute accessories and people to go with it.  It’s pretty much the same scale as the Ryan’s Room stuff, and some of the Melissa and Doug stuff, I think.  Or at least close enough for her.

Now, Santa already has my order for a new range, so I think I’m all good.  I mean, I HAVE been a good girl this year, right?

Well, as you may or may not know, Mark and I are in process of buying a new home!  If all goes well, and we still have a long way to go, we’ll close the end of the month.  You’ll be able to come visit us down in Ranchos Palos Verdes, but let me tell you, bring your GPS!  So, since I don’t actually have a house, and since I won’t have any money leftover once we DO buy a house, isn’t this the best time to start remodeling?

Here’s what I’m thinking:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/kitchen-design/bakeryinspired-kitchen-details-115574

Pretty, innit?  The house has wood flooring, so we’d switch it up a little.  Maybe something like this:

http://marketplace.apartmenttherapy.com/features/crisp-classic-kitchen-get-the-look

I promise, I’ll add some color to it!

About three weeks ago, we made a great potty breakthrough.  It’s been a great three weeks, if occasionally a little harrowing and frustrating and only slightly icky.  BUT…. we are fairly well potty trained!  Sleeping times will come later, and I’m not even going to worry about those.  Waking hours, however?  Mina is a CHAMP!!  We’re down to a couple accidents a week.  Most of which are times when we’re very busy playing and can’t be bothered to stop to make a potty break.  We’re super excited, and super proud.  Mina likes to tell us that she’s proud of herself, too, which is pretty freaking wonderful.

AAAAAAAAAND…. as of yesterday, we’re officially enrolled at Manhattan Beach Nursery School for the summer!  It’s two days a week, 9:30-12:00 for the summer.  If we’re still in Manhattan Beach come fall, we’ll enroll then, too.  I’ll be there with her, working, at least one of those two days.  Once she’s settled and comfortable, that’ll give me 2.5 hours a week to GTFO!  School starts on Tuesday, so we’ll report back more details on that next week.

Seriously… potty and school?  In one month?  I told you it was exciting!

Sitting on her sit and spin this morning: “so far so good!”

Some days we can tell where they come from (eventually.)  For a while she was walking around saying “More or less” – that came from watching too much Special Agent Oso.  Another time it was “What’s the big idea!?” – and that was Donald Duck.

I’ll be curious to see where this latest one came from.

“Looks pretty fun to me!”

Otherwise, all is well here.  As expected, Mina’s vocabulary and grasp of language just keeps growing every day.

Here’s one our Peoria readers will like.  The other day, walking out to the car, Mina turns to me and says:

“Momma, Mina like Daddy better.”

Uhhhh huh.  Thanks.  Go make your own lunch, kid.

And one of my new favorites, that’s starting to be a recurring thing:

“Two more minutes!”  Seriously.  We were at Jenna’s not long ago, and it was getting late, and it was time to go, but Mina wanted to hang out with the dogs a little longer, of course.  So we told her it was time to get into the car and she turned to us and stated very matter of factly, “two more minutes!  Two minutes, please!”

Mark said she did the same thing to her the other night when he took her over to the playground and it was time to come home.

*sigh*

Mina and I had a blast this morning at The Art Zone.  I’d been meaning to take her here for a while, but on those days we were bored and looking for something to do, it just didn’t occur to me.  My friend Danielle and I went today (she’s an old pro at Art Zone, but this was our first time) and boy am I glad we did!  Two hours of paint, clay, good, stamping, gluing, sticking, dressing up, cars, toys, squirting, squeegeeing, mud, water, and whatever else!  Holy crap was that fun.  Mina wouldn’t even stop to eat, she was having too much fun.

We’ll definitely be going back.  Pics are up, and videos are coming.