Happy Holidays!!

We went to the mall yesterday to see Santa.  Saiya did great!  I really think that they celebrated Christmas at the orphanage.  Saiya saw some wrapping paper on the table at home and said "Santa!"

I said "You know who that is?"
"Yes"
"What does Santa Claus do?"
(un-identifiable words)
"Does he bring you presents?"
"YES!"

Haha!!  So Cute!  So we took her to see Santa at the mall and she did great!  When it was our turn, she walked right over to him and climbed into his lap with a big smile.  We told her to tell him what she wanted for Christmas so she proceeded to tell him she wanted a pony!  Hahaha!!  Don't they all!?  Not only did she tell him, but she even showed him how big of a pony she wanted (spreading her arms as big as she could).  Everyone thought it was absolutely adorable!  When she was done, she hopped down and he gave her a candy cane.  She was all smiles for the rest of the night.  :)

Pictures of Saiya's Dance Class

It is so hard to take pictures of Saiya's dance class.  There are other kids there (with parents who might not want pictures of their kids posted all over the internet) and, of course, lots of movement.  Saiya barely holds still when she knows we are taking a pitcure of her, but it is even worse at dance class, where she is having so much fun.  She still loves it!!  Friday afternoon, she came home, grabbed her dance bag, and said "Mamma!!  Dance!!"  She ran around the house yelling, "Dance!  Dance!  DANCE!"  I'm so glad she loves it so much!

Girl Vs Dog - Battle of the Monkey!

This morning we were getting ready for school and Saiya had her little purple monkey in her hands.  I grabbed her jacket (because its FREEZING outside) and told her to put it on.  I was holding her jacket while she slipped one hand into it.  When it came to her other hand, she had to drop the monkey in order to slide her fist into the sleeve.  Rhaina was standing in the kitchen watching, waiting, prowling, anxious for Saiya to put her beloved monkey down.  Unthinking, she dropped the monkey on the floor to slide her hand into the jacket and immediately realized what she did as Rhaina inched closer to it.  She held up her hand and said, "No! Rhaina! Go Way!"  Shaking her hand vigorously at the poor dog.  Before Rhaina had the chance to grab at the monkey, I scooped it up and tucked it under my arm.

Disaster averted!  We won the battle, but the war over the stuffies is still on!

Girl Vs. Dogs - The War is Started

Since day one, the dogs and Saiya have gotten along pretty well.  For the most part they ignore each other. Saiya steers clear of them and they are indifferent towards her. She hates it when they nose her in the face (especially since they stand eye-to-eye with each other). The dogs have several toys that look like stuffed animals and as you can imagine, Saiya has TONS of stuffed animals. The dogs have recently discovered that they can take Saiya’s stuffed animals out of her room. They do not really tear them apart, they just slobber on them a little. Of course, Saiya screams when she sees her stuffed animals in the dogs’ mouth.

The last couple of days, the dogs have been getting brave. They have discovered that they can take Saiya’s stuffed animals right out of her hands and run off with it before she gets a chance to do anything about it.

Last night, Saiya was very tired. She fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner and then we walked around Walmart for a bit looking for Christmas presents for my niece and nephew. By the time we got home, she was a little cranky, so I was getting her bath ready when I told her to take off her shoes and put her things away. All of a sudden, I hear a (THUMP) come from the living room and she starts crying. I head into the living room and ask her if she fell down. She said “no” and then proceeded to whine and cry at me, so I figured she was just throwing a fit because she didn’t want to take a bath and head to bed. So she reluctantly takes her shoes off and continues crying, all the way through her bath, and while I am putting her to bed. Poor tired girl.

She knows that she is only allowed to have three stuffed animals to sleep with plus Yoshi. I am looking all over for Pongo (a new panda bear that a good friend gave to us). She goes on and on about something when I asked her where he was, most of which came out as whining. Chris looks in the car, under the dining room table, in the kitchen, and finally he finds it under one of the dogs in the living room. As it turns out, one of the dogs stole her panda bear and ran off before anyone saw it. That’s why she was crying when we first got home. I only felt a little bad because she was not very clear when I asked her why she was crying. She simply threw a fit and most of what she said came out in between frustrated screams, whines, and sobs.

The dogs are sneaky enough to know not to take her toys with us in the same room…  When did we get "Special Ops Recon-Dogs"??  Let the battle begin!

Saiya’s Dance Class

Saiya LOVES her dance class!  Her first day was a little hard because she didn’t really understand the concept of “dance class” but after three days, she has come to LOVE it!  Now when we get her all dressed and ready to go to class, she is so excited!  She follows along and dances with the other girls.  It’s SO CUTE!  Of course, there are those moments when she is fooling around or not doing what she is supposed to be doing in the class and I just want to jump through the window and make her pay attention, but according to the other parents, that feeling never goes away, even when they are MUCH older.  HAHA!

She was measured for her recital outfit on Saturday and the poor girl doesn’t even fit into an extra small!  We might have to take it in a little bit depending on how much she grows between now and May.  The outfits are cute, although I don’t really agree with the song they picked.  The theme this year is “Hollywood”, so the teacher picked Elvis’s “Hounddog”.     :P     Oh well.  It’s going to be a tap dance, which I’m also not fond of.  As long as Saiya has fun, I guess it doesn’t really matter.

One item I am particularly proud of is her dance bag.  About two years ago, my father brought back a designer bag from China that he got at a discounted price (because everything over there is cheaper…).  It was pink, leather, bulky, and had a BIG swirled flower on the front of it.  It may very well have been a Prada bag, but I was never going to use it.  It was one of those things that I didn’t have the heart to donate or sell on E-bay, yet hated to use because it was very ugly, so it stayed in my closet.  I only felt slightly guilty about taking it apart somewhat and making it into a dance bag for Saiya.  It was the perfect size for a dance bag and I didn’t want to waste the money on a new one since I have a billion bags at home I never use.  I removed the zipper and the big flower on the front, added Velcro so it is easy for a four-year-old to open and close, converted the straps into a shoulder strap and Voila!!  Instant designer leather dance bag!  She absolutely loves it!  I also ordered some cute ballerina patches to put on the front of the bag.  Looking at it, you would never know I took it apart.

I’m so happy that she loves to dance!  I hope she sticks with it for many years to come!!

Getting Ready for the Holidays!

We are not going to be home the weekend after Thanksgiving, so we decided to put our tree up a little early this year.  I pulled everything down from the attic with the help of my ever patient husband and we proceeded to put the tree together.  Last year we had a very nice 9 foot tree, but this year that tree will be set up at my parents' house for their holiday party (we are doing that tomorrow afternoon).  So we are stuck with the very sad looking 7 foot tree I got on discount after Christmas the year before last.

I get the feeling that they celebrated Christmas in China in the orphanage because Saiya knew exactly what it was and what you were supposed to do with it.  She even pointed out that it didnt look like the tree in the picture because it didnt have any presents under it.  Clever girl...  She helped decorate it and insisted on clumping the ornaments together on the same two branches.  Not sure why kids do that, but my niece and nephew did the same thing last year.  Its almost like they claim part of the tree and its a race to see who can cram the most ornaments into their section.

After a bit of rearranging, we now have a lovely tree sitting in the living room!  Saiya put the star on top (of course!) and she even hung her stocking up over the fireplace.

I can't believe we have had her for almost three months.  Wow! How time flies!

First Ballet Class and Dim Sum!

Saiya loves her dance class.  At first, she was crying, but once she got in the room and calmed down a little bit, she was fine.  The dance teachers were great and really took the time to walk her through the whole dance class thing.  After awhile, she followed along with the other girls, tapping her foot and pointing her toes and such.  It was so cute!  She loved the noise the tap shoes made on the floor, but was very unsure about hopping up and down on one foot with them.  She was very excited about the dance class.  She loved it so much that she didn’t want to take her leotard off when we got home.  I’m glad she likes it.  There are only four girls (including her) in the class, so it makes it really nice and easy for her to adjust.

On Sunday we went to dim sum with my parents.  For the first time, Saiya let papa (grandpa) pick her up and hold her hand.  She even wanted him to sit next to her during lunch!  I’m so glad she is coming around to him.  This was the first time that she has actually responded to him at all, most of the time she just stared at him.  Lunch was great!  I couldn’t help but notice how much the restaurant looked like the restaurant at the White Swan Hotel in China.  Hmmm….  How very interesting!