What can I say, three year old girls are just fickle!

We were near a different mall today after an appointment, and it was a cold drizzly day, so we decided to hang out there for a bit and maybe get some Christmas shopping done. We passed by Santa's place and I guess she decided she liked the looks of this Santa and was feeling brave so she said "I want to go in and see him". Well, all-righty then...if only she could have done this 2 days ago when I had her actually dressed for a visit with Santa. Oh well, I adore this photo, and this girl, anyway. =)

He was a very good Santa and she was sooo, so sweet telling him that "Daddy wants new pajamas, Mommy wants earrings (I didn't tell her this), and I want a computer game". He talked to her and asked her questions and really won her over. She told him that she wanted him to come to her house and even told him what street she lived on. We found out that his favorite cookie is chocolate chip, so I guess we'll be leaving some out on Christmas Eve because, trust me, she will not let us forget.

So, how about a little look back so we can really appreciate the evolution in this relationship between Kerry and the big guy in red.

2009

Surly Santa..taxidermy Reindeer...and an unhappy Kerry. Nice.

2010

Good Santa...Kerry was doing great until she actually got up in his lap at which point she went into a state of shock at what she had just done.

And then there was todays photo.

I love todays photo =).

My girl is very....expressive =)



It's going to be Christmas-card-picture-taking-time soon. Wish me luck.



She's looking festively red in these photos because I took her to see Santa yesterday....it was a no go. She wanted nothing to do with this strange bearded man in red so I didn't make her do it. She is, however, very excited for Christmas and, now that Thanksgiving is over she has been asking daily, "Is it Christmas yet?"

Things have been a little crazy and unsettled around here lately, which is my excuse for lack of posting lately. I feel horrible about it, too, because at the same time, Kerry is doing and saying the funniest things lately. She is growing and changing so much and I really need to document this more so I don't forget any of it.

She is full of imagination and pretend and I just love watching her play and listen to the little scenarios she comes up with. One of her favorite things to do right now is play "grocery store". We take turns being shopper and cashier, and when Daddy gets pulled in he is bag-boy, he hee.

Kerry's little dwarf hamster, Ruby, died unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago. She took it as well as could be expected. She just asked several times over the next couple of days "What happened to Ruby?" and "Why did Ruby have to get dead?" Explaining death to your three year old is tricky, and sad. Lucky for me, she has been watching the Lion King as much as we'll let her, lately, and so I was able to kind of use the scene where Mufasa dies to explain it to her as gently as possible. I purposely avoided saying that she "got sick" and died because I could just imagine the thoughts that would enter her head the next time one of us gets sick. We almost lost another pet last night. Our cat, Salem, started acting sick and painful last night and was really worrying me so I took him to a local 24 hour emergency vet. It turns out he had a life threatening urinary blockage. They sedated him, got the blockage out and flushed his bladder, and he is home now recuperating and feeling much, much better. He'll be on a special diet from now on to hopefully prevent that from happening again.

So I spent several hours at the emergency vet last night, then a doctors appointment of my own this morning, then back to Salems regular vet today to make sure he's still urinating and doing okay today, another appointment for me tomorrow, then one for Kerry on the 14th, and another for me on the 19th....this is what I mean when I say things are a little crazy lately. We did get to spend a nice relaxing evening putting up our Christmas tree tonight, though. Should be posting pictures of that, of course, soon...hopefully.

Her eyes..

We found out at her first routine eye exam, a few months back, that Kerry has a condition called entropion. This means that some of Kerry's lower lashes turn inward, instead of outward. It's worse in her left eye. They are in constant contact with her eyes...I can't imagine what that must feel like. I get one little eyelash in my eye and it drives me bonkers until I get it out. She has never once complained, and has no redness or watering so this came as a quite a surprise to me although I knew that this is not uncommon in asian eyes. Today was her second visit with a pediatric eye specialist and she said that, just like when she examined her three months ago, the lashes are turning in, there are abrasions, but no scarring yet. So for now she will be watched closely in the hopes that as she grows and her face "matures" the lashes will naturally start to turn outward. In the mean time the eye specialist is setting up an appointment with a plastic surgeon. This is sort of a "just in case", in the event that she starts to see any scarring in Kerry's eye the plastic surgeon will already be familiar with her and ready to do what is needed to prevent permanent damage to her cornea. She did reassure us that surgery is not often needed for this, but she wants to be ready in case, which makes me feel some better. I'm really not liking the idea of surgery. I love my baby's eyes just like they are, BUT if something about them is not healthy then we'll do what has to be done. Pray it doesn't come to that.

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My baby girl is full of stories lately. A lot of them involve Pixie dust, Peter Pan, sharks...she's been watching "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" lately. I finally managed to catch a small bit of one of her "stories" and couldn't resist posting it.