I want more

E's has a knack for getting what she wants.  It's funny because "please" was one of the first signs she learned and it took forever to get her to learn "more" but she's always been very good at asking for what she wants.

For a while it was signing, which evolved into "peas"(please), then "have ______ peas", for a while it even became "i NEED _______"  and now it's "I want more"  and she wants more everything!

I want more birthday!

 December was such a blurr of activities.  She and her good friend each had birthday parties at Little Gym, one week apart.
"I want more party"
"I want more pesents"
"I want more tuptake" (cupcake)

Nearly as soon as the birthday party was over we were off on vacation.  We went up to Ken's parents for first Christmas.  E's eyes grew to the size of saucers at the pile of presents under the tree (most of which were for her of course).  She loved spending time with her Ganddaddy and Gama. She loved going across the street to feed apples and carrots to the horses that live there.
"I want more pay gama" (play with grandma)
"I want more horsies"

I want more go Oma's house!

We left first Christmas and headed out to see my mom in California.  For her birthday E received a rolling luggage trunk "trunkii"and she LOVES it.  When she first opened it "What is it?" I thought she wasn't interested because after I explained it was to put her clothes in when we go on a trip she walked away.  Only to return a few moments later, her arms loaded with clothes proudly proclaiming "Let's go Oma's house!"

I want more Santa!

We arrived and second Christmas began.  Last year E didn't really understand the whole Christmas thing.  She enjoyed opening presents but there was no anticipation.  This year was a completely different story.  We did 2 advent activities with her each night after her milk. She got to open her advent calendar and put a new ornament on her mini-tree in her room and she got to open a wrapped Christmas book and read it with Mommy and Daddy.  She got really into it.  She would put her ornament on the tree and break out in "Oh Christmas tree" as she danced around her room in the glow of the tree lights.

I want more can-e!

She also got very into looking at Christmas light displays.  If she became upset in the car all it took was mentioning looking for "pretty lights" for her to calm down.
Christmas eve she left out milk and cookies and a letter(scribble) for Santa and she was awestruck when she got up and found that "Santa ate da cookie and drink da nilk, took da letter, left can-e!" (candy)
 
It's a little hard for her to understand why all the things she likes so much are going away.  She still asks to do her advent calendar after milk even though her tree is no longer in her room, and got really sad when I took the jinglebell wreath off the door, I think she kind of understands that Christmas will be back, but doesn't like that it's going away.  This may be further complicated by the fact that it is January 9th and we have yet to take down the Christmas tree or the stockings,
"I want more pretty lights"
"I want more oramet" (ornament)
"I want more tree"
"I want more jig-a-bells"

I want more cuggles (cuddles)!

Unfortunately the whole family was struck with an upper respiratory/sinus/chest/head cold bug that just sort of hung around us for the entire vacation.  So we didn't get out and do quite as much as we had originally planned.  The 3-4 hour drive to take E to the snow just seemed a bit too much for us in our sad sick state.  So we spent a lot of time at home at Oma's house, which was wonderful.  Lots and lots and lots of playtime.  Her favorites were playing with the ornaments on the Christmas tree, playing grocery shopping with the cart and groceries Oma got for her, drawing on her art easel that Oma got for her, and very slowly eating her candy cane that Santa left.  We let her have a little  bit pretty much every time she asked for it...and by a little bit I mean a nibble or 2-3 licks.  She is such a wonderful kid and she actually followed the guidelines.  She has pretty amazing self control for a 2 year old.  Christmas morning she was up about 2 hours before everyone else and she didn't touch any of the presents under the tree or her Santa boot which was loaded with "candy" (animal crackers, panda cookies, cranberries, raisins and yogurt raisins....along with some haribo gummies and other wonderful German candies that may or may not have made there way into mommy and daddy's tummies....)

I want more dancin!

However, we did make it out of the house for 2 big adventures.  The first one was down to San Francisco to have dinner with her tante Oana and Uncle Kane'.
(funny aside, E calls the office workers at my school her "tias" which is Spanish for aunt, and Oana (pronounced Wanna) is her tante, which is German for aunt.  At one point, sleepy E got confused and called Oana Tia Oana....to which she replied "I don't have enough tequila in me to be Tiajuana!)
While in the city we decided to go to my favorite museum of all time The Exploratorium!  It was crowded, a lot of it was over her head, it was so much larger in it's new location, it was crazy loud and it was so much fun!  E's favorites were the tinker lab marble run wall, the shadow room and the colored shadows wall.  She went nuts in front of the colored shadows, singing and dancing and trying to convince everyone who passed to dance with her in the colored lights.   

I want more cave!

The second adventure was to go to Mt. Diablo, which despite living 40 minutes away from it for the entire time we've lived in California, we never really explored.  We got to the summit and got out of the car and nearly got blown away by the arctic winds!  It was BITTER cold. "Brrr,,,It's TOLD mommy! It's WIND!"

After a brief visit to the windblown summit we went down mountain to Rock City which was a fantastic little hike.  It was still a little chilly but the wind was mostly blocked so it was manageable.  We hiked around and found some climbable rocks, which E happily attempted to climb and some caves which E appropriated one and called it her room. She lay in that little cave for a good 10 minutes talking to herself about watching Daniel Tiger and brushing her teeth and going to sleep.  She kept asking for it after we left to finish our hike.
" I want more lights!"
"I want more meat!" (at the house of Prime Rib, where she ate a good quarter of my prime rib)
"I want more Uncle Kane'"
"I want more some-all-eh" (sarmale, Tante Oana's special Christmas dish)
"I want more can-e cane"
"I want more build"
"I want more cave!"
"I want more hike!"

It was a fantastic trip, illness aside  It was a fantastic month of celebrations, food, presents and people. December is just always going to be a crazy month between normal end of the year crazyness, birthday and Christmas but I hope that December will always be as good as this one was. It was a good time spent reconnecting with family and Elora sums up everyone's feelings pretty well...

"I want more"