Birthday!

Muffin is now officially FOUR years old! Time sure flies fast.

She had a wonderful birthday weekend. On Saturday she had a 'children's Princess and Pirate party with a special guest, 'Giselle' from the movie 'Enchanted'. All the children looked like they had a blast. Muffin dressed like Cinderella and truly felt like she was a Princess.

Then she had a second party for Daddy & Mami Muffin's friends and family. Not as many kids but this time she got to dress like Alice in Wonderland.

For her actual birthday, Sunday, we went to a playgroup friend's birthday party at a local gym. Three parties in one weekend, not a bad deal!

Busy Weekend

Spent the weekend doing prep work for Muffin's birthday party next week. We were were very lucky and grateful that a friend lent us her almost 11 yr old daughter to be a mother's help and play with Muffin while DaddyMuffin and I did our house/yard cleaning work. Of course Muffin had a fantastic time playing with Sarah, and she seemed to enjoy herself too.

Muffin will be having two parties on Saturday - a morning party for her playfriends, and an afternoon party for family friends & relatives. In part we made the decision of having two parties so we could manage the crowds inside our house, in case of rain. But it would be so much more fun & comfortable to be OUTSIDE!! Right now the forecast for Saturday reads:

Partly sunny with a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s. Chance of rain 30 percent.

Let's hope that rain percent goes down by the weekend, or that at least the rains hold off until late in the evening! We're looking forward to sharing Muffin's special day with all our friends and family (and perhaps a surprise princess visit? Hmmmm...)

Villains are Good People too

For some reason Muffin has had a fixation with the villains in Disney stories for a while. She asks me to play-act the villains (i.e. Mami, please be the Stepmother), then she'll talk me (i.e. the Villain) into becoming a 'NICE' person. For example, when she's asked me to play the Stepmother from Cinderella, she'll ask me to smile (which the Stepmother never does). Or she'll ask me to be the hag from Snow White, and then proceed to tell me/ show me whatever's happening at the moment (i.e. Old Woman, do you want to see my new spinny toothbrush?). Gotta love how she tries to humanize them and make them 'good'.

Sunday Pancakes

As usual, when we woke up on Sunday morning I asked Muffin what she'd like for breakfast, and started rattling off options to her. And for once, instead of cereal, she picked Pancakes. STOP THE PRESS - she hasn't had them since January! (not from lack of offering, btw). I seized the chance to get her to eat something different, and she helped me mix them. She ended up eating FIVE of them, can you believe it? (I made them small, so its not as much food as it sounds). Of course DaddyMuffin got to enjoy them as well, and he was a Happy Daddy.

Then that evening we had a visit from Muffin's uncle. My brother patiently played with her before and after dinner, and Muffin was in uncle heaven. Thanks, Tio!

First Dentist Visit

Sofia's first dentist visit was today, and she did great!

The dental hyegenist spent quite a bit of time cleaning her teeth, since some plaque had built up. She was SO patient throughout the whole thing! And the office was wonderful. They first showed her a very well done cartoon video of what its like to go for your first dentist visit. The hyegenist talked very gently, explaining all along what was happening. And at the end, she got a dental goody bag and her very own spinny tooth-brush! They also showed her their big "pacifier" bank where all good binkies go after the kids are done with them… ahem, she's still sleeping with her "bobo", which we remove once she's completely out. So we told her that maybe by the time of her checkup (in 6 months) she can deposit her bobos into the pacifier bank, for a prize. We shall see…

They also did digital x-rays to check how her grown-up teeth are coming up, and they look great (knock on wood) so it appears that using the pacifier hasn't affected them.

So of course Muffin spent the whole weekend showing everyone her beautiful clean teeth, and everytime she washed hands she also wanted to brush her teeth with the spinny toothbrush. What fun!

Barbies

We have discovered dolls, ayayayay! It’s adds a whole other dimension to play. Not to mention tons of stuff to buy and store. Its all so commercialized nowadays that I'm ambivalent about doll playing, though this article explains it’s a good thing.

To test how much she really wanted to play with dolls, I took out my old Barbie dolls. We're talking 30 yr old Barbie dolls. Amazingly I still have them! So I took them out, looked at all the beat up clothes and dolls, did my best to clean them, and let her play a bit.

Yup, she loved it. OF course DaddyMuffin was horrified at the condition of the dolls, and wanted to immediately buy her at least one new one, which I did. And I discovered Barbie has changed considerably in 30 yrs! She's not as busty but has more hips. Who knew? Very few of my old Barbie clothes fit the new doll, so we'll have to shopping for some new doll clothes. It will be challenging to hunt for "appropriate" doll clothes. Sigh. Of course Muffin isn't quite dextrous (or patient) enough to put doll clothes on yet, so guess who ended up doing all the clothes changes? ;) Once again we have proved that Motherhood is a chance to relieve childhood

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Raspberry Pies

Muffin loves to play in the kitchen, when I can I try and invite her in to "do something". Usually she gets bored fairly quickly but she still has fun.

On July 4th, I woke up early to bake a couple of pies to bring to a party, and I knew I'd have some leftover dough, so I asked her if she'd like to make her own "little" pie with it. Rather than opting for blueberries, she said she'd like to make a Raspberry pie. We took out her bake set that she got for Xmas, and she "rolled" her dough and "mixed" her raspberries. But rather than baking her pie in the kiddie sized pans, she wanted them in ramekins. And they tasted so yummy I think we need to do a big sized one next year for Raspberry season. They came out quite cute, don't you think?