Artfulness

Mama remembers doing art projects all the time before Miss Carmela June started preschool. Now that she's in preschool and does art projects all the time (and with neater and more interesting supplies), Mama has a bit of a harder time getting Ela interested in painting at home. Every now and then, though, Ela will decide she wants to paint. Then we have new pictures to send to our friends in other countries! Yay!

A few more cute shots

Hanging out at home in our jammies. This has been the season of one cold after the other, so Miss Carmela June was probably under orders to sit on the couch and BE STILL, and get some rest.

Cute outfit day. As much as she loves her pink sparkly pom-pom headband, though, Miss Ela sure doesn't wear it for very long.

Silliness at the dinner table. Naturally.

Lots of activity!

Did we mention that Miss Carmela is a very physically active, energetic girl? If not, let us reiterate. Miss Carmela LOVES to be physically active. She hops, skips, and jumps to preschool in the morning and home in the afternoon. She races around the living and dining rooms, screaming, "You can't catch me!", and she loves to pull the couch cushions off the couch and leap from the couch to the cushions on the floor. She loves to jump over the "lava" wherever it may be found. Miss Carmela often will jump and jump and jump in place, and she likes to hop like a frog, donkey kick on the ground, and jump on her knees. Even as Mama writes this, she can hear Ela in the bathroom with Daddy hopping on one foot and playing hopscotch on the bathroom tiles.

Carmela loves gymnastics, but Mama and Daddy thought we might indulge her interest in another physical activity one night a week, especially during the long, dreary, dark, rainy winter. Mama and Daddy were able to find a ballet class one night a week, and there just happened to be one spot left.

Which brings us to an important point: Mama and Daddy got a new camera!! Hooray! We'll still figuring out all the bells and whistles, but hopefully this little blog will have much better photo quality very soon!

Meet the newest little ballerina:

Miss Carmela June, ballerina. Note the tutu and gold shoes.

Working on some floor exercises. Ela is not entirely sure what this has to do with ballet, but she's game to play along. (Mama and Daddy will be removing the time stamps as soon as they can figure out how.)

Flapping like a butterfly ...

... and more flapping like a butterfly.

Oooh! Ribbon dancing!!

We loved ribbon dancing the best (until we slipped on someone's spilled water and fell, SPLAT, on the floor). 

Trying somersaults with Daddy. We're already accustomed to somersaults from gymnastics, but we were a good sport about participating.

Plus a few more shots of gymnastics:

The ongoing problem of our hiney eating our leotard. (You can see the blurry effects of Mama and Daddy learning how to use the new camera.)

Carmela listens carefully to Coach Kirsti (especially after Mama and Daddy made her leave early a few lessons ago for not listening).

Carmela brings up the rear in a bear crawl race.

This one's a bit hard to see, but Ela and her classmates jumping on the runway trampoline.

What a helper!

It's just amazing to Mama and Daddy, but it appears Carmela is now the big kid in the room. Instead of being the little baby, Miss Carmela June is now able to help (and, often, to help herself, especially when there are trays and bowls of food to be had). We went to our friend's baby shower a couple of weeks ago. Miss Ela was fabulous, as usual.

Miss Carmela was such a helper! She helped play with the baby ...

... and helps pass out presents to the guest of honor.

A couple new pictures

Now that the excitement of the holidays is over, a couple of cute, random pictures.

Miss Carmela June finishes up an important memo at the preschool's pretend computer work area.

Camela models the cute sweater she got for Chanukah from Aunt Kim. This is a pretty happy kid, and Mama and Daddy are glad we don't get a lot of tears and anguish at drop-off.

Miss Carmela models a cute purple sparkly crown she got at the craft store. She and Mama went to get some mistletoe for the New Years Brunch, and then they totally forgot to put it up!

Miss Carmela shows off her mama skills by gently carrying her baby. At one point on our walk, she told Mama to stop so she could rock her baby to get her to stop crying. Too cute!