Ready for Nursery!

My ulterior motive for taking away the chocolate shake from Alegria yesterday night and "hiding" it in the refrigerator was so that 1.) she wouldn't finish it all and 2.) so that I, myself, could have the rest of it. Well, this morning when she woke up and after she decided to don my hoodie, she asked me for some water...and when we went to the fridge and I gave her a sip of water, she either had eagle eyes and could see my milkshake at the very top shelf or she remembered with the memory of an elephant that last night, that's where I had banished it to. In any case, it ended up being her breakfast:

What? What's that you say? You say you've never heard of giving a child a chocolate milkshake for breakfast? Well...the next time you're with a 1-year old who's screaming that she wants one for breakfast, just remember that above all, "parents don't want justice...they want quiet!" And then tell me if you caved or not!

Anyway.

We were expecting a friend from Montana tonight, so I went about doing the normal cleaning and prepping that comes before having guests over. It so turned out that our shower liner needed replacing, so I was in the process of doing that when I noticed Alegria was attempting to climb into the tub with me. She succeeded...and then proceeded to rearrange everything in there. (Excuse the mess...I hadn't gotten to the cleaning yet when she decided to "help!")

Apparently, though, Big Bear needed to use the potty during our "cleaning," so Alegria very graciously let him use her potty to do his business:

This is the face of a child who's been told NOT to touch the soap (I keep telling her she might accidentally get some stuck under her nails and then touch her eyes, which would sting...)...

...but who wants to test her limits:

Apparently I'm not making myself clear:

Here's the face of a child who's been caught playing with the drain plug when she's been told not to play with it...

GUILTY as CHARGED!

So she put it back in:

Alegria: "Hmmm...where can I put these...?"

Alegria: "I think they'll look better over here..."

Finally done in the bathroom after scrubbing everything, sweeping, and vacuuming, we head out to the living room to relax and play:

Daddy was going to try to be back home in time to watch Alegria, but as luck would have it, he was at work late, so Alegria and I went to the Church building together. It was fine, though. In the back of my mind I'd already been prepared to bring her with me.

When we arrived, Sarah asked if I wanted to let Alegria stay with the nursery-aged children (which she was supervising). Since Alegria's still not of nursery age (18 months - 3 years), I was a little hesitant, but when Sarah insisted, I decided to give it a go, telling her I wasn't sure Alegria would actually be cooperative and stay with the group and that if she had any trouble, to come get me.

I had no need to worry. The night went well. :)

This is a poster that Shailey's mom drew for a "pin the star over the manger" game:

Tenille and Sandi:

Abilehi reading to the nursery children and Sarah supervising:

Cookie decorating!

Sandi supervising "Duck-Duck-Goose:"

Alegria didn't care that I wasn't around. She was more than happy to play with all of the toys that were set out for the nursery children:

Musical Chairs, anyone?

Making reindeer:

Abilehi...nursery is just the right age group for her! ;) J/K Abilehi!!! :)

Alegria did so well, I think she's pretty much ready for nursery! Too bad she still has to wait two more months!!!

Marshmallow Snowmen:

Candy Cane Reindeer:

This was my group, ages 7-11:

Dancing!

Peek-a-boo, Jacob!

Once the activity was over, we cleaned up and visited a little and then Alegria and I finally headed home.

Daddy had ordered a pizza, so we warmed a couple of pieces up and had that for dinner. Up to now, when we've had pizza, I've fed it to Alegria myself, but after her success interacting with the nursery kids, Alegria's confidence was boosted and she decided she wanted to feed herself the pizza:

Now Alegria's in bed and Cameron and I are going to relax and chat with our friend Alexis, who just finished training in Oklahoma, doing the same training that Cameron did a year ago.

It's always fun to catch up with friends!

Good night!!!