Fairy Tea Party

So, my regular everyday camera got misplaced in another city...hence, the long break in between blogs (that's my current excuse for the long break). But I've still got the good (yet bulky) camera to capture the life and times of NJB! My friend DeNae and I hosted a Fairy Tea Party this past weekend. We invited a bunch of our girl friends to dress up like fairy princesses as we nibbled on fairy snacks and did fairy crafts. The little girls were so precious!

Niva and I primped at home so we could look our fairy best!

Niva and her buddy Autumn dig into the snacks while sipping some "tea".

Yes, there was a lone boy there...the "Fairy Prince".

The floral crown was one of our crafts

Why can't we wear this everyday??

And now for my latest Niva Anecdote. Yesterday, Niva dug up an old baby toy. It was a Baby Einstein radio that played various bits of classical songs. When Niva heard one of the songs, her face lit up and she exclaimed, "This is Vivaldi, Mom!" It is? I knew it was one of the songs in our rotation of classical CD's but I couldn't place who the composer was. When Niva was at school, I checked to see if it really was Vivaldi...sure enough, I looked at the CD cover as I played the music and it was indeed Vivaldi's "Spring" Allegro. Niva's memory truly amazes me!

Little Storyteller

Lately, one way to appease Niva J is by telling her stories. Not stories from books but personal anecdotes of things that have happened to us in the past. Some of her favorites are when I got stung in the booty by a bee in NYC, when Fufu wore our dad's shoes as a kid and then accidentally broke a chandelier, and when Daddy and I witnessed a monkey steal a bag of rambutans at a beach in Thailand. She can listen to these stories on repeat forever! Well, while we were driving home from Chinese School today, Niva surprised me with a story of her own!! It went exactly like this:

"Mom, I'm going to tell you a story. Once upon a time...Daddy was looking for Momo. Daddy went to the guest room. Daddy went to Mom and Dad's room. Daddy doesn't see Momo. Then, Momo was on the couch and Daddy sees her. The END!" (this incident actually happened a couple of days ago but we have not revisited it since then)

And then she proudly declared, "I told my first story!" And of course I was proud as proud can be!

Niva's Fables...coming soon to a bookstore near you!

We Heart Easter!!

Oh yes, I love Easter!!

http://nivajosephine.blogspot.com/2012/04/easter-2012eggscellent.html

Every year, it gets better!

That morning, we surprised Niva with an Easter basket full of goodies...it was so fun to put it all together. Among the goods were that stroller baby doll that she was eyeing at the store and I secretly purchased for her, 2 Easter books, a Hello Kitty bracelet, bunny fruit snacks, chocolate bunny, an egg dyeing kit and a box full of Peeps!

This year, Easter also fell on Daddy's birthday! Yes, Niva painted that coffee mug for him...

We dyed eggs too! It was my first time ever and the eggs turned out so beautiful. 

Then, we had Birthday BBQ Brunch at the oldest BBQ spot in Texas, Black's Barbecue!

Check out our almost matching dresses! (It appears that this was my Easter weekend dress last year too)

Although Niva did NOT take a nap, the Easter Bunny still decided to drop by our house. And 3 of Niva's girl friends-- Julianne, Adelie, and Haley-- joined in on the hunting fun too!

The girls partook in egg dyeing too. Best $1.50 spent ever!

It was hilarious to see these girlie girls in action! They were running around the house laughing and shrieking. At one point, I heard mention of Momo being the dragon who had to be kept out of their castle??!

My own little photo shoot after the sugar rush died down

And a closeup of those magnificent eggs...I am so fascinated by them!

BEST EASTER EVER!!!!!

Feeling Springy!

Ahhh! Spring is here and Niva greeted my favorite season with some fun weather-loving activities this morning...

First, Niva had some quality bonding time with Daddy on her very first fishing trip. Daddy has been wanting to take Niva fishing before she was even born!

Yes, it was a little chilly this morning.

Being her Daddy's daughter, Niva even caught 2 fish! Wow, what an awesome surprise!

Reeling it in

You can tell from her face that she is a little creeped out!

I was impressed by the size of this thing. She caught it all on her own (Daddy only reeled it in).

Then after fishing, Niva helped Daddy re-pot her tomato plant and plant flowers. Soon we will be counting on Niva to bring us our dinner!

Grandpa Mike was in town and gave Niva the official job of remembering to water the flowers. One less chore for me!

I love spring too, Ma!

You Better Shop Around!

Niva's Great-Grandma in Syracuse sent her $2 in the mail in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Niva was thrilled to have her first paper bills ever! Of course, I had to take her to my favorite store Dollar Tree to get the most bang for her 2 bucks...

Got her puppy purse stashed with the cash...

Like her momma, she went a little bit cuckoo at all the possibilities that the Dollar Tree has to offer

Got me some ice cream bubbles and an awesome skateboard dolly set! (whose arm fell off when I opened the package...I'm going to have to teach Niva the hit-or-miss ways of the Dollar Tree!)

In other news, I was supposed to take Niva to an Easter Egg Hunt this morning while Daddy stayed home to work on replenishing the dirt on our lawn. However, when Niva got wind that our 12 year old family friend Matthew was helping with the Dirt Project, she could not be pried away to go to the Egg Hunt! She was all about supervising Matthew and Daddy instead...

It was so cute how Matthew engaged in some Ring Around the Rosies with Niva!

Job well done, guys!

A New School

That's Niva J sitting in traffic this morning on the way to...her first day of Chinese School! Yes, Niva will now be at Chinese With Meggie, a Chinese Immersion School for a couple of hours each week (in addition to preschool). Daddy and I were so proud of how eager she was to go to her new class and how quickly she became engaged. Any Chinese speakers out there wanna come converse with my kid?

Onward to Chinese School!

Niva enjoyed a tasty picnic lunch at Mayfield Park afterwards.

Ni hao, Peacock!

What else has been going on around here?

We had our annual tradition of making chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine's Day. NJ was quite the little mouse if ya know what I mean...

We rode the Zilker Zephyr with Carla and Sebastian

We got to see our very first Sesame Street Live!

So glad we got to share the fun with Sebastian and family!

And guess who goes poop in the potty now? This gal! We finally got to go to the ice cream shop!

No Nap Niva Strikes Again!

So, the time has come...Niva's afternoon nap is officially becoming a thing of the past. She takes about 2 naps per week now (if we are lucky). However, that doesn't mean I'm giving up MY private time! If you're a toddler mommy, you know this time is precious and I'm clinging onto it until she goes to college. Lucky for me, Niva is content to play by herself in her room for up to 3 hours before I go get her.  When I do retrieve her, this mischievous kid greets me with a big cheshire cat grin and exclaims, "No Nap Niva strikes again!" I can't help but giggle!

You can try wearing me out all you want, Ma! I ain't napping!

The downside of No Nap Niva is that I have been getting a lot of bad attitude from her lately. I do not tolerate this one bit. Niva doesn't like my reprimands and efforts to discipline her. So when she sees my grumpy eyes and hears my stern voice, she quickly protests, "Mommy be good! Mommy be good!" What??! This child has some audacity. But this has led me to try disciplining her with a big fake smile plastered on my face. It has somewhat softened the blow...

Bad attitude? Whatchew talkin' bout?

I'm all smiles...and you should be too!