Day: February 19, 2008

Raya turned three! She had a beautiful princess themed party, and as a funny coincidence we noted that at least 4 of the moms wore black T-shirts – maybe as a subconscious answer to too much princess stuff in our daughters lives…

Raya blew all candles out at once!

Leilani started out nicely, eating like a big girl with a spoon.

The cake was really tasty.

“I’m all done with my spoon…” When she was all done with the cake too it was time to change her dress.

The birthday girl, in a Snow White dress.

Raya went first, then everybody got a turn with the piñata. To my surprise Leilani was happy to hit it (after seeing the other girls do it too)—I suppose the reason was that it was a heart with printed princesses, and not in the shape of a princess, unlike the Elmo piñata a long time ago. The sad irony is that this was a “violence-free” piñata: the children are supposed to pull the ribbons to open it up, and hitting it did nothing.

Loot!

Opening presents:

A Bye-Bye hug for Zen!

For the longest time Leilani didn’t talk about her dreams. I think she did not remember them, so when when we asked, she’d say she dreamt of Rudy (her red bouncy horse) or Oma. She seemed to know we wanted her to say something, so it sounded like she made up something. It could’ve been true, but just the way she said it seemed made up.

We know she dreams because she sometimes says words in her sleep, and her eyelids flutter. I can’t recall the words she says, it’s mostly mumbling, but I assume it’s associated with a dream.

But today, in the afternoon while she was sitting on the potty, she told me a big fly had talked to her and said “Let’s play”. I asked her if this was in her dream last night and she said yes. She then continued to tell the story of how she played with the fly. Either her or the fly said “let’s go swimming,” and then she went swimming with the fly. Then she went dancing with the fly. It went on like this for one or two more “scenes” that she did with the fly, but I don’t remember the details now.

It could be that she was making up a story on the spot. But she’s never made up such a long story with so many different happenings, so I assume it came from the memory of a dream. The whole fly thing is strange, but there have been many around the house these days, and we shoo or swat them, and she sometimes helps or wants to help. Swimming has been a big topic in her other conversations too, because she isn’t coughing any more, but it’s rarely warm enough to go swimming at the beach, and so we haven’t gone.