My loves...

These last few days have been so wonderful. Not that anything we've done anything particularly special...I've just really enjoyed everybody, and have felt so lucky. Both Lia and Ellie have had us smiling. Bill would be working in the office, and I'd be in the kitchen, washing dishes or something, and we couldn't help but laugh at things they'd say while playing. They've just gotten to be such great playmates, which will be so nice when the baby comes. Ellie has really become inquisitive, and is starting to ask a lot of 'why's'. She also comes up with hilarious combinations of words to get her meaning across...some favorites have been her telling Lia how to do something and she says "you hafta pos'd to...." (not just have to, or supposed to, but both!) And then there's her asking to "ding bell" the chime. Of course, with the funnies, also comes our new big girl attitude and quite the explanations of why she shouldn't do something she is asked to do! Yeah, that's been interesting.
Lia just captivates us, and we love to watch her figure things out, or listen to her darling vioce explain something, or ask something. She's really talkative. She's pretty understandable most of the time, but there will be the occasional phrase that you can only catch one or two of the words. (Like when she went to the table with her bagel still there from lunch, and when she offered to tell that that was there, I told her oh no Lia, don't eat that, its yucky, and she sounded concerned, responding with something that ended in ''my mouth", which made us think that she already had a taste!) Bill's favorite is how she'll answer your question beginning with "Well, ..." that sounds like "way-lll..." (Kind of like how she sang "jingle-bay'lls" at Christmas). It sounds so funny.
I loved seeing them sitting on daddy's lap, playing on the "peter" (computer). I feel so lucky that I can share them with someone who enjoys them as much as I do... it made me tear up to watch them together.. (Of course, I have been tearing up at a lot of things lately...:) must be those pregnancy hormones!)

The Zoomee

Museum, actually. Ellie's version, remembering from the night before. We had a really great time on Saturday, exploring the play places in the children's museum. It's been a while, and with Lia being so much more capable, they both had a blast. You couldn't help but smile to watch them explore, and enjoy.
Lia stayed awhile at the dried pea table, scooping over and over, while Ellie claimed her favorite "cart" and started avidly collecting groceries.


Lia had a hand at the cart too. We lucked out, and it really wasn't very busy at all.


Can you tell we're a little excited? :) Lia loved the "baby" room, as Ellie did when she was her age. The slide was a big hit, but she loved exploring all over.
Hard to believe this big girl is the same one right below who took her first steps pushing this cart...





Lia wasn't too sure about this hole that would blow wind when you stand on it, but was willing to take a little peek when Ellie had a try.
Ellie and Daddy took off to bigger and better things while Lia stayed to pick some flowers and tickle mommy with them!

Takin' sis for a whirl...
Lia tryin' it out on her own (with the stolen ice cream cone in hand!)

Snack time...
Oh boy...mommy let's paint the giant castle...

Ellie doin' some concentratin' with a new contraption...
Hmmm...how much glue and peanuts can you pile on one half sheet of paper?
I don't know, but lets give it to daddy and see if he likes it :)

Little Lia came through the next morning, playing with mommy on the chair...

My cuties...this morning, after getting everybody dressed, I decided it was a good time to try to get a couple of cute up-to-date shots (besides all the action ones we got on our trip). I was hoping for one together, but I'll settle for these pretty ones of my Ellie Belly. What a minx today. Something's got that girl not wanting to take naps the past few days, and if she has her mind made up, it's just not going to happen. So, of course, after having woken up early this morning, by dinnertime, her little eyes were falling closed mid spaetzle spoonful. We were laughing.

And then there's this little beauty, who is sleeping despite herself, a few mornings ago, while the both of them are on the couch watching one of their shows. I discovered two new teefers coming in the other day, which explained the trouble sleeping (including the waking at 5). Well, this particular morning, she just couldn't help herself, all snuggly, and drifted off. (And yes, I do take every advantage of those sweet little cheeks...they are heaven to kiss!)

The olympic Gawryk girls...ready for action, dressed to impress in Auntie Tanya's presents! (Ellie didn't understand why the guy on her shirt is upside down, and wanted me to "fix" it...)

We've been spending time in the afternoon outside the past few days since it's been so nice out (where did our winter weather go?), and the girls just love it. Lia had me laughing, when she toddles down the sidewalk from about three houses away, with this humungous rock! The darn thing's half the size of her head! So, in her little tiny, but loud voice, she squeals down the sidewalk..."I got it!" She's so funny. She's been telling us so much lately, almost a play-by-play of what she's doing, or how she's feeling. It's hilarious. Like, she was walking away down the sidewalk, kind of stumbles along the edge, and whips her head around and shouts... "I ok!" (I guess, in case you were worried ;) ) Even funnier has been the whole looking for something (anything at all, from the kitty cat a few doors down, to her juice bottle, or the toy section in the store) and shouting "Kit-Cat, were are you????" (intentional "were" - that's her "where") And of course, it's done at the top of her voice. So, when you ask her where her juice is, or where she left it, she'll do the same, "Juuu-iice, were are yooouuu???" (And we're not quite sure if she's expecting an answer or not! ;)

Entranced by a "show" - lately, Lilo and Stich and Finding Nemo... (thank heavens - a guaranteed few minutes when I'll need it after the baby is born!)

The ever-exciting Costco box, providing hours (well, minutes) of entertainment. I love how they play together so much now. It's really taken off. To hear Ellie give Lia instructions like "OK Lia, you go that way, and I'll go this way", is so cute. Yes, they have their moments, but they do have fun together.

Our Disney Christmas...

We arrived in Anaheim late afternoon, and decided to walk over to Downtown Disney, which is right outside the parks. It's a neat area, similar to the one in Florida, but a bit smaller. We enjoyed the Christmas decorations, got our little taste of "Gee-key" (Mickey, a la Lia), and had some dinner.

Lia, who now obviously takes right after her mama, had to "feel" every bin of lego pieces...

The next morning, we headed over to one of the Disney resort hotels for a character breakfast. Now, looking at this delighted little girl, you would think it was fabulous, no? Well, this is how it was when the characters stayed at a distance...

And this is what happened if we, or they, ventured near...


Look at this face! Like, you're not thinking of coming over here, are you?

The breakfast was neat, with Mickey shaped waffles and pancakes.


The first park we hit was Disneyland itself. It did make you feel very Christmasy with many decorations, and music all over. This is the entrance, with Mickey made out of flowers.
Characters were all over - Mary Poppins here.
Lia, konked out after an emotional morning not wanting to be pushed in the stroller for the long walk to the park, and then the big character breakfast...we stood in line to get Bill some water to take some cold medicine (poor guy suffered through an awful cold - still is! - the whole time we were there), and this lady says to me "it's pretty bad when you're KO at 10:30 in the morning (referring to Lia)" and I told her, well, you didn't see her morning!

So then, we tried a few rides, and the girls loved them! Here's daddy on the train with both of them (after mommy already did it twice!). It took them a while to understand that just because we had to get off, didn't mean we couldn't find another ride. They just wanted to ride the same ride again.

Of course, the carousel was a big hit. I think we could have stayed on it all day.

We really lucked out many times, running into shows, or parades. This one, was for the new movie, Princess and the Frog, and was in the New Orlean's area.

( This is where we ended up having Christmas dinner.)

This next little set are the pictures taken by Ellie on her new camera. We had fun at the end of the day, ater the girls were in bed, looking at the pictures she had taken that day. Some of the ones really show how things look from her perspective. Bill says he thinks she has a knack - he loves the ones she took of the different patterns of ground, especially since she obviously took them deliberately. It was funny to see people's reactions to this little girl, standing there legs spread, taking a shot.









On Christmas day, we caught the parade, though we had to scramble a bit for a spot to view it. (We got much better at that the next day, to see the Pixar parade). Ellie and I squeezed into a spot a little away from Bill, who stayed with the strollers, and a sleeping Lia.




It was incredibly busy that day in the park, and we didn't even end up riding anything at all. We were grateful we had the day before, which was not so busy. The girls both konked out at one point, and we sat down with them, only to find that New Orlean's parade coming through right in front of us! We had to laugh at the tired little girls who slept through the whole thing, including the trumpets and drums, not two feet from them! (We got to be quite familiar with that performance - by the end of our visit, and one more time chancing upon it, we could have stepped in and joined in!)



This was our Christmas dinner, at the New Orlean's Cafe, where we had seen a special on TV before coming about their crepes and beignets. We had a nice time, and it was really yummy!



Ellie had been asking about cotton candy, and so we thought since it was Christmas...

This castle, which didn't impress me too much when we arrived during the day, astonished me when we turned a corner that night, and saw it all lit up. Oh my gosh was it beautiful! I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

Boxing Day's adventure was in California Adventure, their new park right beside Disneyland. It was a great day, not busy, and boy did we luck out in hitting all kinds of shows and parades by chance. This is the girls at the entrance...

As we walked in, the Playhouse Disney show was just letting everyone in, and the girls were just fascinated. It was neat, because it essentially was the Disney channel, with all the familiar characters, in real life. Lia couldn't take her eyes off of them all.

Then we went into the Bug's Life section, where they had a series of kiddie rides. They really liked that place.

This ladybug ride was like the tilt-a-whirl, kind of fast and spinning. It took me by surprise, and after it started, I was worried that they would be scared - ha! They were laughing like loons!

(No, mommy's not riding this one alone - though it looked like it since the girls were too short to see...)

It was a really neat park, and celebrated the state of California, and all of its variety, and beauty. Some areas were as pretty as real life would have been.

And yes, they had a carousel too.... (4 times in a row!) I told Bill that yes, the big "Hi Daddy!"s were cute, every time we went around the bend to see him, but even funnier was Ellie leaning back and yee-hawing, and waving her one hand around, in the interim.

So then, this was the Pixar parade that we happened upon. We saw some people starting to sit on the edge of the street, and having learned our lesson from the day before, we plunked down immediately. It was well worth it, and even the wait was fun, with our girls turned into little hams, with everyone watching them while they pranced around the open space. They started a trend, and eventually, a few other kids joined in. The moment that drew the most laughs was Lia trying to ride on her Minnie balloon.

The parade was really awesome, and perfect since it just started to get to get dark. It was very elaborate, and many of the characters were familiar to the girls, which was neat.

We waited the longest for this one - and only because Ellie had taken a particular liking to elephants on this trip. (Not worth it though!)

The details of everything there was what made it so interesting. In this treat shop, we saw caramel apples done up as snowmen, minnie and mickey pants, and honeypots. They were so cute.



In all, we had a wonderful time, and it was memorable Christmas together!