* My Dora watching attention-span has extended into kids movies (and probably has for almost six months now). I can watch a whole kids movie. I love TV so much I will watch pretty much anything...including test cricket.
* Mum is always amazed at my patience and gentleness with Lachie. I am a good sister. Even though he is often crash tackling me and pulling my hair.
* Mum has bought me some special hair shampoo that makes my hair look beautiful.
* I love painting my toe and finger nails. For the last few weeks they have been blue - my favourite colour.
* I love meat, yoghurt & fresh savoury rolls (like cheese&bacon, tomato&cheese or olive&cheese). * I love my afternoon sleep.
* At play-care when I am inside, I like to play babies and build towers with Sophie. Then when we go outside I like to run and jump and skip and throw balls and ride bicycles and play in sand pit and do lots of fun stuff with Tom and Daniel.
* I have beautiful manners most of the time.
* If you remind me when I forget, I will use my happy voice to ask for things......

...swimming lessons!!!! Isn't it? Well that's what we do...

I am doing really well in my swimming class. We go to Lane Cove Aquatic Centre where they have a purpose built arm-pit height pool.

We do lots of big kid skills - like kicking, paddling and back floating.
We also play lots of fun games like ring-a-ring-a-rosie, finding the toys that sink to the bottom of the pool and chasing after the toys that float on top of the water.

I also get to wear really cool goggles. Its so much fun!

As one of our adventure Fridays, in December mum and I went to a Wiggles concert.

Unfortunately it turned out their was a bus strike the day of the concert, which threw a little spanner in the works.....but once we got there, it was COOL!

It has all the elements of a GREAT concert:

• We had perfect seats - first level up - two rows back (with no-one sitting n front of us!). We were at eye level with the stage.
• There were bright lights, loud music and screaming fans everywhere.
• The Wiggles sang and danced and performed their rockin' songs with the energy of a toddler.
• There was a mosh pit of big kids (5+ year olds) at the front. Actually I think there were a few mums in there too?
• They turned the lights off at one point and everyone started swaying their glow sticks / mobiles in the air to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Mum & I shared a massive tub of popcorn. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs as the spill to eat ratio was 10 to one.

All in all it was an hour and a half of non-stop fun! Although it took me a little while to warm up to the scene (I was a little overwhelmed at first), I had an absolute ball.

To top it off mum bought me a Dorothy-the-Dinosaur tail (and Lachie a plush guitar) on the way out.

What an amazing adventure!

As part of the preparation for mum's to return to work, Lachie went to PlayCare one day a week in the lead up to Chrissy. This was fantastic because it meant mum and I could have a fun-filled one-on-one day every week.
We made the most of the opportunity and did some really cool stuff. We went to the zoo twice, to Homebush Acquatic Centre (and played in the water park), to the movies, to see Santa in the city, to a Wiggles concert, we got a pedicure...loads of things! It was busy-busy-busy fun-fun-fun!
Photos to come, but we had a great time :)

* I often refer to myself in the third person and usually as Elimena and not Eli.
* I am into pretend play. At the moment I particularly like making meals for you in the oven Grandpa made me.
* I am cuddly and snuggly and love having books read to me.
* At PlayCare I love the bikes and the sandpit. I have almost smuggled an entire sandpit home in my shoes!
* I am into beads, high-heels and hand-bags.
* I love BBQ chicken, meat of any kind really and fruit.
* I still have one good sleep a day and a big big one at night (12 hours).
...and when I'm not sleeping - I am busy, busy, busy.....

Haircuts are a lot more fun when you get them done with Mum!

The Christmas surprises this year had a distinct Dr Suess theme! (Purely by chance since they are always developed in strict family secrecy...)

Since getting it from Santa, I've been addicted to I Wish That I Had Duck Feet. So, Dad decided to see what it would be like if we did have duck feet, horns, a whale spout, a long tail and an elephant nose!

One things for sure ... it's a lot of fun to try!

A long, long tail is also great, but as predicted in the book, you can get tied up with it...

For the next few days the duck feet got a lot of action around the house - including baths and flying with Uncle Jus.

The other night we went to Harvey & Griet's house for a Christmas party with all the kids from mother's group.

It was amazing! They had a jumping castle setup in the living room and we were allowed to actually dive in, pull apart and eat a gingerbread house!

This photo has Harvey, Elimena, Anna, Griet, Luca (back to us). At the back is Xana and Jamie. Meanwhile Mum and Lachie seemed more interested in his dummy...

I have a few sayings that are uniquely mine that make me totally endearing, or so they tell me...

When I like something I say "Elimena big cuddle Christmas tree!". I mean that I like big Chrissy trees :)

Not everyone is at PlayCare all five days. Like me I'm only there three. The people are different on different days of the week. So if someone is not there I describe them as being "sick" even though it may be a day they are not enrolled. If they are there they are "very happy".

My favourite sayings at the moment are:
Oh man! (thank you Swiper off Dora)
Ooopsy-daisy!
Ooooh big one!
Uh Oh!
That's silly! or That's funny! (followed by a big mischievous chuckle :)
and mum's favourite: Awwwwww! That's nice :)

I have invented my own alphabet. It's kind of like the original but much better: ABCDEFGHIJKElimenaPQRSTUVWXYZ. Works well huh?

From left to right: Dolly, Socks, Baby, Doh-Doh and Pilla.