Our neighbor's daughter, Reina, just had her 4th birthday party. The theme of the party was horses and animals, so they had a petting zoo in their front yard. Deanna found herself at home with the animals in the pen. She especially enjoyed the pigs. We tried to get her to ride the pony, but she wasn't too crazy about that.
Deanna has been enrolled at the Little Gym since she was 9 months old. Right now, Deanna is part of the "Birdies" class (10-18 months). It is a great place where Deanna gets to play with other kids and gets to practice skills that will help her get stronger and agile. Many call this class a "pre-gymnastics" class. Deanna loves doing her forward roll and automatically tucks her head when told. (The lady you see in the pictures with Deanna is Gina her instructor)
We are definitely lucky to live in Florida because not many people can say that they went to the beach on New Years Eve. We took Deanna to the beach on Key Biscayne, which is known for the sandbars. Deanna had a great time splashing around and exploring. She chased after seagulls for about 20 minutes (see pic below) and became frustrated they they didn't want to play with her. After she realized they weren't going to play, she went over to other kids building sand castles. I was worried that she was going to knock down all of their hard work, instead, she just stood by watching intently. (To see more pics of the beach, check out the Flickr sidebar)
Even though Deanna still doesn't know the meaning behind Christmas, she sure did get the hang of opening the presents. She had a great time tearing off the wrapping paper, carrying around the bags, and playing with the boxes. We had an early dinner, so that Deanna would still be in good spirits when we sat down to open presents. All night she would go up to the presents with a curious eye, so she was excited when we finally sat down to open them. She was so exhausted that she didn't even get to opening all of her presents.
Since Deanna is walking now, we decided to take Deanna to the park so that she could romp around. She loved it! She was all over the place walking around and exploring. She especially loved the sandbox (see pics below).
