Halloween & 2.5

At the end of October, Miss Cecilia turned 2.5 and also celebrated her 3rd Halloween.  2.5 is such a fun age - she really understands everything that's going on and Halloween was no exception.  For the first time, she was super into the festivities.  When I asked her what she wanted to be, her reply was "A dinosaur! Raaarrrrr!!!" - which totally took me by surprise because she's really into Frozen and princesses at the moment; I have no idea where the dinosaur idea came from.  I asked a few more times over a week or two and every time her answer was the same.  As I was shopping around for dinosaur costumes online I found a really cute one along with a purple dragon.  I showed her both and she got really excited about the purple dragon (she's a big Room on the Broom fan, and loves the dragon).  When the costume came in the mail she couldn't wait to put it on, and she looked at her calendar every day to see if it was Halloween (or time for a Halloween party) yet.  We also had fun painting and carving pumpkins to get in the spirit!

 

Thankfully, she had lots of opportunities to wear her costume.  We had a party at our weekly playgroup, complete with themed snacks and games, including a witch relay race!

Then there was a the Halloween party on base with more games, crafts and a DJ!

Cali was a witch! 

The following day, we went to our local mall where they had Trick Or Treating, Ceci loved hunting for pumpkins in the window displays to find the stores that were giving out candy and she said "Trick Or Treat!" like a pro.  There was even free face painting, which she waited incredibly patiently for.

Trick Or Treat!

Getting her face painted like a big girl

Raaaarrrrrr!!

Then on Halloween itself she got to go Trick Or Treating to a few houses in our neighborhood. She had an absolute blast, and I think Halloween is quickly becoming her favorite holiday!


Looking back over the past couple months, it's amazing to see how much Ceci has grown.  Physically, she's grown several centimeters (our grow line is British, so it's metric!) and when we recently measured her she's about 3'1" and 30lbs!  It's also crazy to see how much older she looks compared to just a couple months ago (September on left, November on right, wearing her homemade crown)

And again, just over 3 months apart, August on the left, November on the right:

 

 She's been up to a lot these past few months.  One of the biggest events was taking a special trip on the tube into London to meet Bing, one of her favorite TV characters! She was so excited to give him a hug and even got to decorate bunny biscuits.

Big girl on the tube

So excited to go meet Bing!

Big girl lunch in the city before Bing

It's Bing!

Checking our her goodies on the tube ride home

Another big event was going to see her first show - Peppa Pig Live!

She really liked the peppa light up pinwheel her daddy got her

Big girl in her seat

She was very well behaved and loved the show!

Peppa Pig was a new obsession right before the show came to town and it has persisted.  Though she still likes Bing, Mickey and friends, and Frozen, Peppa has definitely taken the #1 spot.

She was pretty excited when we found Peppa at a local mall

She's still really into playing outside, with a new favorite addition being her "mud kitchen".  She also loves jumping in puddles, running, bubbles, ball games and going to the park.

She never lets a little rain stop her

"Fixing" her car in nicer weather

Other favorite activities still include cooking, coloring/drawing/painting, reading stories, singing/dancing/making music.  Some new skills that have developed recently are balancing on one foot, doing forward rolls, counting to 20 (usually without help), starting to recognize many shapes, numbers and letters, and even writing her name!

Baking cookies

One her first solo attempt she got her E backwards

Her second solo attempt was quite impressive!

She's still a pretty adventurous eater when she's in the right mood.  (She can also be a picky toddler when she's not).  Overall, though, she does really well.

She loves sushi!

Trying to use chopsticks - she did pretty good!

Enjoying the "Sun and Sea" kebabs she helped cook

Part of her love of cooking also includes enjoying seeing where food comes from.  So we've taken a few trips to the pick your farm to get fruits and veggies.  

 Knock on wood, she's still doing great in her big girl bed!  She's still taking a 2-2.5 hour nap (usually 1-3pm) and then sleeping 7-7 at night.  Though she's not always asleep, she still stays patiently and quietly in her bed until Mr. Sun wakes up.  We're desperately hoping this continues!

We continue to be amazed by Ceci daily.  She's such a kind, loving, clever, funny little girl and we couldn't be prouder or love her more!