Love of My Life, Brilliant, Beautiful, Impressive and Awesome

Shaela is brilliant and an old soul. She understands just about everything if you explain it to her. She has past her "terrible twos", which had lasted only a few months before her 2nd birthday during our move into our house last year. Her contrariness and Gemini personality are quelled by homeopathic Pulsatilla and explaining everything to her, showing how what we do is ultimately for her highest good. She will occassionally wake in a bad mood, and will say "no" to everything. I tell her it is ok if she is feeling mad or sad, but to let me know if I can help in anyway to make her happy. And to also let me know when she is feeling happy. I also tell her that she can chose to have a sad or frustrating day or a happy day. She will go about angry or sad for a few minutes and then after awhile, will look up at me and say, "I'm happy!" as she choses to be happy now. It is such a great feeling to have a child who understands that they have a choice in how they are feeling and what kind of day they will have (so long as they chose to be happy in the end!).

Shaela has had some "special time" with her Aunt Sue Sue and then the next weekend (Easter Weekend) with her Uncle James, Uncle Doug and cousin Benjamin. She loves the family sooooo much and had such a great time. The second morning she awoke, she stated, "Aunt Sue Sue wants wine!" She loves to have our hands talk to her (DaDa's Mr. Hand, Mama's Mrs. Hand, and Aunt Sue Sue's fishie). She also balls up her old silkie and calls it her "baby." "Baby" is usually crying and needs some love. Her "silky" is on its last leg. One of the original pillowcases (the other got lost at the airport going to Florida) is completely full of holes. We call it the holy silky. She still prefers this one to her holy scarf silky with tassels and her new scarf silky Daddy just bought on the internet. Shaela told us that Charlotte, her preschool teacher called it "scary."

Shaela had a wonderful time with Benjamin, decorating eggs, going on her first egg hunt and going to the Rattlesnake Museum in Albuquerque. Unfortunately, she did have a hypoglycemic melt down in the museum and we had to get her to a restaurant pronto. Two bites of a quesadilla and she was her wonderful self again.
Benjamin had said "hit the road Jack!", after which Shaela quickly responded, "hit the street!" She is quite amazing. When I tell her a new word, she reiterates it and says what it is not, to clarify. For instance, I told her she was quite "impressive." She immediately said, "not press, impressive!" In the car today, we were talking about the Dahli Lama. She first said "Dolly Mama," then I corrected her. She then said, "not Dolly Mama, Dolly lama!" She is so cute!

While in her car seat, looking out her window, Shaela often notes how the road closer to her seems to be going fast, but if she looks at the side farther away, it looks slower.

Shaela still loves "hanging things." She made me tape her hanging snow angel onto her little car, and said she had a hanging thing just like Daddy. She loves Finding Nemo, and will watch it over and over. She can sit for awhile now watching it and finding new aspects of the movie. She is fascinated with the "sad" parts. She is always playing that "sharks" or "barracudas" are coming to get her. She finds small nooks and being high, safe. She is fascinated with "explosions" (I think she learned this from school), and likes to mimic them. She likes to tell me that when she is older she will be able to go in the deep end of the pool, do cartwheels, headstands and handstands. She already can do a split really well. She is enjoying bouncing and jumping and had her first several rides on her tricycle down our driveway and back up. She is so cute on the tricycle, both pedelling and steering it. It is so much easier pushing her up the driveway with the extended rod from her tricycle than carrying her up!

Bedtime is no longer "On Top of Spaghetti", thank goodness! I read her "Princess Stories", which are made up fantasy stories about the Princess. She often flies to the moon, eats lots of salmon, sees Mr. Hand in the tent, and Mr. Peabunny in the round house and flies with her flapping arms. She loves them. Sometimes it is hard to be creative. Then I sing the song Everybody loves Shaela, naming all her relatives and friends. She loves this song and will sing it to her self often. It is so heartwarming to hear her singing about everyone loving Shaela.

On that note, Good night.
Blessings,
Debbie, Justin, Shaela, Kobi and Tara
ps. Today, we had a film crew come to our house to interview us for a possible show called "Renovation Nation" about Green building.