Jasmin Is Three!

Silly faces during hot dog party lunch.
I actually found hot dogs Jasmin can eat!!
She ate so much (they were BIG) that she wasn't really interested in actually eating her cake!

But she had to light and blow out her candles twice...

She only opened one present at the party,
but as you can see from her reaction, that was no problem for her!

An instant hit:

...balancing things...
...tall things...
Even Daddy too...
Jasmin telling about her creation:

She gives it a number because our building is called Renaissance 2000.

We had a really good day. We almost did a princess party theme as Jasmin is quite taken with such things: she often twirls around singing,"Cinderella, Cinderella, Cinderella..." and likes to wear dresses. But what we did is equally Jasmin. And her other present is a beautiful birthday tea party set :o)

For Jasmin, the stories have to be in a book...

Visiting a few nights ago, Grace and Jasmin were drawing pictures. These two of Grace's became a fairly consistent story even a few days later. I'll post Jasmin's next.

Jasmin Stories

Tuesday Jasmin lost her blankie. We were walking to the mall to get groceries, which is quite the undertaking as the way threads along a narrow sidewalk with cement poles and whatnot scattered along it, under an overpass at a busy intersection, past some construction spilling onto the sidewalk, along a sunny hot busy street, across another major intersection.... with two little ones, it is not easy. So we didn't discover the loss of blankie until we were almost there. Mommy really didn't want to turn around and go looking for it and then have to still go shopping. Jasmin was mollified with a promise to look for it on the way home. She surprised Mommy with "...and I have two blankies so I still have one at home. But I want clean blankie (the name for the one she lost)" But when it was time to go home, we all realized that we had to take a taxi home with the groceries and wouldn't be walking to look for blankie. Jasmin's face crumpled again and tears began.
But a quick text to Daddy at work settled that. He actually left work right then and there to walk the street looking for it. Jasmin, full of child-like trust in Daddy, was satisfied once again. Lo and behold, Daddy did find it - even though this was now a few hours after it was lost! He called to tell Jasmin he'd found it. First thing Jasmin says when she gets the phone is "Daddy, I lost my blanket" and tells a long garbled version of events. When daddy got space to tell his news, the phone was no longer important to Jasmin. She pushed it aside. "Grace! Daddy found blankie!" she exclaimed with eyes wide and a little dance.
When Daddy finally got home that evening, blankie was hugged hard, and then spread out lovingly on the floor. "No Daddy, don't play with it. I have to say sorry first!" And she sat down, stroking blankie carefully, "I'm sorry, blankie. I won't miss you again."

_________

Today we went exploring. With a little internet help, we found a fantastic toy store. A hidden gem, to be sure. On the 15th floor of a business tower, it is tucked away with now outside advertising or signage. It is a store, but kids are invited to play with sample merchandise - the staff actually take time to play with them! We were the only ones there today.
Grace and Jasmin thoroughly enjoyed playing picnic with a wooden picnic/tea set with the staff lady, and exploring the lovely selection of math/science toys. We chose a picnic set for Jasmin's birthday on Monday. She was so proud to be bringing one home! Of course, she wasn't so happy to realize she couldn't play with it as soon as we got home... But by the time Daddy got home she was all happy anticipation, "Daddy, I bought a present today!" she said, on her knees, eyes wide and leaning over her supper plate, "for my birthday! It's up there! (on top of the fridge)"
"Really? And how old are you going to be?"
"Four!" with pleased satisfaction.
"How many candles will be on your cake?"
"Seven!" counting on her fingers.
"No, you're going to be three. 1-2-3"
"Yes, three." with giggles. "I bought a present! For my birthday!"
"How old are you going to be?"
"Four!" with four fingers.

I think she wants to catch up to Grace who is quite proud she's four :O)

The pool has been closed for maintenance for just over a week now. Mommy is casting about for things to keep the girls busy. This gets tricky when she's trying to stay in the air conditioned bedroom as much as possible... so old activities get new twists....


"this is Mirella. She's a girl - see her long hair? She's got long legs and red hands so she can play with me. She is shouting, that's why her mouth is so big.""See? I painted myself too! It's a tree and a fairy flying over to go get a friend."

Mommy is itchy.

I have this rash just about all over except my back and face. This was taken when it looked good! Most of the time it is a very angry red. Itchy. Makes it hard not to be crabby and distracted when I'm hot as that makes it itch more.

I went to a doctor today. "Heat rash - it's the weather" she said at first, but the final outcome is basically that I'm allergic the the air in Manila: hot, humid, and polluted. Since this is coupled with asthma-like symptoms, this is not a good diagnosis to hear. But now that I'm armed with a set of lotions and potions hopefully relief is in sight.

A bit of desperation/laziness on Monday turned out a week long project... so we've had a neat week. Some special lightweight, easy-drying clay they got for Christmas finally got opened. At first it was just play dough play. Then Mommy realized it had to be all "modeled" as it wouldn't keep like play dough. Many ideas got rejected until she hit on the idea of making beads for stringing... We all got very absorbed making tiny balls and other shapes and poking holes through them one day. This lasted for over an hour - Mommy was very impressed! Once the attention waned, the left over clay we put around a water bottle to make Daddy a pencil holder for his desk at work. We rolled out a ball too, as the clay seemed bouncy. The next day we painted out collection of beads, holders, and ball.


This didn't absorb attention quite as long as the bead making, but it was a lot of fun together! Grace kept us all entertained with a running stream of why questions and commentary on what color where and why. She stuck with it until all the beads were painted, but Jasmin wandered off after awhile.The next day we strung the beads into necklaces and tried out the ball. It does bounce! The fun was a bit dampened by Mommy's warning that if it bounced out the window it would be gone for good... the likelihood of it surviving a 27 floor drop and us finding it again?... but it provided a bit more rowdy of an activity just when they needed it.