Thanksgiving Day was an incredible feast of Puerto Rican food! Actually, every day seemed to be a great day of Puerto Rican food thanks to Abuela... I'm sorry to say that Little Miss Hunger Strike missed out. She usually loves red beans & rice, but wouldn't TOUCH it. In fact, she wouldn't touch most of her tried-and-true foods. She even started a new thing in Buffalo, where she'd put a bit of something in her mouth, and then just leave it there! No chewing, no talking, no moving her mouth, no drinking - nothing! We tried several different approaches, and finally after about 20 minutes of having a piece of broccoli sit in her mouth, I got her to open her mouth to take a drink from her sippy so she'd swallow (I'm so smart). Well, she's smarter than Mommy apparently, because she opened her mouth to take a drink and it all just came dribbling out. What the...??? She pulled this stunt on a number of occasions, and I have NO idea why. But I digress...
A bunch of us ate our hearts out at Abuela & Abuelo's, then in the evening most of us headed over to Uncle Bing & Aunt Denise's house for yummy desserts.
Thanksgiving morning, watching cartoons and having a snack amonst her "friends". Ellison was totally in love with all of Titi Marie's Hallmark snowmen that move & sing. Here's her infamous fake smile. (hee, hee). :)
Wearing a tiara that Titi Marie gave her
Titi Teresa brought Ellison some new crayons and a turkey picture to color
With Titi Ana
Daddy & Ellison with her Uncle Joe & Aunt Margaret, and their 4 granddaughters (Bianca, Natalia, Genesis, & Gabriela)
A very small sampling of the Soto men: Jon brother, Joe, with his sons, Mikey & Tato; Papi (Jon's dad); Jon; Jon's nephew, Nicholas
Margaret & Gabriela
Oh, Ellison WOULD eat these Christmas cookies by the handful, though! She's licking off the powdered sugar. About every 5 minutes she was asking, "More, please".
Ellison was in her glory with the little Christmas villages and moving Christmas decorations, as I mentioned before. She would just lay in front of them and watch, or she'd play with the little figurines.
Ellison's cousin Nicholas. She kept calling him "Necklace" and grabbing her neck when she'd call him. :)
Titi Marie
Titi Ana
The yummy cake (that remains on Mommy's hips to this day)
Princess preparations - lunch before the party
E loved her Titis' tupperware cupboard. You can tell by the look on her face that she thinks she's getting into something she shouldn't be.
Surveying her clip-ons
The first to arrive - Ellison's cousin Ruthie and her daughter Zaina. Ell & Zaina were coloring together.
Ellison with her cousin Sheree
Zoe (Sheree's daughter), cousin Ruthie, Ellison, Zaina, & Sheree
Hugs from Nati
Zaine, Natalia, & Ellison playing with hand puppets
The princess with her mommy (does that make me a queen? :) )
E had to be plopped right down in front of the bowl of chips
Daddy & Mookie
With the size of the partial ginormous Soto family that was at the party - you can imagine how great the "Happy Birthday" song sounded to Ell.
We had a hard time keeping E's fingers out of the cake long enough for a pic with her grandparents
Yummy ice cream!
Trying on her new engraved bracelet from Titi Ana
Taking a bath in Titi Ana & Marie's big sink with Abuela's help
Ellison loves to look at pictures. She still says, "More see 'em", and it wasn't any different when Jon's sisters were wippin' out old photos.
Our electronics queen, following in her daddy's footsteps.
"Yeah, it was hard work, but I feel such a sense of accomplishment!"
"C'mon Titi Marie - you totally have a bare spot over there!"
Ell loves ladders, despite her neurotic former-ER-nurse mother.
Abuelo scooped her up to give her a hug and kiss. :)
During our shopping excursion, Daddy spotted a Yankees hat that he absolutely had to buy for his daughter. "I have to buy her her first Yankee's hat!". Ellison wouldn't go without it for a while - she puts it on backwards and just goes about her business. It looked especially cute with the pink pearl necklace she had to have on one morning.
Titi Marie let her decorate the little feather tree all by herself
Titi Teresa brought Ellison some new crayons and a turkey picture to color
With Titi Ana
Daddy & Ellison with her Uncle Joe & Aunt Margaret, and their 4 granddaughters (Bianca, Natalia, Genesis, & Gabriela)
A very small sampling of the Soto men: Jon brother, Joe, with his sons, Mikey & Tato; Papi (Jon's dad); Jon; Jon's nephew, Nicholas
Margaret & Gabriela
Oh, Ellison WOULD eat these Christmas cookies by the handful, though! She's licking off the powdered sugar. About every 5 minutes she was asking, "More, please".