Happy New Year 2011 (week 201)

Happy New Year! Friday night we had a party at Jackson's house. We wore our pajamas and brought our sleeping bags over to his house because Mama and Dada said we would get to stay-up late. Christopher fell asleep at his normal time but everyone else stayed-up past midnight. We ate lots of sugar and chased each other around the house. Unfortunately, we also didn't sleep-in any longer and were all tired the next day when the Rose Parade came-on.

Ever since we saw the ball drop in Times Square on New Year's Eve, I have been watching and re-watching the event on YouTube religiously. It is the first thing that I talk about when I wake-up and the last thing that I talk about when I go to bed. I even dream about it. When visitors come over to the house, we talk about the ball dropping. The Tree Lighting in Signal Hill has certainly taken a back seat to my new obsession.

While I am known for focusing on things intensely, this event is something special because it has everything that I love combined into one: fireworks, cheering crowds, massive television screens, a giant ball, and the big countdown. Dada got so fed-up with me talking about the ball dropping that he taught me to use the computer so that I could replay the video for myself. At one point, I watched the video over 20 times in a row and counted down each time.

Our house guests were finally able to get back to New York on Wednesday of this week. After the huge blizzards on the East Coast, over 7,000 flights were canceled and all of my grandparents, aunts and uncles were trapped in California. They spent countless hours switching and re-booking flights (eventually getting out of San Francisco). It is a total bummer--I was hoping they would stay an extra few days to play with me and Chris.

One benefit of the delay was that we got to go to Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park. It is sort of like Disneyland, except that there is no Mickey Mouse. Instead, Chris and I got to see Charlie Brown and the entire Peanuts gang. We also played lots of carnival games and I got my first pop-gun. Dada says that I can shoot it at imaginary burglars, but not at real people. My friends and I have been getting in trouble for talking about making people dead and pretending to shoot each other recently.

Chris keeps growing and catching colds. Lately, he has also been waking-up every hour because of his stuffy nose and because he says he is hungry. His walking is getting much better, but he is still very unstable--as evidenced by his falling off the patio again and bumping his head. Right now, he has a giant scrape on his forehead, noes and left eye. He looks like he has been picking fights with much bigger guys and losing them.