Random shots....

Smile

Drawing in a notebook

Paper chain decorated

Swing fun

My arm warmer

Eating and drawing in her cabinet house

Fairy preparations for Halloween party

Cat pumpkin

Face painting baby doll... eerie

The gift of an old communion dress...

We went to a celebration a few weeks ago to welcome home a friend, Amelia and her fiancee, Hendra, from Indonesia. It was a quick visit and celebration. Our friend and Amelia's mom, MaryEllen, had found her old communion dress when she was cleaning out her closet. She thought someone might enjoy using it to dress up. That someone was certainly Johari! When we got home from their house, she put it on right away without the slip, of course. And she pretended to be Amelia and I was Hendra. We danced to get married. She introduced him to her dog, Riley (Barney Boy played that part). We kissed. We hugged. She put on a veil.

She had a couple of pumpkins from Cortney that she was busy painting in between the wedding ceremonies.

triking at Greenlake in October.

Some time in October, Johari wanted to take her tricycle to Greenlake to bike around there. It was a beautiful day and she had fun doing it.

I think she is going to be ready for a bigger bike soon. She rode a little bicycle with training wheels all around the store the other day. She is used to being able to bike backwards on her tricycle so it took her a little bit of frustration and figuring out to work with the brakes when she pedaled backwards on the bike at the store.

More creative outlets....

Lua and Johari reading books on the couch...wearing newly made cat hat.

I have been knitting a whole lot. Really into it right now. My latest project was a pink cat hat for Johari. Johari has been knitting often as well. I give her a set of double pointed needles, some ends and yarn and she wraps it all up in some special way. It kind of looks like casting on. I am not sure what it is but she has a plan because sometimes she gets really frustrated and upset with it, saying, "The yarn is not doing what I want it to do!" And then she throws it down. But she picks it back up and works on it some more.

A necklace Johari made for Stacy

Johari has also been enjoying doing beading. She is making necklaces and bracelets for people.

Grandpa Marvin just got her a small but real guitar from Goodwill. She played it on the way to the grocery store through the grocery store and home again the other day. She has also started doing dance performances. Then she got people to take turns getting up to do a dance performance. I think it is so beautiful to watch her skip and twirl around the room, so free! I love it. Today, she incorporated the guitar and the dance performances. We took turns one would play the guitar while the other danced.

I might need to learn some guitar so that we can actually produce some organized music out of this nice little instrument. I have been interested in learning how to play a guitar for a little while now but I usually brush myself off as not having musical talent. But maybe it is just undiscovered.

Drawing

Johari has been doing a whole lot of drawing recently. She draws on paper and then she also can spend quite a while drawing on the DoodlePro. So I snap a picture of her drawings before she erases them away. It is nice to get a a record of her pictures but not have to have all of the waste of the piles of paper pictures. Some times she has a little notebook that she draws in. I wish that I could remember what her descriptions of these drawing were. She seems to be getting more and more elaborate and things are looking more and more like what she says that they are. It is amazing to watch.

Sunday Fremont Market

Johari's beautiful beaded shoes from the market

Johari collecting bottle caps and sticks in her potatohead lunch box from the market

Silly faces

This generous man gave Johari the Jimi Hendrix rainbow sweater and a deal on my Bob Marley shirt while he played Jimi on the guitar for Johari.

Ibrahim picked out some cars for his birthday

We went to the Fremont Market a few Sundays ago. It was a beautiful day. We had a good time. It is a market with lots of awesome arts and crafts and foods.

Her own decision...

One week ago today, Johari got her ears pierced. It was her decision. I had asked her about it a few different times in the past. I told her that it hurts a bit while getting pierced and that she could decide when and if she wanted to get her ears pierced. Those times she decided that she didn't. Then the other day she was holding a wallet that had two dangling things on it to her for at least 15 minutes or more. And switching it from ear to ear saying that these were her earrings. So I asked her again and by the next day she decided she was ready and wanted to get her ears pierced. When I reminded her that it would pinch a bit when she was getting it done, her response was, "I won't cry." She did cry after the first pierce but she did not stop the process. She cried through the second pierce. She got to choose the earrings that she wanted. They are rainbow sparkly flowers. On the way home from the mall later, she said, "I said that I wasn't going to cry. But I cried. That's confusing."

making graham cracker houses....

Johari saw this in one of her National Geographic kids magazines. She kept asking me if we could do it. I finally got the supplies. In the future, I will not get the generic graham crackers for this project. About 70% of them were cracked in half and easy to crumble. She had fun squeezing frosting and decorating.

I love listening to this girl

Last night, Johari said, "When we get home, I want to make banana muffins from Scrabble."

What she meant was 'scratch'.

The other day, I said, "Johari, you are hilarious!" And in her toddler style grump she said to me, "I am NOT malarious!!!"

I think the reason that I was saying that she was hilarious was because she was talking about how Barney Boy (our dog)'s mother was Chaka Khan. "Barney's mom, Chaka Khan, sells refrigerators. Would you like to buy one?" How does this all come together... I am not sure but with plenty of imagination.

This morning, Johari says, "I had a dream last night where there were 5 high chairs next to a really small table." This is the first time she has told me of a dream she had. I always wonder if she remembers some of her dreams. And coincidentally last night I was listening to NPR and there was a woman speaking who had written a book called The Philosophical Baby by Alison Gopnik, she was saying that babies and kids dream so much more than adults and learn so much from their dreams. (I haven't read the book and I only caught the tail end of talk but it sounded like interesting stuff.)

Playing in the jewelry box

Johari had fun playing with rings from my jewelry box.