Carmen's separation anxiety seems to have abated a bit - I even left the house today and left her with Jeffrey, without a tear!  She is starting to be a little more verbal.  She will try to repeat words that I ask her to say.  She usually makes a total mess of it, but at least she is trying!  I can't wait until I can understand what she wants!  Right now she makes this horrible drawn-out whining noise.  In an effort to put an end to this noise at lunch one day, I started making her say wawa for water (she was whining for her water).  Now whenever she is whining, we say to her, "what do you say?"  and she says wawawawa.  She never clued in to the fact that I was actually talking about water.  But let me tell you, wawawawa is a lot better than the whining noise!

This week-end we had our 2nd annual Thornhill family pre-Christmas get together (thanks for all of your hard work Aunty Georgia!).  Carmen slept through the lunch, but was quite happy to see Georgia's house full of people and to have her first taste of real ice cream (yes, I know I am strict, but she loves her broccoli in her breakfast!).  She got to spend some time with her (2nd) cousin Lucy who is only just a few months older, as well meeting the rest of the family for only the second time.

On Sunday we took her to her favourite park.  How can you not take her, when she thinks it is the best place in the whole world?  If only her favourite park had horses freely roaming through it...

Two cute videos of Carmen after her bath:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbq580-pO2w&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF-Ztg3-orM&list=UU21-zydO1IYNApoXHx_P8LQ&index=1