New Years in California!

We flew down to California last Friday to visit Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai (Elvin's parents). Eliana was looking forward to the trip all week long, partly because she knew that she was going to get another set of Christmas presents from her grandparents and aunt/uncle. Essentially, she was going to celebrate Christmas all over again. Also, she loves going on airplanes -- anywhere!When we arrived in California, Elvin's cousin, Franklin, his wife, Anne, and their 7-month old son, Sebastien, were in town from Brazil and stopped by. Also, Uncle Leslie (Elvin's brother), Auntie Sue, and their 6-week old, Elliott, were also there. Suddenly, the house was full of babies!On Saturday night, we had a big dinner and opened presents afterwards. Eliana was VERY excited to get her own umbrella. "It's beauful!" she says. Thereafter, every 2 hours, she would ask if it was raining so she could go outside and use it.
In the past month, Eliana has developed a habit where she pretends she's checking her email. She'll do this on an alarm clock or an imaginary laptop. Apparently Santa took note because Eliana got a toy laptop during her 2nd Christmas. It plays music, which she loves to dance to, and also has pretend emails on it.

We took family portraits after opening presents. Amazingly, all three kids/babies cooperated.

Uncle Leslie, Auntie Sue, and baby Elliott were also taking a family picture. Eliana decided to insert herself into their family picture. After all, isn't everyone part of the same family?

Eliana was super lucky because her Nai-nai loves buying Eliana toys, clothes, and candy. Eliana got a Godiva chocolate gingerbread man from Nai-nai. Eliana promptly bit its head off.

She was also fascinated with baby Elliott. She watched his every move and wanted to pet him and hold him.

On Saturday, we visited Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, which is a petting zoo and park in San Jose geared towards young kids. She loves riding the merry-go-round and chose the same "horsey" that she rode when we last visited the park 2 months ago.

We also fed and petted some goats, which AGAIN tried to eat the corner of Elvin's jacket. Karina thought the park was so-so. She mainly just hung out (literally) with Mommy while Eliana played around.

Back at Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai's house, she got more attention.

Karina enjoyed looking at baby picture albums of when Daddy was a baby.

We flew back home on Monday afternoon. Eliana refused to take her nap that day and fell asleep about 3 minutes into the flight.