Well, Christmas has ended. Thanks to my new job, Veronica ended up with a pretty impressive amount of toys, as well as an Imaginarium train table. Her favorite items thus far, however? The Dora playset from my mom and dad, and this Littlest Pet Shop pack with a cat and a hamster (which she also thinks is a kitty) that set me back about $6.00. Of course.

She also learned what Santa Claus says, walking around the house saying "Ho ho ho, Merry Chris-mess, ho ho ho!" She sounds just like a pixie version of the demented Santa that Ralphie encounters in "A Christmas Story." It's comical.

And she can count to ten now! I know she can actually count objects up to three, but she can recite all the numbers from one to ten. She can identify the letter "M" and the number "4" (although she also gets the capital "A" confused with four.) And with her Dora playset comes Tico the Squirrel. He doesn't look like any damn squirrel I've ever seen, but I digress. On the show, Tico only speaks Spanish. So whenever she asks me to play Tico, I make him speak Spanish (albeit the little bits I can still remember.) At first I thought she was irritated by this, and maybe she was, but certainly not anymore. She doesn't even ask Jason to play Tico now, and better yet, she's starting to understand "Tico's" part of the conversation. She mentioned she wanted to play with Boots, Dora's monkey, while I was playing Tico today, so I had Tico ask "Donde esta Boots?" And Veronica answered "Dere he is! Dere's Boots!" and pointed to the computer desk, where indeed a little figure of Boots sat in front of the monitor. As you can imagine, I'm really proud of her. (What mommy blog would be complete without a little brag now and again?)

And for those concerned: The bite marks are gone, and Veronica seems unscathed by the biting episode. My blood is no longer boiling either. So we spoiled Kiddo rotten for Christmas, she's soaking up info like a sponge, and all seems to be well for now. More later, and hopefully soon. :-)