Shopping Around

I know it's been quite a while since I last posted anything on this blog. So here are a few photos for your enjoyment.

C got a new shopping cart a few weeks back and loves pushing her babies around the house in it. In this first photo she is doing her excited laugh. She opens her mouth as big as she can and squeals.

The zoo in winter is the place to be. All of the exhibits are quiet, except for the sounds of the animals, waterfalls and your own footsteps. All the kids' places are much less populated this time of year too. The little ones get to see more and do much more at the Family Play Zoo. We recently took some of our friends with us to experience it with us.

Give 'em a Kiss

Whenever C finds her baby doll she picks her up, says: "Baby" then gives her a kiss or two. I wanted to get this on video for you, but I got her kissing her stuffed bunny instead. I thought it would be enough to give you the idea. She does this with almost all of her stuffed animals these days. So sweet.

This is a photo of our little one reading in her rocking chair. She loves it. And, she actually reads too. She points to the photos and either makes the sound that the animal makes, or says the name of the item she sees. Most of the time she gets it right. When I took this video she had just did the arm motion and sound for the elephant. Sorry I missed that part.

I also wanted to add a few words to the list from yesterday. When I mentioned the new post to M he immediately asked if I put "apple," "Grandma/pa," "pop pop," "burrr," "mmmm" (when something tastes good), "bop," "hot," and "puppy." Again, I am sure we are still missing quite a few, but since I'm making lists I thought I'd add these too.

An Explosion of Vocabulary

Our little word sponge surprises me daily. Her vocabulary doubles every time I turn around. She’s added a few animal sounds to her repertoire and can say, clearly to her parents’ ears anyway, several random words.

One morning she walked over to the nightstand sticks her little pointer finger out and says: “Noooo. Bible,” clear as day. I never told her that the books on the nightstand were Bibles. But I found out that just one day prior, M told her not to play with the Bibles on his nightstand.

We pray together as a family at every meal and M and I both pray with C before she goes down to sleep at night. Last night I put her down by myself and after praying with her she said, “Amen.” Tonight M got to hear her say it too. It’s so cute.

One more story… I gave in a little and let C play on my computer for a bit. We found a site called Knee Bouncers online for toddlers. I thought it would be fun to see how she reacted to the animated characters. There is no real skill involved. All she has to do is touch any letter, number or space bar key and something happens on the screen. She absolutely loves it. She loves it so much that to take her away from it results in a little baby tantrum (easily stopped by distracting her with another toy). Well, we were playing the shapes game. The little characters take you through all the different shapes saying each one three or four times. They came to the oval and she immediately said, “Oval.” I am now a believer that these things actually teach the kids something. Don’t worry, we only do it maybe twice a week for five minutes at a time. She is not going to get carpal tunnel anytime soon.

Some other recent words that are rolling off the tip of her tongue:

Picture
Circle
Cock-a-doodle-do
Hoo, Hoo
Up
Light
Please—sounds more like peas. She does this with the little sign for please.
Elmo, or melmo (this is a big favorite right now since she got an Elmo doll that you place ears, noses and shoes on like you would a Mr. potato head)

Ear
Teeth
Honk, this usually accompanies pinching my nose.
Sock
Shoe
Boots
Shhh
Spoon
Cup
Glasses
Cracker
Baby
--that’s all I can think of right now. I know I am missing a bunch, but this is enough to show you how her little communication skills are developing.

Where did my playmates go?

When it comes to having fun our little girl knows how to show everyone a good time. She had so many playmates over the past two weeks. Jeff and Wendy for starters, then we travelled up to Michigan for a few days and hung out with some of M's school buddies and their families. When we got back, M's parents came to visit for a week. So little C had a constant audience for almost two solid weeks.

One of her favorite tricks is to show everyone how talented she is at climbing in and out of buckets, boxes, baskets, trays...oh just about anything.

She also enjoyed getting outside as often as possible, even in the cold weather and snow. We had a few days of temperatures above freezing so mommy said it would be okay to get out for a little while.
Mommy and Daddy had a chance to get out on their own too. M planned a whole day in Chicago that included Garrett's popcorn, Avatar at the Navy Pier IMAX, and dinner at Carnivale. Wow! What a special treat.

We also took a trip into Chicago to see the Field Museum. C loved the children's section where she had the opportunity to make a crown, play in the music room, and discover all sorts of stones, masks, bones, plant life and other items from all over the world.

We all had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa V. They left early this morning to fly back to Boston. C was slightly confused today. We asked her where Grandma and Grandpa were and she couldn't find them anywhere. She looked all around and returned her gaze back to us looking quite sad and disappointed that she couldn't find them.

Christmas Eve, Day and Day after

It was just the three of us this Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This was the very first Christmas that we didn't travel anywhere. We put up a tree, had stockings hanging from the mantle, went to our own church for Christmas Eve service. We even put out presents for little C to discover in the morning. She is still a little young to understand what's going on. But she did notice the gifts and couldn't stop herself from sorting through them as soon as she had a chance.

This is our sweet baby in her pretty Christmas dress.

On Christmas morning we exchanged a few small gifts and had the joy of watching C discover her new toys and books.

The very next day Grandma and Grandpa V arrived and we had a second Christmas. We exchange gifts while C and her grandparents spent some precious moments together. C quickly discovered that both Grandma and Grandpa wore zippers on their sweaters!! How fascinating.

A Bit of Boston in Chicago

Jeff and Wendy, dear friends of ours from Boston, came to visit the weekend before Christmas. M had a break from school and work so we were able to live it up and spend some good quality time together. We spent the first two days in Chicago checking out the sights, eating great food and seeing all the Christmastime sights we could. We also went to the zoo over the weekend and saw all of the pretty lights and decorations there too.

Thank you Jeff and Wendy for coming all the way out here to hang with us. We love you guys.