Nature School

That last post from daddy was so sweet!

Here a few pictures from our hike through the arboretum today. We have been very fortunate to learn about this free school from one of Max's coop mates mom. Today was all about smells. We smelled moss....yucky....witch hazel.....lovely and daphne....also lovely. We learned that plants boost there fragrance in the winter to attract beneficial insects. We were also fortunate to see the Heron on our little hike! Max made this flower in the picture and also got to smell and play with cinnamon, rosemary and mint home made play dough! So fun!!!!

Viv at 14 months

Daddy here ... 14 month check in on some of Vivian's new words:

• Backpack
• Book
• Dow (for door)
• I go (when we're leaving, as she starts grabbing her shoes and jacket)
• Wawa (for water, she points to the fridge and says 'wawa' when she's thirsty)
• Nigh-nigh (what she says when she's going to bed)

Ever since that epiphany we had with Max when he was about 15 months, we've been waiting to see when Vivian would start showing us her awareness of things even if she couldn't say the word yet. And sure enough, if you ask her where the door, couch, fridge, chair, shoes and other things are, she goes right over to them and taps on them. When you say "Bathtime, Vivian!" she immediately makes a bee-line to the bath and starts pulling off her clothes. Today, I asked her in the kitchen to bring me one of Max's "men" (action figures), and she ran off to his room and came back with SpiderMan and Falcon. One of here favorite things to do is say "book", grab one, hand it to me and plop down in my lap. Ahhhh. Of course, she usually doesn't stay past the first 2-3 pages... she's on a perpetual hunt to find something to climb on. She is certainly not a "sit still" little girl. And she can already throw a ball pretty well.

I can honestly say that there is nothing that has given me any greater pleasure in this life than to see the development of my children's minds, and to see their personalities take shape. It is nothing short of miraculous to watch it unfold.

Snowpacalypse 2012

We have been in the house all week while Charles is in sunny California for work. It sure would have been nice to have him around but we did manage to have some fun! I really enjoyed not running around all week. Max had his first sleepover at his friend Sylvan's house. We got there by sled and foot! Viv and I stayed home for some nice bonding time. She is getting better at communicating with words and gestures. She lets me know when she is done eating. She shakes her head and says no no.

She has been walking around tapping her feet like she's dancing. It's really cute.

I remember back to a snowstorm when Max was about this age. It is so much nicer to have the two of them now. Charles always tells him he is the man of the house when he goes away.

Vivian at 13 months

When Max turned one, we took a little inventory of some of the things he was doing and the words he had. So we'll do the same with Viv!

• Viv started walking at 10.5 months, so now 2.5 months later, she's nearly running. She's super fast and can turn on a dime. She and Max chase each other around the house, and Viv loves to join in with the older kids at the playground when they're kicking the ball around after Max's preschool. She loves climbing, so much so that leaving her alone in the living room for more than 10 seconds usually results in her hiking here leg up on the couch and climbing up to get at the books on the shelf. It's cute to see, but hectic to keep her from taking a nasty header onto the wood floors. (See the mark on her forehead in the pix above.)
• Viv is overall a very happy, inquisitive, energetic, VERY talkative fun-loving little girl. She is totally content most times to just be cruising around from thing to thing in the house. One of the cutest things she does is help us unload the dishwasher, pulling out plates and holding them up with a big smile on her face. She also is going to love playing dressup, as she walks around all the time trying to put Max's shirts and her jackets over her head.
• She's still a difficult napper, some days barely getting 20 minutes in the morning and maybe 20 in the afternoon. She just can't miss out on the action. Night times are getting better; she generally wakes up somewhere between 3-5am, but will go back to sleep until 7-8. Not ideal, but could be worse. At least that's what we tell ourselves to keep our sanity ... not sure if its working.
• Here's the words that Vivian says voluntarily: mama, dada, bubba (what she calls Max), hi, bye, ball, apple, baby, yeah. She also knows what lots of things are (rings, books, shoes, etc.) and will bring them to you when asked. She's a sharp one!

Sheesh repeat pictures

I post the same pictures from a previous post sometimes! I'm often in such a hurry these days to do things, I don't go back and look. I'll just have to remember to delete them when we make the blog book!

December

Max and Viv kept us busy this weekend with lots of parties. Max probably consumed a pound of sugar! Viv and her peps gang got to hang out while we had some wine and dinner. You can see in Vivian's eyes that she can't wait to catch up to big brother. They're fun to watch!

Random Recents!