Can't wait to get the pics!

Victoria and I went to meet up with Nat and Rowley and Jen and Ayden. We had a professional photographer for the afternoon, so got some great pics of the three girls. Here's a little preview - just a few shots Busha got by standing off to the side. :) She was a perfect angel for the photographer - did just what she asked of her. I stayed out of the way (I think I'd have made things worse if I tried to get involved :) ).

Culinary Dreams - Fixed!!!

V is always watching us make dinner. And of course, she is always watching some of our favorite shows i.e. F Word, Hell's Kitchen, Top Chef, Rachel Ray, No Reservations etc... All cooking shows. So we picked up a little toy for V with some of Grandpa Russ' belated Christmas gift card. The various food items are stuck together with Velcro, which you can then cut with a plastic knife and cutting board. Sometimes she is successful....

Funny Video

Every night, after bathtime, it's naked baby time... sometimes it's the best time to catch V at her finest! (Partial nudity - only because I put undies on her for the video's sake!)

Model in training?

Getting better today

Victoria's energy level is on the way back up today... still at about 60%, but definitely better.

Oh - I got a ponytail in her hair very briefly the other day!

Sick (again!)

Well, Victoria has been to the doctor twice in the past two days. Yesterday began at about 4am with a lot more coughing than usual, then transitioned into throwing up all over a couple times in the morning. Yesterday, the doc thought it was just the drainage in her head that was causing the coughing and vomiting. Last night the cough progressed into a fever, chills, and more coughing. After a rough night of coughing (but sleeping 13 and a half hours), today I was met with a lethargic child who wanted to do nothing but lay in my lap, or lay on the floor. Back to the doctor, flu swab came back negative, chest x-ray came back clear. So, we're sticking with the ammoxicillin. If she's still the same on Friday, she'll get blood drawn to check for mono. After a two and a half hour nap this afternoon, she seems to be perking up a little.

I can do it... I don't need help!

Or so she thinks! This is an example of the result of a toddler who wants to dress (or undress) herself!

March of Dimes Walk for Babies

We just signed up for the Bay City walk to support the March of Dimes. By checking this blog, you already know why the March of Dimes is so important to us. Please visit our page and join the team to raise money and walk, or just donate some hard earned cash.

New Dress

Two cuties on a couch

Kristin has been slacking on updating the blog... I think you all should leave motivating comments for her to update quicker! Anyway, the second pic is Ella, our niece. When I took this photo she smiled upon request. Destined to be a model I guess.

Quick Updates...

Many of you know...Kristin had surgery on Wednesday and is doing well. The surgery was a private matter that a lot of people know about. If you are curious/nosy then ask her and I'm sure she will let you in. Anyway, the stay at the hospital was a bit longer than we expected due to some nausea from the anesthesia. She is now doing well and is quite sore. Hopefully tomorrow will be much better. Victoria is spending a few days with Bruce and Karen...and yes, those are Dora underwear on her head.

Also, some of you may not know about the ability to leave messages on our blog (Dad). It is really easy. Just look below this post on the right where is says "comments". Click the link and you can leave a message by following the instructions. If you are not registered you can still leave a message as anonymous. However, please write your name at the bottom or we will not know who you are. We read and appreciate all comments.
Rod

Learning fun

Victoria's counting skills have been taken up a notch, on her own. She can count to 20 now (tho she misses 19 sometimes) and started counting in Spanish the other day! Of course, that usually goes something like this, "uno, dos, clays, ocho, cinco, ses" Thanks to Dora, Manny, and Diego for that one!

She's also learning sounds words make, thanks in part to the fridge alphabet, "S says ssss".

On the flipside, tantrums are in full force. As is "NO!" (her new fave phrase anytime we tell her to do something, or not do something). And time outs are getting more frequent, too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I Like It, I Love It!

Victoria has been expressing her feelings/emotions quite a bit the past few days. Beginning about two days ago, she started the day with "I like these!" referring to the big-girl undies we were putting on. Since then, that phrase has been a constant - whether it's in reference to food ("I love blueberries!") or jammies (she has some soft fleece ones she just loves). Mostly, it's been things around the house she's really showing a fondness for.

The one exception was last night. We were watching Rachael Ray, and V commented that RR was making spaghetti. Somehow, her train of thought went from spaghetti to McDonalds. The next thing out of her mouth was something like this: "spaghetti! yum! McDonalds! I LOVE McDonald's!"

Yup. Quite the ham.

On another 'note', songs seem to be running together. Example (what I heard in the kitchen the other day): "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday t, u, v, w, x, y and z. Now I know my abc's, next time won't you..." Her train of thought is about as one-tracked as her mother's!

No Hope for this girl

I fear Victoria's going to follow in her mother's shoes when it comes to fashion sense. I'm fairly certain I never wore anything that matched until college. Hopefully it won't take V that long!

In doing laundry the other day, here's how she looked after pulling what she wanted to wear (the long 'dress' is my bathing suit top!) Eclectic? I'd say so.

Special message for Jaj and Busha

What's new?

Sorry posts have been lacking lately. Part of the break is that it's becoming increasingly difficult to get Victoria to hold still long enough to take a photo! Part of it is that I haven't even pulled pics off the camera in two weeks. The other part is that she's running around like crazy - singing, dancing, counting, identifying everything in sight, or literally running in circles till she drops!

Here's the outfit she got from Aunt Bo for Christmas (it's a 2T, and still quite a bit big), playing with the camera from Grandma Penny & Papa Jim!

Swimming classes started up again this past Saturday, and she looks forward to the next class as soon as we've left the pool. I've even heard her talking about it in her sleep!

Then Sunday we had our first Krispy Kreme experience. She doesn't like donuts very much, but loves sprinkles!

On the potty training front, we're not too serious about it yet, though (knock on wood) she's been in big girl panties (Dora, of course!) this afternoon for over two hours with no accidents!
As much as I didn't (and don't) want to get into the whole obsession over one character, she does love Dora.

Thank you, boy!

Victoria and I ran into Toys R Us yesterday for some play doh, and the greatest thing happened.

As we were in the checkout line, a family got in line behind us (mom, dad and son around 8 or 9 years old). V's face lit up, as she saw the boy had a mylar balloon. Her reaction was to yell "(gasp!) A BALLOON!!!" She was just gushing about it, and admiring it, telling me what colors were on the balloon, when the boy walked up to her and handed it to her! I asked, just to make sure he wasn't just showing it to her and he said, "she can have it." It made V's day, and it made my day. It was all she talked about the entire ride home "I got a balloon!!", "Thank you, boy!", "Look! A blue balloon!" (which is a tough one for a toddler to say), and still talks about the balloon - that is if she's not toting it around behind her.

It's so gratifying to know there are still some good kids (and good parents) out there!

just some photos

Victoria found the remnants of our New Year's celebration outside (check out her fingers).

Note also her 'eclectic' outfit!

She seems to think the baby's stroller is just her size.

Future rockstar?!? Or just future nudist?!!!

Happy New Year!!

We can't help but be excited, encouraged, and nothing short of beaming proud parents when we see the amazing progress Victoria has made over the past year. Here's a breakdown of the high points as they were at the end of the year:

She can count to 13
She can sing her abc's mostly
She recognizes all upper-case and lower-case letters, can tell you what a letter is, and if you ask her to find a letter, she can identify it that way.
She knows the colors red, yellow, blue, green, purple, black, white, gray, pink, brown, orange.
She sings Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Happy Birthday, Rock-a-bye baby, and Patty-cake.
Her vocabulary is great - she knows please, thank you, excuse me, bless you, and our latest, "may I have it, please?" :)
She's also begun to recognize individual items and their place "daddy's toothbrush", "blue car", and can count things "three books", "two shoes".

Physical skills are a little on the uncoordinated side (thanks to mommy, I'm sure!) but she attempts to throw a ball, can't catch, doesn't really try to catch yet. Can jump and get both feet off the ground, and has started trying to jump down the stairs (holding hands, of course).

She's getting more picky about what she will and won't eat - she went to being the veggie queen to not eating any (not even frozen peas - which were right up there with blueberries!). She still loves fruit - craisins, raisins, grapes, apple, oranges, blueberries, etc.

Meal staples have become mac&cheese, turkey hot dogs, chicken fingers, and Gerber ravioli for lunch and dinner. Ah, well - at least she still loves dairy products, and loves her Flinstone vitamin as well!

Holiday photos

Here are a few photos from the three Christmases we had.

Christmas Eve-Eve at Uncle Jeff & Aunt Marie's...

Our house Christmas Eve with Grandma Penny & Papa Jim...
And (finally!) Christmas Morning at our house...

She's here!!!

Check out Jeff & Marie's blog for the news!

A little tidbit: named after Grandma B, born on Grandpa B's birthday. A wonderful surprise.

Merry Christmas!!!

Yeah, I'm post-dating this post back to the 25th, but I wanted to share our card with those of you in the cyber world who didn't get a card from us!

Warm?!?

Well, the temp outside right now is 38 degrees. The thing is, the snow's not so much melting as just getting heavy and packing down.

The upside is it's great snowman-making packing snow (and would be some wicked-deadly snowball-making snow).

The downside is a driveway that's basically a sheet of ice.

After Victoria, Olly and I played outside for a while this morning, I took the lead from Brynna and we had hot cocoa!

Rockstar

V finally fits into these hand-me-down jeans, which are so cute! They're still a little long, but the best thing is that they're stretchy, so they actually fit in the waist. She was so eager to put her shoes on, this was the best photo I could get!


Nothing really fits well right now... anything that's right in the length is huge in the waist, and anything that fits in the waist is too short! That was one nice thing about summer - capri pants and shorts were much easier to work with.