Sunday, November 30, 2008

You Can Dance If You Want To...

Hooray - the camera arrived in the mail! Instead of buying a new camera, my sister very generously offered to lend us a great digital camera that she isn't using much these days! To celebrate the new camera, here is a post with way too many pictures. (Ironically, all the outdoor pictures below were taken with the camera phone... as you never know where you will be when Vita will do something cute.) So below is a random cute doe eyed smile. But following that you will see something that had not yet been captured on film... Look ma, no hands! These days, when Vita feels like it, she'll stand up unassisted for long enough to take a picture. Look how proud of herself she is! Or sometimes, she'll stand up long enough to do a funky little dance! Vita definitely got her moves from her father, who is known far and wide for his "interpretive dances". Here's the robot: Here's the zombie: Here's the Elvis: And two more yet to be named moves: And finally, I leave you with Vita's best Marlin Brando impression. "You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody..."

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving, and we had a quiet, relaxing holiday. We went to the park and played, we took naps, and we ate lots of food. Of course, I have so much to be thankful for that I wouldn't know where to begin to list all of my good fortune. Most of all, I'm thankful for the family and friends that make my life so fun, so interesting, and so full... (you know who you are) especially the newest member of our little family. My new camera will be arriving in the mail soon but until then we are still just using the camera in Ernie's phone. Here are some snapshots from our trip to the park today. One final note - Vita's birthday is one week from today!!! Ernie and I both need to work on the actual birthday, but we'll celebrate this milestone over the following weekend. You may not see a blog post on Vita's actual birthday, but rest assured I haven't forgotten about it. You'll get one heck of a blog post at the end of the following weekend. In fact, we may even go over to Sears for some portraits. Then, I'm compiling all of the content of this blog into a nice hard cover book to document Vita's first year. All you grandparents out there will be getting a copy of the book but it may take a week or so to compile and then a few weeks to print. You'll probably get your copy in early January.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Camera Withdrawal

Early this week my camera was stolen. It has been so hard to be without a camera... but we're forcing ourselves to wait until Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) to replace it. In the mean time, we've had to make due with photos taken on Ernie's phone, which is better than nothing. This Saturday, we went up to Sacramento to visit Jennifer, Nevil and Dan. We had a great time. Vita did really well on the car ride. Check out these cute car seat photos... In the second photo, look at the top (in the car mirror) and you'll see Vita snuggling with her doll. SO CUTE! While we were there, Vita also had her first experience of cats. She was very interested in them. Also, Dan played piano for us... and he even let Vita try out the piano. She really liked pushing the buttons and hearing the sounds.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Perfect Beach Weather

This weekend is a good reminder of why I love Santa Cruz. It has been 85 degrees all weekend long... so we had perfect beach weather in mid-November. We started the weekend by going to Vita's favorite park on Saturday, and then hit the beach today. Vita was a bit apprehensive about the crashing sounds of the ocean waves, so she only went in up to her toes (although she did get splashed up to her knees). Vita was very cuddly and clingy near the water, but she was her normal adventurous self back on the dry sand. There are a zillion pictures below, to give you a glimpse of our lovely weekend. There was only one disappointment. You have to be 36" tall to ride the carousel at the boardwalk.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Swings and Steps

Here are a couple of really cute pictures taken on the swings on Tuesday. Also, look at this beautiful sweater that Vita's grand aunt knit for her!
Big news: Vita took her first timid steps tonight!

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Little Artist

If you've met anyone on Vita's father's side of the family, you won't be surprised to find that Vita is a budding artist. Vita frequently does art projects at school. It's so much fun to pick her up and find a new masterpiece! So, we picked up some beginners crayons (thick, triangular shaped crayons), taped some butcher paper to the floor, and... here's Vita hard at work! Here are a couple of the art projects Vita did at school just before Halloween. Vita got to use finger paints for several of these, and then a teacher cut it out into the shape of a pumpkin, cat, or skeleton. My favorite is the first one (top left) because it's Vitas FIRST painting all by herself! Also, the "foot ghost" on the middle in the bottom row is pretty silly...

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

11 Months (and Election Day)

Vita is 11 months old today! Below is a picture of Vita on the new pony we found on Craig's list. She loves it! We have to keep the pony hidden because she's too young to climb on to it herself, and she has to be under CONSTANT supervision while she plays on the pony. When Vita catches a glimpse of the pony in the laundry room, she squeals with delight. I've never seen her react so strongly to anything!

Today is also Election Day! Vita voted with me during the primary election and she's voting with her dad today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that today will be a very VERY happy 11 month birthday...
Can you believe Vita will be one year old in a month?!? She's on the brink of walking on her own, she dances to music, she waves hello and goodbye, she points to things she's interested in, she feeds herself lots of different finger foods... She's just getting so grown up already.