Holding Rocks

Vita loves playing outdoors. Although it was unseasonably cool this weekend, we tried to get a lot of outdoor time in. Vita is drawn to rocks. She gathers rocks throughout the yard and holds on to them the whole time she's outside. Sometimes she really needs the use of her hands to play with a ball or to climb in or out of her sandbox, but she just will not let go of those rocks. Here's Vita inspecting the flowers (note the rocks in her hands). Just a cute shot (trust me, she's still got the rocks). Enjoying the shade in the play tent. Still holding the rocks. Another cute shot holding rocks. What? Time to go inside? This is the face I get when it's time to go inside. On the way up the stairs to go inside, Vita stalls by stopping to examine her rocks more closely.

Playing Catch Up

Here are a few miscellaneous pictures that, for one reason or another, haven't made it up on the blog yet. I've been holding out on some of these pictures for weeks! Recently, Vita got to meet a new friend... sweet little Maddie Rose! In this picture, Maddie was only 2 weeks old! Vita was very shy around Maddie. (She didn't even say her trademark "hey, baby", although we were hoping she would.) Vita very carefully and cautiously and delicately touched Maddie's foot, and watched Maddie with absolute awe. I know that Vita and Maddie are going have lots and lots of fun together in the years to come. I was so honored to be allowed not just to hold Maddie, but to feed her too! It sure made me miss those sweet and fleeting first weeks and months. Here's Ernie with Maddie. And here's Maddie with her dads, surrounded by love. What a lucky little girl! We've been doing some re-arranging in the backyard, and we're having trouble figuring out where to put Vita's play house. Poor Ernie has to cart it around while we decide. This picture reminds me of something out of Alice and Wonderland. Vita is being raised with good music. Although some of the children's music slips into the mix here and there, she otherwise has very good taste.

This cute snap button western style shirt was a hand-me-down from a friend. Lucky us, we love it!

Book Worm

These pictures are not staged. Sometimes Vita just takes a novel out from the bookshelf and starts "reading".

Memorial Day

Wow, Memorial Day 2009…

To begin this entry, I want to explain why I missed my usual Sunday post recently. Last weekend, Ernie and Vita and I joined many family and friends in celebrating the life of my cousin (and godfather) who recently passed away. We had a really nice visit with family, and Vita got the opportunity to meet so many relatives from all over the country that she hadn’t met before. Somehow, and I really don’t know how this happened, I didn’t take any pictures except for one or two of Vita with her Aunt Mary who was kind enough to host us at her home.

At Mary's house, Vita cleverly converted this step stool into her own little table and chair. So smart!

When we returned from Los Angeles, I just didn’t have the energy to post and so the week passed. This weekend marked an important milestone for us as a family. Last Memorial Day weekend, Vita was hospitalized for Infant Botulism. I’ve been reflecting on this milestone and on our experience with her illness and recovery, but I’ll keep most of that out of this blog and simply include it in the 18 month letter I’m writing Vita for her book. However, I couldn’t let the day pass without acknowledging it.

Also this weekend, Vita’s Grandma Victoria came up for a visit and we had a great time! Grandma Victoria brought some fun toys and some supplies for making masses and masses of bubbles! Here's Vita attacking some finger puppets with an alligator puppet.

But then the alligator got Vita.

No one was spared.

The coolest toys and two very happy girls!

When the sun finally came out we went to the backyard and made tons and tons of bubbles. Strangely, Vita wasn't very interested in the bubbles themselves. She was interested in the equipment... the wands, the slimy bubble juice, and just about everything except the bubbles. Go figure.

Here's Vita dipping the bubble wand into the bubble juice.

Bubble juice! Can you believe we went through this entire huge jar of bubble juice? That's A LOT of bubbles!

Here's Vita running off with some of the supplies.

One of Vita's favorite games these days is the putting things to bed game. Vita will find a blanket and a stuffed animal or a person (or sometimes even a sippy cup will do) and she will cover them with the blanket, sing a little night time song "nan nan nan" in a very cute sing-songy way and then pat them on the back. It's adorable! Here's Vita putting Grandma Victoria to bed. I've heard that one of her classmates and Vita will play the game together and take turns putting each other to bed. So very sweet.

Soon, the visit was over and we were all sad to see Grandma Victoria go. We spent the last day of the weekend (the exact one year anniversary of the botulism) doing all the things we couldn't do a year ago... We had a delicious meal with wonderful friends and then later met up with another friend for a play date in the park. We ate, we laughed, we ran around, we breathed deeply, and we took some time to really and truly enjoy our good health and our good fortune.

Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all Mom's!!! We're so happy to be healthy again. On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and headed out to the Farmers Market. Can you believe how BIG Vita is getting? The light was hitting her curls... I just love those curls.

While we were out I picked up a new BPA / PVC / Phtylate free bowl that has a suction cup to keep it secured to the table. What a great idea! These days, Vita is so good at using a spoon or fork that even when I give her finger foods (like a few dry cheerios) she often eats them with a spoon.

For Mothers Day, I got a full night sleep (Ernie took charge of the late night tooth ache), breakfast, and I got to pick out lots of plants at the store and point to where I want Ernie to plant them. We did this last Mothers Day, and I think it's going to become a tradition. Also, Ernie took the camera so that I could get some nice mother daughter shots.

After a nap, Vita woke up feeling very snuggly, and we just cuddled in the rocking chair for a while.

Then we played in the sandbox in the backyard.

There is some kind of weird filter on this shot, so the colors are off, but I like it anyway. (No, we didn't paint the house pink.)

In the photo above you can see that Vita is holding a hand full of weeds. We have a terrible infestation of tickle weeds. Vita tried to hide out in her playhouse...

But the tickle weeds found her!

And yes, I am wearing pajama bottoms in the middle of the afternoon. You can do that on Mothers Day.

Germ

Above is a lovely little picture taken of Vita this week. That's right, Vita is one great big germ. Vita was a little stuffed up last weekend, but by Tuesday Vita had a flu... and she's been sick all week. At one point, her fever got all the way up to 103.5, and she was throwing up and miserable. We've been in contact with the doctor's office but they didn't feel that Vita needed to come in at first. However, we'll be taking her in tomorrow because this darn bug is lasting longer than it should. The good news is that there is no concern of swine flu, Vita's temperature is still elevated but not too high, and Vita is in very good spirits. I am keeping my fingers crossed that she (and I, for that matter) will get some sleep tonight, and that we'll all feel great tomorrow morning. Hope you are all staying healthy!