Ups and Downs: The Week That Was

The week started off well enough. Anabelle has been happy and sweet, enjoying exploring the world all day, and sleeping well at night.


Vita was really excited to have her fingernails painted for the first time.


And she also was invited to a pool party, which she loved. Here's Vita on her way to hit the pool.


Then it hit. Vita and Anabelle both got stomach bugs at the same time... with opposite symptoms. For about 24 hours it was pretty brutal. Here's Vita with her barf bucket.


In addition to the stomach bug, Anabelle's two bottom front teeth chose THIS exact day to break through her poor little gums.


Needless to say, neither of the girls were feeling good or at their best... but Grandma Marianne and Grandpa Vito just happened to be in Santa Cruz for a visit that has been on the calendar for a while. So... we made the best of it and we still had fun.


Teething crackers helped a bit.

The following day everyone felt a little better, and we went to the local aquarium.

Although we were feeling a little better, we missed nap time and some of us got a little grumpy for a while.  Vita got all dressed up in a yellow princess dress for a photo shoot, and then changed her mind and didn't want to be in any of the pictures.


We decided to start taking a few pictures just with Anabelle (who was wearing a matching yellow princess dress), and eventually we coaxed Vita out for a few shots.


Here's a GREAT one of the girls with Grandma Marianne and Grandpa Vito.


We tried to take a nice one of the four of us as well, but we were too squirmy.


The next day, we headed over to a local state park for a little walk and a picnic.  Here we are standing in front of a cross section of a redwood tree that was over two thousand years old when it fell in 1934.


Everyone was really back to their normal happy healthy selves, and we had a great day.

Colors

These girls add so much color to our lives.  While this statement works really well as a metaphor for all of the joy and chaos of raising kids, I actually mean COLOR in a very literal sense.  Look at the outfit Vita picked out for herself today, complete with bracelet, anklet, scarf and hat.


Here's Vita (in her new cozy boots) in front of the chicken coop.  This picture is actually a couple of weeks old, taken just before we painted the chicken coop yellow and white.


We let the chickens free range in our yard a lot, but when they are in their coop Vita likes to feed them grass through the wire, and they eat right out of her hand.

Anabelle has been getting some time in the sandbox lately.  She's not sure what to make of it.  She loves playing in the sand, but inevitably she will try to eat some, and make a terrible face.  I guess it doesn't taste very good.

Speaking of color, we got this play tent at Ikea and the girls love it.


We used to have novels and art books on these shelves, and muted natural colors in the living room... but the whole house is more colorful these days.  Look at this happy smile!  Anabelle loves colorful toys.


When Anabelle wants to be picked up, she climbs up my leg and puts her arms up.  How could anyone say "no" to this?


Or this?


Vita continues to create more and more art, and she seems to be more excited about the process than the product.  Here is a picture of a princess, with green fingernails and toenails, with a wild hairstyle, underneath a rainbow, next to boxes of jewels.


Here is a jewelry box that Vita made out of an egg carton.  I love the colors and the composition.


And look at the clasp!  What a cute little detail!


I have no words for the cuteness of this picture.

Anabelle has been sleeping more predictably these days, which is great.  She has just a few short naps during the day, but she usually sleeps (almost) all the way through the night, waking only once.  She loves to clutch onto a soft piece of fabric when she sleeps.


As Anabelle learns to self feed a little bit... trying to use the spoon, and eating some finger foods, it's getting much harder to keep her clean.

In other news, Anabelle just went to the doctor on Friday for her 9 month check up.  She got caught up on her vaccinations, and had a little toe prick to check her iron levels (which are fine by the way).  Two shots and a toe prick... and NO TEARS!  So Anabelle is as healthy as can be, and although I can the silhouette see her two bottom teeth under her gums, she still has no teeth.