Almost Two...

The gifts are wrapped, the streamers and banner have been hung, the cupcakes have been baked (but not yet frosted) and Ms. Vita is fast asleep in her bed. I can't believe when she wakes up she will be two years old! This year, Vita knows it is her birthday and she has been looking forward to it. She knows she is about to be two years old, and it will be her birthday, and there will be singing and cake and Grandpa and Mema, and presents, and fun. At the end of the weekend, or early next week, I'll do a post with lots of pictures, but for the mean time I wanted to share a little bit about what's going on with Vita right now on the brink of two years. Vita has been reciting her alphabet for months now, she knows her colors, and she is getting better at counting. She can count all the way to 20 but she usually skips 4 and 5. Vita is speaking really well and her vocabulary increases much faster than we can keep up with it. She speaks in 5 - 6 word sentences and sings entire songs such as C is for Cookie and Ring Around the Rosie. It's so much fun to be able to really have a two way dialogue, and it's very helpful that she can tell us what she wants and needs. Vita is becoming very independent and wants to do everything herself, or she wants to help us. It's fun to come up with ways to get her involved in day to day tasks like cooking and cleaning. Vita is pretty good about putting her toys away, putting dirty clothes in the hamper, putting on and taking off various articles of clothing and shoes when asked, etc. She has also been helping out with pulling weeds in the backyard, and helping with preparing her breakfast. The biggest change going on in Vita's life right now is her transition from the infant program to the preschool at her daycare center. For the past 18 months or so, Vita has been with the zero to two crowd, and with a wonderful wonderful staff of teachers that we LOVE. However, it's now time for her to expand her horizons and start attending preschool with the older kids. Although she has spent some time with the preschool teachers we were a little concerned the transition might be tough for her. Over the past couple of weeks, every day Vita has spent a little less time with the infants and more time with the preschoolers. She seems to be having a great time and the transition has been smooth. She's even napping well in the new group. In fact, it's only been a week since she has spent the majority of her day with the older kids, and she surprised me today by asking to use the potty (and then using it successfully)! I think she's watching what the older kids at school are doing, and learning from them.

Thankful

This Thanksgiving, we had a very short but very fun trip to Southern California to visit family. First, we went to Venice to visit the Panetta family. We had a delicious meal, and lots of fun with everyone. Unfortunately... I didn't get many pictures, but here's one group shot. Vita doesn't look very happy in this particular picture, but she had so much fun and really loved being the center of attention. She also received some great presents (which she also loved). One of Vita's presents was a holiday dress that we tried on over her pajamas. So cute! Look for some pictures by the Christmas tree with this dress on in a few weeks when we get our tree. Next we went to Orange County to see the Kerr family. Vita is cautiously checking out the BIGGEST dog she has ever seen. Vita toured the house and loved seeing Grandma Victoria's art, especially this penguin.

We went to a beautiful park and had a nice walk.

The park also had the biggest playground Vita had ever seen.

Here's Vita with her great grandfather Kerr.

And with her aunt Jennifer (actually Vita has two aunt Jennifers..., and her mother is a Jennifer also, so this gets confusing).

Grandma Victoria made Vita a diorama for a birthday gift. She loves it!

Back at home, we've been relaxing and enjoying the rest of our weekend. Today, Vita tried out one of her other presents... a kite! All in all, this has been a wonderful weekend and a good reminder of how much we have to be thankful for.

Next weekend, of course, is Vita's second birthday... including a visit from Grandpa Bob and Mema Joan! Then Christmas is right around the corner. So much to look forward to!

Horsing Around

Ever since Vita fell in love with the merry go round at Gilroy Gardens last weekend, she's been spending a lot more time on her rocking horse. She has so much fun riding her horsey, and she gives him hugs and kisses, too.

Here's Vita shoveling sand in the backyard with her own little shovel. She's actually a great helper! She helps me pull weeds and everything.

This is what you get when you ask for a silly face.

Pretty eyes in this shot.

In other news, Vita got her first haircut on Saturday. I had planned on taking pictures, but Vita insisted on sitting on my lap so I didn't have my hands free. She did great, though. And with her hair a bit shorter, it's much more curly (and gets less tangled) in the back. Finally, Vita is starting to get excited about her birthday, which I can't believe is less than two weeks away. She knows she will be two years old, and that there will be birthday cake and balloons, and a visit from Grandpa Bob and Mema Joan!

Gilroy Gardens

Today we took Vita to the Gilroy Gardens theme park. The park was designed to be educational and to promote an appreciation of horticulture. In fact, one of their slogans is that they are an amusement park where the trees are taller than the rides. The park is actually quite beautiful, with fun rides geared towards VERY young children, nestled amongst trees and a lake. We had a lot of fun. The first ride we went on was the carousel. Vita LOVED riding on the horses, and talked about it all day. It was definitely her favorite ride.

But there were LOTS of rides that Vita went on. Here is Vita and I riding inside a worm in an apple.

There were barely any lines. We never had to wait more than 5 minutes to get on a ride, but I did take this picture while we were waiting for the boat ride.

Here's Vita on the boat. On some of the rides, Vita looked a little concerned, and I wasn't sure if Vita was having fun or not... but then when each ride was over, she said AGAIN!!!!

Vita was able to ride some of the rides all by herself, like this race car.

And this fire truck.

As much fun as we had on all of the other rides, and the boat, and in the various gardens and playgrounds, Vita just kept talking about the horses so we had to make sure we took one more ride on the carousel before we went home.

We had a blast, and something tells me we'll be going here often during the next year... (season passes - yippee)!

Tickle Torture

I promise we don't torture her with tickles... very often. But for some cute laughs, check out this video.

The year Swine Flu stole Halloween

Since we last posted Vita has had a busy couple of weeks. First, Vita had a very quick visit from Grandma Victoria.

Then, Ernie started back at work (hooray!) so Vita went back to daycare full time. That same day, Vita came down with a bad flu that the doctors think was probably THE flu (swine flu). We'll never really know for sure, because they didn't bother testing her. However, she had the highest fevers of her young life, and for a very short time she was doing some crazy shallow breathing and her lips looked a little blue-ish. Surprisingly, Vita was in very good spirits during her flu. Ernie pitched the tent in the living room and filled it with blankets and toys. For a while we turned the tent into a "dolly hospital" and Vita made little beds for all of her stuffed animals. She wiped their noses, and pretended to give them medicine and gave the kisses on their boo boos to help them get all better. It was pretty cute. Although Vita was better in time for Halloween, Ernie was battling against Vita's flu, and I was nervous I might be coming down with it, so it was a VERY mellow Halloween. First, Vita dressed like a ladybug. But that was a little bit too big and I thought she might get cold.

So for Vita's pre-school Halloween Parade, and for Trick or Treating on Halloween Night, Vita dressed like a skeleton princess... with a skeleton jumpsuit and a princess skirt. (She LOVES this princess skirt.) She had a great time, and even though she was too shy to say "trick or treat" at some of the houses, she ALWAYS said "thank you" when someone put candy in her bag.

Here's a couple of pictures of Vita at school.

And here's Vita at home getting read to go out trick or treating... and sneaking candy from the dish!

Fall in the air

The days are really getting crisp here in Santa Cruz, and fall is in the air. Vita keeps growing by leaps and bounds. The pants I hemmed for her just 3 weeks ago are getting too short already and I'll be taking the hem out. Wow. Her vocabulary grows faster than Ernie and I can keep track of. She loves singing songs - the ABC's, Three Little Monkeys, and C is for Cookie are her favorites. She's starting to count, and check this out... Vita can swing on the big kids swings now (instead of those bucket seat swings for babies)!

A couple of weekends ago Vita had a little visit with Grandma Marianne and Grandpa Vito. Here are two really sweet shots with Vita and Grandma Marianne.

I know it looks like Vita is on the surface of the moon... but these rocks are our "front lawn". Hey - at least it doesn't need to be watered.

In preparation for Halloween, we headed out to a pumpkin patch. Vita was scared of the pumpkins last year, but now that she's almost two years old, we thought she'd love the pumpkin patch. Wrong. I don't know if Vita remembered the "barking pumpkin" from last year, but for some reason she wanted nothing to do with the pumpkin patch.

Mom, can we go now?

When we got home, Ernie was sent on a mission to pick up some pumpkins. Now that the pumpkins are here, on our front porch, Vita loves them. I guess it's just when the congregate in large groups that they can be a little intimidating. Anyway, I think Vita is going to love pulling out the pumpkin guts and getting messy (but we're saving that for next weekend).

If you know Vita, you probably know that she loves to eat. She also thinks she's entitled to everyone else's food as well (especially mine). When Vita finishes her food, she looks over longingly to see whats on my plate, and she gives me this look.

And then, if I still haven't responded to her cues, her hints get a little less subtle.

This weekend, we had a quick visit with Vita's Aunt Jennifer, Dan and Nevil who were spending the weekend on the coast. We headed out to an event to celebrate the return of the monarch butterflies who migrate through the area, but it was really cold so the butterflies weren't really moving around. Still, it was great to see everyone.

And now, I think the blog is just about caught up!