May Days

These days, as Anabelle gets bigger, knows how to sit up, rolls all over the place, and is almost crawling, she is much less fragile and Vita gets to play and interact with her more.  They hug and play and laugh all the time.


Anabelle looks so cute in Vita's old hand me downs.  These pajamas bring me right back to Vita's baby days and I remember so many snugly bedtime routines in these.  This developmental phase, right around six months, is SO much fun.


Anabelle is also starting to expand her vocabulary of noises.  Although she still loves blowing raspberries, she's also starting to say things that are a little closer to words.  Lately she loves making "g" sounds, mostly "ga ga ga ga ga..."  Anabelle is also eating more new kinds of foods, and we try a new food every few days.  She loves to eat.  

Do you see the puffy, swollen gums inside this mouth?  I think a tooth is starting to work it's way out, and it's keeping Anabelle up a lot at night lately.


Vita has as much fun with Anabelle's toys as she does with her own.  She loves to show Anabelle how you're supposed to play with things, and Anabelle loves to watch her big sister.  In fact, I don't think there is anything Anabelle loves more than when she has Vita's full undivided attention.

This Sunday, Grandma Victoria came over with an old friend of hers and we all had a blast.

Here's Vita doing Jacky's hair.

Finally, our BIG news is that we just adopted four baby chicks, just a few days old.  They are so sweet, and they already have distinct personalities.  You can already start to see who is at the top of the pecking order, which chick is smartest, and who's the sweetest, too.  From left to right, they are: "Heart Pumpkin" (named by Vita), "Lucile" (named by Jenny), "Skeeter" and "Professor Cluck" (both named by Ernie).

Here's a close up of Lucile.

And another of Professor Cluck, looking quite distinguished indeed.

Fun in the Backyard

It was a warm spring weekend here in Santa Cruz, so Ernie and Vita decided to have a camp out in the backyard on Friday night.  Here they are setting up.

Ernie and Vita built a campfire, toasted s'mores, and had a great time.  However, it wasn't quite warm enough for Anabelle, so Anabelle and I stayed inside and had a cozy and snugly night of our own.  Here's our view of the backyard setup.

On Sunday, we filled up the kiddie pool for the first time this season, and headed back into the yard for more fun.  Anabelle wore this cute little swimsuit that Vita once wore... and seeing Anabelle in this same suit (and same hat) was like going back in time to Vita's baby days.


After a few hours splashing and playing, we had some watermelon in the shade.  The perfect end to a perfect weekend.

Six Months!

Anabelle is six months old! I can't believe how quickly these months have passed, and something tells me it's not about to slow down any time soon. Do you notice anything different about Anabelle? That's right, she's sitting up!

We've been having so much fun with Anabelle.  We always did, but the last few weeks have been particularly incredible.  We are really enjoying watching all of her milestones and developments, and her smiles and giggles... and we realized that this is the month we missed out on when Vita got sick.  Now, we get to enjoy this developmental phase with Anabelle for the first time, and it is completely delightful!

Ditch Days

Now that Anabelle has begun to go to daycare full time, Ernie and I took the opportunity to each take a special "ditch day" with Vita.  On Monday, while Anabelle and I went to work, Ernie and Vita headed out to Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey.  It's a great park with a real train, a hedge maze, swan shaped boats, and really big fun play structures.  It was a little drizzly outside but they had a great time.

After their fun morning at the park, they warmed up by getting a late breakfast at a local diner.  Vita ate chocolate chip pancakes, with hot chocolate with whipped cream!


On Tuesday, while Ernie went to work and Anabelle went to school, Vita and I headed out to a local mini zoo called Happy Hallows.  Vita loved the merry go round.

Actually, Vita loved ALL the rides!

At the petting zoo, Vita got to pet some cute little goats, and they ate some food right out of Vita's hand.

Vita insisted on posing with this frog.

Then it was back to the merry go round a few more times before we headed back home.

Easter 2011

We started out the Easter weekend by coloring some eggs.  Next year, we'll hard-boil the eggs first... but never mind about that.  We had a great time dying the eggs, and applying glitter, and they turned out beautifully.

Next, we went to an Easter Egg Hunt and Vita got to meet the Easter Bunny!  Many of the kids were shy around the Easter Bunny and some even ran away screaming, but Vita was thrilled.  Later in the morning, when the egg hunt began, Vita got a little shy and hesitated while some of the other kids grabbed eggs, but then we found a secret hiding spot and Vita came home with a little bag of her own candy filled eggs.

On Easter morning, Vita woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had hidden even more eggs around the house, and left her a basket filled with treats and toys.  Vita found all of the eggs, even the eggs that were way up near the ceiling.

Here is Vita enjoying her bunny ears and pinwheel.

Anabelle looked on with much excitement.

She was the cutest little Easter egg of all!

Sunshine and Solid Food

Now that Anabelle is almost six months old, she has started solid food.  It's been fun having her at the dinner table with us, and she seem to like food... especially banana.



We're making the most of the sunny weather, and checking out new local parks.  These pictures were taken at our new favorite park.




Anabelle and Vita love to play together, and as Anabelle gets older, she's much more interactive and they have more and more fun.



Sadly, Anabelle's time with me in the office is coming to an end, and next Tuesday the 26th, she'll be in daycare full time. For the past several weeks, Anabelle has been easing in to her new daycare routine, and she's doing great. She goes to school in the morning, and spends the afternoons with me at work. I'm really enjoying having her with me, and I think she's having fun too. Here's Anabelle with some of her work buddies.

Spring Is Here!

Spring is finally here and the weather has been wonderful! Here's a happy picture of Vita and some of her friends at school.


Vita picks the most interesting outfits to help her dad with the yard work. This one is very Devo. Don't you think?


Our neighbor snuck up and took this cute shot of Vita and Ernie planting some flowers.


Meanwhile, Anabelle is interested in everything these days. Here she's trying to leap out of my arms to check something out.


Vita and Anabelle play together all the time, and Anabelle is always interested in what her sister is doing.  Vita is showing Anabelle how to play with this toy.

Here's Anabelle cuddling with her dad.


With all this beautiful weather, we've been spending some time outdoors in the backyard just playing and relaxing.  It's wonderful.  Ernie even swept all of the spiderwebs out of Vita's playhouse, which really made the day seem like the first day of the season, and the start of lots of beautiful happy afternoons playing outdoors.

Anabelle posed for some pictures in the shade...






But after all of the rain we've had, Vita was having so much fun she didn't want to stop playing long enough to have a picture taken.  Here's an action shot.


Caught you!