June 2010

June has been a lot of fun over here in Santa Cruz. As you can see, Vita continues to help dad with his many projects. We've been having lots of summertime fun in the backyard. And Vita is enjoying making castles and "dragon houses" out of boxes and couch cushions and blankets and other available resources. Sometimes the castles have secret doors and windows for sneaking up on people. In sad news, Vita's beloved preschool has closed down effective June 30th. (The property owner evicted the school so they could tear down the building and build an auto parts store there instead.) Vita has made so many wonderful friends and loves the school and the teachers, so we have been dreading the closure of the school ever since we heard the news last month. To celebrate on the last day of the preschool, all the teachers and kids got together at a local park and had a goodbye party. Here's Vita with her favorite teacher. And here is Vita with her very best friend from the old preschool. They had been in the school program together since Vita was 6 months old and her friend was 3 months old. At the party, Vita went down the biggest slides she has ever seen. This park has really amazing slides, and Vita charged down these slides without the slightest hesitation. She was having SO much fun! We'll have to come back here. This shot of Vita climbing up the stairs is intended to give you a general sense of just how big the slides are. Despite the sad news of the school closure, we're really excited about Vita's new preschool, which she started today. The new school is bigger and has better facilities, provides more activities, has a wonderful group of teachers and kids, and after just one day, Vita already loves it! When I picked her up from school after her first day today, she didn't want to come home, she wanted to stay and play with her new friends! The teachers all indicated that her first day went really smoothly, and that she was socializing and playing, and drawing, and ate her lunch, and had a good nap, and was happy as a clam the whole time. I'm thrilled, and so relieved! The new school is only able to take Vita on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for now, but she will be able to attend full time (5 days a week) beginning on September 1. In the mean time, Vita is fortunate that her Grandma Victoria had recently moved up to Santa Cruz, and Vita will be spending the day with Grandma Victoria every Tuesday and Thursday in July and August. Vita is having a blast with Grandma, and we are so very thankful that she's available (and willing) to help out until the new preschool can take Vita full time. Here are some pictures of the fun Vita is having at Grandma Victoria's house. Here's Vita getting ready to water some plants in the garden. And here's Vita enjoying the shade of an umbrella.

Today, of course, is Vita's dad's birthday. You'll have to wait until the July post to see how we celebrate. Until then, enjoy the summer!

May 2010

According to the memory stick in my camera, nothing happened in the month of May. Not a single picture was taken. Inexcusable, I know! Thankfully, I was able to pull a few shots off of Ernie's phone. As it turns out, quite a bit happened in the month of May. Most notably, Vita's Grandma Victoria moved up to Santa Cruz from southern California, and is living right in the neighborhood! Yay! We planted a little vegetable patch. Vita loved getting her hands dirty... digging in the dirt and putting the tiny plants into the holes in the ground. And then, well... somehow, Ernie came into the possession of this hot little number. It's a miniature hot rod / go cart with some parts dating back to the 1930's, and Vita has been helping Ernie to restore it. She's having a blast. Perhaps you noticed the tattoos all over Vita's arms? Last weekend we decided to start potty training, and we've been giving out temporary tattoos for successes in this effort. It has proven to be a very effective incentive, and as you can see Vita is doing really well.

Disneyland!

Yesterday Vita had her very first trip to the happiest place on earth... and it was everything we hoped it would be. We went on about 10 or 12 rides, which was more than we expected. Most of the lines were very short (5-10 minutes) and some of the rides that we thought Vita might be too little for she was able to ride. Here's Vita on It's a Small World. We got the front row of the boat, and Vita couldn't keep still. She kept standing up and pointing at everything. The merry go round is always a favorite. She loved the rides, including the rocket ship ride in Tomorrowland that I thought might be too fast for her. There were just two rides that ended up being a little too scary - Mr. Toads Wild Ride and Pirates of the Caribbean. However, Vita kept her composure the whole time, held on to her mama very tightly, and simply informed us afterwards that she was a little scared. No tears at all. She was very brave. When it was time to meet some of the characters, I expected Vita would probably be a little shy and might even be intimidated, but that wasn't the case at all. In every instance, Vita went right up and hugged EVERY character, spoke with them, gave them kisses and high fives, and finally said goodbye when it was time to move on. Here we all are with Mickey. Here's Vita with Minnie Mouse. Minnie was Vita's favorite, and she just kept hugging Minnie for so long that we had to let Vita know it was someone else's turn with Minnie.

Here's Vita and mom having a tea party at Minnie's house. (Did you see Vita's cute hat?)

We also met Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger and Vita was walking on clouds the whole time, grinning and laughing and clapping. The picture with Eeyore is my favorite picture from the whole day.

On the way out, after shopping for some toys and some candy on Main Street, Vita had a chance to meet up with Goofy.

Vita did great all day, despite hot weather, lack of sleep (and no nap at Disneyland)... she just kept going and going and going. We got there at 10am when the park opened, and we figured Vita would crash around 2pm, but she kept going strong until about 6pm when finally started to get sleepy. We carried our happy little girl out of the park and headed back home to Santa Cruz directly from Disneyland. As you might expect, Vita was sound asleep before we even made our way out of the parking lot.

April 2010

April was a really fun and really busy month. It started with a visit from the Easter bunny, and a basket of treats! Easter turned out to be a rainy day (so no egg hunt) but we made the best of it and had fun anyway. Here's Vita taking her first bite of sour candy. She made a funny face, but she said she liked it and she wanted more. These pictures may seem like repeats, but we just keep going back for more and more fun at Gilroy Gardens and Vita loves it every time. We went on a cloudy day with a few sprinkles and there were hardly any lines at all, it was great!

Vita did her best to keep up with her dad's popcorn consumption.

And we found new rides at Gilroy Gardens that we hadn't been on before.

Vita's favorite was this miniature version of a merry go round. The horses were small enough that she could ride all by herself with no parents holding on to her. She really loved the "tiny horses".

We finally started to get some good weather, and we headed outdoors for some fun splashing in the water.

We also got back into painting, and that has become a favorite activity again.

We had some fun visits as well, but I didn't do a very good job taking pictures. Vita's Grandma Victoria came up for a weekend visit (no pictures) and we ended the month of April down in Los Angeles visiting Grandma Marianne, Grandpa Vito and Uncle Pat (just one picture, below). All in all, a WONDERFUL month of April, with lots more fun to come in May... including a visit to Disneyland (post coming soon) and Grandma Victoria will be moving to Santa Cruz!

March 2010

Vita managed to have a great month this March (despite the fact that her mom has been tired, and nauseous, and grumpy through the first trimester of pregnancy). We had a wonderful visit with Grandpa Bob and Mema Joan. Just look at these great big smiles! We had adventures in the park, up the coast, and in our own backyard. We tried on pretty dresses. We rested and snuggled. And we prepared for Easter by dying eggs and then painting them with glitter.

I can't wait to see what the Easter Bunny brings for Vita tomorrow morning!