Focused

The girls have been very focused these days, demonstrating levels of concentration that surprise me.  Vita has been very focused on her artwork.  She loves coloring pretty pictures in a coloring book, cutting things out with scissors, and gluing things (cotton balls, googly eyes, plastic jewels, etc.) to decorate her art.  She especially loves doing this all by herself with no help.  In fact, the other day she was concentrating so much on her artwork, that when dinner was ready Vita asked us to go ahead and eat without her, because she really wanted to continue coloring and cutting, and didn't want to be interrupted to eat!

Here's a stack of projects drying.


Anabelle has been very focused as well.  Lately she's perfectly content to keep herself occupied for what seems like a VERY long time for a baby (over 30 minutes at at time) just building her fine and gross motor skills (otherwise known as trying to get into everything in a plot to destroy and consume the entire world).  Anabelle can reach up to the second shelf in the girls' room, and up to the third shelf in the living room.  She can stand up by grabbing hold of anything (including scaling the walls) and is starting to try to stand on her own... just for a fraction of a second at a time.  She also is now crawling "properly" up on all fours, as opposed to her previous style of slithering around.

Anabelle still doesn't have any teeth, but I'm convinced she's teething and those teeth are on their way.  If I keep saying that, one of these days I'll be right.


The girls continue to have lots and lots of fun playing together.  Vita is still sweet and gentle with her baby sister, but it's really fun now that Anabelle isn't quite so fragile so they can interact and hug and play more and more every day.

Sisters and Other Fun Stuff

Sisters... playing together. Life is good.




Here are a few other scenes from our day to day life.

Playdates, Chickens, and Danger Babies... oh my!

I realize I'm a bit late to post these, but many of the following photos were all taken last weekend on the 4th of July. We started the day like so many others... with a nice bath. The girls LOVE taking baths together. Vita washes Anabelle's back, and Anabelle splashes her little heart out, grinning from ear to ear.


Once we were all clean, we sported red white and blue outfits.


After a nice morning at a local park, watching a small bike parade (which we'll participate in next year), we headed back home with no particular plans. We were thrilled to learn that one of Vita's friends, Maddie, was available for a play date. Vita was so excited at the notion of entertaining a guest. Here she is setting up a tea party.


Vita and Maddie had lots of fun with the tea party, and of course splashing in the kiddie pool.


There was even some interpreting dancing and synchronized swimming.


Ernie joined in the fun.


Anabelle and I spent a lot of time lounging in the shade.



We've been enjoying the chickens. Can you believe how big they are already? It's fun to let them "free range" in the backyard. Watching Vita chase the chickens could keep me amused all day, and you know what? She caught one! I wouldn't say our chickens are very affectionate, but they don't seem to mind being held and pet.


These days, Anabelle is so active. Most pictures I try to take of her end up like this... because when she sees the camera she heads towards it and tries to grab it and play with it. The pictures also end up blurry because the autofocus can't keep up with her.


Anabelle is also very curious, and crafty, and has a knack for finding the most dangerous thing in the room (and making a beeline for it). Her newest obsession are electrical outlets. We have outlet covers, but I think we might need better ones as she is getting close to out smarting and over powering them. She also tries to head over to the floor lamp to knock it over, or she heads over to Roomba (the robot vacuum) to turn him on. Throughout all of this, she'll always have a great big smile on her face... unless you dare to remove some kind of hazard that she wanted to play with.

So, we need to plan an entire level of babyproofing that exceeds anything we ever needed with Vita.


Who, me?

The best part of this time in our lives is watching the girls play with each other.  They really love each other, and it's such a joy to watch their relationship develop.  Here is just a glimpse of that... 17 seconds of sister time.  When Vita lavishes this kind of attention on Anabelle, she gets so happy that she seems like she's about to explode.

Lovely Summer Monday

The weather has been beautiful.  Look at the scene that greeted me when I got home from work on Monday at 5pm.  I'm so glad it's summer, and I'm hoping for many more lovely summer evenings just like this one.










Once we were back inside, Vita started drawing. Vita drew a picture of a squirrel, and she was so excited about how it turned out, that she said "Look mom. I didn't even know I could draw a squirrel but I tried it and I DO know how to draw a squirrel!"

Super Push Ups

Anabelle is strong. Really strong. Ok Anabelle, drop and give me twenty!

Days of Adventure

Every day is an adventure around here. Sometimes, the adventure is discovering a new book... like Where the Sidewalk Ends.


Some days, we play and play and play... until we literally crash.




Even Vita crashes out from time to time. Every once in a while when we think she's old enough to skip her afternoon nap, she decides to take one voluntarily.


Anabelle sometimes pulls the covers over her head when she's sleeping.


None of us are immune to mid-day crash naps.



Teething is quite an adventure.  Sometimes, when Anabelle is teething, she chews on EVERYTHING all day. (OK, that's every day.) But sometimes, Anabelle also initiates games of peek-a-boo, where she will cover herself up with a blanket, and she'll pull the blanket down when you say "Where's Anabelle?"




Sometimes, the adventure is learning new skills. Anabelle is pulling up on everything these days, and is SO CLOSE to crawling. SO CLOSE.



Some days the adventures are like fairy tales... Vita often pulls out her box of dress up clothes and makes up her own fairy tales, with very interesting plots. This particular fairy tale was called, you guessed it, the princess and the monkey. Princess Vita saved the baby monkey from a dragon.



Today we had a special adventure.  Vita and Ernie had a Fathers Day kayaking voyage in the Monterey Bay.  They had a blast!

And after dinner we celebrated with a Fathers Day cake!


(PS - in the background you will see that a balloon we got at Disneyland, almost a month ago, is still going strong.  Seven dollars may seem expensive for a balloon, but the girls have played with it every day for a month and it's still going strong!)