Jammin' & Hangin'

Kind of sharing . . .

. . . and sharing . . .

. . . and not sharing , . .

. . . but ALL lookin' cute!

Like a Sponge

It's amazing what little ones can absorb. We often read Bible stories. I've shared the story of Zacchaeus on numerous occasions, and we've sang Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man. But it's been a little while since sharing the story or song, so I was extra surprised on Monday when I watched Vanessa build a "tower" and work with two Little People to act out the story. I was reading a book for work when I overheard her saying "Zacchaeus, you come down. Come down, Zacchaeus. We're going to your home." Then she put Zacchaeus down on the floor and walked him away. The little blonde (playing the role of Jesus, I think) followed.

On Tuesday when we checked out our Bible story online, Vanessa proclaimed a picture of Moses to be Santa. Like a sponge, she may be able to absorb a lot, but it's almost impossible to get it ALL the first time. :) (Come on -- she's not a Bounty paper towel!) :)

Thoughtful Kisses

With her good and generous nature, she's willing to kiss the pig . . .

But steering clear of the swine flu -- is a ceramic pig acceptable?

Snow Fun

We took full advantage of the recent snow. To fully appreciate the experience, we included pictures of the bundling process:

Would the laborious preparations pay off?

"Mommy, it's winter time!"

She drudged through the snow . . .

. . . and decided she didn't like it hitting her face . . . so we went back and forth between the garage and the covered patio in back. When the snow tapered, Vanessa got the bright idea to use her sandbox toys:

A few days later we cleared the driveway more to keep it from freezing over . . .

. . . but playing was way more important since the pretty snow wouldn't last long . . .

Virtually Fun

This morning Vanessa recognized right away Mommy was using her computer once again. She came over to me and confirmed that it was my computer and then asked if we could watch Laurie Berkner videos. I figured sure, but as she climbed up she asked to see princesses instead. (No clue, G and B. Was Vanessa watching princesses with you?) So I typed in Disney Princesses, knowing there had to be a bunch of online games and such. Click on the link to see the one we really liked. First Vanessa chose Princess Tiana, then Princesses Jasmine and Pocahontas, before we got bored. She especially liked picking out what Pocahontas would be wearing to a ceremony:

I had intended to get on here to share some belated snow pictures, but we changed course of action when Vanessa expressed a different interest. Snow pictures at some point . . .

Foiled

Like many New Year's resolutions, mine for 2009 were foiled once again. I was determined to stay caught up with organizing and printing photos so that I could stay caught up with scrapbooks. But with all we juggled as I freelanced and provided care for an extra babe, I quickly fell behind. But hey, that was okay as long as I could start 2010 caught up. So I planned for December to be my catch-up month and knew that I could do it. I wrapped up a project the first week of December and then began to tackle the filing and uploading of pictures for printing. I finished these steps four or five days before Christmas.

Walgreens was having an awesome New Year's deal where I could print approximately 500 photos for 9 cents each, so as long as I could meet that deadline, I was riding the high for the possible savings rather than focusing on how far I fell behind. The day I finished filing I went to back up the photos on CDs but ran into issues and decided I'd come back to it. Then, between the loss of Auntie and holiday celebrations, our hard drive crashed, losing every picture I had filed away for 2009. My stomach sank . . . but I quickly thought of how I at least uploaded 500 photos for printing. :)

So although my 2009 resolution was foiled once again, I'm determined to try again for 2010. And for 2009 I can focus on the brighter side and be thankful that a few photos were still on the camera . . . and that through encouragement and interest of friends and family, I also have the blog to retrieve certain photos and memories from.

Some of my holiday favorites:

Here is Vanessa on Christmas morning, drinking her milk and preparing to rip paper and foil.


And here Vanessa is ready to party for the arrival of 2010, blowing party horns made of foil. :)

Merry-Go-Round

Daddy makes my world go around and around:

Vanessa often insists on this. She doesn't bother asking Mommy since Daddy can do it really well. (And be surprised that Mommy was willing to post video of that ugly kitchen floor! It only took her a few weeks to succumb to it.)

We've been living in a continuous cycle of fast-paced activities, but Daddy's birthday was yesterday. It was a great day for many reasons. He succeeded in doing well on the GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test), just like we knew he could. Daddy had any normal level of nervousness before taking a test, and through support and love, Mommy felt nervous for his nervousness. :) All is better, though, and Daddy's another year older . . .

First Recital

Vanessa unknowlingly performs all the time. She sings and dances and acts. The other day she broke out into song -- Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star -- and when I went to get the video camera (which is usually wasted effort), she decided to give her first singing recital.

Prima Donna

Vanessa is all toddler these days. Lots of "No!" and "I can do it all by myself!" with splashes of "Don't do that!" Like any egocentric toddler, she's very concerned with her own needs and ideas. At times it's very enjoyable to watch. On the flipside, when I'm tired, it can be challenging. :)


Along with those fun toddler traits, though, Vanessa also loves to dress up. Santa brought lots of dress-up stuff for Christmas. It was one of the first gifts opened. "Super Vanessa" was created instantaneously. Super Vanessa used her impressive skills to open the rest of her gifts and to conform to our Christmas practices. Her strength to pull and push and "try real hard" increased substantially.

Santa also brought princess stuff. She describes her dresses as "beautiful princess dresses" and loves putting them on.

You may notice the star Vanessa is wearing in a couple of photos. Out of her many headbands that she'd often rather not wear, she loves this one because of the star. She seems to be really interested in stars recently -- she keeps trying to wear winter boots that no longer fit, only because they have shiny stars on them. We made buttery spritz cookies in the shape of stars, so perhaps that sparked her obsessive interest.

As seen in the evidence below, it's important at this time to begin to instill the importance of looking in the mirror to assess the results of dressing oneself. Here she's wearing a skirt as a dress and a tiara all cockeyed. If you look closely, her hands and parts of her face are stained royal blue from finger painting. No matter how disheveled her look might seem to many, she's assured it is perfect. Love her confidence!

And these days Vanessa loves to be naked all the time. She's gone through small stages of this before, but now, in very cold and often single-digit temps, she insists on staying naked ALL the time. Fortunately we've been staying indoors. And when I say naked, I mean butt naked -- no diaper or panties.

When playing one morning, Mommy was able to convince her to put on something. She chose a head piece and wore it as a skirt. My explanation for its intended purpose prompted a performance of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

She's fantastically five!

The Nativity Story

Vanessa learned more about the Nativity this season. As if the story isn't amazing enough, she decided to add her own twist. On Christmas you saw the picture in which Vanessa added Baby Jesus to the scene. Now here's a picture of what happened a little later. Without our noticing, Baby Jesus was moved to the side and then the Cookie Monster ornament taken from the tree was added. This reminded me of the story about Vanessa's cousin Ben adding Tigger to their scene when he was about 3. However, I'm not sure what it means when Cookie Monster was put in place of Baby Jesus rather than standing and celebrating with the Shepherds and Wise Men like Ben's Tigger. The next morning I told Vanessa that Cookie Monster must be visiting for a playdate. :) I can hear the Wise Men singing "C is for cookie . . ."

And Vanessa's choice for Cookie Monster was extra interesting to me since she doesn't seem to like him (which is great in her mommy's book.) I think she likes being able to recognize him though.

Happy Birthday Ben!

16 years old!!!!!!