Banana Tower

"Hey Mommy, check out my banana tower. Watch me eat. See?"

Celebrating Cousin Audrey

Cousin Audrey turned 3 right before me!

Check out Cousin Audrey's football stance. It was a trick move.

Cousin Tucker makes birthday eating fiercely awesome. He loves his watermelon. :)

And like sharing bubbles, these two will get used to sharing birthday seasons too! Vanessa (comments from party day): "Audrey can't be 3 because I'll be 3!" "Today is Audrey's birthday. I'll celebrate my birthday soon."

On the cutting edge of technology?

One of Vanessa's favorite computer activities ever since Grandma introduced her to it:

Full of Grace

"Mommy, tell me I'm graceful."

The pictures and statement occurred at different times, but both provide for lots of giggles. "Being graceful" seems to be the theme for conversation today. I can't take pictures at the moment of Vanessa acting graceful, but she plays the part well at times. During these particular photo snaps, Vanessa was revealing her new bikini line -- "This is my bathing suit!" I like how she added the Michael Jackson glove. And the flower around the waist was an extra special touch. Tomorrow we'll practice showing modesty in appearance and actions. :)

Growth Spurt

When watering a new tree on June 26, we found this guy hanging from it and molting. I was amazed at how fast his process went. I watched him from beginning to end and it only lasted about 20 minutes. Now they say this means there is less than 90 days till the first frost. If we found one of the first ones to enter the area, then that means our first frost will be around September 24. How weird would that be, especially when thinking about how hot it has been? We'll be covering the late tomatoes for sure! Some entomologists don't think the early arrival is a prediction of anything, just that cicadas experienced an above average growth spurt this year.

Vanessa has also experienced a big growth spurt in the last few months, growing nearly 4 inches since December. She used to be such a peanut and now she is just as tall, if not taller than others her age. We've even heard from numerous people that she seems tall for one about to turn 3. I never thought I'd hear that! Her conversation and imagination have grown considerably too. She creates funny songs and stories and often performs "on stage." We applaud her and she bows with great expression. She's very proud to tell others that she's Vanessa Marie Betz and who others are and how they are related to her. She still loves figuring out how things work and connecting all things related. At a recent birthday party she was asking all who attended who they were and how they were connected to others there. She's a planner who holds great anticipation for things. She repeats steps to plans and processes over and over, finding comfort in knowing what to expect. She requires full explanations for many things and I can only imagine will be a master of flow charts one day. But no concern -- she doesn't keep to a rigid schedule or plan and often shows flexibility as long as she receives a full explanation for why and how things changed. She's planned her birthday celebration, using Mommy to do the grunt work. :) She often announces "I have an idea!" And she's very proud to share.

Much like it is hard to believe cooler months are right around the corner, OSU football is 44 days away, and Zane should arrive in 11 to 13 weeks, it is also hard to believe how much Vanessa has changed and will be turning 3 in just over two weeks.

Happy Birthday Zach!

Homecoming

I knew where Daddy was all along. How many days has Daddy been in Canada? When I count my sticks, I know that as of today Daddy has been in Canada for 8 days. How many days until he comes home? Zero -- he'll be home today!!!

So no more early mornings of sleeping sprawled out on Mommy and Daddy's bed, at least for now. I hope Daddy knows I'd trade that any day for him to be home.

Going on a hunt!

We're going on a hunt; we're going on a hunt; we're looking for Daddy; we're going on a hunt . . .

Is he over there?

No, he's not over here.

Is he way down there?

No, he's not down there.

Is he way up here?

No, he's not way up here!

We're going on a hunt, we're going on a hunt, we're looking for Daddy, so we're going on a hunt.

"Don't worry Daddy, we'll find you."

Our take on Laurie Berkner's song, Going on a Hunt.

Toilet Paper Counting (Special Request)

I've had a couple of people request that I post this video. The problem with posting it at first was that Vanessa is naked and I think we've crossed the threshold to aim for modesty. I wanted to add visual effects that would block out her private area, but not finding a creative way to do that with the software I have, I just cut the segment of counting where she's fully exposed. :) The other problem is that we've never finished remodeling the upstairs bathroom, so please focus on the counting, one-to-one correspondence and her understanding of one more -- because she wants an even 10. Don't focus on the missing baseboards, drab walls and mismatched floor, please. :)

Happy Birthday, Seth!

TP'ing

Buying in bulk can be helpful in more than one way. Who needs building blocks when you can build a "state building" using toilet paper rolls?! While preparing for a bath last week Vanessa decided to use the new package of toilet paper to build. She stacked and counted 9 and then decided there should be 10, so she added "one more." We continued to build for a while, so long that I decided to shower first. One roll she was building with was one by her potty and had already been used some. So as she experimented with rolling and making toilet tissue dresses, quite a bit came unraveled. (I have to admit the dress she made was cute, but being in the shower I couldn't take a picture.)
As I was nearing the end of my shower I told Vanessa to clean up the rolls before getting in her bath. This was part of her solution . . .

Perhaps if we allow her to play with it now she'll stay away from the mean-spirited activity of toilet papering houses when she's older . . . (although less-damaging and cheaper than spray painting bridges, underpasses and street signs, I guess . . . :)

Preschematic

I'm not sure how long we've been in this stage, or perhaps teetering into it, especially when I think back to the elephant party picture from a while back, but either way, lately I've seen more sophistication in Vanessa's drawings.

Below is a lovely picture of Mommy that she drew about a month ago. I don't know if there's psychology behind this or not -- I started with two legs, then she gave me eight and kept going. Am I a spider? :( Or does she think I move so fast that it seems I have many legs? :) I like the second thought. But we could dig deeper and a connect the fact that she loves to call Mommy's huge hairclip a spider when she puts it on her arm -- Mommy wears her hairclip a lot. :)

And below that is a picture of Mommy that she drew just over a week ago. I seem to have evolved a bit. She says I'm dancing. :)

Here's what she thinks Zane looks like. He even has an airship, just like Sportacus from LazyTown.

And we love to chew up carrots and spit them out. We'll actually swallow them every blue moon.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Sally!

As we were having breakfast this morning I asked Vanessa if she knew whose birthday is today. She exclaimed "Aunt Sally's!" We talked about it a few times over the last week but I was still very surprised she guessed right, especially since she's obsessed with the idea of her own birthday right now and yesterday we celebrated our friend Megan's 1st. Vanessa still loves to sing Happy Birthday. She sang to Aunt Sally all on her own and I was able to video it, only she whispered it and you can't hear it very well. So I asked her to give it another try . . .

We love Aunt Sally! She's the bomb with her silliness, picnics in the van and energetic play!

Little Penguin

This season one of Vanessa's favorite books is Sergio Makes a Splash. Sergio is a penguin who can't swim and is quite afraid to learn. Vanessa would be a good friend to Sergio. She's confident, although she has a lot to learn. She wants to do the huge slides at Zoombezi Bay. Every time we park at the zoo we have to have a long conversation about how she's still too small for those gigantic slides. She wants to venture alone from the shallow stairs at Grandma and Grandpa's pool. But we keep reminding her she's not quite ready yet.

"I can swim just like a penguin. Really fast."

"When I get bigger I will jump just like Daddy." In the meantime, Grandpa is keeping her safe. He's also helping to build strong leg muscles for big dives and big flips, just like Daddy does.