Nods and winks

Elizabeth is nine months old today. She has been developing so many new skills! Lately she has started to imitate our actions. If we shake our heads side to side, or nod up and down, she will too! Tonight even after Vanessa said, "No, no, no," without the head movement, Elizabeth started shaking her head side to side. So, now I have to worry about her learning to imitate Vanessa's creative ways of getting in trouble... Elizabeth has learned already how to open drawers and cabinet doors and pull out interesting items.

Vanessa is now two and a half. She has been developing so rapidly this month especially in her speech -- she is pretty much willing to try to pronounce or read any new word (although sometimes she'll hide under a sheet or run to the other side of the room before saying it, just in case it's not perfect!).

Vanessa is always making the most intriguing arrangements of objects around the house. Here's one of them. She made this "party" of animals and their meals. I understand the horse eating the carrot and the farmer eating ice cream, and maybe the cow eating peas too, but I'm not sure what to make of the dolphin eating the potato or the horse eating a hamburger.

I heard Vanessa muttering "bigger, bigger, bigger," as she later arranged the same group of animals from smallest to largest.

Here's another one that she likes to build frequently -- a stack of containers of Play-doh in rainbow order. The weird thing is that she insists on stacking it with the purple on the bottom, which means she has to build the rainbow in reverse order.
Like the grimace? That's another thing that Vanessa's been learning lately -- how to control her facial expressions. She's frowning deliberately to make me pretend frustration, just so that she can please me so much when she smiles.

After smiling for this picture, she said, "That was a nice picture!"

Here's another intentional smile. Now if she had just learned this before the Christmas pictures...

Here's a "wink." Well, that expression still needs a little work, I guess!

Elizabeth's dexterity is improving, and she can feed herself even these mostly mashed slippery strawberries.

She really liked the strawberries! I hope we can provide her with strawberries and all kinds of yummy foods from our garden this year.

Vanessa's discovered that I will allow her to feed Elizabeth if she wants. She does a pretty good job I'd say. I love how this picture shows Vanessa sticking her tongue out. Even I can't help opening my mouth when I feed Elizabeth. What is it with that instinct? Utterly unavoidable.

I like this picture because Nana is able to keep such a straight face while she is playing a movement game with Vanessa that just cracks Vanessa up!

For some reason when Grampa and Nana were here last, Elizabeth decided to use Grampa's knees for a trampoline! She just started jumping and laughing and couldn't stop! Our girls are lucky to have grandparents who make them laugh so much.

Warmer weather and other happiness!

I have been reflecting lately that warmer weather and kiddos who are feeling better make me feel just terrific. I am loving the freedom to GO places! Woohoo!

Even when we're hanging around the house, we've been having a good time. Here are our silly girls being found in a game of peekaboo!

Vanessa's been dressing herself lately. I like the one-shoe look.

I think in this picture Elizabeth is challenging Vanessa to a duel at high noon. The weapon of choice? Probably our squirty bath toys.

Grandma visited for just a little while last week. Vanessa tackled her. That's how Vanessa shows she loves someone these days!


Grandma is helping Elizabeth stand! Elizabeth has been taking so many practice steps lately, and stands all the time -- in her crib, under the table, etc. She's also gotten much faster at crawling and we definitely have to be more aware of her movements!

This is the kind of snow I like best -- the kind where the weather is warm and the snow is melting! Vanessa saw her daddy shoveling snow, so that's exactly what she wanted to do too!

Elizabeth explores the feel of snow for the first time. I put a tiny bit of snow near her so she could touch it while staying dry.

Here's some more for you, Elizabeth!

Daddy and Elizabeth watch Vanessa hard at work shoveling some more snow.



We drove out to Dinosaur Land today just for something low-key to do. It was still closed for the winter, but we had fun looking at the dinosaurs in the front anyway!

The area of parenting in which I definitely have not been too successful in so far is NAPS! We avoid naps for Vanessa to make bedtime more manageable, but still sometimes the poor thing needs a little rest in the day. Mostly she likes to rest in little hiding places like this book shelf or under the piano. I once fell asleep on the edge of a bathroom sink when I was little, and my little brother once fell asleep on top of a kitchen cabinet. I wonder where I might find Vanessa one day if she actually nods off during her little rest?

One day this week, I even mismanaged Elizabeth's naps! Well, I think it had to do with a certain someone interrupting her nap... but anyway, the poor dear didn't quite make it through dinner.

Too grown up?

So here are some things Vanessa has said lately that makes me think she is growing up way too fast:

Me: "Can you answer mommy's question?" Vanessa: "No, Vanessa busy."
"Mommy and Daddy, go to Mommy's and Daddy's room. Lie down. Go to sleep." (This so she could play with the laptop.)
Me: "Vanessa, please don't eat that." Vanessa: "Vanessa eat it anyway."
"No mommy tell me what to do."
"Vanessa erase Mommy's kiss."
*Door slam!* "Vanessa close door tight."

But, she also always says, "I love you, so much!" to Mommy, Daddy, and Elizabeth! And she talks lovingly about her family and friends every day.

Snow!

So much has been going on with Elizabeth and Vanessa lately. We've been hanging around the house waiting until we're not contagious (our favorite thing to do this winter), but meanwhile:

Elizabeth has been practicing balancing and has been practicing a few first steps. She has also starting crawling in earnest. No crumb is safe from the Elizabeth monster anymore! Time to up my sweeping efforts. Elizabeth has also started showing a preference for certain toys, which makes things complicated. We used to tell Vanessa to give just any toy to Elizabeth before trading (i.e. taking toys right out of Elizabeth's hands), but now we have to come up with a new set of rules to keep Elizabeth content.

Vanessa has been inventing all kinds of interesting games to play with us. One is that she will start telling a story, "One time, when Vanessa wasn't feeling well..." and tell me to say the other words. Another is the cutest game about loneliness. One of her hands will feel "lonely," and the other hand will come near it, sort of teasing, and then even finger-walk past it a ways, but then will rush back to find its friend the other hand, and give it a great big hug! We've also played, "A bear is coming," in which we hide under the dining room table and plan what to do in case the bear comes, mostly involving stocking up on fish and strawberries to distract it. I also saw Vanessa helping her toys have a conversation yesterday. The sheep asked the horse, "How are you doing?" And the horse said, "Fine."

Vanessa's reading has been really taking off. She read through the first 35 pages of "Little Black, a Pony" all by herself, with an average of four or five sentences on a page. It's apparent now that she knows how to sound out unfamiliar words. She's also been practicing playing piano, and can find the notes on the piano by letter name. She plays a lot of original "songs."

Sometimes it seems Vanessa is growing up almost too fast! But at least she isn't too old for peekaboo. Today I played peekaboo with Elizabeth and Vanessa while they hid together under the same fuzzy blue blanket. Ah, it was heaven to hear both of their giggles at the same time when I found them both!

Elizabeth balances!

Vanessa plays with the snow when it first fell. It was soft and fluffy. Vanessa hasn't really had a chance to touch or play in the snow before (outside of one exciting snowball-throw with Nana, and a few experiences from her babyhood). Elizabeth was napping and missed out on our brief jaunt in the snow (thanks to the baby monitor, she could stay inside).

Today, though, the snow just wasn't as fun. Everything was iced over, and Vanessa wasn't able to keep her footing very easily. Elizabeth's first experience in the snow wasn't too exciting for her, I guess.

Can we go back in now Mom?

So I'm not too sure how I feel about Vanessa watching or "playing" Mario Kart, and way past her bedtime at that, but... Vanessa's friend Dean being over makes for a very special exception!

This one is just because Elizabeth is so cute!

And even cuter in close-up!

Vanessa has enjoyed looking back through the blog to see stories of when she was little. Here she is trying to recreate the picture when she was just learning to climb into furniture. http://www.maxtedfamily.com/2007/12/last-chance-for-me-to-post-before.html But now she's too big to turn around like she used to!

I had just a few more pictures from another visit from Joanna, Brian, and Kyra. My favorite part about this recent trip was Vanessa discovering that Joanna was as many years old as Vanessa is months, a discovery that prompted a great big hug from Vanessa! Vanessa has been working hard on saying Joanna since then. It comes out "Jo-Nana."

Brian uses Vanessa as a basketball! Needless to say, this resulted in a resounding, "Again!"

Storytime! Vanessa had spent all her time with Kyra trying to convince Kyra that it was OK to climb up on Vanessa's bed. All it took was Joanna sitting there!

We also had a terrific time with Aunt Heather, Uncle Terry, and Uncle Zak this past weekend. It's always such a nice break for me to have that crew around, because they do such a good job of entertaining the girls and wearing them out!

Lowering the crib

Yesterday while I watched, Elizabeth pulled herself from a sitting position to a belly flop on top of the bathroom stool, and then pushed herself back up into a standing position. Whoa, was I surprised. I have to stop leaving her in a sitting position near ANYTHING. I lowered the crib just in case we have a sudden understanding of how climbing works.

If the increasing difficulty of keeping Elizabeth on her changing pad while giving her a diaper change is any indication, I think we're going to see some crawling in the next week or so.

Vanessa usually calls Elizabeth by the name Libbiff, Yibbiff, or sometimes even Biff. I think I heard her say Eyibbiff today, though. I wonder if Elizabeth will ever call herself Biff? I don't think I would have guessed that Vanessa would have called herself Sessa, although now of course she calls herself Vanessa.

Elizabeth has been starting to make babbling sounds, mostly Mah... Mah kinds of noises (Vanessa said Dada first, maybe I'll win this one!)

First teeth

Elizabeth's first two teeth have finally broken through! We had our first tooth-brushing yesterday. I'm glad they're finally here, maybe now she'll get over her cough! And now she's a pro at chewing her finger food.

Elizabeth loved her new toothbrush!

Vanessa of course wanted to help with Elizabeth's very first tooth-brushing experience.

Elizabeth is getting so good at standing. She's even been balancing for a few seconds. Today after balancing she stepped forward with one foot before I caught her. A first step? And she's sort of cruising even. Not crawling yet, though.

Elizabeth has just started enjoying books a little. She especially likes playing peek-a-boo in Pat the Bunny. But that's not a surprise really, she LOVES playing peek-a-boo. Well, her uncle Brian made her cry playing peek-a-boo once, haha! ...but that was after making her smile and laugh for ten minutes!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful New Year! We had a nice time visiting with Grace and her mommy and daddy and friends today. Grace is just a little older than Vanessa, and playing with her makes my mind so boggled to realize all the language and reasoning that Vanessa will acquire in just the next few months.

And we've really enjoyed having Brian and Joanna and their dog Kyra staying with us for a little while. Vanessa will be so sad not to see Kyra tomorrow morning when she wakes up.

I also think Vanessa is sad to learn that today is the first day of 2009, because she just recently learned that the year was 2008! Oh well, she'll adjust soon enough. Time flies, Vanessa, and even more so for your parents!

Here are some pictures from our very busy Christmas. Our families were kind enough to come to us this year, so we didn't need to travel anywhere.


Here are the stockings that James hung by the chimney with care. My grandmother ("Oma")Phyllis made the three on the right, new to us this year, but James's is from when he was a little kid. I'm so excited about our new stockings. Aren't they beautiful?

This is probably the only year that Elizabeth will let me open her stocking!

Vanessa had a great time opening her stocking. I think Santa put just the right number of gifts and snacks inside.

I wasn't sure if Elizabeth would enjoy unwrapping gifts, but she definitely was excited about tissue paper! Noisy and easy to grab! Here she's getting some new bath books from her Grandma Lou, which she has already decided fit her taste in literature (yum!).

We saw a little bit of sibling rivalry this Christmas. I guess it was just a matter of time until Elizabeth got a toy that Vanessa really wanted for herself!

I love that we've needed to use the dining table so much just to accommodate all the family members we've had over! Vanessa is enjoying one of the bagels that Grampa brought for Christmas breakfast.

Vanessa just loved all the Christmas trees on Nana's sweater (it probably helps that Vanessa loves Nana so much!). Oh, that's one more thing that Vanessa will really miss when we have the time to take it down -- the Christmas tree.

Here Vanessa is having a rare moment of sitting still on Christmas. Grampa's lap is a cozy place to take a little rest. Most of the day, Vanessa was running around, opening everyone's presents, and generally pouncing on Kyra!

Elizabeth has been just, well, really pleasant lately! Smiley and cuddly. Here she is having a wonderful time with her Nana.

And Elizabeth just loves to hang out with her buddy Grampa.

Thanks, Kalena, for getting Vanessa some beautiful blue clothes! I think it's helping to have some new clothes (especially blue ones) to encourage Vanessa to get dressed in the morning.

Vanessa loves her new blue blanket from her Nana. She pretty much won't let anyone else cuddle with it.

Exept Kyra, that is. But Kyra holds a very special place in Vanessa's heart! Kyra does, after all, let Vanessa sit on her!

Vanessa also loves to give Kyra big hugs!

I think that Elizabeth likes Kyra too. It's kind of tricky to tell because she squints her eyes when Kyra licks her all over her face, but she doesn't cry, and she looks around to see where Kyra is. I'm not sure, but she might have actually signed "dog." In any case, though, Elizabeth does love Uncle Brian, that's not so hard to figure out!

Uncle Zak is always lots of fun to have around. Vanessa loved playing with him.

Uncle Zak also wrapped Vanessa's present in about 25 feet of brown paper! It was so funny to see Vanessa unrolling and unrolling it to finally find the present.

Aunt Heather and Uncle Terry are always great fun to have over. I can't say enough how spoiled we are to have them so nearby.

Well, so Vanessa would rather run around than pose for a picture with her family, I guess! I suppose it takes a lap like Grampa's to entice her to sit still!

Grandma was a tremendous help to me around Christmas. We had some very mild weather and the girls could swing and play outside. Vanessa LOVES swinging, and I usually cause a tantrum when I tell her that swinging time is over and it's time to go inside, but Grandma negotiated the transition perfectly. I guess Grandma just has a special way about her! Vanessa and Elizabeth love their Grandma so much!

And Grandma spent some time helping Elizabeth play the piano. It wasn't so long ago when Grandma was helping Vanessa have some of her first experiences with the piano.

Elizabeth has made some big strides in development over the past week or so. She is mastering grasping and eating Cheerios and she'll walk all over the house holding onto my hands.

Vanessa is making some developmental strides of her own. I was wondering if Vanessa had a "block" against stacking (pardon the pun), because she never wanted to stack blocks if they didn't match the color of the other blocks in the stack, and we never seemed to have a large number of blocks of all the same color. But, she seems to have overcome that recently and has been doing more stacking.

My good friend Rachael invited Vanessa to be a flower girl in her wedding next summer. When we read about a flower girl in a story recently, I let Vanessa know about those plans. Well, Vanessa wanted to practice! So we dressed up and marched all over the house.

Vanessa's been trying to make letters and even simple words lately. Here she wrote "Hi." She's also been doing a great job reading, and she can read most of the words that she knows how to say.

So, if you were wondering what kind of trouble a two-year-old could get into while her mom was on the phone for ten minutes... (Yes, those are Nerf darts stuck on Elizabeth's fingers, and two pairs of socks on her head.) I'm just surprised Elizabeth slept through this!