*

Our favorite little friends came over yesterday to play. It was the first day in who knows how long that our pretty city did not have the worst air quality in the country!! Oh it felt so good to be outside breathing deeply.

Apparently Amelia wore her little cape all day long. Vera and Sam played along as Jenny and I tried to get a picture of the three little superheroes together. Sadly they wouldn't comply. Man though it was stinkin' cute.

*a good, full, normal, happy day

We haven't had one of these in a while - at least a whole day of niceness. She was happy/tantrum-free, super talkative and had a good appetite. The 3 of us had pancakes together before heading off to the library to play with our favorite friends and stay for story time. Vera took a typical micro-nap which was ok because she woke up and we cuddled with some books for a while afterward. We sorted shapes for a bit, I read my Saveur and had mate while she played by herself and then we walked to the grocery store. Came back and went over to our neighbors' for tea and tangerines. Came home and made some yummy pasta together and then played some more. She went to bed sooo easy which has been a problem lately - even said "bye!" as I closed the door. and then I got to watch some 2 hours straight of Thursday night tv :) Thank you Lord for a good day!

Thought I'd share the pasta we had because it's really good and easy. It also gets Vera to eat a good amount of spinach because it's all creamy and cheesy and hidden in the spirals of the noodles. I kind of made it up, but am sure I saw something somewhere [I'm thinking Jamie Oliver?].

whole wheat or barilla plus SPIRALS

mascarpone cheese

frozen chopped spinach

parmesan

salt + pepper

[it would be good w. some sauteed garlic + chili flakes i imagine...]

No real instructions ... I cooked pasta/spinach separately and then stirred it all together with a little of the pasta water. mmm.

No picture from the day so here's a year ago: playing her favorite peek-around-the-corner game:

*looky

Guess what I got for Christmas?? I'm so hip :) [big THANKYOU to M+R] I've been really wanting one for a while now - especially after getting hooked on blogs such as this [I kind of have a crush on this girl - P, don't make fun] and this. Supposedly Polaroid was stopping production on their film [i've heard it's been saved, but you never know], so I was also generously given a whole box of it! It was so fun to see those first pictures emerge!! Don't you remember that feeling? Here's one of my favorites - why does Uncle Matty look like he's a giant? It's like those greeting cards with the funny type-written captions:

...and here's some fun ones - while I have the scanner hooked up from the other day...:

[scanner isn't doing the best job, i'm noticing...]

*hopeful and inspired

*back a few weeks/years...

I was really excited about Vera's Christmas dress this year - it was mine when I was little! She looked darn cute in it and so I took a bazillion pictures. I remember a really sweet one of me walking down these steps with either my dad or grandpa's hand. Can't find it anywhere ... probably set it aside so it wouldn't get lost :)

[15 months]

[17 months]

I did get one of her on the steps in her red... sweats. [Don't you love my grandparents' carpet??]

*pobrecita

More of this. I'll take it :)

*bedhead

Thanks for all your well-wishes for Vera... She only threw up that one night which was a relief. She had a day or two of rest and now has a cough and a head so stuffed she's calling me "Baba." She's also got some scary looking molars ripping through those little gums of hers - so that hasn't been fun either: lots of whining and crying and finger-chewing.

I feel like we've had permanent bedhead all week. Both Ben and I were down with the bug yesterday and the night before. There's nothing like being sick - I admit that I turn into a big self-pitying, complaining lump. Seriously I can't feel sorrier for myself :) Thank goodness I felt better this morning!! Anyway, what is the point of this post? I don't really know.

Oh yes, I remember I had wanted to share a picture of Vera with her animals [I couldn't get a good photo, but have one from a month ago] Every morning when I get her out of bed, she has to pick up everyone to get up too. I love it - she waddles around and in to see Daddy with an arm-full of friends:

*enfermita

To follow up, I did get up forty minutes before Vera yesterday morning! This morning however, Vera woke up throwing up at 1am. Poor little thing, it made my heart break to see her scared and miserable like that. There was no getting her down again, so I brought her to our bed [Ben --thankfully, I'm sure-- banished to the guest room]. We watched Little Bear, slept a bit, puked some more, put down new towels, half-dozed again while she watched more Little Bear [tho' she kept nudging me to wake up - she would not lie down!], threw up again, and finally ended up bringing in the dawn together with Sesame Street and Arthur. By 9:00 she finally gave in and went to sleep - as did I:

..as tired as I was, it just made my heart grow even more for this little one in my care...

*la enseñanza

{..apply your heart to discipline, and your ears to the words of wisdom..}

Good advice, isn't it? This was one of a few memory verses [sorry, can't find the reference at the moment] that defined my year in Argentina. I knew what an incredible difference it made if I could get up early each morning to read my Bible and pray. I repeated that verse to myself every morning when I would have rather turned over to keep sleeping - and for that matter, every time I felt myself pulling to do something not consistent with who I wanted to be in my faith or otherwise [as in hellO! you do not need another plate of gnocchi!].

Because it's hard, this discipline thing. I had realized after reading some book [probably a Puritan Paperback :)] that I don't want to just act disciplined, but rather to discipline my heart, to live and breathe that way. Does this make sense? Sorry to unload a little personal, probably nonsensical stuff here, but I've just really been disappointed with myself lately. Remember a few months ago when I wrote out some things I wanted to change? Well not much did [...although I did cut flowers to put inside until winter precluded that one. ok and I guess I've toned down on the ice cream intake :)]. Every morning for the last week I've planned to get up before Vera - who is actually getting up rather late .. lately. So I just taped my old favorite verse up and will say it to myself tomorrow morning when I [yet again] am inclined to roll over and go back to sleep. I'll let you know how it goes.

*el gato

Vera was in love with Castro. When we pulled up from the airport she was already calling for him - taaaaa-tohhhhh!!! - just like she and Lola had done at Thanksgiving.

*17 months

I feel kind of silly doing these monthly updates still... You can scan if you like, but it's fun for me :)

At almost 1 1/2, Vera's most repeated words are asookie [meaning unknown], poopoo [yup], daddy/doggy [they sound exactly the same: use context], Des-ta and Me-me [Stella and Amelia. pretty much anything reminds her of one of them].. and NO!

She has all 4 molars just peeking through, causing some major crankiness.

She is obsessed with Little Bear [pretty cute, innocent (albeit dorky) little cartoon. via the twins via soulemama.]. We're not allowed to say it out loud and I try to keep her from seeing the computer too much or it reminds her she needs to watch an episode. I will say "just one, ok?" and she holds her one finger up to her cheek and says, "two?" I'm not saying she understands counting - I don't really know what she thinks one/two means.

She's pretty good at remembering names and pointing out who's who in photos. I'm thinking of making flashcards :)

She's off the bottle! My little scheme worked: over Christmas I had my sister bring an extra sippy cup just like her kids' and gave Vera her milk while they had theirs. I really emphasized that it was Olivia's cup and how pretty/cool it was. Olivia complied and would pretend to drink from it too. She's only said NO! and thrown it on the floor a few times. I guess now I have to think about how to stop the sippy?

*97

The main reason for our extra holiday trip to California was to see Ben's Granny who was visiting from Hawaii. It's a crazy/neat thing to see my little blond-haired Vera next to her Chinese great-grandmother! She turned 97 on New Year's Day and it was such a treat to be there for her birthday dinner...

All her favorites were served: chicken feet, longans ['dragon eye fruit'], fresh water chestnuts and a surprisingly [sorry, I'm always suspect of these things] yummy jello/cream cheese dessert. We also had some regular chicken parts, Rosie's delicious green papaya soup, Auntie Lettie's delicious pancit, and another amazing green papaya salad. It's really pretty cool to be part of this family and have been introduced to such wonderful culinary traditions.

Vera tried out the chopsticks on her own! She actually ate a good amount of noodles, shoveling them in just so. Pretty cute: all the aunties were quite pleased :)

*

:eating ice cream cake with her cousins.  she LOVED her cousins!  ahweewee (olivia) iva (ivor) and elilileelele (eliot - the birthday boy. my sister was pregnant with him at our wedding!):

:lots of snow:

:eating cheese and drinking wine - there was a lot of this:

:i always say this, but i love to see vera get to know and have fun with her family.  i was a bad photographer this time and didn't get any with grandma & papa sam:

I tried to move this to the top, but can't figure out Ben's Mac.  We're home for a brief 10 hours before we fly out for California in the morning...  After un- and re- packing, I thought I'd post some of our favs from Ward Christmas 2008 - I don't want to be all backlogged when we get back :)

and grrr I've been waiting like 20 minutes for this cute picture of the three of us eating Christmas dinner to upload.  prime rib, yorkshire pudding, pumpkin rolls.... sooooo good.  vera's favorite was the green beans. ?  I still smile remembering how she shoved another in real fast before we prayed.  like it was candy or something she shouldn't have.

*a good day

We had a wonderful Christmas! Some choice ones of Vera - more later...

daddy/daughter time

The other day, I (Ben) took Vera on a hike with Boone. It had just snowed, which made everything look beautiful. Vera got cold, and so we had to go home shortly after we arrived. But we still had a great time.

*Christmas Vacation!

Ben turned in his last paper for the semester and is soooo happy.  Other semesters he's had work carry over the break, and I can imagine how good it feels to have this clean slate*.  We had a great afternoon... I got some errands ran and Ben went for a walk in the snow with Vera and Boone.  It was a classic last day of school with heavy, steady snowfall all day.  This evening there was that soft, quiet, pinkish light that I remember so well from being young.  Those times we'd have snowball fights late [well what I thought was late] into the night, somehow never feeling cold.  Ha, am I making this sound romantic?  Most of those nights probably actually ended in Liz or I running inside crying because George nailed us in the face with a snowball :)

Anyway, we are so looking forward to the holidays!!!  It's just so great to be with family, especially when you live away.  We actually get to see both sides - we'll spend Christmas in Nevada with mine and then head down to California again after the New Year.

  

*For those of you who wonder, Ben is probably about 2 years from finishing.  He'll take one class in the Spring, but that's it as far as coursework [he'll be teaching one as well].  In March he'll take some big exams, after which he'll be considered a PhD candidate.  After that he'll start researching for the dissertation which generally takes a year - then another year to write.  Over halfway!  We're real proud :)

*sledding

We live by a pretty amazing park with a decent sledding hill. This first time Vera was a little overwhelmed and underdressed, but we have all winter ...

and last year! 7 months old I think:

*

A few things about Vera lately that I want to remember:

°She's really into praying before meals now. She likes to hold hands and bows her head in a funny little way. When we finish she says ah-me! and then signs "again." Last night we prayed "again" at least 10 times.

°I love how she makes her stuffed animals and dolls do things. Over Thanksgiving I noticed her play-feeding Bunny. She put down the spoon, signed "more" with his paws, and continued the feeding. He and the other little friends also sign thank you and wave bye-bye. One day after I showed her how to slide off the couch on her tummy, I saw her sliding Bunny off on his tummy too. Last night, I think she was trying to put Bunny in a sling. She had one of my tank tops around her neck and was trying to stuff him in too ... I wrapped it around and they hung out like that for a while. It was mpossible to get a good picture:

°Last night she discovered that she could blow out votives and wouldn't let Tia [our neighbor] rest until she'd re-lit them 20 times.

°She loves to brush her teeth and I can guarantee if I start brushing mine, she comes running from wherever she's been for her turn.

°Tonight she stuffed some brocolli up her nose. Ben laughed and called me in to see. Hopefully he remembers next time that you don't laugh at those things! She was still snorting out brocolli by bathtime.

°She loves shoes and hats. She always labels our shoes and hats: Mama! Daddy! Mama! Yesterday I thought she might have labeled one as Vera's! She says her name like a Vvvbbbba breathy type sound. Her friend Amelia has this same hat and she labels it too:

*a true toddler

Vera started clearly saying the dreaded "no" a week or two ago. I noticed she'd copy me when I spill something and say "oh nooo!", which was kind of cute. A few nights ago Ben asked if she wanted to get out of the tub three times, and each time she gave him a clear no. This morning she started a game where she holds something out to Stella or me, and just as we go to take it, she swings it back around and says no! I don't like this game very much, and am at a bit of a loss [and I feel like I'm being duped, because every time I think she really is giving me the object. she's very convincing.] My first reaction is to say [obviously], "no, Vera!" What do you suggest?

*2

I'm so grateful for Ben motivating me to get up & out. I was feeling totally unproductive and bored and sluggish one morning last week, and so he suggested we go for a hike - with Vera and Stella. Guess what? You can go on an outing with two babies [and a dog too]! There was no whining or crying in the car or on the trail and we all got some lovely, cool, fresh air.

[very handy, comfortable Beco carrier on loan from the twins]

*el baño

Vera normally has "tubby time" with Ben - a highlight of both their days. After she gets undressed, he's taught her to carry her dirty clothes into her room and drop them in the basket - nothing cuter than her naked little bottom running back to get in the tub. They do all these cute little projects [quite Montessori unbeknownst to Ben] like filling the pitcher with shampoo bottles one by one, lining them up on the side, taking them down, repeating, etc.

I usually don't give her a bath when he's not home, I've thought it was kind of a hassle. Last night though I did, and had so much fun just watching. The entire 25 minutes she poured water from one cup to the other. At one point she dropped a cup and it splashed in her face, making her laugh. So she switched and would pour, pour, drop one cup in the other and pour it out into the water to splash. She was cracking up - every single time. I didn't have to do anything but watch.

[my new cell phone doesn't take very good photos :( ]