Vera is Two!

Oops- I forgot to mention that our little Dumpling turned TWO last weekend on December 12th! It was a super fun day. Mike stayed up till 1:30 the morning before assembling a play kitchen, which she loves loves loves. We had banana pancakes with whip cream for breakfast, she played in her new kitchen all day long-cooking up yummy "Hot Soup" for us all, Grampa Tom came up the mountain for a visit, and we had a delicious dinner with Grampa Tom and her beloved "Uncle Antny". We felt so grateful to have our awesome family here to celebrate with us. It was a truly fun day. We're looking forward to an exciting year!
-

Jesse

Sicky Sick But Still Singin'

Poor Vera is home sick today. She's just got a bad cold, but it's been a messy one with an awful lot of coughing. It is snowing buckets outside- the biggest storm we've had in years, so we've just been bundled up, playing and dancing and drinking lots of fluids all morning. She's been breaking out into spontaneous song a lot lately and being sick hasn't seemed to dampen her spirits much. It took me a couple listens to realize her latest tune is actually Jingle Bells. I didn't catch on till she shouted "Hey!" Here's a picture and a quick video from lunch today. She's enjoying a strawberry popsicle after a bowl of "noodle soup". She loved the popsicle, but it made her "too cold"...thus the hat. Enjoy- and stay warm!

Love, Jesse

Vera stayed home sick from school today- nothing serious, just the end of a nasty cold virus. It turned out to be a nice, restful play day for us both. She's been playing a lot of "night night" lately, putting just about anything that'll hold still to bed, tucking it in and kissing it night night. She likes to line up her little snoozers in a long line and then walk by them patting them all on the back, pulling back the covers to check on them and then tucking them in again. I was doing some work on the laptop, when I turned around and saw she'd tucked in a bottle of glue "Glue-baby", the baby Jesus, and one of her favorite dolls. She asked me to go get her Ipod, so we could play night night music for them, and yep, she thought to give them all pacifiers.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm!

Love, Jesse and Vera

A Day Off

Vera and I were both in serious need of a day off. Conveniently enough both the Library and her Daycare are closed today for Veterans' Day. And since it's pouring rain outside, we decided to just take it easy all day. These are some shots of Vera on the couch this morning during our early AM Pajama/Elmo Show Fest. And, yep..she's wearing an Elmo hat. She's a big fan. I was sitting beside her in my pajamas finishing a great book...but I didn't look nearly as cute. :)

Happy Veterans' Day to all.

Love, Jesse

Shots - Ouch- All Done!

After a series of shots this Fall- Vera has become an expert on the situation. She'll tell you the following: "Doctor- shots, ouch!-all done-yay!" ..in that order. She's found an old Fisher Price doctor's kit and will give shots to anything or anyone that holds still. And if you don't hold still, she'll still manage to get you, she sneaks up on you like a little toddler shot ninja. Poor Sabine- Vera's been chasing her round the house with the plastic syringe "Come here doggie! Shots! Ouch! All Done!"

So if you're visiting anytime soon...watch yourself, she's packin.

We're Back!

We're baaaack. Many many apologies for the five month hiatus! It was an incredible Summer and its been a fantastic Fall so far. Vera is talking up a storm, completely amazing us with her toddler conversations and observations. She is currently fascinated with: babies, poop, apples, bears, doggies and families of all shapes and sizes. She is funny funny funny, and we are having a ball. And some of the most excting news- we've got a sibling on the way! Vera's new baby brother, or sister (we find out Nov. 13th) is due on April 20th. Vera is currently baby-crazy. She "helps" with the babies at her daycare, talking to them, sharing toys with them, or just sitting quietly and watching. When we talk about going to daycare she says "help babies?"

She is very eager to help with just about everything going on around her. When its time to feed the dog, or unload the dishwasher, she comes running across the room calling "helping? helping?" Right now we're working on her getting her own clothes off and on by herself, which I think will be a huge help once the baby arrives. She does a great job, but can't seem to get her pants up over her bottom in the back. She gets them mostly pulled up and then looks back over her shoulder at her diapered bum and laughs hysterically. Growing up isn't easy. She's doing a great job and we are so proud!

Love to all! Please check back soon, I'll be a better blogger, I promise.

Love love love,

jesse

Vera has a Potty Chair!

Yes, it's true.

Vera is the proud owner of a potty chair. Ok, yes..it is green and shaped like a frog, and that creeps me out a bit, but she picked it out herself and she loves it. Today she spent literally almost a half hour sitting on it fully clothed, bopping clumsily up and down to retrieve toys from around the house, and pausing now and again to wipe her fully clothed bottom with toilet paper. She has been running to it all day, and since she's able to pick it up, she's twice carried it over to be closer to the adults in the room. Once she picked it up and carried it over to her mini frisbee golf game so she could sit on the potty, sip on her sippy cup, and leisurely flip mini frisbees into the basket. She's nuts over the thing.

We are all still giddy from our recent trip to Iowa. It was such an awesome way to start the Summer off. We had so much fun with our family celebrating Matt and Bethany's wedding and Vera had an exceptionally great time. She is a rockstar and a super traveller. A rockstar super traveller toddler extraordinaire. With a potty. A green potty shaped like a frog.

I love this age that Vera is right now. She is so busy and so delighted to be so busy. Such a busy busy worker bee, flitting from one activity to the next, taking each one so seriously, but pausing to giggle and dance and smile a toothy grin before running away full speed. She keeps us on our toes, and cracks us up constantly.

We feel so lucky to have her in our lives.

Love to all,

Jesse

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mamas!

Vera and I have had a girls only weekend as Mike has gone to Orlando for our friend Elise's wedding. We wish we could have gone too, but we've made the best out of our time alone. Lots of fun playing outside, a trip to the bookstore for a new Where's Spot? book, a really fun visit with Aunt Zoe and Logan and Logan's family, several long peaceful walks with our big dog Sabine, and of course,

plenty of great food all weekend long!

Today we had a wonderful Mother's Day Strawberry Shortcake Brunch with our good friend Lea and her two boys Asher and Oliver. Their dad had to work today, so we all got together and made strawberry shortcake and played in their yard and ate till we were stuffed and sticky and grass stained and oh, so happy. What a treat. Vera especially loved their swing set and their chickens. Asher is just two months younger than her and it is so much fun to see them together. And Oliver is by far the world's most patient older brother. He is so kind to Vera, sharing all their great toys. It is amazing to me how social they are at such a young age. Vera loves being around other kids, especially these guys. She's always shy for a bit and then she warms up and lets loose, heading straight for the "new to her" toys. At Oliver and Asher's house she's pretty infatuated with their play kitchen. She loves to bang and stir in the pots and play with the plastic food. There is a plastic jar of fake pickles that is particularly fascinating to her!

We are so incredibly lucky to have such wonderful friends and

such amazing mothers in our lives.

Hope all are well on this special day!

Love, Jesse and Vera Grace

Hooray For May!

We are so happy May has arrived! April was a tough one. Vera had a nasty run in with a door and ended up with three stitches in her forehead, which she fell over and broke open again 2 weeks later. I got my wisdom teeth out and then we both ended up with a stomach flu. Thank goodness for Mike, who was patient and kind

throughout it all.

The point is, Hooray for May! We seem to be back in the world of the living and we are loving it. Hope everybody is healthy and happy.

Love to all, Jesse

Spring is here and Vera is all about the outside world. She gazes out the windows longingly and walks right up to the front door and tries to pry it open with her little fingers. We've been going on lots of walks through the neighborhood, made several trips to the park, and are spending tons of time on the back porch. Yesterday I filled up a couple containers with water and she went crazy, pouring and dipping and filling and dumping for what felt like forever (Probably only 30 minutes...but in toddler time, this is like sitting down to watch two movies in a row!).

She is also learning how to drink out of a cup without the sippy cup lid. At daycare the other kids in her class don't use sippy cups, so she's started to refuse drinks in sippy cups at home, trying to pry the lids off herself. She definitely had some good drinking from a cup practice during the water play. And she especially liked it when I'd pour water out of her new watering can and she'd dance in and out of the sprinkles.

What fun! Happy Spring to everybody!!

gettin artsy

A couple shots from our brief but impressive artsy experiment

on the back porch yesterday.

Don't worry-it's non toxic paint!

Love, jesse.

Movin on up!

Vera has had a busy week! She moved up to the one year old classroom at daycare, so instead of being the oldest kid in the class, she's now the youngest one by several months. She is loving the new toys and the new climbing structure. Her teacher says that the other kids try to look out for her and cuddle with her and she's not having any of it - she wants to play like a big girl! On her first day in the new room, she got a pot and a whisk from the play kitchen and started "cooking" and then she put plates on the table and sat down.

Besides all that excitement, we had a visit from Gramma Sue, Great Gramma and Grampa Fleming, Aunt Katy and little baby Ellie! It was wonderful to have them here, and a real treat for us all. Vera was very curious about Ellie and had one eye on her at all times. At one point, Gramma Sue handed the little baby off to someone else, and Vera ran all the way across the room to get on Sue's lap. She was ready for some Gramma-Love.

Today, Vera and Mike and I went swimming at the YMCA and then walked home in the sunshine. When we got home Vera marched out on the backporch, sat down next to Sabine and signed "food"...she wanted her snack, and she wanted it outside. It was a great idea. She sat and had snack and then played by herself on the porch while I watched from the kitchen window a couple feet away. It was pretty darn adorable. She had a full conversation with Sabine, waving her graham cracker in the air and talking away and then pausing to gently pet her, take a swig of juice from her sippy cup and then talk some more. She sat quietly next to Sabine for a couple peaceful minutes before tromping back into the house and signing "more, more, more".

Being able to communicate with her is the best. This kid is hilarious and we love her so.

jesse

A little bit of box play.

This box has sat in our living room for a month. Vera has pretty much ignored it.

Today I put it on its side and she was all about it.

One million apologies for the shaky camera work.

Enjoy!

Snow Day!

With 1-2 inches of snow sticking on the ground we're enjoying a quiet day of no daycare and no work. Thought I might as well take Vera outside this morning to experience the fluffy white stuff and see what all the fuss is about. She was in awe..plodding down the snow covered street in front of our house leaving little pint sized foot prints and trudging down the hill into our side yard. She was unusually silent, just looking around and taking it all in. She kept pointing to the trees and the cars and the houses and looking to me for some explanation. I gave her a pretty good tutorial on snow angel making and demonstrated multiple times, but she just looked at me like I was crazy. I couldn't bring myself to drag her down in the snow with me (sorry Katy!) All was well till she hit an unexpected snow covered curb and face-planted in the chilly white stuff. She came up screaming, with a completely white, snow covered face-tongue out licking and spitting snow. We headed inside, where she was able to dry off and warm up and within minutes of being freed from her snowsuit she ran over to the couch pointing up to the window. She spent the next half an hour balancing on pillows looking outside, curious to see more of the snow

..but from a distance.

Happy winter to all!

Jesse

ps. just realized the pictures posted in backwards order. But you get the idea!

2009 - Love it.

We are feeling so lucky. We had a magical Xmas in Miami, where we got to meet and love on our Vera's cousins Isabela and Mia which was such a treat. On Christmas Eve we had an almost surreal trip to the Miami Zoo with Grandma Mary. There was hardly anyone there-and we got to see so many wonderful animals- Mike and Vera even got to feed the giraffes! After a very relaxing holiday we returned home to a Super Sushi extravaganza New Year in Asheville with Pop and Uncle Anthony. And then last weekend we visited the Hansen clan in Raleigh and got to meet and adore our new cousin Ellie and celebrate Xmas all over again!

It has been a month of play and fascination for Vera. She has been such a sweet and patient traveler- always herself even in strange new circumstances- she's such a trooper! She is growing and changing every day and becoming more of a little independent person. She is loving all her new Christmas toys. It seems like before Xmas she played with paper towel tubes and golf balls and now post Xmas, she's all about her new doll house, her blocks, her baby doll and her little tent. Though I did find a couple golf balls in the doll house the other day. She's having a great time, and working hard to express herself more and more-which is a huge treat for us. I can't wait till she can tell me exactly what she's thinking. As of now- I've got her making some pretty accurate monkey noises when we look at pictures of monkeys and she's quick to announce "uh-oh" after she throws (with some serious force) her sippy cup down from the high chair or pushes a block tower to the ground. Lots of giggling, plenty of dancing, and a tremendous amount of running away at full speed with high pitched squeals and blowing kisses.

Good times, good times. Love to all, jesse.