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!