Spring has Sprung!

Spring is definitely here, and we are loving it! The girls are growing like weeds, loving each other more every day and surprising us constantly with their new developments. June is crawling like a speed demon and just started pulling up on things and inching across and around the edges of the couch at an alarmingly fast pace.  Yesterday out of nowhere she said "uh-oh" and then continued to say it all day long, with spurts of giggles in between choruses of "uh-oh...hi...uh-oh..hi".  Vera is very into her sister, her guinea pigs, her dog and her toys.  She has recently become really interested in the idea of weddings and insists she's going to marry Grandpa Tom.  There's no point trying to talk her out of it.  She is extremely passionate these days.  She's also very into tea parties, and ballet and hula dancing. 

Mike and I are running around like crazy, busy with school and work and tax season, and still managing to make time for ample amounts of silly play with these two little hooligans.  Hard to believe its almost been a year since Junie joined us- her birthday is coming up on April 30th.  This morning on the way to school I heard giggling in the backseat and looked back to see them holding hands across their carseats and laughing hysterically at their own ridiculousness. 

We are so grateful for each day.  Happy Spring!

Vera Brushing Her Teeth With Her Wedding Veil and Bouquet

June playing on the backporch while we unload groceries-

Vera gave her the toys

 "so she be happy while we work" 

Yum- yogurt!

Tea party with Dinner

Yes??

Busy Little Bees

Family of Four

We are settling in more and more everyday. I'm relieved to report that we are beginning to feel much more like a family of four and less like a bunch of crazies with a sweet new baby.  It has been such a once in a lifetime kind of summer, with visits and help from an array of awesome family members-we've had plenty of excitement and celebration and ruckus and are having to remind ourselves to balance it out with some peace and quiet too.  Vera was sad to say goodbye to "Aunt Yoey" (Zoe) yesterday, but is excited to ride in the big airplane to Mexico next week and then see Grandma Mary when we come home.  I guess we'll put peace and quiet on the to do list for September.  :)  

These are my favorite pictures from the last little while.  

 I walked into the other room after Vera's bath the other night and came back to find her naked in our front yard.

 Mike walked in on Vera reading the paper while eating the other morning. Not saying a word...just perusing the ads for shoes.

Typical Early..I mean way early... Morning

Vera taking care of both her babies

The Junester

Love to all-
Jesse 

It has been eight weeks since Baby June Eliza arrived on the Figuera scene on April 30th.  She is such a sweet, and patient baby, a joy and a dear and we love her so.  Vera is already a stellar big sister and I am really, truly impressed with her. It has been amazing to watch her process this change and to see her show real affection to her new little sister, even as she clearly understands that June's arrival has changed our little family forever.  It's hard to believe its only been eight short weeks.  It seems like Junie's been with us forever. 
Feeling unbelievably lucky and grateful and hoping everyone is enjoying their summer as much as we are. 
Love to all,
Jesse

That's How She Rolls

   Vera this AM on the way to school.

Yum!

There has been a whole lot of cooking going on lately. Vera always has an eye on the kitchen, and whenever either Mike or I start to whip something up, she is front and center wanting to help. She asks for her stool, and her apron and pretty soon she's in it up to her elbows...literally. (Don't worry future dinner guests, we always wash hands first!!:)) Yesterday Mike helped her learn to crack eggs gently, and she was pretty impressed- turns out she didn't know her own strength. And of course, the best part of cooking is...eating! Yum. Love to all, Jesse

Growing UP!

Somehow- Vera seems to have grown a year or two in the past month. She is talking nonstop, and so completely interested in the world around her. She has pretty much stopped walking, and now runs almost 100 percent of the time. Her energy is incredible, and at night, she literally collapses into bed (a big girl bed!) needing every second of sleep to recharge for the next day. She is really enjoying her classroom at school right now. At night we talk about our plans for the next day and she wakes up raring to go- chatting excitedly about the fun she's hoping to have. This week is the Week of the Young Child, and her school is celebrating with fun themed activities every day. Here are a couple of recent photos of her, including last night when she came home after "Wacky Weird Day" with purple and blue hair. She was thrilled! Monday was Upside Down Day and she went to school with Diaper on her head, two pigtails sticking out of the leg holes. She walked into her classroom and declared, "Look! I have a diaper on my head! I'm so silly!" She finds most everything hilarious right now, and its been wonderful to hear her opinions on stuff. She definitely has some strong opinions! We are loving our big girl so much and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our baby June (Could be any day now!). Hoping everyone is having as much fun this Spring as we are. Best wishes, Jesse

Florida, sweet Florida!

We had the most wonderful family vacation up and down the coast of Florida last week. It was both completely relaxing and surprisingly full. We drove down to Miami, via the Columbia Zoo, the Historic River District of Savannah, the manatees of Blue Springs Park, and Lori and Bob's house in Englewood, Florida. Vera saw the ocean for the first time ever and she was in awe. She tried her best to gather all the seashells on the shore and throw them back in, one by one. It was all we could do to keep her from running off into the surf. She loved it! We had two and a half days in Miami, where we hit the Miami zoo, caught the Superbowl with friends, and watched Vera delight in the sure joy of playing with her cousins for hours on end. Mike and I could not believe how hard she played, and how truly happy she was the entire trip. She is such a joyful child, but to see her run and jump and climb and laugh, laugh, laugh so hard- and just love her family (our family :)) so much- it was just plain awesome. We had planned to spend several days driving back up, but Vera was so completely exhausted that we ended up driving the whole way from Miami in one long day, stopping just twice to stretch our legs. Vera slept on and off, waking only to laugh and quiz us about where Grandma Mary, Uncle Bob, Aunt Lori, the ocean, or Mia and Isa were at that particular moment. Her world has grown, and so has she. I swear, she seemed like an older kid when we returned. It was tough to return to 20 degree temperatures, nasty wind and the whole daycare/work routine on Wednesday. When I dropped Vera off at daycare for the first time in a week, we washed hands, and went to settle in to play at the table, when she looked all around the room and then looked up at me and asked, "Mama, where's Grandma?" It was a truly incredible trip. Love and gratitude to all.

PB and J and Pickles

Vera is talking so much. It is completely mind-blowing to finally hear what's going on inside her head. It has been such an amazing month of absolute two-year-old-ness. She is very into doing things herself "me do it", "no touch it mommy", "vera do it..no help...noooo.!!!". She is working very, very hard to get herself dressed and undressed with no help. It's amazing how tricky those two separate pant legs can be! She gets one foot in, pulls it all the way to the bottom and squeals "peekaboo" when her foot pops out, then repeats with the other leg. It takes quite awhile- but its worth it. She gets a little steadier every day and she's so proud to do it on her own! She's very into her daily routines, she's starting to really have favorite clothes and favorite books and favorite foods. Her latest infatuation is "PB and J" with Pickles on the side. This child can't get enough dill pickles in one day! Reminds me of Zoe:)! I cut them into long strips, just to help ration them out. She literally falls asleep some nights talking about pickles and wakes up asking "More Pickle?" Here's a sweet morning video from this past wintry weekend, when she woke up all sleepy eyed and curly headed asking for PB and J with More Pickle..."pleeease.....now!!... pleeease Mommy,
Mommy help..do it!".

Love to you all, Jesse

Vera is all about babies! She is sooo interested in what Baby June is doing right now, and what she'll do when she comes out, and what we'll need to do for her and with her. We talk alot about how we'll hold Baby June, and nurse baby June, give her a bath, take her in the stroller, and she might even like a Paci- a little Paci- not Vera's paci! Here are some shots of Vera practicing these things- she's nursing my doll from when I was little- she spied it on a top shelf of our closet, and brought her out of retirement! A very fun time for us all. Love to everybody. Stay Warm!

Jesse

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