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!