St. Louis and More

We were so excited to have Grandma H visit! C and I made a list of things to take her to, show her, and play with her while she was here and we crossed everything off. A very successful visit!

Highlight  reel:

-Trip to St. Louis to see the zoo, the Magic House, the temple, swim in our hotel pool, eat good food, and do some shopping.

- Steve and I took advantage of Grandma's babysitting offer and went on a getaway to Boonville (C did not believe that was a real place. Can't really blame him).

- Bat cave!

- Picnic at the sandy beach!

- I "trained" for and completed a 5K on the MKT trail with the support of these wonderful people

- Going Bonkers playtime

- Lots of fun book reading and popcorn eating

 Climbing the beanstalk at the Magic House

 Tunneling at the Magic House

 Inside a bubble!

 Water play

 Mr. Fix- It

 Liberating dogs at the vet's 

 Check-up with Dr. C

 Feeding sting-rays. 

 We rode the Carousel a couple times. Huge hit. 

 Viv was enamored with this huge, ancient creature.

 In the Sea Lion Tunnel!

Bat-cave explorers

La dee da...

The previous post was written back in February right after Viv's birthday but for some reason I forgot to publish it. I'm posting more or less for my own sake these days so I don't forget things, so I went ahead and posted it so late. This one is current.
Vivian loves making messes and getting dirty. One of her happiest ways to be is covered in yogurt as she gleefully self-feeds/finger paints. Add the presence of an audience with a camera, another love of hers, and you get this:

She also loves shoes and even likes saying the "shhh" sound often (she can also say "Cheese!" for the camera, "show!" when she sits on the sofa and demands movie time, "more," "no," "cereal," "bird," "water," "night-night","baba" for bottle, and this weird "Cree" sound for C). She just loves footwear. All day long she gets shoes out of the shoe basket, making matches and deliveries to their owners throughout the house. She can work my high-heels no problem (did you see her Valentine?). She was thrilled when she saw this guy at an Earth Day fest:

Lastly, to really make this little doll happy, no day is complete without the inclusion of a dog. Whether it be reading one of her favorite books, like Chowder, or playing with friends' and neighbors' dogs, or commenting on everyone we see or hear no matter where we are, dogs are huge in her world. In fact, to give her a treat, we all went to an event at the local Humane Society awhile ago to let her have her heart's content of dogs. This was almost a bad idea because were it not for my mean streak and dislike of dirty messes (vs. clean messes, the kind that don't require scrubbing), Steve would have walked out of there with more than one lab puppy and two absolutely delighted children.

Creedo is talking more than ever. His catch phrases right now are "... and then... and then.... and then" as he's telling stories about epic monster battles and ninja showdowns that go on and on and on. He tells me "you cray-cray" a lot, and he's started saying stuff like "but my Daddy said it was OK" when I tell him no. He tries to talk himself out of and into everything.

Still talking to me as I'm trying to take a picture

He loves to play in the backyard, which is coming together.Months of diligent craigslisting produced a Little Tikes climber cube that is a huge hit with him. He spends a lot of time defending it and the rest of the backyard from intruders, which to date include snakes, spiders, runaway and borrowed neighbor dogs. He is fully in underwear, all the time even nights, and he stopped sucking his thumb after it got injured from guess what? Too much sucking. It took awhile to heal and it was long enough to break the habit.

His favorite things are reading long comic books with Dad, eating fruit, cooking, swimming, coloring/painting, fixing things with tools, and cruising in all his "poTEKff" gear on his beloved scooter. And playing the iPad, of course. His fav game on there is a Despicable Me version of Temple Run.

Creedo, don't go in the water, you're all dressed...

Oh well.

Creedo, snuggle up with Viv so it looks like you love her.

 That works.

Just love these kids!

The Baby is Not Very Much of One...

... but she is One. She is much more of a toddler than baby. I kind of glazed over her birthday, as it came at a rough time for us healthwise, schoolwise, sleepwise.
Viv has reached the stage where every week my level of baby-proofing must increase.
She loves:
-Anything that can be a purse, putting things in and out of it
- Pushing things (stroller, trike, shopping cart, furniture)
- Splashing in bathtime
- Hiding games, like peek-a-boo and hide-n-seek with her toys. She makes a really cute question noise and holds out her hands, palms up, to say where.
- Dancing and clapping and kissing as reactions to hearing any music, "Hoorah!", and "mwah-mwah"
- Playing with Creedo*
- Eating with utensils at the table. No more baby food, no more formula, no more highchair. It's the real deal or nothing.
- Twirling her hair when she's sleepy or stressed
- Climbing everything! She does stuff like tip over a kitchen table chair and climb all over the rungs and legs.  The latest favorite activity is climbing up the upright kitchen chairs and reaching everything I've expressly put on the table so she wouldn't reach it.
- Having something in each hand. Always. I am constantly going from room to room putting away the toys she carried into the kitchen, the spoons she snuck out into the bathroom, the diaper rash cream and Orajel tube (which she loves to gnaw on, nice and squishy with just the right amount of give) from my bed, etc.

Dislikes:
- Sharing.
- When Creedo has my attention or sits on my lap
- From time to time, anything "normal" that I feed her. She'll go a couple days where I feel like all she ate are pretzels and clementines.
- Being put down when she's at the max stressed about something, whether its me saying "no more clementines today, your diapers are getting weird" as she furiously signs "more!", a bump or fall, or when she just is done being gracious. She will cling and hang on for dear life. If I do get detached, she will all-out tantrum with legs and arms flailing, lying on her back, wailing. Its quite the sight. She does this funny thing where she alternates making her mouth into a teeny tiny frown and then opens it as wide as  she can for a yell.
- Being bundled up for the snow.
- Being reverent at church

Creedo
Loves:
- swimming at the MU rec center
- Going to Hy-vee
- reading books
- playing on the Ipad
- Thriller (all things monster or halloween)
- talking, making up stories
- Netflix
- candy, apples, pancakes, chips and salsa, salad with ranch and croutons ("protons")
- making zombie houses
- re-enacting Aquabats scenes
- nursery
- playing outside
- drawing
- doing "science"
- cereal, fruit, and PBJs
- only Dad can put him to bed

Dislikes
- playing with Viv
- the blender
- washing hands
- getting dressed
- when Viv is awake and he wants screen time
- people, sometimes
- 5:00pm. Its when he is really tired and I'm making dinner so he's forced to entertain himself, but just wants to fall asleep. Its a rough time.
- when I sing