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!