Ski Bunny

This happened last Friday:

And 29 years and two months ago:


. /\ . /\

. Grandmom and Mommy

Certain family traditions seems to endure, right down to the color choices for the ski outfit. And happily, thanks to the digital camera era, there are a few more pictures from last Friday:

Uncle Eric and Aunt Diana happened to be in town, so they gave us a good excuse to make it up to the mountains. Then they came down and had dinner with us at our house, where it was a little less chilly.

We are still talking about UNCLE! AUNT! ... SKI! ... SNOW! four days later. Overall, I'd say it was a success. Sabine did not love getting geared up, but she did seem to really enjoy sliding through the snow on her new skis. There was lots of giggling and "Eeeeee!"s.

Mommy has high hopes for next year.

Very Smiley Caterpillar

Status of new exhibit room at the Butterfly Pavillion: approved.

Sabine is actually finally noticing and showing interest in the real butterflies, and even got to see a tortoise up close and personal today. She wasn't very keen on it coming straight towards her, but as she will eventually learn, they do not tend to move very quickly so there was plenty of time to jump into mom's arms and shout "HI!" and wave from above.

17 Months

On Saturday Sabine turned 17 months old. We have been having so much fun with her, recently. She's growing so fast, and learning so much; it's just been a pleasure to watch. She's doing more independent play, she is getting more curious about how things work, and she's bigger and stronger so she's getting into/onto more things, but she's also able to help out more. She helps sweep, she helps water the flowers, she helps pick up things that have fallen on the floor and put them in the trash, she helps carry laundry, and she helps unload the dishwasher. She also helps yell at the cats anytime they do something bad. "NONONO!" and "DOWN DOWN!" are some of her favorite words.

Sabine's vocabulary, in general, is expanding. She's enunciating more, and attempting more words. She isn't stringing words or phrases together quite yet, but we think she's close. She still uses a lot of baby signs (sign language), and we have found that to be really helpful to clarify what she's talking about. She loves to identify colors, she knows blue, green, purple, yellow, red, and orange solidly now. She's a big fan of the bulldozers that are working on the new houses going up in our neighborhood, and we go outside to watch them almost daily. She can also recognize the numbers one and eight, and tries to say "A, B, C" but it comes out more like "AHBAS." We also think she's starting to cut her canine teeth; she's had a few rough nights in the past week or two. She's already got all eight in front, and four molars, so the canines are the only ones left to go.

Sabine also has started singing. It melts my heart every time she attempts it. Her favorite song right now is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She can only really pronounce the "Up a..." part, so it usually goes, "Up a gabba gabba!" over and over. Her word for "star" has hence become "upa," and she likes to point out upas in her books all the time. Note, it'll help to turn up your speakers for this video clip, so that you can hear the music playing in the background. She's already got more rhythm than her mommy!

Spring Has Sprung

March 4

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

March 9

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

March 10

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed--and gazed--but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

March 15

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

-William Wordsworth

Today! March 17

Our Babe in Toyland

Last week Sabine hit the family toy lottery. Between all the grandparents and parents, she has a couple of new favorite toys. She got a shopping cart, which has served as all manner of stroller, crayon collector, and bumper car. Eventually she should get to the pretend shopping thing, right?

Sabine also got a new Sabine-sized purse, which has been a regular presence on her arm for the past several days.

(It appears she's practicing her look for strolling along a ritzy shopping avenue, what with her fancy smoothie drink and ridiculously girlie purse.)

Sabine also got a couple of pretend bottles. One is supposed to be milk, one is supposed to be orange juice. Interestingly, Sabine only likes the juice one. But for the past couple of days, Baby has gotten a LOT of juice. A lot.

Baby gets put in a basket, told "NIGHNIGH!" (night night) and then immediately "UP!" and "JUICE!" Then, about half the time, baby gets burped, which is a little rough but very funny. After all the giggling, Baby inevitably gets more JUUUUICE!.

It's been fun having some new distractions, although as the weather's getting nicer we're getting to spend more time outside, too, which has also helped break up our days and give us a lot more options for things to do.

Lion Tamer

Sabine has always liked lions. She has a stuffed animal that she likes to cuddle with, a figurine who always gets a lot of play, and she's always loved our lion-shaped cookie jar. It's particularly appealing because it roars when you open its mouth. Today Sabine discovered she's finally big enough to pick it up and carry it around, so interest has been renewed:

Cookie jar meet stuffed animal:

And then I heard "Go! Go! Go" and turned around to see this:

Feeling inspired, I decided we should try and make a right-side-up video to redeem ourselves from yesterday. Her "roar" is just so cute.

That was a really weak roar. We tried a Take 2. I wanted more energy. Except Sabine was tired and hungry, so while she did give me more energy, she also threw in a little tatrum to boot.

We nixed lions for the rest of the evening and went straight to dinner.

Big Help!

A little stomach virus caught up with us, starting with Sabine last week, so we've been out of commission recently. In the meantime, here's a quick video of Sabine being a Big Help, throwing out pieces of paper, one small piece at a time. Unfortunately, you have to stand on your head to watch it. I held my phone in the wrong direction, and there's no way to rotate it. Sorry about that!

This is a great activity for when the child recovers from an illness faster than her parents.

Kicking Butt in the Courtroom*

Who's kicking butt in the courtroom?

That guy!

Looking forward to some R&R this weekend. He has earned it!

* Direct quote from a partner, only modified for language.