Oden Adventures

Week Eleven has brought new delights - along with the joy of the lampshade, Vianne now loves a large painting that hangs in the family room. She looks to the left & smiles at the lamp, looks to the right and smiles at the painting - with such delight, like she's seeing an old friend for the first time in years. 

She makes much more intense, focused eye contact with us now, which often results in smiles for us, too (sometimes it takes some coaxing), and tracks people with her eyes when they're moving around. She is sleeping really well at night, usually giving us a 5 to 8 hour stretch starting about 8pm, but we have yet to establish a good pattern for naps during the day.  For several weeks now, her happiest time is always in the morning, when she is utterly thrilled to be alive, but about 5pm, this all starts to unravel and Grumpy Time begins.  Even then, it's not too bad, as she's a very good-natured baby, and we're learning some tricks to distract her from her grumpiness.

Didn't remember to take a lot of pictures this week either...but still got a few cute ones!

~ Sweet little angel ~

I especially love her in this hand-me-down because (if I'm remembering right), this was her cousin Rachael's outfit from when she was brand new to us, eleven years ago now!  Vianne was in a great mood for the photos, but that means (as you can tell by the blurs) especially wiggly!  She's an active girl, for sure.

On Wednesday, we took another trip to Fuller campus, where Vianne got to meet many friends (Nicole, Bethany, Griselda, & Carey) and I got to show her off to a few of my Fuller faculty friends as well, which was fun...but I was too busy visiting to get any pictures.

On Thursday, we had a special girls' outing with Megan, our last get-together while the Moursunds are in California.  Megan showed us around the Mission Inn in Riverside, which is an amazing place that we will have to go back to, and she spoiled us with all sorts of treats and surprises.  We are so happy we got to see Megan & family so many times while they were here!

 This is a drawing that Megan's son Caleb made for Vianne - how sweet is this??!!

11 weeks old!  Super cute in this little outfit, but refusing to smile!

Week Ten: Move over bed canopy, Vianne has a new best friend this week, our black & white lampshade!  The lampshade (even when the light is off) currently receives more smiles on a daily basis than any other object, animate or inanimate; she gets downright giddy whenever the lampshade is in view.  Sometimes if I'm lucky enough, I will get a residual smile or two from the overflowing joy of having seen the lampshade.

I seem to be shirking my photo-taking responsibilities of late - only have a few photos to post.  I will have to step it up, for the cuteness must be documented!

Here she is in a sweet little outfit from Cousin Molly

And here, wearing one of her French onesies from Uncle Geoff & Aunt Vera

"Wednesdays With Grandpa" (as I like to call them) continue!

Grandpa got this sweet smiling one with his phone, to send to Grandma - it looks like Vianne is waving to her :-)

We met up with Megan & her dear boys again, this time at Bonelli Park which is very near where we live.  I only got this one photo, though!  I love how she's looking right at the camera :-).

On Saturday, we tried on the hat that I made for her, which finally fits her.  We had her keep it on long enough to show Rachelle & family that we saw that day.  She had this adorable flapper thing going on...

...and obviously is terribly thrilled with it.

Lunch with Rachelle, who's 7 months pregnant!

And Sunday, Father's Day (separate post here), Vianne is ten weeks old!

"Happy Father's Day, Daddy!"

"I'm so glad you're my dad!"

We enjoyed celebrating Patrick's first Father's Day this past weekend!  On Saturday night, we celebrated Patrick & his dad with all the Odens, with a wonderful steak dinner at Northwoods Inn and gifts at our place afterwards.

 Grandpa, sporting his new shirt from Vianne...

 On Sunday, more gifts, more 'manly' food, and more pictures!

I took a series of photos of Vianne & Patrick out in the yard, as Patrick had done for Mother's Day.  From the get-go, their 'photo shoot' was a bit more adventurous than mine had been, true to the nature of the father-daughter vs. mother-daughter relationship :-).

For example, Daddy & Vianne watching a lizard...

 Vianne flying...

 Vianne, way up high!

And then, some of the sweetest ones...