Oden Adventures

Well, it's come to pass: Our baby girl has turned two, whether we can believe it or not!  This has certainly been the cutest 730 days of my life, and on her birthday, I felt overwhelmed with joy and wanting to cry my eyes out at the same time. We are so grateful for the sweet, adorable gift that is Vianne Rose.  

(Scroll down if you want to skip straight to the cute pictures ;-).)

Vianne at Two:

~ She weighs about 26 lbs and is about 35.5" tall (at home estimates).  So if that thing about doubling their height at 2 yrs to get their future height is true, we have at least a 5'10" lady on the horizon.

~ Her current favorite foods are apples, applesauce, grapes, craisins, blueberries, hot dogs, pasta of all sorts, and ice cream.  She is not a big eater, but she will generally eat what she's served.

~ She still loves music, both listening & playing. She is singing a few songs nearly recognizably, like "Jesus Loves Me", "Twinkle, Twinkle", and "ABC's" (She gets most of the letters but often gets stuck near the end - she says "T, U, V, double, X...T, U, V..." and repeats & repeats) - plus some Vianne originals, like "On My Way" and "Daddy" and something that sounds like "Arwen, Arwen, Arwen" (apparently, she's an LOTR fan already - so we've done our job :-) ).

 ~ She still loves books.  Her most recent favorites are a set of five Dr. Seuss classics, "Green Eggs & Ham", "Hop On Pop", "One Fish, Two Fish", "Fox In Socks", and "The Cat In The Hat", as well as "Pooh's Birthday Surprise" and "Curious George's Valentine's Day".  She also really likes look & find books.

~ She has gotten about 10 teeth since her first ones at 14 months old, which has been a lot of teething in the last 10 months!!  A molar & canine on the bottom right are currently working their way up.  She finally has some hair to speak of (a lot for her!) but not enough to not still get referred to as a boy by non-observant strangers (hello, she's wearing all lavender!) when out & about.

~ She has long known more words & phrases than we can count and is constantly amazing us & making us laugh at the things she comes up with.  Her biggest single word to date is " 'mergency" (emergency) which she must've picked up from Peppa Pig or Doc McStuffins.

~ Whenever she gets an idea, she exclaims, "I know!"

~ She is very silly and funny and we are enjoying her developing sense of humor.  In the last few weeks, she has started doing different funny voices (a low one, a high one, and a quiet sad one) and she amuses herself by saying things in them.

~ She is almost always happy, always wakes up so delighted to be awake & alive, and brings joy to everyone who knows her.  My mom told me we should've named her Joy because it's so fitting!

~ She still loves being outdoors, loves her weekly outings with Grandpa on his bike to parks & other outdoor spots, and taking walks with Mama & Daddy.  She loves playing in the backyard where she runs & kicks her balls with such glee and spends time in her playhouse.

~ She's such a big girl that she often goes away with Granma & Grandpa for several hours on Saturdays, while Mama & Daddy work or clean or collapse like tired blobs on the couch.  She always comes back to us smiling from ear to ear, with a belly full of ice cream and a toy or two in hand.

~ She often talks about her family in Oregon, too - and multiple times a day we talk about going on an airplane to " 'Ma's house".

~ She can identify her upper case letters and can count to thirteen, but doesn't yet recognize all the numbers by sight.  She loves to point out letters while we're out & about, and will loudly exclaim, "Mama!  Red A!"

~ She loves to pretend she's either a crab, a frog, or a dinosaur (stretches her arms out in front & says "ROAR!").  She also has an alter ego, "Super Vianne".  She will say, "I'm Super Vianne!  I save the day!  I fly in my airplane!  I fly in my helicopter!" and then will fly around, hunched over with her arms sticking straight out in back.

~ At one year, I reported that she wasn't a great sleeper.  But now she's an AMAZING sleeper.  She will often pull a 11-12 hour night these days and it's now a rare night that she wakes up before 7:00am or so (boy, have things changed in a year!).  Most days she will also take an afternoon nap for at least an hour.  She's been spoiling us for months now & adjusting to a newborn's sleep habits again in August is going to be rough on us!

~ She has been doing great in the nursery at our "new" church.  She is often the only (or one of two) kid(s) in there and loves playing with Mrs. Irish (she calls her "My Irish").  This has been great for Patrick & I (although it was entirely my fault she never went at our other church), to allow me to lead worship a couple times a month, and just to sit together & enjoy the service.
~ Her favorite friends are Joel & Jesse, Canyon, Ella, & Ansley.
~ She has this hilarious possessive/territorial/everything-in-its-place streak, where (especially when tired) she insists on things being how and where they should.  For example, if you call "sandals" "shoes", she will let you know they are sandals, NOT shoes.   Often, if Patrick goes into the kitchen, she will say, "NO, DADDY!  Mama's kitchen!  You stay in the office!"  (Um, can Mama put in for a different room of the house?)  If I am using something that is Daddy's, she gets all out of sorts.  This will get interesting when Baby O. starts using some of her toys & equipment from babyhood...

This is the photo shoot we did on her birthday in her dress from France, a gift from our friend Jeannie Thorp, and her ladybug dress from Granma.  A lot of (grown-up :::sob:::) cuteness!