Oden Adventures

While we were up in Oregon, our not-so-little-any-more Vianne Rose passed the two-and-a-half mark!  She is still going through a silly/stubborn phase when it comes to taking pictures so this is what I got from her the day of (Oct. 8)...

Vianne says at least 25 funny things a day that we try to record.  She is fiercely navigating her pronouns at the moment:  she usually says 'me' where 'I' belongs, 'we' where 'our' belongs, 'they' where 'them' belongs, and so out comes a whole bunch of adorable constructions like "We're doing it we selves!" and "I'm giving it to they."  She loves to talk about past events and starts many sentences with "Do you remember when...?" (reminiscent of Chris Farley). 

Her favorite number is eleven-teen and her favorite color is white.  She loves going to church and she loves God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and Spiderman (usually in that order).  She loves to play in her room with invited guests such as Mama, Daddy, and/or Granma, and has also taken up (sort of) playing Kinect/Xbox games with Daddy.  

She is starting to compose her own songs from bits of conversation, like "I'm not feeling good, I'm not feeling good...", loves to finger paint and color, loves to dance (particularly spinning), loves to do crafts and to help with (the very limited) baking (that goes on in our house).  She's clearly got an artistic soul (her newest medium is colored pencils) and has a burgeoning imagination: most days, either her toys are acting out dramatic scenarios or each of us family members are assigned a persona for the day (I'm usually a nice monster or Grandma or Mummy Pig or Penny from Fireman Sam).  She also likes to reenact events like Mama's birthday or the plane trip to Oregon.

She is still very principled about pretty much anything and finds it unsettling if things don't go as usual or as she's expecting them to.  We try to throw in something unexpected every so often, just to prepare her for real life...;-)  But for the most part, we try to keep the routines in place, and she will certainly let us know if we don't.

She is back to sleeping in her bed from roughly 7 to 7 - hallelujah!  This has helped our home settle down a bit since the birth of Oliver.  She seems to have given up naps altogether but will usually comply with a psuedo-nap-sort-of-quiet-time for an hour or so every afternoon and about one in four days, I can line that up with an Oliver nap, and have a few sweet moments to stare at the television in peace...er, do the dishes...

Her favorite shows of late are (still) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Doc McStuffins, and more recently Wonder Pets and Strawberry Shortcake.  The Fireman Sam obsession which was ablaze, pardon the pun, over the summer seems to have fizzled (thank God!), although he is still called upon for imaginary fires in the backyard, and Penny (that's me) and Elvis (that's Oliver) help by turning on the hose).

She loves her little brother and is always very sweet with him.  She has never asked if he could go back where he came from, even if she has a few times asked if I could leave him in the swing and come play with her in her room :-).  She calls him all the cutesie names we've given him, which are much cuter coming from her, and loves to hold him and give him snuggles and kisses, and is getting quite adept at getting him to smile and/or calm down.

She is Joy with a capital J and Trouble with a capital T, but is precisely the kind of daughter we need in so many ways.  For every time-out these days there are 20 or so cutenesses :-).  So even though this two thing is very challenging, we thank God for this continuing gift of Vianne Rose.