Oden Adventures

Patrick's birthday turned into a month long celebration - but unfortunately that's not as generous as it sounds :-).  Due to some family illnesses, things got a bit delayed in the festivity department.  But I think we all pulled out plenty of merriment in the end.

The day of his birthday, I got migraine symptoms just as we were supposed to leave for a lunch out.  We still went, but I wasn't exactly the best birthday companion.  Rachelle kindly watched Vianne for us while we had some great food at Eureka! in Claremont and then enjoyed some frozen yogurt from 21 Choices (we didn't even know that you get a free one for your birthday!).  We did gifts at home later and I fear I went to bed as soon as possible after that. 

A couple weeks later we were able to celebrate with Patrick's family at our place, with great Mexican food, Patrick's favorite ice cream cake...

Oh goodness.  These months.  They just keep happening.

No sooner had I gotten her 18 month photos in the mail to Grandma G., the kid's already turned 19 months old! And a kid indeed, so much less a baby these days.  She runs around, saying things like, "Nope!" and "I'm otay!" and "I want snacks!" and "Dere's moon!" and "I do it!" and counting to three and calling herself "Ran" ~ and nineteen months into this great adventure, most days we're still not sure what hit us; all we know is it's excessively cute.

Her favorite things of late are "Pa Pi" (Peppa Pig, which has surpassed even VeggieTales in requests-to-watch), "Twink Twink Star", "trans" (coloring with crayons) which she is starting to eat/break less and use on the paper more, watching "Dance Bay" (accompanied by a side-to-side sway) = Dancing Baby, which is a video of herself as a 7 month old "dancing" via Daddy, which she asks for but really wants YouTube so that she can watch other things like Super Simple Songs and KidsTV123 videos, identifying sounds around the house like birds, trucks, and airplanes, and weekly bike rides with 'Pa (Grandpa) which includes walking "Chauce" (Uncle Jon's dog Chaucer).  She's also getting to be quite helpful: She loves to help unload the car after Costco runs and is pretty good at picking up toys (even if they get taken out again almost immediately if I don't intervene).

She is still amazing us with 10-12 hour nights and the last few weeks has (FINALLY) begun taking daily 1-2 hour afternoon naps IN HER CRIB (I know, the Babywise folks are gasping in horror - yes, it took 18 months to achieve this).  And I'm scrambling to know what to do with regularly scheduled "free time".  Oh, wait...the dishes.

A few snapshots from 19 month day, while we were out taking a stroll to the post office because California has ridiculously summery weather in November...

A new month : some new tricks!  The ladybug chair serves a dual purpose as an acrobatic implement for our daredevil daughter...

This brazen little bluejay spent several days harassing us!  Patrick said he was trying to let us know the birdbath was empty.  What are we running here?  A bird resort? 

Here, he landed about two feet from me & Vianne!

This is in V's play area, where he followed us, while we trying to do a fairy princess photo shoot, to lecture us on getting our priorities in order...(#1: FILL THE BIRDBATH!!!)

So, the photo shoot was a bit distracted...

...and concerned...

...but still cute.

It was Daddy's birthday so we were trying to get a good shot to post on facebook while he was off at work :-).

"Ummm...what's the magic spell to open the gate again?"

This is Vianne's first self portrait.  Oh dear.

San Dimas has a new Dairy Queen!  So we went to try it out.  Not a great food selection (hot dogs or chili dogs...where's those fabulous DQ hamburgers and chicken strips??) but the ice cream treats are just as good!

I love it when Vianne & Patrick snuggle in this chair, which they often do.  This used to be my Dad's recliner and when I see them in it together, it chokes me up and warms my heart with happy Dad memories at the same time.  Even if I can't have my Dad,  it's still beautiful that I can have these two.

18 month checkup: She's taking it all in stride.  (Note: this was before anyone tried to weigh or measure her or check her out.)  The doctor said all is well!

We're still spending Tuesdays with the twins!  This was a cute moment when Vianne & Jesse were being affectionate (instead of antagonistic) so I had to grab my camera.

For Halloween, Patrick & I dressed up like grown ups and went to a car dealership...and haggled our way into a new-to-us family car.  (Our salesman was great and was French, which I of course took as a sign.)  We are now the very humbled and thankful and happy owners of a 2007 Subaru Outback.  Although we weren't exactly shopping for one, we often looked to see what was out there, knowing we wanted one some day, and this one we found online a few weeks ago, and felt the Divine Go-Ahead to pursue it.  So, because Halloween afternoon was (relatively) free, we headed to Santa Ana to check it out and ended up driving it home with us!  We are really enjoying it and look forward to camping and road trips and all sorts of adventures for years to come.