Oden Adventures

Seventeen months old...and still sweet!  And still difficult to photograph.  If you look closely, you can see the mischievous twinkle in her eyes, the subtle resistance to the photography session, in every single shot. 

It seems as if her vocabulary has doubled in the last month; she is constantly busting out new words, too many to list any more.  She is able to play independently longer now, and it's been so much fun to watch her begin to develop some imaginative play (like the cute moment I caught her talking & signing "more" to her baby doll).  I have to try so hard not to laugh when I catch her doing this or else I burst her out of her play world and ruin the moment.  But it's so cute that it's difficult not to!

Her favorite question is "Dat?" [who or what's that?] which is asked upwards of 76 times daily, while pointing to things or people.  She asks it when spying something new to her, but also likes to be silly and point to pictures/things she knows and ask it, as if she is the adult asking us - since adults always ask her this question.

She loves to sing and often after meals has an original ballad to share - some can get quite loud, high, and/or mournful.  Unfortunately, she always stops singing if I get the camera out so I have yet to catch one.  She also sings along whenever playing the guitar or piano.  So we may have another budding coffee shop artist in the family ;-).

She also has begun to sing along with familiar songs - which of course thrills me to no end.  "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", the VeggieTales theme song, and my song "See You Move" are especial favorites to sing along to.  

She has really gotten the hang of her wooden puzzles and her pop-up toy in the last month and very much enjoys shopping around the living room with her new shopping cart from Granma & Grandpa, especially with her baby riding in the seat up front.

She has been taking one (either late morning or afternoon) nap almost every day and, for a few weeks now, has been sleeping about 11 hours at night straight through (woohoo!), which has meant an increase in good nights for all three of us.  

She continues to overall be a delightful, funny, affectionate little girl and we can't get enough of her!

 It took a half hour of coaxing to get this smile - so blurry or not - I'm posting it!! :-)

A few glimpses of our August...

Patrick got an Elmo train from Amazon Vine so Vianne "helped" him put it together...:-)

August was largely spent eating popsicles, watermelon, and berries...and getting covered in their juices.

Picnic with the Losies: The Highchair Line-Up

A new adventure: Bike riding with Grandpa!  She was an instant fan!

This is the face she made (without any prompting) when she "met" Thor for the first time...

Mama's find-of-the-month: Alphabet mats for $5 at the thrift store

Vianne has taken to wearing the bowl on her head during bath time...

and also is now big enough to climb out by herself!

Reading her Bible story book with Daddy

Sporting her Galaxy jersey (a gift from Uncle Jon)

Over at Rachelle's house...Sweet Jesse

and Sweet Joel

"Honest, Mama, I wasn't biting him!" *halo appears*

She likes to give me & the boys concerts.

The green bucket got a lot of use as about 19 different things (seat for watching Elmo, container for her toys, pull toy, drum, etc.).

Some days, you have to run away from home.

On a day when it's 104 degrees at home, for example.

Especially when that 104 degree day coincides with a rare day off for your adjunct professor husband/daddy.

And if you're going to run away - and since it's one of your options - you probably want to end up in Santa Barbara.

At least we do.  It's one of our very favorite places to "end up", and since we'd never been with Vianne, we decided to end up there yesterday, and she loved it, too!

First we explored the beach, to the extreme delight of our water & sand lovin' baby girl...

 A little lunch before we get wet and (any more) sandy...

 If Go Go Squeez wants a spokesmodel, we'd be happy to talk.

 Watched the pelicans while we ate our picnic

 The view

  V's first sand castle

 She was very busy with her beach toys (birthday gifts from the Fialas)

I was going to change her into her swimsuit but she was headed to the water (with Daddy running behind) faster than we could grab her.  This girl is (terrifyingly) fearless in the water!!  She kept trying to go further in or purposely fall down into the water, and was even pushing Patrick's hands away so we had to keep a tight grip!  I'm still trying to erase the flashbacks of one ocean face-plant/full-body dunk while I was on watch...yikes!

 "Let's play in the sand for a bit so Mama's heart rate can go back down to normal!"

 This guy was stalking us

 "Mama, I got you something!  (It's kinda smelly!)"

 Then we headed to Stearns Wharf, where we got a closer look at a pelican.

 We sat for awhile & enjoyed the pier ambiance...

 ...while V entertained herself (okay, us too) by making silly faces.

And then before heading home, we enjoyed dinner at Moby Dick's, our favorite place on the wharf.  Patrick & I have eaten here every time we've been in Santa Barbara together - including before we were even officially a couple :-).  A bit surreal to now be eating here 4 1/2 years into marriage and with our 16 1/2 month old daughter!  Always great food and pleasant atmosphere.