Ten Funny New Things about Vivi

Oh my, have I been a bad blogging mother. We have had an extremely busy summer so here is a quick hit list of a funny new things Vivi has done.




1. Vivi loves to dress up like a flapper. These pictures were taken during a recent trip to an amusement park. I was amazed that she stood still while getting dressed and posed for several pictures.



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2. Vivi loves inflatables. She took to them like a fish to water. She had no fear and even went into the big kid's one and held her own. This is video from the toddler inflatable.



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3. "Eveie, Eveie, Eveie." Vivi talks about her friend Eveie non stop but who could blame her. Even is AWESOME! They have a ton of fun together along with Even's brother George.



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4. Viv's digs African drumming, as do I.



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5. She also likes a good merry-go-round ride.

6. Vivi is going through a naked stage. She refuse to wear pajamas and whips off her diaper any chance she gets.

7. She cries if we walk past the ice cream shop near our house. Her favorite ice cream treats are chocolate soft serve, chocolate sodas and watermelon gelato.

8. Vivien loves to pretend she is Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba while watering flowers

9. Danger Vivi is addicted to her new swing set. Every night when she comes home she demands to go down the slide and swing before entering the house.

10. Viv lives for Peter Pan and watches it at least once a day. "Mama. Dada.Peter Pan. I watch. Watch Peter Pan. I watch. Peter Pan." is one of the first things we hear every morning.

Mother of the Year Award

Besides being one of the most generous people I know, I love my mother for her sense of humor. Growing up her and her friends would swap parenting stories and often would talk sarcastically about their latest "Mother of the Year" moments. I learned from these stories that nobody is perfect and that you have to laugh at yourself, including yourself as parent.

My favorite "Mother of Year" story happened one night when I was probably 11 years old. My mother and father attended a party with their friends Rick and Mary. I and Rick and Mary's daughter, Jenny, were allowed to stay home, order pizza and baby-sit ourselves. Shortly after our parents left, tornado sirens started going off. Our mom's called us and told us to go down to the basement and stay there no matter what. Then a flash flood warning was issued so our mother's called us to tell us to get out of the basement but we were not there to answer the call.
After about fifteen minutes in the basement, Jenny and I had decided to see if her neighbors with the finished basement were home so we could watch TV and be safe at the same time. Meanwhile at the party, our mother's thought we were not answering the phone because they had told us to stay in the basement. I can't remember how our mother's found out that we were at the neighbors, I just know that they were happy that we thought to go there and I was happy that we were not in trouble for not following their instructions and that we got to watch Miami Vice.

Now that I'm a mother, I am now giving Mary and my mother a run for their money. I humbly submit this video snipet into this year's competition for "Mother of the Year." Not sure if I will win since Vivi stopped crying after less than a minute but I bet I'll be nominated.




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First Freckle

A first freckle is not a normal "first" that anyone marks down in their baby book but I guess I don't always fit the normal mold. I've been keeping a close eye and tons of sunscreen on my daughter's skin to protect her from developing freckles but after a year and half, Vivi has her first freckle.

It was bound to happen. To quote an old dermatologist of mine, I'm a "very moley girl" and Viv's papa has quite a collection of freckles and moles too. While I will continue to slather her with sunscreen every chance I get, I have to say that her freckle is pretty cute.

Take a look . . .

Can you see it on her leg by the yellow ribbon? Here look closer . . .

Pre-Vivi Weight Achieved

Yee-haw! Pre-Vivi weight was achieved at 7 am this morning! Still have bigger feet and ring fingers but I will take it since most of my old clothes fit again. Yee-Haw, again!

Stop! Garden Time!

Today, I accomplished the first gardening task of the season, uncovering the flowerbeds. Yeah, me! Last fall, I decided not to cover the flowerbeds with leaves; however, this naturally happened. The leaves obviously were not as deep as when I purposely raked leaves on the beds instead of inserting them in compost bags to save time in the fall.

Since that first task didn't take as long, I went after the front lawn with a rake. This left several large grass less patches. Not so nice but I kinda expected this outcome based off of the large patches of dead grass with zero green blades.

In my neighborhood you don't talk to your neighbors unless it is nice outside and you're working on your lawn or you are walking on the sidewalk. Which is just the way I like it. Friendly but nobody gets up in your business. So it was above 60 degrees today, so I talked with one of my neighbors that I noticed aerating. Typically, aerating is done in the fall but he assured me that you could do it in the spring. Add new task to the list.

I mentioned to him that we are going to take care of our own lawn this year instead of hiring a service. He said that he has been forgoing paid lawn care for three years and that we will struggle but the struggle is worth the savings. Saving money I like but I don't like the struggle part. I'm going to try it for at least a year. OK, at least until the dandelions bloom.

Toddler War Paint

As a mother, I know that I am my daughter's first teacher but time and time again I find myself regretting teaching her some things. One example is teaching her how to play baby computer games on fisher-price.com. Now, Vivi loves to bang on keyboards and mouses thanks to my little lesson.

The most recent, "D-oh! Shouldn't have done that." moment came after putting chap stick on her lips. A few days later, this happened.

Click here to watch if video doesn't appear.

Bye Bye Beyonce

My husband started some time ago giving Vivi choices and recently she has really gotten into it.  When given a visual choice, she will choose what she wants for dinner, what she wants to drink and, now, what she wants to watch on You Tube.  Here are three music videos that she now chooses over Beyonce. (Thank God!  Beyonce is fantastic, but hearing the same song ten times a day makes a person go slowly insane.)

Click here to watch Feist 1, 2, 3, 4 from Sesame Street 

God bless, Sesame Street! I'm 99.9% positive that Vivi enjoys the first two videos because her main man Elmo is in them and the "Jai Ho" remix because of the good beat and the dancing.  I need to find a video of Glen Campbell singing "Galveston" or "Rhinestone Cowboy" and see if she still has a thing for those songs like she did when she was a newborn.  I'm doubting it though.

25 Random Things

About two weeks ago, my sweet toddler who was happy most of the time and went to sleep really easy was replaced by a whiny, temper tantrum prone, night owl who doesn't want to be left alone. In light of the recent transformation, I feel the need to remember the really nice or interesting things about her so I don't lose hope that this is only a temporary condition.

25 Random Things About Vivi

1. She was born in the middle of a downpour which required snowplows to clear the streets of water.

2. She was born with a full head of hair.

3. She had her first haircut at five months.

4. Her first airplane ride was to Florida to visit her grandparents at six months.

5. She has blue eyes that have changed from sapphire blue to a cornflower blue.

6. She loves our cat Gigi.

7. She loves to dance.

8. She loves her red cowboy boots.

9. She uses a pacifier.  Her favorites are blinged out Munchkin pacifiers.

10. She slept in her car seat for four months.

11. She sung herself, more like moaned, herself to sleep until she was about a year old and still does it on car rides.

12. Throws kisses when saying goodbye and to strangers on the street.

13. She loves the beach.

14. Gets a kick out of Elmo.

15. Makes me fast forward to her favorite parts in "Classical Baby."

16.  She ate part of her "Pat The Bunny" book one day right before I fed her lunch.

17. Her alter ego is "Danger Vivi."

18. She likes silk blankets and her favorite one is a pink leopard print take along.

19. She calls oranges "apples."

20. She knows some sign language.

21. She calls blueberries "beans."

22. She likes to put perfume on.

23. She likes to go out to eat.

24. She looks fantastic for the two seconds she leaves a hat on her head.  

25. She likes to wear frilly dresses.  

My Funny Valentine

My husband is a bit camera shy so there are not too many videos or pictures in cyber space of him. His aversion to sharing information online carries over to my favorite Web 2.0 application, Facebook. He believes that Facebook is evil and refuses to join even though he asks me to friend people on his behalf since he will not join. At least he doesn't lurk on Facebook under my account like some of my Facebook friends' spouses. Melissa, we are all so onto you!

Anyway, back to why I'm posting. Since my husband is camera shy, I have to go commando sometimes to capture sweet moments of him playing with Vivi. Here is the pay-off of two recent missions.






Thanks, Will, for being such a wonderful husband and father. I'm so happy that you're my Valentine. I love you!

She's Blinded By Science

Today, my mom, who is visiting from out of town, and I took Miss Viv to the Science Center so she could blow off some steam. Vivi loved running around the big open spaces and seeing the exhibits.  Her favorite exhibits were the ones that involved balls.  Everywhere we turned she would say "Ball!"  Vivi saw tennis balls, golf balls, green foam balls, plastic balls and this huge ball, a Foucault Pendulum. This was one of my favorite exhibits at the Science Center when I was growing up so I got a kick out of her fascination with it.  

She also really enjoyed watching my Mom and I make huge bubbles in Bubble Bay, running around Toddler Town and watching people experiment with bundling fake eggs in packing materials and dropping them from a two story drop.  Every time a package would drop Vivs would say "Boom!"  

The last time we visited the Science Center, Vivien was only twelve months old and she really didn't interact much with the exhibits.  It was amazing to see what a difference four months made.  

Another Vivi Fav

In my last post, I mentioned that one of Vivi favorite songs was "Mr. Heatmiser."  Well, her love of that song pales in comparison to Beyonce's "Single Ladies."  Vivi has been fascinated with this song and Beyonce's dance moves since her appearance on SNL.  Almost everyday, Vivi will come up to me and say "Oh, oh, ohhh" and pat the computer or take me to the iBoom so I will play the song for her.  To date, I haven't been able to capture her dance moves on video but when there isn't a camera around she GETS DOWN!  In the meantime, here is a video of her vocalizing.

Christmas 2008

I had grand plans. Grand plans, I tell you. I was going to master my digital editing software and make a Christmas picture montage set to Vivi's favorite Christmas song, "Mr. Heatmiser" with the music fading up and down to include video snippets like the two below. It was going to be wonderful.

But, I've spent too much time of my free time on Facebook and the "Look what we did at Christmas!" expiration date is approaching or has already past. So instead, I invite you to hum "Mr. Heatmiser" while you watch the videos of Vivi trying to merge her new ornament and book, enjoying her second helping of Grandma B's tea roll and to check out our Picassa gallery to see our Christmas pictures.