The 13th Month

We are approaching the 1st week in 13 months of little Vivirino's life. She is starting her first partial "transition" day at Montessori tomorrow where they are going to teach how to drink from a cup, use a utensil, and pull up her own pants. Crazy I know! But that's why we are paying an extra mortgage for this school..Anyway, we will miss juggling her at home on Mondays and Fridays. She's full-time now at school (not day-care mind you). We've busy labeling all of her shoes, clothes, socks, blanket, etc for her new cubby. Excited and sad at the same time for her.

She has been very sweet and happy lately, and enjoys giving long open-mouth kisses (yummy). We have been to 3 music classes now and she is finally starting to interact with other kids and enjoy the music.  Nothing too exciting, but here's a video of her playing in her chair and listing to her Music Train class CD..(as well as a couple of post nap pics from this week).

Fashionista cruisin around the house in her hand-knit sweater from Auntie Steph

Just waking up from a nap and watching the Badgers with Mike.

She's turning into a red-head again, at least for today.

Post nap with Harry the rabbit..love those chubby thighs and rosey cheeks.

Let her entertain you..

Candid of Viv sticking her finger in her belly-button. She also likes sticking her finger in her nose, but I decided not to take a pic of that.

The first year in words, pics, and a lil video!

Lots of catch us since it's been about 3 months since I've updated Vivi's blog (bad mommy!)

Let's see..quick recap:
10 months - 8 teeth total (4 on top, 4 on bottom) and a few sleepless nights with associated illness.
11 months- Viv began walking a little after 11 months.. and then she was off and running. She had her first real stomach virus as well, which was not so fun with Mike out of town, but we made it.
12 months- Vivian began babbling and saying more words. Her favorites, dad-dy or da-da, bot-tle, that's bad, no-no-no (sometimes singing it- her favorite word right now), cheese, s-now, and nice.
She is also getting in 3 molars this 12th month..she is a toothy girl!

Vivs still loves baths, but now she sits with one of us without a chair.  Note: she will not take a bath by herself, as her babysitter learned one night when Vivian made it known she was not enjoying her bath at all. She is definitely stubborn, but I wouldn't expect any less.

She loves to squat down and kiss the cats with an open mouth kiss, and is very gentle with them. I tell her, "that's nice," and she repeats back to me, "nice." I'm not so sure how they feel about her, but they seem pretty patient given the tail pulling and occasional rough petting.

Viv will be starting Montessori full-time in 2 weeks and we are so excited, but also a little anxious since this will be her first full-time care gig. The school seems so great (although a financial sacrifice) but we really think we are making the right choice in terms of early education and developmental skills. Hell, I want to go to Montessori! Oh well...

Now for some pics and some video above from our adventures over the past few months of Vivian's first year...And now I'm nostalgic, I can't believe she is a year!

tennis anyone? tennis loungewear courtesy of auntie kim nguyen. elliott makes a good tennis partner.

The meeting has started..She needs both of daddy's phones for this important call.

Getting ready for her am meeting in her new chair.

Totally stoked about the new chair! She had to have one since she loved the one at her nannyshare.

Auntie Steph made the cutest sweater for Vivian's birthday with little lamb buttons.

Semi-nude bagel pic.

yes, she's already got her hands in there..

I made a yummy strawberry cake for Vivian's birthday, kind of proud of myself.

#1

goofy

Not a fan of hats..but forced upon her for her birthday.

 Being shy with mom in front of the birthday guests (don't know who she got that from!).

Showing off for her 1st birthday balloons.

All dressed up for the occasion at grandma d and pappy's house on xmas.

"S-now and da-da," in noco.

1st white xmas in carolina. 1st wagon grandma d bought for vivian for xmas.

1st car, an xmas present from us at our hosue. Liam, the giraffe usually gets a lift as well.

Xmas before xmas at our house

Remembering LA at Christmas.

Fancy Crawlin

 

Vivian looking mischievous while crawling in her fancy dress around the house today.

Oh, I forgot mention, month 8 was the month of hair! So, I can't resist the barrette thing these days.

Falling into the mountains

To catch up on all of Vivian's activities these days, she started crawling a little after 8 months (in September). When I expressed to strangers that I was ready for her to crawl, a lot of them said something like "be careful what you wish for, she will be getting into everything." I think her new found mobility has been great since she can now entertain herself for long periods of time and I can have a little breather. She seemed kind of frustrated before, just sitting in a pile of toys and unable to move anywhere. Sure, she's eaten some random debris, but no battery acid or power cords yet. We're pretty careful about that stuff actually.

I am really liking this 9 month thing, she sleeps through the night (finally! no teething!) and takes two naps a day. She's always happy and smiling all of the time. The only hard part has been the screaming thing- the girl has some lungs! She basically just screams to express herself, but it has gotten really loud- where it's sometime hard to go out to dinner and I have some permenant hearing loss. I am hoping the screaming phase will end soon, but that aside she is still a big sweety.

Here are some pics from lastweekend in Aspen from our little hikes. I think Vivian enjoyed her time in the mountains and the changing Aspens as well.

It's the Vivian show!

My tiny craft project from early Sepetember. I bought some wooden letters and painted them white, then added some little lavender ribbons. I like to read the letters to vivi every morning, she seems pretty proud of the whole thing.

Nothing beats the first taste of sand!

Well, I've gotten behind in posts with working and all..it's been about 2 months, Before I get into all of the details, here are pics from late August of Vivian's first trip to the beach, La Jolla beach that is. Only the best for the Vivster. Her main priority seemed to be eating sand, overall she seemed to enjoy the experience despite the lack of sleep in the hotel room and not wanting to wear the sun hat we kept forcing on her baldish head.

Bittersweet

The end of July marks the end of my stay at home wine gig and back into the full-time wine grind. I began my new job at Synergy Fine Wines on Thursday of this week. Sure, I'm glad to be having some adult discourse and work time, but I will definitely miss my play time with my happy, smiling, and vivster. Ah...so is life.

Vivian has started screaming or screeching while playing, in the store, at night in her crib, wherever she resides...It's not a sad, or crying screaming..more like a happy whaling. Regardless, it's painful on the ears, so we've hard to tell her "no" very gently.

She now has 3 teeth and based on today's in-home dental exam, is getting a fourth ones to match the others on the top! It seems every week or so there is a new tooth creeping in, so we really have to pay attention before she has a whole mouth full which we missed.

She has moved on to more exotic and yummy foods courtesy of the babycooker Grandma Kohls gave us. Last night was her first meal of fresh blueberries, peaches, and oatmeal. I think it was possibly her favorite meal of her so called baby life thus far. Unfortunately, as Mike casually mentioned to me over coffee this morning, "sometimes blueberries turn into poopberries." Thanks Mike, glad I missed that one...