Happy New Year!

One year ago ....

and today...

Wake-N-Play Movie

Happy New Year!

Pajama Party

Somebody is jetlagged! Somebody has been getting up at 5:30am, but then gets cranky and tired and goes for a nap before the sun rises. But by then somebody else has already had her coffee and can't go back to sleep. Oh well, at least everyone has new pajamas....

Hvala, Baka Dragica!

Mobile blogging

This is a test of the emergency blogging system. This is only a test. Beep!

Maybe Painted Pink

This blog needs some holiday cheer, don't you think?

There, that's better! Nina experienced her first taste of Christmas at the annual STAR Lab Christmas party.

As you can see, she didn't quite know what to think of it all. She is, however, a smart little one and quickly discovered that Christmas involves lots of cookies.


Of course, no holiday party would be complete without a visit from jolly ol' Saint Nick.


But you won't see any pictures of Miss Nina sitting on Santa's lap. Um, yeah, she freaked out into hysterical tears whenever she so much as looked in his direction. Oh well, maybe next year.

"You know, Santa Claus, and ho-ho-ho, and mistletoe… and presents to pretty girls…"

Thanks to Prof. Kahn for the pictures.

Mexico Part II: El Pueblo Pequeño

The weekend we arrived in Mexico was a holiday celebrating the Mexican Revolution of 1910. The beach was packed with families soaking up the sun for the 3-day weekend. On Tuesday, the village celebrated with a parade through town featuring children from the local schools. It was a treat! Waves of dancing girls and then children dressed in traditional peasant garb. Adorable. The float was my favorite, Emiliano Zapata fights for the people!

Nina and I joined the fun in our traditional outfits.


When the heat of the day was too much for the beach. Nina spend time running around on the lawn at Palapa Joe's. That is before crashing for her long afternoon nap.


In the early evening, we strolled through town, with many stops to look at any passing dogs of course!

Nina also got to experience traditional Mexican transportation.

We rounded off the day with a sunset cocktail hour.

Yay!!

Bye-bye sun!

Mexico, Part I: La Playa

For Thanksgiving, we packed up the family and headed south to Mexico! Our friends Willy and Kimberly are living in the small beach village of La Manzanilla and graciously hosted us for our 10 day visit. La Manzanilla is located on Mexico's Pacific coast about 3 hours south of Puerto Vallarta.

Nina started each day with a stroll along the beach. Of course this rather quickly turned into the morning nap after a few minutes of listening to the rhythmic sound of the waves crashing on the beach.

But after that it was time to play! We are happy to report that Nina took to the beach like a duck to water. She absolutely loved the sand, the water, the rocks and the sticks. And the dogs, and the birds, and the other little children! So much for her little brain, it was amazing to watch her soak it all up.

Nina quickly made friends with the children staying across the street (who actually happened to be visiting from our neck of the woods). Here is Dallas showing Nina how to use the shovel.

Nina's excitement even pulled Mirko out of the shade - for a short while.


If you can see behind the binkie, that is one enormous grin. Yep, she was in paradise!

Dino Teeth

Dinosaur, oh dinosaur! Time to brush your dino teeth...


And here is her latest trick!

(and yes, that is another toothbrush in her hand. Nina is passionate about dental hygiene.)

Update

Hi everybody! Let's update some of Nina's progress in the past month or so. It would be impossible to capture everything she has been up to, but let's see how we can do.

First, let's start off with an easy one. Teeth! Nina got her first two bottom teeth back in July. Since then nothing, then all of a sudden teeth explosion! About a month ago, one top tooth broke through (middle right). Then another bottom one (middle second to the right), then the other top one (middle left)! So five teeth total and possibly two more on the way. The top ones aren't completely in yet, but by Christmas she should have a big toothy grin!

Stranger anxiety. Nina has definitely been showing signs of stranger anxiety lately. One day at Target, we were checking out. She was riding in the cart and got one look at the checkout lady and started bawling. Like big hysterical tears, she was truely terrified. Usually it is not too bad, she is just a little shy when meeting new people. It takes her a 10 or 15 minutes to warm up. She'll cling to us until she has decide that, yes, that person is ok and maybe they'll even play with me!

In complete opposition to stranger anxiety, sometimes she is a social butterfly. For example, yesterday we were walking down University Ave in Palo Alto. Mirko was carrying her, and all of a sudden she started waving and saying an occasional 'hi!' to everyone that walked by. Of course when people actually waved back to her, she got all shy and turned away. So cute.

She is into absolutely everything. She wants to open every cabinet, every drawer, pull out every item one by one, then move on to the next one, leaving the wreckage behind her. She is walking like a champ and of course her preferred style is with a toy in each hand. She has to carry something at all times! She is getting so steady that she can go from standing to squatting with her butt hovering a few inches off the floor. She'll pick up a new object then stand up and go off on her merry way.

Nina has also discovered the 'throw the toy onto the floor, watch mom pick it up and then throw it back on the floor' game. Hoo boy, is that a fun one - not! At first we thought she was just accidentally dropping the toy, but oh no, she just wants us to pick it up so she can drop it again. Now, we just say 'bye-bye toy'!

We have been working with the baby signs. We ask her if she wants to eat and do the sign for eat. Most of the time, she'll repeat the sign, and then we put her in the high chair. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean she's hungry, and often she wants to get down right away. But she is definitely associating the sign and the action, so I think she'll get the hang out it eventually.

Ok, I am sure there are about a million more new things that she has been doing, but that is all I can think of for now. I leave you with a couple of pictures of Nina and her good buddy Tara.

Nonni

Nina's grandparents came for a visit last month (wow, is it already November?). Gramma Vicky came out first. Nina played hookie from daycare and hung out with gramma all week.

They played with the blocks, read books, and took lots of trips to the park. She taught Nina a new version of peek-a-boo.

Grandpa Dave joined them later in the week for some backup support.


Nina was very proud to show off all her skills for her family. Particularly her walking has absolutely exploded. Even within the week visit, Nina's grandparents could see her getting stronger and steadier day by day as she toddled around. All in all, Nina had a "grand" time!

Happy Halloween

Beware on this Halloween Eve, there may be a Nina-saurus Rex lurking in the bushes! She'll growl at you, steal your candy, and if you're not careful she may also give you pink eye!


Grandma Vicky made this adorable costume for Nina. It is just too much! The best part is when she walks the tail wags back and forth.

I is scary?

Mid-Week Smiles

Here are some smiles that are sure to brighten up your day!

Actually, I am really posting this so I can brag about my daughter. Just so you know, she is no longer "taking steps" - she is walking.

Drum Roll, Please

Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for....

Movie: Nina takes a step, then another one, and then another!

Wow, she is amazing! So motivated. If you can't watch the movie, as a consolation prize here is a shot that captures some of the action.


Of course Nina isn't just a stellar athlete, she is also a virtuoso.

9 months, 1 day

Although there have been some previous rumors of Nina taking steps (see the comment section of this post), I witnessed Nina's first official steps last Friday. Here are all the gory details:

A few weeks ago, we bought Nina a cart that she can push around. She instantly started holding on and walking behind it. In the intervening weeks, she has pushed it around a bit but didn't seem terribly excited about it.

Then last Friday, she got a bug up her butt that she was going to push that damn cart around! She pushed it all over the house with this huge excited grin on her face. It was amazing - there was no stopping her. Until of course she would get the cart stuck against the wall, and then she would pitch a fit - screaming and crying until I moved the cart so she could push it again. Then she would smile and laugh and continue on again.



After a good 20 minutes, she seemed like she was getting worn out so I put the cart out of sight. Then I had her stand up and I held a big blue ball in front of her. Sure enough she took two step towards it! Absolutely amazing!! The cart had warmed her up and so she was ready to go it alone! She took more steps over the weekend and this week as well. So in the end, Aunt Andrea, you were right - first steps at 9 months. Wow.

In less monumental (but still pretty exciting) news, this week Nina has started to wave bye-bye. She holds her arm up and flaps her little wrist. It is so silly looking.

Let's end with a super-cute picture of Nina looking uncharacteristically subdued.

Standing, definitely standing

Nina has now gone from the occasional "accidental" standing to outright free standing. She stands, she knows she is standing, when she falls she gets back up to standing. So we'll mark standing somewhere between 8 1/2 and 9 months. She'll go for maybe half a minute at most, but usually she gets distracted by something before then.

And her new favorite game is knocking over stacks of blocks. If you make a tower of blocks, she will sprint-crawl toward them to knock them over. Greatest game ever.

Oh, oh, this just started in the last day or two - she is waving bye-bye. It is more of an arm flap then a wave, but she seems to be starting to figure it out. Fun stuff!

Teething is hell!

There is one milestone we have been waiting for. We had no idea when it would come, she hadn't even been close before. But then last weekend, it hit .... Nina's first trip to the urgent care! Early Saturday morning she was running a fever of about 102. We gave her Tylenol, and she seemed ok in the morning. Then as the day progressed, she went from cranky and fussy to just plain miserable. She wouldn't eat her solid food, wouldn't nurse and was crying like crazy. She seemed like she was in real pain. First we were thinking teething, but then as she got worse we thought maybe an ear infection, so we made an appointment at the urgent care for late Saturday afternoon. Poor baby cried the whole time in the doctor's office. There was no consoling her. The doctor on-call checked her out, no ear infection, no UTI and her lungs were clear. So Nina got some more Tylenol and home we went.

Saturday was the worst, but she was fussy for a couple more days. Wouldn't eat her food and wouldn't let you get anywhere near her mouth. So in the end, we're guessing teething. Although here we are a week later and no new teeth yet, so hhmmm.... It was so sad to see her in so much pain.

But now we are so happy to have our little girl back! So on to the good stuff.

This picture was taken the day before the teething hit:

There she is! Our standing girl! She can stand now for about 5 or 10 seconds. Or more accurately, until she realizes that she is standing. I guess she has fallen so many times in her attempts to pull up that she is a bit weary of this whole standing unassisted business. She is most likely to do it when she is distracted - for example, she has a toy in each hand and doesn't have a third hand to hold on with. Then when she realizes she standing, she gently bends her knees and lands on her bottom. Silly girl.


Oh and she can clap now!! That is a super fun one. And for several weeks now everything is dadada.

She's getting good at opening the cabinets. Sometimes she just likes to open and close them and listen to the doors squeak, but sometimes she like to explore a little further. Whatcha looking for there, Nina?


Fall has hit here is California. Perfect weather for Baka Dragica's sweaters....

Busy Bee

Ok, time for an update! Where, oh where, to begin? First with her hands - Nina has begun to figure out how to manipulate toys in new ways. Before she would grab toys and maybe shake them or eat them. Now she figured out that some things can be opened and closed. Here she is with her little farm set. She has figured out that when she opens the doors, the Old MacDonald song plays. She loves it! She goes over, opens the door, and then lifts her arms and dances. Unfortunately, this also means she has figured out how to open the cabinet doors in the kitchen and bathroom. (I don't even know how to begin to baby proof the kitchen!) She has also started to touch things with just her index finger.

And of course her mobility continues to be out of this world. Even though she has learned how to sit, she prefers these crazy other contortions while playing. Sometimes she kneels, sometimes she does this:


Anything just so as not to sit still! Standing, however, is still king. She'll often be standing somewhere holding on something. Then she'll see a toy on the ground, go down to get the toy, then stand up again. She prefers to play with the toy while standing! She has started to cruise a bit too - sliding along the edge of the coffee table (usually trying to grab some forbidden object that we left unattended!).

I noticed that she seems to like the big play structures at her daycare, so after a trip to Target I made some use out of the diaper boxes. Fun for her to explore and work on her balance.


Yep, she is a busy girl, but she still makes time to stop and smell the roses...

or at least eat the leaves!

:::

So, the big revelation of the last poll is that Nina looks like both of us (5/8 votes). Big surprise. ;-) Well, polls are fun so be sure to vote on the current one at the top of the page