Beautiful Flowers

On Saturday, Mirko pulled out his macro lens to take pictures of the spring flowers. He found a few nice pinks ones ...


But here is the most beautiful flower of the bunch...

80 Degrees and Sunny

The weather really warmed up this week, so today I swept up the assemblage of dead leaves from the balconies and pulled out the lounge chairs.

Future beach bum fer sure!

Mom, baby, and leaf-producing tree

The one in which she does it all!

This crawl/scoot thing is just too much. I have to post another sequence. As you can see, in this one she goes farther in less time. I suppose that by this time next year she'll be running Boston with her dad.


And this video is literally hilarious. I am not sure even how we did it, but we got her really worked up and she just started laughing hysterically. What a character!

So we have rolling over, crawling, laughing and ....

... well, we are still working on the sitting up bit.

I'm Outta Here!

Rolling over is sooo last week.

Click here to see why Nina is so happy.

Yep, now that Nina has mastered rolling from her back to her belly, she has decided that it is time to get a move on. Mirko and I are still absolutely flabbergasted.

:::

Yesterday, Mirko took Nina out so that I could have the house to myself for a few hours. aaahhh. It was nice. Here they are about to set off on their adventure.

Control

Andrea, your comment the other day was so right on. Yesterday, I wanted to take a few pictures of her in her adorable duckie outfit. I propped her up in her crib - because ya'know we might as well use the crib for something. She sat there for a minute or two, but then she arched her back and slid down into a laying position. So I propped her up again, and sure enough she did the same thing again! She did not want to be sitting up and figured out a way to get herself out of that position. This is definitely an amazing new physical and mental development. She is becoming aware of her body and figuring out how to move it to do want she wants. But at least she let me get my darn cute picture out of it first!

Rollover

She did it!! She rolled over! It was amazing!

Ok people, what we have here is a video of exactly the third time Nina rolled over (the first two occurring just moments before):

Rollover Movie

She's a tenacious little sucker, isn't she?

Sonoma

For Mirko's big birthday weekend, we headed up to Sonoma for a taste of the good life. Excellent wine, delicious food (yum, cheese plates), and beautiful scenery!
The picture above was taken at the Robledo Family Winery. Very interesting story - the winery was started by a Mexican who came to the states as a migrant vineyard worker at age 16.

And here is our family at the Larson Family Vineyard.

Yes indeed, what is the purpose of this blog if not to post embarrassing pictures of our baby girl.

Diaper chan-an-ange!

The tasting room at Larson had a nice display of items from Sonoma's wild west past.

We stayed for two nights at the Ledson Hotel situated on the plaza in downtown Sonoma. Lovely small hotel with only six rooms.

The Birthday Boy and Nina on the plaza.

We had two fantastic dinners. On Friday night we ate at The Girl and the Fig and Saturday at the General's Daughter. Very different atmospheres but amazing food at both. And did I mention the cheese plates?

As you can see, Nina didn't realize we were in Sonoma - she thought we were in Napa

Nina was a very good sport for the whole weekend. We tried to be good to her, making sure she had plenty of naps and down time, and in turn she let us indulge ourselves on a not-very-baby-oriented weekend.

"bleh, let's go home now!"

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Easter

This year Nina is too little to enjoy coloring Easter eggs and visits from that bunny dude, but pretty Easter dresses are for girls of any age!


Our daughter doesn't just look pretty, but she is also developing new skills by the day! In her first month or so of life, she would make these tiny little squeaks - we called them kitty kat noises. Then later she started making all sorts of odd sounds ('goo!', 'ack!, 'ugle!'). Now we can have little conversations where we repeat the sounds she makes, and it encourages her to make more. Here this last week, she has cranked it up a notch and started making loud screeching and squawking noises. She totally likes to yell at her toys in the baby gym.

Speaking of which, here is the little monkey in the jungle gym....
Now the purpose of the second picture was not just to show you the bananas on her bum (which are totally the bomb), but to illustrate a new trick. When Nina is placed on her back she can roll herself onto her side! Actually either side. She has rolled over from her stomach to her back a few random times over the past month. Now it looks like rolling from back to front is in her future. I suppose she just needs to figure out what to do with that lower shoulder.

And finally, by popular demand, here is another shot in the bumbo seat.
Right after we took this picture, we put Nina in the baby jogger for the first time. We took a couple mile walk and she did just fine in it. Won't be long before Mirko can take her on his running adventures.

Helpful

Now that Nina is 3 months old, she likes to help out particularly in the kitchen.

or maybe she is just eyeing the wine.

Also nothing beats a good workout in the baby gym:

Physically Fit Movie

But perhaps she is most excited about ...

all the new outfits she can fit into!

0.25

Today Nina is 3 months old. Here is comparison that pretty much sums it up.

Nina at 2 days and 3 months. (As always) click for a larger version.

She is an amazing little creature. We are overjoyed to have her in our lives. What more can I say?

Strong Girl

There has been a dearth of naked baby pictures on this blog so we will remedy that today!

Naked Standing Baby Exhibit A.

Naked Standing Baby Exhibit B

Ok, now everyone together .....

aaaawwwww

Nina's manual dexterity continues to improve. Below is a shot of her 'playing' with toys on her bouncy seat. It is unclear whether she is actually trying to grab at the toys or that they are just so dang close to her that when she flails her arms she is bound to knock them around. I think it is a little bit of both. She has also grabbed at her own feet a few times.

Since I am home with Nina during the week, the weekends tend to be Daddy Time. Mirko and Nina enjoy a range of activities together, but it does seem that this one is by far the favorite.

This shot is also great because you can see Nina's new balding pattern. The hair on top of her head has started to recover but now she has U shaped bald ring around her head.

Pirates-n-Peppers

Drooling Pirate

Packaged Pepper