All Lola

Here is a series to show off Lola's new tricks.

Balance, hand-eye coordination, cute outfit. Go, Lola!

Note the little toe pointing out for balance.

She has mastered the army crawl, pulling with her arms and pushing with her feet. Now she is popping up onto her hands and knees. She seems to know that this is a better way to go, but still can't quiet get it. When she actually wants to lunge for a toy, she'll flop back down to her belly.

She pushes up completely off her knees as well trying to do... well who really knows?

For as strong as Lola is, she doesn't really like to play on the floor for too long. After a bit, she crumples up her face, screams indignantly, and tries to drag her little body toward someone who will pick her up. Poor little Lola.

She's a cutie though!

Zoo

We're still here! Getting back into the swing of things now that we are "single parents" once again. Lola is settling in at school, and after two weeks now has a cold. So we can check that off the list.

She seems to be chubbing up nicely these days, don't you think? Mirko claims she has my thighs, hehe! Well, it must be the milk because it certainly isn't the solid food. Don't get me wrong, Lola is very excited about food (peaches are a favorite), but she hasn't got the knack of actually swallowing too much of it yet.

And what can we say about our Nina.... It is all about pretend play these days and getting more intricate. On Friday, the base of a tree was a spaceship, and we were headed to another planet (called Massachusetts). On Saturday, a blanket in the living room was our ship, she was the captain, and there were sharks in the waters. Monsters and bad guys are everywhere.

Mirko has been having fun playing with his anniversary present. We took it for a spin at the zoo.

Bawang and Baby Hasani

When the keeper wasn't looking, this wild leopard girl made a dash for the gate.

10 Years

Happy anniversary to us!

First Day of School

Don't worry Lola. It will be fine .... eventually.

Djeda

For the last two weeks of Baka's visit, Djeda Pero came to join her. It was his first time meeting the girls, so you can imagine how happy he was!

He brought a fresh batch of goodies for Nina. A loved knitted outfit (made by her great-aunt), necklaces and bracelet. Some of those were probably supposed to be for Lola, but what are ya gonna do?

Djeda Pero also brought some of his children's workbooks, and Nina spent no time creating her own game out them.

He has also been putting Lola to work, dangling toys in front of her encouraging her to do her commando crawl across the floor. She is getting quite strong as she tries to drag her little body to get the toy and vigorously stuff it into her mouth.

Baka has been keeping our stomachs happy these several months, and Nina is eager to help out, stretching and cutting the dough for pita or mixing up the batter for palačinke.

Baka and Djeda leave tomorrow to spend some time up in Calgary with Stefan and Filip. We will miss them very much!

Swimming

We have been so much enjoying our pool this year! It is fabulous. The water is heated to a pleasant 86 degrees so even when it isn't too warm out we can still enjoy the water. And on the hot days, well, just nothing beats it! Nina has taken grandly to the water. Her favorite activity is jumping into the deep end with flair!

She jumps in and then swims about three or four feet to me. If you can call it swimming. It is mostly just wild flailing of her arms and legs, but its does seem to propel her in a forward direction. She can even lift her head grasping for breath before continuing on. So much fun!

Lola watches on eager for the day she can join in.

Here is the whole gang on a lovely post-World cup, 4th of July weekend swim.

I think it is a toss up who loves the water more, me or Nina.

July also means the Los Altos Art & Wine Fair. Face painting, glitter tattoos, and rides, what more could a little girl ask for? And we thank the organizers for placing one of the wine booths right next to the kiddie area. Like!

Once again, Lola is sidelined.

Nina bumped into one little girl from her class, and so they rode a few rides together. It was so adorable, them holding hands eagerly, but very patiently, waiting for their turn.

Ah, too bad.... my find at the fair is hidden behind Lola's head.

Big Smile

Ok, this is what I was talking about!

Now that's a smile. Lola has started to get very excited when she watches Nina. Yesterday, Nina was doing her usual gymnastics (at the dinner table), and Lola just starts laughing and laughing at her and flapping her arms. So adorable!

As you can see below, Lola's manual dexterity is improving everyday. Just this morning, she was playing on the bed while I was doing a few things. I walked by her, and her paci was in her mouth. She must have popped it in all by herself!

Double Fisting.

Lola can now easy roll from her back to her belly and then back onto her back. She has also started to scoot backwards. In the space of about 20-30 minutes, she went from here....

around in a big backwards arc to here ...

Of course, it can be rather frustrating for her especially when there is a toy she would like to get. You can tell she is trying and trying to get closer to it, but she just keeps inching backwards away from it!

Baka still has a few more weeks with us. I am not sure what we are going to do when she leaves. As you can see, Lola is nowhere more calm and peaceful than in her arms.

Finally a bonus shot...

Winding down for bedtime.

Watermelons & Strawberries

Grammie made the girls a couple of matching dresses. Nina pulled one out of the closet so of course we had to get Lola dressed up too! They were absolutely adorable. You can also see that Lola is working on her boat pose, strengthening those abs.

I am having a hard time getting pictures of Lola smiling. Every time I put the camera in front of my face she immediately stops doing whatever adorable thing she was doing. And of course still shots don't capture her shouting. She just loves to squeal, and very loudly too. Mirko and I can't remember Nina doing it quite like this. Probably it is related to the fact that Lola was born into a much louder environment! She has already realized that she is going to have to be loud if she wants to be heard.

Not quite a smile, but close.

We were all very excited to get Lola into the baby swing for the first time, especially Nina. Lola was sort of neutral on the whole thing.

And finally, Portrait of a Self-Portrait...

Grabby

Here are our two lovely girls ready to enjoy a beautiful summer day.

As you can see Lola is getting bigger and stronger. She does quite well on her belly and can push up her whole chest. She continues to love to stand, but her new trick is that she is really starting to grab at things. She see something, tries to grab at it and of course pulls it toward her mouth.

Since we got out the high chair Nina of course wants to use it all the time, but she did let Lola pose for a few pictures it in. Lola isn't really ready for it anyway. She sits there for a few minutes, but then starts to slump over. We did experiment with giving her a chunk of banana last night. At first she was completely confused, but then she start to suck furiously. Hilarious.

Nina has been enjoying her new classroom, BKP2 (Big Kids Place). This room goes all the way til kindergarden so it has lot of new challenges for her. She has jumped right into the fray of things, but has struggled with a few adjustments (no paci at naptime, no changing her clothes every 5 seconds). As you can see from the big scrape on her nose, she has been throughly exploring the new play yard. Of course no amount of bumps, bruises and scrapes will ever damage her inner princess.

Here a couple shots from my birthday which we spent up in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Always something interest to explore there. Strolling along, we came across an inline skating competition. Amazing!

Happy Birthday to me!

Last Day at LKP2

Thursday, May 27th was Nina's last day in the Little Kids Place (LKP). She is more than ready to move on, but it is always sad to say goodbye to old friends.

Adriana is the morning teacher so they spent a lot of time together the first half of the year when Nina was always the early bird.

Gamm always with a super big smile.

Nancy and Nina had a special relationship, and I know Nina will miss her very much.

Uwimana, upbeat and energetic.

Unfortunately, Nina's best friend Mehran was not at school on her last day. Here is her second best friend, Erin. Perhaps it was more of a friendship by proxy since it often seemed that Nina put up with Erin only because Mehran liked to play with her.

Nina's farewell speech to the classroom, "If you miss me, you can just come and look over the fence."

Popsicles!