Nina's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Nina's Birthday in Tahoe this year. We had a big snow storm on January 2, so we decided that was as good a day as any for a birthday party! Nina was very excited about the birthday cake, candles and birthday song. And the presents weren't too shabby either!

Click to watch the movie!

Nina picked out the Dora theme herself! "Dooohwa"

After Christmas, Nina had become a pro at the present thing!

Nina thinks maybe not.

Mr. Potatohead

Nina happily opened more presents a few days later when Grammie's package arrived.

And now after her big birthday, Nina will gladly tell you that she is .... "tree". Oh, well, we'll work on that one.

One for Grammie (and Baka)!

Movie from this morning.....

Click to watch the movie

3 Movies

For your viewing pleasure:

Act I: The Athlete

Act II: The Artist

Act III: The Finally Long Enough Legs

Interactive Mode

There have been so many changes in Nina in the past month or so, I hardly know where to begin. The best I can come up with is that she has now switched into interactive mode. For the past year and a half, we have been trying to figure out what she needs and when she needs it. But now all of a sudden, she can communicate with us. I suppose that this has been happening relatively slowly over the past six months, but somehow it all came together very recently and our relationship feels massively changed. She can tell us what shoes she wants to wear ('cocies' - Crocs), what book she wants us to read ('maket' - Mother Goose book featuring To Market, To Market), when she want to brush her teeth (which is all the time - 'paste, paste' - the dentist is going to love this kid). Also of course, she can tell us what she doesn't want ('no, mama!!', 'no daddy!!'). 'No!' is undoubtedly the favorite word of the moment possible followed by 'mine!'. But on the other hand, she can come over to you, wrap her little arms around your neck and give you the best hug in the entire universe! So completely fabulous!

And look at that smile.....

These are from our annual trip to the Los Altos Art and Wine Fair (last year). Nina was mostly interested in the horse bench in front of the equestrian store (yes, there is an equestrian store in Los Altos).

The space alien with her robot dog.

Finally, here is something else that Nina started doing last weekend. We're super excited about it (NOT!). On the one hand, you've got to give her credit for figuring it out, on the other hand, we are back to square one on the sleep situation. Doh!!

Click to watch the movie complete with Nina's theme song

Mischievious Girl

We're back! After a crazy month of traveling in April we're all glad to be back home - especially Nina!

Waiting for us at home was a fresh new package from Baka filled with all sorts of goodies! Thank you, Baka!

The girls try on their handmade goodies.

We are looking forward to the next several weekends of relaxing at the homestead. Of course these days no weekend is complete without a birthday party. Last weekend was Bobby's one year birthday bash!

The Birthday Boy. Love those baby blues!

The gang was all there.

Watching a baseball game. "When do you think we'll be old enough to play?"

Here is a fun little sequence. I can't figure out in the first picture if she is looking around for someone to help her or making sure no one is watching. Those are bottles of bubbles by the way.

Not even a challenge.

In other news, Nina's shoe fetish has continued unabated. In fact she has stepped it up a notch......

Watch the video!

Birthday Party!

It's about time to get these birthday party pictures up, wouldn't you say? We celebrated Nina's first birthday on Sunday, January 13 with a chaotic gathering of her little friends. Cake, ice cream, balloons, presents - it just doesn't get better than this!

The Birthday Princess is all cleaned up and ready to party!

The guests begin to arrive.

Tara contemplates her birthday next month.

Yes, the cake was just as delicious as it looks!

"Hey, what's everybody looking at?!"

"Not too shabby, beats that broccoli stuff."

Hannah Grace

No caption required.

Now we are making some real progress!

And finally a birthday video:

Happy Birthday to Nina Movie

Happy New Year!

One year ago ....

and today...

Wake-N-Play Movie

Happy New Year!

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.

Bababa!!

The big news this week is that Nina has started babbling a recognizable sound "bababababa". We noticed her doing it on Saturday, and I thought it might be just a one time thing, but nope she's the bababa girl now! When she sits in the carseat, she babbles to herself. It's wonderful to hear these adorable little noises coming from the backseat.

And it is about time to post some new video of Nina. This one is a couple minutes long and showcases all her new skills - crawling around, pulling up and all the while carrying around this little plastic lid!

Click here to watch the movie!

Also, a couple nice portraits from the weekend...

Pinnacles

Over Memorial Day weekend, we headed down to Pinnacles National Monument. The Pinnacles are crazy rock formations that are the remains of an ancient volcano. On the first day, we hiked a trail that goes out north of the Pinnacles then on the way back you have spectacular views of the rocks.


Nina was rather excited to start off on the adventure.

But by lunch time, she was pooped. Believe it or not, we had to carry her the rest of the way.


The second day, we took the High Peaks Trail. You climb up and up the Pinncles (a couple thousand feet). Really fun hike around all the rocks and plus great views of the surrounding landscapes. But even near the top of a pretty strenuous hike, you can't avoid the Japanese tourists. So we asked them to take our picture!

Actually, we got a fairly early start on the day, and they were only the second group of hikers we saw that morning. Since we wanted to minimize driving, we booked a room at the Inn at Pinnacles - a very lovely bed and breakfast just a few miles from the park entrance. I couldn't recommend it enough. Great views of the surrounding mountains and a wine and cheese tasting in the evening. Here is a view with the Inn in the background.



Great fun!

And finally, for something completely difference - let's end with a little video clip to show you just how much Nina loves to eat!

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.

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?

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!

New Tricks

We don't have too many pictures of the three of us, but here is one - a bit bedraggled, but a family portrait nonetheless.

Also, time for a new movie that I like to call Smiling, Standing and Swimming. Enjoy!

Mesmerized and Pacified

Today Nina is two months old!

"Happy Birthday to me!"

She is starting to become a bit more interactive. She stares intently at our faces then gives us a big smile and a bit of a laugh. She looks genuinely happy! It seems like she is trying to imitate our facial expressions like opening her mouth or sticking out her tongue. She mostly likes to look at faces and didn't really take much interest in the toys we tried to show her - until I found this black and white mobile for her. The high contrast patterns really attract her attention. You can tell in her eyes that she is really engaged. If we move it around slowly she tracks it with her eyes.

Mesmerized

About a month ago, we introduced a pacifier for Nina. At first I was a little reluctant, I guess I didn't want her using it all the time, or something... I am not even sure why. In the beginning, she would just push it out with her tongue, and it took two or three weeks for her to take it reliably. But now, whoa, what a difference! Talk about happiest baby on the block. It really provides her with a great deal of comfort. We have virtually eliminated the 20 or so minutes of crying before each nap, and car trips are, well, possible. She seems happier and that definitely makes my life easier. Now instead of coming home to a crying baby and a stressed out mom, Mirko can enjoy the evenings with his little noodle.

Also as promised, here is a movie we took last weekend of little Lucia after she figured out how to turn on the music on Nina's bouncy seat.

Mirko has been playing around with some new processing software for creating high dynamic range images. Here is a picture of our local park. Anya is the red ghost on the left. Whaddaya think?