Birthday Adventures

On January 4, Nina turned one year old! I was invited to Boulder for a conference so we decided to make a family trip out of it. Here she is just after arriving:

"I got my fuzzy hat and my protein bar - I am ready to climb these mountains!"

Nina got to see snow for the first time. She wasn't sure what to think, and it took a few minutes for her to get her balance figured out.

"What is this stuff?"

We spent lots of time running up and down Pearl St. - the downtown walking street. Lots of adventures to be had there including....

a ride on the rocking pig!

and a beaver! and a frog!

And here is a final just for fun picture!

"Happy Birthday to me!"

1 year and 20 lbs

Among the advantages of no longer being zero years old (as Anya would say) is riding facing forward in the car. Thus, it is time to retire Nina's infant car seat. But first, we couldn't resist a little compare and contrast!

Left: 3 days old. Right: 362 days old

Wow! And that is not just a trick of the light, Nina really was a little orange when we brought her home. Our little Billy Rubin!

Yes, Nina is excited to ride in her new fancy car seat.

Well, maybe not, but it sure looks more comfortable.

Couple of fun recent developments.... First, the shoe fascination has begun in earnest. Nina loves shoes! She wants to put her shoes on, she want to put your shoes on and try to walk in them. Let me tell you, it is all about the shoes. She even seems to recognize the word. Last week, I told her to go get her shoes, and sure enough she went and picked up her new pink bowling shoes. We were dumbfounded!

Also, now that Nina is a civilized one year old, she demands to have a fork or spoon at dinner time. Amazingly, she is not too bad with a spoon. She can successfully manage a spoon or two of something thick like yogurt or oatmeal. But the fork is pretty funny! She knows you are supposed to jab at stuff with the fork, but on the odd occasion that she actually gets something on the end of it, she'll promptly use the other hand to take it off!

Christmas

Well, the lights have been taken down, the tree tossed by the curb, and the last sugar cookie is crumbs. All that is left of Christmas is the tinsel stuck in the carpet. But we still have the memories and even better, ... the pictures!

After a quick flight to Houston, Nina was happy to be reunited with her cousin Lucia.

They pushed each other around on the Elmo car for hours. Great fun!

Best Buddies

Lucia: "Whew, let's take a break. You're wearing me out." Nina: "Whadda ya mean? I'm just getting started!"

Fresh and clean after a bath

Porter joins in the fun.

Christmas Eve. "I sure hope I've been good this year"

"Ta-da!"

Excited for the guests to arrive

"Okay, everybody gather around for the group shot."

The DeLuca Clan (click to enlarge)

Christmas morning

Lucia Claus delivers the presents

On the treadmill: Now that Christmas is over, time to work off the holiday pounds!

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?