Many facets

Such a ham....

So irrepressible...

yet pensive....

and seriously infatuated.

Camera Phone

Here are a few recent pictures from my camera phone. Not always great quality, but they capture the moment.....

Snack at Starbucks on a "sick" day.

Got tutu, got Dora, will travel!

This was from last Saturday. Nina's daycare organized an Ice Skating Party Party at the local rink. At first she didn't want to put the skates on, but by the end she didn't want to take them off!

From yesterday's daycare pickup. Nina had a fabulous hairdo and face painting and still wearing the bracelet from her first emergency room visit of a couple weeks ago (face-plant, stitches in lip -- almost healed)

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.

Tahoe

We spent the week in Lake Tahoe for New Year's with Mirjana, Miroslav and the girls. Great fun!

Here we are bundled up waiting for the bus to take us to the slopes!

Annual family snow shot (last year's)

Best Buddies.

Nina was very excited to ride up the mountain in the gondola.

But for some reason when we got to the top, she decided to stand on top of a small hill of snow and yell at all the skiers. For quite a long time actually.

Beautiful views of the lake on New Year's Day.

Sunset from the condo.

The evenings were for eating, drinking and relaxing (and drinking).

Warm by the fire.

Waiting for the New Year's Day concert to begin.

One for Grammie (and Baka)!

Movie from this morning.....

Click to watch the movie

Happy New Year!

Nina hits the slopes in Lake Tahoe.

Santa Claus

We had been talking about Christmas for a couple of weeks. We got a tree. We were reading her The Night Before Christmas. She met Santa and thought he was pretty cool. Then on Christmas Eve, Mirko started telling her that Santa was going to come and leave presents under the tree. She was definitely interested in the idea, but she didn't make a big deal about it. Christmas morning, we didn't say anything, just went about our usual, making coffee etc. Eventually, she wandered into the living room. Then her eyes got very big!!

Not sure when she learned the concept of presents, but she knew these were to be opened!

The aftermath.

Santa brought an easel for the budding artist. Big hit to say the least!

Raggedy Ann and Andy. Love at first sight.

New jammies, Nina ballerina doll and Ann and Andy.

Outfit has changed, but doll remains.

Already been an exciting day. Ready for the party?

San Jose Christmas Downtown. If you look closely, you can see I am sporting my new hat, gloves and purse!

Penguin Flight School.

Many thanks to all the Santas!!

Merry Christmas!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

In what I am sure will be a new annual tradition, we took Nina to the lights and decoration display on Fulton Avenue in Palo Alto. She loved it. Lots of other children, and snowmen, and Santy Clauses...
Here we are at the annual STAR Lab Christmas party. Unlike last year when the sight of Santa made Nina scream uncontrollably, she was happy to see the jolly old elf especially when she realized he was handing out candy canes and other sweet.

Cheese!

Colors

Quick pre-Christmas update. Neat little milestone that Nina has reached here recently is that she seems to get colors. It is amazing how abstract of a concept that is! She has known the words for different colors for quite a while, but if you asked her what color something was the answer was always "green". Now pretty consistently she gets them right... pink, purple, blue, green, yellow! Pretty fun!

Last month we did fashion, so now we'll do hairstyles. Nina's hair has continued to come in in a mass of light brown curls. Sometimes, it is fabulous, bouncy ringlets....


... other times, it is more challenged...


While not ascetically the best shot, this next picture has special significance. This was the first time Nina stacked up her blocks all by herself to make a "towwah". She got those blocks for her first birthday so it is appropriate that she mastered them as she rounds out her second year!

You can see that we both rushed for our cameras. Good thing too because the best part of making a "towwah" is knocking it over.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Step 1. Brine the turkey.

Fashion Show

Over the last several months, Nina has gotten more and more particular about which clothes she will wear. The only way to get her to wear any clothes at all is to let her pick them out. And her fashion sense is .... well .... unique. Here is a sampling of Nina's memorable selections.

Cute, matching, very nice ... except that she wants to wear it in November, outside, with no jacket. She loves this outfit! Whenever it was clean, it was the first thing she would pick from the drawer. We finally had to hide it from her.

The shoes! The purse! The sunglasses! Very glamorous.

But with different accessories, she creates an entirely different look.

Now we are getting to the good stuff. Flowers plus Halloween stripes (which she refused to even look at during the entire month of October) plus leopard print shoes.

Halloween pirate shirt (with "sleebs rolled up") and purple tutu. Just an ordinary school day. (I am pretty sure she has those leopard slippers on too.)

Classic. But it must be an old one because now she hates that jacket with the fire of a million suns.

Yep, some mornings are more of a challenge.