Shoes

I have found that I haven't been taking many pictures lately, which means I haven't been doing much blogging lately. I think the problem has been that I my camera battery always seem s to be running out of charge lately, so I've gotten out of the habit of having my camera with me. Must change that! Because who wants to read a bunch of words without the cute pictures of 20-month old?

We've had a good last couple of weeks, despite Rosa having a cold (new ones every week!) for the last 6 weeks! We went to the zoo with Rosa's friend Ember and her mom back in January, and Rosa still says "Ember, choo choo, douaaache (giraffe)!!!" every single time she sees a giraffe or a choo choo train. She's got a long memory! The zoo was pretty magical to her, especially the giraffes, which were the first thing we saw, and which came up fairly close to us.

We also made it to the California Academy of Sciences, finally(!), after missing the group trip due to a really bad cough and cold. Rosa loved the African savanah (taxidermy) scenes, and spotted a leopard up in a tree that we had to keep coming back to. And in the aquarium section she was literally darting from tank to tank... I wondered if she might be getting overstimulated to the point of being hyper, but she calmed down fine for lunch. Then we took a quick trip through the rain forest before heading out to the parking garage, where I was afraid I had lost the car for several minutes before realizing I was on the wrong floor.

And this past weekend, the definite highlight was a toddler bluegrass concert. We had to wake her up early from her nap (which I am LOATHE to do!), but it was so worth it. When we got there, it took her a little while to warm up and she just wanted to stay in my lap, but by the 3rd or 4th song she jumped up and started jumping around with the other kids. And then she started hugging them! And then she started pulling their blankies away from them (ah hah - now I see what all the hugging was about). Seriously though, she loved it! (what toddler wouldn't?!?) It was one of those sort of magical scenes that you just want to capture and bottle.

And last but not least, Rosa is now finally sleeping in a full size crib! And she loves it. And she slept great her first night and nap in it. She had been in the mini crib that we had back from when we were all sleeping (or not) in the same room at the old place. This crib converts to a toddler bed when she is ready. But ever since that night few days before Christmas when she scared the pants off of us by thumping to the ground in the middle of the night, she hasn't tried climbing out again (knock knock knock).

My last post was about broccoli. Which Rosa hasn't eaten again since my last posting. But I did discover that she loves asparagus! She has eaten that multiple times now (also dripping with butter!). And speaking of which, she loves eating straight butter any time she can talk me into it.

Rosa is also definitely recognizing that writing is something special now. She loves making lines with her "pens" (crayons), and announces "Pens!" whenever she sees handwriting. She learned the number 8 recently, and then at first all writing was "8! 8!" I just got her a placemat with the numbers 1-12 illustrated with animals so she can practice during our (sometimes long) meals. She loves pointing at 8 and saying "8!" but also seems to like 2, 9, and 10 a lot. We'll start working on recognizing letters one of these days. She's also got a few colors down now, and her favorites are blue and orange. Well, now that I think about it, everything is a shade of either blue or orange. Occasionally yellow with help. But since blue and orange are on opposite sides of the color wheel, she's got everything pretty well covered!

So that's the wordy posting. And my renewed intention to take more pictures again. But here is at least something cute to look at that I managed to capture one morning just after we got up. My little mama... pretty good on her feet, considering... (p.s. the video should work even though it shows up as a black screen)

My child ate broccoli !!!!!

And then she asked for "moi" (more)! I was in 7th heaven. I said, "Jeff, quick, get the camera!" It was steamed so it was nice and soft, and I showed her how to dip the pieces in parmesan cheese ("sheeeez!"). What a happy happy night! No broccoli - and practically no vegetables period - has ever been swallowed by Miss Rosa previously.


Here's the Rosa with the newest electronic singing stuffed animal - a Valentine's Day puppy from Granddad Frank and Nana Anita. She knows exactly how to make it sing, but just chose not to while we were trying to capture it on video. It sings "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch" while its ears flap up and down. Thanks Frank and Anita - she loves it!

Here are a few pictures of Rosa wearing a poncho from Grandma Judy. It started normally enough (well, except for the socks on her hands!), and then...


... after the poncho slid down to skirt level and Rosa found a pair of panties for her head, my daughter became a gypsy!