This video is old - from back in July. I meant to post it and don't think I ever did. Here's the little one shortly after she learned to clap.
At some point when Eliza's balance while standing started getting better and better, I realized that I didn't have any videos of her crawling, and that if I wanted to have some, I better do it soon before the crawling disappeared! The first one has the added bonus of the "uh-ohs." The second one also shows her climbing skills!
I still haven't managed to capture her walking on video (she's going all the way down the hall now, Frankenstein-style with arms outstretched!), but I did get her doing what we call "Compost Driver." She loves to cruise around the kitchen holding on to our compost bucket. Don't worry - the lid snaps closed very tightly!
Eliza has been taking a big midday nap for about a month now. On days that Rosa is not in preschool, this has actually become a really nice opportunity for some Mommy-Rosa time... as long as I can refrain from cooking or cleaning or doing all those many things that need to get done in a given day. One day I was about to recycle a box, and Rosa wanted to paint it and make it a house, so we did! Other times we have baked pies, made paper airplanes, read books, swept the leaves in the backyard, and other "projects" that one or the other of us dreams up. It's a good time for us!
This picture kind of reminded me of a picture of Rosa's Tanti Kira as a little girl, playing inside a cardboard box.
One day Rosa's preschool took a field trip to a cupcake store around the corner from the school. Since it was unfortunately not a day she was in school, and the field trip was happening right during Eliza's nap time, we didn't join them, but I decided that we would do our own field trip that afternoon after Eliza woke up. They were so cute sitting at the little table outside the store, devouring cupcakes together!
Rosa and Daddy, on a beautiful sunny afternoon.
Daddy and his girls!
I had to take these pictures one day at lunch because Eliza was just covered in her food!
Here's one of Rosa's preschool teachers reading to a bunch of kids in the school's courtyard.
For my 40th birthday(!!!), I asked my dad to pick out a better bass amp for me as my present. We went to Guitar Center to pick it up, and Rosa says, kind of quietly, "Mommy, I want THAT kitar." Can you tell which one?
THIS is the one. I told her - someday!
Rosa and Danya experience their first cotton candy. It was Danya's mom's idea!
Rosa's school had a big Halloween party fundraiser the Saturday before Halloween. I volunteered to be a face painter, although I hadn't really done it before. So the weekend before, I borrowed some face paints and an awesome How-To book, and went to town on Rosa! By the end just about every square inch showing was painted!
For weeks, Rosa had consistently been saying she wanted to be "tiger-mouse-dragon-fairy" for Halloween. This is pretty typical of Rosa, who seems averse to choosing one thing over another. (e.g. "I love ALL the colors!" or "I want the muffin AND the croissant!") So I got tiger tights and mouse ears and a dragon hat and we already had a fairy dress. But then on Halloween night, Rosa announced she wanted to be a ladybug. Ugh. No ladybug costume. And I had spent a decent amount of time gathering all the parts of her previously scheduled costume. But I decided not to make a battle out of it, and told her she could wear her ladybug rain jacket. Which she did. Oh well - better luck next year!
I was a dragon, and Eliza, who has been called "Little Pumpkin" more than "Eliza" in her life, was supposed to be a pumpkin. But she was so sick (fever and cough) that she stayed home for trick-or-treating. But we at least dressed her up for a picture, poor thing. It's good that she stayed home too, because she got worse before she got better.
For the second year in a row, we trick-or-treated with Rosa's friend Ember. My phone takes lousy nighttime pictures, but you get the idea of the cuteness.
Our pumpkin.
I was pretty amazed at the evolution of Rosa's drawing abilities! She originally told me this was a picture of her holding Eliza, although the story changed in the video below. You can see she is also starting to write her name! (Although there are a few extra letters.) And she knows very well that R-O-S-A spells Rosa, darnit!
Eliza's 1st birthday, bronchitis and all. We had cupcakes! Happy birthday, Little Pumpkin!
