Happy birthday and a half to me!

It's hard to believe it, but I turned 18 months old today! Yes indeed, I am a whole year-and-a-half old! I've been pretty sick the last day or so, but I rallied and found a smile or two for Mami to take my pictures.

(And yes, I am wearing an unsnapped onesie over my clothes. Don't ask, I prefer not to talk about it.)

A special visit en route back to Florida

Driving back home, we made a stop in South Carolina to visit our friends Maleah and Ashlyn. Their mom and my mom are friends from grad school, but we'd never all gotten together. So it was nice to have the four girls in one place.

We got to play in their wagon, go to the playground near their house, and have a picnic in their yard. How fun!

And of course we got a group picture to document the occasion - a blogworthy event, of course!

Fun and adventures on vacation

Everything we did at Nana's was so much fun, and so many things I never do regularly. Did you know Nana has a horse? His name is Piper and we got to meet him! I was a little scared, but he seemed nice.

At the barn where Piper lives there are all kinds of cool animals to see, like rabbits and cats and these goldfish. No, silly, not the kind you eat! The kind that swim in ponds!

But speaking of goldfish, it was soon snack time.

Yummy goldfish. And yes, the kind you eat this time!

Resli tried to help me eat my goldfish. It didn't work so well.

She's funny!

Oh look, a cat walked by - very distracting!

Later that day we went to a neat park and playground. I went sliding. You know I like slides by now, right?

And Resli and I played on this dinosaur, too.

The coolest part, though, was the stream. I could have spent hours and hours picking up rocks and throwing them in the water. It was great!

(The water adventures ended due to the intervention of some icky nature, check Resli's blog for details on that one!)

How's that for just about the best vacation ever?

Pursuing my scholarly interests

But don't worry blog fans, my vacation wasn't all fun and games. I continued to pursue my loftier interests. We went to the library, for example.

Where I got a couple good books that I quite enjoyed.
  
I also worked on my architectural skills with Nana's wonderful blocks.

And Mami gave me a little piano lesson (which was really interesting since she knows only "Heart and Soul" ...).

So see, we had a lot of brain-activities going on too!

Hangin' out in western NC

I normally lead a very busy lifestyle at home in Florida, so it was nice to just get away from it all for a while. I spent a lot of time at Nana's just chillin'.

We did go out and explore a bit too. I enjoyed the great weather and beautiful surroundings.

I also got to be quite friendly with Ollie, Nana's little dog.

Kiss, Ollie?

But of course the best part was spending time with my Nana!

My first road trip!

In my 18 months of existence, I've traveled a fair bit (Minneapolis, San Francisco, Denver), but always by plane. This past weekend we took my first car trip - a 450 mile drive to Nana's house in North Carolina. We rented a minivan so we could go in style. 

We started off ok, coloring and playing.

But I quickly grew bored and resorted to other forms of entertainment.

Luckily, we stopped for lunch and I got macaroni and cheese!

Then we used the restroom at the restaurant and they had this super cool seat for me to sit on (trapped) while Mami helped Resli. Neat, huh?

One lesson Mami learned on this trip was that fresh chocolate chip cookies are not good cartrip snacks!

But mess or no mess, Resli and I soon gave up our fight and took a little nap. 

It was a looong drive and we were so glad to arrive!

The name game

I'll have a water, please.

I have discovered the joy of our in-door water dispenser. (Daddy loves it too!) Sometimes Mami remembers to lock it so I can't do what you're about to see... but sometimes she doesn't!
So I grab a cup, any cup will do. Then I head over to the fridge and serve myself up some fresh cool water.

Sometimes I even get some in my mouth then!

But more often than not, I get it all over me. And the floor. And the rest of the kitchen. (Note the water dripping down the fridge door in the background...)

What? I tried!

A glimpse into my dinnertime fun

These videos are from a couple weeks ago, but Mami forgot all about them. (It's been kind of busy around here lately... end of semester and all.) I actually talk a whole lot more now even than I did then, but we thought you might like to see my developing conversational skills.







Anyone know what Resli's chanting in the background? Is it Hebrew?

Happy Easter! from Lela

For my first Easter last year, Mami and I were on a plane home from San Francisco, so this is really like my first Easter. Turns out, there's this big bunny (cue Lela yelling "bunny! bunny!") that brings us baskets and eggs and all kinds of fun stuff. 

Resli helped me dig in to my basket. I got an alphabet book, some snacks and a pretty dress, just like Resli's!

Don't I look pretty?

Resli and I did some dancing together before church.

And then after church we got to go to Grandma and Granddaddy's house, where the Easter bunny had also visited!

I got RAISINS in my basket! W00t!

There was a brief moment of sisterly hugging to celebrate the holiday.

Hope your Easter was as great as mine!

Fountain fun

Mami had a meeting on campus this afternoon so we had a swapoff with Daddy, who met us at the fountain.
Resli's told me how much she likes this fountain, and I can see why!

I had a blast there. I even tried to take my diaper off. Several times.
Resli decided she didn't want to get wet, even though I kept yelling "¡Agua, Resli!" Maybe next time we'll play together in the water.

More butterflies! (or bubbafies)

Since we had the day at home with Mami today, we were looking for all kinds of fun things to do. Mami asked if we wanted to go to see the butterflies. Here's our response:

So, off we went!

When we first got there a very nice lady with butterflies all over her explained to us how butterflies don't have mouths or teeth at all, but instead they have these straws on their chins that they can curl up or down to stick in to flowers. Isn't that neat? (Yea, we weren't really sure what to make of that either!)

Then we stopped to look at the water and the fish and turtles. As Mami was taking our picture, a bright greenish blue butterfly flew by, right in the picture, see? 

Now, that IS neat!

I love watching the fish. I showed Mami what fish say, but she didn't catch it on camera.

We had a great time there, I hope we get to go back soon!