Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Happy 1st Birthday, sweet Vivien Leigh!

What a precious little person you are! We can tell there is already so much personality bundled up inside of you just raring to get itself out.

You are a cuddler that loves to lay your head on our shoulder (or anybody's, for that matter) and just give off sweet snuggly vibes that warm the heart.

You have many faces. From the concerned furrowed brow to the mischievious crinkled nose to the pouty bottom lip to the big as Texas smile.

You love to clap whenever we say "Yay!"

You hold your finger up when we say "One year old!"

You have already emitted more blood in several incidents in the past few weeks that your more cautious sister has in her entire lifetime. Even when you (gasp!) fell of the changing table, you just cried a few seconds and then wanted to snuggle. We are so thankful you are resilient but we are learning to watch you more carefully!

Your favorites toys are the foam blocks, your ball popper, and the Christmas cards.

Your monkey and lion lovies and your thumb are still your comforts when you are tired or sad.

You love your sister and absolutely sob if she leaves the bedroom for an evening potty break and you are not included in the excursion. In the morning, we often hear you two giggling and come in to find you standing up in your crib just talking away. Wherever your sister is, there you want to be!

You still take two naps. Typically a really solid one in the morning in the pack and play and then another one in your bed in the afternoon.

You are getting really good at playing independently in your pack and play in the afternoon between snack and dinnertime. Every time I come it to get you, you have always closed all of the doors on the busybox, scattered all the rings from the tower, and you are always holding monkey in one hand.

You dropped your bottle this past week and are now drinking from a sippy cup. You prefer juice to milk. You love bananas. You would be happy to eat strictly macaroni and cheese (just like your Daddy) but you will tolerate veggies. You love most fruits and have just become a big fan of raisins.



What a blessed year this has been! It has gone by SO fast! You are so loved, Little Monkey!
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Chore Girl

Amity has a new "chore". She can unload the silverware from the dishwasher!

Dennis and I are excited about all of the other chores that await these girls! :)
Disclaimer: These photos were taken on a day that we stayed home all day. Matching was obviously not a priority!
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Greetings!

I just had to document Vivien's current favorite pasttime: taking out all of the Christmas cards out of the basket and laying them on the floor.
This is a ritual has occurred several times a day for the past two weeks. As KK said, "If you need to get something done and need to have her occupied, just stand her up at the coffeetable and she knows what to do." I think this is a great excuse to leave the Christmas cards out for a while longer!
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Better than Botox

Vivien is pulling up on everything these days and, yesterday, she tried pulling up on her ball popper. Unfortunately, it was not prepared to hold her up and she flipped over it and landed hard on her face.
Fortunately, the swelling distributed itself evenly around her lips and it just looked like she had received a botox treatment. We decided that the damage was not enough to forgo her birthday portrait. If anything, she just looked enhanced! :)
Of course, all is well that ends with monkey! And for me, covered in quite a bit of blood, all is well that ends in Oxiclean!
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Monday, January 17, 2011

On PopPop's Lap

I think that PopPop read every book in our library book basket to these girls. They were all about Valentine's Day so I am sure it was his favorite reading topic but he was a great sport! :)

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Making Music

The girls loved playing the piano with Lolly during their visit this weekend!



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Let Her Eat Cake!

Vivien was not much in favor of wearing our new traditional birthday hat but...
she was all about the cake!
Following in the footsteps of some of our friends with their children, we did not let either girl eat any sweet (cake, cookie, ice cream, etc.) before their first birthday. It has made for a memorable first birthday cake-eating experience. Amity had her own unique cake-eating technique!
Vivien was very dainty at first but then she remembered her new clapping trick and she discovered that clapping with cake on your hands is super-fun!

Party People

John Rosemond, in his recent newsletter, suggested 15 resolutions for the New Year that he thinks would revolutionize America's families. The #1 resolution was: We will not throw expensive "event parties" for our children on their birthdays. Instead, we will confine all birthday celebrations to our family, including extended family. We will keep it uncomplicated: a special dinner of the birthday boy or girl's favorite food, a cake, the obligatory song, and a few simple gifts, mostly clothing or other useful things.

Dennis and I haven't totally developed our own philosophy of birthday parties yet and we most certainly enjoy celebrating birthdays with our friends and their children. One idea comes from a friend of mine who has three children ages five and under. She told me that they are sticking to family-only birthday parties until their children specifically ask for a birthday party with friends. We'll see! I just want to record this so that someday, if our children are in therapy for birthday party deficiency, they will at least know that we had a plan (sort of)!

I think that Vivien definitely felt as celebrated as she could have with the presence of all of the Grover family (except for Nana). There was lots of clapping and cheering as she dug into her cake.

Scrumdiddlyumptious!

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Let's Get This Party Started!

When we found out that Lolly and PopPop were coming into town this past weekend, we decided to move Vivien's birthday party up a week and a half so that they could be here for the celebration. We had been thinking about a monkey party and Becky was already working on the cake but that was the extent of my plans until Friday morning. As I started to brainstorm meal ideas, I thought of bananas and monkey bread and then wondered if it would be inappropriate to follow up those breakfast foods with cake and ice cream. I consulted a few family members (at least one of them is under the age of 3!) and was promptly told that there is absolutely nothing wrong with eating cake and ice cream before 10:30 a.m.

So...early Saturday morning, I was up making a monkey sign and monkey bread. Dennis and Lolly were blowing up lots of pink balloons.
Aunt Becky showed up with the most precious monkey cake and smash banana cakes for Vivien.
The birthday girl woke up and put on her birthday dress that I bought last year before she was even born.
The table was set with a simple meal of monkey bread and bananas with a centerpiece of who else but Vivien's most cherished Monkey!
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Sunday, January 16, 2011

Join to sing!

One of our New Year's resolutions has been to be more consistent with family worship in the evenings before bedtime.  It hasn't been easy but it is exciting to see some fruit from our small efforts.  Thus far, our routine has been to read a Bible story from The Read Aloud Bible Stories and then sing one verse of "Come Christians, Join to Sing".  After we sing that, Amity always wants to sing "Jesus loves me", "Jesus loves the little children", and finally, the "ABC song". 

On our way home from lunch today, she was belting out "Come Christians, Join to Sing".  It took me a few minutes to find my camera.  As you can see at the end, maybe we need a few resolutions about manners! :)



Monday, January 10, 2011

Nothing is safe now!

We are learning to navigate the sibling world one day at a time. When Vivien began to crawl, Amity did not appreciate having her block towers knocked down and her artwork torn up. Our solution was, "Anything you don't want to your sister to touch, you need to work on at your table." Well...now that little Miss V has found her feet, that is no longer a solution.
Amity had been coloring during Vivien's roomtime and we failed to put away the crayons. In the middle of cooking dinner, I looked over at the play area to see this little girl intently (and proudly) studying this whole new world that is now within her reach.
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Friday, January 7, 2011

A Jolly Dolly Christmas

I am learning that just as Legos seem to be synonymous with having boys, LOTS and LOTS of baby dolls come with having two little girls. In the words of my mother-in-law, this was a very "Jolly, Dolly Christmas" since there were at least six new baby dolls added to our family.

The greatest thing about it is that with each new baby doll comes a smile like this!
And the fun of pointing out their eyes and nose.
And the possibility of a new "friend". This gift from Nanna sat in Amity's lap the entire drive home from Plainview.
These girls apparently have a lot of love to give every new baby doll that comes into our house! I just need to work on finding "beds" for all of them!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

It's the Loud Toys...

that seem to be the favorite ones to play with right when the dog is barking and the phone is ringing and I am trying to get dinner on the table.
BUT...it is worth it to see two little sisters laughing and playing together.
This toy makes me laugh.  Dennis and I may have even pressed the button on it a few times after the girls were in bed!
Thanks, Lolly and PopPop, for Vivien's new toy! She (and Amity) LOVE it!