Balloon Animals

For entertainment today, we dug deep in our bag of circus tricks....we stuck with the simple dog and "flower" hats....I must say, I have some skills...Kathy was impressed!

No fun for Adele

While big sister sleds, I have to watch from the sidelines...they don't even let me play in the plant dirt....

Meet the Cousins

Adele loves babies...unfortunately, she's smaller than most of the babies she meets.  That doesn't stop her from attacking them...she starts by standing up on them, and then usually goes for the hair, ears and eyes.  Here's some of cousin Colton and some with baby Owen (can you see the fear in his eyes).

Sledding on Clear Lake

Veda got her first true sledding experience in Northern Iowa today.  The snowsuit she got last year, actually fits and she loves wearing it....her big epiphany was; "mom, my snow suit has a seat belt!"  Here are some action shots from dad pulling her around the lake and making snow angels....

IOWAAAAAAAA!

We flew in Sat afternoon and have had non-stop fun ever since. Veda made ornaments with Uncle Ry, cooked breakfast with Dad, watched xmas movies with Bull, went to the Children's museum, decorated her own tree, played with the neighbor girls, and slept one night for 13 hours straight she was so exhausted from the fun. Mom got to go to lunch with girlfriends, Dad and Uncle Ry got to go to a movie, Mom and Dad got to go on a datenight with Kimmy and Wyatt to sushi and Mom got to SHOP! Oh and the Baldes clan came over for Wig and Pen and Presents.

The highlight was when we were playing Life with the Baldes fam. I noticed Veda had one of the cars in her mouth and I told her to take it out. Todd asked her what happened to the people who had been in the car and she said matter of factly - "I ate them;)"

Yum Pizza

Gave her the crust and it kept her occupied FOREVER. Like a dog bone for babies;)

Tea Parties and Storage Tub Rides

Jammie Time

This was Todd's strategy for getting Veda to put her Jammies on. We ended up holding her down... it took two of us.

Daddy Day Care

Since Kathy has been gone, one girl has been great and the other has been a bit challenging.  To my total surprise, Adele has been an angel (eats all her meals, finishes all her bottles, goes to sleep in under 3 minutes, etc, etc).  Veda on the other hand has been a bit of a nightmare.  Kathy told me she's been in the same funk for her the last couple weeks, but I'm not sure it was quite this bad.  After several rounds of screaming and tantrums tonight, the monster sleeps (actually she's a really cute monster in this picture...but don't let that fool you.)  Here's also a few pics of Adele being funny the last two days (to note, dad's version of feeding is VERY messy - it's so messy, we can't wear shirts.)

And it Begins....

What's the best way to get ready for Kathy's 3 day work trip? Veda vomiting for 3 hours with food poisoning last night...after a work party at my boss's house last night.  Clearly something didn't agree with her, but whatever it was, it's not there anymore.  After 3 bedding changes, 2 baths and about 10 towels, I got her back to sleep.  At 4am, Veda woke me up with, "I need milk dad!"....at least by then I knew it was food poisoning and not the flu....Kathy left for the airport at 4:45am and is still sitting there waiting for her flight to take off (from LAX into the Chicago snow storm).  Our little built in alarm clock (Adele) showed no mercy...waking up at 6:15 this morning doing her best motor boat impression.  I think they call this a crash course in single parenting....

We have a WALKER!

Yes - it's true. Just days short of 9 months Miss Adele took two little steps. We were at Todd's office holiday party last night and she must have been showing off for all the on-lookers. Everyone was delighted that they were present for this milestone. She might have taken another step but she freaked out and fell when I started screaming... oops.

I'm currently sitting at LAX waiting for my flight that will likely never leave. I'm flying into the eye of the storm... O'Hare - the most miserable place to be when there is "weather." To make matters worse I'm going on 4 hours of sleep. I don't feel too sorry for myself because Todd got less sleep than I did last night and he is on Dad Duty for the next three days while I travel.

Veda had a pretty severe case of food poisoning last night. She barfed and dry-heaved for three hours until she was sooooooo exhausted that she just collapsed into a coma. Todd and I spent the night cleaning sheets, towels and jammies. Veda got 2 baths and we finally got smart and figured out how to minimize the mess.

Here's a picture of Veda babysitting Adele while Dad takes a break.

P&G Christmas

The P&G Holiday Box arrived last week. Todd was quick to claim the chocolate almonds. He doesn't think I know where he hid them. Really? That's the best you could do?

This Will Only Hurt for a Second

Veda is making good use of her styling tools and Adele is a cooperative subject... for now.

Progressive Dinner

Saturday night we had a progressive dinner with our neighbors. The kids loved it because they got to play with each other's toys... although I don't think any of them enjoyed it when the other kids were playing with THEIR toys. We bought Wii Let's Dance and the older kids had a blast with it. The highlight was the Prime Rib the neighbors made... totally trumped my Apple Cobbler.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Don't worry Mom. I was sitting at the end of the bed on my computer. I didn't leave Adele unattended in bed;)

Veda's Big Night

We had the neighbors over to watch Veda's big night on America's Funniest Home videos. Veda and Teaquen were much more interested in each other than the TV. We even got her sushi as a special treat... which she loved (to our delight). She didn't get that she was on TV but hopefully someday she will. The studio audience seemed to enjoy her clip;)!

Over My Head

I took Veda to the Christmas Fiesta in downtown Camarillo Friday night. She LOVED the ginerbread house display. In fact, she keeps calling every house on our street with lights the gingerbread houses. So Sunday we tackled the $9.99 target house. The box said easy to assemble... pretty much all you have to do is decorate. Well let me tell you this project is not suitable for 2 year olds OR 34 year olds. In my defence the roof came broken. I told Veda the house was hit by an earthquake. She didn't care, she just wanted to play with the pretty candy.

Spaz

It's hard to give Adele a bath without getting wet.