A cold Saturday

It’s been chilly here-for Portland; low of 28, high only in the 30’s today. And, Little S also has a cold. Never fun, but goes with the territory.

Trying to placate her frequent fussiness today, she became Mom’s little kitchen helper

 

She stirred her pot as I made dinner.

As she was finishing dinner, she melted me. She kept saying a word I wasn’t recognizing. So she finally grabbed my hand and put it on the back of her BIB and I realized she had been telling me bib the whole time. I just can’t believe how advanced her thought processes have become. That and her parroting ability. Not a day goes by without at least 5 or more new words being repeated to us.

Simply amazing. But, I know I’m biased.

Thanksgiving

After a 13 hour drive spread over two days, we arrived in Santa Rosa, tired, but ready for our Thanksgiving dinner!

Little S had a great time seeing cousin S and playing with all his toys and his bike

 

Which fits cousin S a little better.

The food was delicious and the table picture perfect 

Little S tried some of the delicious meal, to no avail. Fortunately Grampie got her to eat a few bites

 

For after dinner fun, Little S showed off her monkey side in the tree 

The next morning, we had a family trip to the park.

Awwwwww….

Little S was in a belly mood

 

Then, we went on a hike later in the day.

Dads and the Little S’

 

The hiking party

 

The Korpi clan

 

Happy hiker

 

We capped it off by letting Little S hike on her own for the first. time. She LOVED it!

Especially with her cousin

 

Near the parking lot there was a field of straw that big cousin S delighted in piling on Little S’ head

 

She was surprisingly tolerant

They had tea parties together

We read a book with our new friend Theo

Conserved water by sharing the bathtub

And, had time for some piano with a side of PBR & sugar

Thanks for the wonderful visit and super fun cousin time. Can’t wait until the cousins can see each other again. Bye-bye!

Leftovers

Just a few pictures that have been kicking around a week or two

A day without rain at the park with Dad

Showing her stacking skills with dinner. It makes it taste better when it’s artfully arranged

 

Taking her new friend Dolly for a bike ride 

New & Improved swinging!

It’s amazing how much she grows and absorbs in a day. Every day is something to be thankful for with her.

Snow fun = No Fun

Well, it turns out she’s not yet the snow bunny we dreamed of.

We’re lucky to have some early season snow and a Mommy who worked too much the last few weeks and made up for it by taking a weekday off to spend with her beloved family. So, to the snow we went. Preparations were made the days before with new snowpants, gloves and after much searching, some pretty decent snowboots from Target, of all places. She didn’t even mind most of her new clothing, even though the gloves might not fit her for four more years, the boots maybe some time next year, and even the back up gloves were quickly ditched.

However, she learned two very unfortunate things.

1. Packed snow & ice in the parking lot is slippery and nearly impossible to walk on.

2. Not packed snow makes you sink when you step in it and therefore lose your balance and fall over, generally face first, into the snow. Where, you can’t push down to stand back up again and are pretty much stuck face down in the snow.

So, it wasn’t her favorite experience, and a good deal of the time was spent with protests and almost crying. Very out of character for normally happy and cheerful Little S. It wasn’t all bad though. For a little while getting pulled in the sled was kind of fun.

Even that was touch and go since she couldn’t stay sitting up while being pulled uphill. She always kept her arms up in that position though. It was the funniest sight.

Sledding down the hill was fun for a few times too. First with Dad:

And then back up

 

 

(arms still pointed up)

 

 

 

And back down with Mom and Furry S this time

And, assume the position again

 

 

(arms still pointed up. You think they would be tired by now)

 

 

Here’s hoping a little more experience walking and keeping upright and everything else going right (she got sick the next day, so she might have been on her way to getting sick already?) along with maybe a sled to sit up and stay up in, the next snow adventure will be the start to loving winter outdoors as much as Mommy and Daddy.

18 months and a few days

After too much work, and not near enough fun, I’m trying to tip the balance back the other way.

After Halloween, we went to OMSI, our local Hands on Science Museum for their $2.00 day. At $2.00/person, we figured something would entertain Little S. Boy, did it ever! They have an entire room devoted to hands on play/exploration/discovery for the little ones. She migrated right to the water play exhibits. And the puddles on the floor. “Splash” being one of her words she likes to use. She took a break from splashing to have Mommy sit down on the wet bench with her

After making sure Mommy was wet, she found a book and Daddy’s dry lap to enjoy for a while

 

Despite there being more days with rain than sun, we manage to still get to the playground, where she continues to be a brave little monkey

WHEEEEEE! She loves hanging on to things and swinging.  Dad’s the lucky guy who most often gets to go play with Little S

Did I mention she likes to hang from things and swing? 

And that she’s a little climbing monkey

The abacus is about 4 feet off the ground to start with.

Little S has a new furry friend. He’s red and he is appearing on her feet lately

 

“Elmo” is up there on her favorite words list. When she awoke to those slippers in her room, she spotted them right away, pointing and yelling “Elmo”.  After some exploration, she let me put them on to fend off the morning chill. Not that they stayed on long, and there was the incident with the dog thinking they were her toy, but I think that’s resolved now. But watching Furry S follow Little S around the room for the slippers was pretty funny. Of course, the camera was out of reach and the memory card was full for those escapades.

Tomorrow should be a big, exciting day. Here’s a sneak preview

Hopefully it won’t take another two weeks to keep current on her coming adventures.

Hoppy Ween!

We couldn’t get Little S to say Trick or Treat, but by the end of the night, I heard her say something and it took me a second to figure out she had heard us say Happy Halloween all night and she was trying to be festive too! Hoppy Ween!

Little S got right into the spirit of the night with her present from Dad-a glow stick!

  The little monkey got this whole trick or treat thing figured out pretty quick. We had a test run to the neighbor’s house (and, we loaned her a pumpkin. What else are neighbors for?)

We learned about doorbells

 

and properly stashing our haul in a bag for (mommy & daddy to eat) later

Hoppy Ween Trick or treating was a lot of fun!

But, the fun didn’t end there. We got home and took off her costume. As we were attempting to corral her into her bath, we had to stop and answer the door for a trick or treater. And that’s when she modeled her third costume of the night

 

Nearly Naked Baby. It’s also when she went CRAZY! and discovered the door had no screen or window.

and she could lean out of it. And then she discovered the bounty of chocolate we had ready to distribute

(yep, the good stuff. No tootsie rolls or lollipops there)

And, once the candy was out of it, she could wear yet another Halloween costume.

 

Buckethead

 

HOPPY WEEN!!

Fridays are for fun!

Finally, a Friday where I could take a few hours off in the afternoon after a long week. We made the most of it by going to the Children’s Museum where Daddy usually takes her.

She had a blast playing in the splash room-and splash she did!

Mommy also took her to the digging pit-where she dug

played with the dump truck

Then, we went over and played in the “Clifford, the Big Red Dog” exhibit. She loved it! Clifford is BIG

 

Or Little S is small.

She was getting pretty tired as we try and transition to one nap a day. Sometimes. So, we didn’t spend a bunch more time in there and I didn’t get a lot more pics. We’ll send Big S with that mission for next week,

And, in a final fun Friday moment, it didn’t really get captured on film very well, but the very tolerant dog was standing by as Little S tried to dress up furry S for Halloween

 

With cat ears. Oh the indignity!

A much more enjoyable day than the normal Friday stress of working and chasing Little S. Every moment shared with her is a great day.