Memorial Day, V's 1st Parade!

Vera's 1st Parade

I (Mom) dressed Vera in clothes I thought Dad would pick out- bright colored onsie with pants and skirt..

V & Dad and their similar hair

Luisa smiling!

Vera (8 months) & Luisa (almost 3 months)

(Hanging out in the Go Pod, loving the time with Griff and Charlie Max)

Mmmm shoes....

Vera can army crawl around the living room a bit now.  She is highly motivated by sandals and other footwear.  

Happy 8 Month Birthday Vera!

Miss V:  Over the weekend you turned 8 months old... you are just as sweet and as happy as can be.  This past month marked a few cool achievements or new firsts that may or may not have been mentioned yet in your blog- I can't remember!  About 3 weeks ago you started consistently sleeping "through the night".  This means that you go to bed around 7:30 pm, wake up between 5 and 5:30 for a 5 minute feed, then go back sleep until about 7am.  Not too shabby.  I'll take it!  You started eating meat, chicken and turkey to be exact, so you are no longer a vege/fruit/breastmilk-atarian, and in the last few days you started eating & liking dairy-  yogurt, cottage and shredded cheese.  You have mastered saying "more" in sign language (even though you also use it to communicate that you are hungry) and you also wave hello and goodbye to pretty much everyone.  You continue to LOVE swim class, which is a total highlight of your week.  You vigorously wave your arms and legs around in excitement whenever you are excited an especially every time we go to school to drop off or pick up Griffin from Runamuck.  Crawling wise, Dad and I know we are close to breaking back out those baby gates, as you are starting to push yourself backwards and pivot all around on your stomach.  No official crawling yet, but you are getting there.  You still only have 2 bottom teeth, but have been sucking your thumb a little and putting everything in your mouth lately, so new teeth are on their way.  You love laughing at and with your brother and he loooves making you laugh too.  Sometimes he plays "horse" with you, which means he sits on top of you and pretends that you are his horse.  You don't seem to mind it.. in fact, you are quite a giggly and patient horse. Sweet baby Vera, we couldn't love you more. 

Baby Sayz I Gotsta Have My Yogurt Toast

It's official. Yogurt toast, a classic Griffin favorite messy breakfast food, is now a part of Vera's edible world... 5/17/13.  If Tom were blogging these pictures, his caption would be something like, "Baby sayz I gotsta have my yogurt toast."  Yum.

Morning Family Snuggle

One of my favorite things is waking up on a weekend morning with Tom by my side, and no where specific to be by any certain time.  Nothing is a rush.  On these rare mornings we like bringing our happy, refreshed kids into bed to have a little morning family snuggle.  Vera is all smiles and just rolls from side to side looking at each parent, as she is just thrilled to see both of us.  Griff climbs into bed and then almost immediately goes back to his room to retrieve either a Cubby or Lovie or one or a few of his many stuffed animals; he loves to get tucked in under the covers with all of his "guys" and insists that Vera gets covered up too.  It's sweet morning moments like these that I love.

What's wrong with this picture?

Tom has a habit of sometimes forgetting to put things away; case in point, see Vera's cloth diaper...  I picked it up from the changing table and turned around to walk out of her room, when I heard "splat"...

Trip to the Stone Zoo

It was Vera's first trip to the Stone Zoo (not including the time when we went there in the freezing darkness for Zoolights this past December).  We met our friends Connor, Ryan, and Sandy on Friday morning for some animal fun and a picnic lunch.  I'm not sure how many animals Vera actually saw, but she definitely noticed the brown bear as he walked by her...  

Pink Car

I feel like every little girl needs a pink car... 

Vera and I enjoyed the sunshine last week with a spin around the block.  She wore this little blue dress for the first time.. it's one of only a handful of items I actually purchased for her since her closet is overflowing with pink hand-me-downs.  The Carters dress reminded me of Hawaii and was something I thought "my daughter" would wear.... so cute!

Griffin & Vera: Blue Pajama Picture

Griffin, 1/15/2010, Griffin at 5 days old

Vera, 10/14/2012, Vera at almost a month old

Plastic bags make great toys, right?

Vera is so the second child... Griffin is doing a project coloring a wooden alligator and Vera is playing with the plastic wrapper from the wooden alligator.  Wah wah..   

Awwww.  Just a few moments ago, Vera dropper her plastic bag and got upset that she couldn't reach it.  Griff got down from his chair and said, "Mom, I'm going to help Vera."  He walked over to her, picked up her plastic bag and gave it back to her.  It was so cute. I tried to positively reinforce the crap out of his good and sweet deed with a huge hug and many compliments on what an amazing brother he is and how lucky Vera is to have him.

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