Midwinter Break

Well, the sun is (well, was, it's dark now) shining, the rain has let up, and we've busted out the non-wool coats, so it must be getting close to spring.  Not that winter has been much to shiver about this year in Seattle, but still.  Things are going well, we're still pretty busy and Rhia is still pretty busy growing.  I've had the last week off for midwinter break, so we've kept ourselves busy cleaning/decluttering, watching the Olympics (Rhia loves the ice skating--she was "skating" around the living room today while her and I watched it), and going on family expeditions around the area.  It's been a great week, I'm a bit sad to go back to work tomorrow.

Rhia's doing really well, she's starting to count a little bit--she can get to three pretty well, but after that everything is "five," and is actually singing "twinkle, twinkle little star" to the melody once in awhile.   Not much else going on, but I wanted to put up some pictures from our time off. :)  Enjoy!  

     She loves hats, so Al gave her his Lions hat to wear one day.  I told him this was damaging, so the next day I went out and bought her a little toddler-sized Mariner's hat.  Much better.

      

You can't tell, but her hair is in an actual ponytail!

Being goofy after dinner.   Yes, that's a bib on her head.

So I'm having trouble formatting with the new blogger editor, but anyways.  Rhia and I went to Mattawa last week to visit the Sander crew and meet Beatrix.  Rhia and Elke had a great time playing together, and I had a great time catching up with Maggie.  Here they are "sharing," and below checking out Baby Bea.  Rhia thought she was pretty cool, and kept checking on her.



On Friday Al, Rhia, and I went to the Aquarium. Rhia looooved it, and ran around going "fish! fish!" the whole time. It was such a great experience for her, she even got to touch starfish and sea urchins.  She was even a good enough sport to stop for two seconds to take her picture in the jellyfish thing.  Notice that Puppy also made the trek, as he does for just about everything.  Puppy is also a good sport.

When the Saints go Marching In....and other stuff

So, February has arrived. 2010 is flying by more quickly than I would have thought. We had to "suffer" through the warmest January on record in Seattle, it's been rough. Things are going well in general, we're all keeping busy, especially Rhia. She stays home most days with Al now, which they are both pretty happy about.

She's getting really into trying to piece words together into sentences, her newest being "there she is!" when we play peek-a-boo/hide and seek with her. Vocabulary is still just exploding all over the place, amazing us on a daily basis. She's really into dancing and music, as shown in a video below. She eats at the table like a big kid now, utensils and all, and she only feeds a bit of it to the cats/dog. She's in love with the cats, although we've had to work on being "nice" to them--she's gotten a few scratches from pulling Blues' tail. We warned her. Her favorite new game is "night night," in which she crawls onto the couch, pulls the blanket over herself, and pretends to sleep, complete with a really loud fake snore.

We're all looking forward to the start of baseball season, Rhia recognizes the actual word "Mariners" when she sees it now, which is pretty cool. Not reading, necessarily, but a start. On that note, she loves to read, she'll bring us "ham," (green eggs and ham) about ten times a day. She also reads "ooooooooooo" in one of her books. She's really getting a hold of letters and such, it's a neat skill to watch her develop.

But, before the Mariners take the American League pennant this year, we have to get through the Super Bowl, and, thanks to Uncle JJ, Rhia is properly attired in a Saints jersey. She likes to yell "go, go go!" at the T.V. when we're watching football, and she has "Touchdown!" down to a T, complete with the hand signal. The poor child is doomed.

She loves to see the boats at the water (when we drive onto the ferry she starts saying "boat! boat!"), loves to eat salmon, recognizes the Mariners, and even can identify the Starbucks logo (I'm not proud of that last one). A true Seattle girl on our hands, I'm afraid.

Anyway. Pictures and a couple of short videos to follow. Enjoy!

To be fair, I bribed her with Cookie Monster for this picture. But wow, does she loooove that guy. She honestly does have a sweet tooth, one of our favorite mother/daughter expeditions is to a place here called Cupcake Royale, that even makes 'babycakes,' which are Rhia-sized cupcakes.

Touchdown!

She really likes to wear our shoes. The other day she tried on my boots. She also is very narcissistic, and the only "mirror" at her level is the oven door. She can often be found in front of it giggling at her reflection.

Running away with my boots.

jamming out to the Beatles after dinner.

All of that dancing made her tired.....although at one point she tries to tell Al and I that we're asleep.

We don't buy it.