Dancing and drool

Well, summer is finally here and that means activities are winding down. Estelle had her piano recital a while back, and was the only kid who sang her song while playing it. She also had her dance recital last weekend, and had a blast dancing to "Rainbow Ballerina."



In other news, Veronica is in the "how much can I fit in my mouth?" exploratory stage. See below...

"I wonder if I can fit this whole thing in my mouth..."


"Yeah, it's too much isn't it..."


"This looks like a better size..."


She's still the cutest thing ever. As Estelle says, "She's the most adorable, drool-iest baby in the whole world, mom! I don't want to take her back to the hospital." To which I reply, "Me neither. Thank goodness she's ours to keep forever!"

With all the frills upon it

Gorgeous Easter morning -- Estelle found all the eggs and had eaten half her candy before we even left for church.





Estelle tries her hand at photography





My girls

Wake-y, wake-y, eggs 'n bac-y!

I'm not sure who usually wakes up who, but I often find Estelle and Veronica hanging out in the morning. Often, Estelle will climb inside the crib with a blanket and pillow and some books and "read" to the baby. Looks like on this particular morning, neither one of them was really ready to be up...

H-town and visit with Grandpa LV

Just before I went back to work, the whole family accompanied daddy to Houston, where he had a conference. Lucky us, Grandpa lives there! We had lovely weather, an uneventful plane ride (phew!) and great meals. Here are a few shots...

Nice day at the park



Couldn't get Estelle off the monkey bars



Hanging at grandpa's house



Veronica says "wassup"



At the zoo...Stelly loved the tiger

O happy day!

What a cutie pie!



Veronica was baptized today. My cousins Erin and Kelly graciously agreed to be her godparents and both made a special trip home from college for the ceremony.

Father Kevin introduces her to the congregation.





With her godmothers...

Snowmen and...BBQ?

So, virtually everyone who reads this blog knows about Bryan's infamous BBQ ribs and won't be surprised to read that when the mercury climbs above 30, the pit comes out. The last 6 days of 30+ degrees and sun has us all wishing for spring and thinking about ribs. The meal was great, and on top of that, Bryan took some time out of his BBQ preparation to build a snowman with Estelle. I helped accessorize but they did all the hard work.

Aren't they cute? And the snowman too...

Time for some one-on-one

With my maternity leave rapidly coming to a close (back to work on Mar 3), it's time for a post about Veronica. We're all pretty head over heels about this girl...she's a great baby. Of course, she has her moments of crankiness, but all-in-all, she's easygoing and happy. She's making great eye contact and gives me the biggest open-mouth smiles. We're in the process of making our bonus room (which used to be our office) into a shared room for the girls. My goal is to get it done before the end of February. I'll post some before and after photos when it's completed.

Ditto...the LA trip

Jc's post says it all...here are a few of my best photos...

Quarantined in the hotel room...


With Frank and Jc at the LA zoo...


Staring intently at Jenna, I think...


Happy kids hanging out...

Checking in on the new sibs

Overall, life with the two girls is going well. I've dubbed Veronica "Zen Baby" -- she is super mellow and observes everything around her quite serenely. Her primary subject is Estelle, who bounces and screams and laughs and makes funny faces to entertain her. V has started smiling and cooing with an occasional giggle.

I think Estelle has "Do Good" on one shoulder and "Be Bad" on the other and is struggling with the voices. One day she says to me about V, "Mom, I like her. She's a pumpkin pie." The next she says, "Sometimes when I kiss her, I really want to bite her." I tell her I understand that her emotions are very intense and that's okay. Perhaps the most candid statement of all, "Mom, when Veronica gets bigger, I'll probably be mean to her sometimes." Probably. But for now she's the sweetest big sister and a great helper for me.

Christmas Recap

We had a great Christmas, made even more festive with the loads of beautiful snow. We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's and Christmas Day at Uncle Mike's. Estelle had an...shall we say...eccentric Christmas list this year. It started with a laundry list of musical instruments, "a guitar, a trumpet, a french horn..." that kept growing and growing. At one point she added a harp and a tuba, prompting me to exasperatedly point out that both would crush her. I kept asking her what she would do with all those instruments and she said very plainly, "be an instrument teacher." She wrapped up with "a bumpy, bumpy racetrack, a real castle, a real pony and a real flying reindeer." Sigh. So, Santa brought a guitar and improvised a bit on a variety of other items.




Both kids crashed on the way out to Mike's house. It was surreal to me -- we were the parents in the front seat, driving to Christmas dinner with the kids asleep in the back. I had to snap photos.

Dirty Doggy Scrub Scrub

Estelle plays a lot of "Twinkle, Twinkle" with her Suzuki piano lessons. This particular version is "Dirty Doggy Scrub Scrub With Funny" (Estelle's title).

Veronica Ann Arrives

Estelle is a big sister! I went into labor early in the morning of Nov 23...Estelle took this picture of my belly so we could document exactly how big I was.



Veronica was 8 lbs, 8 oz -- a full pound heavier than Estelle but exactly the same length. Maybe that's why she's been sleeping so great!




Here's a few of her first photos...






We were discharged from the hospital on Thanksgiving Day, and came home to a phenomenal turkey day dinner that Bryan made...I'm not sure how he pulled it all together at the last minute, but the food was great and it felt like the perfect homecoming.

We are so proud and overwhelmed by Estelle's capacity to embrace the change in our family. She wants to hold, burp, kiss and hug Veronica and she's been a great helper so far. Because of H1N1 risks, Estelle wasn't allowed to visit us in the hospital, so here are some photos of the sisters' first meeting when we came home. Have you ever seen a bigger smile?

Bad Witch (2008); Good Witch (2009)

You may remember that Estelle was a witch for Halloween last year. She reprised the role this year, but was adamant about being a good witch...Glinda, the Good Witch, in fact (from The Wizard of Oz). She went trick-or-treating with Darien (aka Obi Wan Kenobi).

Even daddy got into the Halloween spirit...

I'm quite proud of her homemade costume. Grandma helped out with the skirt and poofy sleeves. I made the crown...and, truth be told, enjoyed every minute of my little arts and crafts project.

Hats off!

Our friend, Julie, knit the cutest gifts for Estelle and baby. Here's Estelle checking out her hat in the mirror...she's been wearing it all morning. Thanks, Julie!

Flower child

Estelle was the flower girl at her auntie's wedding last weekend. Got some great photos and even a video of her doing her job with some help starting off from Uncle Kenny -- you'll have to forgive the footage...I forgot I had the camera on, but fortunately that allowed me to refocus on my sister coming down the aisle.

With Darien, looking pretty sharp himself...

She also had a fabulous time at the reception, dancing the night away with all of my cousins. And, starting at the bar before the reception, she moved in on my cousin's boyfriend. Fortunately, Jessica is not the jealous type. I captured her first bar pick-up here...her beverage of choice? Lemonade, straight up.

Chicken dance...

And one more video (Uncle Eddie should love this one...) featuring Estelle and cousins Jessica, Monica, Erin and Kelly...