Christmas Tree

We decided to buy a live tree this year; it will planted in the backyard after the holidays. We had several goals in mind when we chose its location for the holidays:

• Have a decorated tree
• Separate cats, kids and the tree
  
• Keep the tree alive
  

The tree is outside on the deck. We won't be home for the actual holidays so it's ok not to have a tree inside.

Vivian and I went out yesterday to decorate it with lights and crystals. We think it might need something else (stars? tinsel? a photo taken in the dark when you can see the lights are on?). And we definitely need to come up with a way to disguise that huge black container. But it's a start.

And unless Vivian goes through a sudden major growth spurt we have achieved another goal of ours ... have a tree that is bigger than Vivian.

Happy Holidays!

Nikolaus 2009

Yet again, Nikolaus made his annual trip to the States to deliver little gifts to little girls. Unlike last year, Vivian gladly took the toys out of her shoes and didn't try to stuff them back in. This year, the hard part was deciding which one to take to church ... :)

 
 

Thankgiving

Thanksgiving was off to an inauspicious start when Vivian started to projectile-vomit during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. And continued to vomit several times more. Luckily, once she got whatever it was out of her system, she fell asleep and all was good. She was a little tired on Thanksgiving day, but other than that, absolutely fine. It did mean Vivian got to lounge about in everything cozy and comfy, AND she got to keep her binky all day. What you can't really see in the photo is that her socks have polka-dots, just to round out the collection of patterns and colors.



The rest of the weekend was absolutely lovely.

Aunt Casey and Uncle Ernie came, and brought Grandma with them. They arrived Wednesday afternoon, and proceeded to spoil Vivian the way only aunts, uncles, and grandparents can.



Will cooked a fantabulous Thanksgiving dinner which we are continuing to enjoy as different left-over variations as I'm typing this.



On Friday, Casey, Ernie, Vivian and I headed out to the Science Center to see the huge model train landscape and the robot exhibit. Lots of fun. Until we got back to the car and realized that I had locked my keys inside. Oops. Will came to our rescue with a set of spare keys!



Saturday morning, we all headed out for breakfast and then our visitors took their leave and started their journeys home to Virginia and Maryland.

I had the following conversation with Vivian at random points during the day:

Vee: Grandma?
Me: She went home.
Vee: Casey?
Me: Casey went home, too.
Vee: Ernie?
Me: Ernie also went home. They all went home.

Clearly, Vivian enjoyed her visitors and misses them already! We do, too. Thanks for coming to Pittsburgh!

Where's Vee-do?

It appears our girl is always being buried underneath stuff. :)

Dancing Queen

We went to the annual Thanks-giving dinner today that was put on by the Men's Group of our church. The food was yummy, the company good; but we are worried that that musicians may not be coming back next year to perform because Vivian stole their show (or at least the eyes of the audience, they all still listened to the great music). In this video, she's actually dancing in the back, for the previous performer, she was standing pretty much right in front of him (although, I think, he couldn't see her because his notes where blocking her).

On a side note, it was very nice to have one of the ladies of the church come up to us and tell us how great a job she thinks we are doing with Vivian and what a wonderful little girl she is. :)

Executive Toddler

Vivian's been sick, so we've spent the week at home. It is amazing how long the keyboard and mouse kept her occupied, considering they are not hooked up to anything. As long as the mouse-cord it tucked under the keyboard, that is.

I guess she must think that I don't produce any more output with my hooked-up laptop, either. I hope the people at work disagree :)

Dormont Park

Last Friday was one of those beautiful fall days. Not too cold, sunny ... perfect for a meet-up in the park with Vivian's friends Emma and Corwin and their mothers.

Dormont Park is this cool wooden structure that encourages lots of climbing and sliding, walking across wobbly bridges, and ducking into small openings. Great for the kids. Here are some photos and a video from the day. Notice that we actually managed to get all three of them to sit in the same spot for about 2/3 of a second!



The video: