Etta’s Big Day
Happy first birthday, Etta! It’s hard to believe that Etta has been home with us for almost six months now. She has changed so much in such a short amount of time. My little baby has transformed almost entirely into a toddler. She is not walking yet, but she’s climbing on everything. She has been able to climb an entire flight of stairs for about two months now and has started to climb onto the table in the playroom. Practicing for tabletop dancing perhaps?
Etta has four teeth now, just not the four you’d imagine. My little vampire managed to switch up the order of entry of her top teeth, leaving her grin a little funny looking. She’s a teething machine right now, so maybe she’ll even things out in the near future. In the meantime, I’m doing what I can to help out, lending my nose to her periodically, since it’s her favorite teething ring.
Etta has learned a great deal from her brother. She’s a master at playing with all of his toys. She runs cars up and down the floors just like Oscar and knows how to disassemble his train set (obviously, he’s not thrilled with this). The surprising thing about this is that Etta has enchanted her brother to the point that he’s actually willing to let her play with his toys at all. Pretty impressive if you think about it. He’ll even share treats with her. The other day we were having some popcorn and Oscar took a piece of popcorn, broke it up like I do for her (to make sure she only gets the fluffy part and none of the kernel) and put it in her mouth. Unbelievable.
She has quite a vocabulary built up already, saying “choo choo”, “chicken,” “uh oh,” “doggie,” “papa” (grandpa), “up,” and a few other words on a regular basis and some, like “mama,” less frequently. She also signs, waves and blows kisses. My favorite, though, is her beauty queen wave. She’s been working on it for months, and rolled it out the other day on our hay ride. She sat on a hay bale (all alone, literally pushing me away, since she’s become quite independent lately) waving to the crowd (there was none) and beaming the biggest smile ever. It was a sight to behold, believe me.
Maybe the biggest thing she’s learned from her brother, though, is how to pitch a fit. Little Miss Etta is no longer the easiest baby ever. She has learned to throw quite an impressive tantrum, complete with an arched back and the reverse head butt. It had to happen eventually, I guess.
We’re celebrating her birthday all weekend, starting on the day itself (Friday), with a pre-dawn roadtrip for doughnuts and pancakes and cake with Uncle P and Aunt L from Kansas that evening, followed by the Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay on Saturday and who knows what to follow on Sunday. Happy Birthday, Etta!
Pinkabumps
or, for those of you who don’t speak Oscar, pumpkins.
We’re back at home and adjusting to real life again. Vacation was fantastic, but it’s nice to be home. The kids are thrilled being back with all of their toys and, far more importantly, their beloved Nanny Norma. In between doctors’ appointments, decorating for the holidays (seriously, I’ve gone SAHM in this arena and it’s kind of frightening – there have been multiple trips to craft stores involved) and trying to recover from jetlag, we managed to make a trip to Half Moon Bay to visit a pumpkin farm. Both of the kids loved the train and hay rides. I just wish we could have managed a good picture of the two of them together. I guess I should just be happy that I managed to get a picture of the two of them in the same frame and no one got hurt.
TTT – Days 15 – 20
We wrapped up our trip to Thailand doing what we do best – eating, drinking, taking walks, visiting a zoo (seeing the pandas seemed to be Oscar’s second favorite thing on this trip) and swimming. There was some shopping in there, too, mostly for antique bells (from temples and cows from Myanmar), but some things are sacred and should not be photographed.
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Etta’s Hats
Where I’ve Been
