We had dinner with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Newman and Great Grandpa Grossi. It was great to see them all. Elena received her first birthday present and opened it...such a serious little face!

Elena loves buttons. The dress is going to be so cute on her.

All the dogs are lined up for an evening snack...Elena lined up too :)

Elena loved playing with the cats. And by the end of the trip, they enjoyed her too.

We walked the trail around Lynx Lake, a beautiful area near Donna and Pat's home. The weather was perfect for walking and it was wonderful to see snow on the mountains.

Stopping to enjoy the view!

Family picture!

And this culminates our trip. We had a wonderful time with Donna and Pat, Grandma and Grandpa Newman, Grandpa Grossi, and Marilyn and Garry. We look forward to seeing Donna and Pat again very soon when all of our parents will be here to celebrate Elena's 1st birthday!

"Where's the baby?"

Elena loves mirrors, and even watching short videos of herself. She can identify "baby" as herself or another baby.

Monkey Elena

Today's update...Elena has become a monkey :) She has been climbing over anything in her way including us. Today while playing with her new tent toy, she tried climbing over the hard plastic fence. Of course she does know how to open and shut the gate door but she teetered for a few minutes grunting and trying to figure out how to get over the gate. I'm sure tomorrow she will be successful.

11 Months

Well today marks Elena's 11 month birthday. And here is her picture taken today to show you how big she is, 24-1/2 pounds. She's growing (physically and developmentally) like a weed. She can pull her self into standing, walk along objects, take steps holding fingers. She has been trying to climb things too. She babbles a lot: dada, daddy, nana and sometimes: mama, yeah, ka (Cooper?) but at the same time seems somewhat conversational. She cries when Daddy leaves for work but hasn't had stranger anxiety yet, she loves the attention people give her--and she does attract a lot of attention. Her favorite room in the house is the guest bathroom--she does a run-like crawl and giggles to it when the door is open. And she still loves music and books (we read a couple times a day) and definitely shows favorites already!

Elena just loved visiting with Pop today!

Elena and Daddy playing with the new toy.

New Toys

We are fortunate to have friends with kids around Elena's age and a little older. Elena's friend Claire outgrew a few toys and is lending them to us for Elena's enjoyment. And she does like them. She loves to explore new toys and get into mischief around the house. Here are a few photos of her playing around the house.

Silliness

Thought I would just throw another video up here. Elena is being silly, and if you have volume you can hear her giggle. I realized a long time ago I am addicted to taking pictures. I think the obsession has expanded to videos.

Finally Crawling

Elena began moving first by rolling, then a swim of sorts across the floor, then army crawl and in the last week, she has really mastered how to crawl. Here is a video from this morning.

Videos from February

For sometime I have been trying to post videos...and I finally figured it out. These videos are from early to mid February (nearly 10 months old). Although I haven't figured out how to rotate the Cheerios video so you'll have to watch with a kinked neck :) If a picture doesn't show up, just click the play button and the video should start. Now that I know how to post videos, I'll have to take a few more to share. Enjoy!

Wave Hi


Excited about Cheerios


Army Crawling

From Hawai'i with Love

Ah, okay, well we're not exactly in Hawai'i but we wish we were.  Days like to today remind us of the islands: sunny, low 80s with a light breeze, and the smell of flowers in bloom.  Elena and Cooper were excited to hang out in the backyard a couple times today.  They were being so cute, I just had to share.

Just another day in Paradise

Today, Elena and I met Galit and Claire down by the Bay for a walk. The girls really like each other, they waved from their respective strollers and played peek-a-boo too. When Claire walked, she wanted to hold Elena's hand. Above, the girls are holding hands and I just couldn't resist taking a photo.

The skies were crystal clear today. It is hard to see, but if you click on the street picture above, you can see the snow in the mountains. This snow is recent and pretty. We are just a couple blocks away from our home.

Well, it was a busy day...Elena took her first bath in the tub. She had a blast and wanted to drain the water out.

Now, all clean, the kids are eagerly waiting for Daddy to come home.

Story Time

Well it has been about a month since I left work and Elena and I are starting to get a routine down which includes trips to the library, parks and walks around the neighborhood.  We are fortunate that our library offers story time on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  For about a half hour the toddlers enjoy listening to stories, singing, and dancing.  The first couple times we went, Elena sat close to me, but today she wanted to interact with the toddlers and dance to the songs (she sang a little too).  She really loves books, we have been reading for 1-2 hours almost every day.  If you set out a few books, Elena will pick out the one she wants you to read. 

Elena and Claire (2 years) trying to share a book.  There was another little girl that came up and wanted to play with Elena too.  It is so cute to see Elena interacting with other kids and adults.

Elena was on cloud nine.  So many books to look at, so many kids to play with and oh, the wonderful chairs to climb on.  She is such a happy baby and big too.  She seems normal to us until we go to the doctor and we are told she is in the 90th percentile (bigger than 90% of her peers).  Being at the library with 1-2 year olds, and you can clearly see how much bigger Elena is than her peers.

And Off to the Park!

After the library story time, my friend Galit and I took the girls, Claire and Elena, to the neighboring park.  It was cool and cloudy but the girls had a nice time.  Here are a few pictures, mainly from the dual slide.  Elena does like to go down the slide (assisted, of course!).  In a couple of months, she will be exploring all the playground equipment--she already wants to but is a little small for most of it yet.

Baby in a Tree

Ah, Elena was just too cute today (or maybe I was just in a picture taking mood) so I just had to snap a couple more pictures--she is sitting on the American Sycamore tree at the park.  It is a multi-trunk tree that provides shade to the play area at the park.

Flowers in Bloom

Seeds I planted a few months ago along our front walk way are finally in bloom.  I love the color, so here are a few pictures of Elena, Carl and the flowers after finishing our afternoon walk with Cooper.  Elena is also in bloom.  She has gone from mellow baby to crazy wild child!  She has mastered standing up and can scale just about anything to stand and now she is constantly on the go.  She swims down the hallway, loves going into the bathroom (door now remains closed) and will even follow me down to our bedroom.  When she stands she tests her balance, she'll let go of one hand and sometimes both.  She has also mastered how to sit down from standing position.  Elena has had a few head bumps but seems to have a hard head and seldom cries.  She still loves to play patty-cake but our new game is to "rub noses," she giggles and loves to rub noses.  We called them Eskimo kisses when I was growing up.

Watch Me Stand!

Here is a picture sequence of Elena standing. She rolls, scoots, or crawls over to the furniture, in this case her dining chair. And then she just proceeds to pull herself up. Once she is up, she is taking steps while hanging on to the furniture. Sometimes she is only hanging on with one hand. She loves to stand, and often stands for at least a half hour now when she is placed in her crib for a nap.

Relaxing Sunday

Today was a nice relaxing day. Carl mowed the lawn, well it was actually a jungle with all the rain last week. Elena and I played, cuddled, napped and played some more. Her feet are starting to get quite big. I know it's hard to tell in the picture but her feet are nearly 5 inches long; they should give her good stability when she starts walking.

Mischief Making

Elena was into mischief making tonight.  Can you see the wheels spinning?  I thought this was too cute, just had to post.