Our Climber

So, after a lot of thought about how it could be money wasted, we decided to invest in the giant foam climbing blocks I saw advertised in a magazine. Ivy wants to climb ALL the time, so the purchase was made. Her blocks arrived on Monday and she has had SO much fun with these blocks! She slides, she climbs, she tries to walk up them, she moves them around, she uses them to climb into the chairs, she uses them as a chair.... Woo-hoo for climbing blocks!

Needless to say, there are moments when the blocks are forgotten and everyday objects must be scaled...just because they can be. Below is a little photo-strip of Ivy's latest work entitled "How to Climb onto an End Table."

She does take the occasional break to go through the kitchen cabinets. Here she is modeling the latest in kitchen head-wear couture...


Ah, the beauty of seeing the world in a different light!

Snow and Snook!

Well, this week can be summed up by these two words. On Wednesday, Ivy got her first taste of snow... quite literally. She dressed in her snoopy snowsuit and ventured out with her Papa to build the invisible snowman! He had a form, but sad to say, no face ever materialized. We'll be better prepared next time!

This weekend, she learned to climb up onto the coffee table. It's funny, because we never sit her on the coffee table, nor do we encourage her to climb, but somehow, she put the pieces together and did both! And as if that wasn't enough, she then let her little daredevil side show through...

Since Snook was up there, she did a little dancing with him. I'm posting this video of Alex and Ivy dancing to Snook's song because I think it absolutely precious. I realize that to the rest of the world (and to Alex, himself) it may look foolish... but he never checks the blog, so he won't know it's here!

Wishing you joy through this week...and perhaps a little snow with Snook!

So many new things...

We find ourselves in one of those places again where Ivy is doing so many new things, it's amazing. She responds to "Give me 5!" "Where's Papa's nose?" "Open your mouth" "Come with me" "Hello" and "Good-bye" in Spanish. In English, she won't give you 5, but she will touch Momma's nose. She's funny! Here she is finding Pooh's nose with her own.

She's saying a few new words each week. This week's new words are "bd" for bird, "bear", "hola", and "woof" when she sees or hears a dog. The other morning I was dropping her off at Aunt Shirley's and there was a dog barking in the distance. I was saying bye-bye, which she usually says as well, but this particular morning she waved and said "woof, woof".

Whatever you're doing, wherever you are, that's usually where she wants to be...unless she's tearing something down. Here she wanted to sweep the floor with her Papa, so he gave her a broom of her own!


Today she had been playing with her train and came into the living room. She and I started playing and she forgot about the train until about 15 minutes later when she saw a piece of the set that she'd brought with her laying on the ground. She picked it up and went back down the hallway to play with her train again. I'm in awe of how quickly little ones begin to make connections. Now if she could just figure out that colanders doing go on your head!

This was a dinner where we both learned something. I learned to make turkey burgers (and I did a good job!) and she learned to hold a sandwich! We're working on the spoon thing, still. She is excellent at getting her spoon in the bowl, and from the bowl to her mouth. The problem is that either all the food falls off of the spoon, or she takes the food off of the spoon with her other hand! Oh, well! We'll get there!

She is also a little happier in her car seat these days. I can't understand why, but moving her seat from the middle to the side seems to have made a difference for her. I thought she would like seeing out, but apparently she prefers a side view through the window!

Papa's Helper

After a short week or normalcy (if there is such a thing in a short week) Ivy and Mommy returned to their respective schools, and Papa to work after several days of being the night owls they naturally are. (Yes, Ivy was getting in bed at 7:00 or 7:30! It was a wild time!)

Then the weekend rolled around, and Papa decided to start laying a new kitchen floor. Ivy was, of course, very interested and wanted to be of help in any way possible...




Her papa rewarded her hard work with a Snook sloth that sings and dances when he hears the beat of a bongo drum.


Ivy has been a little climber from the moment she got her balance. She wants to climb from her high chair to the table, from the changing table to the dresser top, on her mommy's shoe shelf, up the stairs, into the cabinet drawers, she'll climb anywhere! I've been thinking about getting her some climbing blocks, but they're so expensive, I thought we'd have a trial run first with the furniture cushions. And of course, she climbed right up them!


Hope this new week has you feeling on top of the world!

Happy New Year!

The holiday season was a joyful and busy one for us, right up to the new year. Ivy hung out in a rocker at Cracker Barrel, where I got to meet up with two of my "roomies", sorority sisters, and friends.


Ivy and I had a great time lunching together almost every day for 11 days! We decided to convert the high chair into a booster seat about a week ago. Here she is grubbin' on a grilled portobello mushroom, edamame, and fresh pears! I'm sure her pallet won't stay so diverse, but for now we're doing good!



With such a little tot who turns in for bed so early, celebrating the New Year wasn't really an option, so she hung out with her friend Ben and celebrated New Year's on Paris time (6:00pm). Eventhough they were missing their friends Owen and Noah, who are sick, they engaged in a little parallel play, but Ivy's parallel play seemed to intersect with Ben!










Even at such a young age, things got a little crazy! Oh Lord, let this be the only New Year's party where she finds herself naked in a bath tub with a boy she's not married to! It's never to early for prayer! :)



Here's Ivy calling up her grandparents to wish them Happy New Year this morning.


We are wishing you all a prosperous New Year of love and happiness!


Love,
The Alfaros (in hats)