Chopsticks!

Granted, she won't be flipping sushi in a sushi bar anytime soon, but she's awfully cute. We ventured to take her with us to a local Thai restaurant and she was actually very good for us. We were VERY surprised by how well she picked up with the chopsticks. Her skill level is roughly at "can pick up enough not to starve," but she still cheats a bit with the fingers. What do you expect for not quite three years old?

It's our latest delay tactic to keep her occupied and happy while mommy and daddy prepare dinner or just unwind. We scatter some popcorn on the table mat and giver her the chopsticks. We're a little worried it's working too well, and she'll suddenly tire of the routine right when we get dependent on it. It's also a great way to get her to eat more of her dinner if the carrots or meat aren't disappearing fast enough!

She's slowly getting over the Easter treats, and is really enjoying a recent upgrade to her bike - princess bike with Cinderella helmet. She can get bookin' pretty well to the point that mommy can have a hard time keeping up with her (on the downhill).

Not much news other than Jen and Veronica's baby brother keep getting bigger.

Garden Bunny

Veronica "helped" Aunt Melody plant some flowers, green peppers and tomatoes. She was a very happy helper although the evening dissolved into her watering herself more than the plants.



Here she is showing off her sugar-induced boo-boo. She ate some candy then ran into a wall. Takes after her mommy, what can I say? We tried to moderate her candy consumption, but she's such a cute beggar.




Final photo - the Easter Bunny brought her a little purse with a matching necklace and earrings. Here she is modeling them . . . right before she promptly disassembled them. When we went for an afternoon walk - she wanted to go see Evan and Ian. If it wasn't such a long walk (Marietta!) we just might have tried.

Pre-Easter Eggster

Oh, the young humanity. We took Veronica to Herndon High School for an egg hunt. The eggs didn't have a chance. . . it was horrific. There were about a thousand plastic eggs in an enclosure of maybe 1500 square feet. Ringing the enclosure were about a 100 kids and assorted parents and sibs. It was over almost as soon as the ribbon was cut. Toddlers were stooping and scooping, many closely followed (and helped) by parents and older sibs.
While we felt really badly for the eggs, the kids seemed to have fun. We were surprised not to see a lot of pushing and shoving and swiping. We stood back and watched Veronica toddle off with the rest of the runts, hoping she would be able to fend for herself and get at least a couple eggs. As you can see, she did pretty well for herself. Most kids we saw after the grounds were picked clean had maybe half as many as she did.
Toward the end of the morning we were there, the Easter Bunny himself showed up and was mobbed by the kids. Veronica was enthralled for the longest time. She kept petting him and hugging his legs while all the other kids posed for pictures (we couldn't get lined up for a posed shot without elbowing the other parents in the face - figured it wouldn't be the Easterly thing to do).
She also got up close with a sheep in the petting zoo - Daddy couldn't get to her in time as she harassed a poor sheepy trying to pet ears that didn't want to be petted (or pulled?). It was a gentle butting, but it surprised little V. (Daddy thought it was cute.) All is well that ends well, and we are looking forward to Easter Sunday.
We've got the eggs dyed and ready for a more realistic Easter Egg Hunt, where the eggs are at least a little hidden. More pictures to come, but Daddy's just sorry they won't quite live up to Zachary's egg coloring bonanza. One of these years...

Happy Birthday, Hosanna!

We celebrated Hosanna's birthday yesterday by taking the three cousins to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the GMU Patriot Center. We had a bit of concern - Jen has had a persistent fear of clowns and other things sometimes associated with circuses, and Veronica was still a bit wiggy from the Disney Princesses on Ice (drat, that Ursula!). We really have Jen's friend Julie to thank for the excellent seats (and great price!). <>
After some initial 15 minutes of hiding in daddy's and mommy's shoulder, she finally came out of her shell a bit. The elephants and horses helped a great deal. The tigers were icing on the cake. Hosana and Natalia took it all in pretty good stride. By the end of the night, all thee of the girls had a ball. Chad, Jen, and Nathan had a pretty good time, too. We're just sorry it started out so stressful - we told Chad and Mandy to try to get there early to beat traffic (hoping to meet around 5:30), and we were even later than our originally planned time of 6 o'clock! (Subconscious sabotage from a clownophobe.) Then we couldn't find a place to meet for dinner...all the pizza places that were on the online maps must have been hiding down unseen alleys. Ruby Tuesday's did us in a pinch. After the stress of traffic, meeting for dinner, dinner with three toddlers in a mostly grownup restaurant, and parking for the circus, it was a really good night. Good times were had by all.
Happy birthday again, Hosanna! Happy Easter!

April Fools

We visited with Mandy last weekend on April 1st. I proved how very bad I am by telling my mom that we were sending Veronica to live with them in Oklahoma while Jennifer and I would be splitting up between Mandy and Jen's friend for the next several months. I may be the death of my parents yet, or at least my mom. Dad napped through the whole thing, including Mandy's beautiful set up call an hour or so before I sprung the trap myself. I thought there would be no way Mom wouldn't make the connection between dire news and April 1st. Oh well, I am a bad son. Someone had to teach me, though. ;) At least I didn't let it linger - I fessed up on the same call after I gave her some time to think about how she could Veronica-proof the house in Oklahma. Mandy seemed to get a kick out of it. He he.
Anyway, this was a beautiful shot of Veronica and Natalia, both being perfect princesses while Veronica played with all of Natalia's stuff. I think they are both getting better about the "mine!" thing, but we still wound up coming home with a humongous red monkey that Veronica didn't really need. Not much news otherwise. The circus is in town, so hopefully the cousins will get together again next week to see the big top.

I Walk the Line

I can still recall the day we tramped into our local Waffle House in Georgia to have...waffles. Jennifer gave Veronica some quarters and let her play with the juke box. "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash was one of the first songs Veronica picked out, and from that moment forward I have thought it was an appropriate theme song for her. She certainly can walk that line, and look very good doing it. Long ago, we came to the conclusion that we don't care what others say or think, we think she's pretty darn tootin' and a great kid to boot (if you aren't familiar with strange American lingo, it's just an expression: she's got a lot of spunk and is also a wonderful kid). We could be spoiling her, we could be giving her mixed signals, but we understand that's all part of the parenting package.
We are looking forward to many years of spoiling her, and we'll spoil the next one too. But we have very high hopes for Veronica and her sib-to-be, and have every reason to look forward to raising a couple of well-adjusted kids who can't help but walk the line between precocious and precious, good and bad - living and loving are learning experiences. Boy do we have a lot to learn, but we're really happy that we have a lot to love. Sorry it's been a while for updates - been a bit hectic and tired lately.