Still sick

T is being a good sport with her cold. She still has the runny nose and no fever, but other than a few moments when she is overwhelmed by her mucus production, she thinks she is fine. There was a small matter of a 4 hour nap which does give a bit of hint that something is up. I picked her up some child strength cold medicine which she was finally willing to try with the use of a syringe (good thinking Sheila!) I'm hoping that sometime soon I'll have some better news to report.

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR

Tovina and Daddy spent some quality time reading a great book together. The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR. (Thanks Karen)

Tovina was impressed with the faces that Daddy could make...

...and had to try them for herself

Clearly it was great fun.


Here you can see them reading together


And here is T describing the Big Honky Bear... ur... I'm pretty sure she means Big Hungry Bear.

Slow going

Tovina is fighting off a cold right now. It turns out I am too. Luckily no fever, but little T has a SEVERELY runny nose and a most unhappy cough. I was going to take her anyway until it was pointed out that I probably wouldn't want other kids playing with T if they sounded like that.
I'm guessing not a lot will get done today.

Zaida

Quick shot of Tovina saying goodbye to Zaida last week. (We think she might like him.)

Happy Birthday... again

We decided to have a little celebration for T in Ohio now that we are home. It was simple and easy with just the local kids that she sees the most. Unfortunately cousin Emma had picked up a cold of some kind from her first few days of school and couldn't join us. But we did have Brendan, Emalyn, and Caleb.
Here are the kids all drawing between lunch and cake.

Sarah managed to be the only adult caught in a picture today.

T enjoyed her presents but this hat, hand knit by Aunt Cindy, was clearly a favorite. Parents were not allowed to handle the hat in any way - Tovina felt very strongly that she must put it on herself and leave it there all after noon!

The cake was also a winner. After eyeing it all morning (Me birthday cake!) Tovina managed to eat 2 pieces.

You can also hear us singing Happy Birthday to Tovina... or you would be able to except that she jumped in and sang it before we had a chance. There is a longer version on YouTube where you can actually hear the rest of us join in.

I'm sleeping

This week Tovina decided to turn into a teenager.
Wha?
Well, when we went to get her out of her crib, instead of being all excited and ready to come out and play and eat, she grabbed her pacifiers, laid back down and said, 'I'm sleepy!'

What happened?


Luckily she now seems back to normal and is her previous rambunctious self with way more energy than her parents can muster in the morning - just the way it should be.

Enjoying the boardwalk

We had the chance to spend some time at Winnipeg beach (not to be confused with the warm Florida beeches that some of our friends might be thinking of.) After a relaxing dinner we went outside to have a bit of a walk. That was when Tovina met Grace!


After greeting Grace a few (hundred) times, we noticed that a band had started playing across the street and were covering some pretty catchy tunes. So we all joined in. You can see Tovina really getting down with Barb, Zaida, and Baba.


We've got all kinds of video from the event in short bits below. There are also longer versions of most of these broken into parts 1 2 3 4


Hi Grace


Jumping with Grace


Bye Grace


Dancing with Barb


Dancing with Baba and Zaida

Playing instruments

One of the joys of big cousins is that they tend to have cool toys, or in this case, instruments. Tovina explored the joys of piano and drum playing while in Winnipeg. She was really quite good as long as you are not so concerned about things like tone, rhythm, or consistency.

Clearly she needs to have an instrument of her own at home, though we are leaning more towards the keyboard than a drum set.

To give you that I'm-really-there sort of feeling, here is a video of her playing

and more

and for more you can go here and here

Bye bye for now

Once again we have made it back home to Ohio. We had a really lovely time in Winnipeg - lots of time with family, met cousins we had not seen before, and Tovina started really getting to know some of the people she will be visiting for the rest of her life.

There are LOTS more photos to come, but for now, here is Tovina with:
Jayden - only 6 months old

Hannah and one of the polar bear sculptures at the zoo

Giving a goodbye hug to Matthew

Sharing some love with Mika (who is a wonderful dance partner according to T)

Straws, check!

Last September, while in Winnipeg, we took Tovina to a restaurant and Mari taught her to use a straw. It turned out to be a learning experience for both of them.

Yesterday, we returned to the scene of the original crime and had a whole new straw experience. I was a little shocked but here you can clearly see the 2 culprits deliberately not understanding what the problem might be.

Can you guess what the issue is?

Tovina is happy. Zaida is happy. Why isn't Mommy thrilled?


'Cause that is soda that Zaida just gave to Tovina and she will clearly no longer be fooled by my, 'You won't like Mommy's drink.'
He claimed that he thought Mari had given Tovina soda last year though it is clearly water in the picture. Mmmm hmmmm.
Ah well, I knew it wouldn't last forever.

Happy Birthday!

T's birthday was today and we actually had the chance to celebrate it with lots of family! (Actually, we celebrated a day early, but we'll pretend it's today.)

Here is Tovina enjoying enough icing to satisfy Aunt Mari's need for a baby smeared icing face. uh..
change that to a icing smeared baby face.
Yes, much better.

And here are general pictures of Tovina enjoying her evening. There are lots of other pictures with her and cousins but those will be for another evening when I can get organized enough to label pictures.

In the meantime... Here is T enjoying some blocks. You may also notice some really adorable pigtails.

Yes she is growing hair!

And here she is playing a drinking game that involves spilling much of the drink down her front. She loved it!

All in all, I think T was happy with her day. Lots of running around. Lots of food. Lots of family. Lots of love.