Road trip

We are getting ready to head to Saint Louis for Splash of Color. Given what usually happens when we travel, there will likely be a break in blogging. But with any luck we will get some great footage of Tovina joining in the singing with her own special harmonization.

Improving vocabulary

Tovina has reached that awe-inspiring stage where she seems to learn 20 new words a day. (Yup, Mommy needs to start being more careful about what she says!) Yesterday Tovina was impressing us with the 2-syllable word "apple".
Here she and Daddy have decided on a book to read that shows off her identification/speech capabilities.
You can also see a short example below.

If you'd like to see more and longer versions, then check out our YouTube site

The danger with cribs

At home Tovina sleeps in a pack-n-play with soft mesh sides. At my parent's house she sleeps in a real, honest-to-goodness wooden crib. (Actually, she sleeps in my honest-to-goodness 30+ year old crib. We believe in very serious recycling in my house.) But I have noticed something sort of uncomfortable looking about how T sleeps in the afore mentioned crib. Can you pick out what I mean?

No?

Well, let me give you a close up.


Did you catch it that time?

It doesn't seem to bother her...

And the big red mark in the middle of her forehead did fade within a day so no harm done.

More boots and walking

And now some actual boots (albeit purple) for that walk T wanted to take.
These are more shots from State College.
In the first one, Tovina just had Tasha help her get the boots on and then stand up. Tovina is actually quite happy though it is a little hard to tell in the picture.

In this second shot, Tovina convinced Tasha to put the boots on (since they belong to Tasha, this made sense to the rest of us.) Meanwhile Tovina put on Sam's shoes to see if those might do her better.

Guest appearance

One of the fun things about a blog is that it tends to reach beyond where I initially expected it to reach. For example, I have heard Tovina referred to as "my favorite baby that I have never met."
In honor of her far flung fans, today we are featuring Roz who has now in fact met this famous baby and even managed to entertain her for over 2 hours!!! There was much running and ball rolling and playing of a piano. Here you can see T very seriously examining a card whose cover showed a baby playing a piano.
And here you can see her emulating the baby on the card.
We are trying to get a keyboard set up for her at home. Even though it does not produce music yet, T likes to press the keys... a lot!

These shoes are made for walking

Though they are really meant for someone a little bigger to do the walking, in this case, Aunt Sheila's.

You will notice that she is actually quite smooth in her gate, well, at least as smooth as she is without the shoes.

This is just one in a long and ongoing series of shoe experiments. No footwear is safe!

Ice Cream for Breakfast 2

We wanted to continue spreading the joy, so we celebrated part 2 of this lovely holiday this past weekend in State College. Here you see my mom, Mary, Sam, Tasha, Karen, Niki, Molly, and Roz. We were too slow to also capture Phylis, another Karen, and Rick. You are also not seeing Tovina who was consuming mass quantities to the side. But no worries, if you look at the video, you can see her in action, asking for "more".

Yo!

Tovina seems to be becoming fonder of hats. She especially likes hats that are a little large as you may recall. The other day she discovered some baseball caps. You can see the result.

(sorry for the short post. need to go pack and get ready to drive.)

Heading to PA

Tovina and I planning to drive over to PA this weekend. This wasn't meant to be a surprise but it was sort of last minute and I seemed to have forgotten to tell people.
So I'm telling you now.

Just wanted to make sure that Baba and Zaida and all the assorted PA folks are getting the recommended monthly Tovina allowance.

Happy International Ice Cream for Breakfast Day

Saturday was International for Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. Unfortunately we were unable to celebrate on that exact day, but this is a pretty forgiving holiday so we celebrated it today! We actually had a pretty tame time of it and only offered 2 flavors of ice cream and 8 or so toppings. We did learn that cinnamon is quite good on vanilla (we will be trying this again) and garam masala is okay but has a slightly odd after taste if you add too much. We will be going back to curry powder and ice cream which was a delicious combination we picked up last year.

We were able to round up all the local Sullivans for todays extravaganza which definitely created a festive mood! Thank you folks for being willing to come over so early and share your morning!

ps. For those of you in State College who may feel left out, Tovina and I plan to help you celebrate this coming Saturday so don't worry!