Steps

With Nina now toddling around all over the place, it's hard to believe it was just a month ago that she was practicing her first steps. Here's a video of some of those early steps, taken by Gramps...

Thanksgiving in the City of Roses

It seems like a long time ago now, but we had a great Thanksgiving in Portland with the Savages and Flosis. As usual, it was really fun to get the cousins together. Sammy and her cousin Becca are just five months apart in age, and were inseparable throughout the weekend. Jake, who is now 5 and in kindergarten, took extra special care of his cousin Nina, making sure she always had a buddy when the big girls were off doing their own thing. Meanwhile, we as parents and grandparents actually had a few minutes to catch up!

Here are some pictures from our fun weekend...

the whole gang!

Nina and Jake

the girls try their hand at Nani and Papa's piano...

Nina snuggles with her new quilt from Nani
Game is on between two of the biggest competitors in the family...

Happy Birthday Nina!

Nina is 1 year old!



We love this stage with Nina, as every day it seems she is trying something new, or impressing us with a new feat. Just in time for her first birthday, Nina ventured into the world of the walking, and she's now able to string together 5 or 6 steps before gravity takes over. She is thrilled with this new achievement, often stopping to laugh, clap, or wave as she tries to maintain her balance.

Nina loves to climb things, and has already made us think that a certain additional level of babyproofing may be required this time around. She's also become quite the chatterbox, talking words or even what seems like sentences in her own language. Words so far include "Dada," "Mama," "Buh-bye," and something that sounds like "Tank you" (if you really listen for it!).

It's hard for us to believe that it's been a whole year since we were preparing for a big Thanksgiving feast with a 5-day-old...Happy Birthday Nina!

SNOW!!

We've been through enough winters by now to know that all it takes are a few inches of snow to completely shut the City of Seattle down. Our perspective on the chaos is a little better this year, however, with a 3-year-old girl who is extremely eager to get out there and make the most of it!


With Sammy home from school today, she and I bundled up and joined our neighbors for some sledding and snow angel action outside, and even a trip to the snowy playground down the street. Then, it was off to carefully walk down the slippery hill (past multiple abandoned Metro buses -- quite the sight!) to meet Daddy for lunch at the sushi place in his office building. Temperatures are around 25 degrees, but the sun is shining and it's a beautiful scene here. Now we just hope it melts in time for our Thanksgiving trip to Portland!!

Here are a few pictures from our adventures today.

Fall Recap

It's a snow day here (pictures to come!), and I'm catching up on a few great pictures from the fall...seems like a long time ago already that we were picking pumpkins with the Cho-Thompson family, riding bikes on Alki with the Sousleys, and trooping down in the rain with the girls to the Husky game!

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween! We had a very fun Halloween night with Jake, Aurelie and Julien McKinstry joining us for the Capitol Hill festivities.

These are our pumpkins (l. to r.: Karen, Sam, Paul, Nina). Note: Sammy specified that she wanted a "mad" pumpkin this year.

These are our trick-or-treaters -- Nina as Lion, Sammy as Bumblebee (round 2 -- she decided not to wear this year's costume, a monkey), and Julien McKinstry as none other than Chewbacca.

And here they are, having a rousing time wandering the streets of Capitol Hill! Both Sammy and Julien were pretty excited to trick-or-treat this year, and Nina loved being along for the ride, until she decided to call it a night...

Happy Birthday Samantha!

Sammy is 3 years old!

We had a great time celebrating Sammy's big day along with Grandma, Gramps, Nani, Papa, and Aunt Abby. This was the first time that Sammy really seemed to anticipate her birthday, and she loved running around telling us that she was now THREE! Of course, she is now already talking about what she'll be able to do when she's four...

We're so proud of our big girl. Happy Birthday Sammy!

11 Months!

Nina is eleven months old!


It's hard to believe our baby girl is almost one! Nina continues to keep us on the move with her active crawling, and climbing, these past few weeks. Also, Nina is finally starting to reciprocate some of the exuberant attention bestowed upon her by Samantha, providing us with little glimpses of how great it will be when the girls can really play together. The other day, as Sammy moved from place to place around the room, Nina crawled her way over to Sammy each time, smiling and laughing. Needless to say, Sam was thrilled by the attention, and affection, from her baby sister!


Here's Nina, chasing ballons at our family bday party for Sam, hanging out with Sammy in their matching pj's, and on the swings with Grandma and Sammy.

We forgot to mention...

...that Sammy is a big preschooler now!

Here she is on her first day -- she loves the new class!

10 Months

Nina is ten months old!

Actually, closer to 10.5, or maybe closer to 11? Anyways, it's hardly surprising this took so long, as Nina is busy busy busy these days. She loves to scoot around the house, and is pulling herself up on anything that appears relatively stable -- chair legs, laundry bins, bathtubs, mom's legs, etc. When she's not looking for us to serve as her human jungle gym, it's amazing how self-sufficient she is with this newfound freedom!

Nina's hair is slowly getting longer, though it's hard to tell as it continues to develop into little spiral curls on top of her head. She's a champion eater these days as well -- sometimes competing with her sister in terms of quantity (Sammy can usually push into the lead once she hears this, however). Nina continues to be a mellow, happy girl, much to our delight!

Here are a few pictures of Nina doing one of her favorite things these days -- the swings. Fortunately (we think?) she has a big sister to give her "underdogs"!

And here's Nina decked out with Paul before one of the first Husky football games. Nina stayed home with a babysitter, but she was spirited nonetheless.