Sunday, September 25, 2011

Mo' Cousinz, Mo' Zoo

Aunt Kate and Noah were not the only relatives to spend time with Vivi while I was incapacitated!  Aunt Maria, Uncle Paul, Eva, and Charlie swung into town to celebrate Eva's birthday!  Eva turned 5 this year, which totally blows my mind.  I can't believe my beautiful little god-daughter is already 5!  Wowza.  

Of course, the cousin visit involved the requisite zoo visit as well.
And the requisite turtle photo.  Eva, at least, takes a nice photo, as opposed to Vivi O'Shock and Noah the Mad Finger-Nibbler.

Vivi also got to RIDE A HORSE ALL BY HER SELF.
We heard about this a lot.  For the next week or so.  It was a white horse.  She remembered.  She rode all by herself.  And pointed this out quite a bit in her recollections.

She also recovered from her butterfly fears from earlier in the summer.
This may be one of my favorite photos from the entire summer, actually.

And found time for more cousin pictures.
Why is it that a group of children will never look in the same direction at the same time?  Why?  This would have been perfect except for Little Miss Scowl.

...and we were still grumpy on the train.
Thoughts as to why Vivi refuses to take a HAPPY train photo?  Many.  Thanks to my sisters for helping out with home girl?  Many  as well!  And, I promise, that concludes our zoo photos for the year.  Next year?  OMAHA!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Back in Black (and Blue)!

So, I got hit by a truck.

I know it's not really a great excuse for ignoring the blog for a month, but I do feel somewhat justified.  As this blog is all about Vivi's life, and I have, until the past week, been somewhat absent from Vivi's major doings.  

This is the worst part of the whole accident.  I cannot do a lot of the Mom things that I love to do, and Russ is (an awesome) full time house runner/dad.  Vivi, with her natural tenacity, has been amazing about the whole thing.  She was SUPER IMPRESSED that I got to ride in a "Clambulence", and likes to come over to me and tell me that I have "owies on my legs," and "a BIG CAST."  True and true.

She has also been spending some time with the ever-patient Aunt Kate and Noah, who were so kind as to give Russ the occasional break so he could do fun things like mow the lawn (whee!).

She had a lot of fun with them.
As you can see.

I think Noah occasionally had his fill of Vivi.  Here he makes a valiant attempt to escape yet another cousin photo op...

And neither one of them seem thrilled about the cousin-train photo op...

It's okay.  Ice cream after the zoo cures all.
And Vivi's reaction is a little frightening in its intensity.

Then it was off to the park!  Where Vivi displayed inspiration from her recent zoo visit.
Monkey a-go-go!

I have been to this park many times, and know she is totally safe.  However, when Kate showed me these pictures after they came home, my heart still flip-flopped.
Thankfully, she did stop playing monkey long enough to play "America's Next Top Model--Playground Shoot."
Thank you, Aunt Kate and Noah, for all the help you gave us (and still give us!) during my recovery!  We love you very much!