Sunday, August 26, 2012

Chop, chop!

We had a big moment last month...Vivi's first professional hair cut.  I had chopped a tiny bit once when she was 20 months old (and it looked like she had a little tail-shudder), but she hasn't had a chop since.  However, her hair was getting to the point of a fright wig when she woke up in the mornings, so we decided something must be done.

Luckily for us, my hair dresser, the lovely Regina Palmer, is also one of my good friends.  Vivi knows her very well, so I was not as worried about her freaking out about a weird situation with a stranger.

Vivi seemed less reassured.
(requisite child mohawk shot)

However, she eventually calmed down and seemed to be enjoying the experience.
So big sitting in the salon chair!

And comfortable enough to ham it up for the camera.
She was trying to be really good and hold still like Regina asked, but she kept making weird faces, as she knew we were taking her picture.

And when we tried to get a "nice picture" of the finished product?
We got some classic Vivi (and note the turtle in her hand--who DOESN'T take their turtle to their hair appointments with them these days?).

And here she is, consenting to take a nice picture to commemorate the occasion!
Thank you, Regina!  It looks amazing!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Darth Ottos

Vivi got something awesome for her birthday.

She finds your lack of cupcakes disturbing.
This will never stop being funny to me.

She also likes to make us wear it.
I feel like he needs a cup of coffee.  And a long black cape, of course.

Darth Mommy is scarier.
She will chase you.  Get your face.

The force is strong with this family.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

BOOM!

So.  Like I said last time.  The 4th of July happened.  It was nice.  Magical, even.  And this year, Vivi was allowed to stay up until the fireworks were over!  We started off the night quite tamely, with smoke bombs (my favorite) and snappers.  Despite my awesome "gorillas in the mist" reprisal with the smoke bombs, Vivi wasn't that into them.  She was, however, VERY into stomping on snappers.
What?  You don't class it up for the 4th of July in YOUR derby hat?  

Todd and Michelle are two of Vivi's most favorite people, and since Michelle arrived wearing a hat, Vivi wanted one as well.  She then proceeded to attach herself to them like a very charming barnacle.
I'm not sure what she was "helping" Michelle with here, but she kept saying, "Yep!  That's fair!"

She then moved on to helping Russ with the parachutes, which thrilled her and Noah to no end, and gave me heart failures as she has NO FEAR OF THINGS THAT EXPLODE.

As it got dark, she took some time out to chat with her godfather on the porch swing...
Probably discussing how the election will affect her daycare buddies and their families.

But, once it got dark, it was awesome to watch her amazement.  For being slightly ghetto-fabulous, our neighborhood puts on one heck of a 4th of July show, and this year was no exception.
Vivi was pretty impressed, let me tell you.

She was also thrilled to be awake when it was "really, really nighttime out!"

We ended our evening with what is bound to never, ever become a tradition in our house.  Vivi loves Rapunzel, and we love the floating lantern scene.  It's really cool, and we saw many floating lanterns cruising through the sky last year, looking all serene and beautiful.  The 4th is right before Vivi's birthday, and we were very adamant about setting lanterns loose for her, ala Rapunzel.  Aren't we nice parents?

Michelle, in her lawerly wisdom, warned us against them as dangerous.  We may or may not have teased her. A lot.  Hadn't she seen Tangled?  The scene where thousands of lanterns go to join the king and queen's lantern?  It was beautiful.  Serene.  We were doing it.  She was a worrier.

Yeah.  What they DON'T show in Tangled is the swarms of panicked peasants UNDER the lanterns, shouting and praying to God and the Baby Jesus that the lanterns do not set fire to their thatched huts and barns.  Also, they are bloody hard to light, and take forever to get ready.  Aunt Kate and Russ struggled with this one for quite some time before we deemed it "ready to go."
It was not, in fact, ready to go.  It teetered along maniacally while we all danced around the lawn yelling things like "GO HIGHER!"  "CRAP!" and "FLOAT, DAMN YOU, FLOAT!"  before it finally bobbled its way above the trees (and the roofline) and floated off.  Once up, it did look really cool, and we (foolishly) decided that it had been a user error and we should try another one.

Here is the floating lantern of death, seconds after its release, threatening to set fire to our wooden retaining wall because instead of going up, it went down.
Yes, that's real fire.  A lot of it.  Which is why we didn't pick it up.  Which is why it eventually filled with air and floated off before we could grab it, and almost lit my neighbor Andy's roof on fire (missed by 6 inches, max), while we all hollered in panic and Michelle murmured "You're welcome," sagely in the background.  At which point we decided we were done with the lanterns.  Forever.

Sorry, Vivi Jo.  We will find a better, less flammable birthday tradition.  Rapunzel does not prevent forest fires.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Sunday Afternoons...

I have so much to blog.  No, seriously.

For instance, did you know that the 4th of July happened?  For real!  Almost a month and a half ago!  The pictures are darling.  Or, did you know that Grandma and Grandpa Otto visited last weekend?  Great pictures there, too.  Would you like to see them?  Well TOO BAD, BLOG WORLD.  Because what happened in our driveway on a random Sunday afternoon was too cute not to share immediately.

It started innocently enough.  Russ very kindly decided to wash our cars.  All was going swimmingly until we heard, "Hey, Astrid....!" and turned around to see this...
To those of you not in the know, I spend a lot of time pretending to be Astrid, a fictiional viking from "How to Train Your Dragon."  Vivi's alter-ego is Hiccup, and Russ is Toothless.  And Hiccup was in to some mischeif, let me tell you what.

And she went all out.
 
When Astrid-the voice of reason-mentioned to Hiccup that she was making quite a mess, Vivi replied, "That's okay.  That's what vikings do."
Apparently.

Then Toothless/Russ decided to get into the act and grabbed a much bigger bucket, the kind usually found in the corners at frat partys, holding giant kegs (yes, we have one in our garage-leave it alone).
It was big enough that they both fit into it.

Not to be outdone, Vivi decided that Russ needed a wash, too.

And that they both looked more like Vikings with bubble beards.
Not untrue.

Sometimes, randomness provides my favorite results.
So while I may have been a semi-negligent blogger this summer, rest assured that I have been enjoying the time in the sun with theworld's cutest (and messiest) viking.