Snap, snap.

Sometimes, hanging out with Vivi is like hanging out in a small hipster cafe.

Tonight, while reading:
Me: "...and that's the little lamb. The lamb is white."
Vivi: "You said it, sister."
Me: ???

Little Swimmers

Last month, our friend Silbaugh rolled in to town to come to a wedding with me and Russ.  He was a saint, helping me about (and driving me all the way to Des Moines as I was not able).  He also brought Vivi something very exciting...a mermaid.

Vivi loves her mermaid.  A lot.  I love how she says that word, a weird combination of cow and person that comes out sounding like "moo-made."

Ariel really enjoys swimming.  Vivi seems to enjoy helping her.

The best to place to swim is, clearly, under the table.  Mermaids love to swim on brick floors, and loathe carpet in any form.

Amazingly, they also like to nap there.  You know.  When you're tired of swimming.

Thank you, Jason and Rowan! 

The Great Outdoors...

We're totally taking advantage of the nice weather.  I'm getting to the point where I can hobble around outside, following Russ and Vivi as they explore the world.

Currently, Vivi is obsessed with crickets.  She is constantly trying to get Russ to "scare some up" (her words) so she can touch them.  Unfortunately, crickets are rarely scared up from shallow cracks in the ground.

According to Vivi, if you just be "reeeellly quiet," and sit "reeeeellly still," the crickets might just come out.

Unfortunately, this did not pan out.  Wily, wily crickets.  This has, however, led to A LOT of conversations about bugs.  Vivi will tell you right away that it is okay to touch crickets (even if it does make Mommy want to alternately vomit and run away screaming), but WE DON'T TOUCH SPIDERS.  Because they might be grumpy.  Or related to the enormous barn spider who has made its home right at face level on the garage door.  BAH!

She is also, for some reason, convinced that crickets might be hiding in the hose.  Because they get thirsty.

When no crickets came rushing out of the hose, she gave up and watered the garden...

...with invisible water.  Dear winter: please skip us this year.

Fun With the I-Pad

Sometimes, I am hard-pressed to say who likes the I-pad more, Russ or Vivi. Sure the pad does have an ESPN app, but it also has a Curious George app, and many, many books for small people.

I think Noah likes it too.

Turns out there is an app that will distort your photos on the I-Pad. Noah and Vivi LOVE it. And while I find these a little disturbing in a circus-freak kinda way, they could have done this for hours.

Here, we feature Russ as "The Eye of Sauron"...

I find this one strangely disturbing/compelling...

Hurray for technology!

There's a Vivi Jo in Trouble...

Vivi and Noah have invented a game.  What was interesting was that they never talked about it, never discussed the rules, and they never talked about how they would go about playing the game.  However, it was absolutely darling.

We now play "Help" quite a bit.  If I could only get the Beatles to soundtrack my life...

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!

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!