oh man! and super strong

I finally got around to uploading some videos to our computer. These two are just silly things Liora has been doing: saying the Swiper's line from Dora: "Oh Man!" and making a "super strong" face as daddy calls it  (I have no clue how this one started, but it is their thing).

You'll hear her say "cheese" as each video starts recording. I think she doesn't realize the difference between the video camera and the other camera just yet.

new baby

Yes, we have an announcement! We have a new baby, and his name is Boo.

Did you think I was talking about something else? :)

Our new kitten is the picture of cute, and is keeping us on our toes. Liora loves him, and so do we. Lexy is much more lenient with him because he's a kitten. He fits right in.

Liora likes to play with him and give him hugs.

Look at that cute face.

And here he is, taking a bath with Liora, which he doesn almost every night.

halloween

This will really get you in the holiday spirit! As usual, we're about a month behind in posting, so we're up to Halloween. Here is Liora, in her owl costume before we left the house for trick or treating.

She LOVED carrying around her pumpkin and saying trick or treat at each house.

We walked down our street for about a block, so she could experience the evening, but not get overwhelmed. Liora counted her candy when she got home, and has enjoyed handing it out to us. But she didn't eat that much candy afterwards, except for her occasional "kitty kat" as she calls the kit-kat.

Daddy's fang-a-licious pumpkin.

birthday

Liora turned 2! October 30 found mommy remembering how our lives changed forever two years ago when Liora came into our lives. I was a little tearful. But Liora has grown into a wonderful, beautiful little girl! We are doting parents, but we're sure anyone can see that she is bright, creative, caring, and so cool. She makes us laugh every day, and we love hearing from her. It's amazing how quickly they grow into a kid you can talk to and learn from. We are so proud of her.

So where is Liora now? She is eagerly potty training (yay). She is singing her ABC's (often with Twinkle, Twinkle thrown in there for good measure). She is athletic--she has great balance, can hang and swing on monkey bars, and walk on a balance beam. She loves to help mommy cook. She is sitting at the table with us now almost exclusively, though sometimes she still opts for the high chair. She still likes to pick out her own outfits and her own food.

New phrases include: "my tummy hurts me" (taken from when mommy was suffering from morning sickness); "Mommy, what you doing over there?"; "Hold hands so I don't fall down"; and "Today is a mommy day! Liora no go to school!" (when she doesn't want to go to school). She is sleeping in a big girl bed! We took off the front of the crib , so now she has a little bed she can climb in and out of (which she only has done once in the middle of the night since installation).

Anyway, this year for her birthday we had friends and family over to celebrate. MeMe and Amity flew in from LA and DeeDee drove down from Philadelphia. We had a great time!

Hugging daddy on the steps.

Having fun with her friends.

Hugs from DeeDee.

And from Daddy.

Family shot with MeMe.

Blowing out the candles.

Eating her cake.

 

Showing us her cake mouth?

grandpa visit

Some photos from Grandpa's visit last month. Liora loved looking at his beard and getting lots of special attention. We also enjoyed a nice dinner with him and Saba, though we neglected to capture it on film. Liora didn't necessarily want to go to bed that night, since he read her books and gave her some good hugs.

fall farm fun

I guess it's becoming a yearly tradition--our visit to Butler's Orchards for their fall festival. It is really quite the crazy zoo, but Liora loved it.

On the requisite hayride. Daddy survived, allergies and all. The ride took us to a pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin, but it looked overly crowded, so we opted to stay on the ride back to the farm.

She wore her cowgirl shirt just for this--her pony ride!

Adam spotted her, but she did a pretty good job holding on all by herself.

Pony rides require a lot of concentration!

Success!

Of course we had to visit the chickens. (and wear her new pumpkin barrette from Auntie Elizabeth)

And feed the goats again.

And dance to the music while we ate lunch on that lawn.

We also enjoyed some hay mazes, the "tractor" tricycle raceway, and climbing on some of the farm machinery. We finished up our visit with a trip to their store, where we bought some frozen pies (as Stacy says, why buy the apples when there are already made pies?) and pumpkins that had already been picked from the patch. Liora was exhausted at the end of it all, but she had a great time.



naked

Liora has been going through her toddler naked phase. If she somehow can get out of her clothes, and we aren't prepared to chase her, she runs away saying, "naked! naked! naked!"

Of course, now that it is getting colder, we try harder to get her dressed. These photos are from the summer. 

Eating breakfast.

Trying out her new storage containers.

Whoops! This looks worse than it was. She actually kept trying to fall over in these boxes.

more artistry and projects

Liora is getting to the age where we try to provide projects and other things to break up our weekend days. Of course, she still loves to play, play, play, but when we're feeling particularly brave, we'll break out the finger paints or bake something together.

She loves helping in the kitchen. When mommy tries to mix she says, "Liora's turn!" and takes the whisk away from me.

At school, she loves doing art. So, mommy has decided we should start some more construction paper projects at home. Stay tuned!

new pals

We had a visitor last month! Sophie came by with her mommy--they were some of our first visitors after the move back into the house. We miss seeing Stacy and family at daycare, so it was so nice to catch up. Liora loved having a special visitor.

I think I've written about our sad loss of Zooks, the wonder cat. He was truly an amazing cat, and a great friend to Liora. When we lost him, we grieved for ourselves, but we also grieved for Liora. We were sad that she had lost a furry companion who let her hug him and do basically whatever else she wanted to him. Up until that point, Lexy had a laissez-faire attitude to Liora. She accepted her, but didn't care to be friends too much. Liora didn't push it because she had Zooks.

After we lost Zooks, Lexy stepped in. I guess she realized she had some big paws to fill and decided that Liora was worth some effort. Now she lets Liora bother her, and hangs around her for pets. Below, you can see that she is also hanging around Liora (at times) for the food handouts.

This cheesy pirates booty is yummy for kids AND cats!

Can I have some?

An early morning hug. Thanks Lexy for filling the void.

sculpture

Sometimes, Liora gets really into arranging things in a certain way. When I look at it later, it looks like some beautiful artwork. Below are two photos from what I am calling her "block period."

Modern art!

The proud artiste. (Mommy disclaimer: she picked out this outfit)

Along the same theme, after we moved back into the house, Daddy opted to use the then-empty guest room and make a box castle for Liora. He was really into it. At first Liora was confused, but she soon got excited about going through the tunnel.

Daddy thought it would be a cool idea to encourage Liora to color the boxes. That soon turned into coloring herself, something she has never done before!

"My canvas is anywhere."

goodbye dinner with ava

Mommy's friend Robyn and her family moved to New Jersey! We were so sad to say goodbye to Robyn and Ava, who is a couple of weeks older than Liora. We got together as much as we could before they left. Here is one of those goodbye dinners with the girls sharing a chair.

And having a good-bye cupcake too! She loves that icing.

first haircut

Soon after returning from the beach, mommy was adamant--it was time for Liora to get a haircut. Because it had grown out at all different lengths, we wanted to even it out a bit.

So, we headed to Kidville, where they have a special beauty boutique for youngsters, featuring a choice of fire engine or airplane for chairs, Elmo on a tv in front of the chair, toys to play with, and the promise of a "first haircut certificate," lock of hair, and a lollipop. We wanted this haircut to be tear-free.

Liora liked the firetruck seat.

Here is the stylist assessing her hair. Liora was a bit unsure at first, but she never got upset.

Yes, they used these clips on her!

Keeping busy.

Checking herself out in the mirror.

And to finish, a braid.

She was rewarded with a lollipop!

All in all, a hassle-free and pleasant experience.