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!