Hat Love

Liora still likes to choose her hat before leaving the house every day. Even still, she wants them off her head as soon as she is inside or in the car. But the other day, she spent about a half hour trying on all of them for fun, and walking around the house, pushing her stuffed animals in her grocery cart (which you can see in the background of one of the photos). Thanks to Great-Grandma Fay for the two handknit creations that allow our opinionated little lady to have so many hats to choose from in the first place!

In more hat fun, here she is on New Year's day with her hat she made at school just for the occasion!

This video isn't necessarily a hat video, but you get the idea that Liora thinks it's funny having things on her head.

Grateful edition

Liora is lucky to have so many friends and family who give her the coolest, sweetest, most thoughtful presents. And the best way to show her (and our) gratitude is to show you how they have a special place in her heart.

At my office holiday gift swap, this extra-large stuffed animal kitty was the hit. And I was determined to get it for Liora. I didn't win it on my own--Donna won it and then said she wanted Liora to have it. Yay for Donna!  We call it "fat kitty" and Liora tries to pick her up and carry her around the house, even though Liora is half the cat's size. She loves to say good morning and push her around a bit. This was her first night with fat kitty:



I think in one of our last posts, I mentioned the awesome kitchen Liora recived from Auntie Laura and family. Liora has such a great time, emptying the cabinets and making loud crashing noises. We know it was hard for Calvin to part with it, but believe me, she cherishes it. Thank you!

This video is pretty long, so it's probably only going to be viewed by grandparents who could stare at their granddaughter doing nothing for hours. Have at it!



Aunt Elena got Liora the *cutest* skirt ever...every girl needs a tutu:

And, Aunt Nurit, Uncle Roy, and cousin Tori gave Liora their kiddy table. Liora loves having furniture that is just her size. And, it just so happens that this gift coincided with Liora's newfound ability to color! Perfect.

I am told all the time that Liora dresses better than I do. That is thanks in no small part to the fashionista in the family, Grandma Meme! She keeps Liora dressed in some awesome duds, like this cardigan that gets compliments from random people all the time:

And lastly, one of Liora's favorite Christmas gifts was the new xylophone from DeeDee. We have a budding musician on our hands, we're sure of it. This is Christmas morning when Liora was a bit more unsure of herself than she is now with the mallet. She plays it at least once a day, and is very excited to make a noise. She'll beat on a note, than say "yay"!

Family Portraits

In November, we did a family portrait sitting with our friend and photographer Jason Putsche (with Elizabeth in tow).

The photos turned out so wonderfully, and we included some on our holiday card. Here are some more photos from the shoot:

Liora did pretty well during the shoot, only putting up a fuss at the end. And the photos turned out great! Thanks to Jason and Elizabeth for a great time, and wonderful talent.

Catching Up...yet again!

Well here we are in another year! Happy New Year everyone. December flew by so quickly, and now I feel like this winter will soon be over...right?

For Christmas, Adam and I decided our gift to each other would be a new camera. Right at that moment, our old camera's batteries died, and we refused to purchase replacements. We also refused to open our camera gift until Christmas. Add to that the 10 past days that both Liora and I have been under the weather, and that leaves us with about a month of undocumented Liora.

But never fear, at least we still had our flip video at the ready!

Here's Liora demonstrating her walking skills early in the month. She loves to play with Zooks and his favorite toy.



Other things to report on Liora's growing personality...

• Her words (in order of appearance): Mama, Dada, Kitty Cat, Dog-Dog, Gi-Gi (for her giraffe lovey). Some new ones: Bye-Bye, Night-Night, Nina, Aneta (her former caregiver at daycare), "get dressed," shoes (sounds like shhh), christmas tree, ok, all done, and the ever present "no" (which is more of a head shake than a word, but she does get the "n" out). I think there are more; I'll add to the list as I remember them.
• Her favorite things to do: walk, walk, walk around the house. Empty things (whether it bandaids from their box, peanuts from a shipping box, or kitchen utensils from her new kitchen--Thank you Auntie Laura and family!) We are glad she can empty her own kitchen cabinets instead of ours, though she still enjoys the tupperware drawer. Climb the stairs. Read books--she is very good at opening books and pretending to read them herself.
• She's just like mommy and daddy: Liora is starting to mimic us and get involved in things around the house. She likes to pick up the phone, put it next to her ear, and say "hhaa" (ooh, another new word: Hi). She helps daddy sweep. She cleaned up a spill with paper towels. She likes to help clean up her room before bathtime by putting her books away (although that often turns into more play, but at least she's trying to get involved).
• Liora has opinions: After doing things my way for a while--and meeting resistance--I finally realized that if I asked her if it was ok, and sometimes provided her with choices, things would go a lot smoother. For instance, when I show her a diaper and say "It's time to change your diaper. Can I put you on the changing table?" She'll be ok with the fact that we are transitioning to diaper time, and the diaper change will go swimmingly. If I don't do that, she will toss and turn and make it very, very difficult! So now, Liora helps pick out her outfit every day, the hat she will wear to school, and her shoes. She helps put the shoes on, and also tries to put on her own shirt (though that doesn't go so well).

The beginning of this video is Liora demonstrating her love for peek-a-boo, and then playing with a cool door board from Aunt Randi and showing how she loves to share. I need to catch on video the times she tries to share with the cats, but haven't done that quite yet.



I'll post some Christmas videos soon! And hopefully by then we'll be up and running with the new camera. Again, happy 2011...and I hope to be more on top of the blogging once again this year (a resolution of sorts).

Some Parties! Including Thanksgiving

To make sure I don't sit on a bunch of photos for the next month, the following rounds out our November, which seemed to be all about parties, parties, parties!



Liora and her friend Ava enjoy some goldfish...she is now hooked on these. Thanks Ava :)

Liora (the owl) and her other PACE (my mom's group) baby friends. From left to right: Ava the poodle, Livi the lady bug, Robbie the clown, Ivan the penguin, and Cora the octopus.

A post birthday family photo, with Liora's favorite toy from the party, her #1 balloon.

At Andrew's Bar Mitzvah. Liora was the life of the party.

At Thanksgiving, with favorite older cousin Zachary. She would reach out for hugs from him!

Looking out the back door with cousins Devi and Caleb.

"What are you doing with my cup?!?"

Oh, so this is why Liora now has dents in her mattress! Kidding, kidding. The cousins had a great time bouncing around in the crib.

Cousins!

Siblings!

Enjoying dinner (notice, all adults without babies are enjoying dinner. Those with babies were probably running around somewhere).

Liora and I spent last Saturday at the botanical gardens and their annual train display. None of the photos turned out well, since I was there alone with. In this one, a reindeer bush lords over my baby threateningly (too bad none of the photos with her and the supreme court building made out of plants turned out).

And that brings us up to now! I'll post a few videos soon of her walking and playing with Mr. Zooks. xoxo

Happy Birthday Little One - Edition 2

So, I guess with all of the holiday planning (first Thanksgiving, now Christmas), I am VERY behind. Apologies.

Here are some photos and videos from Liora's first birthday celebration! She actually took her first steps at her birthday party (the broccoli helped with balance, I think?). She knows how to mark an occasion.

This is as icy as she got. Not too messy for her first cake.

She loved her mini-Stackhouse from Auntie Elizabeth and Uncle (and photographer extraordinaire) Jason.

And, since her birthday is so close to Halloween, she had to dress up! Thanks to Grandma Fay and her awesome hat, the owl was a big hit:

I think she was a little overwhelmed at being the center of attention at this moment (which is unusual for her).

What's better than a birth day? One that lasts longer than that, and into the next week. Packages arrived for Liora after her big day, much to her surprise and enjoyment.

The first was another panda to add to her collection, all the way from Israel! Thank you Hadasa and Araon; she loves to squish it, and it is in a place of honor in her room.

And, an awesome musical table from DeeDee! She loves it. She knew just what to do with the mallets.

I'll leave you with a video from the morning of her birthday...it's a cute one:

Happy Birthday Little One - Edition 1

It seems I am doomed to be two weeks behind on the blogging!

Two weeks ago, our little lady turned the big 1! It is true what they say, she grew up too fast. I can't believe we made it through this first year--it has been a constant joy, even when it's been rough. Liora brings light into every life she enters and every room she crawls into (still not walking on her own yet, but SO close).

So, to celebrate, this blog is a look back at this wonderful year, more for mommy than anyone else I think.

When Liora surprised us by coming 5 weeks early, mommy and daddy had just moved into our new house 2 weeks before. She came into the world a preemie, but this girl was "feisty"--even her delivery doctor thought so. And the doctors in the NICU constantly told me that they were worried least about the little girl who knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it at such a young age. We were smitten. And in for it.

I can't get over how little she was!

So that was her first month! The feisty-ness continues...she is demanding, but sweet; she's got lots of energy, and is oh so smart. She is full of personality; very expressive. She isn't afraid to try new things, but stays close to mommy while doing so. And, she's a beauty, inside and out. Here are some of my favorite photos from the rest of this first year (at least one per month) of my little one's life!

These last two photos are from the weekend she turned one. What an amazing year. Phew, we did it together (mommy, daddy, baby and village who we couldn't have done this without). Thanks everyone. And boy, do we love our life with Liora!