Little Hands and Big Heads

Earlier today, as I'm cleaning up the lunch dishes, Quinn is busying himself by playing with a robot and a racecar. He creates the following dialogue...

Robot (speaking to car): Did that baby just drop you? (Indeed, Keira had just thrown the car onto the floor from her perch in the highchair.)
Car: What's a baby?
[I can't wait to hear this, I think to myself.]
Robot: You know, they have little hands and big heads!

Ah, yes. The world according to a preschooler.

So, for your viewing pleasure this week, some photos of the small-handed/big-headed ones.

He cracks me up.....
....unless I'm trying to take his cars!

Now that he's not looking, I'm sure I can get this Mater....

Those somersaults look easy!

Huh? It wasn't me.

Stop following me! I can climb these stairs by myself!

As you can see Keira is getting along pretty well here. We've been home almost 2 months. At times, it seems like she's been with us forever; but there are plenty of times when we are reminded that this is all new. For all of us, but especially for her. For example, we had a fabulous time at a family birthday party this weekend, and she really enjoyed herself. But big social events like that are usually followed by a couple of nights of no-good sleep and a few days of extra-mommy-clinginess. We haven't yet left her with a non-parent. She's always been with either mommy or daddy. And mostly, it's been mommy. She might get her first taste of being away from both of us this Sunday at church. She hung out with me in the toddler room last Sunday and liked it a lot. New playmates; new toys. So now we will see how she likes it sans momma. I hope we are both ready for it! In the meantime, we will load up on kisses, hugs, snuggles and smiles. There are plenty to go around!

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

We are a day late, but Happy Chinese New Year! It is the year of the pig, if you haven't heard. The pig (boar) is your Chinese zodiac sign if you were born in 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, or 2007. I'm sure you caught the 12 year pattern here. There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. Anyway, check here if you want to see what characteristics are possessed by those born in pig years. It's good stuff, really, and the Chinese consider babies born in pig years to be very lucky. They are expecting a bit of a baby boom this year, and for your viewing pleasure, here's how our babies are doing.

Ahhhh, baby.....

If I have to wear this thing, so does Elmo!

A foot and a half of snow is good for something....like making giant snowballs to throw at my dad!

Toothy smile on Valentine's Day!

What do you want? I'm trying to make out my birthday list here!

Happy New Year everyone. Oink oink!

And a very happy birthday to my monkey mom! We love you!

Where's The Beef?

Where? Right here in central Indiana! Courtesy of a Super Bowl bet with my sister-in-law, we were eating mighty fine last night. It all started over a picture she doctored up, to make our nice little Indy family appear to be Bears fans. You see, my hubby's family is from Chicago. He was born and raised in the suburbs. So, according to SIL's thinking, hubby should be a Bears fan. But, as it turns out, he was never much for the Bears. The Blackhawks he likes; the Cubs he likes; but the Bears, and football in general, were never a big deal to him. Then along comes me - we fall in love, get married, yada, yada, yada, and here we are in the middle of Colts country. So, the first year we move to the Indy-area, I buy some Colts season tickets (which unfortunately we no longer have thanks to our 2 lovely kidlets; but it was fun while it lasted!). He goes because he's a good sport. And the next thing you know, well, he's in a Marvin Harrison jersey on Sundays. I can be persuasive like that. Plus the whole, if-momma-ain't-happy-ain't-nobody-happy thing.
Anyway, after this whole photo, um, incident with my SIL, I say we need a wager. She agrees. And as you all know, to the victor go the spoils. And here, for your viewing pleasure, are all the delicious spoils.

This box arrived at our house 2 days after the win. I'll say, those Bears fans aren't all bad. And SIL sure is prompt on paying up!

Inside, sandwich fixins! Yum, yum. Thanks to subzero temps around here and an uninsulated garage, this box was frozen solid until we were ready to prepare the meal.

Is it ready yet?

Yummmm!!
Gimme more!

A mighty tasty sandwich!

Mine tastes better with my Super Bowl Champions hat on!

Thanks Aunt V and Uncle P! We loved it!

That's One Small Step for a Girl....

...and one giant leap into official toddlerdom! Yup, Keira took her first steps this weekend. She had been taking about 2 at a time in the previous weeks, before diving to me or daddy, but this weekend, she finally took more than 2 at a time! She walked about 5 steps from grandma to mommy on Saturday!
Keira was on her first ever trip to Ohio to visit my side of the family, and it was full of good times. She loved being around her cousins, aunts and uncles. And the grandparents too, of course. And she even got to meet her other great-grandma and a great-aunt and -uncle. She seemed to be very at ease and was laughing and smiling and playing. She's not mobile enough to get in on the big kid fun and games, but she loved watching and will be putting herself into the middle of the action soon. (You know, that Ohio atmosphere must be powerful - Quinn crawled for the first time at my parents house, and he took his first steps a few months after that while I was visiting some college friends...hmmm....of course, I can hear my mom now: see? move back!)
But anyway, Keira isn't totally mobile yet, but she was taking a few more steps around here earlier this morning. She is also doing other totally fabulous things like:
initiating peek-a-boo on her own,
giving me kisses on her own, and
picking up her doll and giving the doll big hugs and pats on the back.
Did I mention she gives me kisses??!
It is so much fun to see her learning new things and feeling more and more comfortable with us and her surroundings. It is hard to imagine sometimes that we just met her about 2 months ago. Of course, it is not always sunshine and roses, as any parents knows, but we keep growing, one day at a time.

Below are some recent pix of the kids.
Here, K is opening a gift from great-grandma, with the help of her big brother, of course. Does anyone other than the first child ever get to open gifts all on their own??? (By the way, she loves these singing Valentine's monkeys. Um, thanks a lot, Aunt L!) :-)

And of course, I'll imagine she put this in her mouth of her own accord (and not that it is Quinn's idea of some peace and quiet!)

The Indiana sun reflecting off all that snow is just too much!!

And here is Miss K by the Little People Garage, aka her own personal step ladder. This girl will try to get a leg up on pretty much anything. If only we had been able to catch her on camera when she was hanging from the edge of the pack-and-play, trying to hoist her leg up on the side, wanting to climb in!

That's it from here for now. We just got a new digital camera, so hopefully even better pix to come soon. And since they are calling for about a foot and a half of snow around here today and tomorrow, there should be lots of time to learn how to use it. I think our next photos will be of us enjoying some yummy Italian beef sandwiches we won from hubby's sister in our Super Bowl Bet. More on that later.

Zai jian!

We're Doing Just Super, Thanks for Asking!

Yes, all is well here in Indianapolis. No one really seems to notice the sub-zero temps. It feels all warm like Miami (but with snow instead of rain). Indy is basking in the glow of the first Colts Super Bowl Championship since the team moved here. (For trivia buffs, the last Colts Super Bowl victory was in Super Bowl V, I think, against Dallas.)

Anyway, the kids have been almost exclusively in blue for the last month or so. Well, OK, K has been in a lot of pink too, but you get the idea. The day before the big game, we attended a surprise b-day party for a friend in southern Indiana. There isn't the sea of blue down there like there has been around here, but nonetheless, we spruced up the place with Miss K looking smashing at the party in her Colts cheerleader outfit and Q wearing the 88. (Keira says the dress is for partying and the jersey for gameday. It is tough having to make such important wardrobe decisions at such a young age!) Anyway, besides the fabulous game, here are some other super happenings here....

Number 1, and most importantly, Keira continues to adjust well and is sleeping better too. Woo-hoo! She was kind enough to hold out until half-time on Sunday, and then she went right on to sleep and we didn't hear another peep from her the rest of the night. She has 4 teeth now (#4 broke through on Sunday) and has a pretty cute snaggle-tooth grin. Her big brother is doing well also, and manages to refrain from tackling her, although you can tell the temptation is there sometimes. They both fight over my lap occasionally, which is the kind of necessary roughness I like!

Today while Q was at preschool, K and I had a little girl-time and went walking. At the mall. Where they happened to be selling all the latest Super Bowl Champions merchandise. Well, how about that. Our lucky day. So, we will be sporting duds similar to what you see here.

Actually, K is going to have to hold out for hand-me-downs from her brother, but I think she will be OK with that.

Well, I think I'll sign off for now. I was going to offer my opinion on the game, but, well, we know that the best team won and there isn't much more to say than that. I won't comment on how the Bears and their fans were so confident that the "Bears football weather" would not be a problem for them. And I won't comment about all we heard about how fabulous their defense was and how the Colts were going to have trouble with their 2 running backs. Somehow, I think everyone got that reversed. Seems like the Colts handled the weather better than the Bears (not fabulous, but not Rex Grossman-ish either...and first "dome team" to win the Super Bowl outside). And I think it was the 2 Colts RBs that more or less ran (and caught) at will. And it was the Colts D that came up big (thank you, Kelvin Hayden and Bob Sanders).

Ooops, sorry. I said I wasn't going to comment. Well, guess I couldn't help myself. Still on that Super Bowl high.

Anyway, it was a fun game to watch, once I got over the opening kick off and Peyton's early throw for an interception. After that, as Stuart Scott on ESPN said, it was a "straight up beat down". (I don't usually quote ESPN, since I don't think they typically show enough respect to the boys in blue, but you know I wouldn't come up with a quote that hip all on my own!)

OK. I'm done talking Super Bowl. For now. I can't promise that there won't be more cute pix of the kids in blue. And I'll save my Why-My-Dad-Is-Like-Tony-Dungy essay for later.

Have a super week, everyone!