Notes to Self

Vera learned to drink from a twisty straw tonight by imitating her Daddy!  On top of that, she was drinking chocolate milk with her Chick-fil-A chicken strips kids meal.  Sooooo cute, those apple cheeks and ruby lips all puckered up!  Eatin' like a pro :)  We're not sure she's aware that her caloric needs will decrease in this next year.  We'll see if her weight starts flying off the charts and then step in if necessary HAHA.


Other cool "tricks" she knows now:

• "yeh-yeh-yeh" - calling Her YeYe (Grandpa), especially when she's in trouble...like when Mama's trying to hold her to take a nap.  This is a relief bec/ Mike and I were concerned that she has only been fixated on four different words "Ma-ma" "Da-da" (and the variant Da-Dee) "Nein-nein" and "Pa-pa" this past month...and that's only one or two vowels.  She had more vowels than that when she started vocalizing at three months.  But just this past week, her babbling's become much more varied :)  Yes, the travails we paranoid parents endure!
  

• Clap-clap-clap...pray (clasp hands together) - taught to her by her Gpa&Gma!

• When at the piano, press one key at a time rather than banging on a bunch

• How to open the yellow door on her knob toy!  It's a toy that lets the baby manipulate five different types of switches (side-to-side, up and down, teeter-totter, button and turnkey).  A different animal pops up with each switch.  She used to only be able to manipulate the button, but now she can do the teeter-totter one (I'm sure there's a better name for it). 
 

• Her upper teeth are FINALLY coming in.  Her lower teeth erupted right after her Gma Lily and Great Gma Diana left at the beginning of August.  And all four lower front teeth came in at the same time.  We thought the upper two would soon follow, but we waited months and nothing!  It seems like she's been working hard on them, though, because all four front teeth are appearing at the same time.  Haha!  Always making an entrance!

Missing Music

Vera's first birthday party is on Saturday.  My husband and I, as usual, selected an esoteric theme for it: music.  What can be done?  We're conceptual people.  After all kinds of (positive) madness this past month, I finally cleared time to buckle down and get to planning the event this week.  Thankfully, Evite is so user-friendly that at least the invites got sent out ahead of time!

This morning, Vera's grandparents were gracious enough to babysit her for the day while I tried to make the bulk of my purchases for the party.  Local grandparents - what a blessing!  I carefully combed through the Teacher Supply store by our house (that place is such an educational wonderland - I can't wait until V gets a little older...I know, you're thinking "poor Vera!").  Anyway, I was able to locate some educational music posters and music note cut-outs in the remote corners of the store.  The selection at the next stop, Party City, proved even more meager-mostly inappropriate 50's, 70's, 80's, Idol music themed adult party equipment.

When I finally got to Michael's, I was hopeful.  "It's Christmas season," I thought, "There are bound to be angels with trumpets and harps and all kinds of representations of heavenly music from the Christmas story."  What I found were styrofoam holly with plastic leaves, lots of bears dressed up in scarves and hats, smiley snowmen, and candy galore.  Not a single trumpet, harp or bell in sight, and this was a big Michael's in the city of Irvine!

I could write about how music education and appreciation has degenerated into Top 10 Lists and American Idol, but I won't.  What saddened me far more was the loss of Christmas.  I wondered as I wandered (get it? HAHA), what sense of awe children in today's relativistic, humanistic society, could possibly glean from celebrating Christmas.  Dressed up bears and men in red suits, with lots of candy in the mix, amounts to nothing but the American Halloween - a novel opportunity to dress ourselves up and indulge in some escapist behavior.  But Christmas!  Christmas is about the wonder of a star shining SO brightly that it impressed shepherds who regularly navigated by the stars.   It is a night when the heavens opened up and music poured forth in joyful heavenly chorus.  It is about a flurry of angelic messengers, appearing left and right in the years and months leading up to that night.  It is about the ancient wisdom and divine revelation that somehow led three sages from the Far East to a small town in the Middle East, seeking a King laid in a barn.  Ultimately, it is about a love so strong, that the Lover could no longer bear to be apart from His Beloved.  Instead, He willed to humble Himself and suffer this earthly existence in order to take away her burden of ages past.  Christmas is no escape.  It is no bandage temporarily applied to our weary lives.  It offers life itself to those who will look upon it's mystery and beauty.  By comparison, how paltry and lifeless was the scene at Michael's today!  Why do we trade the privilege of looking upon heaven itself for street scenes and plaster snowflakes?  I don't know, but I'd better ask myself what plaster snowflakes I'm clutching while missing the real deal.

I'm off to bed.  Have I completed my 10 Things I'm Thankful for Today list yet?  (For those following the Depression/Anxiety strain of this blog, this is another very powerful tool)  Let's see, I'm thankful for 1) Music 2) Local Grandparents 3) Evite, Blogspot and other handy Internet tools 4) Our local Teacher Supply Store (hoping it stays in business for a long time!) 5) Herald Angels singing 6) Shepherds who Heard on High 7) Christ Away in a  manger 8) [They] Three Kings of Orient 9) What came Upon a Midnight Clear 10) and finally, the beauty I get to witness every day in the people and earth around me.

Don't worry about Vera's party.  It's going to be a blast.  I managed to cull together lots of supplies, and we're going to have a Wish Book Station; a Make-Vera-a-Future-Bday-Card station (so she has a card made on her first bday every year until she's 18); a Photo Station; a Musical Play Area and lots of great food, and even more fun activities and games.  My family and I are really excited for Saturday!

 

New Milestones

These little apple seek is growing so fast!  Today, Vera started "giving" things to us.  When we prompt her with "Vera, can you give Papa the block?"  She smiles and offers it.  Then we call clap and laugh!  She loves it.  I have a feeling I'm going to be offered all kinds of random objects in the days to come :)
V seems more confident in her communication skills.  She's been mimicking a lot of gestures, from clap-clap-clap-"pray" (intertwine fingers) to "up up" (pointing toward the ceiling) when she wants to be liberated from some place.  We're waiting for her to start saying new syllables beyond da-da, ma-ma, nein-nein, pa-pa, da-dy.  I love how when she's frustrated sometimes, she lets out a big GAAAAH!  hahahaha.  It seems like she had more vowels in her between 3-6 months, but that was probably not conscious on her part.  At 3 months, we could have sworn that she imitated the sounds for "I LOVE you" several times.  No matter; we're just so excited about communicating with her in greater depths!  


I'm so busy these days, I need to write a blog about the blogs I want to write!

I'd like to blog about our family's experience filming the Operation Christmas Child video and meeting Franklin Graham.

I'd like to blog about developments in our marriage.  

I wanted to start writing some reflections and meditations on Scripture readings.


I'd like to blog about all the cool new online resources I've been using - including the free MP3 downloads available from Amazon!  


But first, need to get through V's 1st Bday, Christmas shopping and moving house...all of which I'll probably want to blog about.  Gaaaah!  Blog backlog!