Friday, December 5, 2008

Thanksgiving with the Vannice Girls

My mom and sister came down over Thanksgiving weekend, giving Scott and I the chance to perfect our brining recipe for the turkey, and make some different dishes too! This was little missy's second Thanksgiving, and wow has she changed since the first one. Walking, talking in sentences, counting, making up games, dancing, singing...she definitely kept us entertained the whole time! Scott and I also caught up some sleep, since mom and Kirsten were angels and got up early with Calista every morning. We think it was a win-win situation! :-)









The next day we took Calista to the playground, where she loves going down slides, walking along the ledge, and hanging from everything! It's easy to see how humans are so similar to the chimpees (as Kiki would say).























On Saturday, we had more fun! My mom and sister showered love and attention on little missy, who was thrilled to pieces. She learned countless new words being around them, and started figuring out pairs of things, saying "two ice cubes" or "two socks." Plus Kiki played horsey (one of Calista's favorite games -- she goes "neigh neigh!" and made up a game with baby turtle (Calista loves this little wooden turtle of Scott's). Kiki definitely made an impression, because tonight on the phone Calista said, "love you Kiki."







On Sunday, my mom had to say goodbye (we miss you Nonni!). Fortunately Kirsten came with us to pick out a Christmas tree together. Although I had my doubts about bringing Calista to a Christmas tree lot, she turned out to be an angel! As soon as we got there, they gave her her very own tree (very small branch connected to a tree trunk base). She carried it around everywhere, and tried to sit among the trees, which tickled the back of her neck. We were laughing so hard! I'm excited to see Calista's reactions to Christmas this year, and am hoping she can learn to say Santa Claus. Watching her see the tree with lights on for the first time brought back the magic of holidays in a big way.






Typical Morning

Breakfast...




Followed by a play-date in the playground across the street! Liz and Alex (5 months) met us one sunny Saturday morning. Calista unfortunately fell down and scraped her knees and couldn't stop talking about knees, boo boos and band-aids for weeks, poor girl.