Almost two

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the long hiatus. This is just a quick post to put up some new photos of Lenna and let you know what she is up to. She has just recently started to "pretend" of her own initiative. She and I were on our way back from Ada and Da's (Grandma and Grandpa Kuff) house on the plane, and she pulled out the barf bag from the seat pocket in front of us, opened it up, and started serving me "nummie nums." She also pretends to feed and diaper "Herbie," Tia Elena's cabbage patch doll from 1985 that she attached to while we were in Chicago. She is talking a little more, though still gets a little frustrated when she can't get her point across. She'll get there.

Pigtails flying...

... Ada and Da on the swings, too.


Bye for now, Ilsa

Greetings to everyone. Summer is in full swing now. Lenna loves going to the beach; we got her a life jacket so she can bob around in the ocean. Slopping around, watering the plants on the back deck is her favorite thing to do after school. Her vocabulary is increasing quickly, with a pretty equitable ratio between Spanish and English. I was away doing field work last month and Abuela Matilde came to help out. She and Lenna had so much fun together! Total Spanish immersion for two weeks! Thank you, Abuelita for coming while I was away... xxx ooo.

Favorite toys these days are a stuffed animal octopus named "Pulpa" (the feminine of pulpo, which is "octopus" in Spanish), and "Mago" the magician (again, the Spanish word is his name) that cousin Krys Rau gave her for Christmas last year. She has one favorite book that we must read at least 10 times per day, "Spot goes to school." She's quite the climber, turn your head for one second and she's standing on the dinning room table or scaling the kitchen cabinets! She's also showing an interest in Iuri's soccer cleats:

Well, ciao for now. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

The Princess of Entropy

Lenna our Lenna, here she is very proud of spilling her Cheerios. Every meal is an opportunity for finger painting and splatter art. Her favorite word right now is "fish." She carries the fish and bird identification books with her all over the place. She communicates her wants and non-wants very well, but not quite verbally yet. She says "yah" and nods when she agrees, and says "no" and shakes her head, and points and gestures. The only food she asks for by name is, you guessed it, "fish" (the cheesy goldfish crackers). Otherwise, she stands in a certain place and gestures, like if she's hanging from the fridge, she wants juice, from the cabinets by the dish rack, water, etc. She's getting pretty good at drinking from a cup, and is a regular pro with the fork and spoon. I had a wonderful Mother's day! Papi made me a delicious frittata, and Lenna made me a card with flowers on it at school.

We've been going to Ft. DeSoto on Friday evenings lately, to watch the sunset and have a picnic dinner. Lenna loves roaming around in the dunes, and always wants to be in the ocean. She's taking swimming lessons at USF, so I think she's getting comfortable in the water.
In our herb garden...

Almost 18 months

I hope everyone is enjoying the springtime up North. We've had a fun few months, but it has been a challange to keep everyone healthy through flu season! What is Lenna up to? She continues to enjoy drawing and any kind of craft activity. She also loves to be outside, picking wild flowers and giving them to everyone around her. We see the beginnings of imaginary play (the morning we had tea with Oso and Manatee). Her teachers at school are great and they having her in their class. Soon she will move up to the 18 to 24 month-old room where she'll be back with her friend Valentina. Here are two photos, the first is Lenna sleeping on Papi's sholder at an Easter brunch, and in the second she is playing on the beach when Gramma Kate and Grampa Kuff were here visiting in March. We had a great two weeks with them! Gramma Kate was amazing, taking such good care of Lenna during another bout of the flu while we were in Orlando for a week. Thanks Gramma Kate xxx ooo eee.

Winter time

Where did January go? I'm not sure. Everything is going well, Lenna is growing and learning. She says several words these days, including Mami, uh-oh, Papi (that one was Iuri's birthday present), baby, agua (first spanish word), up, ducky, no... I'm sure there a few I'm forgeting. She is very active, loves to climb everything, and pushes her step stool all over the house so she can investigate and pull stuff off of the countertops, tables, shelves, etc. She loves to draw and paint. There she is at her new art table in the photo above. Below she's playing in the snow in Door Co. after Christmas.