The Latest

Once again, Della continues to grow and learn faster than we thought was possible. Her personality is really starting to shine through and she is wrapping us tighter and tighter around her fingers. She can count to 10 and is starting to sing snipets of songs. The bad news about her counting, though, is when we count to three to put her in time out, we'll say, one.... two.... and then she'll continue for us (fee, fo, five, sick, sefen, eight, nine, ten). It's hard to remain firm and upset when she is so cute but we try our best. She always wants to know where everyone is at (where Pake at? wanna see Beppe! where Dutchie go?) and she loves to take care of her babies and dollies by feeding them, changing their diapers (with at least 10 wipes), and reading them books. Della continues to love to be outside which is great as the weather has been so nice lately. It truly is hard to believe she is going to be 2 in just a few days. We have talked to her a little bit about her new baby sister on the way (which we still are calling Spud). Each day she wants to say Hello to Spud and give hugs and kisses to Spud (Hug, Spud, Me!) Here are some pictures from some our latest adventures: Daddy's 30th birthday, outside in the little pool, visits from Pake, Beppe and Julia, and a trip to the Monterey Aquarium with Louis' family.

Well, Della has been busy growing up when no one was looking. Her vocabulary grows each day! Her favorite words are milk (nook), sorry (saw-see!), Go to the trees Dutchie! (Tees Dutchie!), Elmo (who she recently discovered and LOVES), outide (ow-side), boots, socks, Mama and Daddy, Dutchie, No Dutchie, Hello Dutchie, Bye Dutchie, food (foof), candy (canny), baby, nigh-nigh, bye bye, Shh Shh - baby sleeping (which is what she tells her babies when she puts the to bed), Nose (nosth), apple, Poppell (PAW PULL), Della, boots, books, uh oh broke, choo-choo, and lots more.
Her favorite activities are putting her babies to sleep by carrying them around the house and saying "shh shh" and wrapping them in a blanket. She will sometimes pull out a bread pan and use it as a cradle for her smaller babies. The dining room table is now a fort and secret hiding spot for Della. She sometimes even invites Mommy, Daddy and even Dutchies to come in. Lately, she has been pretending to be a puppy and will go around the house on all fours and will pant and say "woof woof". Last week, she had her first haircut ever performed by Mommy. We didn't cut much off, just enough to even out the lenght. It now curls under right at her chin. Della loves to be outside and play. She is very adventurous at parks and goes down the big slides and climbs all over the jungle gyms. She loves it when we blow bubbles for her and thinks it is so funny when Dutchie tries to eat them. She likes to roughhouse with Mommy and Daddy. She plays with Dutch but I think he views it more as tormenting. She has to tell Dutchie sorry many times for pulling his ears or stepping on his to get up on the couch. Very sweet when she does it.
Thank is what is going on lately though!

Christmas, New Year's and beyond

Weekend with Auntie Julia

This past weekend, Auntie Julia came to stay with us and hang out with Della. Needless to say, we were busy having fun :) On Thursday night, we hosted our couples small group Thanksgiving dinner and Julia made her infamous pumpkin roll- this time with walnuts and it was her best yet! Friday night we laid low and stayed home and watched a couple movies. It was wonderful. Saturday night we finished her stay off with a murder myster dinner where her character was Snow White, mine was Schehereazade from 1001 Arabian Nights and Derek was Sherlock Holmes. It was a lot of fun and everyone who came had great costumes (my friend's album is on Facebook and I am tagged in it).

Della is learning more and more each day and continues to amaze us at how fast she keeps developing! She responds to instructions and loves to help clean up her toys when we are done playing. This afternoon, we were playing fetch with Dutch and I would throw his toy for him to get which she thinks is great. I told her to throw the toy for Dutch and as she could not throw very far, she walked the toy clear across the lawn to where I was throwing and waited for him to come get it. Now that is a creative solution!

Tomorrow Saxon arrives and will be here on Thanksgiving. Joy and Charles will also come up from Santa Maria on Thursday. I am really looking forward to family coming into town, especially as well have family to share our Thanksgiving with!!

Here are some photos and videos from recent weeks and adventures.

http://youtu.be/xK6WlwaEwnM

Lately

So here is what has been going on lately...
Della is still busy running around, climbing onto things, playing outside, and jabbering all the time. Every day, Della and I go to get the mail which is a little ways down the road and along the way, she picks up "treasures" which are rocks, pinecones etc. She normally grabs at least 3 and will put a lot of effort into carrying them all at once. She will stop a few times along the way to put them down and rearrange them in her arms. It turns into quite the ordeal and she is never very happy when I make her put them back along the way (as they belong to the neighbors). She has been making new animal noises too. She can tell you what a snake says (sssssth), a lion (rawr), an owl (whooo whoo), a cow (Boooo), a kitty cat (whyy whyyy) and a doggy (fwoof fwoof). Her favorite words are Dutchie, Daddy, Mama, No no, and shoe shoe. She has started repeating what we say and tries to make an attempt.

She has started developing a personality and is very quick to laugh. This weekend, we got Della some sidewalk chalk so she has been coloring our patio. She likes to color with her crayons and markers when they make it to the paper rather than her mouth.

Even though every warned us it would fly by, both Derek and I are having a hard time believing how big she is getting and how each day she looks a little taller and learns a little more. It's going FAST!

Tough Mudder

Busy weekends