Taya and Tivona have continued to grow closer as Tiva has got more interactive and Taya has got more comfortable with her big sister role.
You can see in these pictures how Tivona's hair is starting to come in darker. As that happened, we discovered that she actually has the same double-whorl at the back, just like Taya (only with far sparser hair, of course), as well as another right in front (like me, Kai). Bizarre. But another data point supporting the Chinese belief that the double-hair-whorl signifies a strong will! ;)
Tiva's best Christmas present was the combination of turning four months old and therefore being allowed to jump in the Jolly Jumper. I love this pursed-lip look that Tiva does. It's funny that she's doing it here, dancing in the Jumper, because Lj has long made fun of my moving lips when I dance!
We missed family and friends tremendously, but our quiet Vancouver Christmas had some perks. One of them was being able to go hiking in the woods on Boxing Day. We had a blast, even though we had some rough spots. Here's me snapping Taya out of a spot of grumpiness by playing out scenes from Jeremy Tankard's great book Grumpy Bird.
Unlike Grumpy Bird, Taya's almost never grumpy in the woods
Speaking of funny voices, Taya has a remarkable ability to distinguish the difference of accents. She reports such things as, "Rosalyn says 'gorillia'; Dada says 'gorilla'," and "Babica says 'busy little mouth'; Dada says 'busy little mouse'." Nanna is the most frequent culprit, though: for example, "Nanna says 'dinnah' [for dinner] and 'deepah' [for deeper]."
She'll make fun of you for any kind of slip, actually. Like one day late in December, she recalled that many weeks ago, "Nanna said 'Do you want almond milk on your bread?' I said, 'No, I want almond butter on my sandwich!'"
As she's got older, Tiva is more and more vocal. Here she is squawking with Mama.
Tiva squawking with Mama
Christmas really was quiet, and it was nice to be able to space out the festivities. Christmas Eve we had a video chat with Kai's family at the Chan Carusone's place, and we opened the wonderful care package from them. Christmas day we had a video chat with Ljuba's family at the Kovacic's place, and the girls got most of their gifts from us (and each other). Boxing Day Taya still hadn't noticed her stocking, so we showed it to her and let her dig into it. We relished her unsuppressed delight at receiving a few small animal figurines, a package of roasted seaweed, a few tiny (dark) chocolate almonds with sunflower seeds and raisins, some sleigh bells, etc. Parents of older children: please don't tell us, "Enjoy it while it lasts!" In this video, Taya remarks on her bounty.
"I have so many things in my stocking!"
Taya's conversations are priceless, but the trouble is that the gems are really hard to anticipate. She'll say something hilarious, and then I'll go get the camera and try to get her to say it again. But the only thing that's funny about it the second time is how hard I try to replicate the lost moment.
So … scattered throughout blog posts now are these little nuggets of conversation, sans image. She amazes us with her ability to tell stories, even from months ago. Like this one, from early summer (?) 2010: "A boy got tangled up in the stroller. His Nanna and Grandpa tried to get him out. He said, 'Help, help, help!'"
It didn't take Tiva long to get into jumping big time. This fierce drooling look says it all.
And here she is, jumping, smiling, and spinning.
Tiva dancing in the Jumper
No matter how docile she is in our arms, or lying down, she perks up immediately when we put her in the Jumper. Her little legs start going a mile a minute as soon as her body is touching the harness, which makes it tricky to get her in, of course.
I just love Tivona's two-step--one foot and then the other--and the gorgeous smile she flashes when we happen to come into view (in this video she hadn't fully learned to control her orientation).
Tiva dances barefoot
Lj and I joked about how little we did for the holiday season. A little belated (better late than never), Taya and I baked some gingerbread cookies.
Physical play is still a wonderful way to connect with Taya. "Girl soup", "girl cookie", "Dada lion" are all variations of me pretending to eat Taya. This is "Dada rocking chair".
We love the way Tivona's little feet move. Ljuba had the idea of this video, focussed only on Tiva's little dancing feet.
Tiva's beautiful dancing feet
Here we are, all posing with our little jumper.
Kai's parental leave began in January. Yay!!! What a privilege it is, to have this time with Tivona--and also Taya and Ljuba. I feel especially lucky when I think of my colleagues in the U.S.A., where most women don't even get the 12 weeks that I am getting as a father. One of the beauties of the leave is that it has allowed me time to do all kinds of things that otherwise slip by. Like measuring Taya, who by the way keeps growing like a weed. She's on track to be 5'10" (178 cm), or so. The little monkeys (of her wall chart) are impressed!
Taya and Dada have fun together. Taya gets a little silly at times. But where she get it, this amazing capacity for silliness?
Where does Taya's silliness come from???
What kind of food makes you get so loopy? Taya and Dada give some insights.
What food makes you go loopy?
Another Taya nugget might shed more light on said loopy-ness: (after requesting each of these in turn) "We could buy some frisee and dill and radicchio!" How many 27-month olds know so many different kinds of salad greens? And how many want to eat them?
After Ljuba told Taya she looked like a bandit, she sported this glower for the camera.
Mama and Tiva have fun, too! It's usually a quieter, less silly kind of fun (but you'll see later that's changing!).
About that Mama, though, Taya (after being told that we used to call her 'spunky monkey') said the following: "Do girl spunky monkeys have mama spunky monkeys? Yes. They do." (Borrowing from Eric Carle.)
In January, Tivona started showing an interest in toys. Before that, we couldn't interest her in them at all--she just wanted to interact with people. Here she is with caterpillar, her Christmas gift from Taya.
Taya, our little performer, can turn it on at any time.
Tiva, too--look at her batting her eyelashes here. They're both going to be heartbreakers!
Here's me with the two girls.
And here's Ljuba, in a rather different pose. Note Taya's imitation of Mama's hunch.
Tivona even knows how to pose. See her sporting a new baby fashion here.
Tiva's new love of the Jolly Jumper did have some side-effects. Here she is, sitting with the family at dinner after a jumping session. She did not sleep well that evening, alas, which subsequently gave rise to the "no jumping in the evening" rule.
Introducing the Jolly Jumper had side effects
Tivona also recently got the use of her ExerSaucer. Somehow, the baby who seems content to lie still 90+% of the time when on her back or front, awaiting a passing smile, is a fountain of energy propped or suspended upright. So while we're far less mobile (due to the lack of floor space), Tiva is now moving!
Tiva enjoys her ExerSaucer
Ah, for simple pleasures, though. Here I warm my heart by winning Tivona's smiles, just by blowing softly on her face.
Tiva likes being blown on
As I said earlier, Taya and Tiva have been growing closer together. It's so nice to see!
And here are a couple more pics of our fuzzy little cuddle bug, with Mama and alone.
You might have noticed in some of the earlier videos that I had a little soul patch for a few weeks. That was thanks to Taya, who was infatuated by them after Chee and Ed's soul patches/beards. Taya was very excited when I said I could probably grow one too, so I did. The first day I shaved my stubble and left a noticeable patch, Taya sang, "Today is soul patch day; today is soul patch day-eee!" And here she is with her own (collard-green) soul patch.
