In December, we had the pleasure of seeing Todd & Kath after their long stay in Colorado. Here's Taya getting reacquainted with their dog Marty. As you can see, she's not the slightest bit shy of big dogs!
Here's Todd & Kath's son, Thomas, enjoying Taya's enthusiasm for Marty.
Taya's finger puppets continue to have life for all of us. Taya absorbs everything, and recapitulates in play with her various animals. In this video (click to view), she growls and hides Tiger in her sweater. Now where the heck could she have got such behaviour? ;)
Ljuba and I find tons of ways of entertaining ourselves and Taya, even very goofy ones, in very public places. In this video (click to view), I jump around the stroller playing peek-a-boo as we wait for our luggage (it didn't make our flight to Toronto for the holidays).
Taya cracks us, when she's not intending and when she is. This video (click on the pic) is the latter part of an exchange where she teaches Ljuba to say 'please': just before it the beginning, she refused to give Ljuba some apple when Ljuba asked without the magic word.
Taya has an absolute fascination right now with chairs, and she's also good at entertaining herself. In the airport waiting for the flight with our luggage, Taya spent about 40 minutes climbing in and out of her 'new' car-seat. Here she is at Babica and Dedek's place, proud of getting into her baby-rocker.
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Taya loves getting into cupboards, closets, laundry baskets, tool boxes, drawers, garbage cans, you name it. An interesting challenge at other people's homes! (Here we're at Babica and Dedek's.)
Taya's head keeps growing. Ljuba sized this one without Taya, on her (Lj's) own head! Fits Taya beautifully.
The holidays were wonderful. Much less stressful than last year. Still tough on Ljuba, who's been really tired lately, and with all kinds of physical and physiological changes. But wonderful. I'm afraid I don't have good pics of everyone--apologies to those left out--but here are a few goodies. Here's Chee with our youngest niece, Soo & Tony's daughter Senna.
Here's Ljuba and Taya in Ljuba's new hat. Taya has a real passion for her Mama's clothing, and insisted on wearing this one herself (despite the clashing colours).
Soo & Tony's home offered another canine playmate! (Millau, trying to sleep bottom left.)
Here's co-host Auntie Soo with her new baby, Senna.
And here's Nanna with the same cutie, who was clearly on the baby-carousel.
We loved seeing Amaera and Taya together--they clearly hit it off big time.
Taya loves and misses her Grandpa ("Gwampa") and also her Nanna and so many of her other Toronto family members--she recites many names daily!
We got many wonderful gifts. Here's a blanket that Taya adores, and Taya using it to play peek-a-boo.
Here's another great gift, a Jedi knight cape--I mean, poncho.
Taya enjoyed some time with Uncle Tony, here stealing some time in Senna's exersaucer (she had virtually no interest in her own since the spring!).
We can't help but find Taya's speech cute. Especially so when she talks about us. For months she'd say 'Dada' perpetually like a magician might say 'Tada!', and she'd say 'Mama' like Tiger might. In this video (click to view), after saying 'Baba' (for 'Babica') and her version of 'avocado' (another word she used to growl--and actually it sounded much more like 'avocado' that way), she says 'Dada' in the way that melts my heart.
The same joy in hearing his name doesn't work for everyone … e.g., Chee. In this hilarious video, Taya reveals just how deeply she's got Uncle Chee's goat. After saying it almost perfectly the very first time (a singsong 'Unca Gee'--her first four syllable name that she didn't shorten), she then started calling him 'Unca Choo'--a pretty clear mix of Chee and Soo. In the first clip, you can see Chee trying to instruct. On the second, he can't even bring himself to look at Taya. ;) A few other things to note: you can hear Keegan and other cousins talking about it in the background; you can see Taya revving it up in response to our laughter. She's a ham and we love it!
After the Chan clan Christmas at Soo & Tony's, we went back to the Kovacic's. Here's our little ham ham making a point--emphatically!
After a long four days playing with cousins, uncles and aunts, and grandparents, Taya was exhausted at Kovacic Christmas dinner. But here--amidst the flashing cameras of the paparazzi--she delivers her rendition of "Moo, baa, la-la-la" (by the Sandra Boynton book of the same name).
And here she is inspecting Auntie Elisa's necklace. Unfortunately she missed the chance (days later) to inspect her new engagement ring!
A few days after Christmas, we visited Uncle Tony (Kovacic) and Auntie Elisa at their place. Here's Taya holding Auntie Sandra's piggy light (which, through my most embarrassing misunderstanding, became Taya's).
Taya loved spending time with Babica and Dedek. (I don't have any good ones of Babica, but I hope to get them in February when she comes out for a visit.)
