Adventures of The Vermeulen Family: February 2012

I can't believe she is already 7 months old! Vivi is such a happy baby. We call her our "little sunshine" because she is always smiling and making the house happier with her sweet face! One of my favorite things that she does is raise her arms and wave when we greet her. She smiles and throws her arms up like she is thinking, "You're here!" And she will sometimes wave when we wave to her. I love her greeting me with a big smile and waving arms. She is so incredibly lovable. I can't get enough of her smiles, snuggles, and kisses.

She loves trying new foods so far, but isn't always a fan once she actually tastes it. But she will grab something right out of your hand if she sees you enjoying it! She has had banana, avocado, carrots, brown rice, butternut squash, scrambled eggs, Cheerios, and apples. She has also started drinking water out of a sippy cup, which she really enjoys. Marley always did, also.

A few days ago, we went to the library and she was squatting on the floor smiling and talking to this little boy that was walking around. Then yesterday, she was doing the same thing with another little boy at Chick-fil-a. I had this moment where I thought, "This girl is going to be a flirt! She's going to be our daughter that drives the boys crazy!" I really picture Marley as being the more reserved, mature daughter, and Vivi will be the boy-crazy, fun-loving one. Asa and I better be ready!

She is so much better than Marley at playing by herself. Marley still needs to be constantly entertained and begs for people to play with her every second. But I can put Vivi on the floor and she will occupy herself for a while, which is fantastic! She explores and chews on toys and figures things out for herself. I'm assuming that's a normal second-child trait!

She is so strong and mobile! She has always been pretty strong, but she went very quickly from sitting up on her own to full crawling. For about a month, she has been scooting around and "army crawling," but as of a few days ago she is up on her knees crawling for real. She goes where she wants to! She can also move around on her hands and feet. Two days ago, she pulled up on the couch at Donna's house all by herself (I missed it though). But when I sit down on the ground with her, she just crawls up my body until she is standing up next to me holding on with her hands! She amazes me.

I am reminded so much every day how much she loves me. When I hold her in my lap, she just wallows all over me. If I'm holding her and someone is talking to her, she buries her face in my chest. She loves to kiss me, bite me, gnaw on my hands, crawl on me, pull up on me. She just loves to be touching me! And I love it. If someone else is holding her and she wants to go back to me, she bounces her body and moves her legs like a bicycle because she gets to excited. All this love means that I usually have to put her in the Ergo to get chores done. And even with all her mobility, she till loves to cuddle in the Ergo several times a day!

She also absolutely loves her sister. Every morning, they greet each other with huge smiles. And Vivi is always so excited to be in the middle of what Marley is doing. Marley does have to practice a lot at being gentle, and sometimes I feel like I am constantly having to remind her. But she is getting better, and most of the time Vivi couldn't care less! Sometimes, they are really playing together for a few minutes and I get a glimpse of what it could be like when Vivi gets a little older and they can play together all the time.

I am always cracking up with her facial expressions. I can always tell exactly what she is thinking because her face gives everything away. And she is pretty friendly with strangers, unless someone really scares her.

She has been sitting in high chairs now at restaurants. She loves being able to see everything and I love having a place to put her so that I can eat! She usually just drops toys over and over again (a new trick she has learned because Marley picks them up for her every single time), but that's okay! She's happy!

She is really starting to get the hang of communicating. I have been trying to start with teaching her signs for the last month. She won't be doing any signs herself for a couple of months, but she is definitely learning what they mean. When I put her on my lap and sign "milk" she gets so excited! She has always been a pretty vocal baby. She loves to sing with us, especially in the evenings when Marley has gone to bed! She knows her name, and even crawls to us when we call for her.

I seriously cannot wait for her Daddy to see her. She is such a happy, chunky, lovable little baby and I feel like we are so fortunate to get to know her! She brightens up our lives.

Yesterday was a beautiful, warm day in Nacogdoches. (Yes, I came back to Texas for a few weeks...) So, we spent a lot of time outside enjoying it!

Vivi got to play in Marley's playground for the first time. We had a hard timme keeping all the little acorns and twigs away from her. She searched them out!