Daddy!

One of Etta's favorite things to do now is to find anything of Bob's, put it on and walk around saying, "Dada, dada". The other day she took off her shoes and socks (for the first time ever - really!) and tried to put on a pair of his tall athletic socks.

She makes a pretty cute Bob.

Is it me?



Don't forget the hat!



Look at me! I'm ready to go. My name is Daddy!

Decorating

Lights are Etta's favorite. She would have been happy just having lights on the Christmas tree. Who needs ornaments when you have "IGHTS!"? But we did get out some kid friendly ornaments to decorate the little tree in her room.

Let's hang Santa!



There it is!

Snow!

We finally have snow!

[Although it is supposed to warm up and rain later this week...Hoping for safe driving conditions for my family on Saturday and then a white Christmas!]

When I got Etta up yesterday morning and took her to the window her face lit up and her mouth opened wide. I'm sure that she doesn't remember snow from last year, but was very pleased with what she saw.

After leaving the gym I let Etta walk in the snow to the car. We then drove to Albertson's. I carried her in and was going to carry her out...As we got to the door Etta says, clear as a bell, "Walk!"

I said, "Do you want to walk?"

"YES!"

I then had to say, "Well, too bad because we are going across the parking lot."

But before you call me a grinch...

I can't put my arms down!



That's a lot of snow! It goes clear up to my knees.



I love the snow, mommy.



Off to explore.



[And it was a good thing that I had her so bundled. She was a little turtle. I was shoveling while she was playing and a couple of times when I looked over I saw her basically like a tripod with her face in the snow. Mommy to the rescue. And when she would fall down she really thrashed around trying to get up!]

Dude

Grey's hat, Porter's backpack, Etta's style - All her own.





Oh, and a beer holder thingy too. Can't forget that when you are accessorizing.

Family Fun Night

Two Fridays ago (Yikes! I meant to post this much sooner!) we headed up to the Festival of the Trees Family Night at the fair grounds. Etta was a little young for most of the activities, but we did our best...

Driving the fire truck - she liked this A LOT. Probably would have sat there a lot longer than we were going to let her...



Getting a finger cast



Last touches...She sat very still and didn't even fidget while the nurse was applying the "cast". But as soon as Bob turned away from the table she pulled it off!



Nurse Bob



Making a Christmas card



It seemed as if all of the activities either required that she were BIGGER or that she had better fine motor skills. The student volunteers were very nice and allowed us to accommodate to our level.

"Toss" a present



Where did it go? And now what do I do?



Oooooo, a weapon!



She did knock a few pins down!!



Going for the spare.

Birthday Twin

James is Etta's birthday twin. By some strange twist of fate we found this fact out when we ran into Brian Redmond this fall up in Moscow. We both went to school with Brian at U of I. He actually took my place in the brass quintet when I student taught. And he and his wife had a kid the same day Bob and I did. Weird.

So we were able to go up to Moscow last Wednesday to introduce them and hang out. We had fun catching up, but the kids weren't too sure of each other. And trying to get both of them in a good picture, well, you can see how that worked out...

Over here...



No, over here.



Okay, we'll stand sort of close together. In the same area anyway...



This is as good as it gets folks.



It was nice to see that they are about the same size and about at the same place developmentally. Even two weeks can make such a difference at this age. We are hoping to get to hang out more before Brian is done with school.

[And if you put them together? You get . . . Etta James!!]

Good form

Of course we like to expose Etta to all sorts of music. She likes to play the piano, bang on drums, play the xylophone - and play my trombone.

Apparently the trombone "says" the same thing as a horse. She buzzes her lips when she sees both. I let her play my trombone every once in awhile, but always make her stop while she stills wants to play. Maybe that reverse psychology will work?

We won't be giving her lessons on anything - that surprises some people. But we will be getting her lessons, eventually. But for now, we just like to play around.

The trombone in twice as long as me!



Nice embouchure