Playin around

Adorbs.

Adorbs some more.

Saturday morning walk.

Sideways, G loves the feeling of grass on her toes. Unlike Enzo, who would go into hysterics.

Enzo experimenting with the double sockhow with a twist at the end.

Grandbob with the assist.

Grandbob: I'd like a hamburger with french fries.

Enzo: Mine with pickles, puhleeease.

"Weeeeeeeee!"

Um, does anyone see the resemblance?

Stella=Gianna.

Enzo and Gianna decided to hide from Dada. He walked in the door, ripped off his dress shirt and shoes and went in to find them.

He's in the tunnel. It reminded me of a snake swallowing a mouse.

Enzo's crazy tall build. Truck with horse trailer and the girl on the swing and the cat on top, watching over everything.

In the name of science

So when Gianna was still in utero, we checked a little box on a questionnaire if we would like to participate in future studies for childhood development labs at UCI.

Well, the checkbox is a now a real box (as you can see) as Gianna participated in a memory study. She played with toys she had never seen before then a few hours later got to play with similar toys. All the toys were made in the lab at UCI and had interesting features that required Gianna to perform small tasks to get to the toy to work.

Gianna participated in the control group - the group that does not take a nap, where the other group did take naps to see if naps improve memory in infants. In the second round of playtime, Gianna was able to transfer her knowledge of playing with a control toy to the target toy.

The graduate assistants were really great with Gianna. At the end of the study, Gianna earned herself target gift cards (which I used to buy her more formula) and a t-shirt that says 'junior researcher'. Way to go Gianna...we are proud of you! (posted by Jeff, hijacking AJ's account.)

Making Valentines

Me: Enzo, what is Valentine's Day all about?
Enzo: Yuuuv.
Me: Who loves you?
Enzo: Enzo does.

In the spirit of St. Valentine, Enzo and Gianna wanted to send all their friends Valentines. So, I went all out and allowed markers. The washable kind. And Enzo went crazy with circles and zig zags. Here, right handed.

Here, left handed.

Here, Gianna wondering what the big deal is.

Sideways, Enzo shows his cheesy, pride-filled, job well-done smile. Complete with black marker on his schnoz.

The Valentine fairy comes over!!! With balloons, new outfits, candy and snacks!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cousins love jamba juice

Enzo and Luke are getting their fill of fruits.

Enzo's not feeling well

Enzo is having a bad day... A 103 degree fever is the cause..poor little guy.

Fishies

This time at the aquarium, Gianna was out of the stroller, and all up in the birds' and fishies' grills. She loved it.

Catching some rays outside in the water park.

Enzo fed the stingrays! RIP Crocodile Hunter.


Mini. Very mini. Me.

Notice Enzo in the center of the photo, on Jeff's shoulders. Blessed! I love this shot. And to see his look of wonder was just priceless. The divers had microphones and were talking to the kids as they fed the sharks and other fish.

And Enzo was totally stoked that the diver waved back!

I swear it was on the cold side. The UVAs were in full effect. Obviously.

Happy birthday, Jeff!

My mom made him a gooood cake and we sang Happy Birthday, led by Enzo. On key.

Jeff took the day off work, we got a babysitter for a few hours, and we ran around Knott's like we were teenagers again. Since there were no other people there but us, we ran from thrill-seeking ride to thrill-seeking ride and the adrenaline got to us. Then, we realized we are NOT teenagers. We need the time to wait in line for our blood pressure to return to normal. At different points in the morning, Jeff and I both had to sit one out. And breathe into a bag. Happy birthday to a fantastic husband, a great father, an awesome man and a loyal friend. Love you!