No snow day here

Nina has been growing up in new and fun ways.  She is starting to sit on the toilet and talk about going "potty."  She sings every now and then, although words are hard to decipher.  She loves games and is pretty insistent about taking turns, "Dada's tur, Nani's tur, Mama's tur."  

She's always adding to her vocabulary and currently likes saying (and wearing) "headband" and "backpack."  She came home from daycare with smears on her shirt and when asked, "Did you do a project at Barb's today?," she answered, "Yeah, paint."  We look forward to seeing that art project.  

We were fairly busy enjoying the weather before the sleet-storm, participating in a family volunteer opportunity, and visiting friends.  

Como Lake and Pavillion

Zoo!

Dancing and decorating while volunteering

Dressing up with new friends

Big girl with her turtle "backpack"

Babies, boots, & bubbles

Nina was so excited to see her old friend Jimmy and his new baby sister.  Jimmy has a collection of cowboy boots, so Nina tried on some and ran around.  Nina was very gentle and nice to Baby Emma and even wanted to hold her.

Boot Party!

Holding the new baby

Happy Valentine's Day

Finding "Meno"   ----------   Protecting her eyes on the ride

We took another trip to the Rec Center Water Park for "Family Night" and Nina was much bolder this time.  She ran around, jumped in, dunked her head, went down the slides, and kicked.  She made up a few games while there. Here's how you play one of them:

    Step 1:  Bend your knees to the point where the water reaches your chin.  

    Step 2:  Flail around and yell "whoa" and "help me" while pretending to sink.

    Step 3:  Laugh hysterically when someone runs to help you.

Nina the Brave

Our Nina is a fearless one.  Here is a video showcasing some of her heroics.

19 Months

Nina has been a barrel of laughs as of late.  She loves riding her trike, saying "stop" and "go" at stoplights, and playing with paper towel rolls.  Her laugh is infectious and we can't get enough of it.  Lately she's been saying "owie" instead of "heavy" and likes carrying her director's chair around the house.

Nina has caught on to American ways as she preferred the Puppy Bowl commercials to the Puppy Bowl itself as the game got a bit boring. ;)  Her main complaint with the game is that the dogs occasionally tackled each other, so she yelled at them to play nice.  

Biking

Loving the basketball game  -------   Trying to hug the doggies

Paper towel rolls

Winter Carnival

Nina has bounced back from hand, foot, and mouth and has been glad to be out and about.  We've been on the search for animals and she'll often look for dogs out the windows.  When we ask her if she sees any, she usually shouts out, "Nope!"  

Lately she likes saying her ABCs, although she mostly repeats the first four letters.  She likes trying new words and practicing any word that starts with a C or K.  K-k-k-ditty for kitty :)  She's saying more two-word phrases and commands.  We hear a fair amount of "Mama, sit" and "Dada, stop!"

Zhooo Zhooo Zhooo!     ----------   Walking around Saint Paul

"Slipping" on the ice      ------------     Out on the lake

Ice throne     -----------         Candyland Shoppe

Boppy pictures - before and after

Ewwwww

Nina is learning words faster and faster and it's been fun to try to keep up.  She really likes saying "walrus" and calling most colors "yellow."  Yesterday she knew that she wanted some fruit and one of them had a name that was a color, so she decided to call the orange a "yellow."  Too funny.

Sadly, Nina has caught the hand, foot, and mouth virus from daycare so she will look at some of her sores and go "Ewwww."  While unfortunate, she seems to be making the best of the situation as an excuse to hang out with grandma and stay in the bath for long amounts of time.  Hopefully the sores leave soon!

Playing in her hamper, sledding with Kenzie

 Putting in contacts like mom and dad

Water, snow, and ice

The Naks are having all sorts of fun lately, playing outside when possible and finding new fun when needed.  We went for our first sled ride today, no real hills yet, but Nina did enjoy getting pulled around.  She looks great in her new giraffe hat from Aunt Esther, thanks!

We also made a trip to one of the St. Paul Rec Centers on Family Friday and while she started a bit hesitant, Nina loved the water.  She wanted to swim in the deep end and was sick of Mom and Dad holding her; she's a fearless one.

One of Nina's favorite things to do is to "cheers."  What started with cups, has grown into clanking together any like items and saying "cheers."  It progressed into other foods such as apples and crackers, then turned into blocks and cards, and earlier this week Nina realized she had two Martin Luther King, Jr. books and decided to cheers them together too!  Aunt Allison didn't know what she was starting this past Thanksgiving.