Sunday, September 19, 2010

New Movies!

Here's a few new videos of Miranda. The first one is her reading her favorite book about Dora & Boots. The second is showing off her baby-tech-skills with Daddy's I-Pad.
Enjoy!



The audio sync gets way off in the second clip of this, but better later on. We've gotta get a new editing program!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Family Vacation in Denver!

We got home yesterday from a fantastic family vacation in Denver, CO. We took in tons of sights and activities in town. My parents rented a gigantic home for everyone to stay in, it was beautiful and spacious, complete with pool table, theater room, jacuzzi tub, and private bathrooms for each family. Quite impressive.

Fun activities included:

HANGING OUT WITH ALICE!
My brother's daughter is 13 months old now. It was super fun for Miranda to play with her cousin. We liked hanging out at the house for meals, naps, World Cup games, movies, Ring-around-the-Rosie, catch, and books. Alice is such a sweet, sweet baby giving lots of hugs and always waving 'hi' to each member of the family!

DENVER ZOO
Miranda liked the elephants and monkeys the best. Both girls did really well getting in and out of strollers and seeing all the funny animals. Alice was slightly more interested in the other people than the animals. Neither of the girls liked the scary carousal that grandma and grandpa just HAD to take them on!

CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
Miranda went to the museum with Brandon, grandparents and me. There was a couple different rooms to free play with kid-sized houses, animal habitats, painting, building and dancing. Miranda loved the dress-up shoes and dancing in front on the big mirror. There's plenty of footage of that below!

IMAX 3D Toy Story 3
Brandon, my Dad and I went to a big movie theater for the great new Pixar flick! It was as good as the hype!

Rockies v. RED SOCKS GAME
Miranda and Brandon both experienced their first Major League game. The entire family of 9 all went together, which was a pretty impressive feat! The girls didn't watch much of the game, of course. But they did enjoy meeting the Rockies' mascot "Dinger" who is conveniently a big purple dinosaur that Miranda called "BARNEY!" all night. Socks lost that first game, but won later in the week in an awesome game that Scott, Lisa and Eric went to!

SWIMMING and MONKEY BUSINESS
As an unexpected bonus, the house we rented had a membership at the neighborhood 'pool club'. So we got in for free, and took the girls to the nice baby pool. There was also a sweet water slide designed for kids that went wicked fast and twisty for full-grown adults in the big pool. The 'Monkey Business' was an indoor play-land we took the daughters to one day. It was perfect to play at, since it was too hot outside for regular parks. This place had big inflatable bouncers and slides, and lots of things to climb up. The girls loved it (so did the adults!)

Unfortunately, our video footage is mostly of Miranda and not a lot of Alice or other family members. We mostly took pictures on Scott and Lisa's camera, so I'll connect a link to those soon - but we occasionally grabbed the video camera around the house, and took it to the Children's Museum.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

10 Terrific Things about Toddlers

Miranda has grown and changed so much in the past few months. She's certainly moved from baby stage into a toddler. And while that comes with a whole new set of challenges, it's a whole lot of fun too. Here are ten things I enjoy about this new personality of my baby, I mean 'kid'. (She's 20 months old)

1) MEMORY
Whenever we go to the park Miranda plays with the blue swing and points at the black one calling it 'Caelie!' This is because Caelie played with us at the park 3 months ago, and used that swing! Today I grabbed a pair of brown shoes for her and she said 'Al-la' which means her cousin Alice who has the same pair of shoes!

2) WORD POWER
This kid learns new words EVERY day. It's astonishing. This evening (in the 3 hours between supper and bed) she learned 'bunny', 'wait', 'hiding', and 'Barney' and used them each repeatedly and correctly. We think she's up to over 100 words, and increasing by the hour.

3) AFFECTION
Miranda has been very un-affectionate her whole life. Since she could hold up her head, she hasn't rested it willingly on any shoulder. But recently she started giving more hugs and blowing lots of kisses. I love to see her hugging her dolly and even Jack the dog! Of course Mommy and Daddy hugs are the best :-)

4) INDEPENDENCE
She loves to try to put on her own socks and shoes; has even succeeded with one shoe one time! She's into climbing things now too, since she just got tall enough to get onto the chairs and couch. If something is too tricky to climb up, she'll walk to the bathroom and carry the little stool out for assistance.

5) FAVORITISM
Miranda has firmly established her favorite toy, tv show, snack, book, youtube video, etc. Some things change weekly, but some have lasted a long time - like the Brown Bear book, her purple blankie, and on-line videos of cats. Her memory of these things is impeccable. (She sings {la-la} along to the song in the cat video - which is in Japanese).

6) HELPFUL
Doing laundry, dishes and dusting is much more fun now that I have little hands to help. Miranda is pretty good at putting clothes in the dryer (even straight out of her own drawers) and getting the Tupperware to the cabinet (after banging them on the floor for awhile. I do appreciate her fetching my towel when I get out of the shower!

7) BRAVERY
Within the last month she's started climbing kid-size stairs on feet, going down the slide by herself and even dangling from the bars on the playground. Of course, the trade-off here is now she won't LET Mom help even though she's not always stable.

8) VOCAL
I picked her up from daycare one day and asked, 'How was she today?' The answer was, "Loud. Not naughty, just very noisy." That's most days, she babbles and talks and sings and shouts pretty much all the time. Annoying when you're on the phone, pretty adorable most other times.

9) INTERACTIVE
I am loving all the games and songs and toys Miranda and I can play together now. She's really into cooperative play with parents or little friends. This evening we figured out a simplistic hide-and-seek (hence learning the words 'wait' and 'hiding') and played until Mommy was exhausted from running around the house and being found every 20 seconds!

10) AWE
Despite all the things she's learned, we still find something brand new almost everyday. Then I get to watch Miranda take it in with her eyes (and mouth, and mind) wide open. This weekend it was lots of new and funny animals at the zoo. This morning it was a great thunderstorm with lots of noisy rain. I love the look on her face when she's discovering something new!

All in all, we are still really enjoying our little girl. But that's not to say that parenting is all roses, and a toddler will highlight that quickly! So my second list is 1 Terrible Toddler Trait.

1) STUBBORN
Her intense independence and devotion to only her favorite things magically combines with her Vocal powers to produce full-on meltdown tantrums pretty much everyday. Whether it's not wanting to leave the park, eat that vegetable, or let Mommy finish an e-mail she will make her anger painfully known to everyone within a 1-block radius. (It's a good thing she's learning to hug, so Mommy doesn't lose it, huh?)

Thanks for reading my list. If you have/had kids, what do/did you love about their toddler days?

Friday, April 23, 2010

Spring fun!

Some fun new pictures up; we've been enjoying all the nice weather around here. It's raining now, and we probably won't get out too much this weekend; but Spring shall persist nonetheless!

I'm looking forward to a trip to Fargo to see LOTS of family; followed by a trip to Oregon to see Jodi F. & fam, and Jodi A. & fam (new and improved with brand new baby!) Brandon, meanwhile, will be homebound and busy with end-of-school and graduation parties.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Vetter update

We're back from Mexico, and gearing up for an Easter weekend. I have tons of great stories from the mission trip - but won't take the time to get them all down here. You can call me and get them in person; but first check out the pictures, videos and blog by following links at www.dwu.edu/campmin. Or the picture slideshow below! Ok, one quick story: we just heard this week that the family whose house we started building has already moved in and gotten settled! We broke ground for them on our first work day, and had things about 3/4 completed in just 4 days of hard work. Now Maria (18), her husband Rodrigo (21) and their kids (2 & 15 months) have a home - just in time for baby 3 who's already on the way. Copy this link for Mexico pictures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAQYeh-Nuc

Being back home with Miranda is great too. She's a little jabber-box these days; learning and using new words everyday. The weather has been nice, so we've had lots of walks and trips down the slide - which she calls a 'wheeeee'!

Here's a fun video of 3 girls. They hail from Mexico, Mitchell and My house; but little girls everywhere know how to sing and dance, giggle and play!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Walking and Talking

Not a lot of time to post, but lots going on around here!

Bullet points:
- Vicky has the 30 Hour Famine tomorrow; 30 hours of juice fast, dozen middle schoolers over night at church, 6 awesome 'Tribe' games. Good fun - but lots of work. Had to laugh last night when an 8th grader told me she had $103 already! She had been going table to table at supper, so I asked how much she had before tonight; '$3!'
- Pastor Brad from church passed away last week. Funeral and prayer services were this last weekend. Hard time; be praying for his wife Joan and son Aaron.
- Brandon and Vicky leave for Mexico in 16 days! The trip is payed for, and most all plans made - vamanos!
- Miranda leaves for Bismarck in 15 days to stay with Grandma, Papa, Grandpa Ed, Great Gr & Gr, various friends, and dog Abby. I think they've got the babysitting thing covered!

We got a new video camera since our old one was wigging out. It's very different, but I think it'll work out. Here are the inaugural videos - some walking and talking from our toddler!





Bye for now,
Vetters

Monday, January 25, 2010

Video Download Day!

We finally got some videos off the camera! First, the much anticipated...first steps! This was filmed at Christmastime, and really was Miranda's first walking session! She only took about 3 steps before Uncle Eric was on the camcorder and catching all the action.



She's been practicing her walking all month now, and is much more stable and strong already.


Next up; Miranda watches herself in the viewfinder.



And now, a baby's day in the office.

We had two other kids over that night, and they were watching cartoons, but Miranda just had a few loose ends to tie up at work.


A few short clips of fun at Christmas: Miranda got rides in the laundry basket, and care of Papa Pete's floor sweeping game!





This last video is a game Miranda played for nearly 20 minutes one day. After she had done about 10 rounds of this (put bears on the chair, climb up, hug bears, throw them off the chair) I decided to film it for awhile. We have about 5 minutes of this footage, but here's the condensed version. This was before Christmas, so she was 14 1/2 months old.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

New Pictures

Sarah and Chris visited us from Kentucky this past week! We had a super great time catching up with them, hanging out in the frigid North, playing games, sharing meals, watching Miranda, and passing around a nasty cold amongst us all. Well, that last part wasn't my favorite - but the pictures that Sarah took ARE my new favorite. Check them out on Picasa, and if you live in Kentucky, seriously consider hiring this girl to shoot your next event; she's got skills!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Christmas 2009!

We had a great Christmas celebration in Bismarck this year! We spent all our time with family and friends, bouncing between houses despite the enormous storm and large amounts of snow. You can see all the fun in the pictures on Picasa, link to the right. Here's some teasers...

Fun games at Grandma and Grandpa Petersons!


Hanging out with Great Grandma and Grandpa and their dog Tug.



Miranda got lots of hugs and kisses from everyone...Grandpa Ed gave double doses!


She really liked the whole trip to the mall to visit Santa, and seeing all the other kids, and all the pretty decorations...however, didn't like Santa himself one bit! She does like Santa's alter-ego Pastor Kermit under normal circumstances.


Lots of Family Fun with Peterson's and Vetter's!




We had four Christmas celebrations all together. Immediate Peterson family (with Scott, Lisa & Alice joining via Skype), Extended Peterson-Westgard family, immediate Vetter family, and Extended Vetter family! All four were super fun, full of toys and cute clothes, and marked with laughs and hugs and love (and of course tons of food!)

Miranda gave us a great gift in taking her first unassisted walking steps on our last day in Bismarck. We're working on the video...but there are some glitches, so it may be a little while. I'm sure she'll be a professional walking girl before I'm able to get that posted. Sorry!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Christmas gifts

Miranda is at a totally fun age, and things keep happening all day and I think 'remember that to tell to people, it was funny!' Because she just learns something new everyday, and does something surprising every hour. So, here's a list of some new tricks our 14 1/2 month old has pulled out of her Christmas bag.

- Miranda tries to put on her own socks by placing the sock on top of the foot with lots of intensity and often grunting.

- She grunts a lot, to show she's really working hard. Sometimes she'll do it purely as a joke; move something that moves easily but grunt and fuss about it - just to be funny! Then laughs about how funny she is.
- She 'fake sleeps' when we lay her down in her crib. Lays down really quickly, and cuddles in the blanket, then pops her head back up and giggles at you as if to say 'see, I know how to do it! Watch, I'll do it again!'
- She can now say, w/ intention and meaning, Mama, Dada, NO, no, no, and Ball.
- She often says, but doesn't understand yet, 'Yesh'. We're pretty sure she's quoting Michael from 'the Office'.
- She's getting pretty good with a spoon; fed herself her entire lunch today, between using the spoon and fingers. The picture is from this weekend, when college kids were baking in our house.

- I changed her diaper today after Brandon had watched her for awhile, and the whole waistline was packed with graham crackers! This was sure a mystery to me, as she was wearing a onesie and didn't have access to her diaper to fill it with stuff - nor has she EVER done something like that before. She thought my shocked expression was DElightful and laughed and laughed as I cleaned them out. Brandon's only comment 'oh, you know, she was kinda itching her belly after we ate'. My guess is she was putting them inside her shirt from up at the neck! Crazy baby.
- Yesterday she was playing in the bathroom while I was using it. She saw the tp in my hand and asked for it. I gave it to her, because I'm a push-over. She took it and immediately started wiping the back of her leg/bum. How funny is that! Miranda is ALWAYS watching...guests beware!
- She figured out she can't reach the Christmas tree ornaments from sitting, or up on her knees. And she can't yet free-stand in the middle of the room. So she gets her walking toy and pushes it over to the tree so she can swat as the colorful bulbs.

- I love to see how she's problem solving now. Today she decided both of her crib blankies should come visit the living room, so she'd grab one and drag it up in front of her, than go back and get the other and drag it up to the first. Then she tried to stuff them both inbetween her legs and crawl/push with them for awhile. It took a long time, but she got them both half-way down the hallway. Meanwhile Mom farmed on Facebook and supervised the project!
- She's learned to tickle you back. She doesn't do it often, but when she remembers it she'll find some exposed skin and move her fingers really gently and say ki-ki-ki then laugh and laugh.
- She LOVES to stand up and reach down to pick something off the ground. She'll support herself on the couch or me, and repeatedly throw something on the floor just to pick it up over and over. Every third or fourth time she'll punch the object up in the air in a victorious celebration!

All in all, Miranda is entertaining her parents and we're loving this stage of postbaby/pretoddler. She's not quite walking on her own yet, but getting close now. Today was perhaps the most fussy, frustrating, tantrum-filled day she's ever had; and I STILL love her at the end of it, so we're doing good there! What new wonder will she have in store tomorrow...

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Vetter's had a great Thanksgiving, with a full house of fun! Miranda is up on her feet running all around, as long as someone comes along, and there were plenty of fingers to hold this weekend!



Vicky's Mom and Dad came down, and Mom made two fabulous meals that we'll be eating on for 2 weeks to come! Her brother Eric also came, and brought his super-nice girlfriend Laura, and super-playful puppy Cooper! So all together we were 6 adults, 1 baby, 2 dogs, and unfortunately 1 mouse; well ex-mouse thanks to Dad's late night heroics!



The weather was great, so we got some time in at the park. Miranda does love that swing!



And, of course, we had to show Laura the Corn Palace. Where else could she see a mural of a sag~way made of ears of corn stapled to the side of a garish building?!



There are a few pictures up on Picasa, but we were using other cameras more than mine, so I'll post more when I can steal them from everyone else.

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving too!! Hi Jodi!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

October...where did you go?

I've neglected my blogging and posting of video duties. Apparently the kid turned one and I decided the world has seen enough of her. The grandparents don't agree though! So here are two videos for you, from her birthday, both over a month old - better late than never. It's surprising how she already seems older and smarter now than these videos, just 6 weeks ago. Watch for footage soon of some wobbly first steps...Miranda's pulling up and creeping along furniture, but not yet free-range.

This video is some clips from her actual birthday, Sept 29th.


The following video is a fun ball game Miranda came up with at Grandma's house in late September.



Mama and the baby leave for Boston on Wednesday, for a few days with Baby Alice and her parents. Grandma Marcia is coming too! Should be fun, but we wouldn't mind a little extra prayer coverage for the plane rides on Wed. and the following Sunday!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, Miranda!

I feel bad for not posting on Miranda's actual birthday, but we were just so busy celebrating :-) Actually, most of the fun happened last weekend, when we spent a few days in Bismarck with family and friends. We had a great birthday party for Miranda with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Eric, Great-grandparents, Grandpa Vetter, Uncle Bob, Godfather, and friends! Unfortuneately, the people behind the cameras were just so captured with Miranda's beauty, they forgot to get pictures of anyone else but her - so it's looks like she celebrated mostly on her own! We did have fun though, with food and cake, presents and giggles!



We also spent a few hours at the Pumpkin Patch, which was amazing fun! Be sure to follow the link on the right to see pictures of this spectacle! Lots of pumpkins, lots of hay, lots of people, lots of sunshine, just one trebucht, lots of fun.



For Miranda's actual birthday: we played with all our fun new toys, went out to dinner, and took our monthly growth pictures. Good day. Crazy to think she's a whole year already. It really does go as fast as everyone warns you it will! Our birthday girl has been a joy and blessing to us everyday since she arrived; I'm quite enamored with her, to put it mildly.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Walmart Pro Photos!



We took Miranda in for 'professional' one year pictures today. I say 'pro', because it was just Walmart, and not an independent photographer or anything fancy. It went pretty well; Miranda cooperated and was in a decent mood. She was a little apprehensive of all the new things, and this picture lady always yelping and whistling to make her look. This anxiety can be seen in the hand that never left her ear or mouth - but that's ok, looks pretty cute anyway!

Some really cute pictures in her little dress; and great ones with the beloved Pooh bear.

We gave her a cake and let her mess it, and herself, up. That was fun. She didn't give us many good smiles though, because she was just so interested in examining this new texture.



The great thing about Walmart, is that you get all the proofs on CD to use however you want - so, all the pics, even the 'enhancements' with frosted frames and whatnot, are up on Picasa!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Pictures

Some more new pictures up on the Picasa page. I love Picasa and it's ever-growing collection of Miranda's life!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Office Party

Well it's been a busy week at the Vetter home, but we of course made time for our favorite show, The Office, which premiered a new season last night. In preparation, we watched a few episodes from Season 5, and discovered that Miranda HAS to compulsively dance to the opening theme song!

Just as funny was the little 2 1/2 year old girl that came to watch with us, who matter of factly asked her Mom and Dad "Is that Michael?" - I guess they've seen a few shows too!



Miranda is on Acid Reflux medicine, and Soy milk instead of Whole. These two things have helped settle down the puking, and we're all doing much better! Now she just needs to pack on some pounds and catch up to her previous growth curve. Watch out world, big baby on the way...

Friday, September 4, 2009

Joy and Angst



Miranda's day is filled with joy and sorrow as much as any adult. Except she can find joy in a seemingly uninteresting dish towel, and her angst doesn't extend much beyond yucky tasting food! It's good to be little :-)



Sadly, Miranda is still throwing up a good number of meals. We kept good track this week, to see the trends and any food connections. Nothing clear. But we do know she's thrown up 8 times in the past 7 days; so that's not great.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

11 months old

Today is Miranda's 11 month birthday - such a big girl. It'll be a one year celebrating before long! There are new pictures up on Picasa; a couple really good ones this week :-)

We started the acid reflux medicine last night - and then threw it all up. But we'll hopeful the puking will calm down sometime this week!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Puke and Freshmen

I haven't sat down to blog, or post pictures lately - but I have a good excuse; our lives have been covered in puke and freshmen. Thankfully not freshman puke - we'll leave that job to the RD's - but plenty of freshmen orientation and moving in activities that keep Brandon and his ministry team hoping. Leaving me to fend for myself at home with the puker. Miranda is having some sort of eating issue - mainly the issue being what see eats ends up all over her clothes, chair, spit rags, bibs, hair, mom's clothes, carpet, furniture, etc! She's throwing up about 1 meal a day, soemtimes 2. Lots of theories abound from other parents of pukers; we haven't pinpointed her issue yet. But the doc's are on it! In the meantime, she's still pretty happy and healthy and roaming all thoughout the house. So we're not too worried, just trying to make sure she gets enough calories and keep up with the ever increasing laundry!

I'll get some new pics up soon - I'll spare you pictures of the real 'action' around here though!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Forward Motion

Miranda is now exploring with forward motion; getting quicker by the day!




She immediately discovered fun new sounds in the kitchen. Don't worry, grandma, we put locks on the garbage, cleaners, and pots and pans.