Frolicking with Francesca

Yum--chicken!

Francesca rests after her musical interlude...

Uncle Austin and Francecsa play the piano!

Drawers are tons of fun.

A Historic day indeed--the baby's room has a door! Good job daddy!

Whoa, there is a lot of balloon and clown action
going on here!

Francesca checks out daddy's funny birthday hat.

You have no idea how exciting the contents of this cupboard can be. . .

Francesca eyes daddy as she breakfasts... Happy Actual Birthday Daddy!!

Would you look at that face?...

Francesca in her sweet sweet ride. . .

Daddy's Birthday Cake Experience

Daddy's actual birthday is March 28th but we have officially started to celebrate.

Francesca likes the tea party set.

Francesca plays with Gabriel at Dana and Nika's birthday party. One year olds are everywhere!

Daddy made a funny joke.

Reaching for the clockradio.

Francesca ponders all the fun ahead on a Saturday morning.

Another version

There are countless editions of this routine. I meant to post this one originally.

The whole Cottonpickin' Cottontail song

I know many of you would be bereft if you didn't have the whole Peter Cottontail song, so here it is. She still loves it, even if she walks away, she comes back and asks for more when it's over.

Francesca is having a playdate with Jack (adorable 3 year old who is "taking care of her")...they are pictured here happily reading. Mom is blogging on a break in the church board meeting.

Francesca in a non-eating position.

Seriously, it was a joy.

Francesca enjoyed some pasta. Very, very much.

Francesca points to ballons in the kitchen for perhaps the 257th time.

Sweet little girl with sweet little teddy bear.

Francesca meets Tigger the Tiger

These new PJs are from Grandma Tutu. Notice they are Tigger-themed, hence the photo. (Don't worry Grandma Tutu, we are saving the rest for Easter!)

The perfect Northwest day...

Francesca enjoys her swinging time.

Francesca has a veritable feast of water and milk and cheese and cherios.

Francesca discovers why they call it sticky rice...

Going fast...

This kid knows how to eat rice!

Besides swinging, Francesca also watched some kickball and tennis.

A trip to the park in Francesca's emission free vehicle.

Francesca enjoys the church bulletin.

These ballons are endlessly facinating....

So many things to discover...

Drinking milk all by herself on a Sunday morning.

Francesca notices the great difference of candles on Kari's cake compared with her own, just a couple of weeks ago. Francesca gave the cake 11 out of 10 stars...

Francesca celebrates Kari's birthday by wearing a culturally appropriate conical paper hat.

Francesca frolics with available material.

Francesca loves the smell of cornbread in the morning...

Francesca's First Step!

Several things need to be mentioned.

First, shortly after this, she took 3 steps but we did not capture it on video.

Second, I still can't edit this video easily so it takes a good 15 seconds or so to get to the action.

Third, there is much ado about one very small step, however, we are the parents and it is our prerogative to make said ado. [One small step for Francesca, one great leap for parentkind.]

Fourth, we cannot get this song out of our heads. It has replaced the drumming song ("We dance and we sing, when we play the drum") in repetitive mental looping action...

["Here Comes Peter Cottontail!" (!) "Hopping Down the Bunny Trail!" (!!) "Hippity Hoppity, Easter's on Its Way!" (!!!)]

Francesca contemplates the BBQ dinner she could make that might be able to ever hold a candle to the fantastic bean stew and cornbread dinner that grandmommy made. But ultimately determined it could not be done. Yay grandmommy!

Scrambled eggs for breakfast!

Oh right, you're supposed to shake before using!

She may or may not drink the milk, however.

Francecsa has milk.

Francecsa basks in the morning sun after a big breakfast that included scrambled eggs, cereal and milk out of a glass--just like a big kid!
(No more bottles as of this weekend--she's doing great with that!)

Sweet little napper

Francesca calls some pants out to play