congrats brangelina

Angelina Jolie and Brad had twin girls....one of which is named "Amelie". Our doogus is so hip.
We just recently celebrated having her for 3 years!

Vivienne's bike from Karin arrived! Its the perfect size - no pedals, so she can learn balance. Felix and I saw one of these bikes in Germany - a little toddler buzzing around with such ease. The idea behind these types of bikes is that when she gets bigger, she won't need training wheels. Karin made sure to order her favorite color blue too - and it has a bell - how sweet!

Castlewood State Park..near us. Missouri isn't too flat -thankfully. Although, a short drive away and you can find yourself in cornfields. Felix took a business trip to Bloomington, Illinois. When he came home, he was so thankful that Saint Louis has so many wonderful trees and hills.

these boots are made for walkin'
whoa, attitude girl.

She likes to put these boots on herself. I drew smiley faces on the inside soles of the shoes so she knows which boot to put on which foot. When the smiley faces "Kiss", then she knows the boots were put on correctly.

Poolside

It is hot here already. We were planning on going for a hike today. We wimped out to stay poolside. It was only 9 AM and we thought it was too hot and humid for a hike. I have heard from many people here that the summers can be tough. I really like a hot day, but one story stuck in my head. A woman I know told me she grew up in Wisconsin, and there you had to stay 3 weeks inside during winter. When she moved to STL, the 3 weeks shifted to August. The humidity and real feel temp supposedly get you....
Felix's coworker told him to be ready for many over 100 degree real feel temperatures.
gulp.

We plan on going to the pools and sprinklers here often. This week I went to two different parks with Vivienne and played in their children's sprinkler play areas. Funny how she reacts to water..or shall I say how parental accompaniment changes things: She fights me when I want to wash her hair, but she loves having the water shower on her face outside and actually DUNKS her head in her pool and lets her hair drip down in her eyes!!! The public pool here seems fantastic (water slides, toddler play area) and I plan on visiting it this week. Tomorrow, Vivienne receives her first "swim lesson" at the neighbors pool. Our neighbor, Melissa arranged for an instructor to come and give her children and Vivienne a course. I'll be sure to write about it later.

Oh! Some of her crankiness lately might be due to her last molars coming in! The top two have just about made it in, the drool machine was running lately and she was asking for POP (popsicles)--i should have suspected. When these buggers and the bottom two come in, we'll be in the teething clear all 20! till she starts losing them. Then the tooth fairy will visit - that's exciting. I am really looking forward to Santa's visit this year too! She still talks about him and wants to talk to him on the phone occasionally. (He's really the only person she wants to talk to on the phone)

Felix and I have talked about how much fun it will be!! to enjoy the holidays with her.
To her it is magic.
Santa, the Easter Bunny, the TFairy....how nice of them to let me experience the magic all over again.

Peace.