May Days

After our travels to NYC, we laid low for the rest of the month of May.  I kept myself busy on a committee for planning our preschool's end of year spring festival.  We hired a locally-famous singing cowboy, Cowboy Jared.  Virginia clearly didn't like him at all (she called herself "Cowgirl Jared" for the rest of the month after this performance.)

Getting down with Cowboy Jared.

Playing with friends at the Cowboy Jared show.

Thomas and I had so much fun seeing a Broadway show in New York that we kept the streak going by attending another show in San Francisco.  Mary Poppins didn't live up to Matilda, but it was a nice evening at the theater nevertheless.

It's a jolly holiday....

Virginia has pretty much given up on naps entirely, but she did surprise me one day this month with a super-cute passing out on her bedroom floor.

Tired little Worm.

Kissing Cousins!

Virginia loved spending time with her cousins Anna and Jenna last summer in Alabama, so we decided it was time to visit them again since they live relatively close in San Diego.  They've had an addition to the family since we've seen them last - little Jon David.  So, when Southwest had a fare sale, we jumped on the chance to go down to SoCal for a weekend jaunt.

By now, Virginia is a master traveler, so the 1 hour 15 minute flight to San Diego with her is just a breeze.  We grabbed a rental car and set our sights on Sea World!  We met Suzanne and Jonathan and their kids there and had so much fun.  The cousins took to each other immediately and spent the day playing, holding hands, hugging, and occasionally looking at sea life.

With SeaWorld penguins:

Riding Elmo at SeaWorld:

Spinning ride with Mommy, Anna, and Virginia:

One of many hugs with Anna:

Another hug with Jenna:

Girls dance to Sesame Street:

Fast friends Virginia and Anna:

Thomas, Anna, and Virginia pretend to be polar bears:

Showing off for the fishies:

Virginia never turns down a chance to hug a baby!

Checking out Shamu and eating an ice cream:

After SeaWorld, we took a break and then met up later in the Gaslamp District for dinner with the cousins.  With four hyper kids, our table was a handful, but we had a ton of fun:

Silly girls:

We stayed at the Omni Hotel adjacent to Petco Park.  Thanks to all of Thomas's work travels, we had free nights to burn and the hotel even upgraded us to a suite.  Virginia loved the free chips and salsa the concierge put in our room on arrival, and the milk and cookies at night were even more exciting!  Here's little V jumping on her big girl sofa bed:

Sunday was Mother's Day, so we spent a little time walking around downtown San Diego together before meeting up with the Lairs later in the day.

Thomas had to leave the trip early to get back for a trial the next morning, but Virginia and I stuck around for one more evening and went to Coronado with the Lairs for dinner.  The girls played in the sand and we all ate at a BBQ restaurant on the beach.  What a weekend!

More silly girls on the beach:

BBQ dinner with the Lairs:

Virginia had to get her hands on Jon David again!:

Shampoo, Cut, & Style

With Virginia's third birthday and Easter rapidly approaching, we decided it was time for her to get her first haircut!  We had definitely been putting it off for too long - with her beautiful curls, her hair was a complete rats' nest each morning after sleeping on it.  And, at times, poor little V had a bit of a mullet (in a totally cute sort of way, of course) as her hair grew more quickly at the back of her neck.

After a little Yelp research, I located a kid-friendly salon on Park Street in Alameda and booked an appointment.  We arrived to find that instead of boring salon chairs, the salon had race cars for the kiddos to sit in.  Plus Dora and other videos on demand!  Virginia was skeptical, but lured by Dora and the promise of a lollipop if she behaved.

I'm happy to report that the haircut was a success and that Virginia got her lollipop.  And Mommy, Daddy & Kimmy are happy to report that we can now brush through Virginia's hair without needing to use half a bottle of detangling spray each time.

The finished product, complete with a little braid and bow!:

Like Mother, Like Daughter

One of the joys of scanning all of our old photos is getting to see how much Virginia and I are alike and how many similar things we do! Here are a couple of like mother, like daughter shots:

Kee Kee

It is a well-known fact that Virginia loves pets of all kinds, especially kitty kitties. Basically as soon as she could learn to walk, she would treat walks down the street as her opportunity to scout for neighborhood kitties. She quickly became familiar with the kitty hotspots and now regularly insists that we visit them. (It happens that one such hotspot is the backyard of our next door neighbor, home of an crotchety old tabby cat named Touche. Virginia would trespass every day to visit him if she could.)

A while ago, when my cousin Katie Jane returned from time abroad in South Africa, she returned with a little stuffed leopard for Virginia. Over the last four or five months, it has become an essential item in the Harvey house. It is just her size and perfect for carrying around. Virginia takes it pretty much everywhere she goes. She also sleeps with it in her crib and feeds it Goldfish crackers. It is the closest we have to a family pet.

Crimson & Clover

Okay, we've been delinquent in posting again. The real reason is we've been busy going to different places and seeing lots of people. More posts soon. Here are a couple cute pictures of Virginia in her green dress, a gift from Mimi. Leslie used to wear this dress as a baby too. It was hand-smocked by Virginia's great grandmother - Great Granny.

Laugh In

Virginia is laughing more and more recently. She has begun laughing when we play games that she knows and likes, like peekaboo and "Where's Virginia?" A good old tickle on the belly is pretty reliable too.

No Sleep Til Brooklyn!

Virginia has been making life difficult for our nanny this week by not taking all of her naps. Yesterday, she skipped out on her afternoon nap, so I put her down to sleep a little early for bed and let her sleep in an extra half hour this morning. Well, that extra night sleep translated into failing to take her morning nap today! I know we are still several months away from transitioning her down to one nap, so we'll have to hang in there for now. It remains to be seen how she will behave for me on Friday when I'm at home.

Despite her lack of sleep today, Kim sent this photo that shows Virginia was basking in the glory of nap-skipping. She was thrilled to get to stay up and play like a big kid!

Up to No Good

The last month has been full of lots of changes - Virginia has mastered crawling and pulling up, has gotten her first tooth, and has started finger foods! She loves crawling into our bathroom and pressing her face against the glass of the shower door to check out what's inside. Although she was slow on the uptake on finger foods, she now loves puffs and Cherrios.

Here she is modeling a new outfit from Memaw, flashing her toothy grin, and racing away from me to get into something else.

Virginia's Favorite Brush

Before Virginia was born, her great grandmother Gram gave her a beautiful silver monogrammed brush and comb set. Now that she has a little bit of hair, we are putting it to good use. Every night after bath time, we brush her red little head before we put her down for bed. Usually annoyed by such parental intrusions, Virginia amazingly does not object when we do this. Actually, she kind of likes it.

Staying Busy While My Parents Work

Virginia's nanny, Kim, has been wonderful about giving us video and photo updates of Virginia's days when we are at work. Hurray for IPhones! Here are a few highlights from the past couple of weeks:

Playing catch and demonstrating her "no, no, no" head shake:

Too cool for school:

Cuteness Factor: High

Virginia likes the weekend as much as us. She gets to hang out in her PJs!

But mostly I'm just posting this picture because she looks really cute.