First Flights and Whipple Thanksgiving

With Syracuse giving Dave a full week off for Thanksgiving, we thought it was just the opportunity we have been waiting for to go visit family in Utah. 

Our first concern was how Victoria would do on her first flight ever. We tried to lube her up a little with Benedryl, but alas that had little to no effect on her. Thankfully she was good for the first half and dead asleep for the second.

Amazingly somehow she was bright and happy when we got off in Utah. I think it was in a large part due to her awesome penguin hat.

 The only Whipple who had met Victoria before this trip was her Grandymom Carol.  Grandymom immediately got her hands on Victoria and didn't want to let go.

In the summer, Victoria had not been a fan of swimming in the lake.  A couple months later, a few degrees warmer and the hotel pool was just right.  Victoria splashed and swam with mom and dad until her little fingers got all wrinkled.

Next was the Whipple family Thanksgiving.  With twenty grandchildren, six couples, and two grandparents, there was plenty of family to spend time with. 

The siblings.

 The whole family except for a few who didn't make it.

After dinner was the Whipple family tradition, the thankful bowl. Everyone sits in a circle and a large bowl of treats is passed around.  When the bowl gets to you, you say something you are honestly thankful for and you take out a treat.  

While the bowl was being passed Victoria decided to go pillage Jennifer's snacks.  

We also got in a quick visit to the Bountiful Temple to show Victoria where her mom and dad got married. She liked it except for it was a little cold when she pulled her socks off.

Out front they had a nativity set up.

A week went by so quickly and it was time to fly again. 

This time the daytime flights were harder for Victoria.  She found some solace by tearing off a cookie wrapper with her teeth.

It was a wonderful week where Victoria got to meet the other half of her family and cousins.  We had such a good time with family and can't wait to make it out there again.

Little Things

Most often it's the little things that speak so strongly about life. 

Like shoes..

The smiles when she wakes up

 Smuggles that happen once in a blue moon.

 

Meeting new friends

Or a little help just when you need it.

Victoria has a magical way of making everything a wonderful adventure.

Around the House

As Victoria spends most of her time in the house, she seems to find an endless supply of things to play with and examine. Most of which I don't mind, but a few drive me nuts. The main floor of our house is a circle, so she can go from room to room on an adventure of discovery.

One of her first stops is almost always to get the gel bottle out from under the bathroom sink.  Some times she also trys for the soap, but it is too heavy for her for now.

 

Next she wanders into the kitchen for a little Peter time. She loves to play with him and has recently even taken to trying to feed him by hand, much to dad's chagrin. I am trying to keep the things from and for his mouth away from hers.  

We were expecting company later, so I had picked up her toys while cleaning the house.  She didn't appreciate it and was standing next to her toy bin thinking about how to get to  her treasures. I left the room for two seconds and when I returned this is what I saw.  She had climbed or toppled into the bin and was enjoying herself.  

Without the toys to play with, she decided to go under the dinner table. Usually she bumps her head and stops, but this time she crawled right under the bench...

 ....and out the other side.

One of her most favorite places is the tub.  Whether she is in the tub or not, she likes to come play with her toys.

Given the chance, she might play in the tub forever, or at least until it got cold.   

 

Big People Food

As Victoria transitions from infant to toddler, she has really suprised us by what she will and will not eat. She absolutedly loves all the baby 2nd foods except peas.  We have been trying to move up to 3rd foods with mixed results.  First we tried chicken and broccoli with no success.  One bite was enough for her to decide she didn't like it.  I think it was the texture which she isn't used to yet.  Next we tried kiwi apple bananna, which was also a no.  Finally we tried spagetti and meatballs, which was a yes.  This whole time as we have been trying to change her baby food, she has already taken to big people food.  She likes bite sized fruit, pasta, bread and others that she get a piece of.  When ever she sees the bag of Philippine brand dried mango,  she has to have one.  She gets a little bite and I get the rest, so its a win win.

Last Friday, I brought aunt Nicki some chinese so we could chat and have lunch. What we didn't know was lunch meant a steady stream of fried rice into Victoria's mouth. She loved it. Not so hot on the chunks of pork in it though.

She even devoured the fortune cookie.

With such a yummy lunch and fun visit with aunt Nicki, Victoria was pooped.

Sunday night Kristine made us some indian food for dinner complete with naan.  Somehow while we weren't watching all these small bite marks started showing up around the outside of the leftover bread.

 Here she is diligently waiting to scavange from our dinner.  She had eaten recently but that never stops her from trying out whatever we are having.

 The pasta, peas, mushrooms, rasberries, and even lettuce all went right down the hatch.  The only thing she didn't like was the chicken.  She chewed the chicken up pretty good, then decided to give it back to us. Thanks Victoria.

As with everything else she wants what she sees mom and dad have.  She is so good about eating.  She opens wide until she's full, then she will refuse and push away any more.  Seems like it was not so long ago she only drank milk from the bottle, now she wants it all.

Victoria's First Halloween

This weekend was Victoria's first Halloween and thanks to Grandymom she was all dressed up like a little pumpkin.  We went to the ward's Trunk or Treat on Saturday, but it was cold. Victoria didn't mind her hands getting cold as long as she got to stare at other little kids.  After handing out the candy, we went into the cultural hall where the primary kids were playing games.  Victoria crawled all over like a maniac yelling at kids and watching everything. 

Last night we headed out for some trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.  At the very first house, Victoria grabbed a blue dum-dum.  While we were talking to our neighbor, Victoria ripped the wrapper off and promptly stuck the dum-dum in her mouth.  She realized what it was and I had to fight her for it.  I got it away, but not before her face and hands were sticky and blue. From that point on she knew what this trick-or-treaking business was about and looked in every basket for more candy to unwrap and eat.  If  you look closely, you can see the smarties she snagged as soon as we set her down.

 Here is Victoria the morning after Halloween.  She went hunting for candy, and found the cauldron of candy we had left on the floor.  All in all we had a good time, and daddy is excited for her to walk herself next year. Thanks again Grandymom for such a cute costume.

Fall and a Turkey Child

 Alas, fall has arrived and our warm days are gone.  Dave is at home and school, Kristine is advising at work, and Victoria is into everything. 

She's funny.  She likes to see new things, meet new people, play with new toys, but she does not like to move differently. 

Case in point.  Once she learned to sit, everytime we went to put her down, her legs were already up in the sitting position.  As we have tried to get her to stand, everytime we go to set her in a standing position, she refuses to put her legs down.  Slowly she caught on that there was more than just sitting.  She learned to army crawl on her belly and refuses to get up on her hands and knees.  Its not that she can't, she just doesn't want to, and doesn't really appreciate it when we try to help or show her. I guess the problem is that she is so good at army crawling she doesn't see any point in changing, and she gets around rather quickly.  Depending on her grip, she can pull her self up to standing, but she is still working on her balance.  We think walking might happen soon. It seems like she is growing so fast. We are amazed at how long her hair has grown in the last few months. She is so much the toddler.

Here she is on Grandpa's tractor. She loves sitting in the seat and trying to push every lever, switch, and button.  

and occasionaly she likes to taste the seat too.

 Always happy.

This is what the back seat looks like any time we go shopping.  If she can get to it,she will pull it out. 

Since Dave is home 3 days a week with Victoria, she likes to help out in the kitchen.  Getting into places where she shouldn't is her specialty.

She really is so helpful and determined.  She thinks "No No" means try again in a minute. She listens then forgets then tries again.  She is very sweet, busy, and full of life.

Back in the Good ol' U.S. of A.

Dave: If any of you have read Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad day then you know basically what my entire trip home from Iraq was like.  The plane from Baghdad was canceled. 6 hours later the next flight was delayed 7 hours due to a sand storm.  When we arrived in Kuwait, no one had our paperwork and we had to submit for flights again.  4 hrs later we checked on our paperwork only to find out "all taken care of" means time to do it again and hand carry it where it is supposed to go.  Next we found out there were no flights designated for redeployers (me), so we and the other 200 redeployers were on standby in case any seats became available.  Lucklily the R&R flights which everyone used to get out on, got reduced 3 days earlier from two flights a day to just one which made sure there wasn't any room for stand by.  After 5 days of waiting at the transit tent in case we got on a flight, the base commander realized she was about to have a mutiny and put some of us on an R&R flight.  They told us our flights would be arranged and we would recieve our iteniraries when we arrived in Atlanta. Erronious information once again.  Atlanta had no idea who we were and took 4 hrs to figure out how to get us on another flight.  After 2 full days of traveling from Kuwait,  we arrived in Ft. Dix, NJ to out proccess. Once again the Army administators had no idea who we were.  It took 2 weeks to get our paperwork done and finally get a flight home which was also canceled, and my bags never made it onto the later flight.  Think of that travel experience next time your flight is full or gets delayed an hour.  I left Iraq on 3 Mar and didn't fly home to Syracuse until 23 Mar. 3 Full weeks of limbo that I don't wish on anyone. 

While waiting at Ft Dix, my wonderful wife came to see me.  On the weekend we took a trip down memory lane so she could see where I grew up in Doylestown, PA.

Here's our old house.  Everything is overgrown and big.  We were the one's who planted those trees and it is interesting to see them so large.  I guess thats what happens over time.   

After briefly touring the town, we went to the Mercer Museum.  Having lived in Doylestown for 6 yrs, somehow I had never gone to this giant museum. 

Mercer was an industrialist with a thriving tile business.  He recognised that as time progresses materials, tools, working processes change and as such he wanted to keep a record of the industry of his day.  The mercer museum is full of products, tools and machines, from approximately 1900.

The whole building is made from concrete and they even hung display objects from the ceiling 3 stories up.

Here is Mercer's house, also completely made from concrete.  Mercer designed, and built it as he pleased, which ended up with rooms, windows, and even concrete furniture haphazardly placed.

High School again.

Next we went to the Philadephia Zoo.

Kristine's favorite, the zebras.

My favorite, the penguinos.

It was fun to visit Doylestown again. Fun to share my past with my future.