Instant friends

This past Friday night, Sonia and I ventured into the city to meet up with Andrew and have dinner with one of our college friends (Marina), her husband (Alvaro), and their kids (Cecelia and Rafael).  It was really nice catching up with Marina and getting to know Alvaro a little better, but the best part was watching 4-year-old Cecelia and almost-3-year-old Sonia become immediate best buddies.

First, they colored and played with stickers while we waited for our food.

After the kids finished eating, we adults continued eating and talking, and suddenly, the girls were playing under the table.

Rafael was too busy vrooming cars and looking really adorable!

After dinner, Sonia and Cecelia wanted to run around screwy-louie, so we let them run up and down Cedar Street for a bit while Rafael chilled in the stroller.  When we told the girls it was time to say goodbye, they gave each other big hugs.

It was so nice seeing you, Marina!  Your family is awesome and we really wish that Seattle was much closer to Chicago.  Hopefully we'll get to see you again sooner rather than later....

Puppies puppies puppies!

Yesterday, Sosini and I met seven wriggling, squirming, chomping, ADORABLE little Vizsla puppies!  They are about 40 days old, and they will be going to their permanent homes soon.  Those families are so lucky to be getting such ridiculously cute little pups!  Sonia loved the puppies so much....  Thank you to our wonderful Vizsla breeding friends, Jodi & Dan ( of Tru Vizslas), for inviting us to play with these sweet bundles of puppy joy!

Sonia could not stop smiling when she looked at these hilarious little puppies.

Snuggles!!!

SLURP!

I have no clue why Blogger loaded this next picture sideways, and I can't figure out how to fix it.  But check out the pup nomming on Sonia's right shoe-- hilarious!  Sonia kept saying, "I'm not food!"

Just chilling....

Help!

After the puppies romped for about 45 minutes, they decided to snuggle in my lap for a snooze.  ALL SEVEN PUPPIES!  I was ecstatic.

Sonia took this next picture!

It was so good to see you & the boys, Jodi.... and we always love to see your menagerie of pets, too!

Blast off!

Two weeks ago, the parents of the kids in Sonia's Stepping Stones class received a request for giant cardboard boxes.  Coincidentally, Andrew and I had just bought some new deck furniture which came in a giant cardboard box.  It was a tiny bit beat up, but Sonia's teacher said it would work perfectly, so she came by our house to pick it up.  Sosini thought it was HILARIOUS when Miss Eileen was here....  Seeing a teacher outside of the classroom is always an event!

Anyway, it turns out that Miss Eileen had the kids help her turn the box into a rocket ship!  She put a small chair inside, and the kids took turns going inside to experience blasting off (which, apparently, consisted of the teachers shaking the box and making rocket noises).  All three Stepping Stones classes are taking turns decorating the box with their artwork (Sonia's artwork is the green sheet of paper just above her head in the picture below) and becoming astronauts.

Miss Kelley told me that Sonia got to put the "wings" on the rocket ship (sliding cardboard tubes through holes in the sides), and she was incredibly excited about it, grinning and carrying the wings all over the classroom.  So fun!!  Unfortunately, I hadn't brought my purse into the classroom with me, so the picture above was taken with my cell phone camera.  But, you get the idea of how cute this whole activity was...  Hurray for creative preschool teachers!

Random April fun

10 months ago, my sister got me the most hilarious crocheted cats picture/pattern book (Amineko, which is Japanese for "crochet cat").  After Sonia and I happily read the book together all that time, I finally got off my booty and crocheted Sonia an amineko!  She loved it so much that the first thing she said was, "Can you make me another one?"  Sheesh, child!  Gimme a chance to rest my sore fingers!  A few minutes later, I walked into the room to find this scene:

Sonia and I immediately introduced Amineko to the book from whence she came:

Here are a couple of pictures of Shutterbug Sosini in action:

On Easter Sunday, we got the rare chance to spend some quality time with one of Andrew's childhood friends, Zahir.  He lives in Houston now, so we don't get to see him all that much....  That is a tragedy, because he is so much fun!  Sonia thinks Zahir rules, partially because he's a nice guy and partially because he brought her an awesome dinosaur toy.  While Zahir was here, Andrew cooked us all some hamburgers and hard-boiled a bunch of eggs.  I realized I had forgotten to buy egg dye, so we decided to decorate our Easter eggs with random stuff we had on hand.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the finished products, but suffice to say, they were a bit odd-looking.

Zahir took this great picture of us....  We really do need to remember to take more family portraits!

After Zahir had to leave to head back home, we got together with a bunch of neighbors to hunt for Easter eggs.  Sonia had a great time!

We love that strawberry dress!  I'm amazed that it still fits, because my mom bought it for Sonia last July!

More from the shutterbug

On Easter Sunday, Sonia took A LOT of pictures of Zahir, Andrew's longtime friend who was in town for a wedding.  She was quite enamored with him!  I love this particular one because if you look carefully, you can see Margie inside the house, sleeping.

Shutterbug Sosini

After having at least 8,000,000 pictures taken of her and seeing videos of her cousin taking pictures with a cool pink camera, Sonia recently decided that it was her turn to get behind the camera.  I finally gave in to her begging & pleading and let Sonia wander around the house with my small point-and-shoot camera (which I normally carry in my purse).  I taught her how to use the camera and to handle it with care (threatening that if she mistreated the camera I would take it away instantly), then let her loose.  Oh... my... goodness....  The child was in HEAVEN.  She has a complete blast taking pictures of everything-- cats, toys, furniture, herself, the guys working on our deck, my butt....  When I downloaded the pictures to the computer last night and viewed all 442 of them (holy cow, no wonder I had to charge the camera battery afterward!), I laughed harder than I have in a long time.  Seeing the world through a toddler's camera lens is highly amusing.  Here are a few highlights from her very first "roll" of pictures (thank goodness for digital cameras that don't use expensive film!!).

While she was learning how to press the camera's picture-taking button effectively, she took a LOT of pictures like this one-- you can see a bit of her belly, her feet, and the camera's wrist strap.

Sonia: "Hmmm.... I wonder what happens when I look at the lens while I press the button?  ACK-- that flash is bright!" (Not sure why the blog program uploaded this picture sideways, but oh well.)

When I showed her the cake pops that I had decorated after she went to bed the previous evening, she wanted to take a picture of one of them.

Again, I'm not sure why the blog program uploaded this picture sideways, but it looks even artsier that way.

I forgot she was still holding the camera when I let her watch an episode of her beloved Busytown Mysteries.  She took about 30 pictures of the TV screen and managed to capture images of the whole mystery-solving gang.

Sosini was fascinated by the 3 workmen who were at our house all day, replacing the skyward facing parts of our wood decks with composite.  She took this picture of the very beginning of the lower deck's demolition.

Yes, this is not the most flattering picture of me, but I find it fascinating for 2 reasons: 1) You never think about what you look like to someone who is significantly shorter than you, and 2) It reminds me that I multi-task a lot-- brushing my teeth while checking my cell phone's voice mail, in this instance.

Sosini liked capturing the kitties through her camera lens.

She took a ton of pictures in the mirror.  I like this one because you can see me in the background, checking on the progress of the rooftop deck off of our master bedroom.

LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I think this one was in the mirror, but I'm not sure.  Look at those baby blues!

Drooping piggy tails....

I love this picture of Andrew....

Sonia took a bunch more pictures today, but I haven't looked at them yet.  I can imagine the insanity that awaits me on that SD card....

Daffodils!

It's that time again....  Daffodils at the arboretum!

Unfortunately, the yellow daffodils are just about done (up until today, every time we planned to go take pictures, weather kept foiling our plans), but the white ones looked pretty!

Yes, I know she's hugging an old metal stake, but I thought she looked too cute in this next picture!

Sosini is looking so grown-up to me these days....  A lot of it has to do with her hair finally growing in!  Here is one of last year's daffodil pictures:

Whoa! Who is that almost-2-year-old?  Here's a picture from 2 years ago:

Who is that little hair-challenged beauty?!?

I love these daffodil pictures....  And I love the Morton Arboretum!