Who's the fairest of them all?

We admit it. It's narcissistic. But we discovered that Aviva was willing to give herself a kiss and hug and it's pretty darn cute.

Sunday in Malkerns

Last weekend, we went out for brunch at Swazi Candles. Or rather, we ate brunch at the restaurant in the Swazi Candles complex. Not only is the food great, but there is a playground where Aviva can do her thing while we enjoy our Sunday morning brunch (and I enjoy the crossword!) Aviva can go down the slide by herself now.




Afterwards we went to the Malkerns Country Club for a bit. Aviva coached Peter while he swam laps.


She's a great coach.

Aviva's "baby"

For the last week or so, Aviva has been saying "baby" a lot. Welile has been teaching Aviva how to carry her baby around. You can hear her say a few words in these clips, and I especially like how she bursts onto the scene, Kramer-like, at the beginning.

Gifts! Fun Time Tractor!

Aviva's Grandma Ellen sent her a wonderful Hanukkah gift: a Fun Time Tractor! It is a tractor that moves forward, and has little space for animals and Old McDonald. When you put each animal (or farmer) in the right place, it makes the proper noise.

This video is a bit long, but believe me it's much shorter than the several minutes of footage that I took during the whole opening of the gift. Aviva loves her new toy. Thanks, Grandma Ellen!

Friends of Aviva

For the past few weeks, we've been very busy. Aviva has spent lots of time playing with friends, both old and new.

Here she is with Liam and Tessa. They're just clowning around, but I like that you can see how Aviva loves her cow from Uncle Henry and how she doesn't mind randomly falling down when she's having fun.



One of our neighbors, Nonhle, 8, comes over to hang out with Aviva. When she and her brothers arrive, our guard calls us and says, "The friends of Aviva are here." Here's a very short clip of them together.




Here's another very short clip, of Aviva splashing around with Andrew (about 14 months old):




And just for fun, here's a clip that has nothing to do with Aviva's friends, and everything to do with her looking like a crazy cave baby.

Sneaky baby

For the last month, one of Aviva's favorite activities has been "hiding" behind the armchair in her room. I say "hiding," because, well, this is what it looks like:



It's just not that sneaky. Sometimes she emerges, and then "hides" again while we're watching her.



We play this game with her, I'd say about 12 times a day. She NEVER gets tired of it.

Aviva's duck suit

Warning: this is another video clip in which Aviva is not really doing anything exciting. However, we know that our main audience (grandparents) will still enjoy it.

It's been rainy recently, and we discovered that the Sevin twins gave us another great hand-me-down: a raincoat! Aviva loves going outside, so now we don't have to worry about her clothes getting soaked.