Fashion Friday #2: PJs and Sundresses

For today's photo shoot, we've got both pajamas and party dresses. It is New Year's Eve, after all!

First: a very sweet Old Navy 0-3 month onesie from the Sevin family. I dug this one out of her piles of new 12-24 month clothes. I'm glad I found it, because it is nearly too small. (The sleeves are already a bit to short!) You can't see it clearly from this photo, but there is a little breast pocket that says, "cozy" in cursive script. Cute!

Her next outfit is a bright green "sundress." I put that in quotes because it is actually a onesie that buttons in the crotch. But it looks very summery! It's made by Genuine Baby by OshKosh. Thanks to the Snow family for this adorable outfit.
Finally, a *real* sundress! This cute polka dot /striped number is a 3M Circo dress is also from the Snow family. Clearly we love their taste!


Happy New Year!

The Truth Comes Out

Today Aviva is wearing s shirt that tells the truth about how things operate in our household since her arrival. In case you can't tell from the photo above, here's the close-up of it:
And it's true. Everything about our lives - schedules, activities, travel plans - is now determined by her. How can such a little person have so much power???

More Stuff!

On Wednesday, our layette shipment arrived: a few hundred pounds of goodies from the US! Most of it was more clothes for Aviva, courtesy of the Sevin family, but Jeff, Brianne, and Ellen threw in some very exciting goodies for us adults as well, including Skippy peanut butter and lots of chocolate chips. Many thanks to Jeff and Brianne for allowing us to ship the goods from their house, and for buying us some much-craved items. Thanks to Ellen for the yummy heirloom balsamic vinegar!

Here Aviva is supervising as we unpack.

Put Your Hands Together

Not only can Aviva eat her hands, but now she can put her two hands together (and usually then tries to jam them both into her mouth.) Here she looks very proper, but sometimes she holds her hands together in a diabolical way, like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.

Grumpy Baby

We realized that we've posted only photos showing Aviva as a happy, smiling, delightful baby. She is all of those things, most of the time. But sometimes...

...she gets mad for no reason. We love her hat, which was a gift from Phil and Libby. Thanks, guys! It looks like she hates the hat, but really she was just cranky. You may not be able to tell, but she has tears in her eyes and was screaming (even with the pacifier in her mouth.)


...she gets mad when we give her a bottle. This photo was taken seconds before she got really furious.


...she gets mad when we wake her up from a nap. In the photo below, we had not only woken her up from a nap, but then we took all her clothes off! What mean parents we are! (She has to be naked for her weekly weigh-in.)

...she gets grumpy when we talk about her weight. You can't really blame her. She probably thinks it's none of our business!

In case you're wondering why we sound kinda tired...it's because of moments like these, which we're glad we captured on camera, since they are pretty funny (now that they're over!)

Aviva's First Safari

On Christmas Day, we drove to Mbuluzi Game Reserve, which is a private game park in Swaziland. ("Private" just means the park is not owned and operated by the government, and in fact the lodges at Mbuluzi are owned by individual families.) We stayed in the Mphangele Lodge, which was very nice, but way too big for the three of us!
We spent some time on the very nice deck overlooking a tributary of the Mbuluzi River.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring any of the three carriers we have for Aviva, so she had to experience the game reserve being carried the old fashioned way.
On Sunday we saw some zebras and giraffes from our car, but Aviva was asleep. Oh well. Maybe on her next safari she'll be awake for the animals.

Fashion Friday #1

As many of you know, Aviva has an enormous amount of beautiful clothing, thanks to the Sevin twins, and to our many other friends and family who have sent us dozens of gorgeous outfits. Well, for those of you that are far away, I (Callista) have decided to do Fashion Fridays for a while to show off some of Aviva's great stuff. (Yes, I am bored.) Anyway, this first outfit is a Zutano 0-6 month one piece outfit from our friend Betsy. Thanks, Betsy! We love this one. As you can see from the close-up photo above, it features lots of animals that live here in Swaziland: zebras, lions, elephants, and giraffes. So Aviva feels right at home in it.



The outfit below is from our friends, Dan, Marta, and their girls Isabella and Lucy. It is by Circo, and although the tag says it is for a newborn, it fits Aviva perfectly! We love the colors, and we especially that is feminine without being only light pink! Thanks to the Snow family for it (and the other outfits they sent us, which will be featured on future Fridays!)

Zoe's Visit

In mid-December, we were thrilled to have our friend Zoe visiting us from Los Angeles. Zoe is a friend and colleague of my (Callista's) very good friend from college, Dara, and Zoe was visiting Swaziland to research her new novel. We all, including Aviva, had a fantastic time hosting Zoe and hearing about her ideas for the new book. We'll miss you, Zoe!

Nice hat!

One more random photo from the weekend that I forgot to post earlier. Peter likes to take Aviva for walks in the early evening, and one night it was too cold for them to go out with her head uncovered. So she wore this very cute hat made by our friend, Jenny. Thanks, Jenny!

Brunch at Jessi and Uri's House

Last weekend we went to good-bye brunch for our friend Birgit (and her daughter, Mira.) The brunch was at Jessi and Uri's house, so we got to see how big Asher is and meet another three-month-old baby! Aviva got to visit with lots of friends.

Jessi and Asher looked at the camera while Mira hid under the baby gym.
Our friend Gwynneth held Asara, who is about two weeks older than Aviva:
Aviva hung out with Veki for a while...

...but fell asleep when Gwynneth held her later.
Mira spent a lot of time eating cherries:
But later posed with her mom, Birgit.

We had a very nice time and wish Birgit and Mira Bon Voyage! They are headed to their next home in Mozambique.

Happy Three Month Birthday!

Today is Aviva's three-month birthday!

We took one monthly photo in the same onesie she wore last month - a very cute one, courtesy of our friend Laura. Thanks, Laura! Since we also wanted to show off one of her new shirts, we also took a photo with her in her jeans and pink shirt.

To see all of her monthly photos together, click here.

Sobhiyozo Preschool Graduation

In early December, I (Callista) had the opportunity to attend graduation at Sobhiyozo Preschool, not too far from our house. Sobhiyozo was co-founded and is heavily supported by one of Peter's co-workers, Khosi.
The graduation was outside, and the graduates (mostly five year-olds) even had homemade caps and gowns! They recited lots of facts, such as the names of the days of the week, and each one introduced him- or herself. It was very cute.

Khosi was one of the speakers:

July and August Posts...and Comments!

We're not sure why, but we never posted descriptions and photos of some key events from July and August. So now you can click on the following links to our earlier posts:

• The party Jeff and Brianne threw for us in Westport
• A day trip to Yale University
  
• Our afternoon at Candlewood Lake (Connecticut)
  
• A visit from Roger and Barbara
  
• Our side trip to Mozambique with Phil and Libby
  

Also, we are happy to report that we've resolved our earlier issue with publishing our readers' comments. If you've commented on our blog in the past, your comments should now be published below the relevant post. Apologies for the delay - keep those comments coming! We love reading them.

Enjoy!

Happy Hanukkah and Happy Birthdays

Recently we've been spending a lot of time at the home of our friends, Natalie and Uriel, and their two children, Liam and Tessa.

Last Wednesday was the first night of Hanukkah, so we went over for dinner and the lighting of the candles. Natalie prepared a beautiful table with lots of good food: chicken schnitzel, potato latkes, and a green salad.
Uriel read the blessings, and Aviva participated in her usual way - by sleeping.
Uriel's brother Mattias is visiting, and he helped Liam and Tessa light the candles.
Later Aviva did wake up, and she even gave a few smiles to Tessa.
On Saturday, we went back to their home for the double birthday party of Liam and Tessa, who are turning 5 and 3, respectively.
Aviva enjoyed watching all the kids playing.
Finally, this photo isn't from the recent celebrations, but it was taken last week also. When Aviva and I were discharged from the hospital, they gave us lots of baby stuff, including a red and white striped onesie. It was so huge on her that we didn't put her in it much, but in the last couple of weeks, it's been fitting her perfectly. It's hard for us to tell, since we see her everyday, but apparently she's been growing a lot!

New stuff!

When you're only ten weeks old, nearly everything you experience is brand new. During the last few days, Aviva has tried lots of exciting new things.

On Sunday we went to Jessi and Uri's house for brunch, and Aviva got to try Asher's toys: a Bumbo chair and rattles that strapped to her wrists:


The Bumbo was a little big for her, but she gave us a big smile when she first sat in it.

Later she tried out Asher's sunglasses! (You can't tell here, but she was squirming because she didn't like the strap that held them to the back of her head. She'll have to learn to be cool later.)
Sunday afternoon we drove down to Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, and Aviva went for her first swim. She was very calm and seemed to enjoy it. It helped her cool off a bit, as Sunday afternoon was pretty hot.

Monday it was very cold, so Aviva tried on her first pair of blue jeans. (She wanted low-rise jeans, but I told her that her cloth diapers make her bottom quite large, so this baggy fit would be more flattering.)
Coming up: Aviva's first Hanukkah!

Grandma Ellen's Visit, Part 2: Aviva Sleeps

We've been so busy doing fun stuff with Aviva's Grandma Ellen that we haven't even had time to post photos!

Friday night we had Shabbat dinner, as usual. Grandma Ellen lit the candles, and we enjoyed a beautiful loaf of challah baked by Phetsile, our housekeeper. Aviva, as usual, showed her excitement by falling asleep thereafter.






On Saturday, Peter and Ellen went on a short game drive at Hlane National Park.
Later that night, Aviva had her typical response to a nice warm bottle of milk. Falling asleep. We took the opportunity to make fun of her and take funny pictures.

She didn't seem to mind.