The Maxted Family: Vanessa do it

This may be our last blog before they cutoff our Internet at our old house. We should be moved into our new one this Saturday. The double closing went great today, and Sarah and I even got hugs from the old owners. I guess they had lived in the house for almost 30 years and they were very happy to see a young family moving in. Vanessa meanwhile apparently had a blast attending a music class with a friend.

Vanessa is very much a kid now and no longer a baby. She understands what we say now and is very opinionated as to what she wants to do. One of her favorite mumblings is Nessus, which translates to Vanessa do it. She is very explicit in where Dada needs to sit and where Mama needs to sit, what songs she wants to listen to, what clothes she wants to wear, what she wants to eat, etc. She can put her boots on by herself is and getting better at doing her pants with a little bit of help. She also has discovered a love for tape measure. She'll grab one, open it up and say "Big" and put her hands out wide. Then she'll close it and say "small".

One funny story before I get to the pictures. This weekend we drove to the Eastern Shore to see Sarah's high school friend Pete get married. We stayed at Grandpa and Grandma Kaylor's house and Vanessa wasn't too happy about a new room with different music in a different bed with her parents in the same room. We had just started to get her settled down when fireworks starting going off next door. I guess because it was warm for the first time they were itching to set them off. Knowing that we would have to restart the process again, I picked her up and we watched the fireworks. After each firework she would say "More?", except for the last one which was a series of loud thundercrackers. The next morning, she woke up in her bed, said "Dada" and "Up", then once I gave her a hug, she said "Down". After putting her down, she immediately ran over to the window where we saw fireworks and she said "More?" and made the sign language sign for fire. She was very disappointed when I told her that she doesn't get fireworks on demand. ;)

Here Grace and Vanessa are jamming on the piano. Vanessa has gotten much better at sharing lately. Just don't try to play the keys in front of her though... ;)

Vanessa was really excited about her sunglasses or her orange slices, not sure which.

I often sing the song "Jake the Rattlesnake" that my dad wrote for me when I was a kid to Vanessa. While packing, I actually found Jake the snake that my mom made for me. Needless to say, Vanessa was in heaven. Of course, Jake's in need of some stitches and some laser eye surgery to correct his cracked plastic googly eyes.
Lately Vanessa has been making a very silly face when she's excited and we hadn't been able to capture it on camera. Until now. Here she and Mommy share some stir fry.

Here's a better look at whatever that face is.

While we were at Grandpa K's this past weekend, Vanessa took time out from jamming on the guitar to pose for the camera. Not sure what she was posing as, but she deliberately made that pose.
Grandma K took time to indulge Vanessa's nighttime reading habit. Vanessa really liked her reading of Put me in the Zoo.

Vanessa has also become somewhat of a runner lately. She regularly runs laps from our kitchen to the front door like she's doing the shuttle run. At Grandma K, she decides to do about 10 minutes of laps with her Aunt Hannah.

On the way back from the wedding, we stopped at Salisbury Mall in Maryland to see a early childhood development area organized by Grandma. Vanessa didn't know what to do with all the potential stepping stones and/or hats.