America's Next Top Model

V's new coat is just so cute, we had to have a photo session one recent morning before she went to her grandmother's house for the day. It took about 50 attempts to get these 3 photos, but we kept trying. Her career as a toddler model will never get off the ground if we don't start training her now, right?

Runway V

Casual V


Mysterious V

Let It Snow!

Being from from the South, the VeggieBruces get VERY excited when it snows! We got up early and saw that the predicted midnight flurries had turned into real snow and I immediately ran into V's room, wrapped her in a blanket and carried her outside to enjoy a rare occurrence of snow in Raleigh! I apologize that it is dark video...but then again, it was 6:45 in the morning...

I've tried to get her to go back outside now that the sun is up and she says simply, "No thank you Mama!" and waves to our poor cat popsicle meowing to come in off the back deck. What can I say? She's a Southern girl, too! :)

All better...in under 24 hours!

From cartoon watching on Daddy's lap yesterday morning:

To running around playing with her toys:

All in under 24 hours...hooray!

101.5 degrees of love

Poor V woke up with a fever this morning at 5:30. Luckily Ibuprofen works wonders and she was feeling good enough to dance around during cartoons while her mother tried desperately to fall back asleep on the couch before 7 a.m. She had to skip school this morning and go straight to Queenie's house...where she read 1,000 books and watched all her favorite cartoons for much longer than usual. There has to be SOME upside to being sick, right?

T captured her super cute "feel sorry for me" face on the way over to her grandmother's house...hopefully tomorrow she'll be back up to full speed. Or in her case, I'll settle for 1/2 speed and still feel exhausted.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

I often think of that Johnny Cash song on Sunday morning after staying up too late on Saturday night. All I want to do is drink several cups of coffee and read the paper, but alas, V the Energizer Bunny has other plans for us.

This is what we did from 8 a.m. until 9 a.m. Over and over. And she made me and T take turns doing it too. Over and over. Not so fun when you go to bed at 2 a.m.

Holiday training...

No, I'm not talking about stretching your stomach so you can eat one more round of Maw Maw's sweet potato casserole!

No, we are just so SURE we will be invited to a TON of holiday parties (and since babysitters are sooo darn expensive) we are training V to be the LIFE OF THE PARTY.

Who wouldn't want to be entertained with fabulous singing?

And if you need someone to count how many cookies (or drinks?!) you've had, she's handy:

We're currently working on perfecting her DJ Lance Rock dance and she'll be ready for the ThanksgivingChristmasNewYears party!

Gratitude

WARNING: CHEESE AHEAD

There are many reasons I love my husband- he's a hard worker, he's creative, he loves to vacuum after I leave for work and, of course, he's totally cute.

A week or so ago when I mentioned that I'd like to take a trip to DC for my dear friend Steph's baby shower with girlfriend Vicki WITHOUT OUR CHILDREN, he was totally cool. "Sure," he said, "no problem. V and I will have a Daddy-daughter weekend!"

I thought surely as the weekend got closer he'd panic.

I thought once he learned I'd cleverly scheduled her flu shot for the day before I left, he'd insist I stay home in case she got sick.

Nope!

He sent my phone no fewer than 12 pictures documenting their trips to the flea market, the park, the pub, Marbles, whatever. He fed her ice cream for lunch. He let her play in mud. They had a blast.

So in honor of T, I wrote an original piece of music. Watch the video below to enjoy V's rendition of "Daddy is the Best" by Emily Bruce.

I have a future in the music industry, right?

ELECTION 2008

From the mouths of babes...




GOOOOOBAMA!

P.S. Tres has cursed yet another candidate...as of this post the NC Senate race has been called and Elizabeth Dole has lost to Kay Hagan. Maybe we're glad he didn't get sent to Chicago to cover the Obama victory party?!

Happy Halloween

Despite V responding "nope!" every single time I asked her if she wanted to go trick-or-treating this year, T & I braved a neighborhood full of ghosts and goblins so that our toddler could beg candy from neighbors and strangers.

Clearly I thought Tres was taking a picture in this video; sorry for the prolonged perma-smile.

V is in a "mama, mama, mama" mode so she made me carry her door-to-door in our cul-de-sac.

Once she realized she was getting candy that she could keep she got very enthusiastic about trick-or-treating.

Only one of our neighbors was home (and might I note that we did not get a SINGLE trick-or-treater? Weight gain is in our future) so we decided to drive to our old street across the neighborhood to see former neighbors and V admirers on Powell Drive. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a squirmy 22 month old in a fuzzy pegasus costume into a car seat?

After ringing 8 door bells we headed home with a bag 1/2 full of candy and a hungry toddler .

I really planned on being a mean mother who wouldn't give her child any candy but I caved. It was totally worth it to see her so excited about dark chocolate. I think it was the only moment of the night when she enjoyed Halloween as much as we did!