We Officially Have a Climber!

So my nephew Jimmy is a natural born climber. He has the strongest grip and can pull himself up onto almost anything... just like his mother Rosie (my sister) who was found at the top of a 8 foot bookshelf at about 14 months old when my own mother turned her back for a couple of minutes. So anyway, I was pretty impressed that Jimmy was such a good climber but kind of glad that Lena was not, so that I didn't have to worry about her getting onto high and dangerous things... well, like I always say, I am always amazed at how smart these little ones are. Lena learned from Jimmy's example and a couple weeks after he was climbing she was in on the action. :)

Here's Jimmy after he climbed up onto a chair.

And here is Lena following in his example. :)

She can Cough on Demand!

I was playing with Lena yesterday evening at my parents house and she was drinking some orange juice from her sippy cup when some went down the wrong tube. She starting coughing to get it out of her airway and when she was clearly done coughing she looked over to me, smiled and then let out a fake cough. She was so proud of herself. Now she will cough on demand. I tell her to cough, she smiles and lets out the cutest little fakest cough you could ever imagine. :) That's my girl!

There She Goes...

It happened! We took my little sister Eva to the MTC yesterday. Right after dropping her off I felt more excited for her than sad for her leaving. It was really exciting to see the missionaries there ready to pick her up and help her bring her luggage into the MTC. It was excited to think of her going into this new place with a LOT of structure but at the same time a LOT of learning and adventure. I was excited for her to have all of it organized for her and planned for her. :) In fact, on the way home when I was riding in the car with Randy and Lena, and I said to Randy "I'm hungry for an adventure! ... I wish I could go to Italy for a couple of years!" Randy reassured me that he would take me to Italy and that we would have an adventure.

Well, that got me to thinking... the other day a co-worker of mine reminded me of the movie "Up" and how at the end, the main character reads the note from his wife, Ellie, thanking him for the adventure. They never got around to going on a big trip but she was able to realize that living, in and of itself, is an adventure. As I thought of this I looked over at my baby girl mimicking my "washing" actions with her washcloth and rubbing her tummy with it. Later that night she drank from a BIG glass of water all by herself without dumping it down her front. My life is full of amazing things and I need to remember that even if we aren't leaving to a foreign country for a couple of years or going on a big trip, every day is so amazing and precious. I'm so grateful for MY adventure, for my Randy, for my Lena and for my life. I'm excited to be able to spend the rest of my life with them and to have the adventure of love and life together with them. :)

So anyway, last night it really hit me that my little sister was gone for a whole 18 months! I looked at my fridge and noticed a drawing she left on it and began to really realize that I couldn't call her whenever I wanted. I'm really going to miss that. Today is really hard, coming to terms with the fact that she's gone for 18 months. I'm so excited for her, but it will be hard not having her with us, though I'm sure it will go fast. :) I already sent her a letter and will probably send another one today. Hopefully she won't get sick of them!

I'm so proud of her for her decision to serve the Lord. Ti volio bene Sorella Comollo! :)

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

The day started when we all met at my parents house

Lena found a potato and climbed up onto a chair by the table... did I mention she can climb now?

Rosie got Eva a charm bracelet to remember us by, this is her getting ready to put it on Eva :)

Here is Sam on the big day. That shirt makes his eyes look EXTRA blue. :)

One last silly kissy face picture with Eva before she leaves. (It's one of the things that sisters to best right? ;) )

Here's Jimmy standing by all of Eva's luggage.

My dad and I on the big "last" day.

Last but not least, Rosie and Alex brought everyone patries from Gormandies french pastry shop. It was one of Eva's last requests. :) They are so sweet!

We then made our way to good old Provo, Utah (where Eva was born) to get some lunch at Five Star BBQ. It is a really good BBQ place owned by Sam's good friend:

This is my cousin Matt (who served his mission in Chile.. where Randy served his and who also works at the MTC now), my Aunt Linda and my dad. :)

My cousins Brian and Courtney with Eva. :)

After lunch we headed over to meet across the street from the MTC. Since we were car-a-vanning and knew we wouldn't be able to bring more than one car in to drop Eva off at the MTC so we wanted to meet across the street first to say our last goodbyes:

Lena fell asleep in the car on the short trip from Lunch to the MTC... she was a tired girl.

One last family picture.

And Eva with Sam since he was the one taking the family picture :)

One last picture with Eva. :) Well, one of the last ones. :)

Then, last but not least, my mom, Rosie, Eva and I made our way to the MTC to drop her off. It was pretty quick, they have you pull over at a number (ours was #13) and missionaries are ready to grab your luggage and whisk you off. We did have just enough time to take a couple of very last pictures:

There's the Elder who helped grabbed Eva's luggage.

I think my mom hugged Eva for at least one whole minute... I know I shouldn't have been, but the teenager in me made me feel just a little embarrassed.. that's what mom's do best right? ;) jk

A gentleman who was dropping off his own son right in front of us said he would take a picture of us all together if we did the same for him and his family... sounded like a good idea to us so of course we agreed. :)

Comollo Family Pictures 2011

Here are just a few of them: :)

Left to Right:

Alex, Rosie, Jimmy, Eva, Dad(Adriano), Mom(Jerrilynn), Sam, Randy, Lena and Olga

My awesome brothers (including the one from another mother) and husband :)

Alex, Sam and Randy

Me with my beautiful sisters Eva and Rosie

Cute Lena and Jimmy

Lena and Jimmy again :)

Lena of course :)

My beautiful little sister, Eva, who is now in the MTC. I miss her :(

Rosie and her cute family :)

Another big family picture

Me with my little family. :)

She Loves Her Veggies :)

I wish I could say that Lena takes after me when she does so good at eating her fruits and veggies, but I must admit that SHE is the one teaching ME to enjoy some good fruits and veggies in my life. I have never been very good at eating my veggies or even my fruits, but ever since Lena was introduced to food she loved fruits and vegetables. It was so fun having a garden because every time we went to pick tomatoes, cucumbers or zucchini she knew what was happening and would get so excited to eat some good garden-grown veggies. She would find a tomato in the garden and run with full excitement to me or Randy to wash it for her so that she could eat it. I'm also so impressed that she knows that we need to wash them before we eat them. This girl catches on so quick!

Anyway, the other day Randy's mom was preparing a veggie tray for Eva's "farewell" luncheon and I was able to catch a picture of just how excited Lena gets about eating her veggies: :)

What Every Little Kid Should Have at One Point...

A BIG Box!

We recently bought a can rotater for our food storage and it happen to come in a VERY BIG box. After putting it up we both knew exactly what to do with it. We both loved having big boxes to play in as kids, so what better toy was there to give to Lena at the time? I would think nothing. She loves this box! We put some pillows in it and she knows how to climb in and out of it by herself now. She will sit in there while I'm looking through the mail and ads and mimick me by reading the papers she finds. She will grab a book and sit inside it to read it. It is the cutest thing to watch her make it her own little space and have so much fun with it. :)

Lena's First Time in the Snow!

I admit that we probably waited until it was a little bit too dark to take Lena out into the freezing cold snow, but we weren't used to the whole getting-dark-super-early thing yet. It was fun dressing her up in the snow suit we bought her before she was born. I put her in her snow pants and coat and then told her to sit down so I could put her boots on... well, she couldn't sit down! I sat her down on the stair and she immediately popped back into straight position on the steps because her snow suit was too poofy. I have to say it was classic, and I wasn't expecting it so it was even more funny! :) Here are some pictures of her in the snow:

What has Lena been up to lately?

Okay, so I've had a lot of pictures to document that tell a lot of the story, but there is also a lot that happens behind the pictures. I want to remember them and write them down before I forget.

What Lena has been saying lately:
- Wa! (Walk)
- Bub-bo (Bubble)
- Bob-bo (Bottle)
- ish (Fish)
- Up
- Gone! (with both hands up)
- Done! (with both hands up)
- Go! (while nudging Jimmy or someone else to move) :)
- Wa, wa, wa, wa (while reading a book)
- Ba! (Bath)
- Coo-kie
- Cah-coh (Cracker)
- Mm (while nodding, when asked "is that good?"
- Appy (Happy)
- Ap- po (Apple)
- Woof, Woof (when asked "what does the doggy say?")
- Pup-py (puppy)
- Dog-gy (Doggy)
- Meow (when she sees a picture of a kitty)

What Lena has been doing lately:
- She has been reading a lot by herself lately (out loud)
- She licks pictures of food in her books
- She climbs into her love sac to read a book
- She jumps! :)
- She feeds bottles to Jimmy
- She stroked Jimmy's hair the other day while he was eating his bottle
- She shares her binky with her Teddy Bears while making a slurping sound
- She "blows her nose" by holding the tissue up to her mouth and blowing from her mouth
- She blows when things are HOT
- She is feeding herself really well with a spoon and fork
- She can stack blocks three or more high
- She likes to cook with me
- She tries on everyone's shoes
- She brushes her teeth (mostly)
- She brushes her hair
- She gives daddy kisses and says "bye bye" while waving
- She blows kisses. :)
- She likes to be chased in order to get kisses from her :)
- She teases, pretending to come give you a kiss than stop and run the other direction when she's right next to you :)
- She entertains herself in her carseat :)

Blocks and Names :)

Here is one of the fun things that Sam did with the babies while we were playing at my moms house one day. :)

And of course my camera did the funky thing where the pictures are sideways... so sorry!

Enjoying Fall :)

Here's a small example of how much fun Lena had playing in the leaves:

The Babies Can't Get Enough of Nonna.

My mom is an amazing woman!!! And she LOVES her grandbabies! She is so nice to watch them every Thursday when Rosie and I are at work. She has so much fun with them and teaches them so much! They both like to crawl up on her lap to read with her. I saw them doing this the other day and was able to get some pictures!

Lena Lovin' Pictures of Herself :)

Lena really loves her time with books. She likes reading them with us and lately she has even been taking them and reading them too herself. It is so cute to hear her little voice make noises as though she were reading the books. :) She has also taken a liking to looking at pictures of herself when she was a baby. It was fun to watch her recognize all of the friends and family in her life when looking at the pictures.

Music by Sam :)

My brother Sam is an AMAZING guitar player. I remember times when I was younger when my whole family would just sit around some evenings and listen to him play his guitar. He has written a lot of really good songs that I love to hear and could listen to them over and over. He pulled his guitar out the other day when I was over at the house with Lena. Lena had a ball dancing to his music. :) Here are a couple of pictures of him playing:

Shoe Obsession!

From the fact that Lena would kick off her shoes every time I put them on her when she was an infant, I would never guess that she would be OBSESSED with wearing them later in life. Lena LOVES shoes. And they don't have to be her own shoes. She will put on any shoes that she can get her hands on, or should I say feet. ;) The ONLY time Lena will for sure sit down for me is if it means she gets to put some shoes on. I think she first found this love when she figured out that putting shoes on means going outside (her first love). :) Here are a couple picture of her trying on some "bigger" shoes.

I was so surprised when she got these shoes on BY HERSELF and started walking around in them. They are like six inches tall and even I have a hard time walking in them. :P

While she was able to get them on by herself the first time, she never turned down help from her Zio Sam. :)

Here's a picture from a different day of her wearing my shoes.