We made it to swim class today, much to Alexandra’s delight. While she always enjoys being in the water, she was quite the little fish today. (I would say she was “on fire” in the water, but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.) She was splashing and kicking up a storm.

Yay for daddy-daughter time!

Her favorite part of class was the graduation to the “Run, Run, Jump” instead of the normal “slide” into the water. Basically, she held onto Ian and Teacher May’s hands to “walk” on the mat and then jumped into the water. We foresee many cannonballs in our future.

It’s hard to capture her speed on film.

As an extra bonus, our neighbors Mike and Karen joined our swim class. We had mentioned that we went to La Petite Baleen, and it turned our class was the only one with two openings. However, we didn’t realize this until we got to the pool, which made for a fun surprise and a fun impromptu playdate. (With our next-door neighbors. 10 miles from home. Let’s all ignore the irony and just enjoy the moment.)

With our neighbors Karen and Mike (holding their twins, Sienna and Easton).

The milestones keep on coming … Alexandra has graduated to the “big kid” highchair at restaurants.

First highchair, at Jack’s of couse. Bonus: fun cup to eat. (January 18th)

We also finally set up the highchair at home, now that we’ve finally put the Christmas tree away. (Thanks again to Aunt Corrine for the snazzy chair!)

Just before the inaugural meal. (January 23rd)

… and after said meal …

And a bonus picture. Alex and I surprised Ian at LeapFrog the other week and went out for lunch:

Daddy-daughter. This picture melts me. (January 10th)

The title would flow better on Friday, but I didn’t want to wait that long to post.

Not many new pictures this week, so here’s a blast from the past (i.e., last month). I realized that I never posted pictures from when Ruth and Jack (Nana and Granddad, Ian’s parents) visited in December. They swung by San Mateo after Annie and Nicole’s wedding in Seattle. (When you live in Florida, Seattle to San Mateo is pretty close.) Also, a few pictures from Alex’s 5-month birthday. The picture was a Christmas gift for Grams and Grandpa*, hence the delay in posting.

Happy Alex, post-bottle. Thanks to Nana and Granddad for baby-sitting while they were in town! (December 18th)

Granddad introduces Alexandra to the wide world of Apple.

At brunch. Great shot of Miss A’s big blue eyes.

Cutest cheerleader ever. (December 19th)

Alex’s “what’chu talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” face.

Alexandra has been babbling for a while now, but in the last few days, she started saying “da.” Specifically, she tends to say “ah-da!” which seems to mean either (a) dog, (b) cat, (c) look at me, (d) now, or (e) none of the above. We’re not quite sure. And, in heart-melting moments, she sometimes will say “dada,” though not yet while looking at Ian.

In other news, Bo seems to have completely accepted Alex’s version of “petting,” which consists of her patting him a few times, then grabbing his fur while giggling gleefully.

Great shot of Alex sitting up. (I put her in the position; she can’t quite get there on her own yet.) I especially like the look on Bo’s face here. This is when he starts to cave.

We are very lucky that Bo is a very patient dog.

Bo has surrendered.

Another milestone this week: Alexandra can sit up unassisted. Granted, she can’t get there on her own, but once we sit her up, she can stay that way (until she lunges for something).

We’ll try to get a worthwhile picture of said milestone. In the meantime, enjoy these pics of Alex’s first trip to the dog park (on December 28th). She LOVED the dog park and giggled for about five minutes straight upon arrival.

All giggles.

Hi doggie!

Bo also enjoyed his time at the park.

Impromptu tummy time.

Happy New Year! We here at Casa Casanova hope you had a wonderful holiday. LeapFrog shut down over the holidays, so we enjoyed having Ian home for a week and a half. I took advantage of the child care to run exciting errands like taking the car to the dealer for service. Alexandra enjoyed having Daddy around, showering him with love (if you assume drool = love).

We had a great time celebrating Miss A’s first Christmas; many thanks to all of you out there who contributed to her very exciting day of paper-eating.

And, now, your first dose of cuteness in 2013:

First bit of tissue paper excitement.

This musical block is a HUGE hit with Alex. (And, thankfully, not very annoying. They did a nice job concatenating the music.)

The onesie says “Future Secretary of State.” Next internet meme: Texts from Alexandra.

She already has the cheerleader outfit; now she has the football jersey. It is the 21st century and all.

The best part of this pic is the look on Bo’s face. He’s clearly remembering Christmases past when he was the center of attention.

Alexandra shows Grandpa her “Hail” motion* after unwrapping a large portion of the M-Den catalogue, courtesy of Grams and Grandpa. (*For the uninitiated, this is a key part of University of Michigan’s fight song, “Hail to the Victors.”)

Best gift ever.