Phalaenopsis

This is our violet Phalaenopsis orchid that we've managed to keep alive for 4 years (even after we stored it on a shelf for a half a year without taking care of it). It seems to bloom once a year so we enjoy it while we can. This one will have 5 flowers on it when it's done. The rest of the year it will grow a new leaf and a bunch of vine like roots that hang over the edge of the pot. We have another smaller orchid that has managed to stay alive also, but hasn't bloomed for a number of years. I guess it's waiting until it's good and ready. These are very determined plants.

Creative Defiance

Mikka has been very creative in her daily exploration of her little world. Keeping her out of everything is an amazing task and not so easy to do. She has come up with some cute strategies of her own when I tell her "no". First, she smiles and looks at me with her big eyes. If that doesn't work and I still refuse her proposal, she puts her fingers in her ears so she can't hear me, then runs away to do something else laughing all the while.

What a little character. She is defiantly becoming her own person. Mikka loves to dance. She laughs and giggles when I spin her around in my arms in circles. Although I get very dizzy and can't do it very long she adores it. Children are like monkeys. Mikka invents dangerous situations out of nothing: climbing on backs of chairs, scaling up things that are impossible to do, and hanging from oven doors. She has created her own little tots gym. She is certainly our little princess. She loves glamorous sunglasses and pink shoes. I can't let her see the shoe aisle without her going on a grabbing spree of the pinkest, shiniest, and the most glittery shoes. I made the mistake of putting chap stick on her and now she must put it on when I use it as well. She loves to say "NO" to everything. I think it is her favorite hobby for now. These are a few of her own little accomplishments and her perception of her growing world around her, and of course mommy and daddy, are always in the center.