Daycare pics of Veronica: Dress-up & Hurley Park

I love that the daycare sends us photos of Veronica at play. She is
loving that elephant rocker.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jen Sweeney Adrienne Pilarski
Date: Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 10:05 AM
Subject: pics of Veronica

Dear Patricia & Adrian,
  Here are a few pictures of Veronica playing at Hurley St park. She
loved going down the slide with Samuel and rocking on the elephant
seat. Enjoy the pictures and have a great day!
 Jen

Wonderland Opening Night!

As most of you know, my brother Jose opened his 5th Broadway show, Wonderland, last weekend on April 17. (This is actually his 6th Broadway show, he took over the part of Angel in Rent.) We were able to go to the opening night show as well as the opening night party afterwards. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but my stepdad took plenty of photos, and there are plenty of photos online, as well. My stepdad grouped his photos into convenient photo montages (thanks, UI!), so I've put them here. (As with all images in this blog, you can click on the images to enlarge them.) This first photo montage shows us outside the theater posing in front of Jose's gigantic poster right smack dab in the middle of Times Square. The lovely lady posing with us is Jose's best friend, Jennifer.

These following two montages show photos from the party after the show. Jose was GREAT in the show and we are all so very proud of him. Wonderland is very entertaining and I encourage you to see it if you are in NYC anytime in the future.

 
Here is a link to the Broadway.com opening night party photos: Wonderland Opening Night Party
and a link to a video montage: Wonderland Performance Preview .
Again, I really encourage you to go see Wonderland. It is a great show and Jose is fantastic in it. And if that's not reason enough, they're apparently discounting tickets of friends and family of the cast right now. Tickets are discounted $45-$74 (from $79-$132). Click here to check out the offer: Wonderland Friends & Family Discount. I really hope you go see the show, let me know if you do!

Bless You!

Veronica seems to be learning as many as 10 new words a day.
Yesterday in the living room, Veronica sat down on her bouncer chair.
Daddy was sitting in the big red chair, so she wanted me to sit down
on something, too. She pointed to the chaise and said, "Mama seat
here."
Then this morning she sneezed and said, "Bless you." I said, "That's
right honey, you sneezed so bless you." Then she responded with,"Bless
you, VeeVee."
So sweet.

Veronica Playing with a Castle

Just like Daddy used to love to do.

Family Photo

Taken by Gramps after Veronica's first time in a theater. She did pretty well and only wanted to wander around 80% of the time. We went to see Japanese Taiko Drumming and were quite impressed with the performance. I was wondering if all of the loud drumming would scare her, but she loved it.

Getting ready for our first Passover Seder dinner

Wonderland Opening Night Party

More photos from the party. I forgot my camera so these were taken with my cell phone. I hope to post more photos soon.

Wonderland Opening Night Party: Jose was incredible! The choreography was also amazing. Go see it!

My brother, living his dream. Seriously, so proud of him!

First time in a swimming pool!

We've taken her to the Cape, but this is her first time in a swimming pool. She's loving it!

Naptime with Daddy and Charlie

Veronica Smiling in the Sun (taken by Lola)

Nerds in Suits

Here is a link from the Volpe Center (where I work) website
recognizing our planning and participation in the ASME JRC Conference
last month.
http://www.volpe.dot.gov/infosrc/highlts/11/march/story2.html

And the text and photo from the link:

Volpe Center Organizes Joint Rail Conference 2011

Nine Volpe Center staffers participated in, and helped to plan and organize, the Joint Rail Conference (JRC) 2011 held this March at the Pueblo Convention Center in Pueblo, CO. This is one of the largest professional rail meetings in the nation, drawing more than 200 attendees from railroads, suppliers, consultants, academia, and government. David Tyrell of the Volpe Center's Physical Infrastructure Systems Center of Innovation chaired the organizing and planning committee for this year's event, which included a keynote speech by RITA Administrator Peter Appel during the conference dinner program. JRC encompassed all aspects of rail transportation and engineering research. Papers were presented on railroad civil, mechanical, electrical, and systems engineering; as well as safety, planning, design, operations, maintenance and management. The Volpe Center's Michelle Muhlanger chaired the "Track 6: Safety and Security" Session and Physical Infrastructure Systems Center of Innovation Director Robert Dorer was the Co-Chair for the Transportation Research Board (TRB). Center attendees made a total of eleven presentations on recent projects and ten papers by Volpe Center authors are included in the conference proceedings. Other members of the Volpe Center JRC Team are: Michael Coltman, Michael Carolan, Patricia Llana, Karina Jacobsen. Brian Marquis, Fred Mottley, Marco DaSilva, David Jeong, Yim Tang, Bob Grief, Jon LeBlanc, Anya Carroll, Kris Severson, Benj Berlman, Laura Sullivan and Dan Parent.

The JRC is co-sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA), TRB, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

Michelle Muhlanger, Michael Coltman, David Tyrell, RITA Administrator Peter Appel, Karina Jacobsen, Michael Carolan, Patricia Llana, and Brian Marquis shortly after RITA Administrator Appel's keynote speech.. (Volpe Center photo)

Daycare Photos: Playing Doctor and Pounding Pegs!

A few photos from daycare. The first two are of Veronica and her daycare BFF, Lana (whose name she could say at 14 months), playing doctor with dolls and little toy needles. So adorable that they're sharing a chair. That's a big deal at that age, to be sharing anything is huge.
Speaking of saying "Lana", Veronica can say all the names of her little friends at daycare. I think she's pretty social.
On the new phrases front, this morning while I was getting dressed, Veronica ducked under the skirt of my dress. I was busy putting on my make-up so she said from under my skirt, "Find VeeVee." She wanted me to play peek-a-boo with her. So sweet.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 10:41 AM
Subject: Photos of Veronica
To:

Patricia & Adrian,
Here are some photos of Veronica giving a doll a hug, making the dolls better with the doctor tools and pounding the pegs. These activities are Fine Motor & Social Emotional.

Enjoy,
Adrienne & Jen

Bike Ride!

Veronica enjoying a spring bike ride. The weather is gorgeous today.

19 Month Update

Veronica turned 19 months yesterday and I figured I should give an update on her that's not just photos.

We went to the pediatrician for Veronica's 18-month check-up a couple of weeks ago and she's doing very well. She's tall for her age, but she's taller than she is heavy, though she's pretty chubby! She's eating well (just not always in her high chair) and sleeping well and right now we are working on getting rid of the pacifier completely. She only uses it at night in her crib. Any advice on getting rid of it would be greatly appreciated. Two weeks ago we got a little note from daycare telling us we no longer needed to include sippy cups in her lunch box, as Veronica can now drink out of a regular cup on her own. My baby is growing up so quickly!

Her vocabulary is HUGE and growing daily. She surprises us every day with new words that she's learning. Here's one fun story about her vocabulary. From maybe 6 months we have been signing "water" to her (the letter "W" up to the side of your mouth) and she has been signing it back to us by pointing to her mouth (the "W" is hard for little fingers to make) and saying "aow". She's been saying "aow" for water for months. Try as we might, we couldn't get her to say "water". Well, last week my mom and stepdad(UI) came for a visit. Adrian and UI took Veronica for a hike in the Fells across from our house and there was a stream that UI pointed to. He said something like "Look at the water. Do you see the water?" Except he's English so it came out with an English accent: "wah-tah". Lo and behold, Veronica goes "wah-tah". And now she says it all the time. With an English accent.

Me: Veronica, can you say water?

Veronica: Aow.

Me: Can you say wah-tah?

Veronica: Wah-tah.

I'm totally serious. I figured, hey, maybe this would work for banana. "Banana" is the only word she says that sounds nothing like the actual word. Her word for "banana" is "mee". I have no idea why or how. So I tried this new English Method on her:

Me: Veronica, can you say banana?

Veronica: Mee.

Me: Can you say ba-NAH-nah (English accent)?

Veronica: Ba-nah.

Again, I am not kidding. I've tried this several times. Hearing her say "wah-tah" and "ba-NAH-nah" is a total hoot. Her words are getting clearer and clearer and it's amazing to watch her vocabulary grow on a daily basis. She says please and thank you and can sign both of them. She's also starting to say "o-po", which means "yes, ma'am" or "yes, sir" in Tagalog.

She's also stringing together words, like:

"Oops, dropped it." "VeeVee dropped it" (VeeVee is a nickname she picked up at daycare. Much easier to say than Veronica, though she's tried to say that several times.)

"VeeVee seat" when she wants you to help her sit on something 

"Mama seat" "Dada seat" when she wants you to sit next to her

"Milk please"

Here's another word I taught her this week:

Me (putting lotion on her): Veronica, can you say lotion?

Veronica: Oh-$hit.

Me: Lotion.

Veronica: Oh-$hit.

Hmmm. Maybe we'll just skip over learning "lotion" for now.

An Article on Adrian's Modern Theatre

Adrian is in photograph #10! We're so proud of him!
You can zoom in/out of the article by using the buttons at the bottom.
You can change pages by using the scroll bar on the right or the arrows at the bottom.
To open the PDF in another window, click on the following link:
Suffolk Alumni Magazine 2-2011

Daycare Photos of Veronica

A couple of photos from daycare. Adrian doesn't think the photo with the crown looks like Veronica. What do you think?