Well, Moxie is 17 months old and more of a person every day.  She likes to dance, sing, read books, and play with her monkey.  She has more signs and words–mostly related to animals.  Moxie’s first chore is feeding the dogs.  She is very careful to put scoopfuls of food in each of their bowls.  She is teething–we think molars.  Dad did her hair 🙂

The Dorsey-Lee Family attempted making valentines this year.  We had two tries: one with finger paint and the other with markers.

The finger paint didn’t go as I planned (surprise!).  Moxie was less a fan of finger painting than I thought she would be but towards the end she stepped up and slapped some paint on paper. We used cookie cutters to make heart shapes too.  Then she took a break at the end and rested her head on my leg.

Our second effort was today with a box of hologram dinosaur valentines.  We gave Moxie markers and let her go to town.  In both tries we taped the thing she was painting to keep it still.  That seemed to be a win.
We are sending out a couple and giving some to our friends at daycare.  Really it was about seeing if we could do any kind of art.  Turns out we can.  So that’s fun!
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Moxie loves feeding the dogs. She first got to feed Montana while we were visiting grandma and grandpa and now she’s obsessed. Any time we give the dog treats she is right there to hand one to Gy and then tease Pili with the other one. Lately she’s been more interested in dog food. For the last couple nights she’s been filling the dogs’ bowls. She does it with a scoop, a few kibble at a time with about 50% on the floor. She then picks up the bowl and yells the dog’s name. Gy finds it amusing and Pili is absolutely terrified. Sounds about right. 

One of the best things about the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is the opportunity to feed a giraffe.  They have these amazing long purple tongues that can reach out and wrap around things.  Even with their long necks and legs they still extra length to get to the leaves in trees.  Moxie, perched up on her father’s shoulders, was not sure what she thought.  Strider, though, enjoyed having his head licked.  He’s always been weird like that.

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs is wonderful.  A whole bunch of us went–cousins, aunts, uncles, strangers we picked up on the way.  The fact that the zoo is built on a mountain side means you also get your cardio in too.
Strider, Ruby, and Moxie sit on a creepily still and concrete like elephant.

Watching mom feed birds.

Quick water break in the double wagon between animal wresting matches.

Ryan finds the perfect mask.

End of the zoo kiss.

Our dear friend (nemesis) Forde has a fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks.  He is on his way to being the boss of the archaeological world.  Forde took a break from being a fancy pants to hang out with us regular folks and gave us a VIP tour of the grounds. 
We got to see the birthing figure that inspired the piece Indiana Jones traded for a bag of sand in Raiders of the Lost Arc . Turns out it is likely a fake!  The whole movie is ruined for me.  Seriously.  Sigh.

This year for New Year’s Eve Strider and I fully intended to go to bed at 8 pm and just accept our life as parents of a toddler.  BUT Hannah–our darling cousin–invited us out for dinner to Max’s and we decided to just get crazy and hit a bar too.  Moxie got a hat and a noise maker.  She thought that was pretty fabulous.  The Dorsey-Lees were in bed by 9:30.  Woot woot!