Blog | 2013
In oh so many ways, this one photo captures so much of my little bit’s personality! She is full of mischief and fun and sweetness. And she is growing so fast! Currently, she is 26 lbs.; I am not sure how tall she is. I only know her weight because we had to take her to the doctor right before Christmas – a mild case of pneumonia. 
But she bounced back in plenty of time to have a great Christmas and to turn 23 months in style.
She is talking up a storm, and has converted much of her two-three word phrases to complete sentences (where is daddy, mommy where are you, BB move out of the way, why egg is hot, etc.). She says more and more every day, and we are understanding more and more every day. Now, if we could just get her to say “yes” when she really means yes, and to say “no”, when she really means no…
She is also really into “I do” right now, from putting on her shoes, to putting on her pants, brushing her teeth, carrying her stuff, getting her crayons out of the box, putting the crayons back in the box, stacking her Legos, etc.
She LOVES shoes – her current favs are some black “ballet slippers,” but she is also big on her squeaky shoes and B’s red sparkly shoes. And her new Pooh towel is a definite hit. She has been coveting her sister’s Pooh towel for months now, and it tickled to death to get one of her own.
She seems to know many colors, but doesn’t consistently identify them on cue. The one color she gets right every single time is purple. She is a huge fan of pretty much anything purple (hence the purple pony from Build-a-Bear in the last post). While I have not really heard her say her shapes, she definitely knows how to match up the right shape with the right opening, and often grabs the correct shape when I ask her to hand me the square/circle/triangle/etc. She is very, very good at correctly identifying animals and animal sounds (hippo, sheep, kitty, puppy, horse, duck, goose, pig, gator, monkey, cow, etc.). She is following in her sister’s footsteps, as currently her favorite animal is the hippo. I can’t tell you how many times I read “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”… She is also getting quite good at counting. She counts from 1 to 12 correctly quite regularly, and can generally get up to 16 (tho she often misses 13 and/or 14).
This child loves to sort things, put things away (in their correct spot), and stack things. She seems to be very much the “engineer” type. I am looking forward to watching her play with her Christmas toys (blocks, interlocking shapes, Legos, etc.) and seeing what she does with them all. Other favorite toys include her dolls, toy cars, and anything to do with Ariel. Oh, and anything that B is playing with…
M is fairly outgoing, but she is quite very attached to me and Jason. So much so that she regularly says “my mommy!” whenever B gets close to me. This, of course, starts a little feud between the two of them. I need to record it so I can play it back when they are teenagers and remind them that they used to fight over me!
I know…I haven’t posted a thing since M turned 22 months. I do apologize, but this Christmas season has just flown by! We baked cookies.
And decorated our tree.
And read Christmas stories wearing new Christmas jammies.
And wearing other new Christmas jammies while driving around looking at Christmas lights.
I don’t have pictures of the rest, but we also did B’s advent calendar (a legos version), searched for our elf (“elfie”) every morning, picked out and wrapped presents, and generally had a marvelous (albeit crazy) time (even though, for the second December in a row, M developed a mild case of pneumonia).
Finally, the big day arrived! The girls must have been good for Santa to fill up their gigantic stockings!
Santa has a sense of humor (you can’t see it in the photo, but the nose blinks).
After breakfast, we got down to the business of opening presents. We had to do it in stages, and M had to take a nap in between stages. But the girls were well behaved and had tons of fun! B loved helping M open her presents.
But M got the hang of it fairly quickly (“I do!”).
One happy girl (everything on this child is new, even the underpants…)!
M was also fond of one of my gifts – Bert the farting hippo!
The day after Christmas, we headed to the mall so M could cash in on her gift from Tatie Kat – a Build-a-Bear…which turned out to be a pony…
And while M napped, B cashed in on her gift from Mimi – afternoon tea (or hot chocolate if you’re B)!
And then that night (it was a busy day), we headed out to the farm to see the lights! It was cold…
Mimi and Tatie Kat have left, but we had a great visit with them, and a great Christmas! Ready for New Years…almost…
M is growing and changing by leaps and bounds these days. You can’t really tell, but the reason M is running in this picture is because she is chasing after B…as usual. She LOVES her big sister. Loves to play with her, loves to chase after her, loves to hear her read stories, loves to talk to her…doesn’t always love to share with her, but she is working on it.
M is rarely without her favorite buddies…all five of them (Nemo, Fishy (she won him at the fair), Mickey, Baby, and Pooh), which she carries all at once. If we’d let her, she’d take them everywhere…all five of them. Fortunately, she is usually fairly reasonable about just taking one or two out of the house, and rarely complains if I ask her to leave those in the car. Much harder to lose them that way…
She loves to sing, and she especially loves to sing with us. If B is singing a song she knows, she sings along. Same with Jason or me. She also often demands certain songs. Favorites include Kenzie-poo (sung to the Batman theme), A-B-C, Shake Your Sillies Out, Snuggly-Snuggly, I Love my Baby Girls, and Little One. While in the car, she typically demands the “na-na-na-na song (Pink’s So What), and then gets mad when they don’t sing na-na-na-na the whole time. I think I need to introduce her to Hey Jude, but I’m still scarred from when B made us listen to that several hundred times one year.
She almost has her ABC’s down (sings them all clearly except G-H-I-J-K), and just tonight I heard her count to 10 (she counted one number each time I took a step up the stairs). Her vocabulary is improving greatly, though she still sometimes reverts to pointing and grunting. It is sometimes hard to figure out what she is trying to say, but we usually figure it out eventually. B is often quite helpful. She says things like “more turkey here please” while pointing at her tray, “Daddy mano” (which means he should come to her/follow her), “more bik peas” (more milk please), “daddy uhstairs” (Daddy upstairs), “pay cars” (play cars), “mommy! go now!” (she can be impatient about leaving when it is time to leave…), “baby nigh-night,” “bi kickel” (bicycle), “B-B ah cool” (B-B at school), etc. And she can say her name fairly well – no small feat! She seems to understand most things that we tell her, but like B at this age, she pretty much says yes to every question we ask her, so…
She has a bit of a temper, and I can easily visualize many full-blown temper tantrums (i.e., lay down on the floor kicking and screaming) in the future. Typically, this happens either when one of us does not understand what she wants, when one of us does something differently than she wants, or when one of us takes something from her. The latter is unlikely to change (as that is usually part of a punishment when she is not listening), but I suspect the other two will improve as she is gets better at communicating her needs/wants to us.
She is very good at putting the correct shape in the correct spot (and has been for a while), but is not quite able to pick the correct shape when I ask her for a particular one (e.g., give me the triangle). She recognizes some colors consistently (yellow, purple, pink, and green), with her favorite seeming to be purple, but she is indifferent to/uninterested in the others.
Her favorite characters right now (by far) are Lightning McQueen, Mater, Pooh, Mickey (or Minnie – she doesn’t differentiate), and Ariel, and thus she generally picks books that has at least one of those characters in it. She loves books and her stuffed animals, and has quickly followed in her sister’s footsteps re: demanding books and buddies in her crib each night.
She generally wants to do things herself (e.g., pick out her shoes, brush her teeth, go up the stairs, buckle pretty much any buckle, bundle her baby, etc.) and has even managed to put her pants on by herself a time or two. Here she is with B on Thanksgiving wearing her cute Thanksgiving dress (that we put on her) and her jammie pants (that she put on all by herself).
She insisted they stay on! She generally picks her own shoes, often preferring her squeakers over pretty much any other pair. I have a sneaking suspicion she does not like turtle necks. While I have been able to get her to keep them on once I put them on her, she fights me quite vigorously when I try to put them on. B can’t stand turtle necks, so perhaps they both are like that (which puts them squarely in Jason’s camp on this subject). She loves wearing jackets, and usually has pretty strong opinions about which ones she wears at any given time…and which hat she wears with them, of course…and whether they should be zipped…heaven help you if you don’t read her mind and get it right the first time!
She still sleeps great at night and during naps. When she wakes up from naps, she generally sings and looks at her books until she is ready to get up. Note: she naps in the room by herself. When she wakes up in the morning, however, she wants B’s attention, and she will go to great lengths (much to my, Jason’s, and B’s dismay) to get it, including throwing her stuff out of her crib and demanding B get it for her. So, mornings often start earlier than they likely would if they were in different rooms. BUT, both girls really seem to like being in the same room together. If B is not in there with her at night when she goes to bed, she is sad and confused.
She is not always interested in me taking her picture or capturing her cuteness on video, but when she does choose to cooperate she will pose – even go so far to walk over to our “photo wall” and wait patiently while I take the picture. But, I am at her whim these days with this, so pictures are not always a given. Enjoy these two!
We had a lot of fun this year with Halloween. Both B and her best buddy chose Star Wars themes AND insisted that the whole family dress up! B chose to be Princess Leia, and she also decided M should be R2D2. As for J and me, she decided we should be Anakan and Amidala, respectively. Her buddy Hawke decided to be Darth Maul, and his parents were Obi Wan Kenobi and Amidala. Her buddy Charlie is crazy about Yoda, so he went as Yoda. We started the evening with Halloween dinner – mummy hot dogs and Halloween mac-n-cheese. Then after posing for a few pictures, they were off! M did great for about 20 houses, after which she was content to sit in the wagon and enjoy the ride. It was a fun time had by all!
The kids:
The Star Wars big kids:
Princess Leia and Darth Maul:
My own special R2D2:
The whole crew:
The happy girl with her haul:
We all had a great time and got lots of comments on our costumes! Afterwards, we went through the candy and donated 2 lbs of it to a local dentist office that was participating in a candy collection effort to send candy to soldiers over seas. Don’t worry – she still has PLENTY left. Win-win!
This little pistol is already 21 months! B and I regularly ask: where did our itty bitty go? I’ll tell you where she went…she went around the corner to explore/get into something so you had better chase after her! When you come tearing around the corner to see what she is up to, you may find her playing calmly with her shoes or books, or you may find her pushing buttons on the stereo, or you just may find her snuggling with someone…
Fortunately for me, I generally find her in the same vicinity as B, and B is really good about making sure M doesn’t get into too much trouble before alerting me. 
They are the best of sisters!
This is the special smile she pretty much has just for B…
She went through a brief stage where she refused to pose for pictures, but thankfully she is mostly over that now. We still have to make lots of funny faces, but she is fairly cooperative…most of the time…except when she wants to play monster…
She still generally wakes up once a night or so – typically bc she lost her bink and is none too pleased about it. She also wakes up earlier than B (or anyone else for that matter), and she isn’t quite as willing to hang out and babble or play to herself for long stretches of time, but she is pretty good. Poor B bears the brunt of it tho. Most mornings, we hear M calling out to B (B-B!) trying to get B to get up and play with her. I often walk in to get her only to see B hiding under her pillows. Even with all that, B is a very good sport about it and rarely fusses.
M is still picky with food, but seems more interested in trying/eating different things if she has a spoon. One of her more peculiar traits is how she will refuse to eat something outright, but will often decide she loves it if you can just manage to get that first bite in her mouth. She LOVES canned green beans. *sigh* I suppose that just makes it easier to feed all three of them veggies (everyone but me likes canned green beans). We also recently discovered that she loves creamy garlic sauce. Who knew?
Her vocabulary has really taken off (though pretty much only the three of us (and B more than J or me) understand her most of the time). Go Gators is a regular mantra (alas, it isn’t working very well right now). While she has advanced to 3-5 word sentences, she still heavily relies on the point and call method (e.g., point at the desired object and say “B-B” or “mommy” in the hopes we will retrieve it for her). She recently started saying “wack-a-doooo” at the end of pretty much any song (J has done that with both girls since birth) – it is adorable. And whenever it is time to clean up she sings “______ away, ______ away” while she puts ______ away. She has also started counting along with us and generally makes it up to five before she gets distracted. She doesn’t really appear to have any favorite songs yet, but she does get testy if I try to change the radio station away from classic rock.
Her mobility is pretty good, which is necessary, of course, if she wants to keep up with B. She seems pretty capable at our local playground, though she often comes to close to the side of the bridge or one of the openings for my comfort. Like B, she tears across that bridge without any thought to how wobbly it is – yay! She is also pretty good at the bouncy houses, though personally, I wish she was a little less fond of the crazy sections. She loves to go where the craziest and biggest kids are – I assume because they make everything more bouncy! They are generally pretty careful around her, but I have seen them fall within inches of her without her even blinking.
Favorite toys/games still include anything that stacks, B’s cars, playing chase with the grocery carts and stroller with B, riding her tricycle, coloring, and according to her teacher at school, playing with baby dolls. She is always on the move, and extremely curious about everything. I am pretty sure we NEED all three of us just to keep up with her!
October would not be complete without trips to the farm and a trip to the fair! Tia was even able to join us for the fair, but for some reason, I have no pictures with her in them. Anyway, here are some pictures from all the fun!
B felt she had to look tough in her butterfly mask…
At the farm we did the corn maze (we found all 10 posts!),
and got our annual height measurements with the pumpkin height chart,
and quickly posed for a pumpkin shot (it was cold!!).
We went to the fair with B’s buddy Hawke – B loved having her buddy to ride rides with (and so did we)! Of course, we rode the merry-go-round:
multiple times…
But basically, we just followed the kids everywhere as they bounced (literally) from one ride to the next.
Exiting the fun house…
We even got on a really fast roundy-round (aka “really big kid” ride) – they loved it!
M was too short for most rides,
but we managed to find a few she could ride,
and she loved the roundy-round! Dare I hope to be so lucky as to have both my kids be my roundy-round buddies??
We also saw the racing pigs! Here are the competitors:
And here they are at the finish line (really, all they want is the cheese doodles).
The last thing we did was watch some fun bike/motorcycle tricks. The kids were in awe…
Up next, Halloween!
We’ve had some lovely down time since all of our whirl wind travels, and I just have a hodge-podge of pictures to show. We shall start with how adventurous B has gotten – not only did she let Jason pull her first tooth, but she has finally given up on her fear of falling off her bike! She fell the very first time she rode it and got some pretty nasty scrapes. Since then, she has ridden it quite often, but very sllloooooowwwwllly, and never down anything resembling a hill. One day, while riding her bike to the playground, she just took off! All I heard was “wheeeeee!” Then, while we were at the playground, I looked up and saw this little monkey:
And then, she rode her bike all the way home (even down the hills) so fast that I couldn’t keep up. She almost fell in the same spot she fell the first time, but she caught herself, and we talked about what she needed to do to keep from falling when going around that corner. Ever since that breakout day, she has been adventurous with all kinds of things – her typical caution seemingly being thrown to the wind! That’s not to say she is not cautious – she is still quite cautious. But she no longer seems to let it interfere with her fun. Yay!
We also celebrated my birthday – even though I had to work, it was a wonderful day! Tatie Kat came to visit and made YUMMY food: Pasta Bolognese with garlic herb bread and apple tarts for dessert the night before, and for the night of, beef tenderloin with a chocolate wine sauce, grit cakes, and green beans gremolata with brownie pudding and home made ice cream for dessert. Sadly, it is all gone now, but it was sure yummy while it lasted! Since it was my birthday, I was able to get pictures with the girls with minimal complaints.
The card B gave me converts to a hat, that lights up…
The very next day, B FINALLY lost her second tooth! It had been hanging on by a thread for what seemed like forever! Once again, she let Jason pull it.
During the week, the girls just *had* to try on their halloween costumes (B will be Princess Leia and M will be R2D2). Princess Leia insisted on reading me a story – “One Fish, Two Fish Red Fish, Blue Fish.” How many people can say they’ve had a story read to them by Princess Leia?
Friday, the girls got their pictures taken at the daycare. I like that option much better than B’s school picture for two reasons. First, B’s school wanted me to pick out and pay for a picture package before the pictures were taken, and thus, before I had seen any proofs. Uh, no. Second, at the daycare I could get sibling photos! So, they got all decked out in their pretty dresses and off they went. Before we left, they let me get a couple of shots.
I can’t wait to see the professional shots!
For my birthday, J got me concert tickets, and one of the concerts just so happened to be the weekend after we went to Orlando. The last thing any of us wanted to do was get back in the car, but concerts rarely happen when or where you want them to. So, off we went. To make it more fun for the girls, who were not going to the concert, we stayed at a Great Wolf Lodge. We arrived Saturday afternoon, and both girls just loved the decor, especially that of our room, where they had their very own wolf den.
We aren’t quite ready for M to sleep in an uncontained bed, so we got her a crib, but let B sleep on the top bunk – she was in HEAVEN!
Before we left for the concert, we headed down to the water park for some fun. What a place! I had heard about Great Wolf Lodge before, but never been. There was a wave pool, a kiddie water area (with shallow water, slides, and sprayers), a huge playground with water spraying everywhere, gigantic slides, and a sports pool. I’d like to say we tried them all, but B spent all her time in the wave pool. Next time I think she will try a slide or two, but she just thought the wave pool was too fun to stray from. M spent some time in the kiddie area and some time in the wave pool, but she also spent some time in my lap snuggling. She had caught a cold, and was feeling a little under the weather.
The giant playground was called Fort Mackenzie.
It included this giant bucket at the top, that periodically…
…dropped 1000 gallons on everyone below!
The wave pool was called slap-tail pond, and it included innertubes for riding the waves.
Even though she was a little out of sorts, M still had fun in this toddler play area.
That night, my friend Julie was kind enough to watch the girls while we went to the concert. Before she arrived, we plied the girls with ice cream (hehehehehe). I thought M would make less of a mess with dippin’ dots…I was wrong…
The girls had a great time with Julie, and even had a chance to meet the Great Wolf Lodge characters!
We spent the next morning playing in the water part before heading back home. As we left the girls said good-bye to the big bear in the entrance (really? a bear at a wolf-themed hotel??). B went first, since she was willing to pose and M was not.
M watched, and decided maybe she could do that too…
We even managed to get one with both girls…
…and one with J!
We had a GREAT time…and are profoundly grateful we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon!
It seemed like a crime to allow the last remaining day on our Disney passes expire (they were set to expire at the end of September). As a happy coincidence, the Gators were playing Tennessee the third week of September. Sooooooo…what’s a Gator football loving family with two Disney loving girls to do? Why take a whirlwind trip to Orlando! Upon the recommendation of my dear friend Lisa, we stayed at the Art of Animation. Spectacular! The walls of this Disney property are full of early sketches from various Disney/Pixar movies – Finding Nemo, Cars, The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid.
There are four main sections – one for each of these movies. We stayed in a Finding Nemo room!
By pulling down the attached wall, this table converts into a bed! B was ecstatic!
We kept the whole trip a surprise for B – though as we were driving, we did break down and tell her we were going to visit Tia! Here she is as she enters the room.
The view of the fantastic pool from our room.
Both girls loved this pool! M especially loved the splash pad area – stuck her face right in those fountains!
They loved the hotel so much, I was a little worried B would be disappointed to be going to Disney the next day. I worried for nothing – she was thrilled! This time, we just relaxed and did whatever we wanted. We did not worry about getting autographs, or finding certain things. We just went from one ride to the next, whatever struck our fancy, and had fun. Of course, we had to ride It’s a Small World…multiple times…
M loves the song, and especially loved all the little drummers (think the Little Drummer Boy cartoon). She did that drumming motion the whole time, and still does it whenever she wants us to sing that song to her. Here are a few other photos from Disney that day.
We tried to convince M to go in “the cell” with Zurg and B (one of B’s fav rides was the Buzz Lightyear ride), but she was having NONE of that!
They had a splash pad where we could cool off. B liked the idea a whole lot more than the reality…M loved the reality…
The carousel was also a BIG hit – maybe M’s favorite.
We even managed to convince M to take a nap on the people mover – a miraculous 90 minute nap!
Disney was closing early that day (booooo!), so we headed over to Epcot to check out the sites and the Nemo ride. We decided a boat trip would be the most fun – here’s Epcot on our approach.
We rode the Nemo ride twice, after which I finally convinced B to pose inside Bruce’s mouth. M was having none of that either!
We ate in France before heading home – wonderful day!
On Saturday, Jason and I went to see the Gators trounce Tennessee. The famous campus fries!
Gator victory (31-17)!
The girls stayed with Tia in Orlando. They had a blast hanging out at the hotel all day – playing in the pool, checking out all the different sites in the different sections, etc.
B getting her “tank” filled up…
Time to head home – bye Mr. Ray!
M is 20 months old today (I’m on time for a change)! M still sleeps great unless she loses that bink, but for the most part, she is doing much better about holding on to it. She sleeps 11-12 hours at night and 2.5-3.5 hours during the day when at home (1-2 hours during the day when at school). She LOVES sleeping in the same room with B, and will ask for her immediately if B is not in the same room with her when she wakes up.
She loves to talk and loves to repeat after people, especially B. Words/phrases include pineapple, go gators, Kenzie right back (Kenzie ra buk), small small world (explanation in next post), delicious (dee-ish-us), help please (hep peez), treat please (teet peez), Sky kitty come, basketball (which sounds remarkably like basketball), football, B-B school, Mommy come (complete with a little hand motion), etc.
I took her for her “18 month” checkup a couple of weeks ago, and she is currently 26 lbs, 11.5 oz (86%) and 32.75″ (60%). Growing so fast! She has even ventured out a little (very little) bit to try some more new foods. She ate rice last night – I know that seems innocuous enough, but she has always adamantly refused to eat it before. She is the most picky about meats, but she is growing and healthy, so we don’t worry too much about it. We just give her choices, making sure to use her baby food (“sauce”) to round out the fruits and veggies, and let her be.
As you can see in the photos, we can do pigtails (barely) now, so her hair is definitely growing. It is still fairly straight on top, but the curls in the back seem to be winning.
She is also full of adventure – we tease her that she is our little menace (think Dennis the Menace). She gets into EVERYTHING, and it takes her about 2 seconds to do so. I have to be extra careful to keep dangerous things (knives, pot handles, plates, etc.) away from the edge of the counter because she can and will try to grab them. I have to watch her super closely while cooking with the electric skillet or wok because she can and will try to unplug them. She likes to climb on things, and does NOT like to be helped!
M loves music – pretty much all kinds. For those of you who remember B’s obsession with “Single Ladies”…M heard it on the radio yesterday, and loved it! She kept saying “Mommy! Oh oh oh oh!” Speaking of music, we started her in a Kindermusik class (Our Time) and she LOVEs it! She doesn’t sing along, but she loves to do all the hand motions, play the instruments, and dance along with everyone else. Her favorite part is the bubbles part (this is pretty much the favorite of all the kids). She has even managed to blow some bubbles (when she’s not eating them)! I am so happy to see her in her own class, and enjoying Kindermusik (and Ms Susan!) as much as B did.
Favorite toys still include her stacking cups, books, cars, Pooh phone, toy computer, balls, and puppy. Favorite “lovies” include Mickey, Winnie the Pooh, and Nemo. We recently started picking movies for M to watch (instead of letting B pick all the time), and so we picked Finding Nemo – M is a HUGE fan. It is fun to watch her watch the movie. When Nemo is in trouble, she yells (in a very worried voice) NEMO! over and over again. With most of B’s movies, she watches for a minute or two and then moves on to something else. With Nemo (or Cars), she watches!
One interesting note about her – she seems to be leaning towards at least being ambidextrous. She colors and feeds herself with both hands, but shows a strong preference for using a spoon with her left hand. It will be interesting to see if this is just experimentation on her part, or if she is really left handed.
She had gotten better about following (not accepting) the rules – meaning she may scream the whole time if she is not interested in following instructions, but she generally will do what she is told. Baby steps…For the most part, however, she is very good – just quite curious and interested in everything around her, and doing everything B does, and trying anything and everything. Very few things intimidate her!
