Blog | 2013
Right after we returned from the mountains, Mimi and Tatie Kat came to visit. Tatie Kat could only stay for a couple of days, but we had Mimi for a whole week!
She surprised the girls with these beautiful dresses:
While they were both here, B lost her first tooth!!
For some reason, I don’t have as many pictures as I thought I did – perhaps I relied on Mimi to take photos and then forgot to get them from her before she left. Anyway, we had fun during the week hanging out with Mimi while B was at school. And we celebrated Tatie Kat’s birthday (M pretty much looked like those cake photos from her 19 month post). And then came the weekend…an action packed weekend!
Saturday afternoon, we finally got a chance to go out on the new boat with B’s good buddy Hawke and his parents. It is a fantastic boat and we had a great time!! The faster we went the happier B and Hawke were. The louder Mr. Steve made the boat, the happier M was.
We cruised around and then dropped anchor for some water fun. Here are the kids enjoying the view.
Some inner tube fun…
After we cruised around for a bit, and played in the water, the kids got to try out the EZ Ski trainer. Hawke went first to show of his skills and to give B an idea of how it works. Ms. Alecia took all the ski pictures as I only had my phone with me.
Then B gave it a try (one of my favorite pictures ever!).
Before she got on, B assured us she had no interest in standing up…she was just going to sit. We told her that was fine, but if she felt like it, she could give it a try. About 30 seconds into the ride, up she popped!
She got the hang of it fairly quickly – faster Mr. Steve!
Turning…
After we finished skiing, it was time to head in. Mr. Steve let the kids drive a little (well, M got to pretend to drive and beep the horn).
The water was a tad chilly, but it was a beautiful afternoon/evening. We can’t wait to go again!
Sunday, we had two activities planned – afternoon tea for the girls (except M, who was napping), and baseball for everyone! We got all dressed up and headed to the snazzy part of town for High Tea. I forgot to take pictures of our table, but here we are afterwards, enjoying the beautiful view and weather.
Right after tea, we met up with J and M for the baseball game.
High fives when the home team scored!
We had a great visit, and of course, it ended way too soon!
Poppa surprised Nana with a trip to the Smokey Mountains, and all of the kids, grandkids, and most of her siblings came along for the ride. We were only able to go for a couple of days, but we had a great time! Here are some pictures from our trip!
The drive there was fairly uneventful…until our directions took us onto a road Jason called “Deliverance” Road. 
It was a windy road through the hills that theoretically could handle two cars, but really only looked like it was wide enough for one. We can confirm, however, that it is actually wide enough for two cars, as long as one of the cars is driven by a crazy local.
Don rented a beautiful (and huge) house that required some pretty tall poles to build. Whether I was standing on the top floor balcony or the basement balcony, I could not see the ground – too far down and all covered in foliage. It felt like we were in a tree house! I tried to capture the effect with a photo, but it really doesn’t translate. So you’ll have to settle for a photo of the view outside our bedroom.
On Sunday, we mostly hung out with everyone and just relaxed. Delightful! As a bonus, we had lots of help with the girls!
Monday we headed into Ober Gatlinburg to check out the amusements/rides, ride the gondola, and generally enjoy the beautiful weather. Before they fully opened, the girls decided this bear looked friendly enough to hang out with.
B pretty much rode every ride available, and M rode every ride she was big enough for…they had a great time!
We also headed into downtown Gatlinburg for lunch. While there, we stumbled upon “the Gibbs mobile” – Jason and I are huge fans of the show, so we had to take a picture…
After we dropped M off at the house for a nap, Jason and I went back to do more stuff with B. The slide was finally open, so we quickly headed that way before the weather stopped us, and before B changed her mind. She wasn’t too sure about the lift ride up to the top, but she did it!
She rode down with Tia, so I wasn’t really able to get pics, but they had a sample slide to check out at the bottom.
B and Tia also successfully made it through the maze!
That night we had fun playing various games with the family. B had fun with the Wii.
M seemed particularly enamored with the arcade machine.
Poppa tried to show her foosball…
but she quickly got down and pushed her stool back to the arcade to make it clear which game she preferred!
Jason also enjoyed the arcade b/c it had his favorite game – Galaga! He was determined to beat the high score…and he succeeded!
On the day we left, we headed back into Gatlinburg. Both girls loved the gondola, and M was particularly fond of being able to reach the straps.
While in Gatlinburg, we did an Old Timey photo (per Tia’s request). They turned out great! And B loved dressing up!
We had a great time, and the drive home was thankfully uneventful. There was even a rainbow to greet us as we arrived home. 
I have so many other posts to do, but since this one is a little more time sensitive, I figured I should take care of it first. Introducing, our growing (too fast, B says) 19 month old!
She is super sweet…
…and full of fun!
She likes cake (or at least the frosting)…
…and her big sister…
M is doing so well sleeping with B in the same room. She still occasionally gets fussy at night (if she loses her bink or has a stuffy nose), but B sleeps like a rock, so it doesn’t seem to bother her, and M seems to be less fussy now that she is in there with B. Yay! She still naps great (2.5-3.5 hours at home), though they both seem to wake up earlier now that they are in there together. Fortunately, they also just seem to play together for a while until it is time to get up.
Her vocabulary is taking off! She now regularly does 2-4 word phrases (milk please, treat please, mommy up please, mommy help, mommy’s car, daddy’s car, no means no), and even had a 5 word phrase the other day (night, night Daddy – love you!). She seems to be saying new words every day, so it is getting hard to keep up. Recent additions include mine, treat (teet), help (hep), car, bike, diaper (dipur), computer (pooter), Mackenzie (Ma-keh-zee), sleepsack (seepsak), airplane (ahhpane), delicious (deedishus), yummy (nummy), and puppy (puppy). B spends a fair amount of time saying things/phrases slowly and having M repeat after her – it is adorable.
Speaking of “mine”…it is one of M’s favorite words these days, especially if someone has something she wants. B does not care for it at all (though she now understands how important it is to be careful what she says around M, since M learned the word from B!). She also likes to smack people. She mostly smacks in fun (a “game” her Daddy taught her), so it is tricky to teach her that while some don’t mind (Daddy), others (Mommy, BB, her teacher, her friends, etc.) do mind. B is being a great big sister and with a little guidance, she is helping with both. This too shall pass.
She is still more particular about food than I would like, but she eats well from the selections she deems acceptable. Favorites still include french fries, smoothies, canned green beans, avocado, yogurt (especially banilla), and sauce, with favorite snacks including goldfish (gofeesh), pirate booty (paya booee), pretzels (pettils), and teddy grahams. We recently discovered that while she loves noodles, she now seems to like them even more with spaghetti sauce. This may seem obvious, but I promise that in the not too distant past, she wouldn’t touch spaghetti sauce or anything that came into contact with spaghetti sauce. Progress! She won’t eat much in the way of fresh fruits or veggies, but she will sometimes eat carrots, black beans, corn, and blueberries.
When she wants something, or needs help, she generally walks up, grabs my hand, and takes me to wherever so she can point to whatever it is she needs. She loves to be outside, dance, play with BB, ride her trike, slide, swing, play with her fridge toys, and read books. She has definite favorites about many things, and she is NOT afraid to tell you about it. She also loves to imitate B, which can lead to some interesting situations!
Her hair is getting longer – lovely curls in the back, straight on top. It will be interesting to see whether the curls or the straight wins out. While her hair is not as long as B’s was at this age, I think her hair is darker. It is possible she will end up with darker, wavier hair to go with her beautiful brown eyes.
She is growing so fast! Thought I can’t really tell you in numbers. In a couple of weeks I’ll take her to the doctor for her checkup (yes, I’m super late with that), and we’ll get the official numbers. As B regularly says – where did my itty bitty go? No matter, she keeps us on our toes and delights us all!
We spent the weekend of M’s 18 month birthday in the mountains visiting J’s step-dad, Bill at Bill’s sister’s beautiful mountain house. We haven’t seen Bill since B was a baby, so it was a treat to get to see him and let him meet M and enjoy the girls.
We picked up B from school about an hour early and headed out expecting to arrive around 9PM. That plan was quickly obliterated. Fifteen minutes after we hit the highway, we hit stop and crawl traffic…for 75+ minutes due to an accident. Because of that, we subsequently hit rush hour traffic. Three and a half hours into our trip, we had only gone 150 miles. At this point, everyone was cranky and stressed, so we stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel. The girls had a great time with the rocking chairs!
Unfortunately, M ate her dinner and drank her milk a little too quickly, so she spit some of that up. When we got back to the car I decided to just change her there…much to her delight…as soon as I got her clothes and diaper off, that child promptly peed on the asphalt and then started running around (trying to avoid capture), naked as a jaybird…
We proceded on with our trip only to hit another section of stop and crawl. Basically, by 11:30PM, we were still an hour+ away from our destination (remember, we left at 2:30 for what should have been a 6.5 to 7 hour drive…). We gave up and stopped for the night.
The next morning we finished our trip to arrive at the mountain house. Whew! We had the entire downstairs to ourselves, where B oooohhhhed and ahhhhhhhhed over the pinball machines and The Girl’s Room – all done in pink and beads and fun toys and… While I thought I got a picture of that room, apparently I did not.
The first thing the girls noticed was The Bear – a GIANT stuffed bear (about my size) that entertained the girls, and particularly M for hours that weekend.
After naps, we went down to the stables to see if B would be interested in riding one of the horses. She wasn’t, but M sure would have if we had let her! The girl even fearlessly pet them and fed one of the horses a carrot. B was quite content to admire them all from a distance.
That night we celebrated Jason’s upcoming birthday with steaks (Jason’s fav) and birthday cake – I’m pretty sure M enjoyed her cake…
The next morning we went to a nearby mountain lake, which I was pleasantly surprised to discover was warm! B loved that lake! M did too, until she fell in the water one too many times, where each fall caused more sand to go down her pants…
We also got to meet several members of Bill’s family that we had never met before – it was a wonderful trip, although much too short!! And, the trip home was MUCH more pleasant. We stopped for lunch at our dear friend Lisa’s house and got home at a reasonable time.
Later that week, we celebrated Jason’s real birthday. B decided he wanted cakepops, and since he never indicated otherwise…he got cakepops (which B and I made ourselves)…
Whew – I am so behind! Lately, it seems like the only chance I have to do blog posts is on the weekend, and the last few weekends have been hectic. So, I’ll try to knock out a few blog posts in the next couple of days, starting with M’s way overdue 18 month post.
This picture quite effectively captures our Miss Personality (aka lil bit, aka our menace, etc.). She is on the go the minute she wakes up and she wants to get into, explore, play with, and do EVERYTHING. She is very adventurous, much more so than B ever was or even is now. In the pool, she is fearless. She has no comprehension that she cannot swim, no comprehension that she cannot just magically make herself taller, and no concern what-so-ever about water coming up to her mouth or nose. She’s gone under so many times now, at this point she has learned to hold her breath before she actually goes under! I think next summer will include swim lessons…
The day she turned 18 months we were in the mountains and she got to visit with some horses. She was all about watching the horses and petting the horses.
She even fed one of the horses a carrot (sorry, I don’t have a picture of that)!! She thought the experience was one big grand adventure, and she was NOT happy when it was time to leave.
At 18 months, M is a pretty good sleeper (11-12 hours at night, 2.5-4 hours in the afternoon). She even takes a 1-2 hour nap at school when she is there. The girl likes her sleep, and will tell you “nigh-nigh” when she is ready.
As for food, we are still hit or miss on many things. She still loves avocado, pretty much any type of baby food (“sauce”), turkey and cream cheese wraps, blueberries, black beans (especially those given to her at school), cantaloupe (pretty much only at school), peas (only at school), smoothies, cheese (especially the free samples at the grocery store), chicken nuggets, noodles, egg whites (scrambled eggs, not so much), toast soldiers, gold fish, pretzel crisps, and pirate booty. She prefers fruit to veggies (really, other than sauce, she is not much interested in veggies at all). She also is not much interested in sweets, unless it is sorbet or ice cream. While it is sometimes a challenge to make sure she eats enough of the right foods, the girl can eat…she is in no danger of starving…
Her vocabulary and comprehension is really taking off. Unlike B, however, we need to be more diligent about taking her bink away (probably her favorite thing in the whole wide world) to help her speech development. Favorite words include B-B, bink (binkie-binkie), Mickey, sky kitty, kitty, sauce, noodles (noonos), milk (mik), more, Mommy, Daddy, and night night (nigh-nigh). She has also started branching out into multi-word phrases, e.g., milk please (mik peas), more milk please, more sauce (mo sas), Mommy up, socks and shoes (goks and goos), etc. She also is quite fond of identifying various body parts (eyes, ears, mouth, nose, cheeks, tummy, knee, etc.). The only downside is that the eyes are her favorite…and she likes to point them out when she says eyes (e.g., poke you in the eyes repeatedly). We’re working on that… at least Bear doesn’t mind…
She chatters constantly, and even I only understand about half of it. But she definitely has something to say, and is not afraid to say it!
She walks great (falls down much less), and has even started running. It’s necessary to run, you see, to keep up with B and to chase Sky Kitty… She also puts that mobility to good use, as she loves to help. She will help get her shoes, throw things away, get the lunch table ready at school, etc.
If you compare the girls’ hair at this age, they both have roughly the same color hair (though I think M’s is a little darker). At 18 months, B had longer hair, but it was stick straight – not a curl in sight. M, on the other hand, has curls in the back. I am very curious to see whether the curls continue or if she ends up with straight. I think she just may end up with wavy dark hair like her daddy, or curlier dark hair like her Mimi. Only time will tell!
She is quite the social butterfly – she knows the names of all her school buddies, and loves to interact with them all. She also loves to tell them what to do and how to do it. I’m told she was the first to be able to say all of their names. I don’t know if any have managed to say hers – it is a pretty big mouthful for a toddler!
Best of all she LOVES playing with her sister! The two of them seem to have a great time together, playing with cars, being silly, etc. It is wonderful to hear their belly laughs so much!
Now that B is in kindergarten, M has me all to herself on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Honestly, both of us are still trying to figure out what that really means. It is quite strange to not have B around deciding things for us and telling us what she wants to do. I’m sure we will manage, though! It is fun to be able to do some things with her that B would perhaps not be interested in, or wouldn’t have much patience for.
The big day finally arrived, and B embraced it with all the enthusiasm she could muster!
It was a little bittersweet for Jason and I, but EVERYONE was caught up in her enthusiasm.
Hugs for big sister!
When we arrived at school, she marched right into the class room – never hesitated, and never looked back. A teacher invited her to sit down and start drawing, and she jumped right in.
At the end of the day, she was supposed to ride the daycare bus home, where I was waiting to pick her up. There was some confusion, however, so she inadvertently ended up on the “big yellow bus” – as you can see, she did not mind one bit!
She had a fantastic day, and was more than a little annoyed that she couldn’t go right back the next day. Tomorrow, she gets her wish, when she starts kindergarten with her new teacher in her new class (along with her buddies Hawke and Jayson)! Her other daycare buddies, Isabella, Conner, and Charlie, are in the other kindergarten class, but they will still see plenty of each other at lunch, recess, and after school. She can’t wait!
We have enjoyed having lots of visitors the past couple of weeks. First, Grandma and Grandpa came to visit, and B was able to show off her new-found swimming skills!
This is HUGE for her since she has always been very skittish near the water. She took swim lessons last year, but never advanced farther than briefly putting her face in the water. This summer, she was much more willing to put her face in the water, but again, only for brief periods of time. And then, a couple of weeks ago – voila! Even more surprisingly, on Friday night she suddenly decided she wanted to jump into the water. In the past, she would only do so very rarely, and even then, very reluctantly and only if someone would catch her. This time, I was holding M, and B just got out and jumped in! She always has been, and I suspect always will be, the type that just won’t do something until SHE is ready.
We had a good time visiting, but spent most of their trip inside since it rained and rained and rained…M didn’t mind, tho…as long as she had her stroller and her hat…
Before Grandma & Grandpa left, they had a special day with B at a local kids museum. B was VERY excited because this museum has live animals and dinosaur statues. If I understood correctly, they pretty much spent the whole day looking at the live animals and playing in the dinosaur section (oh and looking at bugs and spiders and frogs…B just loves to look at (and be grossed out by) bugs and spiders and frogs…). Here is B with Grandpa…and an Albertosaurus…
With Grandma and those colorful frogs…
They even had a dinosaur she could climb!
Shortly before Grandma & Grandpa left, Tatie Kat arrived. Unfortunately for her, it continued to rain and rain and rain. We basically got our first break from the rain on the 4th, and we took advantage of it! After a lunch of grilled corn and hamburgers, and after the girls had their naps, we headed out to hear the local band play some patriotic music. My little firecracker!
Tatie Kat tickled B to one of the songs (this is pretty much the only shot I got that wasn’t blurry b/c she was wiggling so much!).
Poor M wasn’t feeling too well (pink eye is a bummer), so she spent most of her time snuggling
but she perked up every now and then!
The fireworks are a little loud for B and a little late for M, so we headed home to throw some snaps before bed. I made sure to have plenty this year, as last year we ran out before the kids were done. We did some sparklers another night, and will do some more tonight with her buddy Hawke to close out our fun holiday weekend and our good times with family.
Next up…Kindergarten!
We “celebrated” M’s 17 month birthday at Monkey Joe’s with Grandma & Grandpa (and B, of course). She is just now getting old enough where she actually gets to do stuff. We spent a fair amount of time near the toddler bouncy – I say near because basically she climbed up the slide, climbed through the opening, turned around, and went down the slide. Repeat. When she got tired of that (~20 minutes later), we headed to a plain old bouncy with lots of big kids – she could have cared less. She watched and waited, and when it cleared out a bit, she tried to walk across that bouncy surface (much falling and giggling ensued). The last place she explored was a bouncy that had a small slide. I would push her up as high as she could go, and then she would slide down. Repeat. This went great until that last slide down…she tipped over at the last second and conked her head on my knee. 
Still, she had a GREAT time!
She is constantly growing and changing. All her teeth (except her two year molars) have come in. As far as we are concerned, she can wait until well after she turns two to get those molars – teething is an awful process for her (full of really, really bad diaper rashes, a stuffy/runny nose, and lots of pain)! I think she is starting a growth spurt – lots of eating and sleeping lately. Her hair is also getting longer. Soon I will have to give up the “pebbles” and “cindy-lou-who” look…but not yet…
She LOVES hats!! Plastice fireman or construction hats, fancy hats, you name it. While out and about the other day, she spotted this one and we all agreed, even B, that she HAD to have it.
Other favorite toys/activities: books, anything with animals (especially cows, dogs, cats, and hippos), puzzles, the tupperware cabinet, and pretty much anything B is doing. For example, M spent a good 15 minutes trying to imitate the yoga B was doing!
Like her big sister at that age, she is not overly fond of changing clothes or her diaper. The end result is generally a lot of acrobatics on the bed and floor, and lots of chasing around the room. It’s exhausting, but adorable! Also, like her sister at that age, M seems to have a permanent scrape on one or both knees at any given time. She is just now starting to run (or try to run), and sometimes that doesn’t work out so well…
Her vocabulary is changing rapidly. She has added a few animal sounds (quack, oink, hissssss) to her existing repertoire (which already included meow, ruff, moooo, and baaaa). She also says gay-ger (gator), go-goo (yogurt), bee-bee (for B), Poppa, Ganpa (Grandpa), Ganma (Grandma), kee-ka (kitty cat), etc. She actually says quite a bit more than this, but many of her words sound alike, so it is sometimes hard to tell what she wants. She is really good about signing when she knows the sign (please, thank you, more, milk, etc.).
She is still fairly picky and very unpredictable! One day she may gobble down multiple spoonfuls of black beans, and the next day (and ever since) she won’t touch them. Some days she will eat blueberries, grapes, green beans, and cheese, and some days she won’t. She will almost always drink her smoothie and eat fish sticks, turkey-cream cheese wraps, sauce pouch, and avocado. We just go with the flow. The best is watching B try to convince M to eat something. Sometimes it works, and other times not so much…
She sleeps GREAT, but only when she is not teething. She almost always takes a 3 hour nap when at home, regardless of the teething. When she is not teething, she will generally sleep from 8 PM to sometime between 7-8:30 AM. When she is teething, she will wake up 1-4 times a night. See why we are ready for a teething break??
As for her bink…well, you can see that it is ever present. Next month we will start getting it away from her during the day. I suspect it will be a challenge – she is much more attached to it than B was (and that’s saying something!).
The best moments are between M and B – we are so thrilled that they seem to adore each other. They may squabble from time to time over a toy, but mostly they just play together. The first thing M does every morning is look for B and give her a big hug. Precious!
When the proofs for her graduation photos came in, Jason and I were floored – when did our baby start looking so grown up??
This past week, B graduated from pre-school with quite a bit of pom and circumstance. They practiced graduation (the processional, receiving their diplomas, the songs, etc.) for MONTHS! And they did a great job! I have a video of most of it that I hope to get out to the family sometime soon. In the mean time, here are some photos.
In the morning, B woke up to a bunch of balloons tied to the mail box – a surprise from Ms. Alecia (Hawke’s mom).
She was beside herself! “Mommy, look! There is a tassel! The balloons have the rolled up paper (diploma)! Princess castle!” She did calm down long enough to pose in front of them for a picture.
After nap, I found myself wondering how I was going to contain my very excited graduate until graduation…I comforted myself with the knowledge that her teachers were having to contain the whole class…
Finally, it was time to go, so she put on her dress and we headed over to school. Upon arrival, we were told to stay outside while the kids got their caps and gowns on. M was a little confused as to why we were hanging around outside…
Then the processional began…
After everyone received their diplomas (sorry, I don’t have a good one of that), the kids sang some songs for us (including dance moves).
And then it was time for cake!
I managed to get a couple of pictures with the original group of kids that B has been with since the beginning. Hawke and B have been together since she was 9 months old.
B has been with the other two boys in this picture (Jayson and Max) since she was 3 months old (she is the baby of the group)!
Three of them are going to the same elementary school – we will find out in a couple of weeks if they will all be in the same class.
Here she is, proudly showing off her diploma!
And she insisted that her balloons “sleep” with her.
It was a big day – she and all her buddies did a great job at graduation. Kindergarten, here they come!
Mimi and Djadju decided to surprise the girls with new bikes (Djadju’s idea, I’m told)! Jason and I just had to pick some out. What a surprisingly daunting task! There. Are. So. MANY. Bikes!!! After spending some time doing research online, we decided to take B to a brick-and-mortar store to let her try some out. She tried a couple different kinds out and fell in love with one of them – a cruiser. She wouldn’t stop talking about it. Even though we did not tell her she was getting a bike, she told US she was getting THAT BIKE. I guess she was right…Tada!
Mimi requested that we put a “giant bow” on it. I couldn’t find one (I guess they are only readily available at Christmas?), so I made one. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. And I guess B likes it – she won’t let me take it off!
The first day went really well, until she fell and scraped her chest with the pedal (pretty nasty scrape). Ever since, she has been skittish of hills (going down any type of hill, no matter how small). But she loves to ride, and especially likes to ride her bike to school (which is slightly uphill)! We are working on building up her confidence with the slight hills we have in our neighborhood.
M was a little trickier – how do you get a bike for a toddler? We have a “big wheel” type of tricycle, but right now she is using that as a rocker on the patio. Plus, we discovered with B that the “big wheel” is hard to ride until you basically get big enough for a real bike. Also, ever since B got her bike, M has been fascinated by it, and tries to get on pretty much every bike she sees. So, we found a Radio Flyer tricycle that works for 9 months to 5 years. I put it together the other night (no small task, mind you) – I think it is pretty snazzy! I mean, how many bikes have you ever had that come with a sun shade, snack tray, sippy cup holder, “trunk” to hold extra goodies, and handle bars so someone can push you?
It has a harness (we don’t really need that with the tray on, and once we take the tray off, I doubt we will need them at all, but it would be nice for a younger baby). The harness, tray, shade and handles are all removable so it will “grow” as she grows. As a bonus, the handles control the steering, so while I am pushing, I can actually steer the trike!
Here is M the first time we put her in it (she wouldn’t let go of the shoes, which she and B found very funny):
B likes to push it too:
After naps we took it for its maiden voyage – a quick one since nasty, nasty weather rolled in about 30 minutes later! What a life…getting a snack while being pushed around in her new trike…
I think she likes it!
THANK YOU Mimi and Djadju! The girls love their new wheels!
