More Bubbles

Today

Today was a great day.  A FANTASTIC day.  You made me tear up twice and didn't even know it.  I'm so proud of you.  Yesterday you were very frustrated when trying a new bike.  But today- today you asked to try again.  And you made it down the driveway TWICE! That's twice more than yesterday.  And then you calmly said, "Ok, I'm done now."

There was no screaming, no stomping, so throwing- You just got your other bike and went on your way.  

That was the first set of tears.

The second came when I checked my e-mail for the daily update from your teacher:

<Samantha is really growing up.  I haven’t even had to use the Stop & Go Bears with her.  I am just giving her extra screen time for her good behavior!  She has been a lot more patient, and stopping something without throwing a fit, waiting her turn and sharing.  I also don’t feel the need to email you daily anymore because she is doing such a great job!  So at this time, I would like to just see how see does to help her transition and get ready for first grade.>

Reading it again, I am going on my third set of tears. I am so. dang. proud of you!  This gave us such a sigh of relief and a peace that has been so long-awaited. 


 

A Box

I ordered some diapers and box became the central focal point of play for three days straight.

I get to draw on something other than paper!!!!!

The Tree

Boy oh boy do we love this tree!

Charlotte has been refusing the baby swing and wants to hang out on the big-kid swing, so we added a few things Sam could play on while Charlotte took over her swing.

I think this trapeze bar is her favorite.  Cost $3 to make!

She's wild on that thing- SWINGS while hanging!

The beloved green-swing.  Usually used for spinning.

The rope swing.  She's still getting the hang of it and is terrified of hitting the tree.  Cost $9 to make!

Our typical view of her now :)

Once Upon a Mattress

Sam and I had a date to see a Pius play.  She wore her Anna coronation dress- because there are so few places one can wear a princess dress!

18 Months

Before it's over!  You're still 18 months, so this counts!!

The longer I'm waiting to write this, the more and more I have to write about!

Today you weighed 23 lbs, 6 oz- 60%

You are 90% for height

90% for head circumference

You floored the doctor today by naming the alphabet crackers I was giving you.  You know about 15 of them.  This is hardly surprising, though, as the only books you want to read are ABC ones.  But you still don't know or recognize your colors.  You can say and sign all of them perfectly- but your color recognition accuracy is less than 5%!

Jeremy commented the other day with a wistful sigh, "Your middle name should have been Joy."
It's so true.  You bring so much joy to the family.  Especially for Samantha.  She knows you adore her.  You two are inseparable in the mornings and after school.  Sure, you get on each other's nerves when you've been together all day, but in the mornings and after school you two are best buds.  The current favorite activities are reading and watching/listening to Signing Time.

Your vocabulary is absolutely insane.  Before your appointment I was making a guess as to how many words you could say, as I knew this was a question they would ask.  You have really great pronunciation, so even strangers are able to understand what you are telling them.  More often than not they will ask how old you are and can't believe how well you talk.  Anyway, I burst out laughing when they asked if you were saying 2-4 words.  The number I had in mind was 100 times that!

This has been the month of vocabulary explosion.  You are not a big fan of screens (thank you JESUS) so I was wondering if you'd like Signing Time as much as your sister did.  What finally got your attention was the music.  Oh, how you love music!  When the music started you looked up and were hooked.  Part of our daily routine now is watching one episode after we get home in the afternoon.  It's 20 minutes of crunch-time for me, as it's 20 minutes that I'm guaranteed without interruption.  Sometimes I nap, but I usually get the budget done, start on dinner or finish some work e-mails.  But it's no more than one episode.  After that you've lost interest.  When the episode is done you and Sam make a bee-line for me and we wait for Daddy to get home.

We looooove watching the light-bulbs click as you learn more signs.  Sam preferred to sign and the speaking came later.  You prefer to say the words (if you can) and will sign to clarify when we just can't understand you.  For a while, your favorite was "Monkey" and "Gorilla".  Monkey sounded like "Cookie" so the sign was very helpful!  You couldn't say Gorilla, but man oh man did you like signing-it.  Especially to get people to laugh!

Back to the music- Jeremy started singing to you "Hail Mary, Gentle Woman" as a lullaby.  You started asking for "May-we?" whenever we'd cuddle with you in the dark at night.  Then it progressed to whenever you were cuddling.  Now it's at the dinner table, in the car, while we're cooking- and you demand that everyone in the room sing-along.  You know the words so well now that you'll lip-sync while we all sing and I've even caught you signing the first line over and over to yourself.  It makes all of our hearts melt.

You are a dream sleeper...pun intended.
You go to bed between 7-7:30 (fairly flexible) and wake up around 6am.  You nap for roughly 2 solid hours around noon.  Very predictable and very very very much appreciated.

However, my love, you are a very picky eater.  We were quite spoiled in this department with your sister.  You would probably live off of yogurt (gur), pizza (peeza), spaghetti (ketti), muffins (uff-IN), ice cream (cweam) and granola bars (BAR) if we allowed it.  Luckily you're still nursing twice a day and you'll drink (cow's!!!) milk (nilk) when offered.

Towards the end of the month, here, you've mastered a few new things.  You are way to confident on the stairs, can go down a slide by yourself, proudly say your name (Saw-yot), climb onto the couch, swing on a big-kid swing (and even lean back and give mommy a heart-attack) and get into "position" when you have a poopy diaper to be changed.

Finally, your patience is turning against us and becoming loud persistence.  I can turn on a trickle of water in the bathroom sink and you will play with it until we turn it off...mind you, this could be well over an HOUR later.  You L.O.V.E. to wash "hans".  And as long as we remember to clear out any towels/cups/pieces of loose clothing the mess is minimal when you are done.  But you want to do this all the time from the moment you finish nursing in the morning.  And you repeat it over and over and over and over and over- louder and Louder and LOUDER and LOUDER until someone answers you 10 times in a row.  And if the answer is no- oh, goodness the tears.  Luckily the tears are not NEARLY as loud as your sister's and you tapper off after a minute or two.

Ok, that was a lot for 18 months, but this is quickly becoming our favorite age.

You suffer from some wicked allergies too.  This was the day I decided "screw it" and gave you Clariten.  Worked like a charm!  You are a sensitive one.  Allergic to penicillin and still react to corn and store-bought wipes.  I'll be testing egg this summer...

Quick story- you had a HORRIFIC cold during these pictures that turned into strep.  Your poor nose and eyes were like faucets.  At one point you sucked IN all the boogers.  I yelped a loud, "EW! GROSS!" and Samantha fell into a ball of giggles.  Which, of course, made you do it again and declare "GWOAH-S".  Now all boogers and diaper changes are "EEEEWW! GWOAH-S."

Those are curls hiding on your neck!

A post about you wouldn't be complete without your two favorite people. 

Flashback!

Fall 2009 

Spring 2015

South Paw

Do you see what I see?  

She's been fairly consistent using it since she was really little...especially when eating and writing

Yia Yia should be proud!  

ing.

New Face

She LOVES the giggles she gets from this.

Especially from this one.

Daddy was fixing the edging in the bathroom.  Sam was waiting to get both of their faces at the same time...

Got it!

Sam's B-day

I know, it's not until May, but I just can't WAIT, so I have to show these off.  The knitting part was a cinch.  The piecing it together part was a bit of a chore, but it really didn't take too long, so it was doable.  I'm debating whether or not I have the patience to add some embroidery...in the mean time I'll be working on Olaf!

The coronation dresses are my favorite

They look a lot less freaky in real-life.

Original patterns are FREE here:
http://knittedtoybox.com/2014/04/elsa-frozen-flip-doll/

Olaf:
http://theknitguru.com/2014/08/10/olaf-from-frozen-knitting-pattern/