MIA

I may not be cut out for this whole blogging business.  I guess only time will tell.  I don't feel too bad though, because no one actually reads my blog.

I just thought I would do a quick post since it's been about 6 months since I last posted.  I can't think of what I want to say at the moment, so instead I'll share a recent photo that I took of my cutie pie.

I can't believe how big she's gotten.  I'll try to post something with more substance soon.

Potty trained

So, I meant to write about this when I was actually going through the process, but of course that never happened!

Instead I get to say that my daughter has now been potty trained for about a month and a half.  We started April 2nd and it went very well.  She got it right away and had very few accidents.  Then by about the 5th day I believe, she wasn't having accidents anymore.

She will still occasionally have an accident, but it's rare and usually happens when she's really upset and just seems to lose all control.  In the past month, I think she's had 4 accidents and 2 of those were on the drive home from Disneyland, which is pretty good for a 2 year old who is newly potty trained!

I had no idea what I was getting myself into because I know some people have a really hard time, but she did so well!  I was just lucky with my timing I think.  She was extremely ready to do it.

Her best friend had just potty trained about 1-2 months earlier and she was extremely interested as a result.  She always wanted to sit on his potty and really seemed to want to start the whole process.  She was also very aware of her bodily functions and would ask to have her diaper changed.  Also, when she was naked, she would ask for a diaper when she needed to go.

I ended up feeling like I was holding her back from being potty trained and decided I better just go ahead and do it while she was showing such an interest.  And now I'm so glad I did.

I have to say, I don't miss changing diapers!  It used to be such a battle.  I love that she's potty trained!  Although now I'm sad that she really, really isn't a baby anymore.  And now I want another baby...

We are not ready for another one at the moment.  We are in the middle of too many major life changes, but hopefully soon everything will settle down and we can have another one. =)

Until then, I will just enjoy the one on one time I have with my toddler.  I love her more than anything. I can't believe what a big girl she is now!

I wanted a picture to go along with the potty training post, but the closest thing I could find was her painting in her panties!  So here is the artist with her wild hair, experimenting with some body painting while wearing her Cinderella panties. =)

A Very Late 2 Year Update

My sweet baby girl, we celebrated your 2nd birthday on February 22 by going to see Disney on Ice with grandma, papa, and cousin Caitlyn.  And mommy and daddy of course!  You had a lot of fun even though you weren't quite ready to sit through the whole thing.

Then the following day we celebrated with family and friends by having a ladybug themed party.  You had so much fun playing with your friends and cousins.

You received lots of nice gifts for your birthday and your favorite was a doll from your friend Alex.  You played with it the rest of the day and even took it to bed with you that night.

Daddy and I gave you a tricycle and you love to ride it.  Every time you see it downstairs, you want to ride it.

It has been another year full of joy as I watch you grow up.  You have changed so much this past year and even though I still call you my baby, you are definitely not a baby anymore.

You are such a talker, but whenever we go out, it takes you awhile to warm up.  So most people don't get to see what a chatterbox you are.

You also like to read books, sing songs, and dance.  Your favorite song to sing is twinkle twinkle little star.  I love it when you sing.  I also love it when you read books by yourself, out loud.

When we go outside, you like to collect rocks and look for bugs.  You are surprisingly good at picking up bugs without squishing them.

You love all animals and always enjoy going to Ardenwood farm to see the goats, chickens, and bunnies.  You like to pet the goats and chase the chickens.  Sometimes you even manage to pet the chickens, though mostly they are too fast for you.

You have become quite independent and want to do many things for yourself.  You like to try to dress yourself and don't want any help, even though you still need it.  You can put a skirt on all by yourself and sometimes you can get pants on by yourself too.  Though many times you end up with both legs in one pant leg!  It's ok, you're still learning.  You're pretty good at putting on your own shoes and you rarely let me pick out which ones you will wear anymore.  You are a shoe girl and you know which ones you want to wear.

You give the best hugs and kisses and are very good at making me feel better if I am sad.  One day I was upset about something and crying and you said "huggy" to ask me if I needed a hug.  I said I did need a hug, so you gave me a big hug and completely melted my heart while also cheering me up.

You are such a sweet little girl and I love you more and more every day!

Photo by JRoPhoto

A week shy of 23 months

Where did the time go?  I'm going to stop the formal, monthly posts for awhile since they obviously aren't working out so well!

My sweet baby, I put pigtails in your hair for the first time and I swear you grew up right before my eyes.

You are all toddler!  Speaking in full sentences, clearly expressing your likes and dislikes, and generally bursting with energy.

You love all animals and get so excited when you see a bird, dog, cat, any animal really!  You spend your time with your kitties alternately being gentle, hugging, petting but then also terrorizing them and chasing them around the house.  You love them and luckily they love you too!  They put up with a lot from you because they like you so much.

You still spend most of your time playing with your baby dolls and your various stuffed animals.  Putting them in your doll stroller, your real high chair, changing their diapers and feeding them.  You are so sweet with your babies and stuffed animals.

I'm going to stop for now.  I will do a post for your 2nd birthday, but I'm going to try to do updates randomly when I feel like it instead of trying for specific dates because that hasn't been working out too well and I don't want to forget all the things you do to amaze and entertain me =)

I love you so much baby girl!!!!  (and you like to tell me now "I love you too" which melts my heart every time I hear it)

18 months

My sweet baby girl, yes you are a toddler, but you will always be my baby.  I took some time off from monthly updates because it is so hard to find the time to blog.  You are busy, busy, busy and want lots of attention from your mommy.

You are so curious about everything and have become quite determined when it comes to getting what you want.  You can point and show us what you want and become very upset if it's something we won't let you have, such as a cellphone, computer, or bottle of medicine.

You love your kitties so much.  You give them hugs and try to share your food with them.  We are working on being gentle, but this is a tough concept for you.  Especially since your kitties are extremely tolerant and do not provide you with any natural consequences other than running away from you.

You are pretty fascinated by all animals.  You love to find dogs, or as you call them "wow wows".  As long as they don't get too close, you are very excited to see them.  You love to chase after birds and get down on the ground to inspect bugs.  You are definitely an animal lover like your mama.

Books and baby dolls are still a favorite.  You especially like books with animals in them of course.  And you just like to spend a lot of time exploring the world around you.

You can climb up and down the stairs all by yourself and can even walk down them if you hold my hand.  You have a newfound freedom of running all over the place.  You love to run outside and to find rocks, leaves, flowers, anything really.

It is also hard to take you to the store now, because you want to run around and touch everything you see.  It is all so new and exciting!

Your favorite word is "uh-oh" and "mama".  You also like to hold up your hands and say "wheredhego" which is "where did he go", but you condense it into one word. Or "wheredugo" which is "where did you go".  It is so cute.  You have a lot of words even though you don't always use them on a regular basis.

You know where your eyes are and can say "eye".  You poke me or daddy or the cats in the eye and say "eye".  We still need to work on the rest of the body parts though.

You know a cow says moo and a cat says meow and I think you know that a monkey says ooh ooh.  But animal noises are another thing we will work on.

You had your very first airplane ride to New York and did wonderfully well on the plane.  It was a very fun trip!  Your favorite part was the day we went to the beach.  That was mommy and daddy's favorite too.

I think that is enough of an update for now.  I'll end with some pictures.  I love you so much baby girl!

In Tahoe.

You love your kitty!

Happy girl eating ice cream.

So proud to be sitting in your own seat on the subway.

At the beach in NY.

15 months

Baby girl, this past month has been an exciting one.  You are definitely a walker now.  You mostly walk on your feet and are getting faster and faster.  You haven't given up knee walking, but are doing it much less and doing real walking much more.

You love to dance every time you hear music and you will give me the stereo remote when you want me to turn it on.  You know how to turn it off, but not on.

Your favorite things to do are read books and play with your baby dolls.  You are so sweet with your babies.  You wrap them in your blankies, carry them around, rock them, pat them, give them bottles and put them in the stroller.  I love watching you play.

You have had a language explosion!  You mostly have just 3 signs now, which are "milk" "water" and "all done".  Sometimes you will sign "more" and "eat/food", but rarely.  You really need to learn more signs because you use those 3 main signs for lots of different things and that makes it difficult to figure out what you really want.

You are saying so many more words.  You can say "hi" "no" and you say "guau guau" for dog which is apparently what dogs say in spanish, pronounced "wow wow".  Daddy said you also say "hola".  You say your cousin Josh's name and your cousin Avery.  You also say a word for your cousin Caitlyn, but I don't know what it is.  And I'm pretty sure I've heard you say "this" "ice" and "eat".  That's a lot of words for a little girl!  And of course you still love to carry on long conversations in jibberish. =)

Your favorite song is the itsy bitsy spider and you try to do the hand gestures.  Oh and you say "down" for "down comes the rain".  It is so cute.

You also love to lift up your shirt for mommy to beep your belly button, but you usually say "bop" instead of "beep".  And you like to find mommy's belly button.

You absolutely love to be naked and go wild whenever we let you run around with no clothes on.   It's a little hazardous right now since you are a long way off from potty training, but we still risk it every once in awhile because you have so much fun.

I love you so much and it is amazing to watch you and your personality grow everyday.

Having fun with your kitty.

Reading with your baby.

Playing with daddy.

14 months

Well baby girl, you did it, you started to walk!  I wasn't sure if you would make it by 14 months, but 2 days before you turned 14 months you decided it was time.

Over the past month there were a few times that you took a couple steps by yourself, but it was usually because you weren't paying attention and had no idea that you did it.  Then a few days ago, you were standing all by yourself and holding something in your hands.  You were staring at me with this look in your eyes like you were contemplating whether you should just go for it.  I anxiously waited and then you took about 5 steps and were so proud of yourself!  I was shouting, "Yay"!!!!! and clapping.  I was so proud of you.  Then you did it again for daddy to see.

We did manage to get some video of you walking later on, but you didn't have any clothes on.  Don't worry, we will not be posting that on the internet.  We will wait until we get some more video of you walking with clothes on to share with everybody.

You still prefer to get around by what we now call knee walking, but you are getting more and more confident about walking on your feet.  I'm sure I'll be chasing after you in no time!

Your favorite word is still uh-oh and you love to jabber away in your cute little baby jibberish.  If only I could understand what you're trying to say because you sure have a lot of stories to tell!

Even though I haven't been very successful getting you to use sign language, you are getting some nonverbal communication across.  Sometimes I'll stroke your skin and when I stop, you pick up my hand and put it on the spot I was stroking and give me a look that says, "mom, don't stop".

One of my favorite things that you do right now is pick up a book and bring it to me to read, then you back yourself into my lap and sit down.  When I'm done, you go pick a different book and climb into my lap again.

You have 8 teeth now and 4 more coming!  I can't wait until you get a break from teething.  I hate to see you in pain.

Love you baby girl, more and more everyday.  I'll end with some pictures.

Playing outside in the grass.

All dressed up for Easter.