Sweet Pea,
Today you turn 2! I can hardly believe it. This year has flown by - I feel like you just turned one yesterday.
It has been a busy year for our family. Here are some highlights from the year:
* Papa's commercial was on national television!
* We had a MAJOR snowstorm in Seattle that kept us stuck in our house for 10 days and prevented Santa from buying everyone Christmas gifts. I've heard Santa is going to be preparing much earlier this year!
* You met your Great Grandma Rose and Great Grandpa John over Christmas. You loved them and Mommy was in awe watching you play with them.
* Papa sold his company! Yay! We are so proud of him, Ethan and Patrick.
* We spent a month in Hawaii on an Urbanspoon "work-cation" with the Urbanspoon families. We rented a house on the beach in Lanikai with Ethan, Nicole and Paia. And Patrick, Carolyn, Emily and Casey rented a house close by. What fun! And a much needed change of pace from the grey Seattle weather. I hope we do more trips like this!
* We got pregnant with a little boy that will be joining our family in a few months. Yay! You are going to be such a good big sister. You're already toughening this little guy up by ramming various body parts into mommy's belly as you attempt to cuddle with my ever increasing midsection.
* We bought a new house! Our growing family means we need some more space so we're moving to a beautiful house in Magnolia, a neighborhood very close to where we currently live. We're having some work done on the house to make it feel more like a home and hope to move in right before Christmas. You LOVE going to the new house and running around all the empty rooms and hiding in the closets.
Phew! It's been a busy year.
You, also have been very busy lately:
* You can pretty much carry on conversations now. From 18 months to 2 years you went from saying (a lot of) single words to putting words together to speaking in simple sentences to speaking in more complex sentences. It's been amazing to watch. When I pick you up from preschool, for example, I will ask what you did that day and you can actually tell me ("you played with toys, you sang the dinasaur song, you ate pretzels"). Everyone who interacts with you comments on how verbal you are and is surprised to learn how old you are. You still aren't clear on your pronouns (you say "you want mommy to hold you" or you want to drive in papa's car.") but you are getting better, actually using "I" and "me" sometimes. I feel super fortunate that you can talk so well - it really makes interacting with you more fun and interesting. And funny. You say things all day, every day that make me laugh. For example, lately when we're driving you will hold up whatever animal you have with you to the window and say "what do you see bunny?" Or "Do you see the trees bunny?"
* You have clear preferences and you make them known. You can tell us what you want to eat, what you want to do, where you want to go, who you want to play with etc. Last night I went into your room to cuddle you while you were sleeping. When I put you back in your crib and covered you with a blanket you (while being half asleep, with eyes closed) rubbed your hand on the blanket and then said "you want the soft one." When I put the other blanket on you, which apparently is the soft one, you rubbed your hand on it the same way and then, satisfied, rolled over and went back to sleep. You also want your apple "with skin" and a "warm bottle", not just a bottle. You want me to close any cabinets that are left open, close the microwave door if I leave it open etc. It cracks me up. And it also kind of explains why you were such a cranky baby - I'm sure you had all these opinions then of what you wanted or what you liked and just had no way of letting us know. I'm SO GLAD you can let us know now.
*You like to walk everywhere now and view having to go in the stroller as a punishment. You're actually pretty good at going where we need to go and listening to me when I need you to stand in one place or move to a new place. Although every once in awhile you will do the complete opposite with a huge smile on your face.
*You're developing a sense of humor. If I do something silly, like forget to put your bib on while you are eating you will say "silly mommy, you forgot the bib!" and you say it with the right intonation, like whatever I did is just the most hilarious thing in the whole world.
This year we were really able to see more and more of your personality come out. It has been so exciting for Papa and me to learn more about who you are and guess what you will be like in the future. I think the most surprising thing about parenting so far is realizing - through you - just how much of a personality people are born with. I have been thinking about yours for two years now and trying to come up with a list of words to describe you. It is impossible - you are obviously so much more than a collection of words - but if push comes to shove here are my top choices (with some help from Papa):
-goofy
-eager
-social
-dynamic
-independent
-quick
-intense
-curious
Oh, and you have an AMAZING memory.
Sweet Pea, there are not words to describe how much I love you. As I used to say to you when you were a baby: I love you to the moon, the stars and around the world five bazillion times! Happy Birthday baby girl!
Love,
Mommy
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Preschool
Sweet Pea,
Last week was a big week. You started TWO preschools! One is a "drop off" preschool that meets Tues/Thurs mornings for two hours. The other is a "Co-op" preschool that meets once a week and I go with you to that one.
It was kind of bitter sweet to drop you off the first day of drop-off preschool - I know you are ready for it, will enjoy it and will benefit greatly from doing some activities without me, but you're still my baby and it is weird to think about you going off into the world to have your own adventures. Of course, you loved it. You walked right in like you owned the place and didn't look back. Papa and I called you over to say good-bye and, even though you humored us, you were eager to run off and play some more. When I arrived to pick you up two hours later I rushed out of the car and into the door because other moms were already heading in and I didn't want you to think your mommy wasn't coming for you. But when I got into the room you just looked at me like "Oh, you're here" and went right back to playing! I expected this - you have always been an independent spirit - but I was both glad and sad to see it. You really are growing up so fast!
The co-op preschool is less traumatic for me because I go with you so it's really just like a big play date. You had so much fun there! Your favorite activity was using cookie cutters to make shapes in the play-dough, but you also loved pushing the grocery cart around with a baby doll in the seat and playing with the fake food. What surprised me the most was how excited you were to have me there. You would run off to play with something and then look back at me and say "you want mommy to come play with you" (which translates to "I want you to come play with me"). You were so excited that I was there to play with all the amazing, cool new toys with you. This was surprising given how fine you were with the drop off preschool. But I loved it of course!
I think the combo of the two different experiences will be great for both of us. Our weeks will be a bit more hectic and scheduled now, but we are both ready for it. I will miss you though. We have pretty much spent all day, every day together since you were born so this will be an adjustment. For me anyway!
Love you Nut!
Mommy
Last week was a big week. You started TWO preschools! One is a "drop off" preschool that meets Tues/Thurs mornings for two hours. The other is a "Co-op" preschool that meets once a week and I go with you to that one.
It was kind of bitter sweet to drop you off the first day of drop-off preschool - I know you are ready for it, will enjoy it and will benefit greatly from doing some activities without me, but you're still my baby and it is weird to think about you going off into the world to have your own adventures. Of course, you loved it. You walked right in like you owned the place and didn't look back. Papa and I called you over to say good-bye and, even though you humored us, you were eager to run off and play some more. When I arrived to pick you up two hours later I rushed out of the car and into the door because other moms were already heading in and I didn't want you to think your mommy wasn't coming for you. But when I got into the room you just looked at me like "Oh, you're here" and went right back to playing! I expected this - you have always been an independent spirit - but I was both glad and sad to see it. You really are growing up so fast!
The co-op preschool is less traumatic for me because I go with you so it's really just like a big play date. You had so much fun there! Your favorite activity was using cookie cutters to make shapes in the play-dough, but you also loved pushing the grocery cart around with a baby doll in the seat and playing with the fake food. What surprised me the most was how excited you were to have me there. You would run off to play with something and then look back at me and say "you want mommy to come play with you" (which translates to "I want you to come play with me"). You were so excited that I was there to play with all the amazing, cool new toys with you. This was surprising given how fine you were with the drop off preschool. But I loved it of course!
I think the combo of the two different experiences will be great for both of us. Our weeks will be a bit more hectic and scheduled now, but we are both ready for it. I will miss you though. We have pretty much spent all day, every day together since you were born so this will be an adjustment. For me anyway!
Love you Nut!
Mommy
Friday, May 8, 2009
18 Months
Sweet Pea,
Today you are 18 months old! It's hard to believe that it has only been 18 months since you've joined our family. Papa and I can barely even remember our lives without you - all that sleeping and eating out and traveling and being lazy on a Sunday morning and getting to do whatever we want whenever we want feels like a lifetime ago! And as much as we sometimes yearn for some of those things, we wouldn't go back to that lifetime for anything. Our lives are so much better with you in them - you have made us a family! So, I wanted to give you a little glimpse into your life at 18-months:
At 18 months you remain a very good sleeper. We have been lucky on this front - so thank you sweet pea! Although you do still kind of owe us one from when you were a newborn and refused to sleep at all for the first several weeks (or was it months?) of your life. But, pretty much since six months old you have been sleeping through the night and taking two very consistent and lengthy (1-2 hours, sometimes 3) naps a day, which I appreciate very much. While we were in Hawaii you made the dreaded switch to one nap a day and this has been somewhat of an adjustment for all of us. There are days when it is pretty clear that you need two naps but you refuse to take a second so we just tough it out. We're working out a schedule to maximize all of our happiness throughout the day. It's looking like we'll spend the morning out having fun and then have you take a nap in the afternoon. On this schedule you have sometimes even taken a 4+ hour nap in the afternoon!
I think all of the sleep you get has been doing good things for your brain development. At 18 months you are extremely verbal. I am very appreciative of this because you are often able to communicate your needs somewhat coherently. At you 18-month appointment we were given a little handout about an 18 month old's development that said you should have between 5-10 words. We felt like you had more than this so one day Papa and I decided to try to count all of your words. Each time you said something we wrote it down on a little scrap of paper. We only included words whose meaning you knew (since you repeat almost everything we say but don't necessarily know what it means). After we wrote them all down Papa typed it up and alphabetized it so we wouldn't count any words twice. Guess how many words were on the list?!? We stopped counting around 150 words! I actually think you have many more than this but we decided it would be too tedious to try to capture them all! Wow, you are one verbal baby. I have a feeling we are in for many conversations over the years and I couldn't be more excited about this!
The hard part for me about you only taking one nap is coming up with activities that keep you entertained for the now longer parts of the day when you are not asleep. You are extremely active and always eager to move onto the next activity. It's hard to separate what is developmental (toddlers have notoriously short attention spans) and what is your personality (you do, after all, have two parents who get bored very easily), but either way you keep us moving. And you let us know when we aren't doing a good job by getting very fussy. As much as you demand new activities frequently, you will play quite happily by yourself too. I love watching you talk to you toys or read a book by yourself. I need to get this on video for you to see someday!
Your favorite activities right now are "stickers" (taking stickers off of one piece of paper and putting them onto another), "markers" (thank goodness for washable markers!), sharing you food/bottles with Apple and Elmo, going to the park, playing in the sandbox, playing with the water table and walking (meaning going for a walk down the street where you walk on your own rather than in the stroller). We are working on getting you to hold our hand when we walk on the sidewalk. You do not like this very much at all.
You have always been fairly independent (by this I mean you have always preferred to sleep in your own bed to sleeping with us, you have been a quick and efficient nurser rather than a lingering/cuddly nurser, you gladly and easily walk into the center of a room where you know no one without looking back to see if Papa or I was with you etc) but lately you are going through a clingy mommy phase. On the one hand it is flattering. It means all of the effort I have put in to nurturing you and taking care of you has worked - you are bonded to me. On the other hand it does make leaving the house without you kind of difficult and somewhat traumatic for both of us. I've heard that this can come and go over the years so right now we're just in a wait and see pattern.
You are a pretty good eater at 18 months; not too adventurous but fairly healthy. You have loved avocados pretty much since you started eating solids and you also like green beans, bananas, carrots, cucumbers, raspberries, strawberries, pasta, cheese, yogurt, pizza from the Ballard Farmer's Market (where we go almost every Sunday), crepes with spinach and swiss, bagels and challah bread. You refuse to eat meat, blueberries and cantaloupe. We've started giving you chicken nuggets out of desperation to get you to eat some meat and you are starting to like them more. I feel like we need to get a bit more adventurous (ie, eating what we eat instead of making you a separate meal with your favorite foods) with what we give you so perhaps that is a project for the next few months...
So Sweet Pea, that is a little bit of you at 18 months. You are such a sweet, smart, driven, opinionated, goofy, great kid. We are so lucky to have you. Every night before Papa and I go to bed we usually end up talking about the silly things you did during the day and how great you are. We couldn't love you any more than we do!
Love,
Mommy
Today you are 18 months old! It's hard to believe that it has only been 18 months since you've joined our family. Papa and I can barely even remember our lives without you - all that sleeping and eating out and traveling and being lazy on a Sunday morning and getting to do whatever we want whenever we want feels like a lifetime ago! And as much as we sometimes yearn for some of those things, we wouldn't go back to that lifetime for anything. Our lives are so much better with you in them - you have made us a family! So, I wanted to give you a little glimpse into your life at 18-months:
At 18 months you remain a very good sleeper. We have been lucky on this front - so thank you sweet pea! Although you do still kind of owe us one from when you were a newborn and refused to sleep at all for the first several weeks (or was it months?) of your life. But, pretty much since six months old you have been sleeping through the night and taking two very consistent and lengthy (1-2 hours, sometimes 3) naps a day, which I appreciate very much. While we were in Hawaii you made the dreaded switch to one nap a day and this has been somewhat of an adjustment for all of us. There are days when it is pretty clear that you need two naps but you refuse to take a second so we just tough it out. We're working out a schedule to maximize all of our happiness throughout the day. It's looking like we'll spend the morning out having fun and then have you take a nap in the afternoon. On this schedule you have sometimes even taken a 4+ hour nap in the afternoon!
I think all of the sleep you get has been doing good things for your brain development. At 18 months you are extremely verbal. I am very appreciative of this because you are often able to communicate your needs somewhat coherently. At you 18-month appointment we were given a little handout about an 18 month old's development that said you should have between 5-10 words. We felt like you had more than this so one day Papa and I decided to try to count all of your words. Each time you said something we wrote it down on a little scrap of paper. We only included words whose meaning you knew (since you repeat almost everything we say but don't necessarily know what it means). After we wrote them all down Papa typed it up and alphabetized it so we wouldn't count any words twice. Guess how many words were on the list?!? We stopped counting around 150 words! I actually think you have many more than this but we decided it would be too tedious to try to capture them all! Wow, you are one verbal baby. I have a feeling we are in for many conversations over the years and I couldn't be more excited about this!
The hard part for me about you only taking one nap is coming up with activities that keep you entertained for the now longer parts of the day when you are not asleep. You are extremely active and always eager to move onto the next activity. It's hard to separate what is developmental (toddlers have notoriously short attention spans) and what is your personality (you do, after all, have two parents who get bored very easily), but either way you keep us moving. And you let us know when we aren't doing a good job by getting very fussy. As much as you demand new activities frequently, you will play quite happily by yourself too. I love watching you talk to you toys or read a book by yourself. I need to get this on video for you to see someday!
Your favorite activities right now are "stickers" (taking stickers off of one piece of paper and putting them onto another), "markers" (thank goodness for washable markers!), sharing you food/bottles with Apple and Elmo, going to the park, playing in the sandbox, playing with the water table and walking (meaning going for a walk down the street where you walk on your own rather than in the stroller). We are working on getting you to hold our hand when we walk on the sidewalk. You do not like this very much at all.
You have always been fairly independent (by this I mean you have always preferred to sleep in your own bed to sleeping with us, you have been a quick and efficient nurser rather than a lingering/cuddly nurser, you gladly and easily walk into the center of a room where you know no one without looking back to see if Papa or I was with you etc) but lately you are going through a clingy mommy phase. On the one hand it is flattering. It means all of the effort I have put in to nurturing you and taking care of you has worked - you are bonded to me. On the other hand it does make leaving the house without you kind of difficult and somewhat traumatic for both of us. I've heard that this can come and go over the years so right now we're just in a wait and see pattern.
You are a pretty good eater at 18 months; not too adventurous but fairly healthy. You have loved avocados pretty much since you started eating solids and you also like green beans, bananas, carrots, cucumbers, raspberries, strawberries, pasta, cheese, yogurt, pizza from the Ballard Farmer's Market (where we go almost every Sunday), crepes with spinach and swiss, bagels and challah bread. You refuse to eat meat, blueberries and cantaloupe. We've started giving you chicken nuggets out of desperation to get you to eat some meat and you are starting to like them more. I feel like we need to get a bit more adventurous (ie, eating what we eat instead of making you a separate meal with your favorite foods) with what we give you so perhaps that is a project for the next few months...
So Sweet Pea, that is a little bit of you at 18 months. You are such a sweet, smart, driven, opinionated, goofy, great kid. We are so lucky to have you. Every night before Papa and I go to bed we usually end up talking about the silly things you did during the day and how great you are. We couldn't love you any more than we do!
Love,
Mommy
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
ABCs
Sweet Pea,
When Grandpa was here right after we got home from Hawaii, he started to teach you the ABCs using a set of stacking blocks that have the letters of the alphabet on them. You really enjoyed thi and since then whenever you want to play with those blocks you start saying "ABCs, ABCs!" Now you know "A, B, C, D" and sometimes you even keep going to E and F. And if Papa or I keep singing to you, you can say the letter that comes next in the series. So if we say "a, b, c, d, e, f..." you say "g!" You can do this for g, p, v and z. It is so cute and every time you do it Papa and I swear you are a genius! Our little alphabet genius!
Mommy
When Grandpa was here right after we got home from Hawaii, he started to teach you the ABCs using a set of stacking blocks that have the letters of the alphabet on them. You really enjoyed thi and since then whenever you want to play with those blocks you start saying "ABCs, ABCs!" Now you know "A, B, C, D" and sometimes you even keep going to E and F. And if Papa or I keep singing to you, you can say the letter that comes next in the series. So if we say "a, b, c, d, e, f..." you say "g!" You can do this for g, p, v and z. It is so cute and every time you do it Papa and I swear you are a genius! Our little alphabet genius!
Mommy
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Combining Words
Sweet Pea,
This week you have started combining words, which apparently is something that about 25% of toddlers your age are able to do. Your favorite words to combine? Apple peepee! Which you say every morning when Papa takes Apple out to go to the bathroom. We are so proud.
Mommy
This week you have started combining words, which apparently is something that about 25% of toddlers your age are able to do. Your favorite words to combine? Apple peepee! Which you say every morning when Papa takes Apple out to go to the bathroom. We are so proud.
Mommy
Friday, March 27, 2009
New Words (while in Hawaii)
Sweet Pea,
Mommy is really getting behind in this blog! I am going to try to be better about posting more updates going forward - so much is happening and you are learning and changing every day! Right now we are in Hawaii for a month (yes!) and I will write more about that, complete with pictures, later. But for now I wanted to post about some of the great things you are doing and saying!
You pretty much say anything we ask you to and many things we don't ask you to. Some of my favorites (which obviously reflect our location at the moment): Hawaii, Honolulu, Waikiki, Aloha, Mahalo, big house ("be how" which is what we're calling the house we rented while in Hawaii) and tunnel (b/c we drive thru a tunnel or two to get from one side of the island to the other). I love that you learned the word tunnel, which you will likely use on a somewhat regular basis for the rest of your life, while in Hawaii! In addition you know how to say the names of our friends with us in Hawaii: Ethan, Nicole, Paia, Carolyn, Casey, Emily and Patrick.
You also have been learning the names for objects that I haven't "taught" you to say. With Honolulu for example, I would say "Sweet Pea, can you say Honolulu?" And then you repeat Honolulu (which is pretty adorable). But some words you have learned without me asking you to repeat them. These include: shower, soap, coffee, pants, diaper, telephone, tv, and boobie, among many, many others. This is the part of your talking that amazes me the most as you have just picked them up in passing. Amazing!
Also, we can't forget my all time favorite: mommy! You finally say "mommy" to mean me. For a while now you have said all kinds of m and n sounds put together to mean me (or more likely to mean "milk" which is pretty much what you thought of me), but on this trip you finally started saying mommy when you want me. I love the way you say it too! So cute. And the other day when you woke up in the morning, instead of crying or fussing or babbling, you said "mommy, mommy" to get me to come get you. As Papa said, he's never seen me jump out of the bed so fast! Currently "mommy" is your favorite word. All day long you say "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy"! I like it.
I love you baby girl!
Mommy
Mommy is really getting behind in this blog! I am going to try to be better about posting more updates going forward - so much is happening and you are learning and changing every day! Right now we are in Hawaii for a month (yes!) and I will write more about that, complete with pictures, later. But for now I wanted to post about some of the great things you are doing and saying!
You pretty much say anything we ask you to and many things we don't ask you to. Some of my favorites (which obviously reflect our location at the moment): Hawaii, Honolulu, Waikiki, Aloha, Mahalo, big house ("be how" which is what we're calling the house we rented while in Hawaii) and tunnel (b/c we drive thru a tunnel or two to get from one side of the island to the other). I love that you learned the word tunnel, which you will likely use on a somewhat regular basis for the rest of your life, while in Hawaii! In addition you know how to say the names of our friends with us in Hawaii: Ethan, Nicole, Paia, Carolyn, Casey, Emily and Patrick.
You also have been learning the names for objects that I haven't "taught" you to say. With Honolulu for example, I would say "Sweet Pea, can you say Honolulu?" And then you repeat Honolulu (which is pretty adorable). But some words you have learned without me asking you to repeat them. These include: shower, soap, coffee, pants, diaper, telephone, tv, and boobie, among many, many others. This is the part of your talking that amazes me the most as you have just picked them up in passing. Amazing!
Also, we can't forget my all time favorite: mommy! You finally say "mommy" to mean me. For a while now you have said all kinds of m and n sounds put together to mean me (or more likely to mean "milk" which is pretty much what you thought of me), but on this trip you finally started saying mommy when you want me. I love the way you say it too! So cute. And the other day when you woke up in the morning, instead of crying or fussing or babbling, you said "mommy, mommy" to get me to come get you. As Papa said, he's never seen me jump out of the bed so fast! Currently "mommy" is your favorite word. All day long you say "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy"! I like it.
I love you baby girl!
Mommy
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Sweet Pea,
For a few months now you have been pointing at things that are "no nos" (diaper champ, Apple's food bowl, the toilet) and going "no no no no no no," which of course I think is hilarious. And I always say "that's right, that is a no no." But I wasn't sure if you really knew what "no" meant or if you thought those things were called "no no no no" like a ball is called a ball. But then the other day I asked you if you wanted some banana and you said "no." Simple as that. Then I asked if you wanted some water. No. What about some cheese? More more more more, you said. So then I knew. You knew what "no" meant and you were already very good at using it! I am sure this will quickly become frustrating, but for now I think it is the cutest thing ever and will ask you if you want a bunch of different things just to hear you say your cute little "no."
For a few months now you have been pointing at things that are "no nos" (diaper champ, Apple's food bowl, the toilet) and going "no no no no no no," which of course I think is hilarious. And I always say "that's right, that is a no no." But I wasn't sure if you really knew what "no" meant or if you thought those things were called "no no no no" like a ball is called a ball. But then the other day I asked you if you wanted some banana and you said "no." Simple as that. Then I asked if you wanted some water. No. What about some cheese? More more more more, you said. So then I knew. You knew what "no" meant and you were already very good at using it! I am sure this will quickly become frustrating, but for now I think it is the cutest thing ever and will ask you if you want a bunch of different things just to hear you say your cute little "no."
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