Eighteen Months

My goodness my girl is big.  18 months old (tomorrow).  A full-blown toddler?

This precious 18 month old can:

- Say semi-sentences.  Just the other morning she said to Ross, "Mom teeth brush wawa."  Which translates to, "Mom is brushing her teeth with water."  (don't worry, I always brush my teeth with water)  She can tell us what she wants about 90% of the time without much trouble. Rarely does she just say one word anymore when she is trying to communicate; it is almost always two or more.

- Run with the big dogs.  She tries to do everything Amelia does and I let her try as many things as I can without having a heart attack.  She is a daredevil and has had more skinned knees and tumbles than Amelia has had in three and a half years.  

-Stay outside for hours.  Her favorite thing in the absolute world is to swing.  She asks to "wee" about a million times a day and can swing forever and ever.  If she can't be swinging, then she wants to be digging in dirt or sand and strewing it from head to toe.

-Steal your heart with a smile.  Elise has a smile that will light up an entire room and she has been that way since she was born.  She stops people in the grocery store to tell them Hi.  She peeks around to a full table at a restaurant to wave.  She inches down the pew during church to touch the knee of the lady sitting alone and then runs back giggling.  She makes people happy and it is infectious.  She makes her mommy giddy every single time she flashes this smile.

These warm months are heavenly for her as she is crazy about the water.  My little buggy boo loves our water table and sprinkler and pool.  She honestly would be content staying outside from sunup to sundown. 

FAVORITES

Foods:  strawberries, blueberries, peaches, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, peanut butter crackers, Gerber melts, and cookies of any kind.

Books:  Shake a Leg, Goodnight Spot, Where Are You?, My First Words

Activities:  Climbing, running, following Amelia, Digging

Words:  Mommy, Sissy, Now, Please (peese), Drink (dink), Cookie (tookie), Swing (wee)

Songs:  Row, row, row Your Boat, Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Elise,
It makes me incredibly happy to watch your personality form and see you develop into a little person who expresses thoughts and ideas and joins in as we play family games.  You crack us all up with your funny little sentences and make me take a deep breath when you decide to stand your ground on something.  I thank you for helping me judge less and accept more.  Fear less and trust more.  Stress less and live more. But, most of all, I thank you for allowing me this opportunity to share and care and love and hug and teach.  You have a special sparkle my little bug and I'm so proud to be your mom.

L is for Library and R is for Rice

Both girls love going to the library and I'm surprised at how well Elise has done in the "big kids" story time hour.  She actually sat on her carpet square last time and felt pretty proud of herself I think.  Since it is for ages 3-5 most of the stories and conversations are over her head, but it is great practice for her to sit still.  Or try. 

 

A few weeks ago the stories were all about dreams and the craft was to create a Dream Jar.  The kids wrote down things on strips of paper that they would like to dream about or that they will think about while going to sleep in order to think good thoughts.  

Amelia picked:

1.  That my Dad could always stay home with us.

2.  Swimming to the bottom of a deep pool.

3.  Princesses

4.  Going to the fair.

Sidenote:  My Mom and Dad brought this adorable romper back from Vegas for Amelia.  She loves that it is one piece and I love that it is the cutest thing ever.

Amelia loves putting on puppet shows for Elise Mae and any other people in the library that will stop and listen to her.

 

Last week the kids got to do the parachute at the end of class and try to keep the stars afloat.  Elise desperately wanted to have a part even though I usually try to keep her with me when the older kids have an activity.  I will give you one guess who the little girl was that kept running UNDER the parachute and laughing while the other kids were trying to follow instructions. :)

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In the mornings when it is still partially cool, Amelia begs to get out her birthday gift from Walker.  The girls can play with this colored rice for hours.  Amelia always makes cupcakes for imaginary friends and painstakingly piles colored "sprinkles" on top of each other and dumps it out to start over.  

Elise has gotten really great at scooping her rice in also and her attention is held for almost as long.  They have so much fun with this simple box of rice and spoons!

Day of the Fathers

My sweet husband was working on Father's Day and the day before that and the day before that...  Which got me thinking about what a fabulous example he is for our daughters.  His work ethic is top notch and he never complains.  I even try to get him to sometimes and he just won't do it.  He truly is such a stellar guy.  We celebrated with him on Friday night.  Amelia sang him a Father's Day song and gave him the card she made.  Elise made one too but had no interest in actually giving it.  Amelia also gave him the coffee mug she painted him.  It was neat for me to see her SO excited about this. 

The only thing Elise wanted to do was hold Ross's new mug.  Here she is showing it off.

Helping Daddy set up his new hose roller up thingy we got him.  Hose winder?  Hose basket?  Hose twirler device?  Anyway, he loved it.

After supper we went for ice cream with the Hahn's.  Emack and Bolios is the best ice cream in all of Springfield if you are ever in the area.  The girls wore their cute My Daddy is #1 outfits and Ross was so appreciative of them :).  Just a sidenote here on one of my love languages.  There was a time when he wouldn't have said much about Amelia's outfit when she was little.  He now not only notices when the girls have on something new/cute, he comments on how wonderful they look and little Amelia's face lights up and Elise says, "Petty, petty dress."  So, when he said their Daddy shirts were adorable, the man was speaking to me in fashion.  Which is so much more romantic than Italian or French in my book.

This picture is sweet.  Dr. Hahn truly cares for my children and we have been so blessed to have him for a friend and doctor.

Father's Day weekend was just beautiful.  The bummer part was that Steph's family didn't get to come over because Ing was sick. Thankfully it was just a little virus and she was fine after the weekend.  We still had lots of fun and Gammy and Gampy blew up their neat pool for the girls and Meme and Pop came over to watch :)

My Daddy pie is simply the best father in the world.  He is kind and his generosity knows no bounds.  I am always amazed (as a yeller) at his ability to be firm and gentle entirely at the same time. I've always known he was a fabulous dad and so this isn't some knew revelation that has come to me as I have aged.  I'm still very aware of it, like I always have been.  However, the new awe I feel for him revolves around his ability to still play the role as my strong and caring Dad, and be a fun-loving, energetic Gampy.  He plays with the girls constantly and they simply adore him!

The Fab Four

Stephanie surprised me last week and said she was bringing the girls up for the day.  I was so ecstatic.  They rarely come up here because it is just easier for me to bring my two to Harrison and see everyone.  Amelia was jumping off the walls with excitement waiting for them to arrive.

We just stayed at home and played and played.  I was impressed at how well they played together and there was not ONE fight over a toy.  How bizarre is that? 

We had snack time on the porch.-

Then some swinging and chalking took place-

Amelia loves being a little mother hen so much.  She is obsessed with helping Steph do things with Liv.  It is so precious. 

By some great miracle, all four girls napped at the same time and when they got up, they were raring to get in the water.

This tiny little bit was the only time Liv ever got upset.  We couldn't figure out if she was upset because she wanted in the water or because she actually got in the water.  Either way, she was much happier watching the girls from afar.

And this picture makes me laugh so hard I can't stand it.  Ingrid begged Steph to get in and so she put a foot on the edge of the sprinkle mat and punctured a big hole in it.  I am gasping for air.  It was hysterical except that Amelia broke down into a tiny puddle of tears exclaiming how much she loved that mat.  She was so heartbroken and I thought Steph was going to cry as well.  All I could do was hold back laughter for some reason.

Here Steph is comforting Amelia.  She kept saying, "I loved that mat."

I quickly got out the small pool and crazy caterpillar sprinkler and all was fine.  More water fun ensued.  Ingrid got me so tickled.  Every time she sat down in the pool she would scream, "My buns are in the water.  I'm sitting in the water."

We dried off and had supper and played all the way until bedtime.  I just had the most fabulous day with my sister and her girls.  Left me wishing they could just run over any old time, but I am so glad she loaded them up for a surprise.  Thanks Steph :)

Vacation- Days Nine and Ten

Saturday morning Ross took Amelia to the movies to see Strawberry Shortcake Berry Garden and she was SO tickled about it.  I honestly hate letting anyone take the girls to do stuff without me.  Even their Dad. I want to be with them for every single fun moment.  I didn't really get that this could be an issue or a problem until recently when I read an article about robbing Dads of alone time with their children.  What?  Who would do such a thing?  Apparently me.

 It talked about how some mothers naturally dominate every situation while out and about (check) and are completely in control in every area at home from clothes to cleaning to cooking (check) and that stay at home moms are the worst about this because they are with the kids so much (check).  It was a very eye opening article.  So, I scrapped by original plan of having Ross stay home with Elise and off they went.  Amelia could NOT stop smiling.  She wanted to wear a "fancy dress" to go with her Daddy. 

And later we were all together, in a big wad, just like I like.  Eating our banana popsicles and loving life.

 Sunday morning marked our last day of vacation and it was a fabulous one.  Here is my precious girl with curly hair. 

This picture cracks me up and I think this is Elise Mae's lucky dress.  She did SO wonderful in the nursery.  We told her where we were going and she practiced saying Ms. Nikki (her teacher) and kids.  She stayed the whole two hours without a big fit.  Yippeeee.

And, just like that---it was over. Before kids, I would never have fathomed someone having a week off and not going anywhere or doing anything significant or vacation-y.  However, as I reflect back on our week at home, I honestly get teary eyed.  Big surprise, huh?  Other than loving my girls so much, the main thing that stands out is how Ross works his TAIL off and was perfectly happy just being with us.  He didn't need pampering or rewarded or to have his toes in the sand.  He just wanted us.  And that is the best feeling ever :)