22 MONTHS!

Everyone keeps telling me you are no longer a baby…but you are MY baby (forever!)

You are so busy mastering new skills and being silly, each day is a new adventure with you.

Here’s what you've been up to this month:

-Favorite activity remains playing with water and you are a master at filling and dumping J You also LOVE birds and that better not change in the next 2 months, because I have already started the decorations for your birthday party!

We got to see lots of birds this week in your feeder...

Today we also had a surprise visitor to another bird feeder...Bob the Squirrel :)

-You also enjoy playing with your dolls. You pat them on the back and cough for them. You cover them, feed them, and shhh them to sleep.

-There is nothing that is off limits. You can get up and down 3 stairs with no assistance and can do a whole flight with holding the railing and someone’s hand.

-You are not a picky eater, most days. You can use utensils and drink from an open cup or straw like a pro. Right now you seem to really enjoy grapes, cheese, pretzels, and anything sweet J

-You amaze us at how precise you are with crayons and markers. You can make dots, circles, and lines and enjoy trying to trace your hand. You are stacking blocks in high towers and trying to lace beads.

-We also know you are working very hard to talk to us. I think you have about 8 very consistent spontaneous words: go, dad, o (open), ya, no, gaga (grandma), up, and uhoh.

You have the ‘s’ and ‘m’ sound when we prompt you and will make lots of silly faces with us. You are also learning lots of signs to help us understand you: milk, up, down, bird, eat, and more.

-You insist on being active! There seems to be no cartoon that will hold your attention for more than 3 minutes, I guess that’s a good thing. You do like to look at books and have them read to you and will sit on my lap each evening as we go through a few. You also enjoy music class and library time. You are interested in others and participate with the group.

-Beans, play dough, finger paints…any texture seems to be fine with you! Or maybe you just like to make messes for mommy J

Pancakes for breakfast to celebrate 22 Months!!

We also had fun on Saturday evening by eating spaghetti with old(er) people. Justin, Rose, and I picked up great grandpa and grandma Bechtel to go to Bally Mennonite for their annual spaghetti dinner to support the preschool. 

 (Rose refused to wear a bib, I guess she thinks she is getting too old for that!)

On another note here is the confession of a working (outside of the home) mom. I feel SUPER guilty when I do not spend every single moment I can with Rose. I rush to get her at the end of my work day and I am very hesitant to make any plans on the weekend that do not include her. I struggle with creating time for myself, time with Justin, and time with Rose. This is especially difficult right now because Rose has become very clingy to me. So even at home, if I leave the room for a few minutes and she is with Justin, she will come looking for me. I wonder if she is feeling upset that I am not around more, I think this is just something I will feel insecure about for a long time. Some people have said it’s the quality over the quantity, but I don’t really line up with this view. A lot of my childhood memories are blurry as to what my family was actually doing, but I know my parents were around, always present in my life (and still are!). Anyway, if anyone else is feeling some of the same, just wanted you to know you’re not alone J

Also in order to just spend more time together at the end of the day, I have started making more freezer and Crockpot meals. Every other weekend I make a big batch of something to freeze to eat over the next few months on busy nights. Also when I can plan ahead I put dinner in the Crockpot to be ready when we all get home. This has really simplified our nights and we haven’t skimped on taste or quality!

I have gotten some very yummy recipes from Six SistersStuff, Pinterest, and a cookbook. This weekend I made 82 meatballs. I used some of them for a Tortellini Soup  (I used a can of whole tomatoes that I chopped up to be a bit more hearty and I added the meatballs) and froze 4 bags for other dinners. 

On a final note, Justin and I have expanded our adventures in green living. I spoke with a therapist this week after noticing her hair looks especially healthy and she informed me that for the past 5 months she has been using baking soda and apple cider vinegar. I figured if she had done this for 5 months it was probably pretty safe and looked up different ways to do it. Since Wednesday I have been giving it a try, so far so good!

(I even went crazy and tried a brown sugar water mix I saw on Pinterest as a hair straightener!)

Weekly Wrap-Up

Rose Rose Rose, oh how I love you! But your little attitude can take a vacation! Unfortunately I think it was a combination of some new teeth and just pre-two year old stubbornness, but dinner time on Monday was awful L It ended with Rose and I sitting and looking at books in the living room so she wouldn’t scream. Tuesday was wonderful! Mainly because we went to Moe’s for dinner and she had a great time being in a new place and with some friends. The rest of the week we decided we would use the out to eat method, mainly giving her things to do at the table such as coloring, while encouraging her to eat. I guess it’s working, she is sitting with us at the table and not crying…we’ll take it for now.

We did have lots of fun this week too!

Rose's favorite activity remains playing with water. I don't know what type of career this might translate in for her, but she is EXCELLENT at pouring and filling :)

She also decided to change her baby laying down...I am pretty sure I have never tried to change her diaper from this position.

Oh, and Tahnee got in on some of the fun and was a good sport about wearing some beads :)

And back to the water... I did get her to watch some fun alphabet song videos from ABCmouse.

Sunday morning before church was a PJ morning. Rose was actually a little surprised to be leaving her bedroom still in her PJ's. Even on the weekends when we get her up in the morning we dress her first thing, but I didn't want her to eat breakfast in her dress, so PJ's stayed on.

Rose ended the night with a good old game of kick the yarn :)

I also put Rose to bed again this Thursday night by myself J Yes, that was Valentine’ s Day and Justin left his two ladies at home. No worries, we got flowers the day before and I made some yummy treats to share J And sometime in the near future he is taking me out to dinner, a NICE dinner…

Another first this weekend was when Rose and I went shopping, I did not put her in the stroller. I let her walk around the store with me and she did very well. Once or twice she would take a few steps away towards something that caught her eye, but she made no fuss when I brought her back to me. She is getting to be such a BIG girl. By the time of the next post Rose will be 22 months!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Well I’m glad that one is over! This weekend Justin was going to be away from Friday to Saturday helping a friend move some cars to Massachusetts. So when they heard about all of the snow coming, did they decide to postpone their trip? NO! They just decided to go a day earlier, boo :(

So Rose and I were home alone on Thursday night. Justin has been away for a few hours during the night plowing, but never an entire night. Everything went fine with Rose, but I didn't sleep well at all. I kept waking to every little noise and feeling very worried that something would happen.

Luckily he made it back by 6pm on Friday before we got too much snow, but then he did leave again early Saturday morning to plow, so another night’s sleep was interrupted :(

Anyway we did have a productive weekend and lots of fun with Rose, even if her Dive attitude made an appearance on Sunday J Something I wanted to get done was a little kitchen project for Rose. Who doesn’t need more countertop space? Nana found us an end table at the thrift store and we were all set (it was already on wheels, so one less step for daddy). We also just used some paint we already had to spruce it up and I got some cute fabric to make a curtain on the front. (Yes, I used my sewing machine; no, it is not pretty, but it works!)

We also got Rose a super fun coffee machine since she already knows how to use our real machine to make mommy and daddy coffee. She LOVED it! (Don’t tell her, but she’ll be getting another fun toy for her new rolling island for Valentine’s Day.)

Nana and Papa also dropped of a Valentine’s Day gift for Rose…BIRD HOUSES J

I hope the birds come right up to this one and don’t mind the cure little face pressed against the window to watch them. We stuck her bird out there to give them the idea and then she tried to feed her bird from the inside, isn't she so creative?

Rose also helped fill another bird feeder that daddy hung outside tonight. Now, bring on the birds!

Rose played a lot this weekend too. This week I had Justin bring home a dishwasher box. I remember my dad bringing home boxes that we would use to play in as little 'houses'. Rose loves hers and and even got to paint it!

We also played with blocks and trains to make sure we are exposing Rose to more toys then just dolls and kitchens :)

I know there are lots of people who think Rose favors Justin, but I think she is really starting to look like her mommy!

Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend was a busy one! Saturday morning we had our weekly trip to the farmer’s market where Rose is spoiled with samples of cheese and fruit J Rose and I then were off to our music group, where we had lots of fun with our homemade instruments. After a quick lunch and nap, we were then off to Brahm’s 3^rd Birthday Party. 

(Rose didn't understand to pick up the candy, until we got her a bag and told her it was 

time to 'clean up'!)

We had a wonderful time celebrating this awesome little boy’s birthday, but the drive home was AWFUL L It took us over 2 hours to get home. Rose spent about 5 hours in the car on Saturday and except for an hour she slept on the way home, Rose was awake and pretty pleasant.

I am so glad I caught this ‘look’. Rose has started giving us this squinty eye look. Isn't it super cute? It seems to mean that she finds whatever we are asking her to do (here I was asking her to look at mommy for a picture) a silly request of her time.

After our long care ride home, poor Justin had to go plow for a few hours early Sunday morning. We didn't have that much going on Sunday, but we were both tired so it felt like more. Justin did get some more demo done on the back bedroom and a new water system installed. I made brownies and Rice Krispy treats for the Super Bowl party and 3 batches of play dough. I also made a quick trip to A C Moore to get some supplies for a wreath for spring and Rose’s party.

I have NEVER made Rise Krispy treats before, because my mom makes the most amazing gooey treats, but since we were headed to Justin's family for the Super Bowl, I figured this was a good time to try them out. Rose thought they were delicious!

We headed down to Grandma and Grandpa's for the Super Bowl. Originally we were going to stay for the whole Super Bowl and so decided since Rose goes to Grandma's on Monday morning anyway, to let her have her first sleepover. We still kept with that plan and Rose slept over at Grandma's (Grandpa even took the day off to spend with his favorite ladies), but Justin and I left soon after the stadium lights went out because we were just so tired. I really did miss Rose this morning. Even though we don't get much time together before everyone leaves, it was hard to start my day without a few kisses. But Rose had a great day and I'm sure we'll do it again (in a few months!).