Sunday, February 24, 2013

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!)

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