Dani- 28 Months

Age: 2 years 4 months

Clothes: She has gotten really into dressing herself. Which means we might leave the house with her pants on backwards under a skirt with last night's night shirt over the top of her clean shirt. She also discovered my old wooden clogs from when I was her age and she loves nothing more than stomping around on our wood floors in them.

Favorite Foods: Toast, Chocolate Milk, Mac and Cheese, Pizza, Go Gurt, and Treats. Mom says that she asks for treats the way I used to ask for candy.

Words: She knows lots of words but there are a few that she says the unfortunately sound like cuss words. For example, Chocolate Milk comes out sounding like Cock Milk. And Kitty sounds like Shitty

Activities: Still really into babies. The other day she was playing with her baby and channeled her inner Aunt Kik by spanking it and saying "Bad Baby." She is also really into Shopping. She askes every day if she can go shopping. The other day Andrew and I were watching a Christmas movie and Dani was playing. She grabbed a target bag and put some of Andrews keys (not car keys) and pooh bear and blanket in the bag, slung it over her shoulder and said "bye bye going shopping" and gave Andrew and I kisses and walked away.
After about 20 min Andrew said "did Dani put herself down for her nap?" And he went to check on her. He yelled that she wasn't there and I immediately asked "she didn't actually go out the front door did she?" So we ran outside and Dani was sitting in the drivers seat of Andrews car, keys in the ignition and pooh Buckled into the car seat. Lights on, blinker going. And she just looks at us and goes "I go shopping!"
Favorite Things: People are her favorite things. All of her family and friends. She asks daily about each one of them and what they are doing at that moment. If she could she would live in a compound with everyone so she never has to say good bye to them again.

Signature Moves: She has a tender sensitive little heart hiding behind her stubborn 2 year old self. The other night had a bad headache and went to bed early. She came running in and asked "what's wrong mommy" and so I told her I have an owie on my head, and she ran off to play again. The next morning we were snuggling on the couch and she reached up and kissed my head and asked "mommy's head owie?" I just couldn't believe she remembered.

Mom's Proudest Moment: I love the way she embraces all her friends. Everyone is a friend and she gets so excited to see them and she squeals and runs and hugs them and I hope she never looses that excitement and love for the people in her life.

Dad's Proudest Moment: It's been a hard few months because Dani is highly preferring me right now, and can be pretty mean to Andrew. We are working on it. But the other night she had skipped her nap and I was busy, so she was letting Andrew hold her on his lap and she fell asleep. I looked over and asked Andrew "kinda makes up for all the brattiness during the day huh?" He was so happy to just be able to snuggle her.

22 Weeks

How far along: 22 Weeks

Total weight gain: 3 lbs

Maternity clothes: Getting close. There is still one pair of jeans I can wear and most of my tops still fit.

Stretch marks: Nope

Sleep: I have been waking up with lots of headaches. So I started sleeping with my TMJ mouth guard again and went to the Chiropractor which definitely helped, but I also noticed that the way I was sleeping was causing my neck to tense up. So I have been really careful about the way I sleep.

Best moment of this week:Found out last week that we are having another GIRL!! I'm excited for Dani to have a little sister she can dote on and take care of.

Miss anything: Not being achey. Standing up without my hips cracking. Putting on socks with 2 hands

Movement: She is a wild women. The Ultrasound tech had a hard time getting all the pictures she needed because little girl was all over the place!

Food cravings:Sugar, Milk, Chocolate, Mandrin Oranges

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really

Have you started to show yet: Yes, people now feel comfortable saying something to me.

Gender: Girl! I'm excited to raise another strong self assured little girl:)

Labor signs: Not really, but I can't tell if I am occasionally having braxtin hicks or if she is just so crazy that i'm feeling her stretch and push everything.

Belly button in or out: getting shallower, I can see the bottom

Wedding rings on or off: On

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy

Looking forward to: Shopping for maternity clothes and having andrew feel the movement

18 Weeks

Figured it was about time:)

How far along: 13 Weeks

Total weight gain: -5 lbs

Maternity clothes: not yet unless you count a uniform of PJ pants or maxi skirts (which in my opinion are just fancy pajamas)

Stretch marks: Nope

Sleep: Absolutely. If I don't get a nap in the afternoon i'm usually dragging by 5

Best moment of this week:My birthday is today and as a special birthday present I appear to be out of the morning sickness phase! I also have my next appointment on friday. Just a quick one, where they listen to the baby's heart beat and take all my measurements.

Miss anything: Feeling normal. But that seems to be making a come back.

Movement: everyday. It's the best feeling in the world

Food cravings:Microwaveable frozen macaroni from Trader Joes

Anything making you queasy or sick: No so much anymore unless I eat too much

Have you started to show yet: yes barely hanging in there in my regular jeans

Gender: We find out on Dec 5th. Don't know yet how we are going to do the reveal.

Labor signs: No

Belly button in or out: In

Wedding rings on or off: On

Happy or moody most of the time: happy most of the time. Unless I have a headache

Looking forward to: Finding out the gender.

Potty Training Attempt #1

Potty training was attempted last weekend. This was pretty much how we spent the whole weekend:

Friday was rough. Accidents all day long with no success. I'll be honest, I was ready to through in the towel and quit. See I wasn't fully committed to potty training. In my opinion diapers are far easier and I do not mind changing them. Andrew convinced me to carry on though. So I hit the internet to get some more tips and pointers and was ready to begin again on Saturday.
Saturday was like night and day. She only had 1 accident the whole day and was going to the bathroom on her own without us having to prompt her.
Sunday was even better. She had no accidents.
Monday it all went down hill. At this point she had either been going bare bum, or just wearing underwear. Obviously this wasn't going to fly if we were ever going to leave the house. The other problem was that she would not go on demand. I would tell her that she can't go outside until she went potty, and she would run and sit on the toilet for 2 min and then declare she was all done. Within minutes of getting outside she would have an accident. Another problem if we were ever going to leave the house.
I tried all the online tricks to get her to go when we needed her to and nothing worked. Introducing pants to her wardrobe also contributed to her having more accidents.
About this time it became clear that she saw "going potty" as more of a game. She would declare she had to go potty and drag us with her into the bathroom, only to sit on the toilet and do nothing. The little trickster also started using it as an excuse to get out of time out.
So about Thursday I threw in the towel and put her back in diapers. She is definitely close to being ready, but I'm in no rush to get her out of diapers and I would rather her be ready then to have the headache of trying to force it.

13 Weeks

Figured it was about time:)

How far along: 13 Weeks

Total weight gain: -5 lbs

Maternity clothes: not yet unless you count a uniform of PJ pants or maxi skirts (which in my opinion are just fancy pajamas)

Stretch marks: Nope

Sleep: Absolutely. If I don't get a nap in the afternoon i'm usually dragging by 5

Best moment of this week:My birthday is today and as a special birthday present I appear to be out of the morning sickness phase! I also have my next appointment on friday. Just a quick one, where they listen to the baby's heart beat and take all my measurements.

Miss anything: Feeling normal. But that seems to be making a come back.

Movement: Can't feel anything yet

Food cravings:Cheez its and Orange Juice. O my word, the amount I have consumed of both is embarrassing.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Strong smells of pretty much anything.

Have you started to show yet: A little bit. It's more like the bump I already had has gotten more firm:)

Gender: We find out on Dec 5th. Don't know yet how we are going to do the reveal.

Labor signs: No

Belly button in or out: In

Wedding rings on or off: On

Happy or moody most of the time: I definitely have my moody moments. Lately it has been more like antisocial because with not feeling good, the last thing I want to do is make small talk.

Looking forward to: Eating normal again and starting to show. I love maternity cloths.

Dani 2 Years (and then some)

It's been quite awhile since I've posted, but since I seem too really use this blog as a reference point for looking back there are some things I want to get down in writing.

Age: 2 years. 30.5 lbs and 36in tall

Clothes: Wearing a mix of 2T and 3T. She loves dresses and all things "pwetty." She insists on having as many clips and bows in her hair as possible. Anything with a monkey, dog, or Minnie Mouse on it is a winner in her book. She is also in love with shoes and is very specific about what shoes she wants to wear.

Favorite Foods: Still lovin mac and cheese. She loves cinnamon toast and chocolate milk for breakfast. She loves Cheezits and Ritz Bits with Cheese and calls them "cookies" I don't correct her because I would rather give her crackers than cookies:) She also wants anything that someone is eating. She is a total food mooch.

Words: Learning a ton of new words every day, and stringing sentences together. She loves asking me where all her people are. Everyday all day long she asks me "Where's Daddy?" "Where's Uncle Ben?" "Where's Canon?" and so on until she knows the whereabouts of her whole family.

Activities: All things baby. She uses her Pooh Bear as her baby and will carry him around making the "Shhhh" noise, put him "ni-night", feed him, change his diaper, and pushes him around in her stroller. She loves playing with the "Hi-Pad" but fortunately her attention span is still pretty short so it hasn't become a problem that she's on it all day long. Usually just in the morning while eating breakfast. She enjoys swinging in the back yard on her wicked awesome playground that was a birthday present from her grandparents.

Favorite Things: Her Uncle Ben and Aunt Nakalan (Cake) are pretty high up on the favorites list currently. They are living with us and she loves to go down there in the evenings and goof around with them. "go in car see fwends" is new thing that she loves. She is a total extravert and staying home with her introverted Mom is just not cutting it for her anymore. She craves people and interaction with other kids.

Signature Moves: She jumps randomly whenever the mood strikes. When she sees one of her favorite people she will go running up to them and just let out a HUGE scream and then turn and run away. Quite the spectacle when she does this to her Guapo every sunday at church in the middle of the atrium.

Mom's Proudest Moment: I love it when I can watch her try something new and she gets this super proud look on her face. As I said above she loves to jump and for a little while she has been trying to jump off of things. She would get all ready and count to 3 and then instead of jumping she would just step off. Then one day she actually jumped and landed on her feet. I cheered and made a big deal about it and she smiled so big her eyes squinted up and she started clapping.

Dad's Proudest Moment: At night after Dani falls asleep, Andrew goes into her room to cuddle with her. He wakes her up just enough and asks her, "Who's Daddy's baby" and even in her sleepy state she points to herself.

Easter and stuff

Egg hunting is serious business. For the 2 weeks leading up to Easter, we staged mock hunts around our house so that on the big day she would know what to do. Got to practice before the big game right?Well it definetly paid off because she was all over the egg hunt at the church as well as at Grammy and Guapo's with all the cousins.
Her favorite part though was all the chocolate I let her eat. she walked around with her hand in her box of Whoppers the entire day. The best part is that now they are all gone so i don't have to deal with her wanting chocolate everyday:)


Age: 19 month

Clothes: Wearing a mix of 2T and 3T. It's amazing how sizes will vary from brand to brand. I look at some 3T stuff and it's smaller than some of her 18mon clothing.

Favorite Foods: Cheddar Cheese. Girlfriend could eat her weight in cheddar cheese. She goes through food phases and right now she is really into yogurt. She will eat a whole thing of yogurt in like 10 min while watching Frozen. She also loves Mac and Cheese, Cheeze Its, and Pirates Booty (do you see the cheese theme there?)

Words: Still working on the vocab. She is getting better about repeating words that we say, but she hardly uses actual words. When I ask what her name is, she points to herself and says either "NaNa" or "NanIIIIIIII." 

Activities: She is an outdoor girl. She will go and gather her shoes and jacket and get them on by herself and then walk right over to the door and wait for us to let her out. She loves playing with the Bible for kids app on my iPad. we go through the creation story and there are lots of interactive things for her to do. She also loves watching the first 20 min of any disney movie.

Favorite Things: She is in LOOOOOVE with Winnie the Pooh. We watch episodes on you tube and every time the movie starts she says "HI" and waves at the screen and when it is over she waves at the screen and says "bye bye." Then she turns to me and holds up one finger signaling that she would like one more.
She still is all about the babies and blankets and anything she can cuddle. She will lay her Winnie the Pooh or her Monkey face down on the ground and cover it with a blanket and say "Night Night"

Signature Moves: At daycare she has learned some sign language and the sign for thank you is moving your hand outward away from your chin. Her version is to just blow a kiss. So every time I tell her to say thank you, she goes "mmmmmmmmWAH" and blows a kiss, which is totally adorable.
She also knows were all her facial features are, but instead of point to them she will squish up her eyes, or sniff really loud through her nose.
Her grandpa did inform us that although teaching a baby sign language may seem like a good idea, it's not so much when her grandpa is blind.

Mom's Proudest Moment: The way she rocked the egg hunt. My competitive spirit gets going at egg hunts and it is really hard to remember that it is for the children, so the fact that she was able to hold her own and was in to it, made it so much fun to watch her.

Dad's Proudest Moment: Dani is in a bit of a mommy phase and wants very little to do with Daddy, so I'm not sure what Andrew would put for this. He has taught her how to fist bump in addition to high five.

18 Mon

Weight: 27 lbs 10oz (88%)
Height: 34.5 in (98%)

This weekend we went to Black Butte with all the cousins. Dani had so much playing and trying to keep up with her older cousins.

I was worried about how she would deal with the pool because the last time we were there she was too afraid and cried the whole time. I was determined to get her over this, because she generally loves water. I found her some water shoes to help with the slipping and I was also hoping that seeing how her cousins loved the pool would encourage her to play.

When we first got in, she was a little apprehensive. But as soon as she saw her cousins jump in and go down the water slide, she could not wait to try. She went down the slide, over, and over, and over until i had to drag her out of the pool crying, "SIDE!"

Boots

Dani LOOOOOves her rain boots. When she is not wearing them she is hugging them and carrying them around the house.

Last night I was making dinner in the kitchen and Dani was playing in the other room and she comes running over so excited. She had managed to put her boot on (the wrong foot) all by herself and was beaming with pride as she stomped around for me to see.

Things I want to Remember

We bought a Jeep. A part of Andrew's soul died when he sold his truck, but I am loving the Jeep. When Dani is in her car seat, she can stretch her little toes out and reach the window button. She has become quite good at making the window go up and down with just her toes. Is she my child or what?
The best part is that every time the window comes down she asks super surprised and looks at me with big eyes, eyebrows raised, and mouth open wide and then she belly laughs until I roll the window up and the game begins again. You want to talk distracted driving? Forget texting try focusing on the road while all of that is going on.

Dani LOOOVES her baby dolls or stuffed animals. Every baby has to have a blanket paired with it, and she takes them everywhere. The other day we showed up at daycare with 2 babies and 3 blankets which she was clutching with her arms totally full and trying to walk while not being able to see where she was going around all her babies.
She is very nurturing with them. She will put the baby on the ground and then cover the baby with the blanket and then either pat the baby or scoop it up and hug it tight. She also LOVES pushing them around in her doll stroller.

At night Dani likes to sleep with her blanket piled on top of her face. Scares the daylights out of me because of SIDS but she also moves around so much that she is rarely in the same position for long. When she is not sleeping with the blanket on her face she wedges her head into the corner of the crib with her bum sticking up in the air.