Leap Day

Happy Leap Day!

This morning I asked Anna what she wanted to do today and she told me, "HOP!"

What a smarty! I guess a hop is pretty close to a leap!

Much Love,
Jenny

Zoo

Today I drove Mammy (Grammy) to the zoo. She had to fit in the trunk :)

We saw the polar bear, snakes (of course!!), elephants, and cheetas. We had a blast.

Thanks Mammy!

Love,
Anna

Puzzle Queen

I love puzzles! I have gotten so good at doing them that I can almost do all 8 24 piece puzzles that Santa got me for Christmas. I barely ask for help and I barely get frustrated. I just LOVE them! I have been picking them as an activity to do in my fort over reading and it is how mommy and I have spent Ashley's nap time lately. I just can't get enough!!! I do as many as I can while Ashley is sleeping and I lay them out all nice on my rug and then Ashley becomes the puzzle demolitian crew. mommy says I am handling her wrecking my puzzles much better then she thought I would and told me she is really proud of me for not getting upset. I just know that later I can put them back together when she goes to bed!

Please check out my tongue.... just like daddy!

Love,
Anna

They just KNOW how to get ya!

Anna's new lines lately:

"Daddy/Mommy me miss you." She has been using it a lot when Rob is at work, saying "Me miss Daddy dot (a lot)" and when I leave to run an errand.... "Me miss you."

And the newest one that just PULLS at the heart strings....

"Daddy ewe (you) make me happy," while we were sitting at the dinner table with her resting her head in his hand.

And today when we were getting into the car after the gym: BIG HUG... "Mommy I happy be wid you"

I swear they just know how to make you melt!

Much Love,
Jenny

PS Next Tuesday we leave for a two week trip to Italy. We will see how Anna handles it and how much she makes us miss her when we skype/talk! We will see what other one liners she will come up with to pull at our heart strings! But we can't wait to go!

SO FOCUSED

 

And SO serious!

Love,
Anna

29 months

 A month away from 2 1/2 years old!!!

*Still sleeping great at night. Goes to bed a little before 8 and wakes a little before 7.
*Naps usually last 2 hours and happening around 1:30. She still has a milk sippy cup before her nap and bed time. The last week she has been skipping one or two naps a week and just laying in her crib having quiet time. There is no way under my watch that she is ever going a full day without a 2 hour mid afternoon nap/break so she just lays in her crib until 3:00/3:30sh. To make up for this, she usually goes to bed a half hour earlier.
*She has become very dramatic and whiny this month. I am highly confident that it's a mixture of two reasons; she is copying the "whines" and "cries" Ashley uses to get attention AND the fact that she is 2 1/2. We are working on less whining and more talking. She has already made great progress!
*She has also become really cuddly and a really big mommy's girl. She likes to say "My Mommy" to me when we are around people and is extremely clingy to me. I love it that she loves me and cuddles with me but I feel as though this change is also stemming from the fact that Ashley does it.
*Have I mention that she LOVES to copy what Ashley does?!?!?
*She is really talking so much and we are able to comprehend what she is saying so much more day by day. She is constantly adding new words to her vocabulary and it's fun to see her attempt really long words like hippopotamus, encyclopedia and such.
*Don't wake her up from a nap or in the morning EVER..... She's just like her mommy; a MONSTER when someone wakes her up!
*LOVES stickers, music, puzzles (she can do 24 piece puzzles 100% on her own) and books. VERY good at taking any sticker off it's page.
*Favorite Book: CookieBot, Disney Princesses books on tape
*Favorite Song: Baby Bop Hop and Baby-O and Princess Songs
*Favorite TV shows: Barney and Word World. She loves watching PBS kids and asking, "what's next?"
*Eats really well with meats, fruits, veggies, etc. Is getting more and more of a chocolate bite but still amazes me how she can leave half a container of pudding or half a piece of chocolate left. I usually eat it then :)
*I am truly in awe of her ability to stay focused on a task and her high attention span
*She really loves her sister. I have to brag but she is the best. She is always on the lookout for her baby sister and everyday she gets better at sharing with and understanding Ashley. For example today at the gym I dropped them off and Anna walked me to the door. Ashley was in the back of the room and had a hard time seeing me leave. After I leave Anna turns and runs to Ashley, puts her arm around her and starts talking to her. Guaranteed she was saying "I know, I know baby doll."
* She has great manners. Is working at saying "No Thank You" when she doesn't want something and she is using it really well!
*Potty training is going good. We are still trying to be 100% pull up free and she has lots of success. But we are still trying to have dry panties all the time (I'd say she tinkles 1/2 the time before going; this tinkle usually just gets her panties wet). She is choosing to use the potty on her own a lot more recently (meaning she just disappears to use it and goes by herself and when I check she has dry panties!) We are pretty darn close!
*She lets me put clips in her hair now. I have her bought into the fact that her eyes won't hurt/itch from her hair if it's in clips.... sold her right away! I just had to wait until her hair was long enough to get into her eyes for her to buy into it! Oh and she only takes them out when she hears the song "baby-o" and she pulls them out of her hairs and runs around saying her has "baby-o hair", hair just like Justin Bieber. Too funny
*Asking a lot of questions. She loves to ask "What's the matter with this" and "why?"
*She often says her own prayers out of the blue during lunch/dinner. It is absolutely adorable when she puts her hands together, bows her head and closes her eyes and says, "Dear God. Danks (Thanks) Mommy, Anna, Ashley, Daddy, Ashley, Peanut, Anna, Mommy, Daddy and so on and so on. I you (I love you) Amen."
*She recognizes all her numbers 1-10 and counts 1-10 (still skipping 7). She can read and spell 3 words: Anna, zoo and home. she can also say her alphabet (very often skipping IJK)

Such a delight!

Much Love,
Jenny

Playing in the Crib

One of our favorite things to do after Ashley's nap is to play like CRAZY in her crib. We giggle so hard and have so much fun rolling around and being together!

Love,

Anna and Ashley

Rolling down hills

And on our walk home, Anna spotted a hill. A pretty huge hill.

To fill you in on hills... Anna LOVES rolling down them. I credit myself for helping her discover the pure fun of rolling down a hill completely covered in grass and leaves. Pretty much every time she walks by one, she wants to roll done one. Every time we are outside she rolls down our neighbors tiny hill (I mean it's a hill shorter then she is).

So today she choose Daddy to roll down with and roll down they did!

And then again!!!!! This time to the top all by herself!

 

 And again, and again and again! I rolled down with her once from the very top and was so dizzy I had to lay on my back for a good 30 minutes or so to regain my balance. 

It was a BLAST!

Much Love,

Jenny

Playground

Giggles, giggles and more giggles. To say these girls love swinging is an understatement. I have not heard so much giggling and seen such big smiles in a long time. We LOVE the playground and can't wait for weather like today (66 degrees) to be here everyday! I have a feeling we will be at parks a LOT!

LOVE the second picture..... My failed attempt at using the timer. Luckily a nice man volunteered to take the first picture. Saved mommy just a little bit of stress!!!

The next pictures just make me smile.... you can just FEEL their happiness!

Much Love,
Jenny

Let's go fly a kite!

Today mommy had the best idea.... let's go fly a kite!

It was a perfect day so after naps we walked up to Holmes Park and flew our Barbie kite for the first time. It was pretty windy, but inconsistent so sometimes the kite just fell to the ground. But for the most part we were able to fly it in the sky! It was so cool. We took turns flying it, chasing it and just watching it.

We just love being outside!

Getting ready to fly the kite

LOVE this picture.... Ashley is like "What is going on here? Kite? What kite??"

 

The assistant helping Barbie get some air

Can you believe it? Anna's such a big girl! She flew the kite several times all by herself!

I don't know about the kite, but playing with my shoes off in the grass is pretty awesome!

 

Why are we here, exactly? Ashley pretty much paid ZERO attention to the kite and much more on the grass!

 

I'm going to get you!!! Anna LOVED chasing around the kite with mommy!

FINALLY!!!!!! Anna caught the tail of the kite!

After 15 minutes of amusing ourselves with the kite, us kids wanted to go to the playground; so we did!

Love,
Anna and Ashley

Papa's Ribs

Papa makes the BEST ribs!

Tonight Ashley tried Ribs for the first time and she might not have eaten all the meat, but she sure did love sucking on the bone and sucking off all the grease juices and rub off.

Looks like we might have a future Rib eater. As for Anna, she stayed true to her dinner of tofu.

Much Love,

Jenny