Getting closer and closer to 2!

Little L is now 21 months old and she is all toddler!  We're learning that we need to make everything into a game, otherwise we have a very stubborn and strong munchkin to contend with.  But overall she is good natured and affectionate, but very active and curious.  We wouldn't have her any other way.

Finally putting away the 12 month pants, but she can already wear 24 months and 2T shirts, if we roll up the sleeves.  She recently had her 2nd hair cut, just a trim of her bangs, to keep the hair out of her eyes.  She is a good eater, especially if it involves fruit, cheese, or pasta.  She also is loving peanut butter and yogurt right now and her favorite treat is ice cream. (She calls it ice!)

It's tougher to get outside since it gets dark earlier but Scott still takes her to the playground on his days off and I try to take her on the weekends at least once.  She loves her gymnastics class and practices at home by climbing on everything and jumping in her crib.  We read lots of books, currently Todd Parr, Eric Carle, and Spot are her favorite, and she likes to push her stroller (sometimes empty) around the house.  We let her watch a little tv, the show Taratabong everyday.

Her talking is really taking off.  She's great with her animal noises and can recognize a couple colors too. She will say "bless you", "thank you" and "excuse me" at the right time and loves saying "Hi!" to people when we're out running errands.  She has a name for herself, it comes out sounding like "Sha sha".  She's starting talking to Grandpa and Grandma on the phone and with Skype, which always makes their day.

We're looking forward to her second Christmas in a couple weeks!

The Sprinkle

My Bible study (Edge group for those who know what that means) put on a "sprinkle" for one of our dear friends having her second, a boy, next month.  Once again, I let the people who are much more talented that me put everything together to make it beautiful and fun and I provide a clean house and nice platters to place all the food on!  The theme was alligators.

One of the girls came up with a cute game.  The mom-to-be loves See's Chocolate, so my friend created a gator out of the box.  She took pieces of candy out of the box and put them in baggies with questions about her pregnancy.  To get the chocolate back, she had to answer the question.  She had a few "Pregnancy Cards" she could play if there was a question she didn't want to answer.

It was a great afternoon celebrating The Bean and her little boy on the way!

It's been awhile...

A blog update has been stewing in my brain for awhile, but alas, the time to do it!  It's Saturday afternoon, pumpkin chocolate muffins are cooling, dishwasher is running, the Munchkin and hubby are both napping, and I'm listening to Husker football online.  I win.

The new job is great.  It's a lot of work and not enough time to do it all that I want but I make the most of it.  My co-workers are passionate, caring, and humble.  I'm so grateful.

Little L is now 19 months old and I think the terrible twos are starting a little early.  Not that she's terrible all the time, but she definitely has an opinion she will express at times and has developed some selective listening.  But she's also super affectionate with hugs and kisses, likes to help us, and is talking more.  She says mama, dada, whoa, ice, hi, bye bye, uh oh, and her favorite food, cheese.  She is very friendly and likes to wave and blow kisses.  She has also become an expert climber; as a result, we're now in mommy and me gymnastics on Saturday mornings.  She's the youngest one in her class and is still working on following the teacher's directions but we have fun together.  She loves looking at her books, especially The Very Hungry Caterpillar, riding in her swing in the front yard, and dancing.  Now that I'm at work all day, I cherish even more the time we spend together on the evenings and weekends, especially when the three of us are all at home.

My dad and his amazing lady came to visit us a couple weeks ago, and we made the most of the trip.  We went to Oktoberfest, participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer's in memory of my Grandma Jo, and went to the state fair.  Headed back up to Nebraska in a couple weeks for a wedding.  We're flying this time so say a prayer for us!

Hopefully a Halloween post will be written before Thanksgiving! :)

Update

So it's been an interesting few months for us...many people have been asking us about our job situations and I finally feel comfortable making the news public.

S has been working nearly full time at Performance  Bicycle since the spring.  He is currently in training as an Operations Manager.  Once he finishes the training process he will be full time with benefits.  He loves his job and is very good at it, both things we've been praying for him about for a long time.  He still commutes by bike and actually gets rewarded for it! The downside is that it doesn't pay enough for me to just work part time like I have been for the last two years.

That being said...I will be working in Dallas ISD as an Instructional Coach for math teachers at a campus about 10 miles from our house.  Getting a job offer this early in the summer was a huge blessing.  I will still have a teacher schedule, and while I have experience with teacher workshops and mentoring, this will be the first time I get to do it full time.  It's the kind of job I was praying to get, and I am so grateful.  I will continue to work at the Dallas Zoo occasionally and sell Silpada jewelry, because those are just too fun to pass up!

So the question most people will have is...what are we doing with the munchkin?  Fortunately we do not need full time care; between our two work schedules it'll probably be about 20 hours a week, but at this point, we're not sure what the hours would be exactly. We'd like someone to come to our home, so if you are interested or have someone you would recommend please let me know.  I know God has the perfect person already determined.

Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement during this time of uncertainty.  God is good and always provides.

Q125

We made two trips to Nebraska in the last month.  The first was for a cousin's wedding, the second was to celebrate Newman Grove's 125th anniversary of its founding, quasquicentennial .  It worked out that the weekend fell on my birthday so I was able to celebrate with family in the place I always was when I was young, with homemade pie and ice cream cake.  The first night we were there they had a BBQ dinner in the park followed by fireworks.  L hadn't been around fireworks since she was pretty little so I wasn't sure how she'd react, but she loved them!  Having her sit in my lap and enjoy the fireworks was one of my favorite times that weekend.  (Her sitting still in my lap doesn't happen very often anymore!)  The next morning my dad and hubby participated in a 22 mile bike ride (in the rain!).  They didn't plan on coordinating, but they looked good together in Husker colors!

My aunt, brother, and cousin all participated in the fun run and got medals.  My husband got first place in the bike ride so our family represented well!
After Mass we went to the pancake breakfast and I got to meet my grandparents' second grade teacher.  She was 17 when she taught them!  I can't even imagine teaching at that age. Sunday afternoon was the parade.  There was a flyover, a lot of tractors, and plenty of candy thrown at us. My grandpa won first place for his antique tractor.

(This isn't it, I just thought it was funny and so appropriate!)

My hubby had never driven a legit tractor before, so Grandpa gave him a lesson.

It was refreshing to get out of the city and spend some time in a small town with family. I remember being in Newman Grove when I was 8 for the town's centennial so I was so glad we were able to come back and create more memories.  L was an excellent traveler as usual, falling asleep in the car more than once while reading her books.  She's turning into a bookworm like her mom and grandma!

My child is a genius

The munchkin keeps showing us all of the new things she's learning.  It's so fun to see how she's developing into this little person.  Last week she stayed still long enough for me to put her hair in pigtails and she looked so grown up, this little girl walking around instead of this baby.  L is great at catching herself with her hands when she gets to walking a little too fast but sometimes she forgets to look at the hazards up ahead.  She's figured out how to climb steps and will walk outside our back door if there's an opening.  She loves it outside, pushing her toys, trying to catch bubbles and attempting to eat whatever she can find-rocks, leaves, dirt.  She always perks up when she hears dogs bark and will say "woof woof" if you ask her what a puppy says.  She points up when she hears an airplane.  L likes to play with her baby doll and has started talking in a high pitched voice to her.  She's very curious about younger children.  She loves music and will bring you her books and toys that play songs and bounce up and down.  She is learning to hand you things when you ask her for it.  She shakes her head when we say "no" sometimes.  I'm working on the sign for "please" (rubbing your fingers on your chest).  Sometimes she'll pat her fingers on my chest instead when I ask her to say please.  Just this morning she was able to put her colored rings back on the pole.  Remember having that toy?  She won't put her shapes in the sorter, she likes to take the lid off instead.  At different times during the day she'll sit and read her books to herself.  Her attention span is pretty short when we try to read to her. We recently took a road trip back to Nebraska and she was an excellent traveler.  She had a great time being spoiled by all the relatives and friends, especially my mom.  We're excited to see what the summer will bring for our little family.

Not a baby anymore

So when I read a friend's blog update about her son, it reminded me that I haven't written one lately about the Munchkin, in fact I haven't written about her milestones in 3 months.  And especially for those friends and family who read this and live far from us, you've missed a lot!

She is now 13 and a half months old. Today I bought The Happiest Toddler on the Block, because we certainly do not have a baby in the house.  She started taking a few steps right after her birthday, but in the last 2 weeks her confidence as a walker has just taken off.  She doesn't crawl anymore and is handling changes in floor textures a lot better.  She has no problem going off to explore other parts of the house while you're in a different room and reaches a lot more things.

At the doctor last week she weighed just under 21 pounds.  We got her convertible car seat and she's much happier in it, as long as the car's moving.  She likes to become either a limp noodle or stiff rod, depending on which is more challenging to her parents that are trying to get her in her seat.  The CDs of kid songs are played frequently while we run errands now.

Mealtimes are getting more interesting.  She still has 6 teeth, but I think she's working on more because she's been pretty drooly for the last couple of weeks.  L really likes to feed herself and is getting pickier about what she wants; this changes daily, one day she'll like something, the next day she won't eat it.  We're working on putting her food on a plate and not tipping the plate over or throwing the food on the floor.  One interesting habit is putting the food in her mouth, chewing on it a little, then spitting it out.  Her favorites right now are graham crackers, cheese, and fruit.

L is quite the talker, though I have no idea what she's saying.  My mom thinks she says, "this" but I'm not sure if it's on purpose or not.  Mama and Dada are said often, though not really in context.  "Num num" is said when there's food that she wants more of.  I've been practicing some signs with her but she doesn't do them back, except for milk every once in awhile.  She does like to wave, point, and clap.  Her favorite sound right now is the kiss sound and she makes a great face to go along with it.

She's sleeping well still (knock on wood!), usually 2 naps a day and sleeps through the night, about once a week waking us up once during the night.  Her favorite toys are the laundry basket, a Peruvian rattle my mom gave her, utensils from the dishwasher, and any paper that's in reach.

I understand what people say about this experience going so fast.  When I look back at pictures of her from a year ago I just can't believe that she was so little.  We are just loving how she is turning into her own person and her curiosity about the things around her.