The joy of the fall though her eyes...

I have to admit, I've been caught up in the stress of the fall: back to school, back to work, etc., and not enjoying the time like I should.

On Sunday, we were doing yard work: cleaning gutters, raking leaves, mowing the grass, and Jana reminded us that we need to stop and enjoy every moment with these two. The joys of the everyday things need to be appreciated.

I was busy raking leaves when Jana discovered the joy of a pile of leaves. The giggles and smiles first hit me, almost making me feel ill - How could I possibly get frustrated with her? She's just enjoying a moment that needs to be enjoyed. Then I was almost brought to tears, overwhelmed by how precious this experience was. Here she was in complete and utter bliss. This was the first time she discovered how fun it is to play in the fallen leaves.

How amazing it was to rediscover this innocent and pure joy of childhood! Sure Christmas became magical again last year, but I had forgotten how magical things like this can be. Do you remember that feeling? Of being light and joyous? That feeling of overwhelming happiness. To see this look in my daughter's eyes brought those feelings back, at least for a little while (then she got stung by a bee, but that's a different story).



Sure she was filthy. The toys were covered in dirt, bark, and crushed leaves. She probably had bugs crawling on her. Did she care? Absolutely not!

Kara, unfortunately, didn't enjoy it nearly as much. She hasn't mastered walking on hills yet, so she hung out on the scooter.


Then we moved to the back yard to work in garden and they spent almost an hour sitting in or climbing in and out of the wagon - together or individually.




The day ended with another great joy that we overlook.

The joy of the first experience with Jello.

Kara Mae is 17 months old!

Seriously? 17 Months? How did that happen?

Oh my precious child! You are such a joy and becoming such an individual.


You are so funny - such a crack up one minute and a dramatic mess, rolling on the floor, crying then next. Whether it is a toy taken from you, your sister knocking you over, or Mama walking away, you put on quite a show.

The next minute, you are giving us huge smiles, giggles and sassy looks.



Kara began walking about 3 weeks ago. She's seriously on the move now. She's getting so fast and doesn't want to sit still anymore.

She's such a character! She gives the most hilarious looks. She loves to nod her head in agreement with a very knowing look. She does shake her head occasionally, but not often.

She's such a lover, too! She heads off to play, very independently, but after about 20 minutes, she comes back for a short snuggle and then she's off again, only to return about 20 minutes later. :-)


She's a climber too! If we don't watch her she ends up in all kinds of predicaments. Our favorites include standing on tables, climbing on top of the walker, or standing on chairs.
She loves swings and slides. She loves to flip herself over at the top of the slide and go down on her tummy. Her newest move is to scream when Jana gets in a swing and continue swinging until she gets to have her turn.

Just like with walking, Kara decided to wait to talk until she could say multiple words. Here are her newest:

"Up"
"Up please" = up pee
"all done" = aah dun
"get down" = get dowwwwwn

The greatest part is her favorite book "Moo, Baa, La la la." She gets parts of it.

Mama/Dada: "A cow says..."
Kara: "Baaaa" (oops, she'll repeat moo if we say it first)
Mama/Dada: "A sheep says..."
Kara: "BAAAAAA" (yelling it this time)
Mama/Dada: "Three singing pigs say..."
Kara: "La, la, la"
....
Mama/Dada: Little dogs go...
Kara: "Rur, rur" (ruff, ruff)
Mama/Dada: "Other dogs go...:
Kara: "Wow wow" (bow, wow)

Too cute! We'll have to get a video of that, but it's a crack up

Weekend with Grammy, Papa, and the cousins

Last weekend we headed north, partially for a wedding and partially for some good time with gang from up north.

We all loaded up and headed to a pumpkin patch. Tyler, Justin, and Jana enjoyed tromping around in the mud, while Kara had a seat with a view.

A couple of John Deere fans.


Papa and Jana hanging out in the tractor.

Then it was time to search for some pumpkins. . . and take some rides in a wheelbarrow.


Then Tyler had a go at the pumpkin launcher and Uncle Ryan and Dada took the boys and Jana on a trip through the corn maze. They were filthy and exhausted when they got out.

Jana was so tired that she literally fell asleep reading. Silly girl!

When everyone got up from their naps, we were ready to carve some pumpkins. Tyler and Jana had a blast picking out the shapes for their jack-o-lantern faces while Kara and Justin just ran around the garage.






And here are the final products.


My sweet girl sitting on the front steps.

Grammy and Papa with their crew of grandkids... and the pumpkins.

Jana's 2 years and 8 months

It seems like Jana has grown up so much in the last month. She's such a wonderful little person, but she's definitely her own little person, not our little baby any more.

The most obvious explanation for this rapid "intellectual growth spurt" is going to preschool. We were having a problem of her falling apart when dropped off at preschool. It would start during breakfast: "I don't want to go to preschool." Then turn to tears as we headed to the car, and would end in near hysterics as we entered the classroom. After a few days of this, we learned that the tears stopped before Mama and Kara even got into the car. So, we stopped this little game and she gets two hugs, two kisses and one "I love you" and then Mama leaves. No more tears. She is greatly enjoying school and is coming home with all kinds of great masterpieces. Her vocabulary seems to have increased exponentially as well. She loves to talk about her friends: Lily and Emily and the others that she can't remember the names of.

She is mostly potty trained. She's so good at letting us know when she needs to go and has no issues about going while we're out. We no longer fear leaving the house with her. Hee, hee. She still cheers when others go on the potty (including people in other stalls when we're in public bathrooms) and all of her "friends" go pee pees on the potty when she plays. Here, her Diegos are going on the potty.


Mama has become a Gymboree ADDICT!! She's fallen in love with the "Imaginary Friends" line and Jana is the recipient of a whole new wardrobe. (Gotta love e*bay). The great part of this is that she can dress herself and since it's all mix and match, she (and daddy) can dress her and she'll still look great. Hee, hee.

However, she still has her moments of choosing from non-matching clothes. This was one creation. Tanktop over a baseball style shirt, Kara's swimming hat, and infant size sandals.

"Pink Bear" is her prized "friend" these days. We found Jana's preemie clothes, which fit Pink Bear fairly well, and Jana loves being able to dress her up. Also, cousin Ari left some diapers behind at Grandma and Grandpa's, so Jana loves to diaper Pink Bear.

Jana's also rediscovered the swing. She was scared of it for a while, we have no idea why, but now she's back to loving it. She asks all the time to go swing in the garage.

Here's our big girl all "girlied" out. She insisted on wearing a skirt and hair in a "pony" with a bow.


We enjoyed making "Daddy's special treats" (Rice Krispie treats) a few times this month. She decided to wear her Dora pillow case as an apron.

What a joy it is to watch her grow! She cracks us up wiht the things she comes up with. Here are some of her more entertaining comments.

"Oh no, Mommy. We don't have any TP for Grandma and Grandpa's. We need to go home and get some."
"Look Mommy. Grandma and Grandpa's hosue is dressed up for Halloween."

Jana is a book addict. Going to the library has become a regular part of our weekly routine. We usually come home with around 20 new books each week - it's so nice to have some variety to what we read. She's really into Robert Munsch's stories that are full of repetition and fun pictures.

SHE WALKS!!!!

We've joked about it, but I am 100% convinced that this was the truth. Kara needed to be perfect at walking before she was going to do it. And guess what? She's pretty darn good at it. She's even attempting running now too.

Friday night (yes, 3 days ago) she decided to get motoring. She's been practicing walking across the room between Dada and Mama at bed time, but other than that, she hasn't been wanting to do more than a few steps at a time.

Now, the kid walks and walks and walks and walks. Holy Smokes! She was a sweaty mess this evening because she literally spent 3 hours walking around while we were in the childcare at the gym. She just wandered aimlessly the whole night, but did so on her feet.

Silly kid!

Here's a video of her showing off her walking skills through quite an obstacle course. They had fun emptying drawers this morning.

Can you tell we've been busy?

Phew! I can tell we've been busy for a few reasons: 1) there haven't been any new updates in three weeks, 2) We haven't taken ANY pictures in the last two weeks, and 3) we're all so tired!

Anyway, for the real reason you came here: Pictures.

The girls are great and wonderful (and challenging and very much two and heading toward two)!

Here is little Miss Sassy Pants, in the outfit she picked out to wear to school last week.


I tried hard to catch a pic of the two of them holding hands in the car, but this was the best I could get.

The toy fought over the most these days is the walker. Jana likes to use it as a stroller for her stuffed animals; Kara likes to use it as a walker, but also to climb on and sit in it.
Cheesy grin!

On Sunday of last weekend, Jana was impatiently waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive, so she decided to draw a picture. She announced: "Look! I drew a picture of Grandpa!" We couldn't resist snapping this picture. So, here you go Grandpa - this is what you look like in the eyes of Jana! Hee, hee! Should we invest in some glasses?


Cheese Ball!

Happy girl with a mouthful of graham crackers!

Hmmm! Slightly evil face!
Let's all do the Frankenstein!

Sweet face!

For a split second you think - Wow, their playing together nicely. Then you notice Jana's elbow across Kara's legs and Kara grabbing Jana's arm. *Sigh*

And then Kara grabbed the play coins that Jana was playing with and "tried" to run away with them. As you can all imagine, she didn't get too far before Jana got them back.