Kara Mae is 21 months old!

Holy smokes, she's really growing up quickly now. I remember this happening with Jana too, but I think we've let Kara remain a baby for longer than we did Jana, so it feels more drastic.


She's such a little monkey! She climbs on EVERYTHING. Couch, chair, table. She has discovered that she can climb into the toy box and sit in it. We're waiting for her to climb out of her crib, but we're hoping that won't be anytime soon.

Kara's language is progressing quite nicely. She's trying to put phrases and sentences together. Here are some of the new things this month:

Mo lellow chsss (More yellow cheese)
Apple
illy doggy (Silly doggy)
Good Dog
Up pees (up please)
nummy/yummy
Ungee (hungry)
Maiya (no longer why-ya)
jacket
tac-toe (tractor)
nack (snack)
A pee-pees
A poo-pees
A potty

Everything has "A" in front of it. "a pizza", "a daddy", "a juice".

She's so into dress up. She loves hats, shoes, and jackets. She loves to put on my shoes and tromp around.

Here she's playing dress up at Grandma and Grandpa's.

She also happened to blow through her outfit, so she borrowed one of Grandma's shirts, which made a perfect dress for dancing in - with her shoes on, of course.
She also loves Grandma's tractor. Gotta love that cheesy smile!

Kara loves having "a-piggies" in her hair. Jana has coined the "chinchilla ears." Either way, once Kara has her hair up, I have a hard time leaving it down - she's just so darn cute! Even with after-nap messy hair.

Her little personality is on hyper-drive these days. She can be such a stinker! She knows very well what we're saying, but chooses to do what she wants anyway. Oh the terrible twos are going to be long. :-)

For example: Here is Kara eating her breakfast - a bowl of Cheerios. "Look Mom, no hands!"

Quite proud she got some Os stuck on her face.
So proud of herself!

We're having more battles over toys these days. Any toy that Kara has, Jana wants... and now. We have many fights over Jana's new doll set - stroller, crib, swing, etc. for dolls/stuffed animals.

Kara is absolutely addicted to her binkie. We thought it was hard to get through Jana's giving up the binkie, but I can only imagine how hard it is going to be with Kara. Here's our binkie girl!

Kara loves climbing on things- especially loves playgrounds. Her favorite is to "wing" (swing), but climbing on anything comes a close second. She still loves slides... that's how she gets down so she can climb up again.


The other day we had a wonderful time in the backyard with many of her favorite things: bubbles, climber, the dog, and big sis. Oh the simple joys!

Maiya attacks the bubbles and bites them. This brings Kara great joy.

And then again, there's always the pure happiness that comes with a sandbox.
And finally, a personal favorite. "Bubbles, Maiya, bubbles!" I don't think she grasps the concept that the dog can't blow bubbles. Good thing we have a very patient dog!

Jana's 3rd Birthday

We've discovered a trend - we're ALWAYS sick around Jana's birthday. Dada was sick the week before Jana was born. We had to cancel her 1st birthday party because we all had a stomach bug. Kara got sick on the day of Jana's birthday and we were all sick by her party that weekend and we managed to get a few of our party guests sick, too.

So, it shouldn't have been a surprise to us that Jana got put on antibiotics on Monday for a double ear infection and Kara on Thursday. Daddy woke up sick on Friday morning and Mama's been fighting it off all weekend (but parents of toddlers don't have the luxury of both being sick at the same time). :-)

So, unfortunately we had to cancel Jana's party.

Since big girls don't have binkies and she decided she was a big girl when she turned 3, we gave the binkies to "The Binkie Fairy," to give to all the babies who need them, the night before her birthday. It was a rather rough night, so both Mama and Jana were tired when we woke up on her birthday.

Jana loves to stay in her jammies as long as possible, so she got to stay in her jammies all morning. Here she is with her "Birthday Crown."

The "Binkie Fairy" brought Jana a Graco play set that came with a pack n play, stroller, swing, high chair, baby carrier, etc for her stuffed animals. She has played with this for two days straight. Apparently the Binkie Fairy did well for a treat. You can see them in the background of the pic above.

Also, since she "became a big girl" on her birthday, Jana got her big girl bed. Grandma and Grandpa donated the bed and Grammy and Papa gave her the wonderful bedding to go on her bed.


Finally, we had a special pizza dinner, opened presents, and had cake.

Jana got treated to some wonderful presents from Uncle R, Auntie L, and the cousins and another from Auntie K.

She got a new game - Cariboo. She loves it - I think we've played it a half a dozen times already.
And Auntie K gave Jana some new books - all of which have been read repeatedly already and have even needed under her pillow to sleep. They are some fabulous books: one about the northern lights (Jana and Aunie K looked at pictures over Christmas), and two about some pretty cool princesses!

Then it was time for some cake. This year she requested yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Mama did her best to decorate the cake, but is not necessarily artistically inclined.
None the less, Jana was very happy with it.

She couldn't wait to blow out the candles.

Since Dada was feeling crummy, Mama, Kara, and Jana enjoyed the cake together.

We haven't heard any complaints about not having a party from Jana, so I think we got away with it, but will try for a later date when we're all feeling better.

Jana's 3!

Oh my wonderful girl. How have 3 whole years passed by so far?

You are such a little girl now - it's amazing. You mother all of your stuffed animals - feeding them, changing their pants, comforting them when they cry.

You tell us that your best friends are Mommy, Daddy, and Sissy. You get along with most kids you meet.

You are amazingly verbal - most people have thought you were 3 for some time. You were kicked out of the nursery at church and into the preschool room because you were giving the ladies a play by play of our last trip to Costco with Nada and excused yourself to go to the bathroom. :-)

Speaking of which, you are out of the pull-up business completely. You are always dry at nap time and almost always wake up dry at night.

You come up with the funniest things to say and repeat far too much of what you hear. Apparently Mom and Dad need to be more careful with what the say. When you get frustrated with us, we hear some familiar phrases: "You're killing me, Mommy" or "You ARE kidding me, right?" or "You've got to be kidding me."

The obsession with Dora and Diego is over, but we are now in the middle of a huge obsession with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

You love crafts right now. You aren't too sure about finger paint because you don't like the feel of it on your fingers, but you LOVE your water colors. The only thing you love more than your water colors is cutting with your scissors.


You are in a toy hoarding stage: You find whatever you can that will hold toys and collect toys and carry them around with you, refusing to share them with anyone. You do this in Kids Court too, which amuses the ladies immensely.

You love money. Coins left within your reach become yours. You have a number of favorite places to store your money including pockets, cups, and your play shopping cart. We find coins everywhere!

You love your friends at school and are always so happy to see them, exchanging hugs at every greeting. You love seeing them at places other than school and playing with them.

You have started taking swim lessons and love them. You always look forward to Fridays to go to "swim class."

You have an amazing imagination. We seem to find baby animals everywhere we go and you take good care of them. The most common statements we hear these days are "I'll be the Mommy when you be the Daddy" or "I'll be Minnie when you be Daisy".

While you know how to spell your name and sis's name, it is by pure memorization. You can sing your ABCs, but can only recognize the letters J and A. However, you can count from 1 to 13 correctly, every time, but then goes 17, 18, 19, 14.

You still can't watch anything other than tv shows because all Disney movies are "too scary."

You are staring to go back to wanting to play alone. Sometimes your will sneak off and play quietly by your self.


You are starting to get into dress up. You love wearing Mama's shoes - especially if they have some kind of heals. You also like hats, especially Grandma and Grandpa's hats.


You love to sing and dance. Your current faves for singing are BINGO, Old MacDonald's farm and you love to dance to "A little bit up and a little bit down", "Shake your sillies out", and "Slippery fish." (And, embarrassingly enough, can sing the theme songs to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins, word for word.)

Dancing at Grandma and Grandpa's house after playing dress up in some of their clothes.


You LOVE your snuggles. About a month ago, you started asking for snuggles before bed, so now we snuggle before sleepies. The down side of this is that you started falling asleep quickly when we'd snuggle, so now you want me to stay until you fall asleep.

You gave up your binkies the night before your 3rd birthday!

You are such a joy and such a frustration some times. You have your own little personality, an immense amount of energy, and your own opinions about things. These are all wonderful things and are a part of this wonderful little person you are, but they get difficult when they conflict with Mommy or Daddy's intentions.

You love playgrounds of any kind. Your favorites are swings and slides, but sometimes you still get a little freaked out by them, but you would play for hours if possible.



Oh, our beautiful girl. You are getting so big. It's been amazing to spend the last 3 years with you and we are so blessed to spend each day with you. It's so special to watch you grow and learn. Thank you for being the sweet and loving little girl.


Our little preemie, only a few minutes old.

A couple of days later while in NICU.
You were so little

Even at 1 your big baby blues glowed and your smile enchanted.

That coy smile on your first birthday.

Posing for the camera on your second birthday.
Blowing out your candles with Daddy on your second birthday.

Our little sassy-pants at almost 3 years old.

Blowing out your candles on your 3rd birthday.


We love you so much!