Jana's 18 months old

How did that happen? How did she get to be 18 months old? Where has the time gone?

I know what everyone says, but it doesn't mean much until you experience it yourself: I had no idea how much I could love this little girl.

Jana has become a toddler. She definitely has her own mind and her own will. She wants so desperately to be independent, but gets so frustrated when she can't do something on her own. And, she's definitely not short on personality.

She loves to make people smile. She has started this new laugh - it's more of a cackle. It's totally fake, but she does it when she wants others to laugh. It's so funny. She, also, has this "Aren't I cute?" look where she scrunches up her shoulders, tilts her head to the side and gives a very coy smile. She loves to dance - music not necessary. She looks like she's running in place, turning in circles, and flapping her arms-all at the same time.

Her vocabulary seemed to explode last week. While at the lake she picked up "boat", "lake", "ducky" (or guck guck, depending on her mood), "quack" (however, it comes in a sentence of "guck gucks go ack, ack"), "nuts" (as in we were nuts for swimming in the cold lake), "stuck", "yuck", "owl", "hat" and others that I'm forgetting. This last week she added "Tyler" (her 3 year old cousin), "Uncle Ryan" (but it came out "Ucl I-an") , "please" and others I'm blanking on. A few phrases made come backs in the last few days such as "Oh mama!" and "I do it." Unfortunately we lost "up please" which has become "uh oooo" (closely resembling uh-oh", but slightly different) and "toot toot" (sounds like "doot doot") now no longer means trains, but trains, semis, larger trucks, and motor homes.

She has started running, but it's still just a faster waddle-wobble. She's definitely a fine motor skill kid as she loves to screw on and off the lids to water bottles, take on and off the caps to her markers, push buttons, zip and unzip bags, and put things in and out of containers.

She has started to become more picky about foods. Her appetite has greatly decreased as this new set of 4 teeth come in. We are finding that we have to be more creative with her vegetables. She gets "stuffed" grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas. We stuff them full of shredded chicken and mixed veggies or peas and carrots. And apparently everything tastes better in spaghetti sauce because it doesn't matter what we put in there, she loves it.

Jana has become a cuddler and I love it so much. It has to be on her terms, but she loves to be held and hugged. She will also sit on my lap if I'm sitting on the floor with her.

Jana also decided that she likes swimming. As I said before, she has an independent streak and didn't want to be held, but wanted to swim like the big kids. There were more than a few scary moments as she pushed off of J or I in water over her head. She even loved "jumping in" (more like leaning and falling) after she watched Cousin Tyler do it over and over.

Here are some pictures of my big girl.


Here is a shot of the fam at the Antique tractor show. (We all went for J's grandpa.)

My little punky and J. She was getting over a cold and wasn't feeling too good that day.

Here's my little Bad Ass, better known as Toddler Tornado. You can see she was in the middle of removing all the magnets from the fridge and throwing them around so she could hear them bounce on the tile floor.


Here's my girl dressed all fancy. She had just discovered the sunglasses, which are now bent to heck from two weeks of putting them on, taking them off.


Here we are on the beach at the cabin on Deer Lake. She loved the rocks and had a wonderful time getting filthy dirty playing.


The next two go together. Here's the story behind these two: Jana was running from one end of the cabin to the other and then there was silence. We heard this grunting and found Jana dragging this frog innertube out of the closet. She proceeded to grab her blankies and a handful of animal crackers and plopped down on it. Then she leaned back and decided to use his head as a recliner. The funny part of this was that she set this up like she would be sitting in front of a tv, but (please don't take this as being against religion or anything like that because it isn't) she set this in front of a big Jesus statue and a Mary statue (the family that owns this cabin is very Catholic). So here she is reclining in the frog, checking out Jesus and Mary.


Jana trying on Cinderella shoes with Auntie Sarah. I have to admit, through the influence of Fancy Hannah, Jana has gotten to experience way more girliness. I don't seem to be afraid of letting her be girly at least some of the time. She's so enthralled with "accessories" right now and I have to admit that I love it!


This was another time on the beach when she actually put her toes in the water. She has hated water for the last few months, so this was huge.

Hanging out with Daddy on the boat. She was not so sure about it the first time we went out on it.


Hanging out with Grandpa- enjoying Auntie Sarah's rock-star sunglasses!


This is the second trip out on the boat and she loved it this time. She was allowed to drive the boat and boy, was she in heaven. The funniest part of her driving the boat was when she figured out that if she cranked on the wheel, the boat changed directions. She cranked on it and we headed toward the shore, so Sarah corrected the wheel and was about to put Jana's hands back on the wheel when Jana grabbed her hand and yanked it off the steering wheel and went back to steering.

This is right after Sarah taught her how to honk the horn and Jana is saying over and over "DOOT, DOOT!"


Pardon the disgusting pic of me in my bathing suit, but I love this picture of her and her hair. She's finally getting hair. Maybe sometime soon people will stop saying I have such a cute little boy!

Daddy and Jana in Black Butte as we headed into the pool for the first time. Amazingly enough, she loved it and will now even take bathes!

Here's my little monkey trying to be a big girl. Everyone was sitting on chairs and she needed to too, but she didn't sit long enough for me to get a picture of her reclining in that lounge chair.

Here are pics from her first real attempt at feeding herself yogurt. (I am impatient and usually intervene, but I didn't let myself and just let her make a mess.) She's great with a fork, but terrible with a spoon. She likes to turn in upside down so what ever was on the spoon is now down her front. She made such a mess, but had a wonderful time. I think she probably ate half and spilled half.


The worst part of it was when she started rubbing the spoon on her head and this is what her hair ended up looking like. Needless to say, we headed straight to the bath.

Pics to enjoy

Enough of my me-centered posts. Here are some new pics of my obsessions: my girls!

Here's Jana playing in her sandbox. At least we don't have to worry about her being afraid of getting dirty.

"I love my sandbox!"

Here's my little stinker in her chair. Yes, you see it right... that is bbq sauce on her forehead. Needless to say, meal times have gotten interesting around here with her new strides toward independence.


Kara and Daddy chillin'. Tell me that baby doesn't look relaxed!

Apparently we have some work to do on teaching her that pants go on the bottom, not on the head.


Kara is staring at her new friend: the whale.


Jana's into dressing herself in her accessories. I guess it was just a two hat kind of day.


I remember being so strict with Jana about teaching her to nap in her crib. And here is Kara's napping place... her swing. I'm so bad.

Here' s my goofy girl in her baseball hat, playing with her house. She was being too cute, so I had to take lots of pics. Here are my faves.

Kara Mae is 2 months old

Since I can't focus on my work and I need to focus on something happy for a while, I'll do this post a day early.

I can't believe my little girl is already two months old. I've started realizing that we are most likely done and that makes me sad, so I try to treasure every moment I have with my baby girl.

She rolled over at about 6 weeks old I thought it was a fluke, but then she rolled over three times in a row at 7 weeks old. We haven't had much since then, but that is mostly our faults. It is so hard to find time to put her down on the ground. Jana has already stepped on her once and poor Kara let out the saddest sounding cry. Jana has no concept of how her actions could hurt, so she is not even remotely careful around Kara. She's gentle with Kara most of the time, but just not careful when she's walking around her.

Kara has started smiling. I love that gummy smile. I've missed gummy smiles. She loves to smile at her daddy, but I get some too, occasionally.

She's an erratic sleeper. Some days she sleeps from 9 pm to 6 am, then 9 am. Other days she sleeps from 9 pm to 1 am, 4 am, and 6 am. Most days she sleeps from 9 pm to 4 am, 6 am, then 9 am. Most days she has been letting me run after the 6 am feeding. Some days it has required her to sleep in the swing in her room (I know, bad me), but at least I can still run.

Here are some new pictures of my baby girl.

Mama and Kara Mae at the park with Daddy and Jana.


Jana and Kara on the floor. Big sister kisses. Kara is thinking: enough with the kisses already.


Mama-Kara cuddles.


Hanging out in the stroller while big sis plays at the park.


Hanging out on the patio, AWAKE, watching big sis play on her new swing set.

Two new toys in one day

Jana got spoiled yesterday and she got a new rocking toy as well as her swing set.

She's obsessed with the rocking horse at my inlaws, but is unable to do it herself, so she needs help. When I saw this rocking tigger on Craigslist I just had to get it for her. She loves it!

Apparently even Tiggers needs kisses too!


As if that wasn't enough, her swing set arrived yesterday. She had a blast "helping" daddy assemble it.


She also enjoyed playing on the slide... while it was on the floor.



But nothing was as joyful as actually being able to play on it. She even got to stay up until 9:00 pm to play on it (an hour past her normal bed time). The swing was the hit.

Eventually she played on the slide, but only after about 20 minutes of swinging.

But when all was said and done, she went back to her favorite play-thing... rocks and dirt! Please notice the hat. It's 8:45 pm and she'll wear the hat, but would rather carry it during the day when she needs it! Gotta love toddlers!

Jana's 17 months old

Oh how my girl is changing and growing up so quickly.

Her new favorite thing to do is play "dress up." (Or at least that is what I think she's doing.) Her gpa brought back mardi gras beads from his trip to New Orleans and she loves them. She is constantly taking them off and putting them on. She is also showing an interest in bags/purses. She has a soft sided bird's nest that has a handle that she wears around like a purse. She also loves hats. She steals daddy's if she can't get to her own. So, I guess she is becoming my accessory girl! :-)


She walks everywhere now and is experimenting with running. She loves playgrounds, so we try to go to the park every other day. She loves swings and slides the most, but enjoys any rocking toys. We bought her a little slide and swing set (toddler sized) that should be arriving today. We hope she likes it. (She even insists on wearing her beads there, too.)

Her language development is amazing. She picks up new words and phrases all the time. She loves the word "pants" right now. I guess it is fun to say. She is also babbling a ton these days, but they sound a lot like sentences. I can tell already that once she learns how to put her words together, this child is going to be a talker.

She mostly enjoys Kara. She is still a bit rough with her at times. She wants her to play and gets frustrated that she can't. She still loves to kiss Kara. Here she is trying to read to Kara.

We're doing a better job of introducing foods to her. She loves all the ripe fruit right now. She loves watermelon and bananas still, but has found a new love for blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries.


I am afraid that she is going to be the class clown at this rate. She will do anything for a laugh or smile. Here she is squeezing her chicken in her hands, tensing every muscle in her body, and saying "EEEEEE!!" She did it once and I burst out laughing and now it doesn't stop.

She still loves giving kisses, which we adore, of course. She is also now into climbing on us if we're on the floor. In her mind, if we're lying on the floor, we are free game for climbing.


Our newest adventure (since Mama got a new bike) is to go on the family rides here in town. I couldn't go last week, but Daddy and Jana got dressed up and went. You can't tell, but she's wearing a Discovery team yellow jersey.

Lastly, here is our trip to the water park a few towns away. It's one of the parks that has the fountains that kids can play in. She wasn't so interested in the water, but had a wonderful time in her bathing suit walking all over the place.