Christmas in Colorado

We took a trip to Colorado for Christmas.  Almost as soon as we got there you spiked the strangest fever that lasted for several days (some of your friends back home got it too, so it obviously just a bug going around).  For most of the trip you were lethargic, clingy, cranky, and all around not feeling well.  We felt so sad for you!

Here are some of the things we did on our trip:

You're not too happy, but you certainly are adorable:

You have your eyes firmly fixed on Riley's Rapunzel cup:

Opening presents at Grandma and Grandpa Kartchner's house. 

You loved your new baby swing!

We opened more presents at Grandma and Grandpa Brison's house.  Partway through though you needed a little break and fell asleep in my lap.  You NEVER fall asleep in my lap (you like to be alone when you sleep) so it just goes to show how yucky you were feeling.

We also got to meet Little Heidi for the first time on this trip!  Here is a picture of you and Heidi hanging out together on Uncle Erik's counter:

Christmas in Virginia

Since we spent Christmas in Colorado, we had our own little Christmas in Virginia before we left.  At preschool you made a chain to count down the days until Christmas.  You LOVED ripping those links off the chain and really struggled with the concept of having to only do one link per day.  Finally, on the day we did our VA Christmas we just let you go wild and rip it all.

You were very serious about opening your presents:

We started a tradition (borrowed from some awesome friends out here) of wrapping a whole bunch of Christmas books, and opening and reading one book a night for the month of December. One night I came and found you sitting by the Christmas tree opening ALL of the books.  You ripped the paper off of one of them, looked at it for a minute, then moved onto the next one.  It was so funny I just let you do it.

Bear Take Fish

One of your (many) current favorite books is "Me and My Dad" by Mercer Mayer. It's a story about a boy and his dad who go on a camping trip. On one of the pages there is a bear that steals the fish the boy caught. You think that's SO funny. You crack up when you see that page and now you'll grab the book and say (or sometimes just randomly say) "bear eat fish!" And you laugh and laugh.

Sad, Happy Soon

When you're throwing a tantrum sometimes I tell you "I know you're sad, but you'll be happy soon." You've started repeating that. Sometimes when you're crying you'll take a big gulp of air and say "sad, happy soon!" Or when you see someone on TV that is sad, or one of your friends is crying, you'll say "sad, happy soon!"

Crazy Sleeper

You get turned around funny ways in your bed sometimes.  

Gingerbread Houses

Our friend Emily has a really fun tradition of making AMAZING gingerbread houses every year.  You were old enough to understand how to put candies on the house (at least until you realized how delicious the candies are).  

You focused on making the roof:

Our amazing friends, Christen, Emily, and Michelle:

You posing with our creation:

Funny Things Dad Sees and Hears You Do

Paige,

Every other week your mom works at the farmer's market in Falls Church. Because of that, you and I spend our Saturdays doing the good stuff:

- we go for a walk after breakfast

- we ride the bus

- we eat at Chipotle

- we go to Barnes and Noble (where I used to work) to visit friends and look at books

- we usually run one more errand and then pick up mom from work

- you then take a nap

What's most fun about those days is watching how much you grow from week to week. At first you seemed most interested in riding in the stroller and would fall asleep going over the bumps and cracks on the way to the farmer's market. Now you get most excited when you know we're going to get on the bus, where you stand up on your seat and introduce yourself to other passengers and look out the window.

Since you can talk much more now, you have some interesting things to share. Take, for example, a recent monologue, given when you were supposed to be in bed taking a nap:

daddy toot

paige toot

[every]body toot

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

body toot

Abby book

Henry house fun

Finger stuck

Mommy!

mommy stuck!

oh no! oh no!

*Mom goes in to check on her -- she's not in bed, her finger isn't stuck in anything*

Poop! *checks diapers, no poop*

Purple dog! *gets purple dog, Mom puts her back to bed*

sounds of purple dog

(30 minutes later)

sounds of purple dog stop

daddy, mommy, paige, mommy, daddy, mommy, paige, friends

two doggies, two doggies, two doggies, lucky!

two doggies

Love,

Dad

Turkey in the Oven

For Thanksgiving I made a turkey and you were really excited to see it in the oven.  You kept going back quite frequently throughout the day to see the turkey in the oven.  

Zonked Out

Checking out Baby Lily

One day our friends Alex and Lily came over for a little bit.  You liked to get down on the floor and look Lily in the face. 

Mommy's Eye Liner

You've watched me put on eyeliner so many times that you figured you could do it too.  You got my eyeliner and tried drawing around your eyes with it.  Fortunately, you didn't stab yourself in the eye, but you did decorate yourself quick well before I realized what you were doing. 

Night, Night Elmo

You took Elmo, tucked him into bed and said "Night, Night Elmo" (just like we say "night, night baby" whenever we put you to sleep).  It was adorable.  

Hangin' With Daddy

Homestead Farm

We took a trip to Homestead Farm and had so much fun.  

We saw some animals.  Abby, Henry, Paige:

And lots of pumpkins:

Gabbi, Abby, Alex, Paige, Henry:

We also picked some apples.  You and Henry love hanging out together. 

So darn cute!

Mommy Broken?

This morning you wanted to get up a little too early for my liking, so I pulled you out of your bed and tried to get you to lay down longer in my bed. After a few minutes of tossing and turning you started saying "Up! Up! Mommy up!" (which you usually do if I'm laying in bed when you're ready to play). When I didn't get up you looked at me and said "Bow-ken? Mommy Bow-ken?" (broken).

I laughed really really hard. Then got out of bed.

How Do You Know That?!

Lately you've been learning and saying so many new things so quickly.

You can identify and name all of your capital letters. You love looking for and finding letters (on signs, books, our alphabet magnets, etc.) and naming what they are. If you see one you'll repeat it over and over until I acknowledge that you're right.

The other day you blew my mind when you opened a counting book and named all of the numbers from 1 to 9. I couldn't believe you knew all of that!

You're also getting really good at your colors. You like pointing to things and saying what color it is. You know a lot of colors (yellow, pink, purple, black, green, blue, brown, orange, gray, white).

You're such a smart little girl!

Paige and Gabbi

You and your good friend Gabbi, both as cute as can be!

Funny Faces

Choo-Choo, Daddy!

This morning we dropped Daddy off at the metro stop. As we were driving away you kept repeating something, but I couldn't figure out what it was. Finally I realized you were saying "choo-choo, Daddy!" You knew that Daddy was riding a train to school!

Going to Preschool

We started having preschool this fall with some of our friends.  You LOVED it and learned so quickly. 

Paige, Gabbi, Henry and Abby with your furry friends on the first day.

Henry, Paige, Gabbi, Alex, and Abby with circle glasses:

I was so impressed that Emily was able to snap a picture while all the glasses were up at once.

Carrying your purse, all ready for school!

M is for Mask

Henry, Paige, Gabbi, Alex, Abby

Paige's Kitchen

I found you a little kitchen at a thrift store out here.  You love to open the doors and play with the dishes. 

Kid's Festival

Today we went to a kid's festival at the mall with some of our friends. We weren't there for very long, but we did get your caricature drawn. You were pretty impatient with waiting in line and sitting on my lap to get drawn, but you did like being with your friends.

Vocab Explosion!

14 September 2011

Your vocabulary has been EXPLODING lately. It's so much fun to hear you say words and to be able to communicate with you more. You can now say so many words and you understand so many more.

I've been trying to write down words you've said that I understand. You don't saying them super clearly, but I can sometimes figure out the word you're trying to say. I'm sure I've missed some, but here's the list:
ball, bear, binky, birdy, black, blanket, block, blue, boat, book, bracelet, broccoli, bug, bunny, bus, butterfly, bye, cat, church, circle, clock, cracker, daddy, diaper, doggie, down, duck, ear, escalator, eyes, fish, frog, garments, giraffe, ham, hi, hippo, milk, mommy, monkey, neck, no, oops, owl, Paige, peach, pillow, potty, princess, purse, push, rice, see you, shapes, shark, shoe, square, star, strawberry, stuck, sun, thank you, towel, train, truck, umbrella, up, yeah.

You can make the sounds for a lot of things (when we ask "What does ___ say?"), including:
train, car, dog, cat, bunny, sheep, monkey, cow, duck, pig, snake, lion, tiger, leopard, bird, shark, bear, cat, frog.

You know two of your letters: M and F. When you see those letters you point to them and say "em!" or "eff!"

You use a few signs still, but mostly just for please and thank you.

You've also started using small sentences! I've heard you say:
Daddy, up!
(Daddy was sitting on the couch and you wanted him to come play in your room)

Where did Dad go?
(Daddy had a few weeks of vacation and when he had to start going back to school you were pretty sad. You kept asking for him and wondering where he was.)

We also have little conversations now, such as:
(after you bump your head)
Mommy: Did you bump your head?
Paige: Yeah
Mommy: Did it hurt?
Paige: Yeah
Mommy: Should I kiss it?
Paige: Yeah
Mommy: *kisses head* Is that better?
Paige: Yeah! *runs off*
It doesn't sound like much, but interacting like this with you is so much fun!

Preschool

This fall we've started doing a preschool co-op two days a week with some of our friends. The moms take turns teaching. You absolutely love it. Here is a picture of our first day:

Paige, Gabbi, Henry, Abby (Alex was sick)

You learned about the letter F that day so you all had you Favorite Furry Friends. I thought you might be a little too young to preschool (most of your friends are at least 6 months older than you), but you do GREAT. You're really good at focusing, staying on your mat/chair, and participating. Plus you seem to be picking up the lessons really well. The day you learned the letter F you kept pointing out Fs to me. You would find the F in your letter set, bring it to me and say "eff!"

Toddler Bed

You are getting to be such a big girl!  You were outgrowing your pack-n-play so we moved you to a toddler bed.  You loved it SO much.  As soon as I set it up you began to climb on it and play (while giggling the whole time).