Snow Day - No School!

Kara had her first snow day on December 15th.  It wasn't really that big of a snow storm (we ended up getting maybe 6-8 inches of snow), but the rate at which it was falling and the wind made for very dangerous driving conditions, which Dad experienced first hand on his drive into work.  Kara didn't do anything too exciting on her day off.  She and Emily played out in the snow and were greeted at the door with hot chocolate.  They also watched a movie and enjoyed watching the snow fall from the warmth of the house.

Dad sported a righteous goatee and mustache for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the month. Emily enjoyed Dad's "whiskers", but the general consensus was that Dad should never grow facial hair again.  I guess it's not a great look for everyone.

Kara is enjoying more and more advanced games and puzzles.  One day, she and Mom got out Scrabble and played a game.  Kara didn't follow the rules exactly, but she did spell real words and actually beat Mom in points.  She's also learned checkers, Uno (which is her favorite game), dominoes, and Dino Math Tracks.  In addition, Kara has been working on some pretty complicated puzzles lately.  She recently completed a 200-piece puzzle all by herself.  She tried a 300-piece puzzle but got a little frustrated after a while (there was a large black area with very few features to help figure out where the pieces went).

We converted Emily's bed to a toddler bed the first weekend of December.  We were a little concerned that it would mess up her sleep, and we'd hear her wandering around her room all night long.  So far, however, she hasn't figured out that she can get out of the bed when Mom and Dad aren't there, so we haven't heard her after bedtime.  In general, Emily is a very happy, sweet little girl; however, she is definitely into the terrible twos.  She is very quick to cry and scream at Mom and Dad if they don't do what she wants to do exactly when she wants it done.  Hopefully it's just a phase...

Link to pictures
 

First Steps

Emily is now officially a walker.  Emily has been standing on her own, bending down and picking things up while standing, and cruising very confidently for a while now.  But she took her first independent steps on February 6th, taking two steps walking to Mommy (Daddy, of course, was on a business trip in Florida).  She held steady taking two to three steps for about two weeks, though Daddy didn't really consider two steps walking.  On February 21st, Mommy decided to work a bit with Emily to build up her confidence to take more steps.  It was mostly fruitless until Emily spotted her sippy cup about 3 feet away and decided to walk to it, taking about 10 steps on the way!  Emily was very proud to show Daddy when he got home from work that afternoon!  At the time Emily was holding a snack container of cereal in one hand.  Mommy thinks the feeling of holding on to something may have given her the confidence to walk without furniture.  Who knows?

Mimi and Uncle Trey visited the first week of February (to help out during the aforementioned business trip by Daddy).  They got to do some fun stuff while they were here!  One day, Kara, Mommy, and Mimi met up with Grandma S. and Aunt Amy to have afternoon tea at the Huckleberry.  Daddy and Uncle Trey took Kara sledding, which was a blast!  Mimi and Uncle Trey were also treated to an arctic blast.  The high one day was 4 deg F!

Emily is regressing a bit with night-time sleep.  She has been consistently waking up in the middle of the night (usually between 2 and 4 am) for no better reason than to say hi to Mommy and Daddy.  Emily is weaning herself off the bottle. It wasn't too long ago that she'd be drinking 24 ounces a day, but now she barely will drink 15.  It's great that she's adapting well to eating adult food, but she still need her calories!  Daddy is very excited that the end of bottle cleaning is near!

Kara has become very artistic lately.  She is constantly drawing pictures and telling stories.  She particularly likes to pretend that she's on a boat with Fifi.  Mommy had her first parent-teach conference with Kara's preschool teachers.  Her teachers used the terms "big personality" and "high energy" multiple times to describe Kara in class.  Mommy and Daddy are just glad they're not the only ones who think that.  They also said she is very engaged, tells great, relevant stories and loves playing and talking to everyone.  Ms. Larissa said Kara was telling a story about what was at the end of her beanstalk and she said "there was snow in the castle and I BURST WITH EXCITEMENT to make a snowman!"  So Kara can sum up her own general state of emotion pretty well. :)

Kara's thoughtful quote of the month:
"Emily's family job is pooping." - After trying to explain to Kara that everyone in the family has jobs to help around the house (Kara clearing her plate spurred the conversation).

Link to pictures

Growing Girls!

For the most part, January was a fairly uneventful month.  The girls, however, continue to grow and get a little more mature every day.

Emily is teething finally.  She got her first tooth around the 15th of January, which was promptly followed by her second about a week later.  Also, Emily is getting very confident with standing.  She can cruise all around and will stand on her own for almost a minute at a go.

Kara is getting quite inventive these days.  One day, she decided that she needed to write some poetry for Mommy and Daddy.  A couple of our favorites are below.

Kara Quotes:
"I didn't dream last night.  I just watched picture videos."

Kara's Poetry
Turkey
This is my turkey
His hair is so brown
But when I tell him it's time to eat,
He picks up the grain that
I use to slop the pigs

My Lion
His claws are so short
But when it's Christmas day
He wraps up all my presents
'Cause he thinks they're his

Link to pictures

Christmas 2013

Christmas was a ton of fun this year. I have a feeling Christmas is going to get a little more fun every year as the girls get older!

Kara learned the words to many a Christmas carol, including: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Joy to the World, and Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.  It's all very cute.  Kara really got into the Christmas spirit this year. Multiple times she exclaimed, "It's exactly what I've always wanted!" after opening a gift. In particular she seems to really enjoy her sleeping bag (she crammed all her stuffed animals in there and dragged it around for the next several days), her camera (it took her about 5 minutes to figure out it had video games), and a large book of Garfield comics she looks through every day.

Emily also enjoyed her gifts. She really likes to cruise around with her new walker. For the most part, however, she likes to play with Kara's toys!

The weekend before Christmas was also very exciting. Kara and Emily went to meet Santa. This was the first year Kara sat still long enough to tell Santa exactly what she wanted (Despicable Me). Emily did great as well. She sat there for about 30 seconds (long enough to get a decent picture) before deciding Santa was a little scary. Also that weekend, Kara went to her first movie at a theater. She and Mommy went to go see Frozen. Kara seemed to really enjoy it and is excited to go see another movie! If that wasn't enough, Kara and Dad went to the rock gym to try out rock climbing. Kara did great! She climbed up and down the wall for almost an hour until she figured out that it was a lot of fun to "fall" and let the auto-belay rope lower her back down. We'll have to try that again sometime.

Link to pictures

Calm Before the Storm

Mommy and Daddy have been spending a lot of time with Kara recently.  The highlight was the Royal Ball.  Kara dressed up as a princess and Daddy got dressed up to go dance and drink punch.  Kara had a blast!  Another day, we went up to Nederland to check out the Carousel of Happiness, which Kara thought was pretty cool.  In addition, we've been getting a lot of snow recently, so Daddy and Kara have been getting out and playing.

Kara is getting exciting about having her baby brother or sister join us.  We got out the Pack-N-Play last weekend, and Kara spent the rest of the day putting her stuffed animals to sleep in there.  She also renamed Fifi to Fifi Human Baby and practiced putting diapers on him.

The baby has decided not to come on its own, so Mommy and Daddy will be reporting to the hospital at 7:30 am tomorrow to try and induce labor.  Hopefully we will have pictures to share of our little one soon!

Link to pictures

Let's Play Pretend!

Kara loves playing pretend.  Kara especially loves to re-enact scenes from her favorite movies (Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Beauty and the Beast, and Lion King).  Mommy and Daddy have both taken their turns as the Beast, Prince Charming, the Evil Stepsisters, the Tramp, and Gaston.  She also likes to pretend to be a pirate and go on adventures (see video below), or pretend that she's playing with monsters.  It's always fun to see what she'll come up with.

Our little girl is not always so sweet, though.  Bedtime and naptime have become challenges as Kara continues to push boundaries and Mommy's buttons.  Kara likes to come out of her room repeatedly after we tuck her in.  She always wakes up in the middle of the night to ask silly questions (like, "What do doors do?").  Mommy and Daddy are hoping this is a short-lived phase...

We are happy to say that Kara has grown out of her peanut allergy.  She passed her blood test early in January and then passed the Peanut Challenge (sitting at the allergists office for three hours while she eats peanuts) later in the month.  Daddy is very excited that he gets to share peanut butter sandwiches with his little girl!

In baby news, Mommy's belly continues to grow.  Mommy and Daddy have gotten the nursery all ready for the baby who is due to join us on February 27th.  Kara is very excited to become a big sister!

Kara's latest sayings:
"How does the baby get out of Mommy?" Uh, how do we explain this to a 3-year old?

"I put the Grinch there because I thought he would do a wonderful job."  Said while playing ball with Daddy after putting the Grinch in front of the goal.

"This is a map of our territory and the path to the Candy Castle."  Kara explaining the game board for Candy Land.

"Daddy's shoes are humongous!  That's like gigantic Mommy!"  Just surprising Mommy with her use of words.

Link to pictures