"Love You Too"

Q has a habit of repeating (or at least trying to repeat) absolutely everything that her big sister says.  I really have to credit Y with much of Q's vast vocabulary.

Ever since she was born and definitely ever since she uttered her first word I have been anxiously awaiting the day when she would say, "I love you."  It is hands down my absolute favorite phrase especially when it's coming from my husband or kids.  It is also a phrase I use extremely often, there is not a single time that I leave my home without them that I don't say it.  If I'm talking to B on the phone, regardless of how brief the conversation, it is always the last thing to leave my lips before I hang up.  So it's needless to say that my girls hear if often throughout the day.

Well tonight as I was leaving for the gym I gave Y a hug and a kiss and we did our usual "I love you", "I love you too" exchange.  After Y walked away Q strolled over and gave my legs a squeeze.  When I bent down to give her the kiss and tell her I loved her she replied, "love you too" just as she had her Y say.

I was beyond happy as it was her first time saying even a variation of I love you.  She kept walking around the room aimlessly saying it over and over again until she became distracted by something else.

Up until that point I had already had a decent day but that one little phrase turned it into an awesome day!  And I hope my girls never forget just how much their mommy loves them.

Snow

When Y was 2 she was given a sleigh for Christmas by her great aunt and uncle.  She got lots of use out of it that year but the following year (last year, 2011-2012) she didn't get any use at all out of it because of the extremely mild winter we had.

Well it's a new year and she has definitely gotten to use it a few times this year.  On once occasion B took her out while I stayed warm inside our house with Q.  On the next occasion she decided not only to share with Q but to she even pulled her along for a bit.  There are a few videos below of them playing in the snow. You will notice that I am, yet again, absent from the "fun."  I ended up joining a friend on a shopping trip (nope, I didn't buy anything for myself.  But I did get the girl's Easter outfits)!

It looks as if I'll have another lover of snow on my hands.  If you listen closely in the video you can hear Q referring to the snow as bubbles.  She has done that since the first time we were outside and snow was falling.

Y pulling Q in the sleigh.

Q loved being pulled along by Daddy in the sleigh.

Y making snow angels!

Chalkboard Menu

I have completed my first (non-recipe) Pinterest project as well as my first project using my Silhouette Cameo.

It has solved a huge problem I had; remembering what I planned to make for dinner at the end of the week.  I always plan the menu for the week on Sunday night and then go grocery shopping on Monday.  By the time Thursday or Friday rolls around I have usually lost my list AND forgot what was on the menu.

I didn't have a beautiful armoire like the original one I attempted to mimic but I do have some pretty crafty friends.  One is really good at carpentry so I bought the materials (wood board and an open photo frame) and cut it all down to the size I wanted.

I am extremely satisfied by how it turned out and it is serving it's purpose extremely well!

18 Months

Time has really flown by, Q is now 18 months old.  She's healthy and happy, has 12 teeth, and can repeat almost anything that she hears (and she does repeat almost everything she hears).  I won't bother listing all of her words here because she's really moved on to phrases.  Her most recent phrases/questions are:  why not? (which she always asks after I tell her no), what happened?, are you okay?, and of course, mine.

She weights 23 lbs. 7 oz. and is 32 inches tall which makes her almost exactly 2 lbs less and 1 inch shorter than Y at the same age.

She is a complete joy and fills our home with such joy and laughter and she has such a sweet and loving personality.  We are so very grateful to have her in our family.

Girls Being Girls

These are our girls...being their everyday selves.  Goofy.  Gorgeous.  Lovable.

2013 NAIAS

It's been a very long time since we have taken Y to the auto show with us, that last time we took her she was probably right around Q's age now (18 months).  But this year we thought she'd have a lot of fun there and our usual babysitters weren't available.  Well she did have fun and she wanted to sit inside any and every car that had the doors unlocked!  Don't worry about Q, she was there and got in on the action as well!

Swim Lessons

On January 7th Y started swim lessons at the neighboring township's rec center (the same place I took swim lessons a few years back).  She wasn't enrolled in a private lesson but due to my decision to sign her up from Monday, Wednesday sessions at 9am in the middle of winter, she is the only person in her "class."

On the first day she said to me, "Mommy you have to tell my teacher that I can't go underwater."  I said, "okay" all the while hoping that she would eventually change her mind.  For the first several lessons, even though she LOVES being in the water, she would say that she didn't want to go to swim lessons.  I told her that we had paid for the lessons and so she had to finish them all.

Well at the end of her 3rd lesson she ran over to me so excited and she couldn't wait to tell what she had done.  She had just completed her first fully submerged bob!!  She hadn't been expecting it, but she wasn't as frightened as I thought she would be when it happened for the first time.  One of the exercises that they do together is to have Y jump in the water and the instructor will catch her.  Well on the final jump on that day the instructor (intentionally) didn't catch her.  Ms. Amber (her teacher) said that typically when she does that the kid will come up and be so afraid they begin to cry.  She said that while Y did have a very surprised look on her face, she did not shed a single tear!

After we got her dry, dressed and buckled into the car she said to me with all the excitement she could muster, "Mommy, I'll never say I don't want to go to swim lessons again!!!"

Here are a few pictures that we were able to take at her 5th lesson:

And then there's Q, who likes to walk around wearing her big sister's goggles!

2012 Christmas Card

The Stroller

Santa brought both our girls strollers this year and had I known how motivating Q would find it I probably would have asked him to bring it months ago.  You see, before Christmas morning she was taking steps here and there but she wasn't really "walking."  But the stroller changed all that, take a peek:

Checking it out...

Five minutes later...

Twenty-four hours later...

And there you have it ladies and gentlemen.  The stroller from Santa is officially how Q learned to walk.  If you're wondering how long it to her to completely ditch the stroller and start walking around on her own, about 4 days.

Christmas!

 On Christmas Eve we baked and decorated sugar cookies for Santa!  Aunt D and Y were very creative and thus their cookies came out a lot prettier than mine.

Q, while she couldn't really help us decorate all the cookies, she did more than her fair share of eating them.  She managed to find the perfect spot around the table we were using to decorate and each time I looked at her she had a different cookie in her hands (and mouth).

In the late afternoon/early evening various family members started to arrive.  We ate, laughed, played a had an all around great time just hanging out together.  Aunt S recently bought a new camera and she was able to take lots and lots of great pictures!

We put the girls to bed, and shortly thereafter Santa arrived...

The girls (mostly Y) woke all of us up bright and early to head down stairs and open all the gifts.  They did a pretty good job of waiting until everyone was gathered together before they started.  Here's a photo taken amid the chaos.

It snowed a little on Christmas Day but the next day (Boxing Day in Canada) we were walloped!  We had read one report on Christmas Day that told us we'd get several inches at home (Michigan) but only a couple centimeters in Canada so we thought we'd try to head out early.  However, the following morning when we checked the weather reports we read that the snow wouldn't begin until later in the evening with a 1 inch accumulation and the rest coming later in the night, so we decided we'd be safe leaving after dinner.  And then the snow started falling, and falling, and falling and we realized there was no way we were going anywhere!

Y begged and begged to go out and play in it but we hadn't brought along any snow gear.  So we finally settled on placing plastic bags over her feet and socks (to at least keep her feet dry) and then letting her wear her NON-snow boots out.  Luckily Nana B. is really short so she was able to fold the legs of her snow pants up a few inches and make a few quick adjustments at the waist and Y was able to wear those out.  She attempted to run in the snow, she fell in the snow, made snow angels in the snow and build a snowman with Nana B. (which actually looks more like a snow duck).  All of these while Q and I watched them outside of the window.

Uncle L, knowing that Aunt D wasn't feeling well decided that he would go out and brave the freezing cold temperatures to build a snowman for her.  Coming from Peru this was the largest accumulation of snow she had ever seen, and she was too sick to even play in it :(.  But luckily for her, there will surely be plenty more opportunities!