Dear Sprout-You are 13 months

Hello my sweet baby girl. My how precious and adventurous you are at this age. You are a very curious toddler, and you like to touch and grab anything you can get your little hands on. With you being 32 inches tall, there are a lot of things within your reach.

You are getting smarter by the day, you understand things we tell you, even though you don't talk very much. You are starting to speak in phrases, instead of individual words. When someone is eating, you will say, "Is it good?" And you say to your sister, "Hi Sissy." And you seem to be able to mimic other phrases we say.You sure do talk a lot in your own language though. You even ask questions and you add inflections in your voice like you are telling us a lot of little stories. I wish I could be in your little mind, I'd love to hear all the wonderful things you think you are telling us. I am sure it would be very interesting.

You definitely know what things mean. If I ask you if you want a banana, you begin to whine and run to your high chair. You like to whine a lot for things you want You are able to sign, and even talk some words, but your preferred method is still whining. You love your milk, that is for sure. You are on sippy cups now and whole milk. You still get 1-2 bottles of formula a day, for the days you don't eat much solids. You still have a slight issue with eating, but are getting much better.

You are still in size 3 diapers, and it looks like you may still be for a while longer. You are 32 inches tall and 22lbs. Tall and thin. You can wear all different sizes of clothes, but mainly I have you in between 9-18 month. Really depends on the maker, in fact, you still fit your gap 0-3 month outfit perfectly. So it all really depends. 

You get very shy when we put on the Tom the cat app, you put your head down and smile sheepishly. Sometimes you get brave enough to touch it, but the majority of the time you are bashful. It is the cutest thing. You are very loving and cuddly. I hope you never outgrow that stage.

You love to dance. You dance every time you hear music. You are like your sister in that aspect, and mommy too. Team Umizoomi has their celebration song that you like to "shake like crazy" to. You get so excited and happy and start shaking. Your eyes light up even when we say the beginnings, "2, 4, 6, 8." You also love to dance to Yo Gabba Gabba.

Flipping is your new thing as well. You like to stand on your head, but here lately you started to roll. Daddy likes to flip you, I think that is what helped you with the confidence to do it yourself.

You are getting in 4 more teeth. Your front teeth, one side bottom tooth and your side front tooth. You went from 2 to 6 in a very short time. 

Here are a couple pictures of you at 13 months old.

Wild and Crazy Sass

Oh Sass,

Where do I begin? You are the silliest, most outgoing, loud and funniest little girl I know. You are so full of life and love, and I am so blessed that you are my child. You always make me laugh, and I love how loving you are as well. You are very inquisitive, always on a quest of what you can get into and do. And then, if you think you will get into trouble, you will hide whatever it is you did. I sometimes find crackers and food and weird objects in off the wall places. I wish for a day I could be inside your head to hear how you think. It would be a day to remember for sure.

I made you a sand box for the deck for the summer, and you just love playing out there. It will keep you busy for hours, that and your other box of water. You have your little sand toys and you are all set. Your other favorite thing to do is go down to the pool. You'd go there everyday and stay there all day if I'd let you. You also want to always take a bath as well, you are a definite water baby.

You have been cracking me up lately because of your new favorite commercial. It's the state farm one, called State of Unrest. The guy is on the phone with his agent and his wife comes down stairs and demands to know who he is talking to at 3 in the morning. He tells her its, "Jake from State Farm" and she grabs the phone and asks, "What are you wearing, Jake from State farm?" and he replies, "Uhhh Khakis.." and she says to her husband, "She sounds hideous." And the husband replies, "Well, she's a guy..so....". And you find this commercial just SO funny and you watch it a lot on youtube and you recite the lines from both people a lot. You also like to put in your own words, though when you do the actual rendition, you do it almost flawlessly. You even have their inflections they use. You are a pretty funny girl. I could see you being a great actor and performer for sure.

We went to the community pool dance party on Saturday and you had a blast. It mixed your two favorite things, swimming and dancing to music. You would go dance with the other kids and adults and you'd also dance while in the pool. You are a really good dancer too, you have rhythm as well. You don't just jump around like a lot of little kids do.

You have really been into yogurt lately. I think you have like 3 or 4 of those sticks a day! (the gogurt packets). I suppose you could be eating junk that often, so I am really not complaining, but man, you LOVE that stuff. That and cheese. You always loved cheese though, ever since you were a baby.

I love you my baby girl, you are very special to me and I love every minute I am blessed to spend with you. I hope I do well by you and you grow up to be a fantastic little lady!

Dear Sprout

My sweetest baby girl Sprout,

You are a year old already, I have no idea where the time has gone, but it did and you are this walking, talking, learning something new every day little toddler. Your babyish ways seemed to disappear over night, though I can remember those very long nights when I had to hold you so close the whole night, so that you could sleep well. You were a very attached baby, I held you all day long, funny.....that part hasn't changed. You are the snuggliest baby, you always want to be in my arms, and then you lie that precious head of yours down on my shoulder, or chest, or anywhere. You will walk up to me and place your head on my leg if I am sitting on the couch, you are very lovable and affectionate.

You are starting to give your sweet open mouth kisses, you love to plant them on Sissy's nose as well. You love her so much. You guys will get into these screaming and running games, older Sis will start it of course, but you love to just jump in and have a blast with your best friend. You are learning so much on a daily basis, and it's hard for me to keep up. You have me in awe every day, and I love you so much.

You are really liking signing. You can sign, mom, dad, dog, milk, all done, and ball. You are also saying some words. Mama, Dada, dog, doggie (which sounds more like goggie), ball, good, (you say this when you are done eating or drinking something), wow, ut oh, ball, and a ton of baby babble.

You can drink out of sippies well, have been for a while, but now you can tip them up. You have a little spot on the floor you like to drink your milk. You will chase me into the kitchen, and I will hand you your milk, you will take it to that little spot, lie down and drink it. You are too cute for words.

Your laugh is infectious, those dimples are just out of this world and everyone has to stop and talk to you because of how cute you are. However, this also sends you into a crazy screaming fit, especially if I am not holding you at the time. As of right now, you really don't like to be around other people. I call you my little chimp because I am always holding you, and you grip on and hang there, kinda like a chimp with his mama. I even have to carry you in the stores when shopping. I hold you in one arm, and push the cart or stroller with your big sis with the other. I am getting pretty strong I must say. You are still very content in the moby wrap, and in the hold meant for newborns, because you love to be snuggled up with mommy. You also like to tuck your little arms in too, you are the sweetest baby.

You have been figuring out your toys, especially your gumball machine. You can put your balls in the top, hit the lever to let them come down, then you open the door and pull them out and repeat. Only took you like a day to master this, you catch on pretty fast. We used to shut the kitchen swinging door to keep you out of the kitchen, that is now no match for you either, as you can push it right open and go through. You also shut it when someone comes after you, you believe this will stop us. :)

You still only have your two bottom teeth, and you have the cutest smile, though I think very soon your top teeth will be poking through. I can't wait to see how you look with more teeth, though this two teeth stage is pretty cute!

Your favorite toys are any types of balls. You really like your weebles as well. You are a very active toddler (that sounds so weird to type....) and you love to go go go and do do do. You are even dancing when you hear music, you and Sissy will have the funnest time dancing when you are older. All of us will, since I think you two got your love for dance from me. All three of us dance during our days, to any types of music. I believe dancing is good for the soul.

Well my precious baby girl, I will stop for now. But I hope that you know I love you more than words can explain, and I hope I do right by you. You will always be my little girl.

Dear Sass...

To my sweetest baby, my first born, the light of my life, where do I even begin?
You are three years old now and you're as spunky as ever. The things you say crack me up daily and I often stare at you in amazement by the amount of knowledge you know at your tender little age. You are very observant of things around you and you are extremely loving. You are a wonderful big sister and you love your sister dearly.

Let me start out by telling you some of the things about you right now.
You are a big girl for your age, you always have been being born at a nice ten pounds and 2 ounces. You had a doctors appointment last week and you are 42 inches tall and roughly 41 pounds and in a size 10-11 shoe. You are about the average size of a kindergartner, but your sweet young face gives away your real age.

You speak very well and are very opinionated about pretty much everything. You say the silliest things and I always laugh at your jokes, you are one funny little lady.

You love running outdoors, I can always count on you yelling, "ECHO" as loud as you can when you go outside, sometimes you even do it in the car. You love to run, I am often afraid you will trip and fall, though you don't fall too often when you do. You always have on the biggest smile and your laughter is infectious, I am very lucky to call you mine.

Your favorite shows are Team Umizoomi, Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go, Spongebob (even though I don't care for you watching it so much, that is you and your Daddy's show), Max and Ruby and the newest one Bubble Guppies. You still like some of your classics like Little Einsteins and Curious George, you have liked those for a long time.

You are an awesome eater, you love your vegetables, including broccoli which you like to call "trees." Your favorite thing to eat at the moment is a turkey sandwich which includes of course turkey, mustard, cheese, green peppers, cucumbers, pickles and tomatoes. You like to eat your veggies raw, but when you do, you'd like to have "dip" which I make for you out of greek yogurt and dry ranch mix. You drink milk and water mainly, though there are occasions you have juice and chocolate milk. You could eat cheese, grapes, yogurt, fruit snacks and fish crackers all day if I let you, those are usually the things you ask for the most. Your new thing is wanting to eat in the living room, though we are trying to get you back in the habit of eating at the table during breakfast and lunch. Dinner we all sit down at the table to eat together (when I am home from school that is).

You sleep in a big girl bed in a room all to yourself. You have to have your three blankets with you, but your favorite is still your green blanket. You have had that since a baby, that is the one you love the most. You are fully potty trained now, and even wake up in the middle of the night to go if you need to. We currently still have pull ups on you, but you wake up dry every morning now for the last two months, so this is your last pack. You are still an awesome sleeper, you go to bed between 8-9 and sleep till around that in the morning. You love baths, and always ask us for one right after dinner, you also love to brush your teeth. We sing you songs before bed as well, you always make sure to ask us too in your sweet voice, "mom, sing me some songs...." You can now sing along and you like to make raps out of them too. I told you, you are a funny little lady.

When you wake up in the morning, rarely are you in the same outfit you went to bed in, somewhere along the line you get up and get dressed. Sometimes you are in new pajamas, and other times you dress yourself for the day. Though your most favorite thing to put on are your tutu like skirts, which you call, "hula dress".

You are not one for getting your picture taken, if I do finally get you to allow me to snap one without tears streaming down your face, you twirl, close your eyes, look away, stand up or yell, "SMILE" instead of just doing it. I used to be upset that I would rarely get smiley pics of you, in the posed sort of way, but I have grown very fond of the, serious looking off to the side shots I get a lot of the time. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of you smiling, but its usually when I catch you off guard.

You like to throw fits, but not as much as you used to. You are much calmer than you were just a mere 9 months ago. I have a feeling you started acting differently because your sister was born. You didn't act jealous in the way one would typically act, but you had your own way for sure. Though you never took it out on her, you have always been very sweet and loving toward your sister, you love her very much. You have recently started asking me to help you walk, or playing peek a boo with me now because of me helping your sister, you get a lot of just mommy time, yet it is still hard for you to understand that sissy needs some attention too.

You are a very smart girl. You have known your letters (not just the song) since you were 20 months old. I recently bought you some preschool books and you already knew basically everything in there already, you truly shocked me with as much as you know. One thing you need a little help on at the moment is patterns, but usually the more complex ones. You have down, circle, square, circle, square. You know your colors, can count close to 30, you skip a few, you know how they look, you can count objects, you know shapes, sizes, opposites, and your memory is really good as well. You love to learn new things all the time, and anything you can touch the better.

You love to cuddle with me, you also always ask to be "rubbed", especially you back and your hair. I love our quiet moments where you curl up next to me with your blanket and we watch TV together. You are my sweet baby girl and I love you so much.

Welcome to my blog!

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.

A little about why I wanted to start this blog, I have two beautiful and smart little girls. I want them to look back on when they were young and know how they were, what personality types and mannerisms they had and things they experienced. This blog is a work in progress, but this idea came to me in a dream last night when I was thinking about how to preserve their memories even more than I do, and thought having one for just them was a perfect idea. So this is where I will start....