Nineteen and Twenty Months Old!!

Nineteen Months Old - November 20, 2013
Twenty Months Old - December 20, 2013

Poor second child, for the first time I am combining two months into one post.  She turned 19 and 20 months old right around Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively, and things were a little hectic around here...  Between traveling for Thanksgiving, decorating, shopping, going to parties and other activities I couldn't keep up.  Forgive me Sweet Ann Parker, I still kept up with everything you did/said and I think you had a pretty fun holiday season and that is what is most important.

19 Months:

AP's vocabulary really has been growing everyday.  She speaks in small sentences a lot of the time and lets us know what she wants.  We are constantly amazed.  I will do a big list in the 20 month part so keep reading!

She is still wearing some 12 month clothes but also fits into 18-24 month in some brands.  She wears a size 4 diaper and anywhere from a size 3 to size 5 shoe, depending on brand.  She eats a lot, but is getting more picky about what.  She loves eggs, waffles, grapes, hot dogs, pizza, egg rolls, any type of pasta, rice, and french fries.  She will eat some sweets, but not near as much as Caroline or me.  She prefers salty snacks.

Her sleeping has been horrible and we are still working on correcting this.  She cries and cries when we put her down and then wakes up repeatedly during the night.  It's miserable.

She is  quite a little climber.  She can get onto anything!  She also loves getting into everything.  We call her the raccoon.  She has such a funny little personality and we just love every second with her (well...maybe not those 3:00 am wake up calls).

20 Months:

Some things our baby genius has been saying lately:
Be nice.
No swiping.
Daisy get you (when she thinks Daisy is after her)
Heavy (when she picks up everything...even paper or something obviously not even close to heavy)
Giddy up
Blastoff
Sissy_____ (sleeping, crying, eating, etc.)
No
Mine
Ballet
Pirouette
Ta da!
I did it!!
Quiet daddy (or mommy, sissy, Daisy)
Mallows (for marshmallows, one of the only sweet things she does go nuts for)
She can sort of count to 10 with help and knows a lot of the alphabet
She knows a few colors, although she confuses them at times
She knows animals and their sounds
And so, so much more but the list could go on all day...

This month is the same as last as far as likes, sizes, etc.  She has just been adding to her vocabulary list!

One thing to note, she LOVES her sister.  Caroline is probably her favorite person in the world.  I love watching them form a sweet bond.  They truly are best friends and I love that!

Happy 19 and 20 Month birthday precious girl!  We love you so much, even though we only did one post for these two months :)  You adorable little personality keeps us smiling and laughing all day.  We love you AP!!

Here are some pictures from our recent mini session with Simple Color Photography...the best photographer on the face of the planet.

Class Christmas Parties

The girls had their Christmas parties at school today.  Ann Parker's party started at 11:15 so I headed there first.


They have come a long way since their last party!  Each child sat so calmly and ate their lunch.

Her two sweet teachers, Ms. Debbie and Ms. Shay.  We LOVE them!

Caroline's class party started at noon, so we headed there after AP's party.  Today was pajama day at school so they got to party in their PJ's!!

They sang the parents Jingle Bells while shaking bells.  It was so cute!!

What a sweet group of kids!

Caroline with one of her best girl friends on one side and one of her best boy friends on the other.  She has some of the best friends ever.

Caroline with her teacher, Ms. Lillian.  We will miss Ms. Lillian when she leaves in January.  Ms. Lillian was a long term sub for Ms. Ginny.  Ms. Ginny cannot come back but Ms. Lillian is unable to finish the year, so these kiddos will be getting another new teacher in January.

25 Days of Christmas: Day 19

Day 19:  Go to Candyland

We went to the Vestavia Library Candyland program yesterday.  They had one of the rooms set up like the game board.  Each child got a spinner and a treat bag and made their way around the board.  It was so cute and both girls had a wonderful time!

We sure do love J and S!!  These are some of the sweetest boys - and wonderful friends to my sweet girls!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 18

Day 18:  bake goodies for our teachers!

Since class parties were at the end of this week, we spent some time baking for our teachers! It has been a great year so far and we are so thankful for them. Each class did group gifts, but we like being the favorites so we made a little something extra ;)

25 Days of Christmas: Day 17

Day 17: spread holiday cheer...AKA the day I ran a sweatshop

Thai has been a long week.  I was sick and tired, AP was not sleeping well so no one slept well, and we were busy.  I ordered Christmas cards early but with all the craziness going on, we didn't start working in them until today.  I had the girls help stuff, seal, and stick labels.  Caroline did enjoy it but AP thought I was torturing her.  I had to laugh at these pictures of Caroline working so hard....I wonder what other jobs I can get her to do in the name of holiday activities? 

25 Days of Christmas: Days 15-16

Day 15: Go see Christmas lights

We had planned on going to the Mountain Brook Christmas Parade, since it was rained out the week before and we were going to go to that.  We bundled the girls up (it was about 30 degrees) and headed out to Mountain Brook Village.  About 2 minutes away from our house, Ann Parker falls asleep.  About 3 minutes after that, Caroline falls asleep.  Although I really wanted to take them to the parade, I knew I couldn't wake up two sleepy, warm girls to watch a parade in the freezing cold.  Never fear - "Watch a Parade" quickly became "Go see Christmas lights" - an activity that we could easily do from the warmth of our car!  Caroline LOVED seeing all the lights.  There are some amazingly decorated houses out there.  Good job, Birmingham!!  I couldn't take any pictures since we were moving and they all would have come out blurry.  I did take a picture of the cute colorful alpine tree that was waiting on us at our front door.  It's so fun having some color outside our house this year!

Day 16: Go see Santa

Today we went to see Santa at Brookwood.  I knew that Caroline would love Santa and I was pretty sure AP would hate him.  A little girl in AP's class had a Santa party yesterday and AP wouldn't even go in the same room as Santa...  As expected, she screamed and cried on his lap but it made a super cute picture.  Caroline asked Santa for a race track and a Dora back pack.  She was a little confused as to where the toys were...since he's Santa and should just have them for her now.

This is a picture of a picture so it's blurry and distorted, but it was too cute not to share!

25 Days of Christmas: Days 12-14

We have been busy, busy but having oh so much fun!  I just love the holiday season!

Day 12:  Watch a Christmas movie.

Adam had a work event to go to so it was the perfect night for Christmas pj's and snuggling up on the couch for a girls night watching a movie.  We watched Saving Santa, which was really cute although a little over their heads.  It was so nice to spend some sweet time with these precious girls!

Day 13:  Give a gift

We have been trying to talk with the girls about the real meaning of Christmas.  It's fun to get new toys and clothes, but it's also a time to give.  We give to people that don't have as much because we need to share our blessings and we give to family and friends to show them how much we love them.  This was the perfect night to give something to some very special friends.

Some of the greatest blessings in our lives are our friends.  We are so fortunate to have made great friends in college, law school, church. work, and "mommy" friends.  Each year we have a special dinner with some wonderful law school friends.  This year was extra fun because Holly and Brad are engaged!!!  We are so happy for them and cannot wait for their special day next fall.  We decided to give them a beautiful ornament to hang on their tree.  While Caroline was totally on board with giving the gift, she was not about to let them open it...

Day 14:  Make SNOW!!

Thanks to Pinterest we found a fun (albeit very messy) activity for this weekend.  We made snow!  It was so easy and so much fun.  Caroline kept saying, "This is the best day ever!!"  It was adorable and was totally worth the giant mess that we made.