Megan's Baby Shower

I have been terribly remiss in keeping up with my blog, so let's change that, shall we? Last month Tara and I took a trip back home, to Wisconsin, to visit my mom. While there, we stopped over in Minnesota for a visit with my dearest friend from high school and also attended her baby shower. Seeing as though baby could be gracing us with her presence any minute now, it's high time I got on with the pictures.

So, without further ado, I present my beautiful friend Megan and all of the lovely women that came together to welcome her baby girl into the world.

2 Amazing Years

Dear Tara,

27lbs, 9.5oz, 36 inches tall, and you are now 2. You're amazing, vibrant, extremely verbal, active, beautiful, and you are now 2. In fact, you've been 2 for nearly a month now. Many evenings I've sat down to write, and many evenings I've left it unfinished. I don't know why, but I've found this post to be the hardest one to write yet. Putting who you are into words is more difficult than ever. Your vibrant personality, your stubborn nature, your advancements and achievements...I don't have the words to do you justice.

I know everyone says this, but I'm amazed at the differences that 2 short (but also very long!) years has made. Just look at who you were 2 years ago.

My 7 lb 9oz, 21 inch baby has grown into a full blown toddler! 

We spent your birthday this year in Connecticut with your dad's family. Your Maga and Papa, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and both Great Grandmas came together to make your day a special one. You didn't really understand that the birthday party was for you, because you'd recently been to a number for other friends, but when you realized that we were all singing "Happy Birthday" at you, your face broke into the most fantastic grin. It was beautiful to watch.

Everyone adored you, and you fell in love with them. You had so much fun and still ask to go see Maga and Papa, along with Lady and Tucker, their dogs. We only wish it was easier to visit them. You didn't exactly do the best on the long, cross country flights. We spent a lot of time apologizing to the people in the seats in front of you. Thankfully, you're pretty cute and they understood. 

So, let's see. I should probably tell you a little about what you can do. By 19 months old, you could count to 10. Now, you count reliably to 13, sometimes with 14 and 17 thrown into the mix. You sing the ABC song and are starting to recognize letters. You've got all of your colors down pat. Brown and white are particularly cute, since you pronounce them as "browned" and "wipe". We still go to swim lessons twice a week, and you're doing really well! You like lessons so much that I often catch you singing our swim songs outside of swim class.

What else? Well, you're tall enough to reach the light switches in the rooms, which you enjoy. You talk, a lot. You're amazingly verbal, using complicated concepts like "maybe" and stringing 4-5 words together into full sentences. Just a few days ago, while playing with your dinosaurs (another favorite right now), your dad heard you say "No sharptooth. This one don't have mouth." (All t-rex like dinos are "sharpteeth", thanks to the Land Before Time movies, and apparently that one didn't qualify because its mouth was closed.)

Not too long ago, you used to say "oots!" instead of oops. Can you get any cuter? I mean, really.

You love to sing. I love to listen to you sing.

You're also sneaky, in a completely obvious toddler way, and rather stubborn. You like to say or ask something, knowing that we'll likely repeat it in order to confirm what you said, and then reply "Ok!", as if it was all our idea. 

"Go park?" 

"You want to go to the park?" 

"Ok!" 

Yeah, I've fallen for that one once or twice. You have your fair share of terrible 2s. You only hear what you want to hear and often get very angry when you hear something you don't want. Getting you to go to sleep is frustrating. Getting you to sleep past 6am is impossible. 2 years in and we still haven't won the battle over sleep.

Seriously, though, you are generally a joy. Yes, you have your trying moments. Yes, mommy and daddy think we're going insane sometimes. But you make up for it with the way that you like to make sure everyone in the family, including the cat, gets proper goodbye hugs and kisses any time someone leaves the house. You make up for it when you burst out into a full rendition of "Let It Go" complete with dance moves. You make up for it with "big hugs", smiles full of sunshine, and the best little giggle.

There's so much more. So much. I just don't have the words, or the space, to truely explain who you are. Just know that we love you, love watching you grow, are looking foward to who you will be, and will most certainly soon miss who you are now.

I love you, baby girl.

Love,

Momma

P.S. You have a thing for sticks right now. What's up with that?

Easter 2014

I really looked forward to Easter this year. Last year Tara was just too little to really get what was going on. This year, this year I could actually have a little fun.

Tara's grandmother had sent an Easter book (Happy Easter Mouse!) along ahead of time, so we'd been reading at night about decorating and hiding eggs. On Saturday we set up a little egg painting station with food color dyes, q-tips, and a full body smock.

Jeff's parents - aka Maga and Papa - joined us on Skype to watch the whole messy process.

Tara had a good time painting the eggs and really enjoyed the crunching sound they made as she smooshed them into the table! We think they came out pretty well, if we do say so ourselves.

After Tara went to bed, I started in on my roll as Easter bunny. At not quite 2, candy isn't really a part of her life. Therefore, I wanted some simple, fun items to fill her basket with. As luck would have it, I was able to snag a fantastic bunny/baby doll to serve as the big ticket item. For over a year now I've had my eye on the amazing dolls made by Patatine. I hope to snag a full sized doll for Tara at some point down the line, but I am equally enamored by the baby dolls that she calls "Poppies". This year she made up a few with bunny ears and I knew one had to be mine...err, Tara's.

In addition to "Belle", our poppy, I added some clothes, shovels, and snacks sent from Grandma, some stickers, a purple glow stick butterfly wand, and a few special eggs.

I knew I wanted to set up an egg hunt for Tara, since I have fond memories of egg hunts in our backyard as a kid. I loved the idea of dying wooden eggs for her, both so that she'd have some sturdy eggs that would last long past Easter and so that we'd have a fun toy that we could use for learning colors. While the dying process was a bit time consuming, I really had a lot of fun creating these for her. Thanks to some blue lips, though, I now realize that I'll need to seal them in some way if they're going to stick around for long term play!

I also wanted to have some fun eggs with surprises inside, but without candy. Tara likes the Tinkerbell movies and I came across a pack of Tinkerbell and friends stickers, so I thought that would be a great prize for the inside of the eggs. Each fairy character has her own color - green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, and blue. By complete coincidence, the six pack of jewel eggs that I'd already bought came in those exact colors. I carefully cut each fairy out of the sticker sheet and tucked them into the eggs (as you can see above).

I may have gone a little nuts with the details the next day. I placed the eggs all over the yard and sprinkled "fairy dust" (glitter) all over each of the jeweled eggs...No judging! I was having fun.

 Jeff brought Tara out with a little bucket and showed her how to find the first egg. We told her that the fairies had come, along with the Easter bunny. After the first one she caught on to the game and didn't have much trouble finding the rest.

 While she examined her finds, I sneaked back inside and placed her Easter basket on her bed. Just the night before we had taken the front off of her crib, making it her new "big girl" bed. We felt that finding a basket of goodies in her bed might be a great way to get her excited about the big change. Once she'd picked up all the eggs, we told her that we'd seen the Easter bunny run out of her room and encouraged her to go see what he'd left.

She loved everything she found. Overall, Easter #2 was a rousing success. I can't wait for Easter #3!

Pillow and Puddle Jumping

Over Christmas we built Tara a nest of pillows and have, for the most part, kept it around since then. She likes having a soft place to play. Usually she just sits in them with her stuffed animals, but sometimes she does this:

And with all the rain lately, we've been too cooped up. Sometimes you've just got to go jump in the puddles.

Christmas 2013