Happy 2nd Birthday, Janie Caroline!

After Bath...

One of the most special times in our household can be bath time because of some of the fun routines we have created.  Typically the girls bathe together and they love lots of toys and lots of time in the water and when we have time to indulge them, it really is so much fun.  Once they are scrubbed and clean and ready to get out, this silly game of playing as if they are each newborn babies that need to be wrapped up and snuggled begins.  Typically it is close to bed time and they are looking to stall us as long as possible with sweetness and playful giggles.  Sometimes these can be the BEST moments of the day and we do our best to drink it all in and savor our amazing children. 

Our Special Little Girls

Our Bookworm...

Clara's 1st Day of School {2012}

 

Our Lil' Scout was so excited to be returning to her classroom for pre-school.  She knew that several of her classmates were returning and was very excited to see them and get to play in the fun classroom.  Although we talked about it several times, I am still not sure that she fully grasped, (despite us trying to prepare her) that she would have different teachers until we walked in the door, but she seems to have adjusted well and continues to love going to school.

 

Clara posing with her new teachers, Mrs. Colpitts and Mrs. Steere

 

Look how poised and sweet Clara looks in this photo!  We are SO proud of her!

 

Clara wasn't the only one who was excited for back to school!  Janie loves the classroom, playhouse, toys and a little girl named "Erin" that gives her a big hug every day!  Mommy likes to have a little one on one time with Janie Bug while Clara is at school.  Most days we try and get to the gym, but there is still time left over for a walk around the community center or some one-on-one fun. 

Mama did it!!!

It wasn't pretty, but this year I completed my first triathlon along with my super-duper, awesome neighborhood friends.  I signed up last fall after several of the ladies did it for the first time figuring that it would be a good motivator to get me back into shape.  I really thought then that I would average a little more sleep by the next summer.  By about April, when I still wasn't sleeping more than 4 hours a night, I gave myself a "Pass" and decided to just focus on completion. 

 

It was a super early morning...

Super-scary (well for me, anyway) 1/2 mile swim in Lake Washington,

 

12 mile bike ride, on my new bike over I-90 and back,

 

And a 3.2 mile run to finish up the course

After mild stress about it all summer, it felt AMAZING to be done and who knows... I may be up for trying to doing again next year!

No way... Janie is ALMOST TWO!!

Our heads are spinning wondering where the past year has gone.  Weren't we just celebrating Janie's first birthday?  How do we have this singing, talking, inquisitive little kid instead of a little baby!  CrAzy!!

Over the past month it feels like Janie has taken leaps and bounds with communication, which especially highlights how "grown up" she seems.  She asks a lot of simple questions and does a nice job with her responses to things we ask her.  Janie has always kind of had her own way of doing things and already she seems to have a sense of independence.  She likes to be given choices and makes it clear when she disapproves of something, most often with this fake (super annoying) cry. 

Like her older sister, Janie is really into music and books.  It feels like in the past month, the number of songs she can sing independently has quadrupled.  She also loves demonstrating that she knows most of her letters, can sing the alphabet and count past ten (some days twelve, some days she make it to fifteen).  She also knows most of her colors and shapes and started "performing" that after weeks of being silly and intentionally misidentifying the colors in the stripes on her wall and laughing about it. 

There has been some regression with her sleep patterns, we thing from teething pain, but we look forward to getting her back a pattern of sleeping through the night soon.  Janie seems to be an early riser liker her Daddy (and opposite of her Mommy especially when she is up with her at night) but luckily she can entertain her self for up to an hour looking at books in her crib.  She also requests "Mickey Mouse!!" or sometimes Sesame Street and while screen time is monitored in our household, I am not above indulging her in her requests for television!!

One of the best parts about Janie's current developmental stage is her love of sharing hugs.  She requests them all the time!  She has figured out how to use her sweet request to work us over, but seriously, who can deny a hug request... or eight, from this sweety!?!

Fun New App!