Happy Thanksgiving

Hey ya'll!
From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.
We're thankful that we are able to spend this time together, all of us healthy and happy. We are thankful for our family and friends who enrich our lives constantly.
What are you thankful for?

Busy, busy, busy

We have been super busy over the past week. Work was crazy busy for no real reason and Miss C is just so involved in everything!

On Tuesday, we had a Toddler Dinner at Miss C's school. DH is still out of town so he missed it but Miss C had fun. I did find out that she is very territorial when it comes to Mama. One of the other little girls in her class (Kenzie) tried to sit in my lap a few times when we were reading (all of the kids gathered 'round when Miss C brought me a book to read to her) and later on when I was playing with Miss C while she climbed through the tunnel. When Miss C saw her little friend try to get some Mama time, she came over and shoved her off my lap! I kid you not, she sat down and pushed this little girl. Now, Miss C is pretty gentle in most situations but apparently this was not the time to be gentle.

On Friday, I had to go to a work function so Miss C played with her favorite sitter (Annie) for about an hour then went to bed. Annie is a savior for us when DH is on travel. Mrs J is no longer available for sitting as she works at Miss C's school now so I had to find someone new. Annie has made herself available whenever I need including weekend days when i had to work and the occasional evening function. Its nice to be able to have someone come over so I don't have to drag Miss C around in the evenings and Miss C always naps and sleeps better in her own bed.

On Saturday, Miss C and I decided to pick up some decorations for the house (mainly window clings) and she has expended hours (literally, I kid you not!) decorating and redecorating the windows and the kitchen. I posted a video on our youtube site (see the link to the right of the posting section) and will put a picture here.

Today, I have duty so Miss C got to go into the office with me for a few minutes then we went out for breakfast (kind of a tradition of ours when I have duty). We also stopped by Kmart and picked up a potty chair. Now, I know Miss C is still only 17 months old but she hates having a wet butt. I talked to her teacher and she recommended getting the chair to get her comfortable with it. She wandered around the living room (the room she moved it to when she pulled it out of the bathroom) and played with it a lot. She even told me she had to "go potty" a couple of times so I had a little half-nekkid toddler wandering around with a potty chair like a turtle's shell! Too funny! She hasn't actually done anything in it yet but the goal is to make it comfortable for now.

In spite of all of the fun, Miss C certainly had her moments. She hasn't broken any new teeth in months so its my guess that she has some coming in. When she gets fussy, I try to help her explain what the problem is and she was finally able to tell me "hurt" and "teeth" while signing both so either I influenced that or she has teeth coming in. In either case, the fussiness was shortlived (thankfully) and she is asleep.

Well, hope you all have a great week!

How much difference a year makes

I was looking over some photos from last year and thought you might enjoy the comparison that I see:

These are from November 2007

These are from November 2008


Wow, what a difference a year makes! I am really looking forward to our holidays this year. Last year, Miss C was, I guess, too young to really appreciate them. This year is bound to be even more memorable than the last!

MIss C is seventeen months old! (Ok, so that was on the 9th!)

I know this is a couple of days late but here goes:

1. Miss C's verbal skills are improving by the day. She is more vocal about what she wants to do and where she wants to go. When she gets up from either bed or a nap, she tells me "dia, dia" (sounds like die, die) so I change her diaper "milk" if she wants some milk, "snack" if she is hungry, "color" if she wants to color and often "pooh" or "cat" for whichever of her animals that she wants.

2. Miss C has discovered a love of shopping. We went to the Exchange last weekend to get some more pants for her and I held up two pairs to let her decide which color to get. She looked over both pairs (with quite the discerning eye) and chose one, grabbed it out of my and and immediately put it in the cart behind her seat. When I need to go to the store, I ask her if she wants to go on a "Shopping Adventure" and she says "yes, mama, shop, shop." Too funny!

3. Miss C is even better at matching thigns than I thought. Since she got her Little People's toy, I ask her to find different animals. She loves all of them and will just grab one at random and then find the matching animal on the mat and press the button to "talk" (she says it will talk too!).

4. Miss C adores coloring. I expect this is quite common at this age (and for many years to come). I tried coloring books but Miss C isn't quite into them yet but she does love her crayons (just the regular kind, not the triangle ones or the ones that look like eggs) and a basic pad of paper. I did discover that for going out, a spiral bound set of index cards is perfect. None of the pages come loose and Miss C has plenty of paper to color on.

Well, that's a few of her latest "tricks". DH has been gone a month but if the schedule holds true, he might actually be back in a couple of weeks. Yea! Its a shame that he has to miss so much of this but it could be worse, I suppose.

Ok, I am going to close out with a few new photos:

So, any thoughts on what to expect next?

Thank you

Just a quick thank you on the blog to my BFF, Alphagal and her lovely family.

Miss C just got the cutest gift in the world from them and while we are going to send a thank you card, we agreed that a video of Miss C enjoying her gift might be a nice addition.

Hope ya'll like it too!



PS In case you are curious, the reason Miss C signs penguin by pointing to her nose is because we played with a toy penguin she has (keep in mind, this started months ago) by "bonking" her nose with the penguin's nose. Kids are so darn smart!