{Second Half of 2014 Update!}

I haven’t been very good at keeping up with the blog, I guess I can blame that on the craziness of our schedules between the demands of work, keeping up with the girls, trying to finish the basement, and just overall keeping up with the house all while trying to balance time with friends and family. Our days, weeks, months seem to fly by, but we try to savoir every minute possible.

I took on a second “job” in July when I signed up as a Rodan + Fields Consultant. Rodan + Fields is an anti-aging skin care line created by the same doctors who created ProActive. I had been watching the business for over two years and finally decided to take the leap of faith. I love that I can work this gig around my busy schedule and pretty much do it anywhere or anytime. The products are seriously awesome; I really cannot believe the change in my skin. It is crazy that you can get dermatologist results right in the comfort of your own home. Prior to being an R+F consultant, I’m embarrassed to say I barely washed my face on a regular basis. Now I cannot imagine going a day without. I love that I get to help people get great skin and the extra money is just an added bonus!

Basement Update

Work on the basement was going really well this past fall, Bob made HUGE progress, which was then pretty much halted and nonexistent once the holidays hit. Post holidays, we had Everly’s second birthday and are now focused on getting ready for our vacation. The plan is to hit it hard and finish when we get back. That said, this past summer and fall, Bob finished drywall, we contracted out the plastering, painted the entire basement, Bob sanded, stained, and hung all the doors and trim, bought and installed the rest of the lighting…the list goes on. The basement is looking AWESOME and all we have left is to the tile the bathroom and bar area, build the bar, and then have someone come in and lay the carpet. We purchased the carpet well over three years ago, so it is nice we don’t have that expense ahead of us. We are hoping to have enough carpet left over to re-carpet the girl’s bedrooms, but we will see, if not, that is the next house project. It is so nice to see us getting so close to completion and I love that we can say with the exception of the plaster, Bob did it all! I got the crazy idea to build the bar downstairs out of old barn wood. I am not sure that Bob was completely amused by this decision, but once he saw my vision he was totally on board. We got our barn wood from our good friends Kelly and Will. Will’s parents had torn down an old barn and were looking to get rid of it. It is awesome! I am so excited I pushed for this and I think it is going to look fabulous. Unfortunately, the wood has to be scrubbed down pretty good as it has been outside for quite some time now, and the drying process takes a bit of time, but we are both very excited to see the finished product. Bob’s focus when we get back is to finish cleaning the wood and start building the bar.

Thanksgiving and Christmas

We are blessed to say we once again had a wonderful and family filled Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday. Michele, Mike and Teddy came to town for Thanksgiving. It was great to have them here and we took advantage of our time together. We did some Black Friday shopping, had a girls day in Appleton with Mom and Elizabeth, enjoyed a lot of family time together and finished the weekend at Lambeau to cheer on the Packers against the Patriots.

Celebrating Christmas at Grandma's over Thanksgiving

Alot of Ring Around the Rosie was played this weekend! 



True Artists!



Girls lunch at Carmella's in Appleton!

Our Christmas was pretty low key which Bob and I really treasured. We spent Christmas Eve at Bob’s parents’ house, woke up Christmas morning to find out that Santa had visited, and enjoyed watching the girls open their gifts. My parents came over around 10 in the morning, I made a breakfast bake dish and we enjoyed each other’s company while the girls played with all their new toys. Later that day we packed up and headed back out to Paul and Lois’s for dinner and more Christmas fun. The next two days we spent at home playing with all the girls’ new toys, cleaning and organizing, and overall just enjoying some quality family time. Anna got a couple of fun games that all 4 of us can play together. It was so fun to do things we all can enjoy. We had such a blast with the girls.

Anna Christmas concert 2014

She was the star and loved to tell people she was "The Star" of the show:)

Making Christmas cookies!

Christmas Eve 2014

Evie and Grandpa on Christmas Eve.  He is smitten :)

Family selfie before heading out on Christmas Eve

Santa Came!

Christmas breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa

Everly’s 2nd Birthday

Everly rang in her second birthday with quite a bang this year, staying up well past her bedtime. That girl can go and go until you actually make her go to sleep. We celebrated New Year’s Eve at our neighbor’s house and I think we got the girls home and in bed around 1 am! They did really well though and had such a fun time. The next day was a little brutal as they were obviously completely worn out and exhausted. We managed to get them back on schedule within a day or so. Then on Saturday, January 3rd, we celebrated her birthday again with a big party at Sir Bounce A-Lots. Party was a success, we had 14 kiddos and another 32 adults I think. It was massive! Bigger than we had anticipated, but that was totally ok by us. We were so thankful for all of our friends and family that came out to help us celebrate! I cannot believe she is 2 already? How those first two years fly by so fast. I sure do miss those baby cuddles. I think she had a great time at her party and loved playing with all of her new toys and presents the next day.

New Years Eve 2014

Birthday Girl



Evie and neighbor Macy going strong!



Happy New Year!

She loves her minnie!

Evie's birthday party

Birthday Girl!

Everly 2 Year Update

Evie, Evie, Evie, where to begin?!?!?

Evie is such a character and seriously cracks us up every day. Her personality is really starting to emerge. She is very loving and thoughtful and also has a very strong willed side to her. She talks all the time, but yet can be very shy and quiet. She reminds me a lot of myself already at such a young age. She is also very timid in certain situations and around loud noises. A few of her faves….

-Everly loves to play on her own. When Anna isn’t around she will play for hours on end without any issues. A few of her favorite toys include her babies, books, our play kitchen and toy food and any sort of art type stuff like paints, crayons, markers, etc.

-That said, when Anna isn’t around, she asks for her constantly.

-Never has been and really isn’t much of a sleeper, she has and continues to go to bed really easy, but it isn’t uncommon for us to end up with the whole family in our bed. When Anna was this young we NEVER would have tolerated her in our bed. But I think due to the fact that she is child #2, and honestly, we are just downright too exhausted most nights we let it slide. And I know this won’t be this way forever. Although there are some nights when I contemplate climbing into their bed to have some space to myself! Anna is also in the habit of climbing into our bed in the middle of the night, but most nights as of late she has either stayed in her bad or camped out on our floor. Evie is always up first in the house…typically no later than 6 and sometimes earlier. Anna has started to sleep in until 7:30/8 which is really nice.

-When you take off her clothes to change her, she loves to jump around naked and sing “shake your booty”

-She is quite attached to one of her daycare teachers, Miss Nancy. Asks for her a lot.

-Is 100% by far a “Daddy’s Girl” and Bob loves every minute of it

-LOVES her blankees….takes one everywhere with her and if not just one, two, three, four, you get the idea…

-Loves her Minnie Mouse – often refers to her as “Da Mouse”

- We have a Pete and Re-Pete situation on our hands…anything Anna does, you can be certain Evie is going to do as well.

-Neither of the girls are big eaters, but they seem both like a lot of the same stuff. The only thing I can think of that one likes and the other doesn’t is eggs. Evie loves to eat her eggs and Anna never eats them. Evie also likes bread more than Anna does. Anna went from hating to loving all kinds of candy at some point in the past two years. Evie doesn’t really like a lot of candy, although at Christmas time we caught her sneaking many, many Hershey kisses when she thought no one was watching. Both girls love the eat the following – spaghetti (often referred to as “slurpin’ spaghetti”), tacos, mac and cheese, toast with cinnamon, cottage cheese, raspberries, grapes, bananas, apples, pears, cheese, yogurt, milk, apple juice. Neither is real crazy about crackers. Evie will eat most casseroles without inspecting it, Anna seems to inspect everything and if she finds anything green in her food she won’t touch it. Every Saturday without fail the girls ask for pancakes, we make them and they don’t eat them. You would think we would learn our lesson eventually!

I started going to a few Wildtree parties that my neighbor does and I actually have really enjoyed that process of prepping the food, adding the spices and having meals frozen and ready to go. I realize I could probably do it myself and it would be cheaper, but then I would never do it without a scheduled time set aside. So far, we have pretty much liked everything we have made, I get to select the protein to ensure we will eat it, and it is nice to know there are prepared meals downstairs in the freezer if need be. Plus the options are healthy and I know all the ingredients that go into the meals. Totally works for us - It’s great!

Bob and I are anxiously getting ready to go on our first trip without the girls. We leave next Saturday for a 6 night 7 day Caribbean cruise. We are so ready for some warm weather, the beach and some relaxation. My parents and Michele, Mike and Teddy are coming along as well. The girls will be staying with Paul and Lois for the week. We are looking forward to some adult time, but will miss them terribly at the same time. I look forward to bringing them along on these trips as they get older.

Go Pack Go!

{Oh the Things She Will Say}

There are two hours in my day that I dread EVERY GOD GIVEN DAY (well, five days I week I suppose).  The hour in which the kids get up and I have to get them up, dressed, and out the door by 7:30 and the hour that we come home after I pick them up from daycare, and they are tired, cranky and hungry, and Bob and I are tired, cranky, and hungry.  Evenings don’t seem to be as bad as the mornings.  Once we get some food in them at night the kids mellow out and play.  And 2 on 2 is much easier then 2 on 1.

It seems as though, the combination of trying to get somewhere or do something fast, leave the house in not too much of a disarray and making sure the girls and myself are properly dressed, teeth brushed, hair combed, dogs fed, etc can cause me to have a panic attack anytime I think about it.  Often times as I take the elevator up to work, I find myself letting out a deep breath, feeling like I have already put a full day in.

When Anna first wakes up, she is a complete delight.  Cuddly and happy.  And perfectly content to snuggle in bed watching Disney Junior.  But as soon as it is time to get dressed, all hell breaks loose. 

A recent morning went like this –

Anna - “It doesn’t spin mom, MY SKIRT DOESN’T SPIN!”

Me - “Yes it does Anna, I promise you, YOUR SKIRT SPINS!”

Anna – “NO it doesn’t!  I want to wear my pajamas to school”

Me – “You can’t wear your pajamas today, it isn’t a jammie day”

(I have considered just sending her in her pajamas on non-jammie days, but I know if I did this I would never get her in actual clothes again)

Anna – “I WANT TO WEAR A SKIRT THAT SPINS!”

Me – ““We have no more clean dresses, mommy has to do laundry… no you can’t wear the size 24 month flower girl dress from Liz’s wedding today because it spins…. Why?  It doesn’t fit you.”

Me - “Ok, that’s fine, wear whatever you want.  Never mind that it is -12 with a -40 windchill, wear the summer dress, I really don’t care”

Anna – “I want to wear my reindeer ear muffs”

(at this point I think to myself, seriously?  Do you remember the fit you threw when I tried to get you to wear them at x-mas, but I know enough to know that won’t make us get out the door any earlier so I don’t say anything)

Me - “That’s fine Anna, you can wear your earmuffs, but if you aren’t ready in 5 minutes, Evie and I are leaving and you will have to stay here by yourself all day with the dogs”

(cue the dog’s ears perk up, and give me a look that says, “Really?  You are going to leave her here with us?”)

I then catch Anna out of the corner of my eye twirling in a circles as she exclaims, “Look Mommy, my skirt spins!!!!!”

SIGH.

Somehow, however, every morning we make it out alive and live to talk about it.  And by the time I sign into my computer at work, I have forgotten about how stressful it was, until the next morning comes.  I do know it will get easier someday down the road.  Hopefully.  Maybe the promise of some warmer weather would help.  Maybe come June.

{1}

A year ago at this time Bob, Anna and I were adjusting to the newest lil member of our family, sleepless nights, and it seemed like we were all sick all the time. Crazy as it is, not much has changed in a year – the past week we have had many sleepless nights as we all cannot seem to get healthy. Turns out, other then that, A LOT has changed in the past year – and it absolutely baffles me that this sweet baby is already a year old!

Everly’s 1^st birthday totally snuck up on all of us, as I suspected it would and will continue to, given its timing with the holidays, but we had a lot of fun celebrating with her and our friends and family. We celebrated many times and Everly got many chances to dig into a birthday cupcake. The night before her actual birthday, Anna and I snuck out to buy her some balloons and Anna helped me wrap her presents and make cupcakes. For her actual birthday we went to a friend’s house and rang in the new year enjoying their company, yummy food and some fun adult conversation and games after the kiddos crashed. It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed her special day. Instead of doing a big birthday party, we have booked a few nights in the dells in February and March and cannot wait to get away!

At one year, Everly is doing absolutely fantastic – other than a nasty cold she is fighting right now. I absolutely hate winter and CANNOT wait for spring to come and we can all be healthy again – anyway at one year –

Everly –

Weighs 21 lbs, 10 oz and is 31 inches tall







Has 4 teeth and broke her 5^th one through over the Christmas holiday







Is not quite yet walking – which has totally taken all of us by surprise based off of how quickly she took off rolling over and crawling. Everly is a very proficient crawler and I think that is why she really hasn’t taken off walking yet – seems as though she gets everywhere just fine on her hands on knees. She happened to take her first steps right after Christmas which I managed to catch on video and has been taking steps here and there more and more, but hasn’t really taken off yet..In time, I am sure.







Is starting to say her words more clearly – we can easily make out "mama", "dada", "Anna", "thank you" and "uh-oh". She also will say "more" and "all done" when she is eating.







Sleeps through night – She typically goes down around 7 and sleeps until 6:30 or so on most mornings.







Is bottle free!!!! I had no expectations to take her off the bottle right around a year, but she very easily dropped her morning bottle a few weeks ago so we tried going cold turkey that weekend and she did great! It is sooooo great to be bottle free. Although, I do have to admit it made me a little sad, she is one more step closer to being a little toddler. We started a new routine at night – 2 books and a sip of milk and down she goes. Her favorite books are the "That’s Not My….(pony, monkey, fairy, etc) series. She loves touching all the different textures.







Has started going through a ‘shy around strangers/clingy to mom and dad stage’. I remember this stage with Anna and it certainly can make evenings tough when we are trying to get settled in/cook dinner/get the girls ready for the next day, as she is typically exhausted for her day and ready for bed, but we get through it just fine. That being said, we can’t wait for her to grow out of it J







Loves to sort toys, clothes, really anything into pile and then different piles and resort them again – that can keep her busy for hours.







As most babies do, loves anything electronic – iphone, remote, ipad, etc. It amazes me how she already knows how to use the ipad.







Loves her big sister to pieces and wants to have whatever she has – milk, juice, snack, etc. I took just Everly to the store the other day and the whole way she asked for Anna – I love to watch the two girls play together. It takes a lot of patience on Anna’s side, and overall I would say she does great with her. Anna also continues to be a great helper – she loves to help me give Everly her bath.

On top of Everly turning one year old – we had a great holiday and enjoyed our time with family and friends. We are so thankful to have such an awesome support structure and feel extremely blessed. We look forward to 2014 and what the year may bring us. We have a couple of getaways booked to get us through the winter and Anna and I have a trip planned out east in April to see Michele, Mike and Teddy. Bob is looking forward to finishing off the basement and I can’t wait to decorate and organize the girls room’s and toys once that is done. Happy 2014!!!

{10 & 11 Month Update}

The past couple months have flown by – we have been very busy in the Seidel House!

 

I started back at work full time a little over a month ago and we have been super busy managing day care schedules, work, family time, swim classes for both girls, getting ready for the holidays, etc.  The week I went back to work full time, a proto type project that Bob was in charge of started up and he was incredibly busy working long hours and weekends.  It was a rough couple of weeks for all of us while we got adjusted to our new schedule, but I am happy to say that things are much smoother now.  Bob’s project was a success and he was told last week that he had earned himself a very awesome promotion!!  We are so proud of him as he has been very dedicated to his job and to us and I know just how hard he works!  We had so much fun celebrating his success last weekend J

  

Anna has adjusted from 2 days/week to full time and absolutely loves going to school, playing with her friends, and learning.  Through day care she had been taking swim classes at the YWCA.  That ended for the winter and will start back up in spring when it is warm enough again for the kids to walk across the street to get to the Y.  Bob and I had talked it over and both agreed we should keep her in the class over the winter.  We signed her up for Toddler 1 on Saturday mornings and it has become our new weekend routine to go to swim class on Saturdays.  She is doing great in class.  When you watch her work with the teacher you can see just how determined she is and we are very proud of her. 

 

 

Everly as well has fallen into a good routine at day care.  The baby place is split into two rooms, one room for the babies until they are 1 and another room for the toddlers ages 1-2.  After day 1, the teachers did what Bob and I thought would happen and moved Everly over to the big kid side early.  Everly is a very busy little girl and it certainly seems like she fits better with the “big” kids.  They have a wooden play structure with a few steps, a tunnel and a slide and after day 2 Everly had mastered it.  When we get to school she gets so excited she actually squeals some mornings and when I pick her up at night she is absolutely exhausted so I think it is safe to say Everly loves going to day care J  I am doing a Baby and Me swim class with Everly on Tuesday evenings after work.  She and I both love the class.  We signed up through the city of De Pere and the class is at Syble Hopp school using their rehab pool which is literally like 90 degrees.  It is so warm and fun and Everly absolutely loves the water.  I really enjoy our extra one on one time together.  It is so hard to believe in a month she will already be a 1 year old.  I’m pretty sure I will still be calling her my “baby girl” when she is well into her 30’s J. 

 

 

 

So at 11 months Everly –

 

FINALLY sleeps through the night!!!!!!  YAHOO!!!!  When we brought Everly home from the hospital, she was a fairly easy going newborn and did really well at night.  Once we got the go ahead to not feed her every 3 hours at night and let her wake to feed she would typically get up to eat 1-2 times a night.  Slowly it dropped to once/night and at that point I thought we would very easily drop that last feeding by 4 months or so and be good to go.  Everly however had different plans.  Since 4 months old Everly has, without fail, woken every night between 3-4 to eat a bottle and would go back down until 6 or 7.  Her schedule wasn’t THAT bad, especially considering some nights she would go down around 6 or even earlier, but it did start to take its toll on us.  She has never had a pacifier and it always seemed that the bottle was the one thing that would soothe her.  I was starting to get concerned as they typically tell you to take the bottle away starting around one year and that is just around the corner.  I thought maybe once we started day care she would just be so exhausted she wouldn’t wake up but I was wrong - she is completely exhausted, but still would wake up to eat every night.  Then about two weeks ago Bob and I woke up and in the morning (feeling quite refreshed I might add) and quickly asked each other, “did you get up last night?”  Neither one of us had.  Same thing happened the next night and then we agreed we were officially done with a bottle at night.  She has slept through the night basically ever since.  There have been a few nights where we would have to go in and rub her back to put her back to sleep, but I can say that we are very much enjoying this recent change to our schedule – thank you baby girl!!!

 

Evie is a very happy, babbly little girl.  Her favorite words are “da-da”, “uh-oh”, and “thank you”.  I catch a “ma-ma” in there every now and then and sometimes even an “Anna”.  Love to hear her cute little voice babble away.  She also loves to “sing” in the car.  Normally on my way to and from day care/work I call Michele.  With the bluetooth in the car Everly chooses to participate in the conversation pretty much all the time.  It’s fun that Michele gets to hear her chat, but not as fun when I am calling somewhere to make an appointment or trying to talk to my boss J

 

Ever since starting day care Everly has really gotten into eating her solids.  Much more than Anna did at this age.  Some of her favorites include bananas, cottage cheese, cheese slices, yogurt, eggs, toast, noodles, bread, and mandarin oranges.  She is also drinking milk out of a cup very well at meal time, so hopefully the transition from her bottle to a cup won’t be too bad when it comes time to do it. 

Everly is extremely active.  When we first started day care and really to this day, every time I pick her up they can’t stop telling me how busy she was that day.  On the weekends at home she can take up to 4 hour naps if it is quiet, but only sleeps for about an hour max at school.  She is pulling herself up on EVERYTHING and just this past week started to stand up with no assistance without hanging onto anything.  Part of me hopes she starts to walk soon, as she is into everything already, but I also know once they start to walk it doesn’t get any easier.  We are really enjoying watching her learn how to be steady on her feet and can’t wait until she takes those first stepsJ

 

 

 

The Seidels are really enjoying getting ready for the Christmas holiday.  We have so much to be thankful for and are so blessed to have each other.  We cannot wait to celebrate Christmas with our family and friends and our first Christmas as a family of four.  Michele and Mike are coming for a week at Christmas with little Mr. Teddy and Liz and Brett just welcomed their first little boy today, so it certainly will be a full house at the Willis residence and we ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT!

 

 

{Every 8 Month Update}

I really feel like the past couple of weeks have been a complete whirlwind, as we have been on the go since Bob's brother's wedding in August. Somewhere in that time Everly turned 8 months old!

At 8 months -

- Everly is 100% mobile, and fast too! She pulls herself up on everything all the time and is constantly finding herself in tough predicaments as she gets stuck under the kitchen table, behind a chair or couch, etc. She loves to explore as long as she knows an adult is close by and absolutely hates to be left in a room alone. And, whenever she is crawling around the house, she always, without fail, has a toy in left hand.

- Has 2 front bottom teeth! - Catches on quickly and tries to mimic whatever we do. A few of her favorites is playing "SO Big!" and she loves to clap her hands.

- A few of her favorite things to eat include scrambled eggs, toast, crackers, noodles, pears, peaches and cheese. She totally feeds herself and has not interested eating from a spoon - pureed food went out the window a long time ago! She also loves to snack on puffs and Gerber wheels and cheese puffs. She does great with a sippy cup of formula or water.

- She is a pretty good sleeper, starting to skip her nightly bottle which has been awesome. This new pattern was recently interrupted this weekend as she came down with a really bad cold. Last night was the toughest, she woke up around 1:30 am with a fever, vomited a few times and was pretty inconsolable for about 3 hours. HOPEFULLY that was the worst of it, as she seems slightly better today and has been sleeping a lot. It was not a fun night and Bob and I both feel so bad for her. I hate when babies get sick and there really isn't much you can do for them but lots of cuddles and kisses. Her cry has been so pitiful the past couple of days, we certainly hope things change soon for her. And hope we get back to sleeping through the night too :)

- She looks so much like her Bob - some days I cannot get over how much she looks like him - I like to refer to her as my little "bobbette" :)

- Her favorite playtime activities include swinging at the park and playing with her big sister Anna. She pretty much follows her around the house and I love to hear them play together. I have to give Anna a lot of credit too. We are always telling her to be careful with Evie and she often gets toys pulled out of her hand, her hair pulled, etc as Evie doesn't know better and Anna is overall super patient with her. Anna is such an awesome big sister and helper!

 

 

 

{Happy Big 3 Annas!}

Anna had a birthday that just kind of kept going and going this year…We first celebrated two weeks or so early before my parents left to go out east to meet little Mr. Teddy Terlizzi. We had dinner at my parents (a summer favorite – homemade pizza on the grill), had a cake and sang happy birthday and opened a few presents. I absolutely love seeing the pure magic in Anna’s eyes when anyone sings “Happy Birthday,” so it was good that we had many opportunities to do it over and over during the course of her birthday celebrations.

The next week, Anna’s actual birthday was on Monday. To celebrate, we went to the zoo (Anna’s absolute favorite place to go) with my friend Amy and her daughters Brynn and Nora. Brynn and Anna have really bonded over the past year or so over playdates and are just two peas in a pod and so fun to watch. We had a great morning at the zoo. We came home and rested up to head out to Happy Joe’s for dinner to celebrate Anna’s and her cousin Izzy’s birthday as well. They girls enjoyed playing games, eating pizza, and their birthday sundaes before opening a few gifts and heading home. (On a side note, we had to head to S&L in Pulaski after as we had purchased a new vehicle over the weekend and had to take care of a few things. The engine in Bob’s jeep blew out on the highway the week before. We freaked out for about a day and then remembered we were going to have a buy a new vehicle sooner than later anyway so it probably isn’t too big of a deal. We ended up purchasing a 2013 Ford Explorer Limited and I absolutely LOVE it! It’s a lot bigger than the Murano – I just love that it has a third seat - we certainly felt like we needed some more room, especially when we went on vacations. We were so excited we are able to snag this one up so quickly over the weekend!)

Then, the following weekend we had a “Minnie mouse” birthday party for Anna with some of her friends and our friends at the house. We had such an awesome day. The weather was absolutely perfect and the kids played…and played…and played. The party started around noon and our lasts guests left around 8:00 – a very successful party in my book .  We are so lucky to be surrounded with some awesome friends and love that Anna has some pretty great kiddos to play with as well.




Every parent says it and I have said it many times before, but I absolutely cannot comprehend that Anna is 3 years old already! I give her a lot of credit, her world has changed A LOT in the past year. When I think of all she has done from starting preschool/daycare, transitioning to a big girl bed, giving up a pacifier, becoming an AWESOME big sister, and potty training, surgery on her thumb, we could not be prouder of our crazy, on the go, little girl!

At three years old Anna –

Is still a good sleeper. The transition from crib to big girl bed went great with really no issues. Her bedtime is typically 8:00 pm, but certainly goes to bed closer to 9:00 this summer it seems. She also is starting to show signs of dropping her afternoon nap. Some days she still takes it, other days she does fine without it. I love that when she wakes up in the morning she comes and crawls into our bed. You never know which stuffed animals or how many blankets are going to make the journey with her across the house. Always fun to see what she brings in every morning.

Is potty trained during the day. When she does nap, I would say she wakes up with a dry diaper 50% of the time or so. We could not be more excited or proud of how well she did with potty training. One day it seemed to click and she hasn’t had an accident in weeks. WAY TO GO ANNAS!!!

Her loves – being outside, going to the park, bubbles, chalk, glitter, coloring with markers, stamps, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Doc Mc Stuffins, princesses, dress up, playing with her cousins and friends, waking up baby sister, playing games on the ipad, juice, cottage cheese, yogurt sticks, mac and cheese, any fruit especially watermelon, strawberries and grapes, mushrooms (favorite meal is beef stroganoff – I am always impressed with how much she eats when I make that meal), going to the grocery store, and the zoo.

Is extremely independent…no exaggeration there, she loves to do everything and anything BY HERSELF…from dressing herself, putting shoes on, brushing her teeth, buckling herself in, etc.

Is so very helpful. She talks a lot…like all the time. And it really is funny some of the random statements that come out of her mouth. And often follows each statement with, “Right?” The other days she told me, “Umbrellas keep people safe and healthy, right?” Not sure where she gets it from…

Is loving, helpful, happy, sweet, busy, smart, kind, gentle, silly, wild, and playful every single waking moment of each day. Love this little girl to pieces!!! 