Lately

Hi! We are still here. I thought I would throw up Nico's 2 year stats for those of you who care (who are you by the way?) and for my own records. These were from January 17th

Weight: 23 pounds 9 oz - 10.99%
Height: 2'9.5" - 38.4%
Head circumference 47 cm or 18.5" - 35.37%

So go ahead and compare that to your own average or above average size kid, I don't mind I know she is a wee thing :) As far as clothing goes she is wearing a size 5 shoe and 18-24 month clothes (depending on the brand).

Nico goes to bed around 8:30, and takes a 3 hour nap starting at 1:00, except for yesterday when she went down at 3 and got up at 6. We don't have to fight with her to brush her teeth anymore, hallelujah! Mike discovered she really likes having her tongue brushed so after we found that out, and let her try brushing our teeth while we brushed hers (we don't even have to do that anymore) she sits still and lets us brush all those beautiful teeth.

Nico got one of those 99 cent paint pallets for Valentine's day and she LOVES painting. She painted for almost 2 hours on Tuesday. Yesterday she wanted to paint again, wanted me to paint with her and then began to art direct my painting. Over here, no, in here, this color. And on, and on until I felt quite micro managed by a 2 year old. She loves reading books and playing with her stuffed animals and her new doll. She has started making her toys interact with and talk with one another. She will sit on the floor with her bunny on her lap and read to it. Finally she is learning to entertain herself, I love this.

Over the past few months Nico has gradually started to participate in family prayer. Now she will repeat what we say for prayers and has told me to close my eyes on several occasions. There is nothing like being scolded by a toddler. Nico loves singing and dancing to Primary songs, mostly the wiggle songs, not so much the songs that have anything to do with doctrines of the Gospel. However, I've heard her singing I am Child of God a handful of times, pretty significant since whenever we try to sing that she tell us no, and stop. She also likes the follow the prophet song, but I think we all do.

We got Nico a bike for Christmas, and she loves riding her bike with her friend Symon. I think without Symon Nico would not be very interested in her bike, there really are some things that are much more fun to do with a friend. Here are some blurry action shots.

Alright, that's all for now.

2 Years old!

Nico is TWO!! We had some friends over for dinner and cupcakes on her birthday. That Sunday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Grandy's house to celebrate with Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. Nico is getting to be more and more fun. She's putting together sentences, can count things, and is learning to pretend with her toys. Our favorite pretend playing has been with her tin box and finger puppets that she got from a friend. She will pretend that the puppet is crying because it can't get into the box with its friends. Then she opens the box and cheers and put the puppet inside. No idea where she gets this stuff from.


















Here is the tutorial for the Tipi, it was really easy to make and requires a twin sheet and some PVC pipes, super inexpensive fun project.

Christmas!

Christmas came and went and we had a wonderful holiday.




This was the best part of the morning, Nico was SO excited to find an orange at the bottom of her stocking. I wish her reaction to the new bike we got her had been as good.









We drove to Idaho the day after Christmas to see my sister and her family. We went to Tamarack and Mike and all the rest went skiing/snowboarding, I hung out with the babies and watched the Muppet's Christmas Carol. On the drive home Mike and Nico were struck by the stomach virus my sister, her husband, a few of her kids and I had earlier in the week. We had about 4 roadside stops before we decided to call it a day and check into a gross motel 2 1/2 hours from home. All in all we had a good time, but we could have done without the barf and runny poop.

Happy Winter Solstice

Today is the shortest day of the year, the sunset at 4:54 PM today! Good thing though, the days will start getting longer now. I've been thinking a lot about Winter Solstice lately, especially after Nico's (three hour) nap. When Nico wakes up it is usually almost dark and I really struggle with being motivated to go out and do some fun activity, I just want to stay inside and be cozy. I call the time between Nico's nap and Mike coming home from work the dead time. We both are a little bored and crazy. Just curious is there a dead time of your day? What do you do to shake things up? Anyhow, happy longer days to come!



PS if you need to feel extra cozy you can stream a fireplace blaze from netflix, who knew?

Coming this May

Baby girl number two. We are very happy.


This one was taken a few weeks before the first picture, she is sucking her thumb and using the placenta as a pillow, at least that is what my OB said.

23 Months

Santa, and other things

In an attempt to beat the Holiday rush that usually surrounds Union Square, and a visit to Santa, we decided to pay the jolly old fat man a visit today. I have to say that we were not surprised by Nico's reaction to Santa. I mean who really wants to be placed on a stranger's knee anyway? I wish the pictures were a little better, but Mike was taking them on the sly (Nico did not sit still long enough for the lady taking pictures to get one). Apparently you are not allowed to take pictures with your own camera at the North Pole, news to me!

We rounded out the evening by buying our Christmas tree, and then running out of gas on the way home, oops! Later, on inspection of our storage unit I discovered that our Christmas decorations were nowhere to be found! Could they be at my parent's house? Looks like I am going to find out tomorrow. All in all kind of a funny day.

Introductions




safely out of Santa's clutches