21 Months

As of today, my little Lena Bug is 21 months old. Oh my she has been changing and learning and growing so so so fast. Everyday comes with new exciting skills. I want to write down all of the ones I can remember now before I forget:

The other day, I asked Lena, "Did you give your kitty a kiss?" and she said "Yeah, I did" and since then she has been saying "I did" a lot. Usually she refers to herself in third person so I thought it was pretty neat that she started saying "I did". Later on I asked her, "Do you know where the remotes are?" to which she responded "yeah, I did"... that made me smile. :)

Lena has been so so so loving to her little animals lately. She has a fleece blanket with monkeys on it and she is always sure to give most of them kisses. She also makes sure that her kitty has a chance to hold things... she says "Kitty hold it" and holds her little Kitty's hand up to whatever it is that she wants it to hold. :)

Lena has been talking up a storm. She talks so much and it is so much fun! I love it! She repeats almost everything I say and remembers it for later. For example, last night Randy's mom was in town and was telling Lena how we can't see the stars because they were behind the clouds. Well, the whole way home she was saying, "stars bind cowds, bye bye stars"

Whenever we are stopped at a stop-light she says, "green, go!"

Her most recent love is "chocate malk"... she's so addicted that she will wake up at 2:00am to get her fix ;) we're hoping this addiction doesn't last too long.

Lena loves to go outside! We have been so excited for the nice weather and spend lots of time outside. She always says "shoes on, outside" when she wants to go outside. She also says "shoes on, walk"

When we go to the store or somewhere similar, we get her out of her seat and she says "Lena walk". And she knows to hold our hands tight in the road or parking lot. :)

Another one of Lena's new loves is running and dancing... which is basically running. :) She says "running" and races to the other side of the room... or runs in circles for "dancing". :)

She also loves her Jimmy... every day she is asking for "Shimmy, Shimmy!... "Shimmy, home"

She knows "Eva mission" :)

She LOVES her jammies... almost always refuses to let me take them off of her.

She's really really good with feeding herself... even soupy things like cereal and chili. :) She loves pancakes and muffins for breakfast.

I know this is getting long but it's been a while since I've written things down, so bear with me. :)

Lena really really likes her friend's dog Cedar and says "Cedar" every time a dog barks and proceeds to bark while kicking her legs. I think it is impossible for her to bark without kicking her legs. :)

She is always so happy when waking up in the morning or from a nap. It's fun to be able to have her come to us when she is awake and have her give us her big smile. :)

Lena's really good at giving "BIG hugs" :) She can also make the kissy sound when giving kisses now. :)

She knows most of her colors now, but somtimes mistakes red for "pink" :)

She is wearing 18-month clothes.

In ending to these memories, I just have to say, I LOVE being a mom. I love the new adventure everyday brings with this little girl and I love watching her learn and grow and being the one she calls for at night or the one she goes to when she is sad. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be her "mommy". :)

St. Patrick's Day

So I decided to try out something a little festive for St. Patrick's Day. My neighbor is always doing cute fun things for her kids on the holidays and inspired me to start being more creative and fun with Lena. I had gotten her a St. Patrick's Day dress the earlier year on clearance and had fun dressing her up in green for the Sunday proceeding. On St. Patrick's Day I set out a bucket with green toys and treats at the top of the stairs and had a trail of chocolate coins leading from her room to the bucket. She was so cute with it! She had to pick up every coin before seeing where they lead and her hands got so full that she had to let Randy hold some of them. It was so cute to watch her bend down and pick up every one... I totally was not expecting her to do that. :)

Randy's Birthday!!!

Randy's birthday was yesterday (March 22) and unfortunately he had to go to work. But I surprised him with a couple of presents (his favorite kind of girl scout cookies, thin mints, and a tea kettle made for campfires so that he can have hot chocolate when he is camping with the scouts) and his favorite breakfast (scrambled eggs the way I make them) when he came downstairs to eat. He seemed pleased that I did something for him. It was fun to surprise him and even though he always says he doesn't want/need any presents, I'm learning that it's fun to keep track of what he wants (when he doesn't realize that I'm listening) and getting something for him as a surprise. I actually learned from him when doing this... he's always so good to remember what I say I want/need during the year and because of this he never has to ask me what I want for my birthday AND it's always a surprise, because I never remember what I said I wanted. :) I'm grateful for the great example he is to me of love and service to his own family and to those around him. He works so hard for Lena and I and never complains about it. I'm grateful that he was born 32 years ago and that I get to be a part of his life for many birthdays to come. :)

My family celebrated his birthday on a different day and here are some pictures from the day of celebration. :)

Alex letting Lena watch him play a game on his phone. Jimmy had already watched for his allotted 5 seconds. ;)

So Alex drew this picture of our family and we think it is so awesome! Randy was excited to see it. This is such a thoughtful gift! Thanks Alex! :)

Our cousin Deberah ('Buh') from Arizona was visiting us. She came to Salt Lake to audition as a Disney character for Disney World! It was fun to be able to hang out with her. :)

Puppies in a Bag

So the other night Lena discovered an exciting new toy! A little plastic bag! (And of course was under supervision the whole time she was playing with it :) in case you were worried). So what did she do with this said plastic bag? Put her puppies in it of course! She had so much fun stuffing the puppies in and then would take them out one by one to show them to me. After they were back in the bag she made sure that her big teddy had a chance to hold them... "BIG Teddy hold it" she would say. :) She then took them all back out of the bag and kissed each one. It was really cute to see her be so sweet with her little animals. This girl is one of the biggest sweethearts I've ever met!

Wedding in Levan

We went to a wedding in Levan on March 10th for our mom's cousin's daughter's wedding. :) How's that for a mouthful. :) It was a really nice day and Lena had fun running around on the grass outside. Lena was also so excited to see Jimmy there and he was excited to see her. They had lots of fun together. :) Here are some pictures of Lena and Jimmy at the event.

Rosie was so nice to offer to take a picture of the three of us together. :)

I thought this picture turned out really cute. :) The typical picture of Jimmy trying to escape his mother's grasp.

I tried so hard to get these two kiddos to stand next to each other in their cute outfits... this is the best we were able to do.

Lena ran to and from Randy a million times outside... have I mentioned that she LOVES running? She also yells "running" while she's doing it. :)

Bubbles!

After trying to blow enough bubbles for the demand in nursery, we decided it was impossible after a couple of weeks. I broke down and bought a bubble machine to try out on the wee ones. Here are some pictures of us testing it out on Lena. :)

P.S. I made this dress. :)

Waking Up The Sleepy Head

Jimmy was taking a late nap the other day and Alex decided it was time for him to wake up (wanting him to go to bed that night and all) so we decided to let Lena do the honors. :) She gave him some kisses and hugs but, as you can see, Jimmy still was not interested in waking up. Tired little guy.

Holding Hands

Rosie and Alex visited the other night and Alex sat down with the kids while Rosie and I worked on making dinner. This is what happened while they were all snuggling (notice the hands). :) They kept holding hands for the rest of the time they were watching the movie. :) So cute!