Long time, no post

Again, it's been awhile, sorry! Life with a 2.5 year old seems to pass by in the blink of an eye. As many of you know we were in IN for Thanksgiving. While in IN we visited MANY friends and family in Indy and West Lafayette and went to Purdue's campus. So many good times! So many pictures too, so I couldn't pick which ones to put on the blog. If you're interested, visit our Flickr site and the Nov area HERE.

Since we've been back things haven't stopped...

Sasha "helping" decorate:



Wearing pigtails (yes, she has enough hair now... barely!):



Breakfast with Santa... but not exactly happy about it:



"I'm looking with my eyes"... her general statement if we see her near the tree:



Just general cuteness during snack time :)




In regards to Christmas, our girl has learned all about the Christmas Story at school. She knows about Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. It's so sweet to see/hear about Christmas through her eyes. Of course, there's some toy talk in there too, but she knows it's Jesus's birthday as well and it's awesome.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Many Blessings to you all!

(p.s. - Happy early Festivus for those Seinfeld lovers... tomorrow is Dec 23!)

Pumpkin patch fun!

Sorry it's been a while but keeping up with a feisty two year old can keep a Mama busy (and tired)! But, of course, I wouldn't change a thing.

She's fabulous in her two-year-old self and keeping me and her Daddy on our toes. Lately, she's more and more wanting to do things for herself, she's such a big helper too (that sometimes can make things take a little longer, but nevertheless, a helper), and yes, even becoming sarcastic... not sure where that one's coming from since NO ONE in our family has that trait!

A few weekends ago we made what's become our annual visit to a local pumpkin patch. This year we went with just one giant pumpkin rather than 3. We also managed to get the sometimes elusive family picture. It wasn't too bad, however, Sasha isn't exactly smiling and it did take a few tries. We went with some good friends from our PU alumni club so Sashie had a good time playing with their little girl too.

Enjoy!

Whatcha doing?

We really are some mean parents for taking this video... oh, yes, we are... but it's just one of those things parents do to capture those fabulous, cute childhood memories. She's really going to love us for this one when she's older. You may be thinking as you watch this "I SO would not want to change that diaper when she's done!"... we thought the same thing. Daddy got Harry's litter box and I got the diaper change. But, actually, nothing was there! Not a thing... she was just one, really gassy girl. Sashie... when you see this later, know that we love you SO much and Mama definitely was torn on whether or not to post this on the blog. But, how could I deny the world such cuteness with such potty humor included? Your Great Uncles would whoop me for it!

Face Front!

As if she wasn't growing up fast enough already, we hit another milestone this weekend... Daddy turned the car seats forward facing!



But, we did accomplish my goal (and then some) of making it 2 years of rear-facing for safety sake. Technically, we could have gone another 5 lbs with these car seats rear-facing but we just felt the girlie was ready to "face front." This pic was from her first ride yesterday to the store with me. She really did enjoy herself. Just chatting away about all she saw... from the cars and motorcycles, to even me yawning and asking if I was tired :) So, all and all, we think she enjoys this new view on life!

Loving me some shrimp!

Life here in the South is pretty good (barring the slight mini-flood we had in our master bath this weekend, but we're getting that taken care of). We are getting accustomed to living with a very opinionated toddler who is getting more and more potty-trained as the days go by. How grown up she is continues to amaze me! Just this past week she started talking to her Daddy about the clouds and how they were in the sky and yesterday she counted to 5 in Spanish. Either she's a freakin genius or we found an awesome school... or a little of both :) She's slowly wanting to choose what she eats and wears and what she plays with. This week she moved to Pull-Ups (big day!) during the day and will soon be in the night-time ones once that pack of diapers is done. She had her first all day, dry Pull-Up day this week at school (meaning she went in the potty all day). We frequently have "Mommy/Daddy I go potty" ringing through our house now so the praise can be showered down... which believe me, we are!

This weekend we headed to a favorite Japanese place where Sashie chowed on some shrimp, rice and veggies. While this pic isn't the greatest, it shows you her love for shrimp and the craziness that is the Sashie we love so much :)



Hope everyone is well! Many hugs!

It's Potty Time

So this is a no pictures post, sorry about that, but I still believe the info contained with in it to be news/blog worthy. I apologize for not having blogged earlier in the week about such news but I kind of wanted to feel out how certain we were about things. So, what is this said news...

As you may have guessed from the title, our precious princess has begun to use the potty! This is pretty much all her doing too. On Monday, her first day in her new class at school.. a room with a "big kid potty"... she asked to go. Her teacher was like "uh, sure, let's go!" She knew we hadn't started training yet, but since she asked, she went for it. And, what do you know, our Sashie went!

Since Monday she's tried numerous times on the potty, had a dry diaper once when waking up from nap, went a few more times at school and has gone twice at home after dinner. Yes, in case you're asking yourself, I'm keeping track! This is big stuff for a mom of a 2+ year old.

We're not pushing the training but rather letting Sashie take the lead, since it seems she wants to anyway (don't know who she gets that from!?!). I've started asking her and if she says yes then we'll go, if not, we won't. At this point, we're thrilled so we'll *knock on wood* and say a prayer things continue and she keeps interest. I do think her new teacher at school is a big help in the right direction so yay for that.

I'm sure none of you thought you'd hear me get this excited about potty (or rather teetee as we're starting to say from school) but you just don't know what will get you going until your a mom. If anyone wants to say a prayer in our direction that things continue to go smoothly we'll take it!

Many hugs and much love from the Southern crew!

Stats and the ABCs

Sashie had her 2 year appt a little late in July, and here I am reporting on it a little late in early Aug... but hey, at least I'm reporting on it right? Our girl is growing! It took her 2 years but she has caught up to the averages on the charts. She is 50th percentile for both height and weight coming in at 28lbs and 34 inches. As for progress in general, the dr was very happy, she's a smart cookie all around (not that he needed to tell us that of course :)

To demonstrate some of her new skills I give you a new video... Sasha and her ABCs!

Sasha sings!

Finish up the week (at least for me because I'm on vacay tomorrow!) with what has become one of my all-time favorite videos. Just when I think this girl can't possibly get any cuter, she does! Enjoy!

More Birthday Videos

Here's few more videos from the birthday festivities. These are of her playing with some of the presents.

While her trike is totally meant for outdoor use, it can be used indoors as well... and it often is :)



Getting a good workout on her bouncy puppy...

Birthday videos - Part 1

Here's some videos from her birthday party we had a few weeks back. They're a little long but they definitely let you feel like you were there :)

The first one lets you see how embarrassed our girl gets when you sing. Definitely cute. More videos (shorter if I remember right) of the party coming soon!

Happy belated 4th!

Hope everyone had a happy, safe, and relaxed 4th of July! Around here we kept things pretty laid back and stayed close to home. We got lots done around the house in terms of organizing and cleaning up and we spent some quality family time together.

While we thought about going to Sashie's first fireworks show we didn't quite make it. As it got closer to her bedtime on Sat night it became clear that our girl just wasn't quite ready for such a late night. She had a big day of playing soccer and building towers with Daddy and reading MANY books with Mommy so we definitely needed to hit are normal bedtime. But, we did grill out and she thought the hamburgers were tasty... with "dippy-dippy" in ketchup or bbq sauce of course.. the only way we can get her to eat meat.

All in all the weekend was pretty laid back. As you can tell from this picture, our monkey girl had a great time.



And no, we don't condone hanging on the dishwasher.

Harry. Sasha. A balloon.

After Sasha's party we untied one of the Dora balloons and she was quite excited... as was Harry (well, as excited as Harry gets). These pictures tell the tale that ensued...









And as Harry bites a little harder, it's gone


Daddy to the rescue, though... the balloon is saved, at least until the next battle ;)

Sasha is TWO!

This month has been a busy one. We ventured back to IN at the beginning of the month and ever since we returned home we really haven't settled down. Partly due to our girl turning two and all of the celebrations and then after that we've just lots to do! She is keeping us busy as well. She's doing and saying new things each and every day. Words really can't express how amazing she is right now... okay, she always has been, but seriously, she's growing by leaps and bounds. Being her Mama is a blessing and being busy with her will always make me happy. I may not always keep up with the pictures, but I'll be happy :) Finally, though this weekend I had a chance to upload pictures. In this post I'll do pictures of her birthday celebrations. Throughout the week I hope to get some more up of other things we did while in IN and the rest of this month. Thanks for bearing with me in this drought of pictures!

While our girl may have turned two on June 1, her celebrations spanned about two weeks. We had some small ones with friends in IN but had two "official" ones back home at school and the house.

School Party - Dora Style

We started with purple cupcakes...


And then continued on with some dance time!


The "freeze" song is the kids' favorite and this is the pose Sasha always gets in for the "freeze!"



House Party - Dora Style

The fun continued on Saturday. After swimming lessons a few friends gathered for snacks and a cake.

Cake made by yours truly! (with help from Sasha's daddy!)


A bit embarrassed by us singing to her. How cute is it that Brooke (her friend) is peeking over the table?




Bouncy puppy


Trike


All and all our girl had an amazing birthday... or rather birthday few weeks!

Coming soon... Sasha and Harry's Balloon Time!