Monday, May 30, 2011

16 Months Old!

Giggling, smiling, chasing her Big Sister around (or being chased), playing fun little repetive games and gnawing on everything - that is what my baby girl has been up to this month. It is simply heart-warming to watch my little girl giggle like crazy over the silliest things. She loves being tickled, loves playing hide and seek, loves hearing her Big Sister laugh and adores playing outside even more. She will bring me her shoes as early as 8am and stand in front of the door trying to reach the handle on her tippy toes. She hasn't mastered jumping yet, but she will go up and down on her tip toes trying to reach things - so cute. Kelsey isn't saying or signing many new words but she gets her point across through her actions so that she isn't frustrated and neither are we. She now is 'communicating' by pointing and saying 'uuuhhhh'. She still says "where" so frequently and so clearly - we adore it. She has recently added a 'two hands up with open palms' action to go along with her "where" as if she is looking for something. If she is hungry - she goes to the cupboard and starts getting out cans. If she is thirsty, she attempts to reach the ice maker on the fridge. My favorite is when she is laying with me in bed in the mornign and she wants me to get up. She pulls the covers off me and then attempts to pull me up by tugging on my shoulders. So cute. When her teeth aren't hurting, Kelsey is the happy, smiley, Dora-loving toddler that I described above - about 85% of the time. Her top two molars are now completely in and she is working on the bottom two. Other than tremendous teeth pain, Kelsey has had a healthy month again of which we are very thankful. She even managed to avoid the stomach flu after Kaitlyn had a short bout with it. Kelsey still isn't sleeping through the night, but we are pretty used to her wakefulness so it isn't super frustrating anymore.

Still a good eater -her favorites are sausage, pizza, green beans and peaches.
Just chillin' (she spilled her sippy cup in the car so she is wearing half of the 'car outfit' - hence the mismatched attire!)
More stickers.

Kelsey loves to push the buttons on our recliner couch, especially while on the couch... which makes for a dangerous situation since she is still so top-heavy!
Her favorite spot - in front of the tv watching Dora!
Starting to slim right out like her sister!
Kelsey's first lawn mower ride - she despised it!
Loving the playset! Now if only I could get her to sit down before she steps on the slide.
Flying high thanks to Super Daddy!
Loving Little People and all Kaitlyn's 'big kid' toys.

Also a favorite toy - the aqua doodle marker. Yes, she is sucking on it - eww! She loves to draw all over her climbing blocks with it.
Kelsey LOVES to put her blankie over her face and then walk towards us. She runs right into things and just laughs. We have darted multiple times to save her from 'big owies' when she is 'hiding' from us.
Addicted to playing bubbles. Even has fun dipping her bubble wands in puddles of regular water.
Playing doll house



Kelsey is obsessed with the Dora candyland game. She often goes to Kaitlyn's closet and 'jumps' (goes up and down on her tip toes) with her hands out stretched reaching for this game. If i pick her up, she points right to it.
Loves the sprinkler; doesn't even mind getting splashed in the face. That is a good thing, since she has a very 'splashy' sister!

Deciding that its way more fun to be IN the sprinkler!

Kelsey grabs her shoes everyday about 830am, begging to go outside. On this day she wouldn't let go of them when I put her in her high chair to give her breakfast. Silly girl!

Here she is holding on dearly to a new bubble dish and bottle of bubbles. She pounded on the door unsuccessfully trying to get me to let her outside. I think it was raining out. Try to explain that to a toddler!
Not letting go...
Still loves to fall asleep in her stroller.
Showing off her sweet baby skin!

Michigan weather has my baby girl confused. She thinks you always need a stocking hat to go outside!

Water slide! Loved it!

Loves getting messy in the sand too. Although when she is finished with dirty hands and wants them clean, she lets you know!
Texting while driving?!
My poor teething peanut!

Fire Safety

In early May I got the awesome opportunity to teach fire safety to Kaitlyn's preschool class and the other three sections of four year old preschool at her school. I had just a blast teaching the kids some fire safety tips and more about what firefighters do. Thanks to my former fire Chief for loaning me some bunker gear and an SCBA for the class, thanks to the local fire department for bringing a fire truck to show off to the kids and special thanks to my Mom and Mom-in-law for watching Kelsey and Kaitlyn so I could teach all four sections. Oh and I can't forget to thank my Hubby for making me the cool 'phone' so the kids could practice 'dialing' (jumping) the number 9-1-1. Stop, dropping and rolling.
Each time we learned a fire safety tip we did our 'Fire Smart' cheer!
Kids pretendint that their fingers are smoke and acting out how a smoke detector works.
Our 'phone' to practice dialing 9-1-1.

My little fire gal!
Donning fire helmets and getting ready for the fire truck to arrive.
Firefighter Earnie surprised the kids by dumping water from the side of the truck!
So surprised to see the water!

Boy was that siren loud!
These are some 'fire smart' kids!

Mother's Day 2011

I couldn't be more blessed to be the wife of a wonderful husband and the Mommy to two sweet, sweet daughters. Mother's Day 2011 for me included lots of snuggle time with my girls, a morning outdoor jog - my favorite, lots of time spent with family and plenty of sunshine - perfect! Snuggling with my 'early riser '.... who hates covers - I promise I am not just hogging them!
My gifts - some new craft punches, a pizza pan and some new pot holders - everything I asked for!
The luckiest Mommy ever!



Playing with the cousins at Grandma Jo's.



I just love Kelsey's pose in this one!


She tried over and over unsuccessfully to get both of her hands to reach the sides of the bench at once.

Cinco de Mayo!

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo this year by studying some facts about Mexico, trying our hand at the Mexican hat dance and dining on tacos and quesadillas.

Mother's Day Gifts

I found a neat idea on familyfun.com this year to make for Mother's Day gifts - fold out picture holders that fit nicely inside a gift card tin. What a perfect way for Grandma(s) to show off their sweet Granddaughters! As usual, Kaitlyn loved helping me put the gifts together.

Meijer Gardens

We ventured to the Meijer Gardens in the mid-afternoon one Sunday thinking that since it was late in the day and since the Butterfly exhibit was over, the crowd would be light. Boy were we surprised when we pulled in and had to search long and hard just to find a place to park. We were very relieved to learn that most of the guests were attending a seminar onsite and not actually visiting the Gardens. We had a splendid time showing Daddy around the Children's Garden on his this, his first visit there. The tulips were simply breath-taking. We had a splendid afternoon.
We were also surprised to find the big water table up and running this early in the season!