Laneah at 3 years, 5 months

 Laneah is all about Tangled. She carries around her little toy frying pan, can quote most of the movie and sing the songs. My mom bought her a set with Rapunzel, Flyn, and Maximus that she loves. We play with them everyday. She is always Rapunzel and she makes me be Flyn. When daddy plays, he is Maximus. I bought her this little kit with purple nail polish, some lip gloss and this blonde hair piece. She loves putting on the hair piece. (She is also showing her purple nail polish in this picture)

Her allergies have been horrible this spring. I have to give her medicine every night or she can't sleep. 


The Attitude. Yes, a capital A, although it might as well be in all caps. I can only hope that she gets it out of her system now and then she will be an easy teenager. Hey, I can dream right?


She still loves being outside and thinks she is all grown up and can just leave as she pleases. I have to bolt the door to keep her inside or she will just open the door and go play or go to our neighbor's house. Seriously, the other morning I am still sleeping and I hear the front door open and Laneah say "bye mom". I am glad she said something. Now Jason has to leave out the back door so the front door can stay bolted in the morning. It is very unnerving. 

Speaking of neighbors, she plays with them almost everyday. Pretty much the first thing I hear in the morning is, "I want to see MiaEzra" It is funny because she just says their names together like they are one person. The girls have lots of fun together.


Laneah is so excited for preschool. Whenever we pass any school she yells "my school!" and sometimes she randomly says "I'm going to school tonight". 


Laneah and her friends play a mother/daughter/big sister game. One of them each plays a role. Sometimes when they are playing I will hear "mom" and I will say "what" and she will say "not you, we  just playing". When Mia and Ezra aren't over, she will play the game with me and Brooklyn. Brooklyn is the baby, Laneah is the mommy, and I am the big sister.

She is doing a lot of pretend games. She likes to pretend she is a puppy or kitty. She also pretends to go places she likes. Most often the places are school, Sea World, Disney Land and Chuck E Cheese.


She is insatiably curious. She asks questions constantly and we also hear lots of "whys?". She is very smart and learns quickly if it is something she wants to learn. 


Laneah is extremely impulsive. She doesn't think before she does things.


She loves being silly, making faces and trying to make people laugh.

Whenever I tell her it is time to clean up I hear "I'm tired" in the most whiny voice you can imagine. She will do anything to get out of cleaning and time outs, threats and taking away toys just doesn't motivate her enough. After a hour of frustration(on my part), she might pick up a few things. And she is so messy. She can destroy a room in seconds, and I am not exaggerating. But I just bought a Responsibility Chart so I am hoping that helps with the cleaning issue and a lot of other issues.

She wants to go to the beach again so badly. She talks about the beaches in Hawaii all the time. We will have to make some beach trips this summer, although I am not anxious to revisit Ocean City again after last year's excursion. 

Laneah's favorite sentence is "I have idea". All the books and articles I have read to help prevent meltdowns say to give kids options instead of saying no. That doesn't work for me. If Laneah wants a snack before breakfast, instead of saying no, I will say, ok, you can have that after you eat your breakfast. Her reply will be this "I have idea mom. I eat this first, then breakfast, alright?" And it is like that all day long. She just flips it to whatever she wants, and then when it doesn't go her way, oh the meltdown........

She has a great vocabulary for her age and pronounces most things correctly but some of her cute mispronunciations include Old Maybe (Old Navy), hanatizer (hand sanitizer), giant potato (giant tornado), Brooklyn Bicole (Brooklyn Nicole), and giraffeses (giraffes). 


Laneah is a beautiful and strong willed little girl. She keeps us busy and entertained, we love our princess.

Spring

We have been really enjoying Spring. Last year we didn't really have a spring; it just went from cold to hot. This year the weather has been amazing. Laneah "helped" me plant our garden. She liked playing with the worms more than anything and making dirt piles on the sidewalk too. But the garden turned out nice. We planted a red hibiscus, white peonies, lots of gerber daises, petunias, and snap dragons. I wish I had more room for a vegetable garden though. 

We have been doing a lot of walking. One Friday we walked with our neighbors to Rita's to get some ice cream and gelatis. The girls all wanted to taste Laneah's ice cream since it came out first.
I got an ice cream for Laneah and one for Brooklyn because Brooklyn is crazy about ice cream, but she didn't want it! Laneah was more than happy to pick up the slack.

It was a messy, but fun event and I have a feeling we will be doing that 2 mile walk often.

One day it did get in the 80s and we got out the sprinkler. And since both of my girls love water, it was a huge hit.

I love this belly laugh.

Um, I have a question..

She has a huge smile on her face, but you can't see it well because of the water.

Bubbles are another warm weather favorite. We got a new bubble gun that Laneah likes to use, and Brooklyn likes to chase the bubbles. 

So far it has been a wonderful spring. Here's hoping we will have a mild summer:)

Brooklyn at 16 Months

Brooklyn is still the sweetest little love bug. She is still a little peanut, but she is growing like a weed. She is all toddler now, not a little baby anymore. So here are a few things our little toddler has been up too.

*She walks like a pro; strutting her stuff. Seriously, she sticks her belly out and sometimes stretches her arms back behind her. It cracks me up.

*She twirls and it is so cute! She just steps around in circles until she gets really dizzy and falls down. She loves music and dancing and her dancing is so cute and funny. Check out this video.

*It seemed like the squealing was over, but it is back with a high pitched vengeance. Ear plugs might be needed.

*She is just so happy and content. She takes in her surroundings and appreciates things.

*She still doesn't say a lot of words, but she communicates very well. The word she says the most is "this". She will ask it when looking at a picture, or pointing to an object she doesn't know, like what is this. She also uses it to tell me she wants something. She will bring me something she wants and say "this" or point to something saying "this", like I want this. 


*The ruling days of Laneah are over. Brooklyn is officially fighting back. She will take toys back, hit back, and sometimes she will take things from Laneah and run as fast as her little legs can carry her.


*Brooklyn loves animals. She chases Monty all over the house. She also loves dogs, but as soon as she gets close enough to actually pet an animal, she backs away. She is so cautious.


*She loves the movie Tangled. It is the only show besides Baby Einstein that she will actually sit and watch intently.


*Her hair has gotten so curly! When we went to Hawaii, it was crazy, so once the summer humidity kicks in, I am sure it will only get more curly. It is beautiful and I love it.

*Brooklyn is constantly playing with the tv remotes and blu ray player. She is not supposed too....here she is totally busted trying to put in a Baby Einstein video:)

*She loves carrying bags and purses around. Shopping bags are fun toys for her.

*My big girl can get on and off the couch all by herself!

*Everything Laneah does, Brooklyn wants to do too. After Laneah put on all her safety gear, Brooklyn had to try it on as well.

*The joys of eating. Brooklyn is always happiest after eating. Of course, she is always eating, so maybe that is why she is always happy??? Even when she isn't hungry, she has to be holding food in her hand. I guess it just so she has some in stock when she does get hungry. Silly girl. One bad thing is that when she is done eating she thinks it is really fun to throw the extra food off the tray. Fun for her, not so fun for mommy, who has to sweep at least three times a day.

*She loves when I fold laundry. Correction, she loves to unfold clean laundry and put on layer after layer of clothes.

*Since we came back from Hawaii she has been very clingy to me. She has hit the stranger anxiety phase too. And for some reason loud sounds scare her now too. She used to think the vacuum was funny, now she screams her head off when I turn it on unless I am holding her. The same goes with any other loud sounds. Strange.


*She is in that awkward stage where she isn't sure if she wants one nap or two so it has been hard to plan things. 


*Brooklyn has such a sweet tooth. Anything with sugar or chocolate is her favorite, and if you don't give her more, you will feel her wrath.


*She likes to color and actually does a good job holding the crayons and scribbling.


*Brooklyn loves shoes like her mommy. She is always bringing me her shoes so I can put them on her. She tries herself, but isn't quite there yet.


*She throws a few tantrums here and there, but she calms down pretty fast.


That is a glimpse of what this beautiful little girl is up to. We love her so much! She is such a good toddler.

Happy Mothers Day

It was a happy Mother's Day for me with my little sweets. How cute are they?

We didn't do anything special, but it was just great being with my girls. 

I am so grateful to be a mother.

Flirty Thirty

I normally don't post about my birthday, but this one was a big one: my 30th! It was on Saturday, which was nice. I went to brunch with some of my best girlfriends and then we went to get pedicures.
 When I got home, Jason and Laneah had made me a cake, so we blew out candles and ate cake. (Brooklyn was taking a nap)

My birthday present (and mothers day, anniversary and probably Christmas too:) was a new laptop. I got a Macbook and I love it. I actually got it before Hawaii, but it is the best gift and I am so happy with it.

For dinner, Jason took me to Cafe Rio. It just opened here in Maryland and I was dying to go. Then I dragged him to a chick flick movie that turned out to be terrible. Jason would probably say that about all of them, but this one really was. If you were planning on seeing Something Borrowed, think again. The book is great, the movie is not. 

It was nice that so many people cared about me and my birthday. The older I get, the less I care about the actually day, but it is still nice that I have such wonderful friends and family who want to share my day with me.