Karlee - 2.5 Years Old

Nov 22

 

It's amazing how smart you have gotten since the last post that I did. You've had some huge milestones including being fully potty trained. It felt like I took a while to get there but once you did you were full on and don't even have any accidents during the night. You are still my strong willed, determined, funny and sweet little girl and we enjoy and love you so much!

 

 

Here's a few things about you up until 2.5 years old....

• You are so funny and you love to make people laugh
• You have the cutest laugh and giggle - you laugh from the heart and you can tell how genuine it is. You also have such a beautiful smile that lights up the room.
• That determined thing comes into play especially in the mornings and at night. You want to be the one to pick out your own clothes. In the morning when we try to take your pj's off you will scream and cry. Every morning and say "Dress, Dress". Most mornings we end up putting your pj's on over your clothes or you won't stop crying (this is your determination showing). You would wear your Sophia pj's every day if we would let you.
• When you get something in her head you want (like a toy) nothing else will do. Even if you go to bed without something, you will wake up in the morning and ask for it right away. 
• You are obsessed with Anna (from Frozen) - you love her and everything about her. You like to be called Anna and play with Anna dolls. She is definitely your favorite.
• With that you love wearing dresses and that's all you want to wear.
• You sing all the time. Your favorite songs are Frozen "Let It Go" and "Shimmer and Shine". You also like to sing "daddy finger, daddy finger. where are you? Here I am, hear I am, how do you do?". She tries to sing all the words to her songs.
• You are a daddy's girl - so much more than Leah even was.
• You like to walk in the lake now but only if we have your shoes on.
• You love the lake and you are so good at playing with toys by yourself now - you will play for hours and hours
• You can go from happy to sad and back to happy in a 3 second timeframe
• You love to repeat everything. You talk all time time now. Some of your favorite sayings:

• "Daddy mad at me" - you said this a LOT
• "Dad, guess what?"
• "I don't know?"
• "Why?, Why?" - we hear this all the time
• "Play with me, Play with me"
• "Again, again, again"
• "Where daddy? I miss him"
• "I miss daddy"
• "I gonna win"
• "Hi mommy, what ya doing?"
• "MY Leah"
• "Blah, blah, blah"
• "Mommy - don't do my hair"
• "Mommy - Look at me"
• "Be quiet. I go to sleep"
• "Get Away from me"
• "Leave me alone"
• "Play nice!"
• "Me too! Me too!"
• "I want some more of that."
• "Mom... no shhhhh me. Mom - be nice"
• "It's my FAVORITE"
• "I don't like this"
• "NOT funny guys" - usually a very serious face with this one 
•  "Where my daddy go?" mommy says: he had to go to work. "Oh, i miss him, I miss him so much"
• "I scared" usually during movies 
• "You play with me??" - we hear this a lot
• "It's gonna be awesome!"
• "Not fair"
• "I not a baby, I a big girl"
• "I daddy's best friend"
• "Ok.... I will" 
• "I have to go potty really, really bad"

• You say your name a lots more now... "Karlee loves..." or "Karlee says..."
• Favorite movie: The Little Mermaid and Frozen
• Favorite tv: Sophia the First
• Favorite toys: Magic clip princesses, little barbies and any little princesses
• You love holding your little toys in your hand and will often hold one little doll in each hand and won't let go (for a whole day). You like to have 2 of your Anna princesses and call them Anna and my other Anna.
• Plays with pretend now with princesses and they talk to each other "Hi, what's your name?"
• Has lots of friends at school but talks about her friend Owen all the time. You like to claim "Owen bite me" lots (even though we know he doesn't)
• Loves playing with her friends at the lake - Hailey and Evie. They are silly and do 'chicken faces' and 'silly faces'
• Can count to 13 on your own
• We've seen glimpses of the "terrible 2's" with you including tantrums over nothing, but lucky for us they don't last long and you usually are smiling shortly after
• While mom or dad are driving you will yell "Mommy GO" or "Daddy GO" at all of the stops signs or red lights
• Loves to talk about "my Chasie" - still addicted to all things Aunt Chas
• When mommy or daddy sings - you yell "Stop It" and get very mad
• When leah was crying one day you walked over to her and said "why you crying Leah? It's okay Leah" while patting her to comfort her. So sweet.
• You copy Leah all the time - sometimes Leah gets a little frustrated with this :-)
• You like to yell
• Loves being read to or "reading" books on your own, will sit and flip through the pages
• You are in a bad habit of getting up in the middle of the night and yelling for mommy and as soon as mommy walks in the room you are fine and go back to bed.
• Saying mommy and daddy will take something away is finally starting to work on you and you are starting to comprehend that
• Every night wants "Mommy cover me up or mommy cover me up faster" and wants mom to come put her blanket on her. You still sleep with tons of blankets and toys in bed. You like me to cover you up with each of the blankets.
• Potty Training Milestones:
• August 6 - 1st day of not being wet for the WHOLE day
• September 10 - a potty training weekend. She did good. Still trouble pooping in the potty 
• September 15 - calling Karlee as potty trained, underwear all the time and no accidents 
• October 10 - no accidents for over a week
• October 16 - officially sleeping in underwear after 5 nights with no accidents at night - NO MORE DIAPERS!!
• Likes to sticker her tongue out at people and then goes blah, blah
• Has a special bond with Parker. They are best buds. She loves it when he rubs her back at bed time.
• Answers questions with "cuz" a lot
• Comes home many nights and changes into her princess dresses, her crown and heels - especially her Anna dress - she wears that one a lot. Definitely not my tom boy and she can walk well in heels too.
• Tells mommy to stay at home, stay at home
• Says I love you a lot.. and when you say I love you back, you say angrily and louder "I love YOU!!"... she will repeat this until you say 'thank you'
• Loves to do things "by myself" - "I wanna do it myself"
• Tell her "you look beautiful today Karlee" - she says "Yeah"
• Started doing chores: takes dishes to sink, cleans up her part of the table
• Only drinks out of big girl cups now
• You like wearing band aids for no reason
• Had a hitting problem at school for 3 days but hasn't happened since then
• Got a few random nose bleeds - not sure why
• You love baths and you play so nice with Leah in the bath
• You hate it when your hands are dirty
• You love suckers
• Drinks your drinks really fast, usually have your whole drink gone before supper even starts
• Knows months from song and the days of the week
• When picking up toys - sing a clean up song "clean up, clean up, everybody clean up"

You are perfect in every way!! We love you so much!!

 

Karlee 2 Year Old Pictures

The pictures weren't easy to get. The pictures stress Mommy out. The pictures annoy Daddy. But, they sure are cute!

Karlee - 2 Years Old

Well it's happened.... my baby is 2 years old. There are so many amazing things we can say about you Karlee but the most impressive thing has been how you just woke up one day determined not to be a baby anymore . You want to be a big girl and a toddler. You are talking so much, so smart already that you amaze us, becoming such a funny little girl, love your big sister and we are just so lucky to have you. And man, Mommy can't get over your sweet little smile - so precious .

Here's some milestones for big our 2 year old:

• Favorite foods: chocolate, mac and cheese, rice
• You take a long time to eat and are usually the last one sitting at the table at supper every night
• Like to go in the pantry and bring your own treats out - does this all the time
• So expressive. You have lots of fun faces you do. You make this cute "O" face all the time
• You love playing with babies. This is something very new for us because Leah was never into babies. You love the princess ones the best and you sleep with them, carry them around everywhere and love to take care of them. You love your babies.
• We call your our silly goose sometimes
• Told you to go get a new shirt, you walked upstairs, picked out a new shirt out of your drawer and brought it down, all by yourself
• Loves reading and especially flip books
• Love brushing your teeth
• Loves watching t.v. now and will tell us what shows she wants to watch
• Favorite t.v. shows right now: Dora, Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig, Sophia the First 
• Answers the questions on t.v. shoes - especially Dora
• Enjoys coloring and good at holding her crayons
• Always picks to sit on kitchen stools instead of chairs. You can climb up on the kitchen stools by yourself now too.
• Loves to jump
• Knows prayer before meals and will cross her hands together and sing "God is great and God is good, God is good, God is good. Let us thank him for this food. Alleluia."
• Say bath and Karlee runs for the bathroom
• Makes a high pitched squeal lots, especially when laugh
• You had your first weekend home alone with mom and dad while Leah was gone. You liked all the attention.
• April 7 - Went potty on the potty for the first time. GREAT JOB Karlee. Since then, she has gone multiple times and asked to go multiple times too. She will go when we ask her on command.
• May 21 - Told mom had to poop, went to potty and pooped on the potty for the 1st time 
• Prefers sitting in the same chair as Leah to sit together and watch t.v.
• Have a 'secret' handshake with Karlee, Leah and Mommy -- we "reach, reach" hands together, hold hands, say "best friends forever" and then we all clap and smile together
• You repeat everything we say
• There are too many words that Karlee says to keep track of them one by one anymore and you say lots of sentences now. But here are some fun things Karlee says:
• What does Santa say? "Ho Ho Ho"
• "Help me, Help me" - says that lots
• Ask you if Karlee wants a kiss? You always say "No"
• Will say "Love you....." back after Mommy says love you. It's the best thing she says :-)
• When Mommy sings will yell "No Mommy"
• Says "Go away Leah" a lot
• Loves to make fart sounds. Laughs so hard after makes them
• Loves saying "No, no" to daddy. "No, No daddy!!" "No, No daddy!!"
• Karlee, want me to read you that book? "No I read it"
• Every time as How are you? Your reply "Good"
• "Leah, look at me!"
• Running away. "Back, Back. I be right back."
• "Ooo kay"
• "xxxx, where are you?"
• "Oh no..."
• "I do!!!!" - always so excited and usually raising her hand
• "No, No Owen" (boy at daycare's name)
• Loves saying the word: "Boring"
• "Boing, Boing"
• Likes to quack like a duck
• "I did it"
• Thinks it is funny to talk about tooting. Goes around: "Daddy toot."; "Mommy toot"; "Leah toot"; "Ziggy toot"
• When you ask who wants something - you yell "I do."
• "What daddy doing?"
• "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle"
• Love the line from Hotel Transylvania and like to laugh at this. "Blah, Blah, Blah"... "I don't say, Blah, Blah, Blah." You will repeat and repeat.
• Daddy says 'Sorry Karlee mommy doesn't like you'.... Karlee says..  "Ok" 
• You definitely have a little temper and are a typical 2 year old. That includes you being very strong willed and quite frequently throwing tantrums. Usually you will throw a tantrum and 1 minute later you will be laughing and totally forgot about it (fast mood swings). But a few of your more 'strong willed' examples:
• You only want to wear Sophia the First pjs - when mom or dad pick out any other ones you will scream and throw a fit
• You only want to wear dresses, a little obsessed, and if other clothes is picked out, you cry
• When we take your clothes off, you cry, every single time and want to hold them. If we don't let you hold them, then you scream more.
• If you people walk in front of her she will yell "wait, wait"
• Determined - even if it is something little like not taking her shoes off, when gets it in her head will scream or cry until we distract or give in
• Throw things on the floor tantrum style a lot 
• Things are my - "My dress"; "My Sophia"
• One night woke up out of no where yelling "my coat, my coat" and wouldn't stop until she was given her coat 
• You love princesses. Your favorites are Anna (from Frozen), although you do get Anna and Elsa's names mixed up. You also love Sophia the first and Ariel.
• You can tell some colors: red, green (your favorite and usually always your first guess at colors) and blue.
• You can count to 5. 
• Can do summer saults on her own.
• You get yelled at all the time for standing on the couch
• Favorite toys: bouncy balls, magic clip princesses (which you love to take their dresses off the magic clip dolls but then can't get them back on and get frustrated), baby dolls, bubbles
• You play well by yourself, which is really nice now.
• You like to play with and wear headbands, hats and sunglasses. Sometimes we can't get you to take your hats off.
• Loves to swim but picky about it, only likes to swim in hot tubs or warm water areas
• Likes to sing songs and getting good remembering the words. Some of your favorites are: Old McDonald, Jingle Bells, Bringing Home Baby Bumble Bee, ABC song
• You stick your tongue out at us daily
• You got a black eye because you slipped walking up the steps at the park. When you ask Karlee what happened, she says "Daddy did it." Luckily we didn't get turned into child services.
• You know whose stuff is what. Like cups, toys, etc. You will say "this Leah's" or "this Mommy's"
• You giggle so much now. It's SUPER cute.
• Loves it when Grandma D. eats her jello. She will laugh and laugh.
• Likes to take the lids off the marker and put them back on. On and Off.
• You are a bed hoarder - you want to sleep with tons of stuff: pillows, tons of blankets, babies, stuffed animals, water. Sometimes it's so much stuff it makes you fall out of your bed. And usually at least once a night you get out of bed and come ask mommy if you can get 1 more 'ni, ni' (blanket), "1 more mommy, 1 more"
• You have become so much friendly - say 'hi' to people and don't have your stranger danger anymore.
• You need to snuggle with your daycare teachers every morning at drop off, just to get your day started with some snuggles.
• Sometimes people touching her bugs her, if you try to rub her back then she will move your hand.
• Love to dance!
• You are a night owl, you love to stay up late but you will also sleep in later.
• You LOVE the lake so far this year. Last year cried when put life jacket on, this year cries when take it off. Loves the pontoon and will yell "daddy faster!" You are also loving playing in the sand with all of your sand toys.

Thanks so much for all the smiles you bring us, Karlee. You are so special!

 

Leah 4 Year Old Pictures

Such a little model...

Leah - 4 Years Old

4 Years Old!!! As that number continues to grow, it's so amazing to watch what a beautiful, loving girl Leah is turning into. She is definitely our soft-hearted, caring little girl. She is also so thoughtful. She will be the first to tell you how beautiful you look when she sees you in the morning or compliment you on your outfit or hair. Her big heart  of gold melts her mommy's.

She also hates to get in trouble and when she gets yelled at she will break down quickly, it always follows with a heartfelt 'sorry.' This trait is probably why she is on the top ('on pink') of the behavior chart at school EVERY day. 

Leah is silly, she loves to sing and dance, make funny faces and if others laugh, she will repeat it over and over. She can be shy with her friends but you get her at home or when she is comfortable with people and she talks and talks and talks.

Your caring traits extend to your sister. When she crys, you will go over and comfort her, especially at bedtime and you can usually calm her down even at her worst. You give her hugs every day when you go to your different classrooms at daycare to get your good byes in. You are the best big sister and we are so proud of you for that and how much you look out for Karlee. Watching the love between you two is the most special thing.

There are so many wonderful traits about Leah, I could go on and on. You have a heart of gold. You fill our lives with so much joy and we are lucky to be your parents.

Here's a few fun things to remember about you being 4:

• Favorite foods: cottage cheese, chocolate, breakfast bars, ice cream (or yogurt from Cherry Berry), butter (you will eat it by the spoonful if we would let you and often just like to lick it off the top of things - Karlee does that too)
• Hates 'spicy' food. So tell her something is spicy and she is not interested.
• Likes to eat her banana's like a monkey (only open and leave hanging on the sides) - "I'm going to eat it like a monkey does."
• Likes to drink hot chocolate and pretend it's coffee like mom has
• Often will just finish supper and ask for a snack immediately and doesn't understand why she doesn't get one.
• You are big helper in many different ways but one of your favorite things to do is help mom or dad or grandma cook. You will ask all the time if you can help us cook. Unfortunately mom isn't a very good cook so I let you do some stuff but you aren't going to get cooking skills from mom.
• We started a sticker chart with the chores being things like picking up your toys before bed, not being sad at daycare drop off (when you first started your new room), going to bed by yourself and filling Ziggy's water bowl. All I have to say is sticker chart = awesome! You do a great job with chores and love the reward of a sticker and it's helped us getting into some good habits. Definitely recommend.
• You are our little princess. Everything about you is girly, girl. You love dresses (but hate when we make you wear pants under them), looking pretty, make-up, favorite colors are purple and pink and loves shopping (especially at Wal-Mart). Despite what we would want, you are definitely all girl.
• You love acting out princess stories. Your favorite ones are the Cinderella story and Little Mermaid and you will assign everyone in the room as a character
• You started playing with Barbie's often. You just got into it one day and now you love them.
• You like to pick out your own clothes, mom avoids that whenever she can.
• You love mermaids. They are one of your favorite things and you wish you were one.
• You love putting make-up on. Mom lets you even if I shouldn't, but it's just for play when you want to be a princess, which is often. You are getting pretty good at it.
• You are fun to take shopping now - even grocery shopping. Mommy would rather go with you than by herself.
• You have your daddy's memory - meaning it's really good! You will go back and tell me "remember when..." stuff from like a year ago. It's pretty impressive.
• Wants to brush her own hair and getting better at it
• You like to hide things behind your back and make us guess what you have
• Great at brushing her teeth, never argues and does a great job by herself
• You still love opening blind bags.
• Likes to bug her daddy
• Goes around singing all the time, often making up her own songs
• Loves going through car washes.
• Out of our two girls, she is the early bird and most often gets up first on the weekend before Karlee.
• Likes to do "challenges" including guessing different foods or having someone tell her what to do and she completes it
• LOVES swimming, really, really loves. Definitely our little fish. Did swimming lessons for the first time and sailed through your first class with flying colors.
• Went through a phase where she was scared of the garage door opening.
• Loves when Karlee chases her. "Come and get me Karlee."
• Your favorite toys include - barbies, shopkins
• Has a lot of favorite songs including: " Say Geronimo"; "Hello" by Adele
• You are all about racing (and winning). Every morning you race to get your seatbelt on before Karlee or race to get your coat on first. If you don't win, you usually freak out.
• You love to take your clothes off and run around the house naked.
• Says her teachers call her buttercup at school or the one boy teacher she has calls her Princess Leia
• You still absolutely love it when Grandma D eats your jello. You will laugh and laugh.
• Doing so well at school and has learned so much since going up to preschool. A few things include:
• Can spell out first and last name
• Counts high - not sure how high she gets for sure - 30 maybe
• Can write first name well. Writes: Leah, mom, dad and some other random words
• Likes to write out letters and words with mom and go over different letter sounds
• Love to use scissors - not mom's favorite thing but you are getting better with them
• Identifies letters and starting to tell the first letter of words
• Really good at coloring now and coloring in the lines.
• Great at putting puzzles together
• When ask her to name something, will name 2 of the same word like "horse, horse"
• You frequently tell mom "Mom - you are the best mom ever" or "you are the best mom in the whole wide world"
• Likes to talk about the cool "details" of stuff
• Some of our favorite sayings - you say so many funny things at this age, I wish I could get them all on video. 
• Loves to use the word "disgusting"
• "Stop saying that!"
• "Why are you looking at me like that?"
• "No thank you!"
• Anytime you see someone else eating something "what are you eating?"
• Leah - "There is money under my pillow."   Mom - "Why is there money under your pillow?"   Leah - "So the tooth fairy can come" (think she got it a little messed up and we aren't close to losing any teeth but she's been watching Parker lose teeth and get money)
• Holding her stethoscope on Grandpa D  - "Let me listen if you are too old"
• "Close your eyes, so I can show you a surprise"
• Grandma D - "I'm going to miss you, will you come to visit me in AZ?"  Leah - "Sorry, I have to go to a princess party with Chas."
• "It's cool"
• While drinking a fake cup of coffee - "I'm old."
• "Boooorrrriinnggg"
• "Why can't I get any toys??"
• "Guys, talk quiet so I can hear" (most likely watching t.v.)
• "Get away fly, you're naughty"
• Going to give Karlee a kiss good night. "I can't give her a kiss, she has a booger nose."
• While Karlee is crying - "Karlee, that hurts my ears"
• "Guys, settle down!"
• Leah - "Mom, how many minutes?"   Mom - "xx minutes"   Leah - "That's not a lot"
• "What can I do?"
• "Mother, you don't have to worry about me!"
• "Mom, what would you do if I got a single scratch?"
• "You're hurting my feelings"
• "I didn't like pizza because it has the lemons on it" (referring to pineapples)
• "How many dollars is this?"
• "Daddy, I think someone is going to share a treat with you.... it's me... I'm going to share a treat because you've worked so hard."
• "Hey... my poop smells like Christmas."
• "Santa... I wish I saw you everyday."
• "Mom - pop is bad for you"
• "I don't need pants! I'm Elsa and the cold doesn't bother me anyway."
• "Why do you have play doh in your mouth?"  (Gum)
• "The sun always comes. She's so nice to me."
• "We are slimmer's, we are going to slime Dad."
• "Karlee, stop crying... you are going to pop my ears off!"
• "I don't want you to say that!"
• From the movie Descendant will go around singing "I'm rotten to the core, I'm rotten to the core...."
• Someone toots and Leah will say "Did you hear the ducks??" - this was definitely something she learned for Grandpa D.
• "Do you know how much I love you? I love you 100 x 15 x 2 x 3,000." (or whatever random numbers she chooses that day)
• "Mom, remember when we watched that nuts movie?" (The Peanut Movie - Charlie Brown)
• "I've got a secret for you..... don't tell ANYBODY!" - you love to tell secrets.

There is just so much to love. Thank you for the joy you bring into our lives and the many, many laughs. We love you so much.

Karlee 18 Month Pics

This was a challenge - you are just at that age but still happy with how they came out.. we love your beautiful smile!

 

 

 

 

And one with your sister, just for fun!