Life.Is.Good.: February 2012

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

2011 - Off to Print!

After finally finishing our Christmas blog post and adding the missing photos, the 2011 Stanford Family "Yearbook" is heading to the printer! These books have become some of our most treasured items that we own - capturing each year's worth of our family's most special moments, fun memories, baby's firsts & milestones, and of course - lots of photos! I vow to keep up with this blog as long as I can - and I already have a feeling that 2012 will be just as FULL of memories as 2009, 2010, and 2011!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

23 Months - Already???

We are now one month away from Kinsley's big 2nd birthday! It has been a C-R-A-Z-Y past month! Kinsley ended up with her first (and only, I hope) set of stitches a few Sunday's ago after falling and hitting the rounded-corner of the coffee table. It was our first "blood" injury with Kinsley - blood running down my little girls face is NOT something that I want to see again any time soon! But she is doing better now and was such a brave little thing at CHOA when they put the stitches in (which have now fallen out, leaving behind just a light pink scar that we hope will go away someday soon)!

Over the past month, Kinsley has really ramped up her speech and vocabulary - starting to string together a few words here and there, and when she can't do something, she'll run to whoever she can find and say "mama heewp" (help) or "dada oh-pan" (open). And she's saying MAMA all the time now, might I add. It's like it's her new favorite word. No complaints here! The best thing? When she says "mama! mama! " for no reason...I say "what baby?" and she proceeds to cup my face in her hands and begins pointing to and describing all of my facial features: "mama's eyes, nose, cheeks, hair, ears, teeth, mouth." I have no idea how I could ever capture it on video, but it's definitely ingrained in my memory. :)

She still says the names of all of her friends, family members, classmates, teacher, and now her own name with ease. She loves finding Hunter's toys laying around and saying "Huuun-teeer" going to find him to make sure that he gets it back (and doesn't take any of hers). She loves swinging, going down slides, blowing bubbles, coloring, painting and drawing with sidewalk chalk on anything - our back porch, front steps, patio furniture, and sidewalk are all a colored-graffiti collage of Kinsley's best work! She loves cooking in her new kitchen and particularly likes to make "pretend soup" and feed it to us. And loves it when we say Mmmm! She also makes a mean batch of peas, chicken and toast on the pretend grill! In addition to her usual favorite foods, her new favorite snacks are applesauce, pretzels, peanut butter and oranges. And at almost 2 years, she is still in love with her favorite food from the start: avocado's. She is also transitioned from going up and down the stairs by crawling / climbing on her tummy to walking step by step like a big girl while holding the rail AND someone's hand! And finally, she has found a new love for baby dolls. FINALLY! Up until now, we used to laugh because she would toss her baby dolls out of their strollers and replace them with her softball glove or play-food from her kitchen. But in the past few weeks, she loves holding them, rocking them, pushing them in strollers, giving them their bottles, and sharing her paci's with them.

Speaking of paci's - yes, still using them, but only at naptime and bedtime. Kinsley still has no less than 3 in her crib. Not sure how we are going break this habit. And potty training? Hmmm, not sure about that one either. She will say "pooh-pooh" and within 10 minutes when will have done the very act of pooh-poohing. She's getting a little more interested in the potty, but doesn't like to sit on it, so I am guessing she's getting ready - but not yet ready - for potty-training at this time??? I know I need to think more about this. But the experts always say "don't rush it," right? Well then, we will think about it next month, after she's officially 2...

For now, we are busy planning for her second birthday with some of her friends! Hopefully, we have a nice, sunny, warm March day to celebrate. In the meantime, here's a look at lil' miss Kinsley over the past month!