2 1/2 years old!

Sam turned 2 1/2 on December 29th:)

She now weighs about 30 pounds and is 36 inches tall.  Her teeth have finally almost all finished coming in, only 3 left!  

 

Turns out Sam is about the opposite of both Howie and I in that she is definitely a social butterfly!  She loves being around other kids (especially her cousins, she's obsessed with them!).  In the last update I mentioned taking her to storytime, we still do that and she really enjoys it.  When my mom and niece came to visit last week, Sam insisted on doing storytime at home, she pulled a chair out and stood on it with a book demanding that everyone sit on the floor for storytime.  She can definitely be bossy, trying to rein that in though.

 

 

Another thing that has been a big change is her vocabulary!  She says full sentences, although usually just Howie and I can understand what she's saying.  Her newest is to say "I don't want to ....!"  I've found that I was underestimating what she could say/learn.  I was shocked when she was able to memorize her memory verse from Sunday school even though it was just 3 words.  That's also something I plan to incorporate more when I start Tot school back up with her.

Its so heartwarming to see how she prays now.  She used to just fold her hands and then after we prayed she would say amen.  Now she says "Thank you God for Harley, Ri Ri, and Sassy" (her cousins).  Sometimes she'll add in food and other people but without fail everytime she says those 3 first.  

She also was in the Christmas Program at church.  One of the older girls sat on the stage with her to keep her from running off and she had a line at the very end she said,"I love you Jesus!"  

 

 

Our biggest issue lately has been sleep!  For the last two weeks she's woken up anytime between 5:30 and 6:30 in the morning.  She used to sleep until at least 8 or we thought she was anyway.  She's just recently learned how to open doors so when she gets up she goes and turns on all the lights in the house and then comes into our room telling us to get up.  Needless to say Howie and I have been exhausted lately!  Especially since 2-3 nights a week I don't even get home from work until 9:15 so going to bed early doesn't usually work out:(

 

How do you deal with your little ones sleep regressions??

Growing Pains...

Last week was the start of our new schedule with Howie and I both working and I will admit I didn't anticipate the adjustments that would need to happen.  First off I didn't expect to get bored on my two days off during the week.  Now I will be the first to tell you that I do not do well sitting at home, I like to be out and about doing things.  And that's exactly what ended up happening those two days sooo, all my fault!  And it was just during naptime that the boredom snuck in, I felt like I should be doing something but our house is so small it's hard to do much without waking a sleeping child.  

Yes, this is just a random picture from last week;)

By Friday morning I needed a project so without putting much thought into I decided to clean out my refrigerator, no big deal, right? Well an hour into that project and I was sorely regretting it but it did need done so I guess that's a win!

This is the "after" picture, I'm too scared to post  the "before" picture!

So going forward I would like to have some kind of plan for the week so we can enjoy our time without me going crazy:)  Of course, as with anytime making plans something always happens so hopefully I can be flexible with it too.  

I'm loving my planner!

The other thing is trying to fit in family time when we have opposite schedules and Howie trying to stay caught up with school.  I can already see we are going to have to be deliberate with this and make sacrifices when needed.  

In saying all this I am in no way ungrateful for the opportunity to spend more time at home with Sam, just that like with all changes, adjustments need to be made at times.  I saw something on Facebook the other day that said "The things that worked in the old season won't necessarily work in the new season" or something to that effect lol (I knew I should have taken a screenshot of it!)  So as we're navigating our way through this "new" season, pray for us.  That God would use us, grow us, and keep us tightly bound to one another and Him.

Week 2 of Tot School

This week we focused on the Letter D and Number 2.  Not going to lie on Monday I did not have a lot of motivation so I printed out a couple of coloring sheets with D and 2 and called it a day!

This picture was from Tuesday but as you can see the coloring pages were still on the table😬

On Tuesday I was much more motivated, we made a duck and went to the library although there was no story hour so we just returned our books, picked out some new ones and let Sam play.

Using glue is her favorite thing to do right now.

On Wednesday's we don't have much time between work and church so we focused on our bible lesson for the week which was Noah's Ark.  We read one of her books about it then made a craft.

Thursday's are our only real night at home so lately that's when we've been baking!  I bought stuff to make cupcakes while I was at work and we used leftover sprinkles from Christmas:).  There's quite a bit to teach her while we're baking such as following directions, counting, colors etc.  

And then of course the end result!

Friday was my night to close at work so we had the morning free.  We ended up at Walmart to get a new tire and I decided to go ahead and buy the stuff to make a felt board.  We got a big piece of foam board and enough felt to cover it, spray adhesive and Velcro.  This was the end result.  So far I've just cut out some shapes but the options are pretty unlimited.

On here it seems like I do all the teaching but really just the crafty stuff, Howie always reads to her before bed/naptime, works on flashcards with her, and reviews throughout the day.  It's definitely a joint adventure for us.

One more picture to finish out the post:  Sam helping daddy change a tire:)

Next week we are working on Letter E and Number 3, anybody have ideas??

19 months old

The months just fly by with this girl!

At her dr appointment this month she weighed in at 23 lbs 12 oz and 30.5 inches (however at her WIC appointment they said she was 32 inches).  She's in the 50th percentile on both.

She has become so much more independent recently.  She throws her diapers in the trash, puts her plate and silverware in the sink when she's done, and is using a spoon/fork really well. 

We have recently transitioned Sam from a bottle to a sippy cup for her milk when I'm at work.  It took 3 different cups to find one she would take the milk from but she hasn't had a bottle in over 2 weeks, in fact I just packed all her bottles up:( 

Right here -->

                                        

This is what she's having for lunch today, she loves grilled cheese and peaches.  I recently bought some spinach for her to try at home because anytime we go to the Chinese buffet she loves the spinach there so we'll see if she eats it.

Some funny things she's started doing is randomly putting her fingers in her ears.

Dragging boxes around telling us "bye"

We also decided to finally cut her bangs, I was so tired of them always being in her  eyes so we just had the lady who cuts Howie's hair trim them.

Getting rid of her bottles, it really hit home that she's not a baby anymore:(. Time goes by so fast, we are trying to soak up every moment.  

Now time to get ready for grandma and grandpas visit tonight and tomorrow!