21 Months

The end of September means that Janie is officially 21 months old and this will be the last post before she turns TWO at the end of the year. Janie is a spitfire and totally lovable and we just adore her so much. She is a great little girl and loves her big sister so much. We are continuously surprised at what she can do & remember!

Cutie Janie! We did visit the doctor because she got a croup virus, 

so I know that she is about 26 pounds.

Janie has been in the Early Preschool class at her school since August and loves it. She is not nearly the disaster that Nora was at drop off for her first couple years. She usually goes willingly into the room and although she does try to pout, it's totally a game and she is just fine. She has brought some things home with her (songs, routines) so that we can tell she is learning new things!

She is incredible with names and remembers all the kids in her class. She called the director Sheila one day (his name is Josh) and I corrected her. The next day she knew and remembered his name when she saw him. She is generally very agreeable and will say "okay" to just about anything you explain to her. She loves Cinderella and doughnuts and newly her stuffed bunny and "blankley" (since that's what Nora calls it...). She is doing some great communicating which we all love!

Updates since her half birthday:

Eats meals & snacks with the family Janie has been using utensils a bit more lately during her meals and snacks. She really likes to use a fork whether she needs to or not. Janie still loves food but she has become increasingly picky about what she eats. There have been some meals where Janie has eaten only ketchup. The child could live on french fries and she refuses to eat most vegetables. But she could probably eat four whole eggs if we let her. We can use just about any cup with her except for a true cup without a lid. She still tips a cup with a straw but she really likes to use straw cups because that's what her sister mostly uses while we are out and about. Unlike her sister, Janie will tell you when she's hungry and eat a snack rather than wait until it's too late & get super cranky. We appreciate that!

So excited about that cupcake!

Takes one nap a day Janie is still a very good sleeper. She goes to bed around 7 (a little later on weekends) and if left alone, she would sleep until 8-9:30. She also always needs a nap. She will sleep anywhere from 2-4 hours in her afternoon nap. We went through a recent phase where she was waking up and calling for mommy to come rockabye her, but that was mostly because of a bout of croup that she was going through.

Sucks her thumb & rubs her head I haven't seen a single bit of change here! Sometimes she will snuggle up with her bunny instead of suck her thumb, but for the most part, still sucking her thumb & rubbing her head. I can't put her hair up if we are going anywhere because she ALWAYS takes it out in the car.

Rock-a-byes before bed Janie continues to be our snuggly babe and we will keep it that way as long as we can! As long as she is going to bed, it's working. She is getting pretty big and harder to fit on your shoulder, but we make it work.

Drinking "coffee" with daddy!

Snuggle time with Pops!

Climbs up & down stairs Janie wants to be just like her big sister, so she will (with help) try to climb the stairs on her feet. She is pretty trustworthy going up and down on her own, but hasn't caught on to the fact that she cannot sit on the stairs or turn around and chat about something while she is climbing up or down.

Has 14 teeth I need to count them, but I think she has 16 now. All of her teeth essentially until she gets her next set of molars. She has been chewing on her hands more often these days and I'm not sure if that means she is teething a bit or if she is just starting to do that. Nora does that too, especially when she gets upset.

Strings words together Janie is using little mini-sentences when she talks. Some times we cannot understand her, but other times she is clear as day. She will tell long, elaborate stories where we can only pick out a word or two and then use an entire sentence that we can understand. A lot of her sentences will start out with "I want..." as she has learned from Nora, I'm sure!

Repeats most everything you say to her Janie will repeat a lot, so we still have to be careful with what we say around her, but she has words of her own now so she doesn't necessarily just repeat what people around her will say. She does more responding, which is great!

Plays everything with her big sister When Nora is around, Janie wants to play. She adores Nora and wants to do everything with her. They also will argue pretty well if they both want the same thing (i.e. the broom, the hair brush, a doll, a blanket, etc.) which usually ends up with some loud screaming and grabbing on both ends. And then usually a time out of some kind!

Loves dancing & music Janie is such a lover of dance! She will ask you to get up and dance with her. She will grab your hand and expect you to bounce around with her. She gets a big goofy grin on her face and will squeal with delight if you've done a good job dancing around with her! She also sings songs on her own: Twinkle, Twinkle, her ABC's (she can do just about the whole song on her own!), the weather song, Let It Go, etc. She is hilarious & totally in her element with music.

Singing the weather song!

Some separation anxiety I don't think she is upset with separation as much as she is playing shy these days. She puts on her best pouty face and lays her head down on your shoulder, and sometimes sucks her thumb. We're not sure where it's coming from but are working through the best way to address it, which for now is ignoring it as much as possible! It's only happening around other people, not when we're just at home with our own family.

Sister love.

Janie at 21 months:

Speaks using simple sentences 
Plays make believe & dress up with her sister
Loves reading books

Sucks her thumb
Requests music
Sings songs

Loves dancing to music
Loves her big sister

Loves cinderella
Generally agreeable (says "okay")
Eats a lot, but only what she likes
Uses a fork
Has 16 teeth

Janie giggles!

Playing with big sister. 

We will visit again at TWO!

September & School

September is essentially a "no blog" month for me. I've been spending a lot of time catching up on the things that we've been doing the past month on here because it is so dang busy around here in September that I just can't get any blogging done either because I'm occupied with something else or I'm too tired to do it.

But, there's a lot that goes on in September! School starts for both me and the girls. Nora has her birthday and usually a party. Therefore, we also go to the doctor for a well check. Also, there are lots of birthdays other than Nora's that we celebrate! 

I've tried to catch up in some other posts some of our September happenings, but some other things that we've been up to in September:

Celebrating Mimi & Michael's birthdays...

Ice cream date as a family to celebrate school starting...

Teddy bear day at school...

The start of school for mommy...

School fun for the girls... (I set up a collage of lots of pictures that I got from their school this past month!)

I'm so happy that October is here!!!

Weekend Wrap: Balloonfest & Grapefest

This weekend Justin had a work meeting/fun trip so he was out of town for not only the week, but the weekend and then into the following week making it a super LONG couple of weeks.

There were so many fun things going on this weekend that I just didn't want to give up the opportunity to do so the girls and I got a bit adventurous and we went out without him not once, but TWICE this weekend.

The Plano Balloon Festival was this weekend and I was determined to go to see all the fun hot air balloons. I thought the girls would really like to see the big balloons shaped like kittens and puppies and such. We had other plans for Saturday, so I decided that on Friday after school, we would make the trip out to Balloon Fest with the hopes of seeing the hot air balloons not only blown up, but the glow as well (where the balloons are lit up after dark).

This trip was one of my biggest adventures as a mommy yet. Half way there, while sitting in traffic on the highway, Nora informed me that she needed to potty. Well, sorry babe... When we finally got there, we made our first stop at the potty, which was of course, a port-a-potty. We parked the wagon outside the potties, which Nora HATED because I think she thought it would blow away. So not only did I have to take both girls into a port-a-potty with me, but I had to carry Nora kicking and screaming about the dang wagon into the box of disgust with me. Then, of course she didn't want to use the potty. After finally getting her to go in the potty and Janie surely touching every inch of gross-ness in there, we got out & sanitized thoroughly, then went to look for the balloons.

Nora did not want to do anything but find the balloons so we walked and walked and looked and looked and for the life of me I could not figure out where the balloons were. I thought, surely they are easier to find than this, more than once. Then... (rookie Balloon Fest goer) I realized that they were not inflated. They only inflate when it is time to "lift off" or "glow"... OOPS. So, we found a couple corn dogs and sat at a table to eat them until they figured out whether or not they were going to be able to inflate the balloons because of the wind.

As it turns out, it was too windy to take off so the balloons did not blow up. That was a bummer because Nora was so looking forward to seeing those balloons! I contemplated leaving at this point because it was warm and they were getting kind of tired but when I heard that they would blow them for the glow regardless of the wind, I decided to go ahead and stay. I'm glad I did!

We walked around a bit more and then found a place to sit down. We spread out our towel, danced to the live music, read books about hot air balloons, and drank some lemonade. Around 7:30 the balloons started to inflate for the glow. By this time, Janie was pretty much done so it was all I could do to keep her happy. Nora was intrigued by the balloons and watched them like a hawk. We watched them inflate for 30 minutes or so and then they started lighting them up. After about 10 minutes of the glow (it was now after 8), we needed to start herding back to the car. Nora was not pleased, but we got to watch the balloons all the way back to the car and ended up seeing the whole thing anyways. It took awhile to get out of the parking lot and back home, but Nora still talks about Balloon Fest so it was a good thing we went. I'm pretty proud of myself for going it alone! I learned a lot, too.

I feel like this represents the slight chaos of the evening, me being outnumbered.

Lemonade & books

Oh, Janie!

Balloons inflating!

Puppy dog & Janie's favorite - monkey!

We also went to Grapefest this weekend. I went with my parents and we went right before dinner time, so it ended up being another relatively late night, but at least we were closer to home.

We ate dinner on the grass, which Nora kind of hated because of the wind, but she did alright and didn't ask to go home at all. That's progress I think? After we ate, we went to the children's area and Nora got to ride on some little kid rides for the first time! She is exactly 36 inches, which is the height requirement, but some of the rides' height checks were higher, and some were lower, so some of the operators told her no. She handled that okay and got to ride on a helicopter ride, a lizard ride, and a car ride, which was her favorite. Also, both girls rode the carousel with me and Pops.

The girls & their Pops.

Nora trying to eat her pizza away from the wind...

Sharing!

Round two!

She wasn't sure at first, but loved it by the time it was over!

Waving every time around!

So cute.

We walked around, Mimi & Pops got their wine glasses, we got to see Jonathan Jackson & his band play a song or two, rode the cars one more time, and headed home.

Sunday we spent the day at home relaxing. Justin got home in the early afternoon & we just hung out as a family, which we all needed!

Weekend Wrap: Birthday Parties

This weekend was the weekend of birthday parties, apparently! All three parties we attended are good friends/family of Nora's so they were worth the busy times.

On Saturday, we had not one but TWO super hero birthday parties to celebrate. The girls got their super hero gear on and we headed out. Our first stop was Altitude Trampoline Park, which is our favorite to go to! The girls both love hopping around and running around on the bouncy trampolines. And falling into the foam pits because well, we can't quite jump into them yet.

Supergirl + Batman = TROUBLE

Janie loved playing with her friends, too! She party-crashed.

Cutie friends.

Well, one party ended and we went right over to the next! Our cousin Hunter is also turning THREE so we went to his super hero party next. Pictures were not as easy to come by as we started losing some steam, but the girls had a blast & got their own super hero capes!

Christmas card??

After birthday party #3 on Sunday, we got to see Justin's cousin David, too and dang it I did not get a picture!! We saw our good friend Miss Shari while at dinner, though!

It was a fun weekend of celebrations!