My Sweet Valentine

On her way to her Valentine's Day party at daycare on Monday, so of course we had to dress a little festively!  This was the first week I put ribbons in her hair for her pigtails...I was smitten!  No wonder all my kid pictures have me in pigtails, too!  (If only they looked this cute on us when we're in our 30's!)

Look at this giant smile!  

Caught my lil' kiddo...sitting on her blanket, on the floor with her snacks, in her 'big girl pants' (undies! no diapers!), "reading" a book.  Gosh, she's getting so big...

This is the "ah oh" face!

Valentine's Day Date!
We headed out to Maggie Moo's...one of mommy's favorite ice cream places, and we needed to sit inside because it was chilly and rainy.  We had fun, though, and my kiddo really enjoyed her ice cream (and actually did a pretty good job keeping clean with it all!  Ahh!)

Mommy picked strawberry since she has seemed to outgrow her strawberry allergy recently (yay!), because she really likes strawberry flavors, and because it was PINK for Valentine's Day (and us girls!).

I stuck with the food love of my life: CHOCOLATE

Showing me her super long tongue...seems abnormally long, perhaps because she had to get it 'clipped' as an infant, but she always loves to stick it out and show us

Love this smile

Randomness
On our way to ice cream, we found a SNOWMAN, which EJ was so excited about.  It had only snowed about an inch the day before, but some resourceful kids managed to scrape up enough snow to make about a 6 foot snowman!  I love that the grass is completely barren around the snowman.  Of course, we had to drive the same way back home so we could wave to the snowman.

Sooo glad there weren't blogs when we were kids...  :)

So, the potty training adventure has begun!  And, EJ has been pretty good with it all.  I think I've learned (as with many parenting things) that it's probably just as much a shift of thinking for ME as it is for her.  For many months now, I have been enjoying knowing that I could just leave the house with just me and EJ for several hours, and know that the diaper would last...or that I could just keep some diapers and wipes in the car, for emergencies.  Now, I'm back to bringing along a bag of spare things in case of emergencies, which are much more urgent than a soiled diaper!  :)  

So, we've also been working on her learning how to pull up her pants...I didn't think she'd embraced it quiet so fast...  See below.  :)

She did it all by herself...pulls those undies right up OVER the pants!

...still exploring the house with things on a little backwards...

This Week (plus a little more)

What a fun year this is going to be with EJ...so many new transitions, new words/phrases, new things to discover!  January was a very hectic month for me, but I tried to make the most of it, and capture a few pictures that shared some of the fun (or funny) moments we've shared.

Our first, official "Mommy and EJ Movie Night!"  It's the first time I've let her watch more than about 30-40 minutes of TV, AND we started off with a Disney princes movie: Cinderella (no scary scenes, and Mommy's favorite growing up).  So, she only lasted for about 40 minutes, but we were all set with cozy blankets, fully tummies after a yummy dinner (I would have done popcorn, but she was too wound up to wait for that!), her Cinderella doll and a Cinderella nightgown OVER HER PJs. :)
In this pic, she's saying, "Look, Mommy, look!"

She came and plopped on the kitchen floor with her own "art supplies" as well as her fashionable accessory!

As usual, they are upside down...don't we all know that WE are wearing them wrong?

Ahh...slightly a guilty face here...why?  Those yellow things in the picture...Mommy caught her putting stickers on the dining room chairs.  Luckily (for Mommy) the backs are metal and they peel right off....whew.

Check out THIS face!  :)  Love it.

* Awesome video to be added here soon! Check back! *
Here you go: http://youtu.be/sAaiuorUQLI 

(Be sure to turn your volume up)

EJ and Symba painting together...

So, this was actually one of those "amazing" moments for a  parent...I didn't start this / give her the idea, which contributes to this momma's awe....
We were hanging out in the kitchen, and she decided to pull out all of these plastic yogurt, butter, etc. containers that I save for leftovers (my first thought?  "UGH...more pieces and things to clean up...").

After things were quiet for a few minutes, I turned to see that she had accurately matched up all of the lids to the correct containers!  One of the more astonishing parts of it all is that there are two different brands of yogurt containers there, and as I have had to learn the hard way, the lids are just slightly off (but barely noticeable unless you try to keep soup in them and then...well, you get the plight I've had...).

This kiddo match every one of those lids and containers without any help, and at one point, lined them all up!  So, my next thoughts were (after I had that "my kid is a genius" mom moment), "Oh,...well, that saved me the time of figuring what containers don't have lids!  Now I can toss all the non-matching ones!  What a helpful little girl!"  :) 

This Weekend
We stayed close to home for part of Saturday...and stayed in our jammies until 2pm!!  We played, I cleaned (although you can't tell in the least), we watched Angelina Ballerina, we relaxed....

We've "mastered" reading a book called "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" - after about the 4th time reading it, EJ was finishing the sentences for me and now she tells me what is on the next page.  :)  So, I decided we should have PANCAKES one morning.  We've had them once before (for dinner just to be random!), but now, she had a book to make the connection (just not a real, live pig to go along with!).

So, I made Mickey Mouse pancakes for fun so she could eat his ears.
She really enjoyed her pancakes and had fun with 'em.  (Mommy may have even added a few chocolate chips to the second round! :) )

So, still in pajamas, we were on to activity number...I don't know...too many laid back things to do on a quiet Saturday morning!  

This whole laying-on-the-floor-and-semi-concentrating-on-something just started...don't know if it's from daycare, but I think it's adorable, except that she seems like a big kid instead of a toddler to me when she does it.  

Distraction: MUST TAKE TIME OUT TO GO SIT IN THE KITTY BED...and put an adorable smile on her face!

Ah...The Inevitable....

In case my extra-enlarging of this picture doesn't give you enough information, this is me documenting the first time my child wrote on the wall...and on my most-recently painted, very light yellow colored, I have NO SPARE PAINT FOR TOUCH UPS wall, with a black marker.  Ugh.  Wonderful.
...wonderful that they make WASHABLE MARKERS that somehow come right off the wall (yippee!) but yet still not off our kids' hands!  Thankful for their wall-washable-ness, though!

Just Yesterday...

Delighted (so it seems, eh?) to help mommy bake some bread!
Banana bread, which she loves!

Well, sometimes "we" get confused and start throwing in measuring cups and measuring spoons,
 instead of ingredients.  :)

* FUNNY video of EJ and her pal, Symba, "playing" together coming soon.  Check back! *

Here you go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETFqIl4rYPQ 

(In case you need translations, she's saying "LOOK OUT" and she was worried about the "fishes" at the bottom of the toy.  I tried hard not to laugh too much or shake the camera, but it was hard...right at about 1 min 8 sec.  Enjoy the pure excitement and intensity of my kiddo!)