Delanie Gives A Concert

The first two minutes of this video provides an explanation for why we haven't been posting more pictures/video. My family will tell you that this behavior comes right from her mother - I went through a stage where I didn't want to be photographed that probably lasted 10 years!

Delanie has become quite the singer, though! She has an amazing memory, so she has a knack for memorizing lyrics and melodies very quickly. She can pick out a melody she has heard before, even if there are new words assigned to it. And, she learned 5-6 Christmas carols this year, between school and home. She tends to belt them out at the top of her lungs, and will clam up the second she sees the camera.

I hope her singing voice makes Mamo proud!

Delanie opening some presents

Here's more video from Christmas morning!

Christmas morning!!

Here's some video of Delanie as she first comes downstairs on Christmas morning. More video of her opening presents to come!

Santa has hit our house!

BEFORE SANTA:






































































AFTER SANTA:

Delanie with Santa, Take 2

Last Saturday, we went to a neighborhood Christmas party. The hosts hired a Santa to come and hand out presents to the kids. Delanie, who has been skeptical of Santas all season, really took to this Santa! She kept interrupting the other kids' time on his lap to tell him things, and she happily jumped up on his knee! In fact, Santa had a hard time getting rid of her, she proceeded to hang onto his leg and follow him around for the next 45 minutes or so, happily talking away to him!

Thank you Granny and Grandpa Joe!

Delanie got a special gift in the mail the other day - here is her reaction!

Christmas decorations

This may be the best way for us to answer the question, "How is potty training going?" While we were decorating the tree yesterday, we found Delanie putting Christmas decorations into her potty so she could carry them around!

Delanie's first visit to see Santa!

Here are some pictures from our local fire station's annual Breakfast with Santa pancake fundraiser. As you can see, Delanie was a little skeptical of Santa. Prior to seeing him, she told us she planned to sit on his lap and tell him she needed "some new sippy cups." Yet, as she approached the front of the line, she got very nervous and insisted Daddy join her in the photo. They even kicked Santa out of his chair!

We plan to put up our tree on Sunday, and have several more local outings to attend to help us get into the Christmas spirit!

Delanie dancing to "The Goodnight Song"

Enjoy :)

Who was that masked girl?

Delanie is dressing up this Halloween as SuperWhy, a character from one of her favorite shows. Deanna made her the shirt. Here's a clip of Delanie after she tried on the costume:

More Summer Fun!

Caleb and Delanie eating cupcakes

Delanie, Lukas and Ryan enjoying the new Dinosaur Trail at the NC Museum of Life and Science

Delanie and Caleb at the NC Zoo - Delanie looks terrified to be on the statue!

Delanie and Daddy inside a giant beehive

Take Me Out To The Ballgame...

Delanie was so excited to go to a ballgame! Surprisingly, she already loves sports. Her Grandpa Mark got a pink baseball glove as a sort-of gag gift before Delanie was born, so she was excited to bring her glove with her. And, of course, Grover had to join us as well. Love the belly!

Delanie and Caleb, walking to the park.

Our seats were three rows from the dugout. Delanie kept saying, "Hi baseball players! Go Bulls!"

Did I mention I love the belly?

Delanie spelling some words!

Here's a video from today of Delanie reading/spelling words off her shapes placemat.

Summer Video!

Here is a clip of Delanie in the car, on the way to NH:






After we returned from NH, Delanie started to play a game called, "Going to Uncle DJ's House." Here she is, smiling for the camera in between playing.





This last clip is of Delanie swimming in the pool!

Easton Children's Museum

We got to Uncle DJ's house late Monday, after several days of driving and stops. Cold, dreary rain welcomed us to New England. So, we found the closest Children's Museum to burn some energy!

Easton Children's Museum is located in an old firehouse. For those of you that have been to Marbles, it is similar, except much smaller quarters and more "hidden" activities (puzzles in the walls, instruments, lego hallways, etc). Delanie was immediately overwhelmed by the number of people, which included a field trip of wild 1st graders. She mostly stuck to independant activities in quieter areas of the museum.




One of her first finds was a face paint station, where she got very serious about putting on "makeup."

And, this was the result!

Here are Delanie and Daddy on a pirate ship!

I love this magical scene - Delanie running through a flower garden with butterfly wings on! Priceless!

Sesame Place

En route to New Hampshire, we made a stop at Sesame Place in Pennsylvania. Sesame Place is all things Sesame Street, designed for 2-7 year olds. We caught the park on a cloudy day, which made for very few lines. The park also has a lot of non-mechanical features, like slides and climbing structures, which is a huge plus for a toddler.




Dave and Delanie went climbing on these giant nets, which are suspended about 25 feet in the air above the park. The entire structure was nets and net tubes.

Here is a picture of the only "ride" we did - hot air balloons that spun around in the air. Delanie did much better than me, I was complaining of motion sickness from the start.

Sesame Street runs through the middle of the park, and it is built to be played in. Storefronts and staircases are real, so kids can use their imagination to explore. This pictrue was taken while we got caught in the rain, Mommy is under the eave at Mr. Hooper's store!

The shows and parade were the highlights for us. During the parade, several monsters went up and down the side, shaking each child's hand. Think rock concert for toddlers. Delanie went between being terrified and being excited, based on how close the monster actually was.

All in all, a very fun day! It was great seeing how excited Delanie was at the park - she wouldn't even sit down to eat! And, what a good way to stretch our legs during the drive. We will try to stop again on the way back through when we head home this week.

Delanie Sings The Hits

Camping at the Outer Banks

We spent Memorial Day weekend camping at the Outer Banks. We went to Oregon Inlet campground, run by the national park service. The campground was just a few sand dunes away from the ocean. The weather was beautiful, around 80 degrees each day, around 50 at night. We didn't see any rain while we were there.

Delanie loved her first camping experience. Before we left, she talked about camping the entire week before. And once we got there, she was very excited. She did a great job sleeping in the tent and staying near us. We realized that we could have brought more for her to do at the campsite, but she still found lots of ways to entertain herself. And, she loved the ocean! The first day, she spent almost an hour running around and screaming. The water was cold, so she would run in up to her ankles and run back out, giggling. As you can see from the picture, we had the beach to ourselves mostly. Only on OBX can you go to the beach on a major holiday weekend and feel like you are on a private island.

We are looking forward to going back soon!

Rules for Dressing Delanie

Over the past three months, Delanie has become increasingly difficult to get dressed in the morning. She would scream, run, cry, kick, hit in order to avoid getting dressed. Often, we had to engage in a wrestling match to get out of the house, and even then, she would escape and try to get her clothes off.

Well, we have finally figured out how we can get Delanie dressed in the morning without a struggle. Here are the rules for getting Delanie dressed in the morning:

1) The night before, pick out two complete outfits and place them beside the changing table. One outfit must include a yellow shirt. Also, it helps to make sure that both bottoms work with both tops.

2) When Delanie wakes up in the morning, you change her diaper as normal. Then tell her, "We can't go downstairs and get our milk until we get dressed for the day." Milk continues to be Delanie's #1 love.

3) If she starts to protest, we just repeat ourselves over and over.

4) Ask Delanie which outfit she would like to wear. Inevitably, she will choose the yellow shirt with the opposite pants, just to fully assert her independence. "Noooo! These pants!"

Since figuring this out, we have had minimal tantrums and even some cooperation on the task of getting dressed. We are growing tired of yellow, but I will take yellow t shirts over tears any day.

Before we learned this procedure (hideous choice from Easter Sunday):




After learning how to get her dressed in the morning (and purchasing 3-4 extra yellow shirts)

**And no, we have not yet figured out a way to get her hair out of her face!!

More April Pics!

Delanie updating the blog

Playing with the new diaper bag that Mimi sent for Easter!

"Reading" her book in the corner

April 2009

A picture of Delanie's bed after nap time. The shelf on her headboard typically houses all the stuffed animals, but they all joined her in bed today.

The weather hit 90 degrees last weekend, so Delanie spent a lot of time in her swimsuit! Here she is at Lukas' party!

Another shot, running through the sprinkler!

And swimming in the pool!

Easter Sunday!

We spent Easter weekend up in NoVa with Dave's family. It was great to see everyone! When we got home mid-afternoon on Sunday, we had to get very creative about playing Easter bunny! We took turns distracting Delanie so we could do baskets inside and hide eggs outside.




As you can see, this basket is completely full! And everything (except a few pieces of candy) was from last year's Easter clearance! Apparently, I was excited to "spave" in the clearance aisle last year.




One of the few pics where you can see Delanie's face under that mop of hair. We are not willing to fight that battle. We have also dropped the whole "wear one of your 5 new Easter dresses on Easter" thing, and instead opted to let her choose this lovely ensemble.

Since she had just done an Easter egg hunt the day before, this time around was a little different. Delanie proceeded to open each egg as she found it, to see what was inside. She was very bummed to find only Cheerios and goldfish. :)

Not a new Easter gift, but a new talent! Delanie started pedaling her bike in the last week or so!

Other quick news from us:

Delanie has added lots of "interesting" words to her vocabulary, which are making it difficult to set limits and establish routines. Some examples:

"Delanie do you like hot dogs?" "Maybe."
"Delanie you need to get dressed before breakfast." "NOOOOO! After!!!"
"I am making dinner." "Mommy, Come NOOOOWWWW."

The flip side is all the funny things that we hear coming out of her mouth! One of the best things about her experience at school is that she surprises us with what she learns. Regularly she will sing a new song in the car that we have never sung at home. And she is now speaking in paragraphs, giving so many details about what has happened at school or what she sees outside the window.

It is also nice to hear her talk about her relatives. She has distinct memories for so many family members, even if she can't see everyone regularly. She often tells us that she misses someone or loves someone. This week, she longs for her Mimi and Mamo to return, as they spent the first part of last week with her and everyone had a blast. Today in the car she said, "Go visit Mimi on airplane, Mommy."

Another new development: she has started to tell us she is "scared." She said it for the first time over the weekend when her Aunt Kate brought out a scary looking puppet. And again, she said it today when she heard a firetruck. She just looked at me and said, "I'm scared Mommy." Of course, after identifying a fire truck siren and a police car siren, she told me whe was going to wait for the pizza man to come.

Her 2 year appointment was last week. Delanie is an asounding 38" tall. This is again above the 97th percentile, and graphically, it is further above the normal growth curve than she has ever been. Her weight is roughly 30 lbs (she refused to cooperate for that part), which is the 80th percentile. Developmentally, of course, she is right on target, too.