Happy Birthday Delanie!

Here is a clip of Delanie blowing out her candles at her birthday party!

Happy Birthday Delanie!

For me, the most stressful part of the birthday party is the presents! So, we took them home from the party and had Delanie open them after her nap. As you can see, pants are optional on your birthday. Are are a few pictures of the present opening, but it was hard to get any pictures because in her excitement, she kept turning her back to me!







Thank you Lukas and Ryan for the garden set! I am very excited to have my own!

Thank you Nana, Papa and Patrick for the Care Bears! They were a big hit with me - I am sure they will be sleeping with me tonight!

Thank you Caleb for all my great gifts - I was especially interested in the bath crayons!

Thank you Reid and Wrenn for this neat sprinkler - we'll have to invite you over to play with it this summer!

Happy Birthday Delanie!

Happy Birthday, Delanie!

New Swingset

Here are a few pics of the new swingset, her big birthday gift:

ALMOST 2!

Delanie is only a few days away from her second birthday! And, two years old is certainly a mix of the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY.

Some examples:

The GOOD:
"Tag You're It!" (Which sounds more like tag-ur-ie)
"Uno, dos, tres, quatro..." (up to 10)
"Bailey is like Huckle Cat" (A shout-out to Busytown)
"I love you Mommy" (after bedtime yesterday)
"Delanie talks to statues" (after hearing the Jimmy Buffett song on this blog only twice)

THE BAD:
"No ponytails. Mommy no play with you hair."
"No potty!"
"Mommy milkmilkmilkmilkmilkmilkmilk dinnnnnner!" (at 4:30 pm every afternoon)
"Deanna, here." (yes she actually said this today, and my jaw dropped wide open!)

THE UGLY:
"NO, I don't want to." (repeat and run)

And, another caveat of being two is the refusal to do anything on cue, including smile for the camera.

But, the beauty of being two is no sense of time or temperature! Here we are, near dusk on cold pavement, as Delanie whispers, "Mommy, I see woodpecker up there. I see owl up there. I hear birds singing!" We watched the birds (mostly sparrows) in the trees for nearly 20 minutes.

We also have a bird's nest on our porch. The other day, I tried explaining to Delanie that the birds would gather leaves and grass to make the nest, then they would lay eggs and the eggs would hatch and become baby birds. Lo and behold, several days later when I offered her eggs for breakfast, she scrunched up her nose and said, "no eggs, eggs on top of leaves and grass in nest."

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Thank you Mamo for the green shamrock bow! Unfortunately, we are in a "No ponytails!!" stage, so in order to get her to agree to the ponytail, I had to first put one in my hair. And, even then, the ponytail only lasted through breakfast.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the shamrock dress! It was a hit at school today! I'm not sure it'll ever be white again, but it was fun to wear!

Here is Delanie showing the camera a picture of a girl going potty, it was the only way I could get her to smile for the camera!

New England Visit Part 2

Thank you Granny and Grampie for the new swimsuit and coverup! Can't wait to swim in the pool this summer!

And, classic Delanie style, the baby doll stayed on Delanie's lap as she opened the rest of her presents! Thank you everyone for the clothes, toys and college contributions! We appreciate it so much, so thoughtful of everyone!

Justine and DJ were so thoughtful to plan this whole party - down to the perfect cake! What a difference a year makes! On her first birthday, she was very nervous about her cake, and wouldn't touch it. For her second birthday, she had a hard time leaving the cake alone until the end of the song! She blew out the candle twice, and got her fingers in the icing a few times!

Yummy!!

New England Visit, Part 1

While we were up in New England, we had a little birthday bash for Delanie, who turns 2 in March. She had a lot of fun hamming it up with family she hasn't seen in a while!




Mimi got Delanie an Etch-A-Sketch, which she had been playing with a lot!

Chillin' with Auntie Justine!

Smile for the camera!

One of the first gifts in the pile was a new baby doll, aka Kona II. Babies are always a favorite! Thank you Debbie, Don and Jared!

Playdate with Caleb!

Rainy Day + Video Camera = Cute Clips!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!




This might be the most concrete proof that Delanie is a huge fan of Sesame Street:





Delanie is also a big fan of Rachel and "Signing Times" a cancelled PBS show that teachs sign language. Every time we sing this song, we get to the end, and she wants to list the people that know the colors of the rainbow! If your name wasn't mentioned, please know we cut it off, it went one for about 5 more minutes, so chances are, Delanie gave you a shout out!

Getting Crafty...

Here are a few pictures of the artwork I made for Delanie's wall. It was a really easy craft, I just took forever to complete it. Basically, it consists of cork trivets and scrapbook paper, fashioned into flower bulletin boards! We are already accumulating a lot of Delanie's artwork, so these bulletin boards will come in handy soon!

23 Months Old!

Delanie hates wearing pants, so she is starting to discover her love for dresses! We had spring fever this week, as temperatures inched up near 70 degrees.

It is very difficult to catch this girl smiling on camera! This picture is of her jumping on Mommy and Daddy's bed, right after she fell.

Another shot of Delanie

On Sunday, the weather turned to a cold rain (and later snow). So, we spent the day in pajamas. At some point, we tried to get Delanie dressed. She ended up with her pink pajama shirt underneath, her favorite yellow shirt on top, orange tights and black dress shoes. At least she agreed to cover her legs!