A Preview of our 3 Yr. & 5 Yr. Pics

We took pictures of the girls and myself (and a few with Daddy!) the weekend of Mother's Day in May. I haven't had the time to sit and dig through them all, but I know in my head which ones I want to place here and there around our house.

My friend/old neighbor and her hubby took them- what an awesome job they did! We have so many to choose from, it's hard to decide!

I thought I would give you a sneak peek of the ones we got, I wonder if you'd be any help!?

How do we pick? 4 & 2 year pics!

How to pick! How to pick! How the heck do we pick which gorgeous pictures to display around our spacious new house? *sigh*. Not that I'm complaining, but it's so hard for me to pick which pictures to order! Any favorites stand out to you? :) Yes, we did this in early June, for the girls' 2 year and 4 year "annual" pictures, but finally getting around to figuring out what to order! We used a girl who did our friends' newborn and family pictures- I like these!! My girls- my heart-on display! Enjoy!

Yearly portraits

We had the girls' 3 year and 1 year pictures taken 2 weekends ago. Although taking pictures with young children is essentially like running a triathlon, we did manage to get some beautiful pictures out of the deal. I do have to gush over my beautiful 2 daughters: sisters forever. How I love them.

And it made me chuckle and secretly a little pleased that when I stopped by last weekend to pick up the pictures, a family of 3 young boys were going through the exact same motions of struggling with their boys to take pictures, even right down to the words: "if you do this, we'll get you a treat". Why do we put ourselves and our kids through this? LOL. Oh well, they make for fantastic pictures!

Here is just a sampling of the amazing pictures that were captured.....

Happy 22 months, baby girl!

Happy 22 months today (Feb. 10) to my baby girl, who is quickly turning into a toddler, and NOT a baby, anymore. *sniff*. It is going by much too fast for my liking.

Our girl is continuing to make CJ and I smile at each other on a daily basis, for she is one smart cookie. She continues to love her fur siblings, and still says good morning and goodbye to them each and every day. She is always very concerned about "where Sager go?".

K is continuing to show some interest in being potty trained, but it's a very slow process. She will tell us,and Elaine, after she has pooped in her diaper. The few times she has warned us that she has to poop have not been successful once we've moved onto the potty chair. Well, we'll get there. However, she is very interested in mommy or daddy if she sees us going potty. "Mama, bum" she'll say, as she reaches over to try and see my bum. Um, no, sweet girl. Last week, I was trying to quickly go potty before I left for work, but I had Keifer lounging between my legs, playing with my belt, while Sage and Treble decided to take their rowdy play into the bathroom and go under my legs. I yelled for CJ to come and relieve me. What a picture we made!

Last week, Keifer was in the back seat when out of the blue she said, "mama, I love it!". I turned around and said "You love it?". She answered, " I love it" with her big cheese grin. Where in the world she got that, I have no idea. My own guess is one of the older kids at Elaine's must have said this about something, and little parrot girl picked up on it.

K continues to bless me and CJ if we sneeze, cough, or sometimes even if we yawn. The other night Sager sneezed under the table when we were eating dinner, and Keifer promptly said, with no hesitation, "bless you, Sager". Ahh, what a sweetie.

She continues to be Miss Drama girl, as well. Her latest act of drama is to make her excited "OHH" face when we ask her questions about going out or talk about going somewhere. Then, she'll cover her mouth with her hands, in an act of excitement. I can so see her performing on stage someday! LOL.

Each morning is an adventure in our house, as we are clamoring to get ready, with our busy girl running around. K loves to be a big helper, and lately she has taken to retrieving all my sandals from the closet, and some of my belts as well, and piling them at my feet in my bathroom as I prepare for the day. "Here go, mama" , she'll say, as polite and helpful as can be. The amazing part to me, though, is that she'll then take Chris's shoes out and knows that they are HIS shoes. She knows the difference between a daddy or a mommy shoe!

Our big girl also wants to be so independent on the stairs going up and down to our bedrooms. It scares us to death, but we are letting her practice (with us there to spot), as she goes up and down with just her hand on the wall to give her support. "No, mama, go go go!", she'll say, in efforts to shoo me away from her. Oye. She also enjoys climbing up on the bottom stair (where she so famously will run and sit and say "cheese" for a picture!), and then jumps off it. "Ready, set, go!" is a common phrase we'll hear, and then a little hop step jump that cannot be imitated is completed.

Our girl can now read the book Bless Me to us in its entirety. It blows us away.

Last weekend, we asked Keifer if she wanted to visit her cousins. We didn't mention names. She sat there, and then said "Mason?". She knows who and what a cousin is! She is in LOVE with Mason!

When K and I pull into the parking lot for baby ballroom on Mondays, she now says "Yay, ballroom" or "Shake shake, mama, yay!". She sooooooo loves going and is beginning to dance without me, or holding my hand, and can sing and dance along to many of the songs we sing all on her own. My peacock feathers are starting to spread now. LOL.

And, little Keifer has turned into a clingy mama's girl. I'm not sure when this started happening, but last week I had to work late for two nights. Chris said the second night, she cried and moaned and called for me to read her the Thank You Prayer book (I read while Chris holds her, and we all say it together and then do kisses and hugs goodnight, over and over). It broke my heart to hear this, and that she cried for about 10 minutes for me. Ugg. A few times now, at Elaine's in the AM as well, she'll say, "C'mon, Mama, sit down" and motion me to follow her into Elaine's and sit down to eat breakfast with the kids. My heart hurts to leave her, although I know she's OK. I guess the other day, when some one's mom picked them up before I came to get her, she also started crying for me. Ugg. Not the things I want to think about. She's also much more shy in person with people, as she is becoming more aware of her surroundings and what is different or new to her.

Only two more months and our sweet angel girl is going to be Two. It breaks my heart that she is growing and changing so rapidly, but it is a fun adventure to go through life with her by our sides.

How did 18 months go this fast?

"Hello, Papa(s)? Nana(s)? I have some news!
I went to the doctor and got more shots and am still in the higher percentiles for my age!"

Keifer's 18 month old stats:

• Weight: 29 lbs, 14 ounces--95% (the lowest she's ever been *gasp*)
• Length: 34 1/2 inches -- 97%
• Head: 19 1/2 centimeters --97%
  
• Can someone please tell me where the past 18 months have gone? Have you seen my baby girl? My baby Keifer is not a "baby" anymore. She has grown into this big monster of a girl, who doesn't simply walk anywhere. Oh no, she runs and dances and practically skips away as fast as she can go, her little motor inside her saying "go go go".
• Keifer continues to love music with a passion. If she doesn't like the song I have on the radio or CD playing, she makes herself clear from the back seat that this "song" isn't going to cut it. When she hears one she does approve of, she'll clap and say "yay". I cannot even begin to count the number of words she's using, but she's moved into two-word phrases, and is so funny. Besides the usual "want ___", "hi, ____", she's also saying to inanimate objects, such as apples. We had to say "hi, apples" to the apples in the orchard this past weekend, and of course, we always have to say goodbye to everything and everyone as well. Our girl is a social being.

• She also continues to love her dancing to the music, and Baby Ballroom is the highlight of both mama and K's week. Mama isn't able to lift her anymore, since I have restrictions on my PG and not lifting over 20 lbs, but the girls at class have been bending over backwards to help with Keifer, and for that, I am so grateful. Keifer's highlight of the dance class is usually the parachute songs and games, and at the end of parachute, we have to say goodbye to 'chute' and blow many kisses. She has to know it's going bye-bye.

• Keifer is also putting people in her lives together in her little mind. For example, when I pick her up, she'll put her hands up in the air in that questioning "where" stance, and say "daddy? daddy?". Or, if she sees Nana, but not Papa, she'll say to Nana, "Papa? Papa?", and vice versa with whoever she sees minus their partner. Abby is her beloved cousin lately. Abby was here a few weeks ago and Keifer literally shrieks with love and joy and throws herself into Abby's arms. I told Abby next summer she might have to stay with us a day of the week to entertain Keifer, who thinks the moon and sun rises and sets on her. It's so heartwarming to watch this relationship grow.
  
• Keifer has unfortunately started biting our friends at daycare as recently as the past week, so we're working on using words instead of our mouth and teeth. She's started picking up the sign for "help" and "stop" and I encourage her to use these instead of her mouth. Ugg. I've become the parent of "that child". It's humiliating, yet I've been hearing more and more from other parents that their children went through this as well. We're working hard on this. Today, our girl did better, she was constantly praised for NOT chomping on a friend, and she received a certificate for being kind to her friends *giggle*. If anyone has any more tips on how to put the kabosh on this, we'd love to hear!

Running around Auntie & Uncle's back yard in /through the leaves Where's Nana?
Up, up, up the tree

She liked the pumpkins on Saturday
But she especially loved baby Aidan
He was a fun baby (she kept swooning over him all day)

Happy (belated) 16 months, Keifer

K turned 16 months this past Sunday; here are some of the many faces of our delightful, loving, chatterbox of a girl:

Happy 15 months, dear Keifer

For our 15 month photo session, I dressed K in my favorite outfit I bought from a friend of mine- it's an older style hula girl outfit, and is the perfect "hot summer day" outfit for a rowdy girl. K's hair today, in these pics, must be commented on. We went swimming this AM with my friend Jen, and her 23 month old daughter, Sloan, and K's hair is sunscreen-laden. It gets so greasy from the spray I put on to protect her scalp, and takes multiple washings to get out (only to be drenched in spray the next day, so what's the point, really? LOL). Anyhoo, as we were prepping (well, Mama was prepping) K found my headband and decided she wanted to wear it this afternoon, so there you go. My girl and her headbands!

Sassy gave our girl a good-luck kiss before the photo session began

Cheese! (she will repeat this now after us)
Yes, ME! It's true, I AM 15 months old!

I'm such a silly girl: I'm gonna get you!
Ripping her 15 month sign into shreds (our photo sessions don't last too long these days)

I recently posted about how much our girl is talking, and I could probably add a few more words to the list today. She is really understanding SO MUCH of what we say! She loves to brush her teeth and comb her hair, and if I even mention "brushing your teeth" she lights up and crawls to the bathroom for her toothbrush. The other night at Baby Ballroom, our teacher mentioned how the kids would go "upside down" and K immediately did her downward dog pose - as if she understood the directions perfectly! She blew me away! LOL.

She loves to dance,and she loves music (as I always say), and the last few days, she'll be humming to herself all.the.time. It's amazing to me. I love it. She loves when mama tangoes around the living room with her, and dips her upside down. She'll sign "more more more" for me to do it again. Ahh, yes, the signing of "more". K has been doing this sign MUCH more frequently lately, as she realizes it will get her more of things. Today, she even signed "more" for more swimming!

K also has learned the art of "ready, set, _ *go*"! She loves to say "go" already, but we've taught her to say this when we're on our walks or playing in the pool with her. We'll sit her on the edge of the pool, and she'll fall into our arms on "go". Well, I should say, we TRY to hold her back until "go" - our girl is fearless in the water and often takes a face full of water because she's so fast in it (in the zero entry area).

When we got home today after swimming, I reminded her that we were going to go change and take a nap, and she pointed upstairs towards her room, looked at me, and said "bottle?". Yep, she knows her routine! A few weeks back, when we were visiting my parents, when it was time for bed, K would point to her room at their house and say "nana? Nana?", because my mom is the one who puts her to bed there. Incredible.

I've also noticed, if K notices an audience on TV clapping (say, with Ellen or Oprah), she'll start smiling and clapping along with them. What a hoot.

K and I enjoyed a lunch out together today after swimming, as we had a 50 minute drive home and she needed to eat. The entire lunch was spent flirting with all the people at the surrounding tables. We had one little guy beaming; he must have been around 8 or 9 years old, and he kept saying, "that little girl is saying hi to me!". K also noticed that the Subway had fans in their establishment, that go "round and round". LOL.

Our girl still love love loves her food, any and all food. She loves to eat broccoli and peas, and I've recently commented to CJ that we should start calling broccoli "candy". She also loves strawberries and blueberries. The other night, with her blue mouth and hands from the blueberry juice, I had a vision of our K turning into a giant blueberry, just like Violet Beauregard.

Our girl is blowing kisses like crazy, and is able to now pucker her lips to "kiss', as well. When we say "I love you", she associates blowing a kiss with those words (so sweet). At bedtime, it sounds like she's saying "love you" when we say goodnight to her. Either that, or "night night".

And, as I posted yesterday, our girl is finally taking steps on her own. Funnily enough, she'll only do it when her daddy is home. Nice, huh? LOL. This girl is a classic daddie's girl: she screams (yes, screams!) when he arrives home from work, adn the first person she'll call for in the AM is "daddy! daddy!". But, overall, she is a mama's girl, too. We love our angel girl.

Six days late, but who is counting? Our girl's 14 month pic

I know who is counting! Nana Di is, that's for sure!! Here they are, with my model being a bit under the weather (as of this AM: snuffly, runny nose, stinky breath, and a slight cough). I think she did well as a poser, considering (I think she may be teething, though). Perhaps the hat helped: this girl LOVES her hats, so mom keeps adding to her hat collection. I've been drilling it into her head that she NEEDS to wear hats in the sun.

Mucho thanks to Kir for the adorable outfit (and I ended up trading the white pants for the orange shorts, as our girl loves to crawl in and out from the deck!). What an adorable outfit and hat! THANK YOU, dear friends (Kir and company!).

Much Belated 13 month pictures:

We're a few weeks late, please don't hold it against us! Mama got lazy! We've been busy! Here they are - our girl is turning into a regular ragamuffin! LOL.

What IS this hat doing on in the house?

So big!
Here, let me show you how to take this sign off

Ahh, I'm gonna GET YOU, mama!

A year and a month: 13 months old

Blame mama for slacking. Our angel girl turned 13 months this past Saturday, and I neglected to do an update and picture post. It was amazing to us that the month between her first birthday and yet another month older went by so damn fast. I know I keep saying that every month, but it's true. It is a whirlwind of a life these days, and it makes me sad that she is getting so big. On the other hand, she is turning into quite the performer and its incredible and delightful to watch her grow and transform into this little "person". "They" (whoever they is) say that a child's personality is determined by age 2: if this is true, then we are going to have a load of fun with our angel girl. She is a ham! She's also shy initially with people she doesn't know or doesn't remember, but wait about 20 minutes , and the dinosaur comes out!

K's favorite thing to do lately is just act silly. She'll dance in place no matter where. we. are. She does this cute little shake of her shoulders and looks at us as if to say, "see, I'm dancing!". Of course, I tell her, "oh, you're dancing? " to which she'll shake her little shoulders even more wildly, and occasionally add in her head shake, too.

She crawls around often with her toys in her mouth, and last night, it was her socks. She immediately pulled her socks off when we got home from Elaine's and had completed our nightly fur kids walk. Then, making sure I saw her, she put one sock in her mouth and crawled around the living room like a crazy girl, the other sock in her hand. What a goof. Also, K wants to be right under our noses and toes. Cooking has become an adventure, as she likes to pull herself up on the drawers and keeping her away from the stove is our number one priority. K knows exactly which cupboards hold what, and she immediately zooms in on getting out the sieve each night for her "hat". LOL.

She is talking up a storm, and we laugh every day at how vocal she is. She is non-stop pure gibberish, with an occasional word that we might recognize. Our little sponge's latest word is "Cracker?". She'll hold out anything, edible or not, and say "cracker". Hee hee. She enjoys holding out her toes for mama to tickle *("where are your toes? oh, there they are! Tickle, tickle!")*, to which she'll immediately repeat "tickle, tickle", with her contagious giggles. She is beginning to put her hand on her head, and looks to me to say "Oh, that's your head!". At 13 months, my girl is learning body parts! It is amazing! She's also started imitating me in saying "uh oh" whenever she drops something, which has been her food at dinner time (dropping it or holding it out for the fur kids! UH OH is right!)

Last week, I told Sassy Sager she was a good girl, and K repeated after me, clear as a bell, "good girl". Of course, she hasn't been as clear in her repeating of this phrase since that one time, but she is attempting to repeat that every day now, too.

This weekend, she became obsessed with her little mobile ride-on toy. My parents got her to stay on it and actually move; who cares if it's only backwards? She also loves with all her heart, to push the toy all around the living room, and gets so frustrated (and well, downright PISSY!), when she is stuck. Uh oh, we have a diva with a temper in training!. My mom was saying 'nananan nananana" for the car engine sounds, and the next AM, K was saying "nana nana nana" to push it around. She catches on quick.

CJ reported to me the other night that K was playing with her blocks (shape sorters), and he put in the dinosaur toy balls in her block box. Apparently she didn't like that, and apparently she is beginning to sort, because she took each ball he put in the block box and very animatedly, dropped them out with a huff at him. LOL. Oh, boy!

I love my walks with the fur kids, and I'm learning how to keep my hats on!Help! I'm trapped! And...I just learned how to crawl up ALL the stairs by myself! WHOOT!
So damn excitd to see her main man, Dada Silly girl doing silly things all the time
Hey you, you talkin' about me?