September 1-15

Both of our girls love to play with this friend who lives right above us. There's something special about toys that aren't your own.

 

The way L walked over this was funny. The girls and I like to walk by the creek to look for the ducks. One day I asked L if we should go home. She said, "No go home. Ducks. Baby ducks."

 

This is my favorite tree near our home.

Nursery on Sept. 4 -- this must have been at the very end, since it doesn't look like any other toys were out. We have fun watching our daughter play, clean up, listen to the songs, etc. (nursery is our calling in the ward). 

That same Sunday, the day before Labor Day, some of us had dinner at my dad and step-mom's house. (There are 7 kids but only my younger sister and I and our little families came over.) We celebrated our brother's 13th birthday a little early.

Labor Day with my in-laws at Lava Hot Springs (we didn't take pictures of us four adults):

Some of our favorite friends came over and had dinner with us.

We love these fountains, where we had a play date with three other moms in the ward (not pictured). Their kids are each two or younger, and weren't all over the place like my four-and-a-half-year-old was, but I still got to chat with the moms.

I got this infant car seat at a yard sale for $20. That same week we found all the things below at Kid to Kid. I love premie / 5-8 pound clothing. It's just so tiny! Our babies have needed it because they have been about 6 pounds at birth. Maybe this baby will be about

the same size. (My husband was so cute the other day; he said, "I wanna meet her.")

Playing Metroid.

She did something she shouldn't have, so we made her clean it.

See my earrings at the bottom? She likes to hang things from lamps. 

On our way to play with another friend.

I made laundry soap (see instructions HERE), and it will save us a lot of money. The only thing we didn't already have was the Borax.

twenty-two months

L on her 22nd monthday. See more photos below.

 Things we love about L at 22 months old:

• She says "Dough?" [Go?] to ask, "Where did it go?" (Besides repeating a word, she doesn't put two words together yet. For example, she'll say "more" or "please," but not "more, please.")
• The way she says, "hmmm."
• Her silent ooh face (sticks her lips out a little -- her Daddy calls it her duck face).
• She gets possessive of her mama sometimes. If Shboogoo hugs my leg, L is not satisfied with hugging my other leg, because she wants me all to herself.
• She hands one of us a book and says, "Ree." [Read.]
• The way she says her sister's name. The parts she gets right are a consonant and the vowel sounds.
• Her high "eeh eeh" monkey sound.
• She likes playing with water and putting her hands in it -- and also, as I think I have mentioned before, rubbing a purposely-spilled drink around on her tray. The one part of a bath that she doesn't like is having her hair washed.
• Her meow. At Papa's the other day she was calling for the cat by using a questioning "meow?!" instead of his name.
• She can climb onto the piano bench, turn the pages in a book of sheet music, and play.
• Her attempts at jumping -- kind of bending and lifting one foot at a time.

In the last month she became comfortable with sitting on the Elmo potty seat, which is foldable and goes on top of a regular toilet. I've made her sit on it probably at least 20 times (I have pictures but have not gotten them off my phone); she has actually peed in the toilet once. She often lets me know that her diaper feels gross by putting her hand on that area and sometimes also saying, "poo." Very soon, I will sew her some training underpants because it seems that the few small Gerber ones we had don't exist anymore, and making them will be much cheaper. (I started having Shboogoo use the toilet, with the Elmo potty seat and wearing the Gerber underwear and everything, when she was 19 months old. For several reasons, I didn't want to start L that young, but she has seen all along how her big sister does it.)

Still on her monthday, she wanted to get in the foot bath with these girls. I let her sit down in it.

thankful month: days 8 and 9

November 8: Today I'm extra grateful for water. When I think about it, which is probably not often enough, I appreciate that I have such easy access to clean water. I don't have to walk to a well and carry a bucket home. And my showers can be hot. I explained to my older daughter why we need water and all the things we use it for.

November 9: I am thankful for my husband's patience as he handles that daughter's tantrums. He must get as frustrated as I do, but has control over the way way he speaks; he doesn't yell. (This one was about her not wanting to take her pajama pants from the car into the house and put them in her room.)