27th month

Here's an update from August, Willow's 27th month:

August was full of some pretty big "first"s:

- First earthquake: There was a 5.3 earthquake about 50 miles from where we live that definitely made you feel like you were riding waves! Willow was at school napping and, according to her teachers, all of the kids woke up feeling the trembling!

- First hurricane: Willow enjoyed looking out the window throughout the day with gusts of wind and heavy rain. She even weathered 4 1/2 days without power remarkably well.

- First "big girl" bed: We transitioned Willow to her "big girl" bed a couple weeks ago. She's done a GREAT job of staying in her bed. She's only gotten out once on her own and that was 20 seconds after I left the room her first night in the bed. She's still getting used to feeling completely comfortable in her bed and falling asleep quickly like she had been in her crib. A small sign that she's getting more comfortable is that in the last week she's been singing again when she wakes up (which was replaced by crying out for us during the first week in her bed).

Willow keeps us smiling on a regular basis. She's full-on playing with Alli now - chasing her around the house (Alli likes this!) and throwing her bell-ball for her. I love hearing her laugh and seeing her expressions when Alli pounces her ball. Chris told me these two stories from this week... Willow and Chris came downstairs after her nap and Chris asked her what she'd like for snack. Her response: "Willow eat.....I want....Willow eat...something red!" Another day, while playing outside Willow had created this "computer" out of blocks:

She set it on the chair next to Chris, poked it a few times, and said, "I check my email." She then proceeded to pretend to watch Elmo videos on YouTube ("See another Elmo.").

Last Day of School

In Willow's daycare they switch "classes" on the first day of school for public schools. Yesterday was her last day of school in the Red Room. She's definitely grown up a lot during the past year!

Here's a pic of her at the beginning of the year:

And here she is with her teacher, Ms. Libby, on her last day:

Singing

Willow is still fairly reserved when we're out in public but really lets her hair down at home. Lately she loves being in front of the camera (as opposed to when I would have to video tape her singing on the monitor!) and will immediately say "See that?"

Here's her rendition of the Hokey Pokey:

And the ABC song:

"Mary Had a Little Lamb" with accompaniment!

Hurricane Irene

I'm finally able to come back to post a few things since we got our power back after being "in the dark" for 4 1/2 days. Thankfully we didn't have any damage to our house (just a lot of limbs down in our yard) but there were a lot of huge trees down in our neighborhood and the surrounding areas leaving over 400,000 people out of power in our city. Willow was a trooper through it all and we would often chant "Come back lights. Come back lights." Needless to say, we were all VERY excited to find our power back on today!

A view out the front door during part of the storm:

A tree split in half and fell in the street on our block:

One street away:

We had two days of school cancelled, so Willow and I enjoyed our extra days of summer play! Here are some pics from the Children's Museum:

Alli cat says "Come back lights!"

Evenings

Our favorite after-dinner activities these days include: running laps around the house, playing Hide-and-Go-Seek, or messing around in the yard.

Sometimes at dinner Willow will eat as much as Chris and I do. On this particular night Willow discovered that she could eat her vegetables, chicken, and rice on the same fork-full (sorry Aunt Sara). She kept saying "chicken, broccoli, same time."

Week with Nana and Grandpa

Willow and I spent a week visiting Nana and Grandpa in Colorado. Of course she was spoiled with attention, new toys, and lots of good food.

The dry heat in Colorado is much more bearable than the humidity in Virginia, but popsicles taste just as good!

We visited a fun water park in town!

Willow could hardly walk by the piano without touching a few keys to make sure it was still working.

Here's her playing last summer:

At the beginning of our trip this year (I love the shoulder action around 37 seconds in):

Developing into features for specific people: "The Kim Song" and "The Chad Song"

King Charlie laying on his throne (one of many around the house). Since being home, Willow has called our Alli cat "Charlie" many times.

We made a breakthrough in the area of swimming pools. It might help that the pool was as warm as bath water and was only 1 foot to 2 feet deep. We went 3 times and just took pictures the first time, but she warmed up to the pool quicker and quicker each time we visited. By the third day, she was jumping up and down in the 2 ft area, letting me "swim" with her while she kicked her feet, jumped into my arms off the side of the pool, laid down on large/flat floaties, went down the whale slide, blew bubbles out of her mouth, and walked around with confidence as she pushed a huge beach ball! She even tripped and fell a few times, falling under the water, but didn't fuss a bit or even seem scared (made mommy's heart stop though!).

We spent a lot of time at the Sweet Corn Festival eating lots of corn-on-the-cob and various other festival junk foods. Willow loved the kid area that had 3 inflatables (slide, obstacle course, and bounce house).

Exhibit A of festival junk foods: corn dog

Exhibit B: 6" pickle

Going, going...

Gone!

They have quite a system down for getting your all-you-can-eat corn-on-the-cob. The picture below is the "shucking station." You walk up and are handed a right-off-the-grill, freshly shucked corn-on-the-cob. You can then walk 25 yards to the butter station where volunteers squeeze butter onto it for you, followed by do-it-yourself salt and pepper. Yummy!!!

Willow creating her own dance floor =)

Enjoying the parks in the area!

We always Skyped with Daddy before going to bed. When I'd ask Willow to tell daddy what she'd done that day, she'd say "Play, run...everything!" Here's Willow giving Auntie Kim some Skype kisses:

Willow did an excellent job sleeping on her napper at both grandparents' houses during our trips! Thankfully she didn't realize that she could actually get off of her napper and when she'd wake up we'd hear her singing and go in to find her laying on her napper still. Are we ready for a big girl bed???

We miss you Nana and Grandpa! Thanks for a wonderful week!

26th month

Here's an update from July, Willow's 26th month:

- Willow is getting better and better at communicating, getting the majority of her points across on the first try. She's seeming more and more like a little girl all grown up.

- Willow continues to learn more letters of the alphabet and sings the ABC song pretty clearly these days. She's showing evidence of having quite an abstract little mind so far. We were eating curly fries and she held one up and said "See" (one of her favorite phrases these days), but later held another one out and said "Another C." Some of those curly fries sure did look like Cs! She's also held out a broken olive from her burrito and said "C." When eating Cheerios one morning, she looked at their shape on her spoon and said "flower."

- Willow is soooo close to being potty trained. She'll stay dry in her diaper all day if we remember to take her about every 2 hours, though she's not yet telling us when she needs to go potty (besides poops). I think that going potty on the airplane is a good sign that she's over her fear of public bathrooms!! She still has a fear of the air driers in public bathrooms though.