Ponytails, buckles and words - oh my!!

After a 20-minute terrible 2s meltdown this afternoon, I finally got Ilana's hair into an actual ponytail. Please pray for me, because this is going to have to be her summertime hair-do and I'm hoping it doesn't take a 20-minute meltdown every time. But, the result was beautiful. How many 23 month olds do you know that can do this?!

Holy moly! That girl is blessed with HAIR!! We went for a walk over to the Chili's that's in the parking garage that we use (Paul was gone today and I had no motivation to make a dinner, so we got take out). This is her new favorite game: one foot on the sidewalk, one in the grass.
Of course on the way over we had to stop and see the pretty bushes that are in bloom all around the parking garage. Notice the stick in her other hand. Ever since she could walk outside, she's always found a stick and held onto it for the entire time we're outside. I now call them her "walking sticks" and she actually uses them, even if they're too short - it's so cute!
These days Ilana LOVES buckles and keys/keyholes. During dinner, instead of feeding herself from her tray, she insisted that I feed her so she could do this:

She actually ate really well, I was very surprised (even chicken!). Also, usually the camera diverts her attention from anything, but apparently not with a buckle to work on. I'll have to remember this for the next few weeks. Awesome!
Ilana is REALLY becoming verbal very quickly. She was screened by a speech therapist last week and although her auditory comprehension was so high it would have kicked her out of qualification, they still recommended speech therapy for her, just to get her some more words. Her expressive communication scores were actually in the normal range, but she just doesn't say a whole lot. At the time she only had about 10 words, but even just today she's said ball, bush, and car all on her own, without me even prompting her, and they were clear enough that I understood what she was saying. Around 40 seconds into the previous video you'll also hear the word that, just in the past week, has become "please" for her. I know she knows words, she just doesn't say them. I don't think she's going to need much speech therapy before she's off and running and I'll be forever saying "please be quiet, Ilana, please be quiet." She even knows how to say her own name (and even this has become more clear in the past few days):

I have heard person after person say how their kid is growing up so quickly and Ilana took a long time to get here, but I feel like I can truly, FINALLY say, our little girl is growing up so much these days!
Now excuse me, but I've got to go see why she's woken up from bed - poor thing has awful allergies, so I might have to clear out her nose for the umpteenth time today. :(
-H

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

A few weeks ago I spent $5 on an owl kite for Ilana. I figured it would give us a few hours of fun this spring and summer. Yesterday we broke it out. She LOVED it - probably the best $5 I've ever spent! This was her first reaction. The wind is pretty loud in the video, but if you think she's squealing, she is. :)

The kite is small and the wind was gusty, not all that consistent. But thankfully Paul's a master kite flyer (yet another trait that makes him the perfect Dad for Ilana!) so we had a blast.
After awhile she started getting the hang of it...sort of...in her own "Ilana" kind of way. :)

-H

The birds and the ... flowers :)

Yesterday we had an impromptu dinner picnic. It has been beautiful down here recently, so we decided to take advantage of it. On our way home we stopped to look at some flowers.
Then she decided to "smell" them.
Here she's pointing out the birds.
Recently Ilana has been fascinated with birds. On our walk home we were in a huge field and saw tons of birds, flying, singing, the whole shebang. Ilana got so excited, this was her reaction:

The weather is beautiful and it makes the terrible 2s seem not so bad when you have sweet sweet moments like this in your day also.
Today, we flew a kite. :) I'll post pictures/video of that soon - she LOVED it!
-H

These were from earlier in the day, but I can't help but post them, they're some of my recent favorites! It is most definitely skirt weather down here! These were both taken right outside our building. In this picture she's singing her heart out.
Always the contemplative child.
:)

FINALLY!

I think it's so cute how proud of herself she is in this video - she should be. She's been working on this one for awhile now.
This was filmed sometime last week. Let's just say that every time she says "Mama" now she gets massive amounts of positive reinforcement, and one very very happy Mama. :)
-H

on the move!

A few things I had to blog about today:
1. I felt #2 move for the first time today (for sure this time) - crazy!! It's getting more real every day.
2. Ilana is obsessed with The Wiggles (a musical group for kids), we only have 1 video, but she asks to watch it almost every day, by wiggling. :) I let her watch it maybe once or twice a week. A few days ago I turned around from preparing dinner and saw her doing all the motions to one of the songs. She is so musical it's ridiculous! Fortunately I got it on video for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

-H

As if he needed something else to make him just a little bit more unique...

We've been having some issues (since last summer) with Moses drinking too much water at once and then throwing up. So, we stopped letting him do this. But apparently it wasn't enough. Paul has been tirelessly trying to solve this seemingly-solvable problem. Well, this past weekend we found ourselves at a Tractor Supply Store looking for a mammoth rabbit waterer.
So far, so good. Moses actually drinks from it, drinks multiple multiple ounces from it at once (in drips of course) and doesn't throw up. Paul, you're amazing!
Even Ilana got excited...



So, hopefully we have a solution. Now that the weather's getting nice, we'll have to see how it works. Moses has given it a good "breaking in" these past few days. Here's hoping for the best!
-H

Baby Update

I saw my nurse mid-wife today. She is FABULOUS!! Here's the update (I've totally stolen this "list" from another friend of a friend's blog that I stumbled upon one day):

• How far along? 14 weeks
• Total weight gain: 8 pounds, not too bad
  
• Maternity clothes? a few here and there (thanks Erika!), on days when pre-pregnancy clothes aren't comfortable (and those days are beginning); I mostly still just fit in my larger clothes that I got right after Ilana was born
  
• Sleep: getting better (especially now that Paul's home)
  
• Best moment this week: hearing the baby's heart beat today; sometimes I forget that I'm pregnant until I'm super hungry or clothes aren't comfortable
  
• Movement: maybe a little bit here and there...or it might just be gas...hard to tell; BUT my nurse mid-wife said that in the next few weeks I'll probably start to really feel the baby move - I'm so excited!
• Food cravings: last night I had this snack: cheese, apples and a PICKLE!! I'm still craving red meat, anything salty, sugary or that will quench my thirst
  
• Gender: we'll find out next month!
  
• What I miss: a good glass of wine
  
• Weekly Wisdom: I sleep better and go to bed earlier when Paul's home, so I'm glad he got home last night :) and use all 3 washers and dryers while you can, my weeks here are numbered!
  

Here is a belly shot from tonight. Yes, Moses was wrapping himself around me as tightly as he could (can you say over protective?).
When he wasn't busy "protecting" me from the evil camera, he was ... unamused by the whole photo session.

Crazy dog!
-H

Catching up...again

Ok, well I'm glad my new year's resolution this year wasn't to blog more often, because I'd be failing miserably. :) So, around here...
Ilana desperately needed some new shoes (and a new blog picture inserter apparently!).
So we got her some...new shoes that is.
My favorite part is the bottoms.
You know you're a parent when you go to an amazing conference (Jubilee) and all you have to show for it are a few pictures of your amazingly adorable daughter. We borrowed a rolling backpack for the flights (new toys are GOLD for toddlers!! and borrowed toys are GOLD for parents!! A definite win-win.). She insisted on wearing the backpack, although it was a bit big on her and she could only walk backwards because it was a bit too heavy for her. Poor thing. So, of course, we took pictures! :)

Paul put her to bed on Saturday night, so I could stay in the big session. This was her right before bed - what a bathing beauty!
Spring has definitely sprung here in Waco. Our temps are in the 60s almost every day. Today it got to the low 70s - absolutely beautiful. We had a picnic lunch. Yesterday we had a huge thunderstorm roll through and right after it, right outside my window I saw this...

It was absolutely beautiful. As the sun continued to set you could see the whole arc, but of course I was too close so I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing. Happy Spring!
Paul's at the NASPA conference, and gets home tomorrow. I'm going to have him get some belly pics for the blog. Yes, there is already a small belly - crazy!!! I have a Dr's appointment on Thursday so I'm excited to hear how our little one is doing. I'm feeling great, just tired still. I have a feeling that won't be going away any time soon!
-H