Maybe it's the age, maybe it's the fact that we're getting ready to move to our new house but I've been reminiscing a lot lately and trying to bottle up every memory these last few days and hold onto it so tight. I really do wish I had tape running 24/7 of Makenna so I could play it back years from now and just laugh all over again. I realized the other day that it never even occurred to me on July 2nd that for the past 24 months, I had blogged an update the 2nd of every single month with her birthday updates. I got back to reading back through her blog the other day and I'm sad if I don't keep blogging regularly I'll forget all the cute fun stuff. So, here's a random post about fun things we've been up to, fun things she says & fun things she does.
Lately when she's doing something and we try to hurry her along, she'll say she's still watching or still reading, or still playing. I tried getting her to go down for her nap just now and she looked at me and said - "no, mama. I still playing". It cracks me up to see her talk like she's such a big girl and so matter of factly.
She is turning into Miss Independent - she wants to walk down the stairs by herself, climb in and out of the house on her own, you name it.
She's started this really loud yelling thing when she is playing with other kids.... I can actually hear it coming out of her mouth in this picture:
She's definitley 2. She can be screaming at the top of her lungs one minute and sweet as can be the next. Latley she freaks out the most when she sees something princess and she can't have it. She ran to a client with me the other day to pick something up and they had an Ariel beach towel there that she wanted to take home with her. I'm not sure I've ever heard her scream so loud in my life. Woah. Girl's got lungs. She kicked and screamed all the way out to the car and when I set her down, I'm pretty sure she would have run back into their house if the sprinkler wouldn't have been in her way. Once she finally calmed down, she was actually fairly rational to talk with and she just kept sniffing and was so sad. All she wanted was her "froggy mi-mi" to snuggle with.
I have learned how important "choices" are at this age, especially when she is watching TV and I need her to go eat - do you want do drink out of your princess cup or your Strawberry Shortcake cup (thanks Auntie Sharon for giving her 2 cups for her birthday!!)? Works like a charm most times:)
Oma made her this monkey & frog blanket before she was born and it is defnitely her go-to lovie that makes her feel better. I think I need to start bringing it with us more often:)
She's got a pretty strong "no!"in her vocablulary. I've been trying to get her to say "no thank you" and she actually does it from time to time. Lately she says no, ah ah instead of just no.
Whenever I ask her a question she doesn't know the answer to she looks at me and goes "hmmmm".
We're slowly working on potty training - when I go to check her diaper she always says "nope" as I'm pulling her diaper back to look in it. She has gone potty on the potty a few times - she gets very excited about it when she does it. Yesterday she sat on the potty for almost a 1/2 hour - I kept getting her more books to read and she just sat there, tinkled a bit and waited for her poopy to come. Of course, 10 minutes after she got off the potty she pooped in her diaper. Oh well.
She is CRAZY for the TV and knows how to load on the sweetness to try to get you to turn it on. She wakes up in the morning and if I don't have any toys ready for her to play with, she instantly says I want to watch..... Strawberry Shortcake or princesses or bible music or Little Einsteins or Elmo. She's hooked! Luckily I'm usually pretty good about getting her some toys out the night before so she has something other than the TV to catch her eye. I'm running out of options with most of our toys packed up so I'm looking forward to being settled in at the new house!
Makenna is absolutely crazy in love with Annika "Akana" and Elizabeth "Liz-beth" - we have been blessed with lots of time with them these last few weeks and I'm sad that it isn't going to be as easy to just walk over to their house and pop in whenever we want once we move. This morning she found picture of her and Annika from the 4th of July and kept crying that she wanted to see her. It was so very sweet, but made me a little sad that we are moving.
I think we went for our last Jammie walk around our block last night:( That is probably the one thing I will miss most about this neighborhood. Makenna gets SO excited for our jammie walks and will actually run around the house yelling JAMMIE WALK, I SO EXCITED before we leave. It's pretty sweet. We have so many fun memories from our first walk with her around the block:
I'll never forget that one - daddy was so nervous to go over a single crack in the sidewalk - we still joke abut that now:)
The neighbors that first year used to laugh at me because I'd walk around the block in her big ol' jogging stroller with this tiny little baby in it with a full head of hair - they'd all run out to see her and comment on how much hair she had and how big her eyes were and just how beautiful she was. We'd joke that she was on a "chariot" ride in that big stroller. Every night we'd take her outside, especially during the colicky days because a walk in her stroller would always calm her down.
Last summer she wasn't quite walking yet, but we'd go around the block in her trike:
And now this year, it's jammie walks:
Here she is trying to avoid the sprinkler...
This year has been the most fun - some nights she runs around the block, others she dawdles trying to pick up every helicopter she finds and stopping to pick the dandelions and dodge the sprinklers. If a sprinkler isn't on she looks at it and says "oh no, broken". She always let's us know what jammies she wants to wear before we leave - Minnie, Hippo, Popsicle, Elmo or Strawberry Shortcake, her favorite.
She always stops to ham it up with the neighbors - either playing with the neighbor kids or showing off in front of Sam & Beth and Beverly. She is quite the lovable little girl and I know everyone around here is going to miss her. It makes me sad to think that they all knew her from when she was first born.... even before that, I suppose when they'd laugh at me so very overdue, going for walks trying to see if that would make her come out:)
We'll definitely miss our neighborhood, but hopefully we can come back and visit. We are getting excited for Jammie walks in the new neighborhood - I'm sure Makenna will have no problems making lots of friends and hamming it up with all sorts of new people.
Makenna saying her silly good-bye to the next door neighbor kids
