The Long Way Home

Well, if everything has gone according to plan we should be on our way home!  I’m sure I will have more pictures than I know what to do with so stay tuned…

Here She Comes To Save The Day…

18 Months Old!

Boo is 18 months old today!  What a fun and special girl she has turned out to be.  She bring laughter and joy to each day.  I honestly don’t think I could love her any more than I already do!  She is beyond precious to me.  Here are some of Boo’s favorites at 18 months…

Food: cheese

Drink: water

Toy: a baby doll

Book: Snuggle Puppy

Blanket: a purple crocheted one she got at her baby shower

Person: still Mommy with Daddy and her sister as a close second. :)

Place: home.  She loves to be home where she can run around uninhibited.  Whenever she is overly tired we just leave her alone and she putters around the house doing her own thing.

She loves talking on the phone, pushing her baby around in a stroller, playing peek a boo with whatever she finds lying around, dressing up in clothes (as long as she is in control of what goes on and off) and playing outside. 

I love the way she wants to hold one finger while she walks.  She is tall enough that I don’t have to stoop over to let her do it.  It is so sweet.

She makes us laugh a million times a day and is always doing funny things.  Such a ham.

Here are some of the words she is saying now:

Hi

Bye bye

Mommy

Daddy

Her version of her sister’s name, which is actually getting pretty close to the actual pronunciation.

Mine!

No no!

Icky! (she pulled a piece of meat out of her breakfast sandwich and waved it around saying “Icky! Icky! Icky!”)

Baby

Ow!

Papa

Noni – “Non-ah”

Grandpa – “Bomp-ah”

Grandma – “Bama”

Banana – “nana”

Cheese – “teese”

Book – “booh”

Goodnight – “nigh nigh”

Cookie – “ca ca”

All done – “ah don”

Ball – “bah”

There – “dere”

Sorry – “sowee”

Thank you – “tank oo”

I’m stuck – “I tuck!” (this is my favorite!)

Beep beep! – you are in my way!

I want to beep - “Inabee” – means I want to beep your nose

I want that – “I aunt dat” and she usually adds whatever she wants onto the end of this phrase.

And she is adding words to her vocabulary every day!

As soon as we get back from Texas she will be having her 18 month checkup so we’ll get her “stats” then.

Happy 18 months Boo!  We love you!

Chatterbox

One of Boo’s favorite activities is talking on the phone.  She will use anything and everything as a phone if she can’t get a hold of the real thing.  In this instance she is using the air conditioning remote.  She spends many an hour walking around the house talking on her various “phones”. :)

Sisters

I am constantly amazed at how different my girls are!  Everyone tells you that your kids will be, but it still surprises me.  I thought it would be fun to do a little comparison.

Looks:

Bug – T’s child all the way, same skin color, hair color, and features…although I very often see features in her that remind me of my cousin Eve.

Boo – My child all the way, same hair color, eye color, and olive skin…she looks more Hispanic than I do!

Body style:

Bug – long and lean, just like Noni.  (Same color eyes as Noni too).

Boo – definitely more curvy.  Even at this young age I can tell she is going to have a more muscular/womanly build. 

Food:

Bug – a carnivore!  And an Atkins girl, apparently.  She is not a big fan of carbs: no pasta, no rice, no potatoes. She loves meat and will pick it out of a casserole, soup, etc.

Boo – a vegetarian!  She hates meat!  She will pick it out and give it to Bug.  The only meat she will eat is chicken nuggets, but she LOVES carbs!  Noodles and rice are her major food groups. 

Both girls do agree that they dislike vegetables and love the sweets and fruits though! :)

Animals:

Bug: yes

Boo: no

I always thought that a love of animals came from what you are raised with but we could tell straight off that Boo is not an animal lover.  She cries when animals get too close for her comfort.  As a baby, Bug was always crawling all over Izzy and grabbing at every animal that she came into contact with.  Boo, on the other hand, is much happier to observe from a distance.  We are working on getting her comfortable around animals since we (okay, mainly me) are big animal lovers.

Personality:

Bug: fun loving, emotional, intense, and a perfectionist.  She definitely has a lot of those firstborn, leadership qualities and she likes everything to be just so.

Boo: a little harder to tell since she’s not really talking yet, but she seems to be more of a people pleaser than her big sister.  She gets very sad if she thinks I am upset with her.  We also think she is going to be a class clown.  She is always hamming it up.

Both girls are very loving and affectionate with close family members and friends, and are also both shy of strangers, but that probably describes 9 out of 10 kids. :)

They are also both very brave.  I see this mostly on playgrounds.  Both girls, from the time they were mobile seem to have no fear and go charging around.  I have to watch them closely because they will often attempt something that they are too little to handle.  I guess this seems more pronounced to me because the little girl I nannied for two years was very timid in such situations.

Well, I think that’s all for now.  I can’t wait to see how different and the same they are as they get older!  When I get back from Texas I can tell you how they each handle cross country road trips.  Haha:)

Wordless Wednesday

Bug

“No no!”

When we were at the resort a few weeks ago Boo learned a delightful new phrase, “NO NO NO!”  Actually I think it’s hilarious and it’s very hard to scold her when she says it.  Even when I say, “Boo put that down.” and she says, “No no no!” complete with her little head shaking back and forth so hard she almost falls over. I try very hard to correct her with a straight face but it cracks me up!

Attitude

Boo is getting started on the attitude a little early.  We took this picture on the way to the resort last week.  She woke up after only 50 minutes of sleep (she normally naps for 3 hours in the afternoon).  She stayed in this position, looking out the window for over an hour!  “Daddy told me to go back to sleep but I don’t wanna!”

Adios

Tomorrow morning we are on our way to the Lone Star state!  Actually, we won’t be there until around the 18th, because we’re making stops in Colorado and New Mexico to see family, but Texas is our goal.  Two kids, two thousand miles.  Piece of cake.  Haha, I wish.  You won’t waste any prayers on us in the next three weeks I’m sure! Or T because he is the one staying home to hold down the fort…or completely remake and remodel the fort I should say.  :)  Hope you all have a wonderful rest of July!

P.S. A friend just introduced me to Microsoft Live Writer so I am going to see if I can get together a few posts that I can get to post on a later date…mostly for Grandma since I know she likes a new post every day. :)  Adios ya’ll!

Birthday on a Rooftop

We know some people who got married yesterday on the rooftop of our city's opera house, overlooking one of the most beautiful parks in the area.  We did not attend, but by default it must have been beautiful and elegant.  I also had my birthday on a rooftop.  It just wasn't quite as beautiful or elegant.  More like dusty and messy. :)

 Yes, my birthday wish was for everyone to come over and help us start tearing off the roof.  Thankfully it wasn't too terribly hot and we had both sets of parents and a set of friends that volunteered to help.  We got half of the roof torn off in about 5 hours.  T and his dad built a contraption that took the mess from the roof, directly into a big farm truck that our friends let us borrow.  The guys all hacked away at the roof and then shot the pieces down to me.  From there I fed them onto the little conveyor belt and they went on their merry way into the truck.  There were three layers of roofing on top of cedar shingles!  For everyone who has ever taken off a roof, you know that is A LOT!  There were four inches worth of roofing in some places! 

After we all got cleaned up (we looked like coal workers when we got done!) we headed down to the river for a little rest.  It was too cold to swim, as we originally planned, but the girls enjoyed playing in the sand.

And wading.

Noni: "I won't get in the water but I will come wading with you."

K: perplexed, "What are you waiting for?"

We had a picnic dinner and I got to open my presents.

Mom made me a home-made German chocolate cake.  Yum!

 Overall it was a very productive birthday!  We are all VERY sore at the moment, but we got a lot done and we really appreciated all the help!  Today is our 7th anniversary so my parents have the girls and we are going to head to town.  We originally planned to go golfing, but we are both so sore that it isn't going to happen.  It might just be a movie and some shopping. :) 

Happy Anniversary honey!  Thanks for seven wonderful years!

The 4th

We had such a great five day weekend at the farm!  The girls got to enjoy some time with their littlest cousin.  Boo was loving at first…overly so.  She wanted to hug hug hug Waylon.

But mostly just succeeded in knocking him down.

Bug was intently observing the two babies…

…secretly overjoyed that her sister had someone else to torture.  Run away Waylon, run away!

“Hey, I like you better from up here.”

They eventually started playing together, even though Boo was a bit of a bully some of the time.  She is used to getting what she wants from her much taller and stronger sister. :P  But the kiddos figured out a few games they could all play.  Daddy to the rescue!

They had a wonderful time playing in the sandbox with a hose.  Stellar entertainment. :)

Waylon and his mama.

Boo also found other sources of entertainment.  Like a mud puddle.  She plopped down in the middle of it before I even knew what hit her.

“What?”

I think the girls definition of a good time is needing a bath every night, so we always have a great time at Grandma’s!

We were in an area where fireworks are legal so we headed over to our favorite stand to stock up.

We mostly just did kid ones this year.  Bug bought this little bucket and it had a surprising amount of great fireworks in it!

We actually set them off on Sunday night since Monday we had to head home and get to bed.  Bug LOVED them!  She squealed and jumped and squirmed and squealed some more.  Although she did put her hands over her ears for every single one no matter what it did. :)

The babies weren’t too sure about the fireworks at first.  Waylon was a lot more brave than Boo…she just cried.  But she eventually warmed up to them a bit.

Bug had to run back to Grandma and I after every firework and describe exactly what happened.  Kind of like a commentary…only after the fact. :)

The last thing she did was a sparkler.  Surprisingly it didn’t produce the excitement of the other fireworks.  She held it, even though she looked quite disturbed and kept saying, “I’m not afraid.  I’m brave.” Which, we know means: I am afraid, but maybe if I say I’m not I will believe it. :)

Our last order of business was Grandma’s annual 4th of July BBQ.  As always it was delicious and fun!

Happy Birthday America! 

And many more!

Cookie

Boo Bear has a very unfortunate pronunciation for the word cookie.  She started saying a few weeks ago and it always makes us laugh.  Hopefully she’ll figure out a better way to say it soon.

Vacationing

Wow, I am so behind in my blogging! This is the first time we have been home since June 26th. We went straight from the resort out to Grandma and Grandpa's house because T had a golf tournament for work. Since that was last Wednesday he took Thursday and Friday off and we got a nice long five day stay at the farm. But first, pictures from the resort.
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We got down there on Sunday night and headed straight for the pool. It was about 5 degrees warmer there the whole time so we enjoyed the warmer temperatures.
I brought the baby floaty thinking Boo would love just floating around in it. Unfortunatley she didn't like it at all and just wanted to be carried around the pool. Bug got some use out of it though. :)

She was a little afraid of the water at first but once she realized her life jacket would hold her up she was doggy paddling around the whole pool.

We tried a different restaurant this year. It was just a little diner, with a Denny's-like menu, on the outskirts of the touristy shops. It didn't look like much but wow. Best fetuccini alfreado I think I have ever had.

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The next morning T headed off for his workshops and the girls and I headed down to the beach.

We spent all morning, on both Monday and Tuesday, playing in the sand.

Lovin' the view!

The first day Daddy got to eat with us since he had free time at lunch so we went over to the burger stand at the end of the resort. After we ate he had to go back so the girls and I went to the park. I had to get a picture of Bug in this spot since I do it every year.

What a difference a year makes!

But the huge difference is what two years makes!

Here's Boo's first pictures on the playground steps.

Monday was a little overcast so the girls played all over everything but on Tuesday the sun was out in full force and this set had the only slide that wasn't too hot to slide down.

Boo loved it. She must have climbed the stairs and slid down over a dozen times.

Here are a couple of pictures from the second day. I thought they were so cute when they climbed up on this chair and were lounging together. :)

I think Boo's favorite part of the trip was the ducks! Every time she saw one, which was quite often, she would point and yell, "Qua qua! Qua qua!"

Since Daddy couldn't have lunch with us on Tuesday we had a picnic on the balcony. Then we walked over to the park and got ice cream at the burger stand on the way back. We had to leave early the next morning to get back in time for T's tournament so I didn't have the usual problem of figuring out how to get naps in after checking out of the hotel room.

It was a great trip and I think Bug is already looking forward to next year!