It is high time I update the blog and past time as well, to write out updates of the kids so I'll hit two birds with one stone and start with the Little Miss who is now "fwee and a half" (as she informs everyone). It is so hard to believe she's grown up so quickly but we are enjoying her every stage.
Vanna has gotten into the same habit that I have allowed Cash to get into, and that is watching a few minutes of cartoons when she first wakes up (whether in the morning or in the afternoon after a nap). Cash has always needed a few minutes to wake up before he's ready to get moving, eat breakfast, etc. and although Vanna doesn't require the same time to get happy after awaking, she thinks she should receive the same treatment as Cash and that is a little cartoon time. So often the first words out of her mouth in the morning are, "Will you turn me on a cartoon?" To which I usually respond, "Sure pumpkin!" Go ahead say it, I'm a bad mom :).
But like I said before, Vanna wakes up chipper and happy as ever in the mornings. She usually starts to gab right away (and for some reason she talks so loud - on a regular basis we have to remind her that we're right next to her and that there's no reason to raise her voice to yelling all the time - it's quite comical actually) and she loves to sing in the morning as well - we call her our little songbird. Lately, when she joins us for breakfast, she'll request not to have milk in her cereal (this is usually our breakfast of choice when Daddy works but on his days off we enjoy nice, yummy breakfast food - so no, you can't say I'm a completely bad wife too :). She'll sit at the table and eat her dry cereal and then often fill up her bowl again and carry it around snacking on it later in the morning too. Of course, she still picks off any sweet parts first (marshmallows first, the 'frosting' off frosted Mini-Wheats, etc.).
What an easy-going morning eh? What could be better than that - Lucky Charms in your bowl and cartoon to watch, all while snuggling with a favorite blanket and pillow pet?
Vanna's sweet tooth carries over into snacks as well. Her favorites include: spoonfuls of peanut butter, gushers, wheat thins, any kind of fruit, and oreos...or rather, the frosting from oreos. I found this many "leftovers" when I dug into the oreos the other day. Apparently, Vanna's been sneaking into the pantry and swiping oreo frosting. :)
Vanna loves to play in the water. She usually begs for a bath and gets so excited to go swimming. For some reason we often find Vanna's little tongue sticking out when she's playing and usually when she's running - which scares us to death. We keep trying to tell her that she's going to accidently bite her tongue right off if she has an accident when she's playing but it doesn't matter what we say, we'll see it hanging out again. Maybe she really does think she's a puppy (she LOVES to play/pretend she's a puppy or a kitty, crawling around on her hands and knees saying woof woof or meow :)
Vanna also loves to pretend at being a mommy. She always goes up to Cash and points at his chest while saying "Cash you be daddy and I mommy". She really is such a good little mommy too. She takes her baby dolls (whom she has named Amy and Lisla - no that's not a typo, she insists the baby's name is LISLA!) for walks in her stroller, shopping in the grocery cart, feeds them whatever food she can stuff into their tiny mouth openings, drips water down their face while she gives them a bottle full of water, tucks them in at night with their blankets, and even tries putting diapers on them occasionally.
Today, she had at one time put her baby in the corner for being bad. Later in the day, she grabbed a pillow from the couch to carry into her bedroom at naptime, when I asked what she needed it for she explained that she was going to put it under her baby's legs because "baby's legs hurtin'!" - Vanna's legs often ache in the night (something she inherited from me I think) and she wakes up crying in pain. We always give her a touch of medicine, raise her legs up on a pillow and rub them for a little while to soothe her. Apparently she was taking care of her baby in the same way. I have no doubt she'll be a wonderfully big help with her new baby sister.
Vanna thoroughly enjoys helping me clean.
Vanna can not get enough of puppies and wants to pet every dog she sees. If she sees one in someone's car while we're passing it on the road, she'll say, "Oh, a puppy, so cute, I want a puppy like that."
Vanna loves to jump on the trampoline. She has mastered the tricks of jumping and landing on her knees and bouncing back up to her feet WITHOUT hands, as well as doing the same by but landing on her bottom (she thinks these are such accomplishments and says over and over "Mom, watch this!" while Cash remains very un-impressed). She loves to play "Dead-Man Dead Man" and "Keep Away" with Cash and Daddy on the trampoline too.
Love the static!
Even more than jumping - Vanna loves to swing and could do it ALL day! And quite frankly, Vanna just loves to do ANYTHING with her dad. He's so fun to play with! The minute he lays down, the kids consider him a jungle-gym and are immediately climbing all over him. She loves to sit on his lap while watching a movie, etc. She just loves him too much!
The kids with their dad in the back of our van for a late night "Drive-In" movie. We had a great time trying that out this summer.
And even though we still struggle with their bickering often, Cash and Vanna are inseperable (whether they realize they're driving each other crazy or not). They do everything together - one of my favorite things to see them doing is riding on Cash's four-wheeler together. Cash gives Vanna rides all over the place and she just hangs on for dear life - loving it all the while. Cash is really rubbing off on Vanna I think too as now, she can not resist teasing us.
Here they are wrapped up in our hand-towels.
The kids love to build "forks" or in other words, forts. This was our creation the other day.
Swimsuits...bike helmets...socks & shoes...mmm - can you see why I still pick out their clothes anytime we're leaving the house?
Vanna has turned into a bit of a pack-rat similar to her big brother as well. She always packs up her shopping cart full of toys (as you can see in the picture above) and parks it right next to her bed where she insists it stays throughout the night. And if you look at the above picture, you'll see how she sometimes hangs all her babies along the rails of her bed so she can sleep with all of them. Funny girl :)
As I've mentioned before, Vanna likes to sing. She likes music period. She loves to dance and prance around to music as well. And speaking of prancing - the other day Cash was running in place and we asked Vanna to try it - she absolutley can not do it. Mainly because rather than actually running she prances and it's hard to do that in one place. :)
Vanna loves to ring the doorbell AND knock at the front door. When we open the door for her, she'll pretend she's lost or that her family is dead (learned that from Cash - don't know why they're so morbid) and that she needs a place to live.
Vanna still loves to primp up - loves her nails painted, etc. She's so good to sit still and let me do her hair no matter how long it takes and has even started practicing hair-do's and primping up her rocking horse as well (she also brushes it's teeth with her own toothbrush - ahh :).
For as girly as Vanna is, we find it interesting (and not so lovely) that she finds it hilarious to make herself burp. She has mastered the technique and we are forever reminding her that burping is not very ladylike. Of course she always follows up a burp with a "scuse me", but still!
Vanna is just our little sweetheart. She has ALWAYS been so good to randomly say, "I love you Mom!" in just the sweetest, melt-your-heart kind of way - several times a day. Now she adds even more emphasis by saying, "I weally weally weally super love you Mom!" She does the same thing for her dad. Ahhh - it's just the best! She never goes to bed without giving us kisses goodnight and often uses it as an excuse to get out of bed to give us more kisses - which we simply just can't deny right!?
Vanna can't resist picking any and all dandelions (flowers to her) for her mommy - how sweet!
Vanna is just our little sweetheart. She has ALWAYS been so good to randomly say, "I love you Mom!" in just the sweetest, melt-your-heart kind of way - several times a day. Now she adds even more emphasis by saying, "I weally weally weally super love you Mom!" She does the same thing for her dad. Ahhh - it's just the best! She never goes to bed without giving us kisses goodnight and often uses it as an excuse to get out of bed to give us more kisses - which we simply just can't deny right!?
Vanna can't resist picking any and all dandelions (flowers to her) for her mommy - how sweet!
Vanna still always announces the fact that she needs to go potty. And sometimes she'll come to us with that "look" and practically ask for permission to go potty in the way she announces it. We always hurry her and say, "Just go honey - run to the bathroom!" Don't quite know why she does that. :)
She's great at correcting Cash when he's done something wrong and coming to me to tattle and let me know she thinks he should go in the corner. Or sometimes she'll even lecture/yell at him with her finger pointed at him when he's in trouble (yikes - do I do that?:) My favorite though is when she tells me about Cash saying a bad word (like stupid or something similar) and while she's telling me about his misbehavior, she repeats the same bad word about ten times.
Funny things Vanna has said recently:
-It almost seemed out of habit, Vanna would say, "Hey Mom, hey Mom, heeeeey Mooom," until I answered. Then it was sometimes followed by a bewildered look and a, "Can't talk about it." - meaning I don't remember what I was going to say. She was just so used to saying, "Hey Mom" that she didn't even know why half the time.
-I need a swack! - meaning I need a snack!
-Vanna will give me this big explanation of a particular thing she wants to do and when she wants to do it and follow it up with this phrase, "Okay, Mom, that's the problem." When she means, "Okay, Mom, that's the plan."
-If Vanna has something yummy and I ask her for one she'll say, "One muy (more) and that's it, okay Mom!"
-When Cash just sits at the table without eating, Vanna will try to persuade him to eat in the same manner that I do with something like, "You need to eat buddy." Or when he first wakes up, Vanna will ask Cash (again, just like we do), "Did you sleep good buddy?" I just think it's funny that she calls him 'buddy' like us.
-When Cash shares a toy with her she'll ask, "I have this forever?"
Vanna also went through a short couple month phase where she did a lot of baby talk (she'd kind of stick her tongue out a bit, just between her lips, and talk teh way she thought a baby would talk). I just kept hoping it would pass and sure enough, it did. It's just so funny what they decide to do isn't it?!
Just had to add this picture again because it is still one of my very absolute favorites of our silly girl!
Anyway, our little girl is still her very independent, beautiful self and we are enjoying her ever growing vocabulary and wit. She truly is such a very good girl (it's when we combine her with her brother that we sometimes run into misbehavior, etc. - imagine that? :) . She is so excited to have "fwee" girls in our family. She's a great sister to Cash - trying to stay caught up with him in every way possible - and will be a great big sister too, I have no doubt. What fun she is to have in our family!!!
