Little A: Toddler Top 10

It's been awhile since I've posted an update about Little A.  To catch up on this silly, sweet and sometimes sassy 2 year old (and show some of my 366 photos), I put together a list of her top 10 favorite things right now.

1.  Tea Parties: On our first day of summer break, a friend had us over for a tea party.  She put apple juice in the tea pots, and Little A loved drinking her "tea" and she hasn't stopped asking to have tea parties since (good thing we have 3 tea sets).

2.  Painting: Another near daily request at our house is to paint.  We've done lots of painting, including watercolors, finger paints, and painting the deck.  There are toddler masterpieces covering our fridge at all times.



This is Little A working on her birthday Thank You cards this spring.  I wrote Thank you on white cardstock, and let her paint with watercolors over the top so the secret message would show.



3.  Swimming: This summer has been hot!  No better way to cool off than swimming.  We've been able to do a few beach and pool days this summer, and Little A can't get enough.  She would stay in the water all day if she could, especially when she's allowed to have her floatie.

4.  Our Garden: We have a small box garden on the side of our house.  Little A, who normally (much like her Mommy) doesn't want anything to do with green veggies, has decided she loves the green beans growing in our garden (making Mommy and Daddy VERY happy!).  She's also a fan of picking raspberries from our bushes.

5.  Stories & Songs: Little A has been a book lover pretty much her whole (short) life.  Many times when we're out on our adventures, she'll find the book area, and bring one (or more) to me to read.  I frequently send her to, "go play!"  But I'm glad she likes to read, and most of the time I'm happy to read to her.  I'll have to post some of our favorites soon.  Along with books, she loves singing too.  And storytimes that include the two... she's in heaven.  She's still running around singing our ECFE songs, and sometimes (ushually when she's supposed to be sleeping) I'll hear her making up her own songs too.

6.  Cartoons: Or as Little A calls them, 'coons.  She's currently obsessed with all things Dora.  Caillou is a close second. 

7.  Adventures: Pretty much everything we do is an adventure.  If our job for the day is a trip to Target, I still call it an adventure (it's much easier to get her ready to go if I call it an adventure).  A few times a week we try to go on some fun little one adventures though, and Little A loves those days.  Actually, we're all much happier on those days. Below: puppet wagon, nature center, train museum

8.  Friends: We are lucky to have quite a few friends and neighbors with little kids for Little A and Baby J to play with.  Little A is really loving all of her friends right now.  She asks about our neighbor, Little L, just about every time we go outside. And she thinks any trip to the park she include Little EE or Little EJ.  Below is Little A playing with Little C.  He's about 6 months older, and she loves trying to catch up.  Here they were playing with a little toy snake E found in the grass.  They took turns hiding the snake in the trees and running around.  Later they played "crocidile" which apparently consists of laying down on your tummy and being really quiet (a game Mommy can certainly get behind).

9.  Diggers: This spring, there was quite a bit of construction on our drive to and from day care/work.  The construction drove me crazy, because I'm running a few minutes late most days, and the construction could slow things down considerably.  But Little A loved to watch the construction machines, especially the diggers. 

10.  Helping:  Little A has become such a good helper (when she wants to).  She enjoys dumping the ingredients in anything being mixed.  She had so much fun helping make Daddy's birthday cake!  She tries to help with Baby J.  Some things (like going to get toys, blankets, towels) she's very good at helping with, but others (like holding Baby J) are still a little difficult.

When I started this post, I thought it would be pretty easy to do.  But in the week I've been trying to finish it, I feel like things are already changing.  After telling us for months that her favorite color is orange (see the cake frosting and digger above) she now tells me her favorite color is green.  Her new favorite song is BINGO.  I know I say it all the time, but she's growing so fast!  



Mini Me

Last week, Little A decided to help me unload the dishwasher.  She likes to be in charge of putting her dishes away, or at least hand them to me if she can't reach their spot.  While we were putting dishes away, I stepped back to watch her for a minute.  As she was walking back to the dishwasher, she paused, patted Baby J on the head and said, "Hi, Sweetie!"  And then went right back to work gathering her dishes.  I laughed, and was about to call E to tell him how weird Little A is (something I do several times each day), when I realized that she was just doing something she sees me do.  I joke that she is so strange, but I'm starting to worry that it is just a reflection of the strange things I do myself. 

For You

Last night, after a long day at the beach, E, the girls and I spent some time relaxing on our deck.  As we were sitting and talking, Little A ran up to us and told us she needed to go inside.  We asked why, and she said, "I have a very special present for you."*  She went inside, and returned a little later with one of her gold jelly shoes.  A lovely shoe, but E and I looked at each other a little confused about how that was a present for either of us.  She then told us, I have to get it out."  She unbuckled her shoe, and reached in.  She walked over to E, pinched two fingers inside her shoe, and handed him a butterfly, then came over to give me my butterfly, and finally one for Baby J. 

There are times in the day that she starts to drive me crazy with her 2 year old energy, but this was about the sweetest thing!

*These are really the words she uses.  She has a big vocabulary, and she strings together some long sentences!

Little A's Rainbow 2nd Birthday Party

Little A turned 2 on Sunday, and to celebrate we had a rainbow themed birthday for her a little over a week ago. I had been saving some fun rainbow party ideas for Baby J's 1st birthday party, but when we decided to have Little A's 2nd birthday party on St. Patrick's Day, I thought rainbow would be a perfect fit! Here are a few of the fun details from the day.

Pinterest was the greatest way to save ideas when planning this party! I wish I would have had an account when I was planning her 1st birthday too! I saw so many great rainbow ideas searching Pinterest. This pin (sorry I can't link to the blog, it appears to be private) gave me the idea for the balloon rainbow below, but I used big punch balloons I found at Target.
I also picked out 20 of my favorite pictures of Little A over the past year to display. It's crazy to see all of the changes, especially how her hair has grown, and curled!Of course, for the rainbow party, we had to have a fruit rainbow.And a pot of "gold" for the end of the rainbow!What would a rainbow party be without the very popular rainbow cupcakes? I set up a few rainbow activities for the kids. E blew up a bunch of rainbow colored balloons and scattered them around the floor for the little ones to play with. The balloons were a huge hit! Another fun activity was the rainbow rice. I colored the rice the weekend before the party, then filled up Little A's water table with the rice and some sandbox toys.

I also set up a coloring table inside, with rainbow printables, markers, crayons, paint dot markers and fruit loops.For party favors, we gave the little ones watercolor paints (except the baby, who got a lucky duck).

I'll be back soon with more photos, including a little 2 year old and her rainbow tutu!

Quick Little A Update

Little A is most certainly a toddler.

She is a bundle of energy. And she is sassy.

She runs around the house like a crazy person for much of the day. She loves to play "catch," though her actual catching skills are lacking. She'll throw the ball (often behind her) and yell with excitment. Open gym is the greatest! She can run and yell and nobody looks at me funny. I picked her up from day care the other day, and she ran away from me to the playground area. She ran to a swing, and in one motion dove on the big kid swing on her tummy. No fear. And she looked SO BIG to me doing it.

She loves people. She is so excited when we have visitors, or when she gets to go "play with friends." That's a general term for almost anything we are going to where there will be other little people, including day care, ECFE, and the library. She runs around yelling, "Play with friends! Play with friends!" She opens up to other people very quickly. She'll sit in any mom's lap to sing (another favorite!), play or read when we go to play groups.

She can tell us what she wants, and she expects that we'll get it for her (we're working on using please and thank you. She'll yell what she wants, "MILK! MORE MILK!" and then in the sweetest voice add "please" at the end. She says so many things I can't even begin to count. Not just words, but 3 and 4 word sentences. On the phone she'll ramble on and on. I thought we wouldn't have to worry about that until her teen years, but I guess I was wrong! E and my current favorite is when she talks about her little sister (who she loves), "Jopha-jean."

Big Sister

Little A absolutely loves her little sister. Baby J gets far more kisses from Little A than anyone else. She tries to help us with Baby J in her own little toddler way. She tries to help rock Baby J in her swing or car seat, but the rocking is pretty aggressive, and we have to remind her to be gentle. She takes Baby J's pacifier and brings it to us (although she occasionally tries to stick it in her mouth as well). She let's us know that, "baby's cying (crying)," followed by, "baby's sad," even sometimes when she's not. She finds Baby J's hiccups to be very fascinating.

Recently she's also started to take care of her baby like we do for Baby J. She tells us, "change baby's diaper," and then, "all better." She holds her baby and gives her a bottle when her baby is hungry. Yesterday she tried to swaddle her baby up in a blanket.