My 20 Month Old Baby Girl

I love this little girl. She is my world. I smile, laugh and just watch her all day long. How 20 months passed so quickly is beyond me, but I can say I've enjoyed every minute of it.

Pumpkin shirt and Spider skirt photo shoot! She wasn't really into it....

Busy busy girl! Lots of pictures to look at and games to play!

A few things I want to remember about my little growing girl:

*Sentences - She has mastered three and four word sentences. What continues to surprise me is her sentence structure and use of words. "One more book please mommy." "Last book, word book, night night." While reading her word book, "Macey uses fork." "Macey likes raisins." "Macey play with toys." "Macey ride wagon." "New movie, please." "Hang on mom, hang on." "Hold you moon." (Hold you to anything she sees... in a book or on tv or in real life. "Duckie have a seat." " Macey find the ball." "Travis (our UPS guy) brought this box." "Go Macey Go!" "Macey go backwards." (while she walks backwards...I think Elmo taught her this on Sesame Street.) "Go on bee." "No Sam, Macey's Tiger." "No bee, Macey's."

*Counting - So far, she can count to 10, unassisted. She doesn't recognize the numbers when written yet but she knows their order.

*Singing - She sings all the time. Her favorites are the ABC's, A is for Apple, Baa Baa Black Sheep,Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (all have three have the same tune... maybe that's why she likes them?), Bear is now asleep, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, If Your Happy and You Know It, Mary had a Little Lamb, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Old McDonald, Jesus Loves Me... She can sing the ABC's by herself and the rest she sings with us. She gets several more words that I would expect and loves the hand motions. I have to credit Jimmy for teaching her to sing the ABC's and A is for Apple. He sings with her on their nightly walks, bath time and putting on her pj's. Such a great daddy. 

*Third Person - Everything starts with Macey... sometimes she gets hung up on Macey and says it several times before finding the rest of the words for her sentence. "Macey hungry." "Macey watch Street." "Macey go outside." "Macey need cookie." I love the running commentary that she gives throughout the day.

She's so cute.

This is the result of finger painting with daddy... He is very proud of his work of art!

Everyone needed bibs this morning!

* Dance and Piano- At least twice a day, Macey turns on her piano to play the songs automatically. She either goes in circles, "around and around" or gathers her babies (animals) to dance with her. Her newest move that I love is her hands over her head like a ballerina while she twirls. The toddler bounce continues to be a go to move and Jimmy taught her to pat her knees. We watch her dance every evening after dinner and just laugh.

*Animals - Her best friends are Tiger and Duckie.  They go everywhere with her and are her comforts until she gets comfortable in a new environment. They enjoy sliding, swinging and dancing. And the occasional ride in Sam's mouth...

*Recognition - She recognizes her books and calls several of them by name "Word Book" "Christmas" "Arthur." While watching her movie in the car, I had piano playing in the front. She said "Piano. Macey hears piano." What?! When I asked her if she wanted a biscuit for breakfast, her mind was elsewhere. She said, "Papa brought apples. Macey like some apples." She remembers and recalls things that happened in the past, with pretty good accuracy.

Racking leaves with Dada

I love watching her grow. She is learning new things every day and it's so rewarding to see her growth based on things that I've taught her. Being a mom is absolutely the most rewarding job I've ever had. Looking forward to a fun 21st month!

Bows for everyone!

I can't stand how cute these two are. They were playing in Macey's room when she decided everyone needed a bow! Actually, how did Jimmy get away without a bow??

Setting all of her babies/animals with Bailey for the picture

Making sure they are all just right...

Deciding they all needed to move...

Smile! Sweet Bailey was such a good sport.

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight we decided to "carve" a couple of pumpkins. Mom had "Mr. Potato Head " parts for pumpkins that she used with Colby and Christian. I really thought Macey would love putting in the eyes and arms and mouth... but she lost interest pretty quickly. So Jimmy carved our pumpkins while Macey and I laughed and played. I laughed at her primarily, but occasionally had to laugh at how serious Jimmy was about getting the pumpkin parts just right.

This night was much much more fun than I had imagined. I hope Jimmy would agree, even though he got stuck with the "work." ;) We have the funniest little girl in the world. I'm so in love with our little family.

Jimmy : "We use this screwdriver to make the hole so we can put in the ear."

Macey, "Macey's turn."

Yes, she's wearing her pumpkin shirt for the 20th day in a row. So?

Of course Sam had to get in the middle of the action...

Smile with Mommy!

"Heavy!"

Pondering if the ears are too high... or too low? This must be perfect!!

Smile with Dada!

Baby Brigade Sprinkle

Thursday evening, the Baby Brigade mommies hosted a Sprinkle for the four of us that are pregnant. It was such a fun night, I hope I can recap it well in this post. We met at Shari's house and ate delicious dips, cheesecake, shrimp, brownies, sausage balls... everything was so good! Then we sat around, laughed and talked for a couple of hours. It was so nice to just sit and talk with all of these girls without chasing our little ones around.

Kelly was so sweet to take all of these pictures. I'm so thankful!!

Julie works full time so we don't get to see her as often as we would like, so it was nice to catch up with her!

 Before opening gifts, we all took the pencil test again. I'm not usually on board with things like this, but the pencil test hasn't been wrong yet! (That I know of.) It's a test that tells how many kids you will have and their gender. I know I know, it sounds like MASH from the old days when you were ten years old. But it was right for all 12 of our first babies and for those of us that are pregnant again with our second. What are the chances?! So, how many kids will Jimmy and I have? According to the pencil... FOUR! I know we joke about having lots of kids to fill up our van, but I guess my mind has never gotten past three, since I'm one of three. According to the pencil, our first two will be girls (correct) and then a boy and our baby will be another girl. I love big families but I wonder about the stress of managing such a large family. And I want to have enough time to make each child feel special and loved. Can I do that with four little Jimmy and Laurie's running around? I realize God is in control and maybe our family will just be four or five. Whatever happens, I know it will be perfect.

The hostesses made us each a diaper cake with a wonderful gift card to Babies R Us. I have the cake in Macey's room (since it will be Baby Sisters nursery) and Macey calls the diapers "big tissues." Maybe I should teach her "for your booty" to add to her sentence? Allison made Beth and I little tutus for our baby girls. Isn't it adorable and so tiny?! I can't wait to take newborn pictures in it! Each of us pregnant girls got the others a little something too. Baby sister now has Minnie Mouse trumpette socks (from Kasey), Monthly Onesie Stickers and a bunny book (from Beth) and a huge mommy clip and Big Sister book for Macey (from Nancy). I'm so excited to see Baby Sisters little feet in her new socks. And it will be fun to chart her monthly growth with the Onesie stickers! I've already read the Big Sister book to Macey and she loved it. Karen Katz is such a great author. I have no idea how I managed keeping up with everything without a huge mommy clip when Macey was a little baby! I'm going to need several to keep up with everything for two babies!  

I was excited to make tie onesies for the baby boys and ruffle bloomers for baby Kinley. The ties were much easier than I expected, I hope they look as cute on the babies! And I love ruffles on little baby girls bums. I need to make several pair for Baby Sister before she gets here! I also did a couple of burp clothes for each new baby. You can never have enough spit catchers!

Nancy, Kasey, Shari, Beth and Me

In order of due dates

I love the diaper cakes!!

Colby Vists

This week, Christmas came early for Macey. Colby was in town for her fall break and decided to stay with us for two days! Macey was elated to have Coco for so long, all to herself! Since Macey naps for an hour and a half each day, I had a couple of activities planned for Colby and I to do during nap time. (The second day I realized that even a 10 minute nap would do wonders for me! So I laid on the couch for a few minutes... oh how I will miss naps in a few short months.)

We met Colby and Papa at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Tuesday morning for breakfast. Grandma always makes a huge breakfast of eggs, grits, biscuits, gravy, bacon and sausage... It's so delicious! I wish we could have gotten a better picture of Macey with Grandma, next time... here we were singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider. ("It Bit Pider")

Colby came Wednesday morning and stayed only until Thursday afternoon. We played at home in the morning then went to Chic Fil A for lunch. Colby was a hit in the play area with all of the kids!

We put Macey down for a nap and made Pumpkin Rice Krispy Treats. They were easy and fun to make, a perfect nap time activity!

 We "hid" candy pumpkins in the middle of the treats. So good!

When Macey woke up, we played outside on our new swing set!Then made our way up to the driveway for some sidewalk chalk art.

I'm pretty sure Macey was asking Colby if she could stay with us and be her big sister.

The last activity of the day was painting toes! Macey LOVES "finger nail polish" on her toes. It's absolutely adorable to watch how excited she gets holding the polish. Such a little princess!

 

After dinner of homemade pizza (I kind of thought that would be more fun to do than it really was... I think we were all a little tired from the busy day) we ate (more) pumpkin rice krispy treats. And Macey had a few bites of the baby pumpkin Colby made her. :) I'm still opposed to giving Macey much (read "any") sugar. I just feel like she will get plenty when she gets old enough to ask for it and know how great it is. I'm addicted to sweets and chocolate so I know it's in her to love sweets too. I know, deprive the first child and by the third (or fourth?) child he/she will be eating sugar before baby food... but for now, sugar is very limited. 

Wednesday night, after Macey went to bed, we played four games of UNO with Jimmy and Colby won every game. Every game! We didn't have time to play again so I could beat her, but I'm going to be practicing until I see her again so I can win. I'm still impressed that she won every game. 

Breakfast of donuts in the big chair with Colby. We broke all of the rules! ;)

Thursday morning I had bible study so Colby decided to sit with me instead of going to a class with kids around her age. I know she was bored but I hated to miss the bible study since it's only a five week study. And it was only an hour and a half but at 9 years old, I know it felt like a lifetime. So after BS, we went to McDonald's for lunch. Our experience at McDonald's was such a dramatic difference compared to Chic Fil A the day before. I don't see myself going back there anytime soon. But Colby and Macey had a great time on the playground and they were the only two on it for most of our visit. During nap time, Colby and I made ghosts to hang outside and Colby made a bat! I also had to lay down for a few minutes since I had the Baby Brigade Sprinkle that evening. It felt so good to close my eyes for a few minutes. I forgot how tiring it is to make a baby and not nap! When Macey woke up, we played at home until Mom came to pick up Colby. We all went to dinner before they had to head back South. 

They sat together and ate cheeseburgers. My baby is such a big girl!

 We had such a fun two days and I hope that Colby did too! I'm hoping she will come with Jenny next summer to stay a week and help out with Macey and Baby Sister. I get overwhelmed thinking about how different our days are going to be in a few months...