Cwyn Danae at 22 Months!

Where does the time go?? Our big girl is changing so much and is getting ready to be a big sister! She is potty trained, has a vocabulary that rivals mine, loves all forms of music and expressing herself, and is fiercely independent. We couldn't love her more.. until we do every single day! She is sassy, smart, beautiful and incredibly sensitive. She can tell when people are sad from a mile away and is never short on hugs. She is a worshipper and already has a servant heart. She reminds us that life through the eyes of a child is so beautiful! I could write a book full of all the cute and funny things she does or says and it still wouldn't fully cover the depth of her personality. We have been preparing her for a little sister and, like everything that's ever come her way, she is handling it with a maturity that is beyond her years! We may be biased but she's the best and we're so happy she's ours!

A Letter to A Sweet New Girl

You, dear sweet girl, our second daughter. Your daddy, sister and I could not be more excited about you. You don't have a bump picture for every week you're in my stomach like Big Sister does but you're not loved any less. We haven't set up a nursery for you, bought a single thing for you, or even kept track of how far along we are.. but you're not loved a single ounce less. There's a quiet peacefulness about you already. Though you have been different in every single way from your sister, I don't love you any different. You've showed us already who you are, and we know for sure that you're you, not Cwyn! This time around I feel so comfortable being your mom already. All 9 months of being pregnant with your sister was a happy sort of chaos. With you, there's just peace! I know that the love this little family has to give you is more than enough. You're getting a confident, secure and happy family and for that you're lucky to be the second. I want you to know, baby girl, that even though we haven't celebrated you in all the same ways we did your sister, we absolutely love you beyond what you can imagine. You, our second child, our second daughter, will never be second best. We pray you have some of your sister's most amazing traits with more of your own for us to love. We pray the hardest parts of her personality don't become your hardest parts, but we also pray we find ways to love you through the new hard parts of your personality that we'll discover. We hope, more than anything, that you and your sister would love each other with a fierceness only sister's can experience and that your bond will be something we awe over. We're so ready for you, little miss. Our sweet second baby, we prayed for you and the Lord blessed us!

Cwyn at 15 Months

She's growing... Too fast! And she is the smartest and sweetest little girl I've ever known.

FAVORITES

TV Show: Bubble Guppies

Song: Bubble Guppies theme song

Color: Lately she's been leaning more towards pink 🙈

Person: Daddy

Foods: Oatmeal, yogurt, cucumbers, avocados, carrots, strawberries, boiled eggs, tuna, tacos, chicken, and milk.

Toy: Her "beebee" or "monkay"

Friend: "Bawa-boo"

Activities: coloring, sticker books, reading, dancing, singing, eating, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, playing with her ball,riding her car or trike, going for walks with Cabela, bathtime, blowing bubbles, playing hide and seek, and checking the mail.

She's talking SO well and is saying phrases and short sentences. She just learned how to properly use me and mine. She says her last name if you say her first two and can spell her name. I can't believe my little baby has gotten so big!!!

She loves wearing everyone's shoes and clothes and walking around the house strutting her stuff!

We have a tea party every.single.day... At least twice. She loves reading books (also, all.day) and playing with babies, Barbies and stuffed animals.

She is learning how to sing songs and has such good rhythms for a little one. She can hear a beat in every noise. Her favorite songs are worship songs, Happy, Let it Go, Bubble Guppies, Patty Cake, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.

She still LOVES to paint, play with play-doh, color and put stickers on everything.

The past 15 months have been the best.. And it gets better and better every day. We love this girl and are so proud to be her parents!!!

Finding Joy in the Mess

When Colt and I decided to make the transition to being a one income, working dad, stay-at-home mom family, we had a long conversation about our expectations of each other. I won't bore you with all the little details of our discussion but the one thing I decided on for myself was that I would be in charge of the cleaning and care of our household. Somedays, that's way easier said then done. There are days when my husband comes home from work and the house is a mess and I don't even have a plan for dinner. Since I feel it's my "only real job" in life right now it's easy to feel like a failure. My husband never once complains. He looks around, kisses both of us, and tells me to go take a break while he catches up with his baby. That man sure knows how to make me feel loved!!! I dread the days the house is messy, though, and have worked really hard to make even the mundane chores fun for both of us! I've learned to make almost any mood Cwyn might face work into my plan to clean up for the day. My girl does best when she's kept busy (unless it's a half hour before or after nap time) and usually just needs a new activity! She thrives on challenges and could spend hours figuring things out. She may only be one but she sure does like to help! Her need for new activities and her love of "hepin" her momma pushed me to really make it a priority to work her into my daily chores. A little pan of bubbly water and some of her spoons to "wash" keeps her entertained while momma washes the dishes. She "matches" all her socks while I fold laundry. She holds the dustpan for me when I sweep, "heps" me clean up all her toys, and LOVES cleaning out my cupboards ;) It's so hard to spend every day fighting the different moods this little girl throws my way so instead we're learning to find joy in the mess!

Toddler Recipes [One]

Cwyn is an eater.. And a good one at that. While she tends to be a bit skeptical of some things when I first put them on her plate she always tries them and (almost always) finishes them. She has her moments just like every kid where she doesn't want to eat a certain food and we don't push her to. We always wait and give her other options, usually something that isn't her favorite, until she realizes that what's on her plate isn't so bad. I try to take her favorite things and vary the way I make them so that she doesn't get bored. One example is eggs... She loves them and could eat them for every meal. We do scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, omelets, and her new fav, deviled eggs. She also loves avocados and will usually eat them plain or blended with something else to make an applesauce type of concoction. They're both really easy to make and require nothing more than the ingredients and a food processor.

 The first recipe is "applesauce"

For Cwyn's applesauce I used things we had on hand so it looked something like this...

1/2 a banana

Almost a whole avocado

1/4 of an apple

Cinnamon to taste

A few leaves of spinach

Milk to get desired texture (we used almond milk)

All I did was put the avocado in the food processor until it was smooth and creamy. Then I added in the banana and spinach leaves and blended it again. Next came the apples and a little bit of milk. I just kept adding milk or apples until it was a texture my (texture picky) girl would tolerate. Then you just add a little bit of cinnamon (or any other flavor) to it and try it out. I tasted this concoction and it tasted almost exactly like a cinnamon applesauce. Cwyn loved this stuff.. I made about 1 1/2 - 2 cups worth and between her morning snack and afternoon snack she ate almost all of it. 

The second recipe is easy deviled eggs (also with hidden good for you stuff in them). 

4 eggs (hard boiled)

A little bit of mustard

Avocado (I used the leftover from the above recipe)

Paprika

First I hard boiled my eggs and when they were done I peeled them and cut them all in half. Remove the yolk and throw it into the food processor. I added a little squirt of mustard to flavor it, threw in the avocado (it's best to do this first so that it's already smooth when you throw it in with the eggs), and blended it up. I also decided to add a dab or ranch dressing because the flavor wasn't quite what I wanted it to be but you can skip this part. Once it's blended to a creamy texture, spoon it into the eggs and throw a dash of paprika over them. We sometimes dice up pickles to add in there but we didn't have any this time so if you have them and want to add them go for it! These were a huge hit and between Cwyn and daddy they didn't last more than an hour. 

Hopefully these will come in handy for you or your toddlers. I am always trying to find fun, new ways to make her favorite foods so hopefully I'll be sharing more as we find some! Enjoy!!

Life Lately

I've been MIA for awhile and I'm not sorry. We've had lots going on and I've been spending more time trying to entertain my toddler in this madness that is winter. Blah! So ready for Spring and Summer! 

We've been making more progress on our house and it's been so nice to see everything (SLOWWWWLY) coming together. We are finishing the upstairs and then all that will be left are some putsy little things (trim in some rooms, counter updating, etc.) to finish up as we have time and money. It's becoming such a cute little place and we all love it!

Our new blinds in the living room which are a BIG improvement from the camo curtains we had up temporarily before ;)

In other news, Colt has been hired on directly at Pierce and we are so grateful that he got in. He will be moving to second shift and getting a raise, all of which we are looking forward to.

I'm still loving being home with my baby, even though most days are the same, we've been making the most of this yucky weather and have spent lots of time cuddling and watching movies! I'm not ashamed to admit that we've watched a lot of tv this winter, but we've also taken lots of baths (with paint, bubbles and toys), found new things to play with that aren't necessarily toys, and even made forts/obstacle courses out of our living room & kitchen. Being a mom is literally the best job I've ever had but this winter has challenged my skills... We're alive and happy still though so that counts as a success! :)

I will be trying to blog more regularly and sharing more of our fun winter activities! For now, I'll leave you with some pics!!!

Sister loves super early this morning!

Some days call for donuts!!!

Painting in the bathtub.. Thanks to Oma for the fun paint/soap!!

Kisses and giggles with daddy before bed

Just chilling with her buddies while watching Bubble Guppies

12 Months/1 Year

This cute little birthday girl is ONE! I can't believe it! I'll do a separate post on her birthday and party but for how here's an update on her with some stats.

Height/Weight: She just had her one year check up and, not surprisingly, she's still a little peanut. She's weighing in at 17.2 lbs and measuring at 29 inches long. Doctor says she is still perfectly healthy despite her small size.. She's just a petite little girl! We love her cute little bitty self!!

Likes: She still LOVES bathtime, singing, and dancing. Her favorite toys are her little people sets, her pet monkey (which she calls her baby), her ride on car and her blocks. She still loves books and reading and she enjoys it even more now that she has her very own rocking chair to sit in. She also enjoys playing with anything that isn't a toy, like my Tupperware, utensils, and the dogs food and water dish. She's so curious! She likes crafts with mom, especially painting, and "writing" and coloring. 

Dislikes: She's a pretty easy going and happy baby so there's hardly ever anything on this list. She doesn't totally enjoy being put in her car seat or being bundled up (especially when she has to wear gloves) but that's about it.

Food: Now that we are weaning she has been eating food and drinking milk for meals. I did a separate post on specifics of what she eats if you're interested. Otherwise she eats anything and everything. Her favorites lately are yogurt, oatmeal, eggs and applesauce.

Words: This little girl is a CHATTER BOX!!! She's learning new words sooooo fast and loves to talk. A few new ones that I can think of are: Where are you? "Ahhh Yu?" when she is looking for someone. "Ayel" Ariel her mermaid little people. "Munty" monkey. "Oh yee" oh yeah. Up and down. "Puh" for please. "Na-Ni" for naughty (always referring to her puppy doing something). "A-beb" amen (always said VERY loudly at the end of a prayer) She's always got new words but that's most of her new ones up til now. 

Milestones: Walking! 100% of the time. She used to crawl once she fell but now she stands back up and keeps going. I haven't seem her crawl in almost 3 weeks now. She's cruising. Obviously talking is still a huge milestone for her. The doctor says she's above and beyond developmentally. Her motor skills and vocabulary, especially. He also told me, while she was throwing a full on tantrum in his office (like back arched, head thrown back, kicking, screaming, and writhing) that baby's as young as her usually don't have the comprehension to connect a tantrum with results yet. I'm still undecided on whether I like that she's so far ahead in that or dislike it ;)

Overall, this month, and year even, have been amazing for us. This little girl amazes her daddy and I each and every day! She's a joy to everyone she meets and has a smile that is big and inviting. She's beautiful inside and out and I could not love her more. We're so proud of who she is becoming! She's the best!!