On the Move!

She’s figured it out – Kinsley is mobile!  She decided that you didn’t need to put your feet behind you to crawl, how else do you get back on your bum when you want to sit?  No, no, this is the way.

 She's pretty fast too.  When I came home the other day, she peeked around the corner and said, "eee!" (which I translated to "mommy!") and she came scooting around the corner to me.  It was very sweet.

 For Christmas, my brother and sister got us a family pass to the zoo.  So on Saturday, because it was 60 and we could, we packed up the wagon and went to see half of the zoo.  (Because we can come back anytime to see the other half.)  Myla had a lot of fun splashing in the puddles and every time we would see an animal, she would say, "okay mom, lets go find some more animals."  She really wanted to see the elephants, but they have moved them to a new spot on the zoo and it isn't open yet.  But we had a great time visiting the other animals - except the lion, which was pacing in front of the window and scared the girls.

Tonight we have a fire going and have enjoyed the day off to be together.  And here comes my scooter to see me. 

Only here

Christmas Day was everything we hoped it would be.  Myla couldn’t wait for us to come downstairs, and came herself.  She climbed up on the chair arm and glanced in her stocking.  Her eyes got wide and she said “Santa did come!”  Both the girls got bean bag chairs, which in the past few days have been everything from a train to a boat.  They got all sorts of wonderful toys that they haven’t stopped playing with.  In fact, I bet you didn’t know, Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem on Santa’s train.  Well, they traveled to the kitchen tonight anyway.

Today, I got off work early so that I could spend some more time with the girls while Johnny slept.  Last Thursday, we got, oh, eight inches of snow.  And today, we did this.

The park was still pretty covered in snow on the ground, but the slide, swings and climbing places were clear and dry.  And since it was almost 60 outside, we took full advantage before the wind drove us inside.  It was a nice change of scenery, and – I don’t know if you can tell from the pictures – a pretty good time.

Merry Christmas!

May your day be merry and bright!

Ten months old!

This crazy girl is now ten months old.  And she is crazy!  Kinsley has become a master scooter on her bum and still occasionally finds herself on her stomach – a position that she does not enjoy.  She’ll go backwards in the position for awhile until you look at her and then she remembers that she isn’t supposed to like it and fusses.  She is very ticklish and smiley. Sometimes it sounds like she is saying real words or asking us questions about what she’s found.  We did an official weigh-in on the home scale and she’s about 20 pounds of craziness!

Myla had been fighting another – or the same? – cold again and has found herself kind of tired.  She was much better yesterday and had a great time at Witulski Christmas dinner.  Myla loves to count things and read our Christmas books.  Yesterday, she got to play in the “deep, deep, DEEP” snow we got overnight.  We’ve been counting down the days to Christmas and every day she tells me that its almost time.  I almost dread the day after Christmas when we don’t have a star to move or an elf to search for.  I’ve been racking my brains trying to come up with something to keep the Christmas spirit within her for longer.

Myla has also been… imaginating.  Here’s what I found after putting Kinsley down for a nap this morning (yes dad, she does nap, sometimes…)

All the drawers and cupboards in my kitchen – and bathroom open.  And do you know what was in them?

Ducks.  18 of them, actually.  All in the “whale’s belly.”  I couldn’t help but laugh.

Lights and more lights

Myla has been so much fun this Christmas season.  She loves all the lights up on people’s houses and we will be driving down the street and she’ll say “look mama, more lights!”  She tries her hardest to get Kinsley to look out the window at them too, but Kinsley just looks at her when she tells her to look and see.  We got to go with A2 to zoo lights on a special night and she had a great time.  She’s still talking about all the lights we saw and the merry-go-round we rode and “remember mama, when we went to the lights at the zoo last day?” 

We finally got our tree up and decorated and that was a lot of fun too.  Myla was going through her ornaments and saying “ohhh!” or “ah-ha-ha!”  She has a few that she takes on and off to play with but her favorite thing by far is to turn on the lights.  Kinsley likes to sit and look at the tree.  She’s not quite mobile yet, but is quickly becoming a master at backwards.  In time, she’ll figure out that its not so bad to go backwards if you can control where you’re going.  Right now, she just gets backed up into something and gets frustrated.

We’re having a lot of fun seeing Christmas through our little one’s eyes.  Everything is almost done – except for Kinsley’s stocking, which was destroyed by our obviously unloved dog.  So, I am starting from scratch with the goal that it will be done in time for Santa to fill it.  I will get back to that now – leaving you with a couple more pictures of tree decorating…

November come and gone

Sorry I’ve been bad about updating you this month.  You see, I’ve procrastinated big time and have spend every night I can finishing a project and therefore neglecting other things, like the blog… or dishes… or folding laundry… Anyway, here is an update of our month.

Kinsley is now nine months old and right on the verge of becoming mobile.  She just has to get that other leg out from under her and figure out how to move forward and she’s a goner.  She is really good at eating just about anything that we put on her tray and loves apples and cheese.  She visited the doctor and checks in this month at 21 1/2 pounds and 27 inches long.  She’s a big talker and loves to tell you all about it.  She’s also got a bit of a mischievous side and goes for Myla’s hair when she isn’t paying attention and pull it.  She thinks its so funny and laughs!  Myla is not such a fan.

Speaking of Myla, she has been busy too.  She’s had a couple of fun days in preschool – a feast and a field trip – and continues to bring home lots of interesting facts.  She’s discovered the space under her bed is a great place to hide, or to hide things, and sometimes will dive under there right before you walk in the room – the only indication is the skirt blowing in the breeze.  She’s been fighting a cold for about a week now, but I think she’s finally getting better. 

Other than that, our days have been filled with…

Picnics by the fire and

Making peppernuts – a Witulski family Christmas tradition

In other words – making memories.

Trick or treat!

Myla had the best time with Halloween this year.  She’s been saying all month that she wanted to be a pink flamingo and when she woke up on Halloween, there was no fussing about putting on her costume – finally!  She spent the whole day leaving little pink feathers everywhere she went.  But she loved it.  We hit a few houses for trick-or-treating too.  Every door we went to, she would hold out her bucket but never said trick-or-treat.  And then we would walk away and she would tell me “lets go to another house for trick-or-treats!”  I think her favorite time though was helping to hand out the candy to other kids.  Every time the doorbell would ring she would run to give out candy.

Kinsley got the cutest little witch socks from my mom and so she went as a good witch.  Of which, I have no pictures. (Bad mom!)  But, it was a simple tutu type skirt and of course the socks.  She didn’t really get what was going on, but she liked to watch the pink flamingo go.  I think next year she will have a great time.  Especially if she still thinks Myla is that much fun to watch.

We all enjoyed the warm Halloween and then prepared to hunker down for the latest snow.  And then, we did this…

Is there anything better than warming your feet by the fire after playing in the snow?  Nay, I say.  Man, I missed having a fireplace.