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.

4 years old!

There she is – our four year old!  Its amazing how much she has grown.  Her arm now is as long as her whole body was when she was born!  She had a great day – we went swimming at an indoor pool for a good hour.  She loved floating on her back in the water – which had a definite current – and then pulling herself back along the wall.  We went for a wagon ride and then had pizza for dinner. 

We had a party for her the night before with all the fixin’s – balloons, cake with frosting, candles, party hats and, oh yeah, presents.  She chose white cake with pink frosting.  She won’t tell me what she wished for when she blew out the candles.  She got lots of cards and phone calls and felt very special all day.

The next day, it snowed!  It was the perfect way (to Myla) to wrap up a birthday weekend.  She got to make footprints, a snow penguin and a snow ball.  She really had fun this year in the first snow.  Then we had to go to the doctor.  Official stats for 4 years old – 35 1/2 inches tall (almost three feet) and 26 pounds 10 ounces.  (I tell you what, some days I think Kinsley is already at 26 pounds.)

I admit, I got emotional on her birthday.  She is so smart and sweet and fun.  Its hard to imagine that just one fraction the other way… But here she is.  Four years old.  And very excited to be so.  I can’t wait to see what this year will bring for her.

Eight months

Kinsley has passed the eight month mark and there is no shortage of smiles and joy from this girl.  She’s very happy – most of the time – and loves to sit and talk to you.  She’s very into bouncing up and down right now and has discovered the “b” sound.  Or maybe it’s the “p” sound.  She also throws around the “m” sound and sometimes gets pretty close to mama even though I don’t think that’s really what she’s saying.  Kinsley also loves to have round toys set on her head so she can grab them off; she loves to look at pictures and sometimes talk to them; she loves to scream and screech when you’re not paying enough attention to her.  More than anything though, this girl loves to be with the action – in the kitchen while we’re making dinner, in the family room with Myla dancing, even going out to the mailbox – she wants to be there.  She's also sprouted two teeth in that little mouth and has a great time running her tongue over them.  I think she's even getting some more in there, judging by the fussiness we've encountered sometimes.


We are so smitten with these girls.  They make our days so much brighter.  We’ve been spoiled!

Buried

Where’s Myla?







Oh, there she is! And Kinsley too! Of course, Myla had a big hand in the pillow fortress since Kinsley mostly just sits there, unless she gets gutsy and throws a toy behind her and then tries to retrieve it but ends up on her tummy or her back and that’s no good. She seems more interested in trying to stand by herself than crawling. She can almost get up right if her legs push and her arms pull in unison.   Sometimes she gets really ambitious and spreads her legs really wide to get a toy that’s just that a touch too far away.  She’ll conquer that.

I don’t think there is anything Myla can’t do. She loves to help with everything which requires a lot of creative thinking on our part to include her as much as we can. She helped me take the back panel off an old LCD TV I’m fixing even though her job was mostly pretending to take out the machine bolts and then put them back in….She has an amazing imagination. I love hanging out with my girls during the week for a couple days! We go to the pet store, a.k.a mini-zoo, and the play park and other stores sometimes. But we also play at home.  Myla helped me plant an acorn in a pot so we can grow a tree someday, if it takes.

Kinsley and Myla giggle and talk together everywhere we are. It’s so sweet, they seem to love each other a lot.

My New Favorite Halloween Decoration

Glenwood Springs

Last weekend, we took a couple of days off and took the girls on a little family vacation to Glenwood Springs.

Myla didn’t really understand what was going on until we got there, she just knew that we were in the car for a long time.  Of course, duck had to come with us.  Kinsley… well, lets just say Kinsley didn’t notice.

First stop when we got there – the swimming park.  Inside the hotel.  There was a big and small waterslide, a rain tree and a water basketball hoop.  Myla was in heaven.  We went swimming all three days.  On the last day, she went down the big waterslide with her daddy and loved it so much, they did it again, and again, and again, and…

Kinsley got in on the waterslide action too but had a better time just sitting and watching and babysitting the duck while Myla swam.  She kicked some and we swam around the pool for a bit chasing Johnny.

The next day we went up the gondola to Iron Mountain and visited the sights.  Myla and Johnny went on the alpine slide and even went pretty fast, I’m told.

Kinsley and I made record time in the human maze – 8 minutes! – and we had lunch with an amazing view of the valley.

We did a little hike that afternoon up to Doc Holliday’s grave marker.  Myla did a good job keeping our pockets full of “secret buried treasure” on the way up. 

We had a really great time, but the girls were glad to be back in their own beds.  We made lots of great memories and enjoyed being able to just play.  Thanks Glenwood Springs!

7 months now

Kinsley changes so much every day, its good that I’m (trying) to capture these month-iversaries.  Seven months old now and all of a sudden she has a neck.  And its very ticklish.  She does this funny breathless laugh when she’s happy, or excited – especially if it’s a bottle headed toward that eternally hungry mouth.  She loves to do action songs – like patty cake, or head/shoulders/knees and toes, or the itsty bitsy spider.  Her favorite thing is still to watch Myla and I think that sometimes she tries to get her attention in the car so that she can see her.  Just in the past few days, she’s started to lunge off to the side, another hint that she’s going to be off and running, okay, crawling soon.

Myla and I went to see a children’s production of Alice in Wonderland on Saturday.  There were a few parts right in the middle when she said she wanted to leave, but I’m glad we didn’t, because when we left, she thought it was so great, “mommy, I loved seeing Alice with you.”  Ahh, it could melt the hardest heart.  Today, she was the white rabbit, running around the house saying, I’m late, I’m late!  But tonight, we were pirates matey, sailing on the seventies (seven seas) and looking for treasure.  The rest of the time, she spends jumping and stomping so she can become taller in time for Halloween.

Oh how these two melt our hearts!

Ambition

The weather can’t decide what its doing – 80, 60, 80, 60 – but we don’t mind.  It gives us a chance to explore and learn new things.  Who has more ambition - Johnny to try and teach Myla checkers, or her to want to learn?  Myla’s little sponge has grown since she started school, even though she takes a while to tell us what she learned.  They have been focusing on shapes and colors this month and she’s had a lot of fun going.  She’s also wasted no time in getting a cold which forced her to miss a day or two, but she’s loving it.  She’s also been going to gymnastics every week and today she was so excited to tell me what she did, I couldn’t believe it.  I think the whole month has made her grow so much.

Kinsley has been using her own ambition in lunging forward after a toy or a Myla or a kitty.  Still not rolling over, and she can’t quite figure out how she got on her tummy once she gets what she wants.  This little action makes me think she’s not going to bother with the whole rolling thing – let’s get straight to crawling!  She’s not yet, but will in no time I’m afraid.  She too caught Myla’s cold but she’s been doing better a little every day.  No teeth, but she’s not letting that stop her – the basic baby food, or a little bit of biscuit, or cheese, or puffs.  She watches the spoon go to our mouths and sometimes smacks her lips.  She’s ready!

We celebrated Johnny’s birthday this week with some cherry cheesecake and time with his girls.  They think he’s pretty awesome – and he’s a little smitten too!

A Ducky Day

Anyone who knows Myla – even maybe in passing – knows that she is a lover of ducks.  I’m not sure how she became such a collector, but she has ducks of every kind and sometimes they like to come with us as we travel.  So when my sister told me that  there is a rubber duck race in Breckenridge, it was a no brainer – Myla had to see it.  The treck up the mountain took a little longer than expected due to traffic (holiday weekend, who knew?) but once we got there, she was in duck heaven.

We met my parents and watched a smaller race first.  They threw out some ducks of which Myla got three new ones – they came to dinner with us – and then we moved a little up river.  When the big race (like 5,000 ducks) got to where we were, she could not believe how many ducks there were.  “A waterfall of ducks!”  “So many ducks, I don’t know how they will catch them all!”  “There were five ducks mommy!”  She even got in on the action to throw some of them back into the main stream after they got stuck.  She played in the water and with ducks and was soaked and happy.