Sock Show

On Friday, we heard a commercial for the stock show on the radio, and Myla said “mommy, we haven’t been to the sock show yet today!”  And so yesterday, we went with my mom to see the stock show.  (Its funny, my parents didn’t take us growing up, but Myla’s been two years in a row!)  We saw all the stock show animals you could see – horses up close and even in the shower, cows getting a blow dry, sheep, buffalo, yak – even a fuzzy foot chicken.  Kinsley hung out in the backpack, but did focus in on the horses doing the agility track.  Myla went into the petting zoo part and feed the animals grass.  I think that was her favorite part.  She had a really great time and I’m sure it will become a tradition.

Kinsley passed 11 months old today.  Its crazy how fast this (almost) year has flown.  I swear to you, yesterday the light bulb went off and she can pull herself up to standing just about anywhere – even Myla’s sleeve.  She even will get her feet moving around enough to walk around the furniture.  She’s pointing at things and babbling away.  Still only those two little teeth on the bottom, but my guess is we are on the verge of some more.  I switched out her clothes today to 12 month clothes.  Kinsley helped so much by throwing around the too small clothes all over from my separated piles. She’s so much fun and yesterday she was having such a great time with her little feet just kicking away. 

Today, Myla was so excited to get out “valentimes” day stuff and put it up around the house, chattering away about each thing.  And Kinsley scooted around after her saying “ba ba ba.”  It was the best soundtrack to the day.

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.