Helping Daddy: Then and Now

Remember when we bought a walker/bike for Little Miss and she helped Daddy put it together?

THEN: (Feb 2014)

 Nearly two years later and she still likes to be nearby Daddy to lend him a hand.  He was recently adjusting something under the sink when Little Miss ran over to observe, offer her services, and have a snack.
NOW: (Dec 2015)

Hopefully she'll always be this helpful to him and become super handy.  I wish that I knew way more about home improvement and it would've been a huge help to have learned things along the way while growing up.

A Rock and Roll Christmas

A few days before Christmas we were at the thrift store and Little Miss took a liking to a certain guitar.

This made me very happy because, little did she know, I had a similar surprise waiting for her under our chalkboard Christmas tree.

 You can tell that we had a very modest Christmas as a family, but one of the gifts Little Miss received was a new guitar!

It's of the quality that she can one day take lessons on it if she'd like, but it's still a little big for her.  She doesn't let that get in the way.  Since Christmas she pulls it out several times a week and always requests Daddy and I to play 'Jingle Bells' on it.  Luckily, she doesn't seem to notice that hubs nor I know how to play.  We just strum along randomly and sing Jingle Bells and she's happy.  She also got her lunch box, (which she opened early and loves), a Potty book, and something else I'm not remembering right now.  Christmas was a success for us.

Storytime: Then and Now

I started taking Little Miss to the library for story time before she was old enough to stay awake the whole time.  It was difficult because I had to hold her up, but here's the picture from our first story time.

THEN: (2013)

Now, she prefers to get some books beforehand, sit in the front, and snack through the show.  At the very end, they allow all the children to come sit on the stage to sing, "It's a Wonderful World."  Little Miss never went up until this last time.  My heart swelled with pride as my little toddler struggled for a millimeter of seating at the edge.  It is such a privilege to get to be present as she grows up.

NOW: (Dec 2015)

Our New Children's Library

The children's section of the main library was recently closed for renovation.  They had their big reveal when things were at their craziest, but once we were back, it was time to take advantage of being in walking distance to such a great resource.  It did not disappoint.  Once we walked in, we were immediately greeted by a miniature version of the city.

It was so cool.  You could climb in there and find all sorts of hidey places to hang out.  Little Miss immediately found the ladder and got to work.

We had an amazing story time and then came out to play at the climbing wall.

Yes, our library has a climbing wall.  It's so cool!  There were still lots of other features I didn't photograph, like the train table where she spent about 20 minutes or the puppet theatre made to look like the Ryman.  There are so many things to explore.  We'll have fun there for years to come.

We're back!

It's so nice to be back home.  When we arrived, the garage was full of boxes, but we were so happy to be a complete family again, we didn't seem to notice.  Little Miss loved exploring everything and seeing some of her things after weeks of being away.

The first order of business was lunch.  I went out to pick up something and Little Miss and Daddy put together the table and found the chairs for our first meal together.

We quickly realized that the couch needed to come down, and after arranging some of the furniture Little Miss and Huck immediately got cozy.

That night happened to be the Winter Solstice and our local park was having a celebration.  We made a bird feeder out of a pine cone, there was a wreath making station we didn't do, and there was a camp fire for roasting marshmallows.  A favorite activity was a nighttime hike with luminaries.  

Little Miss was happy to lead the way.  We saw that the park is open until 11 so we may try to do another night time hike soon.

Sleeping Beauties

I know I post pictures of these two sleeping peacefully together all the time, but it never gets old to me.

And the Award for Most Patient Dog Ever Goes to...

Huckleberry!  Hands down, this dog lets Little Miss get away with pretty much anything with little more than the occasional growl.  

I found her putting stickers on him one day:

She tried to make it up to him with one of her famous cuddles.  Speaking of cuddles, she's now into giving him force cuddles.  

A common saying around here is, 'Don't pull puppy by the neck,' as she gives him said cuddles.  She also likes to force him into her lap so she can give him cuddles.

I couldn't get a picture because I was too busy screaming at her to get off, but the other day she was standing on him and balancing while he was innocently laying on the ground.  This poor pooch deserves sainthood.  

Little Miss Reads a Lot

Little Miss loves her books.  She asks most visitors to the house to read to her and tries to stretch out bedtime with books as long as she can.  She recently experienced a language explosion and is talking more than ever before.  Now that she's talking, it's so interesting to hear all the different things that run through her mind.  Songs from music classes several sessions before, processing of the day's events, pointing out similarities, etc.  

Now that she's more independent with her speech, she's decided to share it with others.  Little Miss can now be caught reading to her doll, Megan.

and to Huckleberry.

It is the sweetest thing ever.

The Construction Refugees

In no way do I want to downplay the real Syrian refugee crisis currently happening, but we had a housing crisis of our own recently.  We fired our builder mid-project after already putting in our notice at our apartment. We realized that there was going to be a period of time where we had to be out of our apartment, but couldn't yet get into the garage.  I called my mom and asked if she could find it in the kindness of her heart to accept some poor construction refugees from the South.  Luckily, she obliged.  Just a few short days later 3 of the 4 family members loaded into the car and started the long drive up.
Huckleberry was excited to have his own bed to sleep on in the car, but quickly realized that being near the book bag wasn't all it was cracked up to be:

Oh well- he was his usual trooper self.  Life was fun up north.  I got to take Little Miss Sugar to my favorite donut shop growing up.  I let her choose anything she wanted, and of course, her eyes were bigger than her stomach.

The sundae donut was also one of my favorites growing up, so I had a little moment of pride there.  We were also lucky enough to see Uncle Mike and Aunt Judy several times.  Little Miss loved having Uncle Mike read books to her.

Of course, there were still lots of opportunities to look after Huck and make sure he was warm, cozy, kissed, and just generally loved.

We also headed to a local greenhouse.  It was so fun to see all the different plants and the indoor waterfall and koi pond!

One of the absolute highlights of the trip was thanks to Aunty Judy.  We decided that it would be fun to go look at Christmas lights, but being in the country, we had no idea where the best displays might be.  Aunt Judy asked around and said that there might be some in a neighboring town.  Boy were there!  We pulled into this unassuming parking lot and found quite the surprise.  There was an entire park laden with all sorts of lights and fun little vignettes.  You never would've expected something like this to be in such a small town and it was free!

Grandma and I have a tradition of putting together a gingerbread house each holiday season.  It was much simpler than years past, but Little Miss was a full participant and had a fun time.

She was even excited about sharing it with the birds when we were done looking at it, but we had to move it up high to prevent her from eating all the pieces!  We had a fun time, but after almost 2 weeks we were all missing Daddy and were cleared to move into the garage.  Yay!  Time to head back home.  Thanks for another great trip, Grandma!  See you soon.