Peanut is TWO!

My sweet, sweet girl is two today.  She is so loving and caring and she makes me smile more than anyone in the world :). 

She currently loves tomatoes, fruit and yogurt squeezes, smoothies, dried cherries, fruit snacks, cheese, chips, apple juice, and m&ms, although there is quite a bit of variety in her diet.  Her common meal choices are grilled and fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, hotdogs, tacos, and naked burritos from Qdoba.  She also eats lasagna, spaghetti, chicken noodle soup, chili, and many other things.

Our little lady loves gymnastics, Elmo's World, Sesame Street, singing the ABC's, dancing (although not in a dance class quite yet), swimming, and taking baths.  I hope to enroll her in swimming lessons soon if possible and a dance class in about a year I think.  She also loves to be outside and tries to tell me what the weather is - although most of the time she thinks it's raining even though it's not.

She is quick to give hugs and wants a lot of snuggles with Mama and Daddy, especially right around bed time.  Her pronunciation is pretty adorable as some of the sounds haven't fully developed yet.  For example fruit snack = noot nack, apple cider = apple hider, Uncle Sean = Uncle Hawn, and Aunt Olivia used to be Gibwa but is now Aunt Awa. 

Our kiddo asks to go to Grandma's House almost daily and the play car she got for her birthday she has named Jack because the neighbor boy, Jack, has a car that looks just like it.

Happy birthday, Peanut.  We love you SO MUCH!

Gymnastics Session 3, Week 8

Last Wednesday was the last lesson of session 3 and the kids had a blast doing activities they don't normally do.  We started on the rings over the foam pit and the kids tried to hang on and swing before falling.  Peanut didn't really hang on... haha.  Then the kids played with the parachute and giggled the entire time as they ran around and sat under the umbrella of fabric.  From there the kids went to the big beams and Peanut loved it.  A lot of the other kids were scared or nervous but she wanted to jump off onto the mats!  She walked forward and backward, and did kicks down and back three different times. 

After beam the group went to trampoline and then to tumble track into the pit.  On trampoline Miss Lina drew pictures of jack o lanterns for the kids which they loved.  At the end they got a special treat - Halloween stickers!

Cleaning is in Full Swing...& sweet Peanut moments

Peanut's birthday party is a little less than two weeks away, which means a full house deep cleaning spree is currently happening.  Spot cleaning the couch, organizing the closets, washing the walls and baseboards, wiping down cabinets, etc.  I've also been incredibly busy making decorations for the party.  It's a lot of fun to prepare for but it's exhausting!  I've been going basically non-stop for two weeks or so now. 

Peanut is getting close to two, and therefore sometimes has moments of pushing the boundaries and a slight attitude.  However, she also has moments of incredible sweetness.  Today, she wanted me to make a slide for her out of the couch cushions and every time she went down the cushion she called up to me Love you, Mama!  My heart melted a million times over.  I love you too, Peanut :). 

Gymnastics: Session 3, Week 6

Peanut did great today but she had moments of being a real stinker.  Sometimes the terrible twos start to show :). 

The kids started out on the obstacle course, where they crawled across a flat ladder that was elevated - she did pretty well!  Then they did forward roll/backward roll/forward roll holding a french fry before moving on to a forward roll on the floor beam.  After that came a jump up on to a green mat - she was really trying, she just couldn't quite make it up with a jump, and a jump down off of the green mat.  Next was a cartwheel station and then they ended with a hopscotch center. 

After three rotations of the obstacle course we headed to bars.  Peanut was a little whiny at bars, which is unlike her, but she did what she was supposed to do the best she could.  Forward roll, dead hang and walk with your hands across - she needed a lot of help with this, and hanging pike to toes on the bar at the uneven bars.

From bars we went to beam/floor.  Peanut was a stinker here.  There were pumpkins on the low beam that the kids were supposed to jump over and she kept kicking them over intentionally.  I was getting a bit frustrated with her because she knows better.  Then Miss Lina helped the kids do forward roll on the high beam with mats.  It wasn't explained very well to Peanut so she didn't get what she was supposed to do at first, but after the first time through she picked it up better.  Peanut also walked across the new second floor beam all by herself!  And she jumped down from the high beam onto the soft mat.  So proud :).  The floor rotation was a forward roll up a wedge mat, which Peanut did for the first time all alone!  Yay Peanut!  Then climb over the arch mat and do forward roll down, jump in the leaves and jump over the french fry mats.

Then we went to trampoline and Peanut was really trying to do the straddle jump - squeeze exercise Miss Lina asked the kids to do.  I was very impressed.  She didn't straddle very far, but she was really trying, more than many of the other kids. 

After trampoline was tumble track, and Peanut jumped her way down the track twice but was being a bit of a chicken when it came to jumping in the pit today.  Which was very odd since the whole time she wanted to play in the "blocks"

Time for a ghost stamp and we were done!  Overall a pretty good day :).

I have been seriously slacking! ...and tales from the toddler bathtub

Wow, I've missed a couple of updates about gymnastics!  Peanut is doing fabulously, she's really coming into her own.  I don't remember everything about the last few lessons we've had, but I'll share the highlights :)

• Peanut can now participate in sack races!  The kids all got into pillow cases and hopped down a mat and she held her own - she did a really great job!
• She can jump down from mats without hands to help now - she's a pro :)
• Peanut is very close to doing the forward roll on the bar by herself.  She just needs a little bit of help at this point
• She can walk across the floor beam all by herself although she's not confident in her ability to do that yet.  It takes some coaxing
• Peanut does not quite get the concept of the backward roll.  She still looks pretty freaked out when Miss Lina helps her to do it. 
• She is awesome at jumping down the tumble track now

I think that covers the major highlights from the past few weeks.  I also have some bathtub tales to share:

When Peanut gets close to the faucet in the tub I ask her to "scoot, scoot please.  Thank you." She has now taken to saying that phrase to herself over and over in the tub - it's pretty cute.

Today Peanut grabbed the big cup we use to wash her hair with, filled it with water from the bathtub and tried to drink it.  Except, the water splashed all over her face and she said "AHHH!".  Then I asked for her to repeat, "Bath water is yucky to drink" and she stated, "Bath water is lucky to drink".  She almost got it right - ha!

I will be back with potty training updates from today because today starts day 1 of potty training.  Yay Peanut!