Fun with Rosalee and Zeke

07 November 2009

Got Tink?

Obsessed much?!?
As you can see Rosalee had a FABULOUS 2nd birthday. We spent the day at home, with family, and it was great. Rosalee got to wear what she wanted (her Tinkerbell dress from Halloween), have her hair down how she wanted (messy aka- barely brushed), and skip her nap (we had a good reason!). We let her open her presents, then ate the dinner Rosalee picked out, ate the cake she requested, all while watching the new Tinkerbell movie. (NOTE TO SELF- they had a commercial for ANOTHER Tinkerbell movie coming out the fall of 2010. Can you guess what Rosalee is getting for her 3rd birthday?)
I took mostly movies of Rosalee because she was hilarious to watch. Every time I'd switch over and take a few pictures she'd do or say something that I wished I had caught on video. So be prepared to watch several short clips of Rosalee's party.

Last year I dressed her nicely and took her outside for some cute pictures. I have a "thing" about HAVING to take the pictures of them on the actual day they turn that age. I know that one day doesn't make a difference but for some reason it just doesn't feel the same to me. I got so caught up in just having fun and enjoying Rosalee that I totally forgot about taking some nice pictures until I started on this post. :(
But I feel that this picture does a great job of summing up Rosalee turning two.
*She is VERY independent! She likes to pick out her own clothes (even if Mommy tries to tell her that it won't be warm enough, doesn't match, etc.), she wants to feed herself, and likes to walk/climb/move without any assistance.**She speaks in fairly coherent sentences. Other people can (for the most part) understand her and she enjoys interacting with anyone who gives her the time of day! Her vocabulary is so large that I've lost count of how many words she can say now. She knows what the words mean and if you try to ignore her, give her something else, etc. you are guaranteed to see a tantrum.**She can jump and is starting to get her feet off the ground. It's pretty silly to watch actually. She also enjoys dancing and calls herself a "dancing baby" and has 3 dance moves- happy feet (think Flash Dance, jogging in place quickly), spinning, and dancin' (that's the penguin like wobble she most often does).**She LOVES giving her family hugs and kisses. Actually she'd kiss or hug anyone but I try to discourage the hugging of random Wal-Mart door greeters.**She is a big help with Zeke. She likes to help pick out his clothes, tell me which diaper he should wear ("No Elmo this time, he needs a Big Bird one."), talking or singing to him when he cries, and kissing him whenever she can.**Going swimming is a favorite activity, even though all she can do at this point is walk around in the shallow end, go down the slide, and lie on the steps.**As much as she enjoys helping me pick out her clothes she'd rather go without clothing. She always asks if she can take a "naked nap" (that just means without pants on) and she takes off running as soon as she's done in the bathroom before we can redress her.**She uses the potty and has gone up to 3 1/2 days without an accident. When we're at home she wears underwear and if we go out she gets a pull-up over top of the underwear. She gets pretty upset if she gets her underwear dirty and will tell us randomly throughout the day, "we don't go poopy on Minnie/Tinkerbell". It's kind of funny that she is attached to the characters on her underwear, but whatever keeps her dry!**She is starting to get into pretend play with her toys. She makes food with random dishes (mostly soup) and then feeds them to her babies. Last night as I was going to turn the light off she asked me to wait. When I looked over at her she was taking one of her blankets and tucking her new dolls under it.**Nature FASCINATES her beyond belief! Any rock, leaf, etc. is like a piece of gold to this kid. Her eyes get so big and bright and she almost squeals with delight as she tells you about it.**She likes to color, especially if someone sits with her and allows her to tell them how to color.**She does NOT like naps, but will go to sleep with little to no complaints if we turn on a book on CD for her. Going to bed at night is great, as long as we keep with her routine. If we're at a new place she'll get upset so it is CRITICAL that we bring a toy or blanket from her crib with us when we travel. Thankfully she'll only be upset the first night and then be fine the rest of the time so we haven't been discouraged from taking extended trips yet.**She knows her full name is Rosalee Helene James and she's convinced that Zeke's full name is Zeke Let James.**She likes watching videos and cartoons, especially Disney ones.**She is a toddler and has tantrums but thankfully they don't happen that often or last for very long. I love that she copies lines from books or movies to express her frustrations to us. Once we realized that she was doing this, we worked on teaching her the correct words to use. Now instead of saying, "This is my hiding spot!" when she's mad (it comes from the 1st Tinkerbell movie) she'll say either, "no thank you I'm fine" or "I don't want to". She still says, "it'll taste just the same" when she disagrees with us (that comes from Just a Nap one of the Little Critter books by Mercer Meyer) but one day she'll figure out what to say to better get her point across.**She has a great smile and laughs hysterically. Her laugh is contagious and can change the mood of an entire room.**Rosalee is a wonderfully happy, smart little girl who is greatly loved by everyone who knows her.*

Rosalee's great grandparents came down for a short visit. Rosalee was in her crib getting ready for her nap when they came. I figured since it was her birthday I'd be nice and let her get out of her nap. Boy was she excited, no nap AND she got to see GG and Grandpa! They bought her a cute outfit (she's wearing the green coat) and a fancy sequined dance skirt.

(Don't mind the crazy hair, I'm in desperate need of a hair cut!)
I made Rosalee a strawberry shortcake for her birthday because that's what she wanted. Although I'm 99% sure she has no idea what a strawberry shortcake is, I made one anyway. I made a strawberry cake and then topped it with whip cream and strawberry syrup and strawberries.

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Here are some of the still shots I took of Rosalee opening her gifts. I should have just kept it on video the whole time, but I wanted something to put in a scrapbook.

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A dinner fit (and picked out by) for a two year old! Rosalee wanted chicken nuggets and curly fries so I made some popcorn chicken and curly fries for dinner. Rosalee was excited to have ketchup and ranch to dip her food in. Despite the odd look on her face she really loved her dinner and ended up eating two plates full of chicken and fries.

We kept saying, "wow, that doll is the size of a real baby" so to prove/disprove our statement we put Tink next to Zeke. At first he was shocked to see another small person next to him and then he started smiling and cooing at the doll.

I was hoping she'd dig in and make a big deal out of her cake, but nope. She daintily picked off all the strawberries and then told me she was all done.

Same story with the ice cream... all she wanted was the strawberry syrup.

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We love our monster baby, Rosabug, Lily girl very much and are so happy to be able to continue to watch her grow!

05 November 2009

Ah, Rosalee

Tomorrow my baby won't be a baby. She will be 2 and therefore a toddler. There are days when I think I'll be working on potty training, dealing with tantrums, and explaining that goldfish crackers are NOT breakfast forever. Then there are other days when I want Rosalee to stay little, to enjoy being held and read to, to get excited when I make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and to give me an insane amount of kisses.

Here are some of Rosalee's latest conversations with us-
On Tuesday I handed her a book while I was feeding Zeke and told her to read it. She got very mad and tossed it on the floor exclaiming, "I don't know how to read!" I asked her if it made her upset that she can't read her books and she said, "I want to read Mama." So I showed her the letters and a few basic words in the book as I read it to her. Then I went back to dealing with Zeke while she flipped through the book. She started squealing with delight at one page and when I asked her what was so exciting she said, "I see it, I see it!" "What do you see?" "It is 'the', right there Mama, I see it. I know how to read now. I big girl." She's so eager to be a "big girl"... just wait until she learns about taxes!
Last night we went shopping and we decided to let Rosalee roam the toy aisle to see what she'd like for her birthday. Not too shocking, she picked out a Tinkerbell doll. We found two other Tinkerbell dolls but one was a Barbie type and I was afraid of her losing (or eating) the tiny parts. So we asked if she wanted the one she picked out (The doll is HUGE! It's almost as tall as Rosalee is.) or if she'd want a smaller, plush one to snuggle with. She looked at both and said, "I want the big Tinkerbell" and then she ran up to it and attempted to carry it down the rest of the aisle. We decided to buy it but wanted to hide it until Friday night. So Jesse told her that it had to stay at the store and then walked ahead of me. I took the doll and put it in my diaper bag. (Why no one stopped me, looked at me funny, etc. is BEYOND me!) I walked up to the front of the store and bought it and Jesse took Rosalee to the car to get buckled in. As we were backing out of the parking spot Rosalee said, "Bye Tinkerbell, I'll miss you. Maybe you can come to my birthday and see me." I honestly didn't know whether to cry or laugh. So now I'm really excited to see how she reacts when she finds out that Tinkerbell came to her birthday AND gets to live with us.
This morning Rosalee woke up screaming at 6:15 (the alarm was set to go off at 6:30) so Jesse brought her into bed with me. She INSISTED on placing her head on MY pillow and snuggling with me. A few minutes later she reached over, placed her hand on my cheek and said, "you're so pretty mommy." Then she headbutted me, made a "mwah" kiss sound, and went to sleep. I am SO lucky to be her mom!

She is very curious about everything and loves to examine things. She was looking at this movie case, talking to the pictures on it, and "reading" it to me.
If you're wondering why she's topless it is because when I asked her if she wanted me to help her get her shirt back on after lunch she said, "no thank you, I'm fine."
That's what I get for asking!

Rosalee loves her brother so much! If I take pictures of her she makes sure that get some of Zeke too. She took the last one of Zeke and I was surprised with how well it turned out!

Today we went for a walk down the road and through the high school soccer field. (Our backyard butts up against the soccer field.) Rosalee had to stop at EVERY pine cone and pick it up. She would tell me about each one too. "This the mommy pine cone" or "this a little baby pine cone". The best one- "This just a pine cone, they don't do much."
She also kept looking at all the rocks along the sidewalk so I asked her to tell me what colors she saw. So she got down on her stomach, picked one rock up at a time, and proceeded to tell me all the colors she found.
She cracks me up!

After taking her picture she told me that it was Zeke's turn. At first he tried to hide...

but eventually I found my happy little guy!

In the soccer field Rosalee was content to wander around. She'd follow the painted lines in the grass, collect more rocks and leaves, and randomly giggle. She was AMAZED by the soccer goal when we walked by it. She ran up to it and kept touching it and nodding her head while mumbling to herself. I forget how wonderful things, that are rather dull, can be to someone.
A large part of me hopes she never grows out of that phase.

02 November 2009

HaLloWeEn

For Halloween we went to Utah and spent time with Jesse's family. We stayed at Jesse's sister's house and had a lot of fun. On Saturday we let the kids play and then we took them trick or treating. After that we played some more and then all passed out in to a nice sugar induced coma. So without further delay, here are the pictures! (I took a few so be prepared.)

Jenny as Betty Boop and Tia as Minnie Mouse
When my mom came to visit she made both of these costumes for my sister-in-laws.

Jesse's cousin Valerie came down with Tia and Jenny to see all the kids before they headed off to their party and dance.

Rosalee with Allie and Kaylee in their princess dresses

Hudson in his pirate costume and Jesse's wig. We jokingly called him Jesse's mini-me.

In case you can't tell, we were characters from Peter Pan this year. Getting to wear a big nightgown and slippers was great for me, I need to find more cozy costumes for next year. Our family photos, which surprisingly turned out pretty good! I like the second one better except that it doesn't show Jesse's hook hand. (My father-in-law cut it out of wood, sanded it, and then we spray painted it with chrome paint. Oh yeah, I take my holidays serious!!) Jesse looked too good because he actually scared Kaylee when he was in full costume. She was so upset that he had to wait until she went upstairs before he could put his wig and hat back on for these pictures.

I took this picture to show off the wings I made for Rosalee. I was really happy with how they turned out and Rosalee actually didn't mind wearing them all night.

The best picture I got of all the kids in their costumes. The twins are pirates, Kaylee and Allie are princesses, Sydney is a cat, Rosalee is Tinkerbell, Zeke is Peter Pan, and Gavin is a race car driver.

Zeke and Sydney
It's hard to tell but he's taller and has a bigger head than her. I also like this picture because it shows off Zeke's hat better. (Did I mention I made it without a pattern? Not too bad for copying it off of the movie, right?)

Kristi's family were characters from Cinderella... kind of. Jared was suppose to be a prince but I guess he changed in his tights and cape to be a pirate. The older girls are princesses, the baby is a cat, and Kristi is the sewing girl mouse.
Sadly I didn't get a picture of John's family. I took a picture for them on their camera but forgot to get one on mine. I guess I'll be stealing one from their blog as soon as they post them.

Some of the people went CRAZY decorating their lawn and house. It was dark so the picture didn't turn out that great, but you get the point.

Rosalee trick or treating with her dad. Before going we asked her, "what do you say when the people give you candy?" Rosalee's reply, "Hooray!" Too cute. When it came to actually getting candy she did say "thank you" with the BIGGEST grin on her face. The best house- the lady who gave out packets of hot cocoa.

I thought it was so cute seeing a tiny Tinkerbell running around with Captain Hook. For most of the night she would hold on to his hook while walking from house to house.

I wanted to get a picture of Rosalee at a door and this was was very decorated so it was the chosen door. I also would like to point out that her candy bag is an Idaho potato sack. (That one's for you Mom!)