I Have a Two Year Old

I can't believe it's September. You guys. This means a few important things:

1. It's Fall! I love Fall. It is easily my favorite season. Cooler temperatures. Crisp beautiful leaves. Football. Halloween. Jackets. Hot chocolate. I mean - what is there not to love.

2. I have a two year old. Yup. I somehow managed to completely skip over my daughters two year birthday in August. Mom points. But I figure I can catch up now, eh? Better late then never. I've decided that I love this age. So many people call it the terrible twos and maybe I'll be sticking my foot in my mouth a couple of months from now, but this is such a fun age. I mean don't get me wrong - Rose can throw some pretty epic tantrums... but luckily those are pretty far between.

Blowing out her candles on her ice cream sandwich. Rose isn't a huge cake
fan but she loves ice cream and popsicles.  So we made sure to have both
at her party along with pizza, her other favorite.

Rose still managed to be high up on the charts at her checkup. 75th for height, and 95th for weight. I don't remember her head, but let's just face it... it's pretty big so it's probably up there too. What's funny is she doesn't even have a ton of rolls, she is just solid! I wouldn't have her any other way. The doctor also couldn't believe how talkative Rose was - which of course made me so proud (though I doubt it has anything to do with anything I actually did). Rose is really growing up to be an amazing little girl. She is so happy, silly, crazy, and imaginative. There is so much going on right now with her development that I know I will forget so I'm going to try and put some down here:

Stretching with me at Crossfit.

- She no longer calls Spook "Boo-dah", which sorta breaks my heart. But luckily she found a new word to call him and now says "Spookak" which is just as adorable. She said "Spook" once and I about cried. So not sure how much longer we have of her saying it wrong.

Enjoying the boat at Bear Lake. 

- She loves books. I mean... she has always loved books and being read to, but I feel that it's an all new level now. I will constantly find her reading to herself and the best part is that between her jabbering she will be saying actual real words from the book. I can't believe how much she retains and how smart she is.

Reading books with daddy.

- She loves learning new words. She will constantly come up to me and point to something or hold something up and proclaim "Whats that!?" (though to be honest it usually sounds like she says "Oh shat!"), then when I tell her what it is she will look at it and say the word back like she is trying her hardest to commit it to memory.

- Rose is a great eater. We for sure have our days where she refuses to eat... but for the most part she will eat just about anything. It's so nice to know that she is willing to at least try a bite of something new, and most of the time she loves it. She is a good healthy eater 90% of the time and eats meat, veggies, fruit, cheese, and nuts like they are the best things ever. Makes our life a lot easier. And then of course she does love the occasional treat like pizza or ice cream. :)

Ready for lunch!

- She loves cars, trucks, motorcycles... basically anything with a loud engine. Anytime she hears something she will get big eyes and whisper what it is and then loudly say "vrroooooom!".

Looking up at a helicopter. 

- For the most part Rose listens pretty good. Even when she doesn't want to do it, like going to a timeout, she will sit with her face against a wall without me having to hold her there until I tell her she can come out. She also shows her attitude when she does what she is told... but then growls afterwards in a way like "I can't believe you are making me do this mom". I growled at her once in frustration and I am paying for it all the time now. She really is a sponge.

Being amazed at the bird show at the zoo.

- Rose is also one of the most caring and tender girls ever. She loves giving hugs and kisses and will randomly ask for either or both at any moment - driving in the car, walking around shopping, sitting reading books. She also worries about others, if she hears a baby crying she will tell me "baby saaaad" with the saddest face and then state "oh no!".

Giving herself a kiss on the mirror

Basically we are loving our time with Rose right now and are constantly laughing. She does the craziest things and is so silly and brings so much joy to our lives.

Playing with a tire pressure gauge. 

That moment you hear your daughter say "stuck" and you see this.

These two love each other. :)

Sportin' some sunglasses.

This was after she got her 2 year old shots, I gave her some chocolate to
make it "all better" and next thing I see is this messy face. :)

Loves.

She loves animals.

Kisses for the bear.

Reading books that Grandma and Grandpa Mc gave her for her birthday.

Jumping!

This is her to a tee. She has such enthusiasm for life. 

Silly faces.

3. I'm almost 17 weeks pregnant.  My belly is getting bigger, to the point that I hope think people assume at this point that I'm pregnant and not just chubby. Also being int he second trimester means the nausea is basically a thing of the past at this point. Yay! I do still have days where I'm so completely exhausted, but being anemic probably doesn't help things there. I'm starting to feel flutters from the baby that I know for sure aren't just gas bubbles, which brings peace to my constantly-worrying-that-I'll-miscarry-again heart. And the best thing...  in a week and half we find out the gender of baby number 2! I can't wait. I feel like finding out the gender makes things much more real. And no... I do not have any mommy's intuition as to what it is. I keep calling the baby a she, but I think that is purely out of being used to saying 'she'. Braedon is starting to think it's a boy and I change my mind each hour. I figure as long as the baby is one or the other and healthy, then I'll be happy.

Me at 16 weeks. 

4. Other random stuff happened. We went to Bear Lake with Braedon's extended family and enjoyed a lovely and relaxing weekend with each other and raspberry shakes. Mmmm.

Also for random happenings... our basement is all but finished! We just need to hire someone to put in some carpet! I can't wait to have that project off our list... and to have a nice big space for Rose to play in.

And lastly for big random happenings, we got a new car. Say what!? We have been talking about getting a new car since June, with another kid on the way we knew we'd like to have something a bit bigger, especially for when we go on trips, like camping! So we finally took the plunge and traded in my Subaru for a new Subaru Forester. We love it and are very happy with our choice... especially when it came to labor day weekend, where...

Yay new car!

5. We went camping! I look forward to this camping trip each year. Especially now it holds a special place in my heart as it was where Rose decided to start her debut to this world. I would be lying if I had slight anxiety about whether or not I'd have repeats with this baby... which would be WAY to early. Luckily no issues in the baby department and just an enjoyable weekend! We actually cut our trip a tiny bit short and ended up coming home late Sunday night rather then Monday morning/afternoon as Rose was having issues sleeping for some reason. Normally she sleeps just about anywhere, but both nights were a struggle after about half the night and I didn't want to try for round 3. So we instead headed home late and she slept in the car and went straight to bed in her crib and slept until 8:30 the next morning. Aka: good decision.

Besides the sleeping issues though we really did have a good time. Rose loved all the rocks and sticks and the fact that there was a big body of water close by to throw them in. We loved getting away from technology and relaxing in the beautiful scenery. Win win. :)

She really does love sticks.

Braedon loves sticks too. ;)

Kisses!

My sweetheart.

Summer was good to us. Busy... but good! I'm sure I forgot to update about something, but such is life. I am now ready for things to calm down and for all the fun things that Fall brings!

Happy Fall everyone!