The Ma Family

The substructure is up…

Ground is still soft from all of the rain we had over the weekend.

This month the news is BIG!!  HUGE even.

Today you decided that you are really committed to this whole walking thing.  You have been thinking about it for a while now and today was the day.  You decided to hit the ground running pretty much as soon as you were out of the crib.

On Christmas, three and a half weeks ago, you took five steps together for the first time.  Before that you had been taking a step here and there.  I kept thinking that you’d be walking by Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Year’s and all along you were waiting till you were exactly eleven months old.  You little stinker!

Wow, Momma and Daddy’s world is changing again and it will never be the same.  You think you are pretty big stuff today and it’s been fun watching you roam around the house.

In the past month you have had your first Christmas.  Just like your sister you were a big fan of the bows and ribbons on all the gifts.  Rylee was thankful for the gifts and you were thankful that everyone made the packages so pretty.  You are enjoying your new toys so much that we were able to take away a lot of the baby toys.  Yay!

You have been growing like a weed recently.  Again, like your sister, you are long waisted so your onesies are a size bigger than your pants.  Since we’ve been through this before we are well situated with clothing for you.

Last week we went to the Farm Show with Bobbi & Papa and Uncle Danny’s family.  You had a lot of fun watching all the people and checking out the animals too.

I cannot believe we are one month away from your first birthday.  The past year has been a lot of fun for Momma.  I have been home with you for all of it except for a six week period early last summer.  I’m glad that I was given this gift of time to be home with you and your sister.  I think that you two have a wonderful relationship already.

I think this next month is going to fly by and before I know it we’ll be having your first birthday party.  I can’t wait. I know you’re going to have so much fun.  I’m curious to see if you will dig into the cake or just look at it like your sister did.

Love,

Momma

The process for the new deck has started…

The footers were poured in early December to beat any winter freeze, but today the new materials were delivered and the building will start tomorrow!

Since it’s been almost seven months since Rylee turned two I decided it was time to write about her.

Rylee has really enjoyed having me home.  When I originally talked with her about me going back to work she would tell me “Da-do work, Mommy home.”  We each had our place and she liked the current arrangement.

I have enjoyed being home with both girls.  I tell Rylee every day that she makes me laugh and it’s so very true.  She might just say something funny, do something funny or even just give me a look that just makes me crack up.  I enjoy being with her.  Well, most of the time, let’s not forget that she is two!

Rylee is still as clutzy as ever.  I swear she can trip over a piece of hair on the carpet.  For the most part she doesn’t hurt herself and usually laughs when the clutziness occurs.  I will say this is something she comes by honestly as everyone knows I am certainly not the most graceful person myself.

Rylee has a great vocabulary and she is constantly figuring out new sentences and phrases.  She can count to ten and while she knows her ABC’s she doesn’t really like to sing them, she would rather have me take care of that.

She still very much loves to watch the Wiggles.  She knows all of the characters and also knows which skits she enjoys and which ones to tell me to skip over.  She is usually up dancing around while she watches the shows.  She has also ventured into watching Disney movies.  (Big shock, I know!)  As of now her favorites are Mike!!!! aka Monster’s Inc. and UP!  She also has a few others that make it into the rotation.

One big thing in the last few months is that she no longer uses her Binky.  She went to stay with Bill’s folks for a few days and when it was time to put her do bed when she got home I couldn’t find them.  I took this opportunity to tell her that they must have been lost between our houses.  She took it in stride, talked about it for a few days, but has been Binky free ever since.  YAY!!!!!  Besides, Brynn was ready for that size Binky and Lord knows we weren’t buying more.

Rylee has also been telling us that she will pee in the potty when “Ho Ho” comes.  I cannot tell you how much we were looking forward to taking her to see Santa this year!  We went on Sunday night and let me tell ya, it wasn’t pretty.  Bill put Brynn on Santa’s lap and she just sat there looking at him. I put Rylee on his lap and she screamed.  Great!  I took her off his lap and we got the photo with only Brynn this year.  Afterward we asked her about peeing in the potty and and she said no “Ho Ho”.  I tried to explain to her that we had just seen him but she was having none of it.  So then we talked some more and it seems she meant that she will do it when Santa brings her new toys.  Alrighty then, a few more weeks won’t kill us.  Well, yesterday we got out the potty and she sat on it for a few minutes with no results.  No big deal, we will continue to let her sit there and hopefully soon something will happen.

Rylee really is a wonderful big sister.  She will play with Brynn and she loves to give her hugs and kisses.  She makes sure that Brynn has toys to play with and will also clean up Brynn’s toys before bed since Brynn can’t do it just yet.  I will say that there are times when she will take toys from Brynn to have for herself.  When this happens we always have a little chat and things go back to normal.  One of Rylee’s favorite things is to go into Brynn’s room in the morning and climb up on the side of the crib to ’see’ her and to say hello.  Brynn always reacts with a big smile or laugh.  No one can make Brynn laugh like Rylee.

Rylee is now to the point where she wants to be the one to pick out her clothes in the morning.  Thankfully I still have some input and we manage to choose an outfit that a mom can be proud of.  She even has to pick out the shoes to wear each day.  Boy am I in trouble in a few years!

That’s pretty much the update for now.  I will try to post updates on her more regularly if possible.

Well, this is now officially two weeks late.  Sorry about that babe. Things have been quite busy around here.  And it seems that we will continue to be through Christmas.  What that means is we are blessed with friends and family to spend time with, so I don’t mind a bit.

Big, big news this month.  During the past month you decided that are 100% done with baby food.  While I’m thrilled to not have to buy it, or keep it in the pantry, it does make meals challenging once in a while.  Actually more than that.  Since you are not a year old you cannot have eggs or dairy.  Do you know how many things contain cheese or need milk added to them?  Thank goodness you are a big fan of veggies!  Like Rylee you love broccoli and Napa cabbage.  We can always count on you to scarf them up.  You also like corn and carrots.  If we shred chicken or chicken nuggets you’ll eat them as well.  The best part is that when you run out of food on your tray you have a special noise you make to let us know that we are slacking and you need more food, STAT!

You have been crawling all over the place for a while now.  You are also pulling yourself up and cruising around the furniture and you’ll walk if we hold your hands.  But you don’t go very far yet.  I thought you would be walking by Thanksgiving, but you just aren’t ready yet. Maybe by Christmas, we’ll see how brave you are in the next few weeks.

You and Rylee really have a lot of fun together.  No one can make you laugh like she does.  It’s so much fun being home and watching the two of you have fun together.  Rylee seems to enjoy being a big sister and although she has her moments – like when you touch her toys! – she loves you very much.

You have been teething for a while and your top fangs have made an appearance.  Next will be the two front top teeth.  I can’t wait till teething is over, I must have forgotten just how tough it is on everyone.

I am really looking forward to the Christmas season and having fun with you and Rylee.  I can’t wait to see your reaction to Santa, I’m hoping that if Rylee isn’t scared you will take a hint and react the same way.

I can’t believe you are nine months old already.  The time sure is flying.  I just hope you’re having as much fun as I am.

Love, Momma