Two and a Half!

Annaliese is 2 1/2 years old! And on the one hand, she is such a joy...she can be so happy, full of smiles, laughter and a willingness to help out. On the other hand, she is becoming fiercely independent and will fall apart in an instant if something doesn't go the way she wants it to. I can honestly say that for the first time, we are at a stage that I don't particularly enjoy...mostly because she just doesn't listen that well and things that used to be so simple (like naptime) are becoming a daily struggle. 

 I tried to get a cute picture of her next to her blanket...she is definitely bigger than the bear now! She was mildly cooperative!

She is definitely growing into a little girl...one with her own ideas, wants, and needs. She is quick to tell us "not yet" when asked to do something or to tell us that she wants "two more minutes" if she doesn't want to be done with something. She knows what she wants to eat (for example, I poured her a bowl of Kix for breakfast yesterday. She didn't want Kix. Apparently she wanted Frosted Mini-Wheats. So she took her bowl of Kix and poured them all in the trash...lesson learned- ask Annaliese what she wants for breakfast!) what she wants to play (usually that would be outside!) and has an opinion about just about anything!

Here's a little summary:

Sleeping: We try to get her to bed around 6:30...lately she's been getting up at least once so it's closer to 8 by the time she settles down. Her wake-up time has began to vary...now that she can get out of bed on her own, she comes into our room anywhere from 5:15-7:00. I'm not sure why the change, but the early wake-up time has been hard on us all! Annaliese still needs a nap everyday, although, as I mentioned, it has become more of a challenge. It can easily take up to an hour for her to settle down and finally fall asleep. It has becoming a very exhausting part of the day, and not one I look forward to.

Check out that hair! That's how it looks every morning:)

Eating: Annaliese loves to eat whatever anyone else is eating! She particularly enjoys toast, chips, turkey, strawberries, oranges, warm milk, juice, and crackers. The only things that she consistenly won't eat are raw vegetables and cooked peppers. She would snack all day long if we let her, and will frequently ask for chocolate for lunch (I wonder where that idea came from!!!)

Clothes: All her shirts are 2T or 24 months; I've just added all the 24 month pants to her drawers. Most of them are still too big around the waist, but the 18 month stuff is getting too short.  Her shoes are size 6, although she is a huge fan of the purple jellies that Auntie Melissa gave her for Easter...and those are a sz 7 and she wears them all over the place!

Getting the dirt out of the purple jellies:)

Activities: Riding her bike, blowing bubbles, playing with Brodie, swinging on her belly, watching VeggieTales, swimming, baking and cleaning are all favorites. She also enjoys reading stories...the current favorites are her Bible and 10 Little Ladybugs. Visiting the horses, chickens and ducks has become a thing of the past. She no longer asks to go see them and doesn't hardly talk about them at all!

Vocabulary: Annaliese is talking like crazy and almost everything she says is understandable. She is always telling me "I want Haleigh to grow older." She then proceeds to tell me what she wants to do with Haleigh...eat 'urgurt' (yogurt), swing, sit on her... I recently over heard Annaliese saying "holy cow. holy cow" over and over while sitting at the bottom of the slide and when Haleigh was crying one morning, Annaliese ran up to her with a pacifier saying "shut up Haleigh. Shut up." Not sure where she picked up either phrase...but it was hard not to start laughing! She also says "I don't want to like it" anytime she doesn't like something.

Watching a butterfly

Dancing to the music while watching "Frozen."

Mother's Day Camping Trip

This is the third year we've decided to go camping for Mother's Day. The past two years we went to Kirk Creek, a gorgeous campground right on Highway 1, just south of Big Sur. However, while it has amazing views of the ocean, the campsites have virtually no shade and the trail down to the beach is so overgrown with poison oak that its un-passable, and it doesn't have potable water. So, this year we headed to Plaskett Creek, just a little south of Kirk Creek. The sites were larger, with both grassy areas and shade, as well as running, drinkable water! It proved to be a good decision!

We headed up Sunday morning and set up our camp for the next two nights. Sunday was spent setting up camp, playing a few rounds of Qwirkle, and convincing Annaliese that going to bed and falling asleep was a good idea! Yes, she cried/screamed/yelled at us for over an hour before finally falling asleep! Not one of her better moments. 

It got much colder at night than we had expected, so we were all a little chilly (except for Haleigh...I think she actually got too warm) and none of us slept that well. It just confirms my theory that we need to skip the first night-it never goes well!

But Monday turned out to be a beautiful day. After a tasty breakfast, we went on a short walk to see the ocean. 

We returned to the campsite, ate lunch and then attempted to put Annaliese down for a much needed nap. Thankfully, it didn't take too long before she fell asleep. She slept in the pack-n-play and we pulled it out of the tent since the tent was in direct sun all afternoon. It was a near-record-setting nap...over 3 1/2 hours long! Kyle had to keep moving the pack-n-play to keep her out of the sun! The rest of our trip was filled with more Qwirkle, bocce ball, frisbee, and even some relaxing!

 (please note the location of the pack-n-play...it started out right by the tent!)

 Kyle, entertaining himself while Annaliese was sleeping...trying to start a fire:)

I might add that Monday night went much smoother than Sunday night! Annaliese went to bed without much of a fight, woke up once asking for a blanket and Brodie spent most of the night outside! Overall, a much better night for all!! Even with the rough first night, we will definitely take these kiddos camping again!

April Recap

I was looking back through some of my recent pictures and realized that I have quite a few cute pictures from some of the day-to-day stuff that we've done. None of the activities warranted their own post, but the pictures are cute! A lot of them are off of my phone and might not be that great, but I will share them anyways!

Grandma Kelley (aka Mama) ran the SLO Marathon and the route went right down our street. We made a sign, walked down our driveway (Annaliese thought it was pretty neat stuff that we walked through the gate...usually we don't get to walk that close to it!) and cheered on all the runners. And by cheer, I mean actually yelling "cheer, cheer!" Annaliese made lots of people smile...a good thing at mile 17 in a marathon!!

Avila Barn

Steve and Michelle came over from Bakersfield to visit...and meet Haleigh, of course!

 Annaliese's new bike:)