Other Happenings

 Dear Mia,

You are adorable!  We have so many cute pictures of you just being cute.  Here are a few of them.  As you can see in one of the pictures, you like to be Daddy's helper and you love his tools.  You also love wearing hats and gloves and boots, whether it's cold or not, and you always try to get us to wear hats too.

 

Daddy's boss gave you one of his kids' toys that they had outgrown.  It is a ball machine.  There are 5 balls that go down the pipe and when you turn it on, it shoots them up into the air.  It is your absolute favorite!  Unfortunately the music is kind of annoying, so we have to limit how much time you can spend playing with it, but you love every minute of it.  You even like to stand right over the hole where the air shoots out of and have it blow your hair.  You can be so silly sometimes and those times are the best because we get to hear your squeals and laughter.

 

One of your Christmas presents was a ticket to the zoo.  We hadn't taken you yet, but since you love animals so much, we knew you'd love it.  We decided that it would be a fun day trip for just you, Mommy and Daddy before your Baby Sister came.  You loved it!  For weeks before we went, I had been having you watch the Baby Signing Time video that focuses on zoo animals.  You were able to do quite a few of the animal signs and recognized the animals that we were seeing.  You laughed at the penguins and got super excited about the hippos, elephants and the monkeys.  The tropical bird was one of your favorites and you and Daddy got to get really close to it.  You kept saying the animal sounds that each make too.  It was fun watching your reactions to all of them.  It was such a fun day and Mommy and Daddy got lots of cuddles and kisses from you.  We should definitely plan visits to the zoo more often!

For the past week, Alayna has been here visiting Aunt Jana (her Grandma) and we've gotten you guys together a lot to play.  At first, you guys were pretty shy and weren't interacting too much.  Once Daddy got you guys laughing and squealing while on your toy cars though, you guys became best friends.  Now you guys like to hold hands and play ring-around-the-rosie and just kind of copy each others actions.  It's been fun having you play with a friend so much!  We need to get you guys together more often.

Life is getting pretty exciting now that you're a toddler!  I just have to find more energy to keep up with you!  Hopefully we can still plan some fun outings for you after your baby sister arrives!

Hugs & Kisses,

Mommy