Monkey see, monkey do

This crazy little lady is in full on copycat mode.  Watch what you say and watch what you do you because she is always watching you.  The things she has picked up totally crack us up.

When she wants me to follow her she says, "Come on, mama" while patting her thigh with her hand.  Just the way I call Coop to come.

She's already starting to negotiate and will immediately hold up her index finger and sweetly say, "one more" when you tell her no more of something.

She's also obsessed with washing her hands.  She loves to play in the water coming out of the sink and often stands outside of the bathroom saying, "wash, wash, wash, wash..."

She's a whiz with my iphone.  It didn't take long for me to have to put a lock code on it and now she's determined to get that code figured out.  When she can get her hands on it before it locks she swipes to get to the main screen, pages over a couple of pages to the games, then picks her favorite and starts playing.  Kids and technology - it amazes me.

She's also getting into the dreaded "mine" stage.  Ugh.  We are working on our sharing.

Snow Daze

We were thrilled to finally get our first snow of the year last Sunday and promptly headed out to enjoy the white stuff.  I'm not sure who was more thrilled - Sloane, John, or Cooper.

I had Monday off so Sloane and I happily played in the snow and snuggled indoors, thrilled with an extra day off together.  If I'd known that we'd be housebound for the next four days we would have been tooling around town, footloose and fancy free.

School canceled on Tuesday (oh, how I love working for a school).  We took that opportunity to swing into Target and Trader Joes to stock up for "Winter Extreme 2012" and were thrilled to get the second to last sled at Target - score.  The rest of the week sort of blended together.  Our days consisted of...

Sloane waking up, putting on her hat and begging to go out in the snow.

Then picking out random clothing items to wear around the house.  She refused to take my bra off her neck for three hours one morning.

We played dress up.

We caught up on some US Weekly

Then found some more appropriate material

We colored and stickered.

We took tubs.  The glow stick tub was a huge hit.  No, I was not playing any rave music.

Played with our dollies.

We ran around the house.  Marched up and down the hallway.  Practiced our backward walking.  We even watched a couple of Disney movies and some sesame street.  We played, played, played. 

We also spent lots of time in the snow every day.

And just as we were about to go absolutely crazy the snow disappeared just as fast as it came.  We love snow in Seattle.  We love snow days.  We love freezing our arses off outside then coming indoors to enjoy hot cocoa. We love watching Cooper bunny hop in the white powder.  We love Sloane's face as she ran to the window each morning to see if the snow was still there.  We love that we all got to be home together on Wednesday.  We love that John's 3 day trip to Arkansas was canceled.  We love sledding.  We love chatting with our neighbors as the kiddos entertain each other.  We loved Winter Extreme 2012.  But we especially love getting back to our normal routine. 

Ready to go to swim class?

Uh, maybe not.  That's not how you wear your swim diaper. 

This girl is obsessed with putting everything on her head.

Bottle 'em up

Each and every day I have moments with Sloane that leave me with my jaw on the floor.  Where I'm so happy, proud, and speechless.  Where I stop to think about just how brilliant, special, kind, and happy she is and about the mind blowing amount of joy she has brought to our lives.  John and I often find ourselves looking at each other with silly little grins mouthing, "wow".  We made that.  She is a person.  For posterity, some recent shenanigans with our girl that I want to bottle up and keep with me.*

• Sloane has this thing with tissues.  If they (or toilet paper) are made available to her she will pull one out, hold it up to her nose like she's blowing her nose, and drop it on the floor.  Then repeat until the box is empty or you take them away.  Last week she pulled one out, held it up to her nose, then looked at me and said, "Pooper!" She then proceeded to walk into the living and over to Coop, who was lounging on her bed, then gently dab our pup's nose.  It was priceless.
• On a recent car ride she spent a good five minutes in her sing song voice going, "mama. dada. mama. dada. pooper. mama. dada...."
• Sometimes when we say I love you, she now says it back.  It kills me.
• A couple of times a day we get an unsolicited, "thank you".  Love that my girl is learning good manners.
• I took all of the indoor Christmas decorations down last week while Sloane was with my mom. When she walked into the house she stopped, looked all around, then turned to me and said, "Ho, ho, ho?"
• The girl is opinionated and passionate.  The site of her banging on the garage door, tears streaming down her face, then trying with all of her might to pull the door open after we put her trike away on New Year's day made me smile all while breaking my heart. 
• With the addition of the tricycle came the helmet.  She normally refuses to keep anything on her head for more than a few minutes but after she connected the helmet to the trike she began to insist on wearing it around the house.  She looks pretty special running around and playing in her helmet, but it makes her so happy.

*They will be my happy place when she's being a holy terror.



Happy 35th Matty!

My brother turned 35 at the end of December so we gathered after New Year's to celebrate.  Happy birthday Matty!

Captain Awesome with Max and Mayson.

Someone was not happy about being excluded.

Stil not thrilled.

Happy New Year's

We spent New Year's Eve with friends on Whidbey.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner and Sloane was in heaven with four babies under the age of 1.  For once she was a big kid.  The only thing she didn't like was when here mama was holding a baby.  Should be interesting when her sister arrives!  I managed to make it to midnight but was in bed by 12:05.  The next day we caught an early ferry back, hit our neighborhood playground then continued to enjoy the sun with a bike ride up and down our street.  Sloane was not pleased to have the helmet on until she realized it meant going on the trike. 

She loved it!  It's still a little big for her so she couldn't keep her feet on the pedals very well but that didn't stop her from scooching along or demanding a push.  When John's back got tired he got inventive.

Then we moved onto the car.

The low point of the day was when we had to put the toys away for nap time.  She was not happy.