2011 in review

January

We started 2011 with Jacie in her DOC band for her 1st full month

February

Snow/ice week= missed 5 days of work!

We ended the month with Jacie graduating from the DOC band. I look at her head all the time and am very thankful for making the choice to go through with it. Although it was a hard (harder on me of course) 9 weeks it was so worth it.

March

Spent more time outside enjoying the nicer weather including her 1st trip to the zoo.

April

Celebrated her 1st Easter. She loved the Easter Bunny and shaking all the plastic eggs.

May

Celebrated her 1st birthday

Spent her days looking more like a big girl!

June

Summer time fun!

July

Painting a picture for daddy's birthday

August

Jacie helping me get my classroom ready for the new school year!

September

Trip to New York for our family reunion.

October

Was a kitty cat for Halloween

November

Thanksgiving

December

It was a wonderful Christmas with a 18 month old running around =)

It has been a great 2011 and I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store!

19 months old

Are the months just getting shorter?? I feel like I just did the 18 month post!!!

She is slowly growing into those 18 month pants. Depending on the brand some are still way to to big/long and some fit good. My favorite are her skinny jeans!! Some of her 12 months jeans still fit.. they aren't quite high waters yet. She is wearing 18 month tops, with just a few exceptions.

She has grown out of a few pairs of her shoes this month. She still has some good fitting 4's but depending on the brand she can wear a size 5 now... She is really at that in between size right now.

New words: ball, backpack, map, more, ear, egg, book, bird, bug, star, cookie, toes, door, spoon, bowl, blue.

Said "No mama" which is the 1st time we have heard her say 2 words together. She was not telling me no. I was walking out of the room and she didn't want me to leave.

Her new signs are: clothes, sleepy, bicycle, water, star, grass, diaper, potty

She can now "oink", make an elephant noise while making her hand a trunk, and howl like a wolf

She loves to make people laugh. She will do something she knows is silly just to get a laugh.

Loves to play with buckles.

Decided she does not always like diaper changes so we have to sing the diaper dance to get her excited =)

Still giving us random hugs and kisses all the time which is the best!

Celebrated her 2nd Christmas and loves all her new toys.

Finally has a playroom!!! I thought about doing it forever and finally did it and we all love it especially after Christmas ;)

Merry Christmas

It has been such a great Christmas! I loved seeing it through the eyes of my child. The little gasps and squeals as she opened new toys was priceless. I was so excited to truly start our family traditions. Christmas Eve after we got home from my parents we quickly did our "star" present which is our new pj's and we all got onto the couch to read The Night Before Christmas. It was already way past bedtime so this year it has to be done really fast. Next year we are going to begin an advent calendar with different Christmas activities we will do daily, Elf on the Shelf (which was 1 of my gifts this year) and of course really do Santa cookies and milk.

She is a very blessed little girl who got some really awesome new toys including her 1st American girl bitty baby, stroller and high chair, little people house and bus, Dora Lil' Quad power wheels, a trampoline, an easel, Rock-n-Roll Elmo, Counting Cookie Monster, Mega blocks and a bunch of other things. She definitely will not have a shortage of fun and engaging toys this year :)

Dora love

If I haven't stated it enough on here then I let me say it again Jacie is in love with Dora the Explorer!!! I don't remember exactly when her obsession started but it was somewhere around 8 months old. She would squeal and shake around as soon as she would hear the theme song. Now that she is older she interacts with the show so much. She answers their questions, points to the screen and does what they say to do. She can say Dora, Boots and her newest word is Backpack. Her Christmas presents are going to consist of LOTS of Dora related things... including her very own backpack with map!! I already know her 2nd birthday WILL BE a Dora theme. At her photo session last weekend she even got pictures taken with Dora and Boots dolls. Well, last week one of my very talented friends made Jacie a Boots hat and we got it in the mail yesterday. He is truly adorable and she did such an awesome job for this being her 1st Boots she ever made =)

When Jacie met Mr. and Mrs. Claus

Merry Christmas!

Watching Santa Claus

So I heard about Portable North Pole last year and created some movies for my nieces but this year I decided to make one for Jacie!! I know she is still too young to fully understand what is going on but she is IN LOVE with Christmas already! She has been since October when they first started putting Christmas items into stores. She gasps and claps when she sees anything Christmas related.

The 1st time she watched it I was recording from behind so I missed all her ohhhh and ahhhs and showing Santa her sing language "please" and "thank you" ! So we had to watch it again so I could get a better recording. She wasn't as interested the 2nd time around but she stayed for a little bit.

We plan on visiting the real Santa on Thursday afternoon. Part of our daily Christmas gifts from my principals is an early release day for the teachers! I am hoping the line won't be too busy at that time.

Also we are still waiting to get her 18 month pictures taken. The weather has not been kind so we have been rescheduling for the past 3 weeks! So far we have next Saturday scheduled. Mother nature better be at her best so we can get these pictures done!

She knows the routine...

So I got smart a while back and started putting the monthly sticker on the shirt BEFORE I put it on her that way she wouldn't watch me as I stick that sticker in the middle of her shirt so this month wasn't any different...

It took her a few minutes to notice it but once she did she ran to her chair, tried to pick it up to move (like we normally do). I helped her move it in the right location and she got right into the chair and smiled real big! and TA DA! Easiest photo session ever!!!!