Back in May Brinlee turned 4 and McKenna turned 18 months. You know what that means...
Picture And Journal Update Time!
Yes, of course I wanted to update our portraits, but naturally couldn't just get it done. I had to put it off until we were well into June . Then one morning when the girls were being really sweet, I spur-of-the-moment decided it was time. So I took them and some skittles (for bribing of course) up the street and around the corner to the elementary schoolyard real quick just to see what we could get.
And it was NOT very successful.
Turns out the girls weren't in the mood after all, and we didn't get a whole lot of anything that I really loved! Boo. Oh well. These will definitely be a more honest memorandum of how these ladies really are right now :)
I planned to give the 4-year and 18 month photoshoot a round 2 attempt on some other day, at a nicer looking location, with another set of hands (namely Tim) that could help me get kids to sit still, smile, and cooperate. And now we're almost into September. And nothing like that has happened. And honestly, by the time we do get around to it, really we will have to call them 4 1/2 and 2-year-old pictures instead.
So. Might as well go ahead and post these ones.
Here's our little 18 month-er!
Golly. What do I even say about her?!
She is definitely her own little person. She is a serious ball of fire and is completely full of character, confidence, sass, independence, and goofiness. She is 100% mama's girl and likes to keep me close, but also doesn't mind having space and time to herself. I fairly often find her alone in her room looking through books or building legos. She loves to run, dance, spin, walk on her tippie-toes, climb things, sit in bubble-baths, and attempt to copy everything Brinlee does. She loves to be read to. She spends a good part of her day bringing me book after book and asking me to "read". She also loves when we sing to her. Once she gets you singing, she won't let you stop and when your song starts to near the end, she starts in with "Son! Son!" over and over until you pick a new song. Her favorites right now are Old MacDonald and Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree. She also loves to do her own singing. She carries little tunes pretty well, but so far the words are mostly from her own imaginative language. She is starting to be more interested in the TV and will sit still to watch things with Brinlee. Her favorites are Winnie the Pooh, Thomas the Train, and LeapFrog. She loves to run and "hide", and giggles like crazy when you come find her. She loves airplanes, trains, and cars and can do all the animal sounds. Frog is my favorite, "rrrr-Rip!" She loves shoes, and she loves blankets. She loves to throw things away and likes to flush the potty. She loves strollers, umbrellas, and wagons. She loves puppies, but only from a distance. She is very smart, and learns very quickly. She loves to stack blocks and build with legos. She is learning some colors and can point out "yeh-yo" (yellow), "ah-inge" (orange), "be-you" (blue), and "po-pow" (purple). She can also tell you the M says "mmm" and the O says "ah". She is getting to be quite the talker. She still has a lot we can't quite catch, but every day we understand her more! Here are a few of my favorites right now:
"fwo-fwen": Frozen
"Awepeen": Airplane
"Bum... chens": I need a diaper change
"Bye-bye Dada"
"Eh Are Oo": Where are you
"Yetssss": Yes
"Stro Stro": Stroller
"Tawns": Thomas the Train
"Bun bun": Bunny
"Sheshen": Seven
"Pway pwace": Play place (i.e. nursery)
"Sissy": Brinlee
"Peas hep": Please help
"Breh-bruh": Umbrella
"Yah Yoh": Love you
"Cheeses": Jesus
She can say "yes" and "no" just fine, but we often have to ask her to specify because for some reason every time she's asked a yes or no question, she answers with "Nee-ow"... which has at times meant yes, and other times meant no. And she gets really bent out of shape when you take it to mean the one she didn't mean. It's confusing.
She is getting very big. At her 18 month appointment she was still 98% for height! And she acts just as big. We put her in her bed for nap and night time and she puts herself to sleep. We give her a fork and spoon and she feeds herself. She walks up and down the stairs. She goes and gets us things when we ask her to. She uses a chair, or basket, or whatever else she can find to stand on to reach up to things she wants. She can be a good eater, but fairly often chooses not to be. And it's hard to say what her favorite foods are. One week she loves one thing, and the next week she won't touch it! But so far we haven't yet gone wrong with blueberries, fruit snacks, apple sauce, and green drinks (we'll see how next week goes). She can be kind of a bully. She unfortunately likes to pull Brinlee's hair still, though not as much. Instead now she likes to wait until Brinlee puts down her toys to go potty, then she quickly snatches them all up and runs off to hide with them somewhere. I have come upstairs many times to find a crying Brinlee and McKenna hiding in the back of my closet with all of Brinlee's things. Stinker.
McKenna's brave and can be a little wild, but so far exercises pretty good caution too. She hasn't caused me too many heart attack moments yet. She is very independent though and likes to do her own thing! She isn't afraid to ask for "hep", but when she can she definitely wants to do things herself, because she very quickly gets very frustrated if you don't do things exactly how she wants. And she is not afraid to say "No"! So far she has NOT taken well to any type of discipline. She can throw quite the tantrum when she doesn't get her way. And though we don't see it near as often, she does still have that death glare that she likes to flash at you when you're cramping her style.
But oh, she can be so sweet too! She gets very concerned when people are sad and she will come lay her head on you and give a kiss if you ask for a lovie. She likes "cuddo's" (cuddles) in the rocking chair, and will come for a kiss and a snuggle better any time she gets any kind of bump or bonk. She repeats after us the last words of phrases when we help her read scriptures and say prayers, and she is the first one with her arms folded and eyes closed every night at the dinner table. She thinks it's really funny to randomly close her eyes and snore, and likes you to pretend along with her that she's asleep. She likes to be a helper and give you things that belong to you (things that she isn't interested in playing with though, of course), and when she's sitting in my lap she likes to rub my arm or reach up and pat my face and sweetly say "mama". And every morning when I go to get her up, she gives a huge smile and the happiest "Hi!" you've ever heard. It melts my heart every time! She is getting a little sense of humor. She recognizes when she's being watched and repeats things that make us giggle, and she has the most darling, contagious little laugh she does when something tickles her funny bone. She absolutely adores Brinlee and already wants to do everything she does. And she has one of the prettiest little smiles the world has ever seen!
Oh how we LOVE this darling, sweet, energetic, crazy, goofy, funny, amazing little girl. It's hard to remember our house before her, and we cannot imagine our lives now without her! She brings so many smiles and so much joy into our family and we feel so blessed and so grateful to have her!
I only wish she wasn't growing up so fast.
Ah it's a good, fun life!
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