Elsie Marie- 2 Year Dr. Appointment

First of all, I can't believe my little girl is two already!!!!!  Time just goes way too fast but we are enjoying every day of it!

This morning we had her two year check up.  I think this was one of the first appointments that I went into with out any questions.  John wanted me to ask about how to get rid of Elsie's pacifier (more on that) but I really don't have any concerns or questions.  I think I am feeling pretty confident in this whole parenting thing and I feel Elsie is developing right on track-except she still counts 1,2,3 as 1, 3, 9.

 Elsie did so great at her appointment.  She never cried, protested and just let  the nurse and doctor do whatever they needed to do.  Here were her stats:

Weight:  26 lbs 6.4 oz (47%)
Height:  36" (94%)
Head:  18.9" (48 CM) 64%

She is growing right along the same curve that she has been for the past two years.

A few things that came up while talking was about her sleep-she gets up so dang early lately (5:00 or 5:30AM).  He said we can let her lay in her bed for 20-25 minutes.  Most of the time when she wakes up that early we can go in and lay her back down and she will fall back to sleep for at least another half hour.  So he said we should try to let her go back to sleep on her own.

We talked about the blood test that checks for anemia and lead.  They normally do another test at 2 year but we decided to wait until she is 2.5 in case we do end up moving and getting the house we want and since it was built before 1950 it could have some lead.  Waiting will allow us to see if she has been exposed to any lead in the new house.

Pacifiers-This has become a battle with Elsie lately.  She used to only use them in the car or when she was sleeping but she has been wanting it all the time and even uses her stuffed animals as a stool so she can reach them.  The little stinker.  So I asked what we should do about it.  He told me that really, her speech is developing just fine and she drinks just fine out of cup so it isn't doing any damage right now so nothing I guess.  It just is a battle with her sometimes so we have to decide if we want to fight the battle, force her to give it up, or just let it go.  I am not sure John and I are on the same page about this but I do know that I want to wait to make her give it up until we get the potty training down which will begin in full force after the first of the year.

Vaccinations-We are continuing to put off Hep A but did her last DTaP vaccination this time around.  I feel good about how we spaced everything out trying to limit the number of vaccinations at each appointment.  When Baby #2 comes along I am going to try to do more of this in the beginning.  She did get her flu vaccination this time too.  It was the mist that went in her nose.  Surprisingly, she didn't cry for her shot in the arm at all.  Didn't even wince.  She did get upset however when I covered up her bandaid with her shirt but the nurse saved the day when she got her another band aid.

I was so proud of how she behaved.  She even blew the Dr. a kiss when he left.  haha.  So happy to have such a positive experience.

Life in November

Overall, November was a pretty good month for us.  Here is just a few (actually, quite a few) snapshots from the month.  

As soon as Halloween was over Elsie was ready to break out the Christmas pajamas.  This particular day she also wanted her slippers :)  

Tally is getting accustomed to living with us and we are getting used to having her around :)  She acutally loves her kennel and as you can see goes in voluntarily to take naps.  

Elsie has discovered her little stash of dress up clothes that we got passed down to us from Emma and Olivia.  She loves it!  

Grocery shopping with Mommy and Daddy

Playing in the leaves was a big hit this year for both of the girls!  

The girls at JoJo's

Trying on Mama's boots

After trying to rake the leaves with Daddy's rake we decided a smaller one would fit her better.  

One morning Elsie didn't want to get out of her bed so I asked her while I showered if she wanted to read in her bed and she thought that was a great idea!  I did too :)

This year, to celebrate my birthday I decided to head down to Des Moines with some friends for some dinner and then check out some of the bars down there.  

Dinner at Court Avenue (Marc, Kedra, Mathew, Jason, Heidi, Hillary, Nick, John, Me, and Amber)

It was so yummy as always and the company was even better.  

After dinner we walked over to a country bar that had just opened.  It ended up being nothing like I had imagined.  We did stay for a while and there were definitely memories to be had while there but the place was dead!  Oh well!  It was still fun to hang out with these ladies and thier hubbies.  After the country bar we headed back to Court Avenue and found ourselves in a dance club where I felt SO old!  haha

Love these girls!  

Elsie love to play with Tally and loves to feed her and get her water too.  It took a bit to convince her that she didn't have to hand feed Tally like we did with Cinder and that Tally will just eat out of the bowl :)  

While we were at the fabric store Elsie discovered some she just had to had.  Grandma Bev got it for her and is going to make her a special blanket :)

In addition to all the random snapshots from the month, here are some other things that happened that I already posted about (or plan to post about ;).  Lots of birthdays!!

1.  We celebrated Grandma Ev's 90th Birthday at the beginning of the month! 

2.  My wonderful family came down for the weekend to visit us and to celebrate my birthday

3.  We celebrated John's cousin's little boy Danny's Birthday.

4.  We celebrated Emma and Olivia's Birthday too!

5.  Thanksgiving at my parents house along with a wonderful weekend.  You can read about that here.

6.  We had a handful more showings, an offer on the house, and then it all fell through.  I'm so over selling a house.  You can read about how I feel about the whole situation here.

Thanksgiving and Hollidazzle Parade

This year for Thanksgiving we traveled up to Minnesota.  It was the first time being up in MN since over a year before Elsie was born.  In 2011, we would have gone up but travel was restricted because it was so close to our due date.  

We had a lovely time with my immediate family, both my Grandmother's and my Uncle Rob and his family.  Of course my brother and Magda were not there but we did get a good skype session in during the afternoon.  The rest of the weekend was equally as nice.  I had some time to catch up with my friend Erin over lunch at Rockwoods on Friday, went to Macys and the Hollidazzle parade Friday night (more on this further down) and then on Saturday had brunch with Josh, Liz and Jake and did some shopping alone with John Saturday afternoon.  Saturday evening we ate dinner with my family and then took off home with a pit stop to see my friend Randi, her family, and their beautiful new home!  We finally made it home around midnight that night.  It was such a great weekend filled with family and friends!!!

Like I mentioned above, Friday afternoon/evening we went to Macy's Santaland and the Hollidazzle parade.  It is the last year that the Hollidazzle Parade is happening so I knew I had to take Elsie just one time and this is the only weekend we will be around when it was happening.  We went with my parents, sister and her two girls.  It was WONDERFUL!  Every bit of it!  I absolutely love the excitement Elsie has right now.  

She had to be the one to push Piper in the stroller.  

Waiting in line for SAntaland.  In years past this line has been incredibly long!  

I think we only waiting for 10 minutes tops!  I think we timed it just right because when we were exiting the lines was at least three times longer than when we got there.  

We waited in line to see Santa and like the other line, it wasn't long at all.  Which was perfect because Elsie wasn't too impressed.  Before we saw Santa we tried to tell her that when you see Santa you can tell him some things you want for Christmas.  I mentioned something like "Minnie Mouse Toys".  Well she definitely got the wrong idea...She thought Santa was going to give her Minnie Toys right then and there.  Oops  I guess we didn't explain it well.  Well the poor girl was dissapointed and kept asking for her Minnie Toys all night long.  

After our visit with Santa, we grabbed some dinner up at the Cafe on the 12th Floor of Macy's.  I am not sure what it was called but it was perfect for us!  It was cafeteria style so you just went up and ordered your food and brought it back to your table.  No waiting for a waitress or for you food.  

After dinner we went back to the cars, got all bundled up and made our way down to the street to find out spot to watch the parade.  We had to wait about 30 minutes until the parade started.  The girls did pretty good but Piper got a little restless.  It was a little chilly but for MN it definitely could have been much worse.  But like I said, it was so worth it all!!!

Elsie and Allie watched the parade right from the curb and it was so fun to watch them.  Elsie would lean way out to look down the street to see which one was coming next.  When she would see one she would scream "coming, coming" and do a little wiggle.  She would wave to the floats, dance to the music, and cheer!  It was so perfect!!!  

Busy Busy!

Well I would say that we have been pretty productive over the past two weeks.  Although my list was for the weekend,  I was a bit ambitious thinking we would get it all done.  So here we are two weeks later and this is where we are at.  I am happy about it though.

• Hang the outside lights-I ended up telling John this weekend to skip it this year...after all Christmas is just two weeks away! 
• Cut down our Christmas tree and decorate it

• Get window boxes filled with holiday decor
• Shop for fabric to update a hand me down table/chair set for Elsie and spray paint the chairs.

This is the fabric we picked out.  The circles will be on the seat and the stripes will go on the chair back.  

• Get a start on our Advent Calendar tree-this is going to be a doozy-I would like to at least purchase the supplies for this

• Get at least one calendar done (I make a photo calendar each year for both our parents and all three grandmothers.  
• Construct Elsie's dollhouse and get it painted.  I will leave the decorating for another day.  

John has been busy the past few nights working on this.  It is turning out great.  He has a few more room dividers to put in, cut out the windows

and he decided to makes shingles too.  I am hoping one of the rooms on the lower level can be a little garage.  I can't wait to paint it and get all the furniture/accessories in.

• Catch up on the blog-I would like to get at least three posts published over the weekend.  
• 31 Goals
• Living with Tally
• Life in July
• Organize the garage so we can put away our outdoor furniture.  
• John needs to get the rest of the cattle out of the pasture
• Dinner and Drinks with some camp friends on Sunday evening. 
• Order our Christmas cards
• Get a bit more Christmas shopping done (I would say I am 70% complete).  I am getting so excited to wrap them up and get them under the tree! 

Also this past weekend we went to Des Moines to drive through Jolly Holiday Lights display    Before nap I told her we would be going to see some pretty Christmas lights. When we were getting ready to leave I started to tell Elsie where we all had to go and started with Hobby Lobby.  Before I could say another word she burst into tears crying "Pretty Lights, Pretty Lights"  Once I got her calmed down and explained to her that we had a few places to stop before we could go see the "pretty lights" she was happy again.   Before we went to the park we did a bit of Christmas shopping, ate dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, and then drove through a few neighborhoods to look at lights on the houses and in the yards.  By how excited she got at the lights in the neighborhood I knew she would be excited about the big display and I was right.  She loved it!  This was the first time I have driven through the display and I think we will plan to go again next year.  

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Today was a snowy day.  It didn't snow a lot-just a few inches but it snowed all day long.  It was the kind of day where we stayed in our pajamas all day long!  Elsie went through a couple pairs but they were still jammies none the less. Well after nap Elsie was snuggling with John on the couch and all it took was me saying "Who wants to go outside and play?" and her jumping up off the couch and saying in her sweet little voice "me!" to get us all outside in the snow.  

Although this picture doesn't look like it, she was so excited to go out an play.  

And she loved getting pulled around on the sled!  I think she could have done it all day long!

Tally enjoyed the snow too!

And she loved chasing Elsie in the sled.  

I can't believe how big Tally is getting! 

We thought it would be a fun idea to pull Tally and Elsie together on the sled.  

It actually went pretty well!  Every time Tally when get off Elsie would say "again, again" until we put Tally back on the sled with her.  

After sledding we came back inside and had some hot cocoa.  She LOVED it, of course.  

It was a great afternoon!