snuggle

 Heidi does not, and has not ever liked the feeling of being by herself.  This can make life difficult at times...like in the car.  Heidi will be manageable if I can sit in the back with her or even if I can just put my hand on her lap for her to hold.  As long as she is in physical contact with one of us, she is a happy camper.  Even when we change her diaper or get her dressed she says, "hold mama's arm?" or "hold dada's elbow?"  She does not ever like me or Jeff to leave her sight, which makes nursery and leaving her with someone else for necessary things a little stressful.  However, the redeeming quality of it all is that she is the snuggliest almost 2 year old I have met in my life.  She would sit in your lap and snuggle all day long if you let her.  If I get busy making dinner and leave her for too long she will come find me and say, "snuggle mommy?"  Then she will insist you sit with her and read to her or sing to her or tickle her back.  After bath time she doesn't like to get in her pajamas right away.  As soon as she gets in her towel she says, "Rock mommy sing songs?"  So we rock in the chair and sing every song we can thing of...primary songs and On Top of Spaghetti being her current favorites.

Although I am lucky enough to be the recipient of most of the snuggles, Heidi definitely does not leave her dad out. He was home tonight for the first time in awhile and all she wanted to do was "snuggle dada" and read her new library books.  When she isn't the one holding the book, she has to put her hand on your face while you read.  I know that having her constantly need to be in contact with us makes a lot of day to day things more difficult, but the truth is, I wouldn't trade her and all of her snuggles, hugs, and kisses for a quiet car ride or an easy night out.  One day too soon she won't want to snuggle all day so we will take all the loves we can get.  We love you Heidi bug!

the little commentator

 If you have been around Heidi for more than 20 seconds, you will know that she never, ever, ever stops yapping.  But more than that, you would also know that she is either commentating on what you are doing, or she is parroting every thing you just said.  On the rare occasion that she is not around, I find myself commentating on what I am doing because she isn't there to do it for me.  The above picture shows that she doesn't just parrot words, she also parrots actions.

 Here is an example of some of things we hear.
*"Mama pee now"
*"Mama wash hands now"
*"Dada sleep now.  Good night dada."
*"Heila go upstairs now.  Almost there!"
*"Mama sick.  Mama throw up"
*"Dada throw Heila's poo poo way now."
*"Wo!  Heila almost fall!"
*"Heila wear mom shoes now."
*"Heila scare dad now"
*"Awful wind!  Go way wind!"

...you get the point...and most everything ends in "now".

Oh and if something "traumatic" happens, you will hear about it for at least 2 days.  Like the bag that blew out of Jeff's hands and flew away past the blue boat.  "Black bag blow way blue boat."  She will continue to repeat it until you repeat what she says and then she will say, "Yeah."  Then about 3 minutes later you will hear the same story.

Then of course there is the parrot.  My favorite is when I am talking to Jeff and say something like, "Jeff, can you come here for a second?"  Then I hear, "Jeff!  Come here second!"  When we stopped to get something to eat she heard the person say, "Jeff!  Your food is ready."  In comes Heidi, "Jeff, food ready!"  We really have to watch what we say because she literally copies everything.  I said, "crap" the other day and when I heard Heidi say it after me I realized it doesn't sound great coming from the lips of a 21 month old!

The pictures are of Heidi's new favorite "hiding" spot.  She thinks she is hidden if she hides on this stair.  "Where did Heila go?"  She also likes taking her toys to this stair and playing there and she likes to pretend to sleep there.  That stair is definitely making the transition to "Heila's new house" a little easier!

Play luffys?

In case you are wondering, we are alive, well, and finally feeling SETTLED!  What a glorious feeling.  We had a rough go of it trying to pack with all three of with ear infections and antibiotics, but we are feeling better and are so happy to be in one place.  With the help of Jeff's wonderful parents, we moved out of our darling little home last weekend and into our temporary townhouse until the new house is built.  We can't thank Jeff's parents enough because without them it would have taken us probably 2 more weeks and we just didn't have time with Jeff's work schedule.  We don't close until next week, but Jeff only had one weekend off this month so we had to take advantage of it.  We all miss our old home and town, but we are so, so, so relieved to be done with the packing and moving...at least for a few more months :).  Heidi is adjusting pretty well to her new house but she definitely misses her old house.  At least once a day she brings us her shoes and says, "Back Heila's house."

Since moving to our new place one of Heidi's favorite games involves all of her washcloths (aka "luffys") and her dad.  She repeatedly says, "Play luffys dada?" multiple times a day.  This game involves Jeff placing the washcloths carefully all over Heidi.  Once they are there, she lays really still and says, "Heila sleep now."  That lasts about 2 seconds then she pops up and says, "HEILA WAKE!"  It is so funny to watch and every washcloth must be used and at least one must be placed on her head.  Everyday more and more of her funny personality makes us laugh.

My other favorite game is called, "Where did Heila go?"  Every chance Heidi gets she either finds a place to hide or just covers her eyes and says, "Where did Heila go?"  It never ceases to be a thrill when we "find" her.  Oh how I love this little girl and wish we could just freeze time.

lack of posting?

So you may see a lot fewer posts from us for a little while.  Our month is going to be crazy but I will try to update as often as I can.

1.  We sold our house...lots and lots of mixed emotions with that one.
2.  Our closing date is May 31...so stressful, but also good because that means we can break ground sooner.
3.  As soon we close, we should be able to start building the next week...fingers and toes crossed.
4.  We are praying with all our might that we will be in the new house before BABY #2 makes their big debut around November 15.

In other news, this pregnancy has been quite difficult.  It took a few months of clomid, which caused a lot of horrible headaches.  Then at 7 weeks I started spotting.  I had to have an ultrasound and they did find a small cyst which the doctor is hoping will go away by the 20 week ultrasound.  Once I we finally got pregnant, the nausea was almost unbearable.  Just like Heidi I have been suffering with horrible, horrible migraines.  I think they are far worse than they were with Heidi, but now that I am 12 weeks there is a prescription medication I can start taking, which will hopefully help.  In spite of it all, we are so thrilled we are being blessed with another little one to love.  I will take all the headaches if it means we can have another little one in our home!

signs of a toddler

 Now that we are in full blown toddler mode, there are constant reminders around our house of the little one that rules the roost.  Ever since seeing a bottle of shampoo in a window in one of the books we were reading, Heidi is obsessed with putting shampoo in our windows.  She takes out all the travel bottles and puts them in and out of the window sill saying, "Shompoo, windy.  Yeah!"  She also has now begun adding water bottles to her collection.  So if you see random bottles in our window, you know why.

 Windows don't stay fingerprint free for very long.  Now that Jeff is back to mowing the lawn Heidi has resumed her position watching and waving at her favorite pal.

 Although I am CONSTANTLY picking up Heidi's shoes, I love seeing them around the house.  She has named every pair she owns and goes around the house switching them all day.  "Church shoes, park shoes, new shoes," are words I hear all day long.

 I have found crayon in a few places where it shouldn't be.  Thankfully I have only had to wipe it off the wall, door, toliet, and tub once.  She is pretty good about not doing something I tell her not to again (knock on wood), but she does draw on her little table and chair A LOT.  Thank goodness for washable crayons.

 Heidi's little pictures are all over the house.  While she does like to draw on her own and is getting better and trying to draw circles, she mostly tells Jeff and I what she wants us to draw.  "Draw daddy, blue hair.  Draw daddy, ladder.  Draw Ernie.  Draw daddy house ladder."  I hear those ones a lot.

Heidi loves to "help".  Every time I am putting laundry away in my room she runs to her room saying, "Help mama.  Heila help mama".  It doesn't take long before I hear her drawer open and it gets really quiet.  Almost always I leave my room to find her drawers completely empty.  As soon as I go in her room she starts clapping saying, "Goo jo (good job), Heila!  Yeah!"  Then she starts clapping those little hands and I can't help but smile as I fold the clothes and put them back for the 50th time that week.

Although our little toddler creates lots of extra work, I love seeing all the signs that I have a little one in my house...especially this little one.