Just doing a quick note for my sweet baby:  You turned TWO YEARS old today.  I can’t believe it!  You’re our greatest joy.  We love you sooooo much.  I’ll do another post with pictures and memories of the event.  You were great!

Sorry about neglecting the site . . . again.  Things have just been so crazy around here with still being pregnant sick, having appointments, getting Abigail’s big girl room ready, new baby planning, moving furniture, organizing, and prepping for Abigail’s birthday, along with the usual housewife stuff I need to do.

Our house looks pretty rough right now– as far as clutter and organization.  I’m typing from in the DINING room.  We used to have an office, but now, that’s turning into Abigail’s big girl room.  As I look around the dining room, there are SIX tables/desks in here: the kitchen table, my computer desk, Jonathan’s computer desk, my sewing machine desk, Abi’s play table, and the new baby’s changing table.  Wow.

Over the weekend, Jonathan and I cleaned out the office/guest room/storage closet.  Then he tore out an intercom and patched it up with drywall, primed the room, and painted the baseboards.  Then, we tediously measured and taped off one wall.  Thank goodness my measurements I had done earlier in February were accurate!

Then, I took Abigail over to my parents to take a nap so Abigail and Baby wouldn’t be around all the fumes and noise.  Earlier that week, our friends offered to come help Jonathan paint the room.  Yea for good friends.

And here’s what the other walls look like:

Definitely very pink.  Oh well, Abigail loves it.  So, we just have to replace the outlets and switches and covers, get new carpet, insulate the windows, figure out what I’m gonna do for window treatments (any ideas, when the windows are narrow and don’t touch the ground?), move in her furniture, and it’s all hers.

If I get any comments/emails about the block wall, I’ll try to do a tutorial of how to make it happen . . . but not this week.  I’m getting my braces off (!), buying stuff for Abigail’s party, making the cake and dip and drinks, etc, and working on Abigail’s video of year 1-2.  I can’t believe she’ll be TWO on Sunday.

**Oh, and by the way, since our Vday project, here’s what I had to do for Jonathan: 1) Write and perform a rap song about Jonathan, 2) Watch a Sci-Fi movie of his choosing (YUCK!).  Here’s what he drew for me to do: 1) Bring Lori a blizzard, 2) Play wii with Lori.  Now, who do you think got it rough?!

I’m thinking of starting a page on the blog of cute/funny things that Abigail has said.  I want to remember them, and with this pregnancy brain, that’s getting hard to do.

So, I’ll just leave you with a funny conversation Abigail had with our dog Sabra this morning.

Abi: Sissah, go potty.  Hurry up, Sissah.  Come in near.  Do you see the snow?  It’s white.

[I call Sabra inside from the snow.]

Abi: Sissah has snow on her hair.  You wanna clean it?

Me: No, it’s okay, it’ll just melt.

Abi: But Sissah’s wet.  Sissah, you want me dry you?  [She opens the hutch door to get out a kitchen hand towel.]

Me: It’s okay; the wet will go away.  Thank you, though.

Abi: Okay.  It’s okay, Sissah.  It’s alright.  Snow will go away.

~~~~

Later on, I saw a boogie in Abigail’s nose, so I asked her if she wanted to blow her nose.

Abi: Noooo, Abi keep the booger in the nose.

~~~~

And last night, Jonathan was brushing Abigail’s teeth when she started clicking her tongue,

Abi: :Lah nah lah nah lah.  I’m singing a song about Abi’s tongue.

Pretty sure she’s the cutest 23 month old EVER!

• This might be one of your longest sentences: “I wish the Uncle Daniel and the Uncle Josh were here.”
• You have started saying things that we have said (only days after we first said it) like: When you were feeding Sabra her dog food, you said, “It’s good to share, Momma.”  And when you were playing with something I told you days before that you shouldn’t play with, you said, “It’s dangerous for little girls.”
• Lately, you’ve been taking 1+ hour(s) to fall asleep some nights.  You just lie in bed talking and talking and talking.  Here’s one thing you said that made us laugh, “Abby is trying to get out of the crib.”  Also, after GramB’s birthday party, you yelled in a demonic voice, “Happy Birthday GramB . . .” about 100 times.
• Can count to 10 every time perfectly (which is in the video).  We’re working on 20 now.
• You’re getting so much better with your colors.  You always know orange, yellow, red, and green.  You normally call blue “black.”
• You have conversations with yourself.  You’ll says things like, “I’m going to the living room.  Wanna come?  Oooooookay.” or “This polar bear is white.  That’s right, Sissah (what she calls Sabra).”  or “Abi wants to get the box; I can’t a reach it.  Oh, Abi help.”
• We still love to hear you pray every night.  Here’s part of your prayer from last night, “Dear God, Thank you for the two doors over there.  One, two, three . . . Yeah.  That’s right!”
• You’ve memorized several of your books, like “The Monster at the End of the Book”, “Brown Bear” “Jamberry”, and “Safari Animals.”

Here’s her video below (If you’re reading in RSS, you’ll probably have to go to the site to see the video.  If you don’t have facebook, and you want to see the video, let me know.).

Go here to take the “Is it a Boy or a Girl?” poll.

Back in November, we decided to grow my daughters hair out, but her hair kept getting in her eyes.  Bows come in and out easily, so I decided I’d try to make her some headbands.  You could make some for yourself, too, and your daughter might be extra excited about wearing headbands, just like Mommy.

Materials Needed:

• material
• an elastic hair band/ponytail holder without the metal
• coordinating thread

Instructions

1. Measure around your toddler’s head to the nape of her neck.
2. Cut your material to the appropriate size and iron flat.  [Cut a rectangle that is double the width of what you want your headband to end up, plus about 1/2 in for seam allowance and 3 inches less than measurement you got from step 1.  I think I cut mine 3.5 x 15.5inches.  If you want it to be reversible with two different patterns, cut accordingly.]
3. Measure in on the bottom ends in about 1/2 “  on each side and mark, draw a line up to the top corners and you will have a tapered rectangle.
4. Fold right sides together “hot dog style” and iron flat.
5. Then pin together and sew around, but leave a “U shape” opening in the bottom, as if you were sewing a pillow.
6. Turn tube of fabric inside out and iron flat.  Also, fold a 1/4 inch or so on each end and iron down.
7. Put elastic pony tail on one end inside the flap created in step 6.  Fold the 1/4 over the pony tail, and sew straight down.
8. Do the same with the other side.
9. And you’re all done.

I made the headband in the pictures and a pink one.  I also made a reversible one: one side black and one side red.  Abi loves them.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Just a little note to say that I have done a few crafty projects that I thought I’d share with you . . . sometime.  I just need to write up some tutorials.  So, you can look forward to learning how to make:

• Baby Square Crinkle Mini Blanket

• Fabric Headbands

• Baby Legwarmers (I’m still working on these, so I haven’t uploaded the pictures, yet.

Here are some of the things you’ve done this past month:

• Before I put you in your crib for a nap, we sing a few songs, unless you say, “Get in bed.”  Well, for the last few days, you’ve been requesting songs.  Like today, I said, “Do you want to sing a song?”  You said, “Yes, Blue Skies [and] Rainbows.”  So we sang that.  You help fill in the words when I pause.  Your other requests were: “Twinkle, Twinkle,” “B-I-B-L-E,” “Book of the Bible,” “Sunshine (You are my Sunshine),” and “A B Cs.”
• You can count to eight and then, you stop.
• If we ask you, “What color is this?”  You normally answer “Pink” to everything.  But if we say, “Bring me the red (or blue or yellow or green or pink or purple) cup, you do that!
• You always recognize these letters when I point to them, and you say: A, B, C, F, O, P, T, W, and you know a lot of the others, too.  I’m pretty sure W is your favorite letter.
• You don’t say your ABCs by yourself, but if we say A, you’ll say B, then we say C and you’ll say D on down to Z.  So you know them well.  (There’s a clip of this in the video below.)
• Same with the books of the New Testament.  It’s so cute to hear you say “Thessalonians” or Philippians” because they have so many syllables, but you pronounce them so well.  (There’s a clip of this in the video below.)
• In the mornings when I come to get you out of bed, I’ll say, “Is Abi awake?”  You say, “Yes.  Sleep sack off; humidifier off; get out of the bed.”
• You’re still not so great in the eating department, but we always make sure to get you out of your high chair on a happy note.  We taught you to say, “Thank you for the food.  Please may I get down” (which is what my parents made me and my siblings say when we were in elementary school).  When you say it, you can’t help but smile and bounce around.
• You help Daddy make and eat pancakes every Saturday while Momma tries to get a few extra minutes of sleep.
• Instead of saying, “You want the book/cup/toy,” etc like you used to do.  Now, you say, “May I have the book, please?”  I love teaching you good grammar so young!
• You’re starting to do imaginative playing: you’ll “squirt” us with your water faucet from your play kitchen.  You’ll let Mr Bear drink your milk.  You tell me you’re cooking pancakes in the morning.

Here’s your Monthly Video:

Every month we’re amazed at how much you learn and change.  We love watching you grow.

Here are some things you did in your 20th Month:

• Besides talking about family members and friends, here are some cute, random things you have thanked God for in your prayers: Mr. Bear, the big ball, rabbit, humidifier, the turkey, Santa Claus, towel, bed . . .
• You love stairs, which you call “big steps.”  We can’t keep you away from them.
• You have your pronouns mixed up when you say things like, “Mommy, hold you please.” or “You want the big ball, please.”  We do correct you, but we do kinda like it.  Other than that, you’re still amazingly advanced with speech.  Strangers can understand you and carry on conversations with you.
• For the past two Sundays and a Wednesday night, you have cried when we left you in the nursery at church.  This is confusing to me because you love going to bible class, and they say that soon after we leave, you do great.  I guess you’re getting attached to Momma again.
• Also, two times during this past month, you have woken up early from your nap crying.  I’ve gone in there and done something I’ve never done before: gotten you out of bed, sat in the rocker with you, and you actually cuddled me and stayed still for more than 30 seconds.  I’m not sure how much of these times you were asleep, but you held onto me for about an hour each time, and I loved every second of it.
• Your canines on top have poked through, but they’re not fully grown yet.
• You have been fussier lately when we’re out in public.  You had never cried or pouted in public until a couple of weeks ago.  So, that hasn’t been much fun lately.
• You’ve been better with eating this last month.  Hopefully that will continue.

As always, we love you tremendously.  Here’s your 20th Month Video . . .

To update you on this post: my mom is going to watch Abigail while we go watch the Sonogram tomorrow.  Unfortunately, they told me it wouldn’t be a 3D/4D one.  Boo.  Also, we’re not allowed to videotape the monitor.  Boo.  And, they don’t give out a video of the movement.  Boo.  All we’ll be getting to show you are still images (2D).  Sorry; I tried!

We’ve also decided to let the gender be a surprise to 99% of everyone.  It has yet to be seen whether the remaining 1% of that group (the doctors, and Jonathan & I) will find out the gender.

Just yesterday, I was looking up paint colors in greens and blues (which is what we’ll be painting the room, regardless of whether Baby’s a boy or girl).  So I started thinking of decorations I could make, like paintings, picture frames, wall letters, and signs.  That really made me want to know the Baby’s gender!  Ahh.

Oh, has anyone attempted to make a diaper stacker??

We had planned on letting Baby use Abigail’s crib and on buying Abigail a twin bed.  But just a couple of weeks ago, Abigail’s crib was recalled.  It converts into a toddler bed, twin bed, and then full, so that is good because we can just convert the crib to a toddler bed for her.

So, we’ve been looking at cribs for Baby.  We’re really liking the Baby Mod Lily, which we’re told is the same exact crib as Da Vinci Emily.  Does anyone have either of these cribs?  If so, what do you think of it?  I’m concerned about it not having a drop side (even though it’s safer, I know) because I’m only 5 ft 3 in.  I haven’t been able to “test out” the crib in person.  Or do you have another crib that you’d recommend?

You are acting like such a big girl these days, and you’re so much fun.

• You’ve almost got 16 teeth; your top canines are coming in a little bit.  But you’re a trooper through it all.  You never even wake up at night from pain.  Thank you!  I hope your baby sibling will sleep as well as you always have.
• You know words to songs, and you’ll sing them, if we pause during a song.
• Sabra is playing with you a little more (as you’ll see in your video).  She actually goes and gets her toys when you throw them now.  You think she’s the greatest thing on earth.
• You say your own prayers every night or whenever prompted.  I love them!
• You can say up to eight word sentences.  Here are some sentences that stick out:

-”Just look at that pumpkin flashlight!”

-”I want to get in bed.” (I sing you a few songs while rocking you before your nap time.  Before I sing you a new song, I ask, “Do you want to sing ____ or get in bed?”  It’s so cute when you say you want to get in bed.  Awesome.)

-”Shhhh. quiet; ______ is sleeping.”  We act like we’re sleeping, and you come give us a kiss to wake us up.  You even kiss Momma’s belly to wake up baby.

-”I see you later, Alligator.”

-”The girl is eating a bite of [an] orange orange.”

-”Ooopsy Daisy, Elbows.”  You have this thing about touching your elbows, especially at night when you’re going to bed.  Now that it’s winter, a lot of your night time shirts have long sleeves, and sometimes you get frustrated when you can’t pull your sleeves up to touch your elbows.

-”[Abi cough] Bless you Abi.  [fake Abi cough] Bless you Abi.  [fake Abi cough] Bless you Abi. [repeat process about 20 times].”

• You are learning to obey really well.  Most times, I’ll tell you to come here, or stop doing something, and you will!
• You got your first real hair cut.  And we’re trying to grow out your hair, but it’s an annoying process because it’s as straight, thin, and whispy as your daddy’s, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere except for hanging in your eyes.  But you’re better about wearing bows to keep your top hair from getting into your eyes.
• You’re still afraid of the vacuum cleaner.  I think it’s the only thing you fear.  We kinda like it though, because you’ll cuddle with whomever is not vacuuming.  And this is the only time you cuddle.  And by cuddle, I mean sit still on our laps.
• In big church, you say, “Amen” really loudly after prayers.  Yesterday, you also saw one of your friends, and YELLED “Maddison!”  All those around laughed.

Here’s your video: