Christmas pageant

As part of the Christmas Eve service at church this year, we had an 8-minute Christmas pageant. All the kids had a part. Isaiah and I were the wise men (along with Dad and Isaiah's mom, Sara).

When it came time for my performance, I climbed the steps and handed over my gift to the baby Jesus. All of my rehearsing paid off! There were audible "awwws" and "ohhhhhs" from the crowd.

Thanks to Isaiah's family for the photos!

 

The handoff!

 

Turning around to find Dad and scamper back over to him.

Also, notice the lack of a costume on my part. Dad took one for the team and wore one on my behalf since I am still scared of dressing up in anything other than a basic shirt. You can see Dad's red shoulder in the top photo (bottom left corner).

More cookies

We've got catching up to do from Christmas week!

Mom was out at a party on Christmas Eve Eve (Dec 23rd), so Dad and I got busy with some more Christmas cookies!

 My reaction upon finding out that I get to sample some before bed.

2 years, 2 months

I got to stay home with Mom today since we're both on school break. Dad had to go to work!

Monthly pictures with my pup:

My downward dog yoga pose!

My walking has improved drastically this past month. I've even started enjoying my ab workouts on the exercise ball (thanks to a fun song we learned last week at PT). I still find myself tripping over the occasional rug, but my attitude after taking a spill is great. Often times I'll be the first one to laugh about it.

I'm at the age where I can string together a full sentence every once in a while. Dad is still a little better at understanding me than Mom. And both Mom and Dad are amazed at the stuff I recall from weeks ago. It's definitely time for both of them to watch their language around me!

I know all of my letters thanks to the magnets on our fridge and an activity that I like to play at school. And if you pick out a letter, I can tell you a word that starts with that letter. Although I get a little confused every once in a while. For example, this morning Dad asked me what starts with a D and I replied, "Mom." So partial credit on that one because Dad was thinking I was going to say, "Denise" like I normally say.

Another funny letter story: Last week I was in the kitchen with Dad as he was making supper. Keillor was eating his food on the other side of the room. I was having fun grabbing one letter off the fridge, walking over to Keillor, showing it to him and saying the letter. Then I'd march back to the fridge for another letter to show Keillor. Keillor's head was in his bowl of food the whole time, but I taught him four new letters!

Mom and Dad have started to build my new room and I'm very excited about it. There's a new bed and a new dresser in the room so far, but I haven't been moved quite yet. The new baby will get my old room when he arrives, but I don't have to wait until then to move. My first night in the new room will be later this week (we hope). I've spent a lot of time in the new room over the past several days just getting used to it (and I love it).

I got to watch part of my first movie last night! Mom and Dad were also excited to finally see Frozen. We watched the first 35 minutes last night and will continue with it tonight.  I liked to stand up and sway along with the music during the singing/dancing scenes. 

Big changes in store for our family this next month and I've already decided that I'll share my blog with Buddy (that's what I like to call him) so you can follow all the updates right here.  

Watching my first movie: Frozen.

Snow Day

It started snowing last night before bed and I woke up to a winter wonderland this morning!

Dad did most of the shoveling while I supervised.

Chores

Dad says I'm not too young to be helping out around the house. Keillor says keep scooping more food, please!

Icing

Mom went to a Christmas party on Friday night which gave Dad and me time to finish what we started earlier in the week. We only had red food coloring, though!

 Sampling the "paint."

Finished product. 

And of course playing with sugary icing earns a kid a bath!

Leftovers

We haven't shared a video in a while so Dad captured one last week...

Ballet

Last Thursday Dad walked into school and Michelle at the front desk asked, "What are you and Tess doing tonight?"

"Not much, Denise has yoga so Tess and I will just head over to the library or something," he said.

She replied, "Perfect, you're going to the ballet."

And she handed him two tickets to the family performance at Colorado Ballet.

 Reading the program before it started.

One last picture before the lights dimmed!

Sick

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I've been home sick! It started on Saturday and I wasn't better by Monday, so Dad took me to the doctor. I was diagnosed with a mild case of walking pneumonia. I started feeling better yesterday (playing all day with Mom sure helped) and this morning I felt well enough to make a quick trip to Home Depot with Dad. I'll head back to school tomorrow.

I've done a good amount of relaxing the past several days!

Grandparents

I got to see three of my grandparents over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Here's the best pictures of the bunch...

 Watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Grandma 

(and coloring at the same time, of course).

  Basketball game with Grandpa (and Dad).

 Reading before bed with Grandpa.

 Best fake smile ever!

 Grandma Candy was helping read, too!

2 years, 1 month

Apologies for the delay in getting this posted. We’re a couple days late, but we had three grandparents visiting us over the weekend so things were a little busy. We’ll post pictures of them later in the week!

 

And now for the monthly update:

The big update with my walking is that my walker hasn’t been used in a few weeks! In fact, we’re going to turn it in next week because there’s really no point in keeping it any longer. Mom and Dad no longer need to encourage me to stand to walk anywhere and I rarely choose to crawl now. That doesn’t mean I’m done working on my skills, though. My recent PT homework has included two things: Ab work and right leg work. My right hip is the one that’s not in socket so those leg muscles aren’t growing as well as the left. My main exercise this week: Climbing stairs leading with the right foot. The good news is that I love walking up and down steps!

My language skills continue to grow on a daily basis. I’ll repeat anything you say so watch your language, Mom! And I’m using more Spanish words lately (since I’m learning that at school).

Speaking of learning new things at school, I’ve been surprising Mom and Dad with the knowledge I bring home. A few weeks ago Dad and I were grocery shopping and I pointed out the Denver Broncos logo for him on a store advertisement. At no point had he or Mom ever taught me that. I also showed them the hand motions to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star over the weekend. They had no idea I even knew the song.

I'm getting better with letters and numbers, too. I know most of the letters, but couldn't tell you in which order they go. And I can count to 10 (or higher sometimes), but most of the time I skip around starting with 1 and eventually ending with 8, 9, 10.

Toilet training continues. I'm happy to pee or poop on the toilet when I'm sitting there, but I don't quite have the talent to forewarn anyone that I need to go sit down. So it's really just Mom and Dad hauling me to the bathroom every so often. 

I received new winter gear two weekends ago complete with new hat, mittens and boots. Now Dad says we just need to be patient and hope for snow! Keillor says he's very excited about the snow, too. 

I don’t know if you know this, but the new baby will be named Buddy. At least that’s what I call him already. I like to ask mom to pull up her shirt so I can snuggle and kiss with “Buddy.” We can’t remember where the name came from, but it’s stuck in my head for now!

Lefse

Erin came over to make lefse with Dad on Sunday.

I helped mix a batch before my nap...

And then while I was sleeping, they rolled them out and cooked them so that when I woke up from my nap...

Sample time!

p.s. Erin took more pictures of me helping so we'll share those in a future post (we don't have them yet!).

Basketball with Dad

Mom was out with the ladies on Saturday night, so Dad and I walked over to Regis to watch the women's basketball game.

I was excited to have dinner at the game. But once I opened up the container, I was not impressed...

And during the second half I got a little bored, but Dad was prepared!

Shiner

I came home from school on Friday with a little something special on my face. I slipped while playing outside and my face met the concrete sidewalk. Don't worry, the sidewalk is ok.

Here's the picture from Friday:

Basketball season

We went up to Boulder last Friday for the first Buffs' game of the season. I had a really fun time, but was a little scared of the horn that sounds every time there's a player substitution (which is a lot). So we created a fun game where we now give high fives or fist bumps every time the horn sounds!

 Checking out the lineup card.