August

Favorite Activity: Going to the Zoo!, Watching Winnie the Pooh, collecting leaves

Favorite Food: "Pooh Yogurt" Plain whole milk yogurt with honey mixed in.

Favorite word or phrase to say: "Lorelei good helper!"

Cutest Moment: After getting her hair cut, Lorelei has been practicing "cutting" mama's hair--complete with putting on the cape, and grabbing different tools for cutting.

Naughtiest Moment: Multiple meltdowns when we don't let her do what she wants, bedtime procrastination

How Mom's Feeling: Excited for what's coming next. This was a great month. I started back at work part time, and I've spent the month planning for the year, going on little trips and activities with Lorelei and getting her ready for preschool! I'm going to be wearing a lot of hats this year: Treehouse Teacher, Preschool Gardening Teacher and Room Parent! We've already had one preschool playdate before school started, a welcome breakfast and a classroom tour. For the two weeks before school starts, we have been reading books all about preschool, getting Lorelei excited about storytime, having her own cubby and making new friends.

July

Favorite Activity: Playing with her playdough, going swimming

Favorite Food: fruit and yogurt

Favorite word or phrase to say: "My do!"

Cutest Moment: Tucking her babies into bed, then giving them a kiss and telling them "sweet dreams!"

Naughtiest Moment: Trying to ride the dogs ("Apparently riding the dog like a horse is frowned upon in this establishment"), throwing things at daddy and the dogs (which got her a swift time out)

How Mom's Feeling: Happy...but tired. The end of July marked the end of my stay-at-home-momhood for the summer. It was a fun six weeks, but very exhausting. We did get into a sort of routine, which helped, and we did a lot of fun stuff! Tide pools, Children's Museum, San Francisco Zoo, Pier 39, Tilden Park and a few playdates at different playgrounds, plus swim lessons every Monday morning! I feel so proud to see her confidently (maybe too confidently) climbing into the swimming pool each Monday morning. Her teacher has already told us we can move her up to the next swim level next session.

Speaking of confidence, she has it in spades. Along with independence. Everything is "My do!" She wants no help in picking out her night time diaper, putting on her clothes, walking up and down the steps to the house, or climbing in the car, carseat and stroller. But she will tell me "Carry you" after taking 5 steps and I absolutely cannot do anything else while she is doing something. I have to sit and watch. I think I'm looking forward to preschool starting next month a little too much!

June

Favorite Activity: Playing on the iPad, helping mom cook

Favorite Food: fruit and yogurt

Favorite word or phrase to say: "Play Gummies!" or "1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10! Yay!" or "Hold you!"

Cutest Moment: So many! After being gone after a long day (in which I didn't see her for over 24 hours) "I miss you!" and randomly running up to me, hugging my knees, and saying "I love you!" then running away.

Naughtiest Moment: Pushing mommy into the kitchen and telling me to "Do Dinner!" so she can play on the iPad.

How Mom's Feeling: Exhausted. For the last two and a half weeks, I've been doing the stay at home mommy thing, and my hat goes off to all those ladies (and men) who do this year round. It is really hard! And it's a constant struggle to balance the free time/guided play/activities/playdates/screen time. I've found it's easier if we just get out of the house in the morning to do something--swimming, playground, playdate, "adventure", come home, eat lunch, naptime (for everyone. Seriously, I haven't done this many naps in the middle of the day since she was a newborn), then a planned afternoon activity at home (cooking project/playdough/painting/art activity), free time, then either some episodes of a show or a movie while mommy makes dinner, bath time (maybe) then bedtime routine. You can see why I'm so exhausted (and there are parents who do this ALL THE TIME). And sometimes I just think "screw it" and we watch shows in the morning, or she gets extra iPad time, and maybe we'll watch a movie in the afternoon. I'm okay with that.

Potty training is going ok. She backslid a bit when she came down with a cold, and now pooping in the potty is pretty hit or miss. She used to tell me when she had a "poo poo coming!" but not anymore. I try to let it go and remember that she won't be going to college with poop in her pants.

May

Favorite Activity: Watching her shows, playing with her playdough, painting

Favorite Food: Stawberries

Favorite word or phrase to say: Potty time!

Cutest Moment: When arriving at our friends Sandi, Chris, Grady and Collette's house for a playdate, she got out of the car and announced it was "Grady Time!"

Naughtiest Moment: Sitting on Finnegan to ride him "like a horsey"

How Mom's Feeling: Good. This month was super busy with playdates, family visits and POTTY TRAINING. After spending most of the month practicing sitting on the potty and going to the potty, we spent Memorial Day weekend doing the official potty training. Overall it was pretty successful!

Here is my potty training report:

*For the entire month before this, we sat on the potty, read books about the potty, set up the potty area, picked out new panties and introduced the potty incentive chart

Day 1: Pumped L with liquids, she demanded to wear the new panties (even though I had planned on going without for the first day). Took her to the potty or asked if she had to go every 15 minutes. We had about a 50-50 success rate and went through about 6 pairs of panties.
Day 2: Pumped L with liquids. She was not "into" it at all. Lots of accidents. Took her or asked about the potty every 10-15 minutes. Probably went through about 8-10 pairs of panties.
Day 3: Laid off the liquids. She drank her normal amount. Showed her the Daniel Tiger episode about using the potty twice, continuously sang the song. Took her to the potty or asked about it every 15-20 minutes.) Only one accident in the morning. Went through 2 pairs of panties all day (plus a pull up for nap)
Day 4: Watched Daniel Tiger Potty episode again (it's on YouTube. Glorious.) Normal liquid intake. Asked her about the potty every 30 minutes. Took her at least once an hour. Went on an hour long walk to the park (with travel potty in her diaper bag, just in case). Only one partial accident (poop started in her pants, but she told me right away and she finished on the potty). Dry throughout nap as well.

I'm calling it a win.Feeling ok about taking her to J care tomorrow without a diaper. (I did get a piddle pad for the car seat, just in case!)

April

Favorite Activity: Watching Frozen, Listening to Frozen, Dancing to Frozen

Favorite Food: Stawberries

Favorite word or phrase to say: "Let it Go!" or "Snowman!"

Cutest Moment: Every time she found an Easter egg, she would giggle so delightedly.

Naughtiest Moment: Pulling Bummer's ear

How Mom's Feeling: Good. The Frozen obsession is still going strong. However, she has really gotten into play dough, as well. She got a bunch of play dough in her Easter basket, and it has been a daily activity ever since.

Speaking of Easter, I feel like this year she really "got" it. She absolutely LOVED the egg hunt. We had 3--one with our playgroup, one at church and one at home. It was really fun for us too. She was just so excited about finding new treasures.

I feel like this month, her girliness has really started to come through. She wants to wear skirts almost every day (to the point that I got her a few more skirts to play in) and lately has been super into the babies and baby stroller at J-Care. In fact, because of this, I got her new baby doll for her Easter basket, and she just loves her. Sleeps with her every night and loves pushing her around in the grocery cart and feeding her with a bottle. She seems like such a "little mommy".

March

Favorite Activity: Playing at the park/Watching "Frozen"

Favorite Food: Stawberries

Favorite word or phrase to say: "Let it Go!"

Cutest Moment: Dancing around the room, a sock on one hand, spinning around singing "Let it go!" from Frozen

Naughtiest Moment: Shoving her cup (jelly jar) off the table, breaking it, when she decided she didn't want her milk.

How Mom's Feeling: Tired. Lorelei is definitely keeping us on our toes. She's completely obsessed with the movie Frozen--along with every other little girl in the United States, I think! She wants to watch it ALL THE TIME. We've successfully completed the big girl bed transition. It was fairly painless. She sleeps the whole night in the bed, and will just start playing when she wakes up. Naps...are a bit trickier. Even with the blackout curtains, her room just doesn't get that dark. So she just gets up and plays...and destroys things. Somehow she is able to rip the paper off the front of her board books, while leaving the rest of the cover. Weird.

February

Favorite Activity: Helping mama cook

Favorite Food: Grapes, rice, Cheerios, fruit and veggie breakfast smoothies, painting

Favorite word or phrase to say: "Bye Guys!"

Cutest Moment: She now demands to be tucked in like a burrito, with all of her babies placed all around her. When it's time to turn out the lights, she looks at us and says "SHHHHH!!!" very loudly.

Naughtiest Moment: Taking toys away from other children then telling them to "Share!"

How Mom's Feeling: Wait...February is over? When did that happen??? I seriously think I took about 5 pictures with my camera all month. I've got plenty of pictures on my phone, but not much else. I don't even know what we DID this month! It hasn't been particularly busy. We've just been keeping on keeping on. A few tidbits this month: 

-we've enrolled Lorelei into preschool for the Fall. Don't know how she got old enough for that to happen! But she'll be starting in the fall, 3 days a week!
-she's started making attempts to climb out of her bed, so we're getting ready for the big-girl bed transition. Waiting for a quilt from BeeBee and a trip to Ikea for her new mattress and sheets (our crib transitions to a toddler bed, but requires a longer mattress than usual--only sold at Ikea, apparently).
-she's started telling us when she has a yucky diaper or has a poop. The beginning of potty training?