happy girl

Over the past week Mikayla has been in a great mood! It brings a smile to my fact just thinking about it. Lately we can simply look at Mikayla and she will start to giggle. We can start to talk to her and she will giggle. We take a step towards her and she giggles. As you can tell pretty much anything will make her giggle right now! She watches Jennifer with a huge smile on her face. It has been so much fun to watch her. What joy this sweet girl brings to our home.

Ok so this picture isn't of her smiling but it makes me smile. One day last week Bill was feeding Mikayla some lunch. She was getting tired and fading fast but she kept eating. She would close her eyes a little bit and her head would start to fall. Bill would then say "Do you want a bite?" Mikayla would slowly lift her head and open her mouth, take a bit and then close her eyes again. Bill and I were cracking up. This happened several times before Bill decided maybe he should just let her go to sleep. She just needed a few more bites before really going to sleep. I sometimes wish I could just fall asleep like this.

lunch anyone?

Today at lunch we were trying to figure out what to have and I suggested macaroni and cheese. Jennifer thought this was a great idea, here is what process looked like next...

Bill asked Jennifer to get the pan out for the roni cheese (as Jennifer calls it) and you can see her choice of pans on the counter behind her, Bill's choice is on the stove in the background.

After much discussion between Bill and Jennifer about which pan would be the best choice to use the actually make the roni cheese Bill decided to let Jen do her thing. "No dad's pan, my pan" was Jennifer's response. Dumping the roni onto the pan.

As you can see she thinks this is pretty great!

Here is where Jen's recipe differs a little from the original. As we were deciding to have roni cheese for lunch Jennifer thought yogurt was a great choice as well. So she decided that maybe we could just combine the two. After dumping the roni on the pan Bill asked her what was next. She picked up the yogurt and wanted to dump it on the roni. (This was our last box of macaroni otherwise Bill said he would have let her dump the yogurt, just for fun!) Lastly comes the cheese, Bill had to be quick on this one because just like the yogurt she would have opened it right up and dumped away. Jennifer finally gave into Bill's idea after much discussion. I was feeding Mikayla during this whole process and I must admit I was pretty sure the roni was going all over the floor right here! Bill handed Jen the pan to take her picture, not a great idea in my mind but it worked out fine.

Jennifer with all her ingredients for roni and cheese. Helping out by stirring.
Finally enjoying the finished product. If anyone is ever interested in lunch (or any meal for that matter) we have a great chef on our hands, come on over!

funny girl

Jennifer has been full of silliness lately. She is coming up with weird and funny things all the time. Here are few of her latest silly moves...

Jennifer thought it would be funny to put Bill's coat the other day. Once she got it on she proceeded to spin in circles singing in the kitchen.

I'm not sure how Jennifer made this discovery but she realized she could fit between the couch and the wall the other day. Before making this wonderful discovery she thought it would be funny to put on Mikayla's hat. So here she is wearing Mikayla's hat and squeezing behind the couch.

Jennifer loves to help us do pretty much anything. So the other day she "helped" Bill do the dishes. First her shirt got slightly wet so she had to take it off and when Bill was done she decided she needed a drink. Why get a cup when the faucet is right there?
What will this girl come up with next?!

meeting

Tonight Bill had a meeting to go to and whenever Bill has to go to a meeting we have to start preparing Jennifer a few hours before he leaves. Jennifer is very much a daddy's girl, if you didn't know, and really hates it when he leaves. So this afternoon shortly after Bill got home from work I mentioned to Jennifer that dad had a meeting to go to later. Jennifer's response was immediate, "Daddy, no meeting!" She repeated, "No meeting dad" and then said, "Mom go to meeting?" Really I think she would have been fine if I had to leave just not her dad! Later at supper Jennifer had prayed and was then was asking Bill and I to pray. During my prayer I said something about Bill having a good meeting, as soon as those words came out of my mouth Jennifer calls out "No meeting!" Then she had grand idea, "I go to meeting!" She was really convinced she could just go with Bill to his meeting and repeated several times, "I go to meeting!" Bill and I were cracking up at her. Her face and voice are what made it so funny. She was yelling with excitement at this grand idea of hers. Needless to say she did not get to go to the meeting and had to settle for an evening at home with mom and Mikayla, in her mind not as fun as a meeting with dad.

all is well

This morning we headed up to Rochester for Mikayla's check-up with her cardiologist. It was a lot of driving for not a very long appointment but I guess that is good. The doctor thought Mikayla looked and sounded good. She has been doing amazing since her surgery. What can I say the girl loves to eat so she is gaining weight well and is a happy, laid back baby. We will go back this summer and have a full check-up with an echo and a few other things but for now all is well, with her heart. Jennifer went with us to the appointment today and she of course thought she needed to be checked out by the doctor as well. Lucky for us our doctor is a kind man who was willing to listen to Jennifer as well. Jennifer is due for an echo this summer too, so we will make a marathon trip with both girls having echoes and seeing the cardiologist on the same day, that will be interesting I'm sure!

On other notes both girls are making progress on important stages in life. Mikayla is rolling over, hooray!! She had that task down before her surgery in October but after surgery she had to stay off her tummy for a while so we can kind took a few steps back. Once she was able to be on her tummy again she had no interest at all, in fact up until a few weeks ago she sort of hated being on her tummy. But this week she has started rolling from back to tummy again. Bill and I were laughing tonight because she really could do more than she is, she is just choosing to be a little lazy! And today Jennifer went almost the entire day having a dry pull-up! Hopefully the end is in site for potty training, what a process it has been. Jennifer has been showing from the minute she was born that it is all about her timing, we cannot push that girl to do anything she is not ready to do. I have learned time and again to enjoy the waiting process with her. Although it may take a little longer for certain goals to be reached that is ok, there are certain things we get to enjoy a bit longer than most parents. It is funny how Mikayla is proving to be like her sister in this way. She could be rolling over yet she is taking her time. Once again I will simply enjoy her where she is and let her take her time.

cheese

When I picked Jennifer up from preschool she was in a goofy mood. Really it was making me laugh. She talked to me the whole way home. First she thought we should go to the store for popcorn and butter. Then she wanted go to the bank, they give her candy in the drive-thru window. Then she was just talking, I think she was telling me about school and what she wanted to do when she got home. The girl has so much to say, I just wish I could understand it all!

Once we got home Jennifer helped me make lunch and part way through noticed the camera and decided she needed her picture taken. Here are her goofy smiles!

This was from a few nights ago in the bath, of course you can kind of tell she was saying "cheese" as I took the picture.
Mikayla was not all about having her her picture taken today. She was getting hungry and just wanted to be held, she was not as impressed with pictures today like her sister.
Yes, it happened again. There is something about this exersaucer that makes this girl tired! She sort of looks like she is kissing the baby though, which is kind of sweet.

snowman

These pictures really should have gone with the previous post, so here they are...

Jennifer and Bill's snowman, with charcoal for eyes and a mouth, a hat made of snow and gloves that don't match. Jennifer was very proud of the snowman, until it was time to come inside. Bill said he had to convince her not to tackle the snowman and knock him over!