Georgia's sayings

Like most other 2 year olds, she is talking up a storm. She mostly asks "Why?" about 3,502 times a day. But she also has some funny sayings and ideas. She will ask, "Why this song?" or "Why you do that?" or "Why you eat that?" or "Why the sun out?" Seriously, its just all. day. long.

The other day she got a little ouchie. Nothing major, just a bump. She sat down on the couch next to me and grabbed my phone and said, "I think playing games [on mommy's iphone] will help me feel better"

She is also in a very lovey-dovey mood with daddy lately. If she is getting ready for bed, and has not done so yet, she will jump up run out of the room to find Dave and suddenly say, "I need to give Daddy hugs and kisses!" 

I've been giving her two kisses at night (because she is two), and she always goes on to say, "I be 3 soon.... and then 4.... and then 5........ (and so on, usually ending around 9). Yikes! How is she getting so old so quickly?

When asked her name by other kids (usually at the playground or playplace), she gives them her whole name, "Georgia Ruth Wallace!" Poor other kids don't understand what she is saying. We're working on just saying her first name when asked.

She is very excited for her birthday. She will say, usually at least one time each day, "After baby's birthday then comes my birthday!" (if you don't know, I'm pregnant and due this fall).

When we get into the car, Georgia likes to tell me, "My tummy not full!" Oftentimes I have snacks in the car for her to munch on, and she enjoys asking me for them. She will say this statement when she is hungry, too.

2 1/2

We had a fairly hot month of May, and Georgia enjoyed playing in our sprinklers

Here we are, halfway through Georgia's third year. It seems sort of odd - in some ways this year has flown by, but it also seems an eternity since we had her 2nd birthday party. In my mind I want to start planning her next one, but I have more than enough time for that ;)

We also made a couple trips to the water park

Height: 39 inches - above 95%
Weight:
Clothing size: 3T, mostly 4T

Once again, she is completely potty trained. I don't think she's had any accidents. (She had one accident this weekend). She has woken me up in the middle of the night a handful of times because she has needed to go potty or poop. She loves going potty in public restrooms (When I was a child, I was fearful of that for many years!).

She picked out her outfit - complete with accessories!

The one thing we continue to work on is obedience. She hates getting ready for naptime or bedtime and also doesn't like to sit still at the dinner table. Other than those activities, she is rather obedient. She stays close in stores, never wanders off too far in public areas, and is generally a happy girl.

Nightime

She has been great at playing by herself the last month. She is a great engineer and loves anything that she can build or design. She loves putting together train tracks, building with duplos or with other building blocks. She also is super imaginative. She makes food, plays with her cash register, takes care of babies, plays with her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and on and on.

Playing with the Sesame Street playhouse at Nana's house

She knows probably about half of her letters by sight. She can count to 20 most of the time. She can count up to 10 objects with maybe 80% accuracy. She can count up to 5 or 6 objects with 100% accuracy.

Putting a train track together

She sleeps about 11-12 hours at night, and takes a nap most days of the week. Naptime ranges from 1-3 hours.

The best days of our life

I have been watching 19 Kids and Counting lately. If you don't know that show, its the Duggar family who have literally 19 kids. They feel very blessed to have that many kids, and would love to have even more. Basically, because they are so different than what society says is normal, they are misunderstood and criticized for their beliefs.

In one of the episodes, several of their younger kids are sick. Throwing up. Coughing. Fever. When your kids are sick is one of the worst times to be a parent. You are worried, extra busy cleaning up, washing hands, keeping sick kids away from well kids, etc. Jim and Michelle, the parents, had the best attitude about having sick kids. I'm sure part of it comes from so many years of experience. But one of the things they said really stuck with me. "These are the best days of our life".

That phrase has come to my mind a lot lately.

These are the best days of my life while Georgia and Dave pretend to be water buffaloes (thanks to Veggie Tales) and run around the house, poking people and things with their "horns". (do water buffaloes even have horns?)

These are the best days of my life when listening to the same CD the same three kids songs over and over and over again while driving in the car.

These are the best days of my life even when I'm awoken at 2am because of her bad dream about bears. Someday I am going to wish my girl was still little enough that I could climb in bed with her.

These are the best days of my life when she fights naptime and I hear her saying, "I took a good nap, mommy! Time to get up!" because I am so blessed to have a little one, and really she is a good sleeper (most of the time)

These are the best days of my life when I find a corn cob in her baby's stroller, my makeup brushes in her bed, the kitchen tongs in the office and my high heel shoes strew all over the house.

These are the best days of my life as I struggle to figure out how to remove stains from t-shirts, as I am continually buying clothes for the little one Georgia because she never stops growing!

These are the best days of my life. 

29 months

Well, another month has just flown past us. This month has been quite a bit more summer-like in weather (how are we actually going to survive the even-hotter months of July and August???). We've gone to the water park a few times. We spend a lot of the middle of the day indoors where it's cooler. Our schedule is still very busy between gymnastics, Bible Study, small groups and play dates.

Dying Easter eggs after Easter. 

Weight: 33.6
Height: same - around 38 inches

A favorite activity - playing in the dirt

The newest news is that Georgia is now "officially" potty trained. It has been a straight 14 nights since she had a wet diaper, and she has slept with underwear on for about 7 nights now. She has not had any accidents. She is pooping maybe 5 out of 7 times in the potty, and now will only poop in a diaper if it has been a while and she was too busy to poop during the day (and then I will put a diaper on at naptime/nighttime because I know there is a greater chance of her pooping).

update 5/11 - since I've had this written for 2 weeks and never posted it.... she had one nighttime wet diaper (she was wearing a diaper) and she woke up and told me she had to pee, asked if her diaper was on, then wanted me to change it. She has also had one night where she woke up at 2am and told me she had to go. We went to the potty and then she went back to bed. She is now pooping all the time in the potty, and has still had no accidents or problems.

Her imagination has just taken off. She plays pretend with her animals. She wears mommy's high heel shoes. She brings me pretend food to eat. She loves the baby dolls that she has and will feed them and take care of them.

Georgia and her second cousin, Sawyer

She is napping and sleeping really well. When we're in our routine, she will nap every day. Still occasionally or most often on Saturdays she doesn't want to take her nap. Most naps are 1.5 hours. She is sleeping through the night.

Georgia is playing a lot more independently. She will find toys to play with and entertain herself for a while. Of course this always happens when I am ready to leave the house or move onto something else. When I am busy and need to get stuff done she always wants to play with me (of course).

a dance party at Disneyland

One of our biggest struggles with her is that she doesn't like to stay in her chair at meal times. I really think this is something she will outgrow and mature into. Sometimes we put her in her high chair, just so she sits still. Other times we read books to her as we eat to keep her interest.

More Georgia-isms

This morning brought several funny statements and I thought that I should write them down so I don't forget!

Georgia was sitting on my lap and I while I shaved yesterday, I am starting to get some stubble on my legs. She said something to the effect of "ouch!" and I put her on the bed and we were feeling how smooth Georgia's legs were and how smooth or rough my legs were. She felt my legs and then immediately took her hands to my face and said, "Still have a beard!" in a very cheeky voice. Dave and I just burst into laughter and then Georgia laughed and said, "boys have beards!"

Nothing out of the ordinary here. Gloves on feet. Half-naked kid. Popsicle on a rainy day 

After using the potty, I asked Georgia if she wanted to put on her underwear. She said, "NO. Wearing bottom" (as in her butt).

I got a book about crickets from the library. We were talking about how crickets have strong legs (and muscles) and they can jump high. She said, "I have strong feet! I jump high too!"

gymnastics

They do lots of climbing over and through things

We have had Georgia in gymnastics for 10 weeks, I think. We do it through the city, and the program is just great. Her class is relatively small - about 8 to 10 kids (and their parents). Her coach has just been completely awesome. She is very energetic, loud (helps when you have ten 2-year-olds!), enthusiastic and encouraging.

Forward roll (and her coach next to her)

The way gymnastics works is they have different circuits or courses for the kids to go through. They are long enough that most of the time all the kids can be completing it at the same time. There is very little sitting around.

Her favorite activity - the trampoline!

Some of the things they do are: walking on balance beams, climbing on nets, jumping, forward rolls, hanging from uneven bars, and starting to do the basics of things like: back bend, cartwheel, and handstand. They have a trampoline they get to use, some slides, and a zip line.

Uncle Jon helping her do a hand stand

Every single day (almost without fail), Georgia asks if she gets to go to gymnastics.

another coach helping Georgia do a "monkey hang"

Some things I love about it: a place where Georgia is stretched physically to do things I would not otherwise teach her. Teaching her about following directions from adults in authority. She has to learn to wait her turn and have patience.

JUMP!

28 months

So, I am quite late with this post. We have been really busy, Grandma and Grandpa Hall and Uncle Jon came to visit us over Easter. Also, I did start a post, and the computer ate it. Oh well.

At the beach in Santa Barbara

Weight: 32ish pounds
Height: 38ish inches
Shoes: Mostly size 9 now
Diapers: size 6

An artsy type picture taken early in the morning. Relaxing on the couch

Our month started off with a weekend trip to Santa Barbara to see some friends we have up there. They have two little girls, one being about 6 months older than Georgia. They got along so well, and it was fun to see them playing together! Too bad they don't live closer - I'm sure Georgia and her would be great friends.

The weather has been warm this month

She is quickly becoming a little person with her own mind and her own thoughts and ideas. She is quite the conversationalist and is able to engage in conversations now, back and forth with whomever she is talking. She has many ideas for what she wants to do, and who she wants to see.

Dave and Georgia before our 5K Color run (she sat in the stroller most of the way)

She still loves reading books. She has a fairly long attention span, and we read Dr. Seuss, and some of the older Curious George books (some are 70+ pages long!). We typically read 3 books before naptime and another three before bedtime. We also read occasionally throughout the day, if she asks. We try to go to the library once a week.

After the color run. And yes, she was this colorful. She had a pink scalp for a week!

We talk a ton about obedience verses disobedience. This is a very difficult subject, and I'm sure it will be something that we talk about for years to come. Oftentimes, its about something silly like, "Sit down on that potty" or "put on your shoes". She does a fairly good job when we are on walks listening to us about stopping at intersections and such.

Easter Egg hunt at church.... lots of scraped knees somedays. 

We are in a Veggie Tales-loving-period right now. For a while it was Mickey Mouse, and that is slowly waning and turning into a Veggie Tales love. We are able to watch some of the movies on Amazon Prime (for free!) and have gotten a few other ones from the library. The latest one we watched was Esther, and she watched it twice yesterday ;) I really enjoy the Veggie Tales because it brings up some good conversations. We talk about why we shouldn't be scared (Where's God When I'm Scared), different Bible stories - especially Esther, David & Goliath and also Daniel in the Lions Den. She loves the CD (also free from the library) and will ask, "What does this song mean?" I love that we have conversations and I can tell her Bible stories and explain to her the importance in them.

Georgia is still almost potty trained. She uses the potty, but pretty much refuses to poop. There has been a little improvement lately, and I have hope that someday soon we will be fully there! We are also cutting out milk before nap and bedtime. She is sleeping pretty well, but I think that her wet diapers sometimes wake her up in the morning, earlier than I would like her to be up. Most nights she sleeps through the night, and occasionally she will either have a bad dream, or will have a wet diaper (usually around 5 or 6am) or will be cold. She is needing less sleep, and will sleep about 10-12 hours a night, and then take a nap 5 or 6 days of the week.