Mastering my Tricycle!

Recently I've shown more and more interest in riding my tricycle, and I'm starting to get really good!  I can go up and down the hallway by myself now, and mommies are hoping that I'll get strong enough on it this winter to be able to ride my tricycle with them when they go for walks in the spring and summer.  Here's a video mommies made of me a few weeks ago working on my trike riding skills!







Pretty Pretty Princess!

Dress-up has been one of my FAVORITE games lately!  I have a basket of dress-up clothes now thanks to Aunt Kelly for my birthday and Mamma and Papa for Christmas that's full of clothes and lots of play jewelry.  I almost always have on a princess outfit now when I'm playing at home.  Here are a few pictures of me dressing up in my new Dora the Explorer princess dress!

Pleased as pie in my new dress.

After my nap on Christmas day, I got up, put on my dress, then we opened a few more gifts that I was too tired to open that morning.  This is a t-shirt from Mamma and Papa!

Banging on my last gift of Christmas - my new basketball hoop.  Not sure who's more excited about it - me or mommies!

Who says princesses can't play sports?!

In addition to sports, I can also DANCE!!



Christmas 2011!!

Christmas was a few days ago, and boy was it fun!!  Although I'm only two, this was my third Christmas, and it was by far my favorite and my most memorable to date!  I don't even know where to begin!  A few days before Christmas, Mamma and Papa flew in to spend the holiday with me.  I had LOTS of fun hanging out with them for several days leading up to Christmas!  I must have been pretty good too because each day they were here, Santa made early appearances and would leave a surprise in my stocking!!  Most of my surprises were zoo talker animals, so now I nearly have a complete set! 

On Friday night, we headed to Grandma Krumm's to celebrate Christmas with the Krumm side of the family.  It was a blast!  I had so much fun playing in the basement with all of my cousins!  We do a gift exchange there too, and Aunt Jessie had me.  She got me a water bottle with my name on it and best of all - my own set of scissors!  Since receiving the scissors, I have been cutting every piece of paper in sight!  Here are a couple of pictures from Grandma Krumm's:

Opening my new water bottle - it matches the backpack I got for my birthday!

Showing Amy and Jed my scissors and my cutting activity book!

The next night on Christmas Eve, we headed over to Kelly and Dave's house to celebrate Christmas with the McNamara side of the family.  There was a HUGE surprise that night - Santa stopped by to say hi, read us a story and give each of the kids a special gift!  I was really excited to see him and I loved the gift he gave me - a Cookie Monster toy!  (I've been obssessed with Cookie lately!)  We had great food and great company too!  That also might have been the latest I've ever stayed awake - I was up until almost 11:00 that night!  Here are some pictures from all of the fun:

Before we left for the party, Mommies let me open one present.  I got a Lego table!!

Checking it out!

It didn't take long before I decided to start crawling through it like a tunnel.

All of us kids in the basement when we heard some heavy footsteps upstairs!

Running up the stairs to see who stopped by!

Getting my present from Santa.

Listening to Santa read a story!

The kids gathered around Santa.  (or as I like to call him "ho ho")

Opening my gift.

Playing upstairs with Grace and Lucy's toys.  I really love the fast food play set.  I'm working the drive-thru in this picture.  :)

The next morning was Christmas!  Despite my late bed time the night before, I got up at 7AM and was excited to run into the living room to see if Santa came ... he DID!  I must have been a VERY good girl!  I got lots of clothes and some great toys including a basketball hoop, an Alfie toy, an art easel, and some more princess dress up clothes and play jewelry.  I feel so lucky!  (mommies say I got a little spoiled!!) 

Eating chocolate before 7:30 AM.  I love Christmas! 

Opening my new Sesame Street match game!

Mamma and Papa watching me open presents.

Drawing on my new easel!

Joey even got in on the fun and opened a fresh can of tennis balls!

Trying on my new bracelets!

Me and Papa watching Beauty and the Beast after we finished opening gifts.

After Christmas morning at our house, we had one last Christmas event to attend - Christmas Brunch at Grandma and Grandpa McNamara's house!  We had great food there - Grandma made her famous french toast - need I say more?!  After brunch, we opened even more gifts!  I got my very first American Girl doll from Grandma and Aunt Kelly got me a highchair for my doll.  I also got some great clothes and some other fun toys too!  I am just such a lucky little lady.  It's several days after Christmas and I still haven't had a chance to play with everything!

Trying to get a cousin picture.  Notice Ella, Lauren and I are all wearing the same outfit!  It's a Christmas miracle!  (actually, it's not - mommies planned that with Aunt Jessie.)

My sad face.  I was overly tired by the time we got to their house, so that, coupled with the fact that I was told I had to wait to open presents caused me to make this face for about 10 minutes straight.  :)

Still sad.

The lip's still out, but it's almost time to open gifts!

Opening my American Girl doll!

Leyton received a Packers uniform - he was so excited!!

Checking out my new doll.  Mommies are thinking her name is Kate, but I haven't fully decided yet.

As a final Christmas surprise, Grandpa McNamara bought two mini dirt bikes for us kids!  I imagine Mommy and I will have lots of fun with those!





Decorating Cookies for Christmas!

A couple of weeks ago, Mommy baked some sugar cookies in different Christmas shapes and I helped her decorate them!  Mommy was hoping for some sort of a quick assembly line where she would frost the cookies and I would toss some sprinkles on them (keep in mind, Mommy baked about 60 cookies!), but that's not how it worked.  Mommy would frost them, then I would spend about 5 minutes decorating each cookie.  Once Mommy pulled out the red hots as one of my decorating options, it was all over.  Several cookies ended up with about 10 red hots on them.  (and they were small cookies!!)  The final result may not have been "pretty", but we sure had fun!

Deep in concentration!  :)

Pausing to say "cheese" for the camera!



My Two Year Check-Up

A couple of weeks ago I had my two-year check-up with Dr. Montague.  Everything checked out great, and the best part of the whole appointment was that I didn't have to get any shots!  I was a little hesitant with the nurse, but I warmed up a lot by the time Dr. Montague came in and allowed her to finish the exam.  :)

Here are my stats:

Weight:  31 pounds (92nd percentile)
Height:  2'11"  (80th percentile)

Here are a few pictures mommy's took during the appointment!

Staring Dr. Montague down.  I'm not so sure about this!

Dr. Montague checking out my skin.  I still have pretty bad eczema.  Mommies are still hopeful that I will eventually grow out of it!

Checking out my tummy.

Ahhhh!

I insisted on wearing my hat, my coat and my backpack for the majority of the appointment.



Visit with Santa Claus!

Yesterday Mommies and I took a trip to The Orchard in Baldwin to see Santa.  Mommies weren't sure how I'd react, and I was timid at first, but I got over that VERY quickly!!  :)  It wasn't long before I was up on his lap not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR different times!  Mommies couldn't believe it.  I'd wiggle out of my seat at the table and sprint toward him.  (luckily the restaurant wasn't very crowded, so no one seemed to mind and they all seemed humored by my antics)  I sure hope I get to see him again before Christmas!  I also hope he knows I've been a good girl all year.  (minus the fact that I was trying to climb on our dog Joey and ride him like a horse last night...  )  Here are a few pictures of me and St. Nick! 

Showing Santa my pretty ponytail.

Not scared, but not smiling.  Sucking on my finger seems to be my new "nervous" activity.  It has replaced showing everyone my tummy.  :)

Cheese!

My silly Maggie smirk.



Sleepover with Luca

Last weekend mommies watched Luca on Saturday night since Aunt Jessie and Uncle Dan were in Green Bay for the Packers game.  We had lots of fun with Luca.  My favorite activities were laying on the tummy time mat with him and pushing him on the swing.  At one point, mommies got out my Bumbo chair for him, which I thought was a potty chair, so I got my potty chair and sat down next to him!  Unfortunately, Mommies didn't get a picture of that.  Luca slept great that night too which made mommies very happy!  :) 

Being silly for Luca.

It's not hard to make this little guy smile!!

Pushing Luca in the swing.



My Second Birthday, Part III. (The Final Chapter!) :)

Mommies had one more blog update to do for my second birthday.  After all of the fun parties I had, there was one last celebration to have on my ACTUAL birthday on December 11.  We didn't do much that day, but we did open presents and mommies got me a special piece of cake and a very special candle (see for yourself)  :) on my special day. 

Opening my presents from my Mommies.

A new book!

My special cake and my even more special candle .... Mommies need to invest in some birthday candles!  :)

Blowing out the candle!  :)