Our 2 Year Old

Rylee Dawn is 2 years old already! I know this will probably be a long post (sorry) but I want to take the time and note what our 2 year old is up to now and what some of her favorites are. First of all, I have to say she is a great big sister! A lot has changed in her life over the past few months but she has handled it all better than we ever could've imagined. She loves Sadie and is so good to her. She loves to hold her, hug her, and talk to her (about an inch away from her face). I have lots of picture of the 2 of them together but than will have to be another post.
Rylee is at a fun stage right now and makes us laugh all the time. Yes, she is also at a stage where she can push our buttons (and she defintely knows how to do that), but even when she makes us mad she'll have us smiling a few minutes later. She has a pretty easy going personality. She can be very shy at times and other times she doesn't stop talking. She is starting to be Miss Independent and wants to try and do things on her own.
She also is a neat little girl. She likes to organize her books (either in a row or stack them), lines her markers up when she's coloring, and picks up her toys when we tell her too. Hopefully her picking up when we tell her to will continue on into her teenage years.
She is really into colors right now. She knows all of her colors. When she is coloring she will always say what color she is coloring with. When she is eating her fun fruits she'll tell me the color of everyone she eats. It sounds funny but fun fruits actually really helped her to learn all of her colors.
She has been sleeping in her big girl bed (toddler bed) for about a month now. It was the easiest transition ever. I was worried about making the transition but when we finally decided to do it, it was a piece of cake. We told her that it was Sadie's turn to sleep in the crib and from that moment on, the crib was Sadie's. We moved the crib up for Sadie and Rylee always says "Sadie up high". Rylee hasn't gotten out of her bed once yet. When we put her to bed at night (with her blankie of course - she loves that thing), she will talk for awhile in her bed, but she won't get out. In the morning she will yell "daddy, mommy" until we come in there and get her out. I am not exactly sure why she won't get out on her own but we sure are happy about it. We are still working on her new room, once all the furniture is in and we get it set up I will post some pictures. Right now it just has her little toddler bed and a Pottery Barn Kids chair in it. It looks really empty but she loves her "big girl room".
In the past month she has started talking a ton. She will pretty much try to say any word you tell her too. She repeats a lot of what you say so we have to be careful now. Brad is a little worried what she might be saying by the end of football season. He said he may have to keep her away from me during my dads games. I guess I'll have to try to be good. Here's a few of her "common sayings" right now that I wanted to jot down.
- "daddy take it" - I am not sure where she got this from but she says it whenever we are looking for something. The other day we were looking for her blankie and she was saying that. Brad kept telling her that he didn't take it and she would look right at him and say "daddy take it".
- "harry me" - She combined hold me and carry me and came up with harry me. We have corrected her over and over but she continues to say "harry me". It always makes Brad and I laugh so whatever, "harry me" it is.
-"bless you Sadie" -everytime Sadie sneezes or coughs
-"got it, and did it" - If I tell her to go get something she will go get it and say "got it" really loud with a big smile. Same with if I tell her to do something. She'll do it and say "did it", loud and proud.

Here's a few pictures of Rylee from around her 2nd birthday. She is really hard to take pictures of right now. She'll either say "cheese" and give you a really cheesy face or turn her head. It is frustrating.

Our sweetie - her blonde curly hair is adorable. She gets compliments on it all the time. I am not sure if the curls will stay but they sure are pretty right now.

Her serious look

She likes to clap and hop at the same time. She skips around saying "clap hop". She gets Brad to do it with her and it is quite amusing.

Singing on the swing.

Here's that cheesy face I mentioned.

Rylee's Favorites
Favorite things to do outside: bubbles, color with sidewalk chalk, play on the swings and slides, , fish with Daddy, and run around with Grace
Favorite things to do inside: draw and color (especially with the mess free markers that I also love), puzzles (she's really good at them), play with her baby dolls, "cut up" her wooden pretend food, and play with Grace
Favorite foods: mac and cheese, waffles with peanut butter and syrup, fruit (watermelon, strawberries, blueberries and grapes)
Favorite treats: fun fruits and chocolate pudding
Favorite drink: apple juice (she asks for juice all of the time)
Favorite songs: Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Rylee's Dislikes
Mornings- she is not a morning person, it takes her a little while to "wake up"
Vegetables- green beans are the only veggie she'll eat. She used to be a pretty good eater but now its some days she eats good and other days she doesn't want to eat anything.
Time outs - and she gets her share of these

2 Year Stats
Weight: 25.7 lbs (34th percentile)
Height: 35" (84th percentile)
Head: 49cm (90th percentile)

I've heard so many stories about the "terrible two's". I know Rylee has only been 2 for a little while but I don't think it's so "terrible". She is very energetic and can be a handful but its also such a fun stage. She is learning new things daily. She says and does so many cute things right now. I love it!

Rylee Turns 2!

On Saturday, August 8th, we celebrated Rylee's 2nd birthday. As you can see by the pictures, it was an Elmo birthday party. Rylee was talking about it the whole week before her party and she still talks about it now. She calls it her "elmo happy day" and we've heard that over and over. In church last Sunday it was the priest's birthday so we all sang happy birthday to him after mass. I am pretty sure Rylee thought everyone was singing to her. Her face lit up, and then at the end she was clapping and saying "elmo happy day". It was pretty cute. At least we know she enjoyed her 2nd Birthday party. I've got tons of pictures to share from her "elmo happy day". Thanks Mindi for taking so many pictures.

Before the party started we took a picture of the girls in their Elmo shirts and jean skirts. Thanks to Auntie Vanessa for getting both of the girls their Elmo shirts.

The party started with the kids jumping in the bounce house!

After all the bouncing the kids were hungry for lunch.

And of course after lunch came cake and ice cream!

She didn't exactly know what to do while we sang happy birthday to her and she needed mom's help to blow out the candles.

But she definitely didn't need help with her cake. She shoveled that in as fast as she could. She usually is a fairly neat eater and uses her fork and spoon. Apparently this cake was way too good to use utensils.

After cake, Rylee opened all her presents, with some help from her friends. Thanks to everyone for all the great presents.

Then it was time for the Elmo pinata. It was the kind with the strings that you pull. It didn't break til the last string, and Brad still had to kind of shake it out. Not as exciting as the kind you hit, but the kids still liked it (of course they did when they saw all the candy pour out).

Rylee sorting through all her treats that she gathered.

And of course I have to include some pics of Sadie. She partied with us for about half of the party and then slept through the rest.

Indy Zoo

The first weekend in August we took the girls to the zoo. Our neighbors Ryan and Grace joined us too. It was a beautiful day to go to the zoo. It was only in the 70's (very rare for August in Indy) so we took advantage of it and spent the day outside. Rylee and Grace loved all of the animals! It's nice having such a great zoo so close by.

Daddy and Rylee watching the giraffes. She liked them from a distance.

But she wasn't too sure about actually feeding one. Look at that tongue!

Grace didn't exactly want to go near the giraffe either.

" Let me in"! Apparently she liked the elephants and wanted to climb on in there with them.

The girls looking at the animals.

Watching the monkeys. It was kind of neat to watch them swing from branch to branch.

Rylee showing me the lion. She kept saying "roar, roar".

Daddy and his girls

Lunch time!

There are little sharks in this pool that you can actually touch. Brad and Ryan touched them but Rylee, Grace and I decided to pass on that idea.

The polar bear is one of our favorites. He is so big and its fun to watch him swim around. He came right up to the window but of course we didn't have our camera ready. He is in this picture but you can just see his head peeking out from behind the rock (over my shoulder)

Happy Feet! Another one of Rylee's favorites at the zoo.

Our double stroller worked perfect. Rylee can get in and out on her own and Sadie was in her car seat in the shade, sleeping most of the time.

Next year she'll get to enjoy the zoo too.

2 Months

I know I am a few weeks behind on this post but the time has been flying by. We've been enjoying our summer and watching Sadie change and grow. This past month she has become more smiley and definitley knows when mama, daddy, or Rylee is talking to her. She has also started to pay attention to her toys that hang from her bouncy and car seat. Her neck has gotten stronger and she holds her head up with no problem now. She still likes to straighten her long legs and stand on your lap when you are holding her.

Her sleeping hasn't changed much from last month. She goes to bed around 9, wakes up once a night, usually around 3 or so, and then goes back to sleep til 7 or 8. She takes a bunch of cat naps and usually one long nap during the day but nothing consistant during the day.

We had her 2 month wellness visit and unfortunately it didn't go so well. She had gotten a cold from Rylee but we thought that's all it was. Well it turned out she had a mild ear infection too. She never had a fever and never woke up at night crying (the 2 symptoms that Rylee usually had) so we had no clue. The doctor did say it was mild so hopefully we caught it before it bothered her. I was really hoping she wouldn't have ear issues like Rylee has but it looks like she is going to take after her sister that way.

Here's her stats from her appt:

Weight: 11 lbs. 13 ozs (77th %)

Height: 24.5 in. (99th %)

Head: 15.4 in. (60th %)

Her weight actually has went down 2 oz's from her 1 month appt. We are not sure if her weight was recorded wrong or not (I didn't see the scale). We took her in when she was around 6 weeks because of a rash on her face and she weighed 11 lbs 5 ozs. The doctor is not concerned because she is gaining weight now and she's still a pretty big baby. She has grown an inch and is still in the 99th percentile. In the top picture you can see her showing off her long legs.

A few cute close ups of Sadie Lee

She's not a huge fan of tummy time but we're working on it.

Her eyes are still a bright dark blue color. I am not sure if they'll stay that way but they sure are pretty.