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Thursday, December 15, 2011

I feel like every post is entitled Update

Well, it's been 2 weeks (tomorrow) since the movers brought all our stuff.  We've got all except a couple of articles of furniture (stored at BJ's grandparents' house) moved in.  We've got probably… 85% of our stuff unpacked.  But have you ever noticed it's the last few boxes that are the hardest to unpack?  Mostly we're down to office stuff (I hate paper!), crafty stuff (which doesn't really need to be unpacked, but it would be nice to have organized), baby stuff (I am shocked at how much stuff we have in boxes in the nursery.  Probably more than almost any other room.  And this stuff isn't urgent, but I'd like to have all done by mid-January at the latest so it's ready for the baby to come), and a few random boxes in our bedroom that came from the Homers' (where we've been living).  There are a couple of boxes in storage I need to go through, too, as I'm missing a box of Christmas ornaments still.  Oh hey, and I need to put up all my Christmas decor. And hang up pictures.  Those are still in boxes, too.  But really, in the entire scheme of things, that's not very much.  It's just hard to convince myself of that when I'm faced with the prospect of unpacking more.

Ok, you don't care about my unpacking woes.  I know what you really care about.  Kessa.  So here's a little bit about what she's up to lately.


Kessa has discovered the carts with cars on front.  Unfortunately. Today she discovered a new way to sit in them. (And she almost always has to be holding some grocery item. Hence the chocolate chips. But she's really good at putting whatever she's holding on the belt when we check out, or handing it to the cashier.)
I was worried about leaving all of her toys at Grandma's house, but gaining all "new" toys seem to have taken her mind off of it.  They're all toys she had before, but that was over 4 months ago!  In her mind, they may as well be new.  I'm planning on putting half of them in storage and rotating them after Baby comes, to give her some "new" toys again.  To help her feel less left out.  (Mom Lovell, doesn't this remind you of my room growing up?  Except they would have all (and more!) been on my bed.)
She is fantastic about letting me do her hair.  I'm always amazed at how well she'll sit still (ish) while I play with her hair.  I now have hope that I might have a chance of learning to do girls' hair!  Hopefully she'll keep letting me practice on her!  Typically I just do two pigtails, but every once in awhile I'll get a little more fancy.  This is the second time I've done this one (with much better results) and it lasted only the morning.  When she went down for her nap, she made me take it out.  Resulting in really, really crazy hair later.  But she's a pro at crazy hair, so it wasn't anything new.  I'm just sad that I'm the only one that got to see it in real life.








She really is my girl in so many ways.  First the love with the stuffed animals.  Then her love of blankets.  When I unpacked the blankets, she pulled as many as she could into a pile, the cuddled up inside of them.  And she knows they're her blankets, too.  "Dat Sessa's blanket!"

Kessa has really gotten into singing.  Her favorite is probably Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  She's got most of the words down pat.  Though, every once in awhile she says, "Up above the water so high" which cracks me up.  She's also getting good at singing along with Teach Me to Walk in the Light, I am a Child of God, and I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus since those are her bedtime songs.  BJ decided it would be fun to see if he could get her to pick up on the words to Silent Night this month, so he's started singing that to her at bedtime, too.  Apparently it's working, because the other day I listened to this (what you hear on the video) over and over again for probably a full half an hour.  And if she ever hears the song (which is often, as I like to listen to Christmas music) or is in any way reminded of it, she'll start again.  Repeatedly.  It's great.


In non-picture/video documented news, she also:

  • is working on potty training (all her idea, I assure you!)  She has only had 2 successes in the past week (both yesterday) but I'm only half-heartedly working on it.  We're going on a week and a half vacation soon and I've had a cold the last couple of weeks, and I'm pregnant.  So I haven't really had the energy to push it.  I figure after Christmas we can work harder on it.  But my favorite part is that no matter who goes to the bathroom, even if she's across the house, she'll yell, "Wash your hands!"  She's very, very insistent about it, too.
  • loves watching the workers build the house next door.  We've put a chair up to the window so she can climb up and just watch them for ages.  She thinks it's great.
  • is finally getting the hang of nap time again.  We gave her a toddler bed when we moved in (and put the dismantled crib in the nursery—out of sight, out of mind) and because everything was new and because she could get out by herself, nap time pretty much went out the window.  It took almost a week, but we finally are getting nap time reestablished.  This is resulting in a much happier toddler and mommy in the afternoons/evenings.
  • Speaking of sleeping, night time was fun for a few days, too.  Her getting up an hour after we put her down and trying to sneak around before we catch her.  Or the one morning when BJ got up early, went downstairs, and found her asleep on the couch.  Luckily night time has been better and easier than nap time.  Now she just wakes up before us and comes and stands or lays in our doorway until one of us wakes up and notices her.
  • can talk a storm.  She ends most questions with "huh?"  (Like, "Where daddy at, huh?")  One of her favorite phrases is, "That would be fun!"  I want to know where she picked up the concept of "would be".
  • has a great memory.  She'll remember that Daddy is at work.  One time we were going to go play with a friend, Katya, at Jump on It, but she didn't take a nap, so we didn't go.  The next time we had plans to go see Katya, she said, "Tatya?  Jump?"  This was probably close to a month later.  
  • has much better balance.  Today I watched her climb onto my exercise bike, then climb down by herself.  Not many months ago I would have either rushed to help her or sat there biting my nails, praying she didn't fall.  Today I watched from across the room saying, "Hurry! We still need to get your shoes before we go to the store."
  • loves to be my big helper.  She'll even tell me, "I big helper!"  She'll put her dishes in the sink or dishwasher after meals.  She loves to help me do laundry (yay for front loading washer and dryer) and is even learning how to fold towels.  I'll ask her to put her shoes in the closet and she'll yell, "Oh!  Ok!" and run to do it.  That doesn't mean she does everything I ask.  (Hahahaha.  Yeah right.)  But in general, she really is my big helper.
  • is super excited for the new baby.  We're pretty sure we're actually going to name the baby Abigail Pearl (I told you the name was subject to change) (you like how I always announce these things at the bottom of super-long posts?) and Kessa is excited for Abby to come.  Her new favorite thing is to kneel on my lap, facing me, putting both hands on my belly and saying, "Come out, Abby!  Come out!"  She really wants to hold her hand, give her hugs and kisses, and give her high-fives.  (She already does all of that, minus holding her hand, but to my belly.  High-fives to my belly can be a little dangerous.)  She's very excited to help change her diaper, be soft with her, play with her, and even share with her.  I'm really hoping her excitement lasts and that I'll be able to share my attention sufficiently that she doesn't get jealous.  Here's to hoping!
And with that… I think I'll be done tonight.