2 and a 1/2!

What a fun and sometimes challenging age 2 and a 1/2 is! As I've told Brad, the good moments outweigh the bad and there is still no place I would rather be than home with this girl while she is still so little. She is so verbal and comprehends so much that sometimes I have to remind myself that she is just 2! For example, sometimes she calls me mom instead of mommy. Where did she get this from? Here are a few of her recent comments that make me think she is a 10 year old trapped in a 2 year old's body.

"That's cool, Mom!" (don't remember what this was in reference to)

"Mom, that doesn't fit you." (said as I was trying to squeeze into a pre-pregnancy skirt when Haven was about 3 months old)
"Mom, I'm busy." (said while she was playing with puzzles and I asked her to get ready to go somewhere)

She looks at almost everything in the context of family. If there are the same things of different sizes, one is the daddy, one is the mommy, and one is the baby. Doesn't matter what it is, it could be potato chips, acorns, chairs, bugs...you get the point. This is how she relates to the world around her.

She LOVES her cousins and her friends. She always wants to go to their houses or have them come to her house. Every Sunday after church she tells me which of her friends were there. After playing with friends, she is also sure to tell me who pushed or hit her. :)

Speaking of friends, she has an imaginary one named Dido. It is funny because when I ask her about them, she doesn't want to talk about them. All I know is that Dido is a little boy. She is often telling him what to do and what not to do. It seems like she talks to him when she is bored, like when she is riding in the car.

She is still such a great sleeper! And still in a crib! She sleeps every night from 8:30 to 8:30 (unless a certain little sister wakes her up earlier). Most of the time she can sleep through Haven's middle of the night feedings. She also still takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoons.

She loves going to the library to get new books each week. I've noticed that she favors the classics and fairytales like The Three Little Pigs, The Little Red Hen, and The Ugly Duckling. After we return books like that, she asked me to tell her the stories.

Like I said the good moments outweigh the bad, but at this age she is going through a major whiny phase! It is funny because she will first ask for something in a soft, sweet little voice and the second I say no it changes to whining. Ready for this particular phase to pass!

I have started to let Anna take naps in my bed if her sister is already napping in their room. One of my favorite things to do with her is snuggle her in bed and talk and tell her stories. We have had some really sweet moments together and she loves the one on one attention.

Thankful

We had such a fun Thanksgiving weekend this year! We rented a house with all of Brad's family - 8 adults and 7 kids! The house was amazing, it was over 10,000 square feet and each family had their own room and bathroom. There was plenty of room for the kids to run and scream, which they did...the entire time. The dining room table was even big enough for all of us. The kitchen was HUGE and had two ovens. It was the perfect place to stay for Thanksgiving.

Grandy always gets the kids involved and had Nalani and Anna "help" her with the rolls.

After the traditional Thanksgiving meal came the traditional Thanksgiving naps and football watching.

Sadly, this was the last time we will get to watch the Thanksgiving UT/A&M game with the Aggie Bruces. It was an exciting game to watch and I was proud of how classy the UT band was.Emma, possibly the cutest Aggie I have ever seen. Anna really had the time of her life with her cousins. (Thanks for the paint, Aunt Sandy.)

In this pic, they were pretending to be in a jeep trying to get away from crocadiles.

Grandy and the children enjoyed some bedtime stories.

We stayed near Lake Whitney so one day we went down to the lake. Due to the drought, it was so low! This made for great shell and fossil hunting conditions.

We also had a scavenger hunt. Here is sweet Kaila decorating her bag.

One of the items on the scavenger hunt was a bug. In this picture, Micah is having his 3 year old sister pick up a dead bug for him! Funny thing is, she didn't hesitate to do it. Sweet girl.

It wouldn't be a Bruce family get together without a game of Risk. This one lasted until 2 in the morning!

Here are the babies of the family. We found out they won't be the youngest ones for long - Billy and Courtney are expecting another little one in June!

One night, we made smores by the awesome double sided fire place.

Something else we did one evening when the kids were asleep was pray as a family. It was a sweet time that I pray blessed the Father. He has been so good to each member of this family and we owe all our thanks to Him.

6 Months!

This little girl keeps us smiling from all the joy she brings to our family (I think I say this in each monthly post:) and has also been keeping us entertained with all her advancements this month. As I was selecting pictures for this post and looking at her cute, smiley, chubbiness, I just wanted to go wake her up from her crib and hug her!

The highlight of turning 6 months was getting her first taste of solids! With both of my girls, I waited until the day they turned 6 months to let them have a taste of real food (if you call baby oatmeal real food). Why rush it? It was no surprise to us that Haven loved it and started grabbing the spoon and putting it to her mouth after the first bite.

We have been talking about Haven starting solids for about a week and Anna could not wait to help. She had a lot of practice feeding Haven with imaginary food from a doll spoon and Haven always went along with it, leaving her mouth hanging open between each "bite". Anna would even let Haven know when they were finishing up by telling her "last bite!".

While she still loves to eat books, this month she also got interested in turning the pages. This makes reading with her a lot more fun! Selecting and reading different children's books is probably one of my favorite activities to do with the girls.

I guess what everyone says about a second child is true, trying to keep up with their older sibling helps them to become mobile a lot faster. I had to put away the bouncy chair after I put her in it and then came back a minute later to find her like this:

I also realized it is time to drop the crib after I set her down and came back to find her like this:

These two make each other smile and laugh more each day. When Anna was Haven's age, I remember, especially after nursing, how she would just stare at me and smile. The minute Haven is done, she starts straining her neck to look for her sister...a little bittersweet for me.

Just a couple more cute pics. :)

Special Visitors

Grandpa Gene, Katie and Uncle Michael recently came to Fort Worth for a visit. They all got to meet Haven for the first time! It was a fun weekend of just hanging out and spending time together.

Anna with Uncle Michael and Grandpa Gene.
My dad brought his dog, Relay, who is his favorite child. :) They got him while Katie was fighting breast cancer and named him after the Relay for Life race. He has been such a blessing in their lives.
Anna has been going through a phase of being scared of dogs, but she loved Relay!
This was about the best pic we could get of my dad with all his kids and grandkids.

Saturday in the Park

My favorite way to spend a Saturday morning is with this man

and these two little ladies

playing at the park.

And getting a snack from the Cupcake Cottage.

Van Grow

Last Saturday, while Daddy was in Austin having fun doing this (a deal I found on Living Social), the girls and I had some fun of our own.

Our first stop was a class at the Van Grow kid's art studio that I found through Groupon (can you tell I love the group deal sights?). It was in an old house and was such an eclectic, creative space. I loved that there was splattered paint all over the walls, chairs, and floors. We picked a great day to come because the theme was owls. These were my her three masterpieces:

Then we were off to cousin Emma's first birthday party! Aunt Courtney did such a amazing job with the ladybug decorations, cake and Emma's outfit. Emma is such a cute, tiny little thing and just started walking around.

The highlight of a one year old's birthday party...Emma didn't disappoint!Yes, that little blonde head in the middle is Emma's. Appy is trying to protect her from the onslaught of love given by her 2 year old cousins.

Love all these precious kiddos.