Just the 4 of Us

Saturday, June 18, 2011

waaazzzzzz uuuupppppppp!!!!!!!

While we were on vacation in CA (which I will put up pictures of and blog about next) grandma and grandpa taught Makaela how to say Wuz Up! Enough said.

Dancing Machine

These two videos have a few slow spots, but like most videos with kids, sometimes they've gotta get their second wind to continue entertaining :) Makaela has developed quite the repertoire of dance moves!! I think you will see just about all of them in these two videos. She seems to favor the break dancing moves, but seems to throw in some kind of ballroom move every now and then too. She loves music and starts dancing anytime she hears any kind of music. I'm sure you'll see that here :)

Don't mind the basketball game in the background :) Or the cheering or yelling

Fun in the Sun

On days with nice weather up here, I try to get us out for a walk to enjoy the sunshine while we have it. Those days seem to be happening more often now, however, as I look outside, today is the epitome of June Gloom as its cloudy and rainy and cold. But we spent some time outside yesterday.

These pictures are from an outing about a month ago. Just a walk to get out and so mamma could get a little exercise. I got her really souped up for this walk with sunglasses and everything!! She had such a fun time! :)

On a separate occasion, we enjoyed a little picnic on our front lawn complete with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Well, Makaela enjoyed that, I didn't. I had already eaten :) But dada came home for a voice lesson and got to join us for a few minutes in the sunshine too!!

Beginning of Walking

Here is the video I got not too long after she started walking. It's definitely not her "first steps" but its within a few days :)

Fun at the zoo

Back at the end of April, Nathan and I enjoyed a nice short time away for our anniversary. Our dear friends the Larsens graciously (yeah right! more like eagerly!) agreed to keep Makaela for us. They love her so much and she loves them too! They came and stayed at our house while we were gone and we both had a great time!

Nathan and I went to Leavenworth which is a little Bavarian town here in WA. A dear sweet friend from church offered us a night at their timeshare there which we gladly accepted as the rate was much cheaper for us that way! We enjoyed walking around little main street. We tasted some fudge which consequently lead to buying some fudge. I never knew fudge could come in so many flavors and kinds! We bought 6 quarter pound blocks each a different flavor and that wasn't even half of what was there!! We haven't gotten around to enjoying the fudge yet--it is still in our freezer as we have been on a diet and haven't been able to indulge yet :) But possibly more about that later. But our time was wonderful and refreshing and relaxing! It was a perfect time after having come off a busy busy Easter weekend!!

Makaela also enjoyed her time with the Larsens. Rosie took her to the zoo with her mother in law and a few other kids her mother in law watches. This was Makaela's first time to the zoo and from the pictures, it looks like she had such a fun time! Now that she is walking, I'm sure that she would have even more fun!! We're looking forward to going back sometime when we have a nice day and when we don't have something else scheduled!! Here are a few pictures from her time there. It's really hard to get Makaela to look at much less smile for the camera these days! She is much more interested on whats on the other side of the camera--usually a picture of herself. But in these pictures from the zoo, she is completely enamored with everything she is seeing! Such a fun time!!

Playing in the Toys

More playing in the Toys:)

Checking out the fishies

From what I hear, she was extremely distraught when the fishies swam away from her.

She tried to follow them along the glass until they swam away and then she cried :)

Wish I could have been there to see that!!

Fun on the Merry Go Round. First time!!

How Embarrassing!

As I looked back at our blog to see what the last thing I blogged about (because, no, I could not remember on my own it had been so long!!) I realized that I hadn't blogged since Makaela started walking!! I have a short little video of when she was just getting used to the idea. Most of you by now have seen her flying around!! She started walking about a week before Mother's Day, and has been cruising ever since! I think by now she has even figured out how to run! Or at least that's what it seems like :)

I obviously have a lot to catch up on, so I will work on all of that next, including the video of the beginnings of walking plus other videos of dancing and new phrases she's learned and of course, pictures!!

Lots coming your way so stay tuned!!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

14 Months

Our sweet Makaela is 14 months now!! And actually, as I type this, she is closer to 15 months than 14 months. That seems just crazy to me. The past month, a few fun things have happened. The most fun thing is actually for Mom and Dad and that is that we moved Makaela's little cubby-hole shelves of toys into her room. And now instead of having to always pick up all her toys for when company comes or when piano/voice students come, we don't have to worry about it!! It's so wonderful! Especially since her way of "playing" with her toys right now is to take them all out and leave them on the floor. :)

Recently (within the past week) she has started to stand a lot more voluntarily! She even tried to take a few steps toward mama!! So, now, I seriously think she will be walking soon. Before, we were coercing her to stand by having her stand then putting something into her hand to distract her, but now she will just let go of furniture and stand or let go of us when we move and stand. She is a smart girl though and she probably also realizes that the quickest way for her to get anywhere right now is to crawl since she does that at turbo speed. :) But, I'm sure before too long she will be walking...maybe even before our trip down to California!!

Last night, she gave herself her first BIG goose-egg! Oh my it was huge! She plays around and crawls all over and climbs all over anything and everything on the couch. She is also very good at getting down from the couch...always going feet first. Last night we were all sitting up on the couch and i got up to move all the laundry that was folded to the laundry basket to be put away. Before I knew it, I heard this thud right next to me and a little shriek, followed by that "silent crying" before the really loud scream. I don't know what she was thinking, but she dove head first off the couch right into the corner of our ottoman. Thankfully our ottoman is one of those leather storage ottomans so it wasn't hard wood that she hit, but she did still nail the corner. I saw the little dent in her forehead and before long it was the giant goose-egg. She was such a strong girl though....only the one really loud scream after the "silent cry" and then she calmed down. She even laid still while mama and dada held her to put ice on it. Today, its a little less large, and a bit more colorful :) But she isn't bothered by it at all.

She is still communicating with us A LOT! She asks questions about what everything is by pointing and saying "a-dah?" Every morning when she wakes up she says "a-dah?" and uses her sign language to tell us she wants her milk. Just this morning I made the connection that she reminds me of the seagulls from Finding Nemo saying "mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine" as she says "a-dah, a-dah, a-dah, a-dah, a-dah" repeatedly (even with the same inflection as the seagulls!!) until we acknowledge what she wants or is pointing at. This morning it was her sippy cup she could see on the counter :) She looks at pictures of all of us and says "dada" and sometimes will even point to him in the picture. She also loves to look at pictures of herself (so vain, I know :)). She will pull down her little photo album and just look through all of the pictures of herself.

She continues to learn new things everyday and is just a bundle of joy and fun!! Here are a few pictures from the last month, lots from her high chair. I suppose that's the place she is most confined which makes it a little easier to snap some shots :) Enjoy!!