16 months of knowing Heaven on Earth - MLEC

The stage of fun has hit in every way imaginable.  She is full of personality and life and is playful as can be.  She likes to be funny and loves to dance.  She now has a preference for listening to HER musical playlist which includes the greats like Dinosaur March, Shaky Egg, and Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.    

Coming in right at 20lbs and standing pretty at 31.5 inches tall she is enjoying her latest foods, peanut butter and was able to make messes with her first PJ&J experience.  Peanut butter and organic blueberry jelly is 110% Mallie Lynn approved.

She has entered the parrot phase and though not everyone can understand her language we are catching on to all the words she is beginning to say.  She is strong in syllabic pronunciation and is able to produce words with three phonemes such as hat, hot, pop. cheese, shoes.  In larger words such as purple, Henry, down, turtle, orange, she largely uses beginning and ending phonemes.  She is so proud of her ability to communicate when it happens.     On the other hand she is now getting more frustrated by those frequent moments in a day when we don't know what she means.  This has resulted in a few more yelling, screaming fits than we have seen before.  Of course she is a girl right?  Fun new additions this month have been:

kisses with the mmmmmmmWwwwahhhhhh sound.  

                             saying down when we say up and then moving arms up/down/up/down repeating the words over and over.  

wanting nothing to do with her highchair or any chair for that matter.  Why sit when you can stand and make mommy and daddy nervous while eating?  

when we say "show my 1" she puts up 1 finger.  

When we say "one" she says "two". Counting at it's finest.  

Dancing like it's her job.  hips swaying/ dropping with her knees/ big claps dancing Head Shoulders Knees and toes and touching head and toes.

feeling something that's warm and saying "hot"

 

Little angel girl has proven her toughness as she tried to take down the padded brick fireplace this week.  Don't worry, it looks worse than she does. 

 Puppy is still her best furry friend.  Camouflage bandana or not. 

Sweet girl you steal the show in so many ways.  We love seeing you shine from the moment you're bedhead lifts from your crib to the moment we rock you to sleep.  Happy 16 months my darling girl, keep on shining.


Biggest Love Always,
Mommy

Living in a snowglobe.

The long awaited first snow fall finally came, and I couldn't have been more pleased waking up to this postcard view.  

After breakfast we spent two hours putting on all our snow gear......and ventured out into the white stuff.  This was Mallie Lynn's first real snow experience since she was just a little baby peanut during last year's snowpocalypse.  There were moments of trying to figure out what was going on, 

why can't I move my arms? //  why am I so cold?  //  do I like this? 

But then she saw how much fun her brother was having.....

So she thought she'd give it a chance.  With Henry right behind her shouting "Weeeeeeeeee" they set off for their first sleigh ride of the season. 

and she decided maybe this stuff wasn't so bad after all, and began to wonder if it had the potential to be fun....

 

Henry enjoyed hunting for bad guys footprints in the snow and making snow angels on his belly so he could eat the snow while he created.  

and solo sledding quickly became her thing.

We took a big walk sledding down the sidewalk to visit Gran and Pops while listening to our feet crunch the snow and Mallie Lynn make noises of joy. 

Of course we enjoyed coming in for hot chocolate with whopping marshmallows.  

and then two days later we watched with delight in our eyes as 8 more inches of magic turned our world into a snowglobe. 

It was a downpour of flakes and wind for most of the day and with the road conditions Daddy was able to work from home and take a break for some snow play. 

Our sweet snow princess felt a little differently about knee high, fast flying flakes. 

It was a day for memory making, and anytime you can live out snowflakes that stay on your nose and eyelashes, you know it's a good thing.

 

 We dug out a fun snow fort and made it bigger and bigger till Henry had his own little igloo to fully lay down in. 

 

 

The next morning we took inventory of all the beauty God had left for us overnight.  Mallie Lynn loved looking out at it all and shouting "nnnoooooooow!"

We suited up and took a walk out into the deep and made our way to the park.  The walk there, the sledding, and swinging were so darn fun!  ML couldn't walk at all in the deep snow but was in her happy place swinging for as long as we would keep her there. 

 Henry made his first ride on a sled by himself, repeatedly going down the hill on his own and even racing mommy and daddy.  On our way back home I trudged through the tundra pulling our little man with a spill or two along the way.  Each time he would giggle, I would giggle, and end up in a laugh that made it hard to move for a second. 

So I got my snow.  I've been a happy happy girl, staying in, cooking soup, making fudge, starting a fire while sipping some Ky bourbon over snow, making hot chocolate and memories with my family.  2016 I like you!