Pigtails

Really this is just a blog post to show off the adorable new hairstyle that Libby-loo is rocking. It's too cute for me not to share. ;)

Watching Big Bird and Elmo

Just reading...

Playing some instruments

After being told to put bum down.

Loves her boots so much, she just wants to eat them up!

It's been a long time, but we're still here

So I know that I've really been terrible about blogging and such but I have some awesome excuses:

-I have the oldest most ANGRY laptop in all the world and it hates to even turn on

-I am now an almost full-time student for the second time, working on yet another degree and pile of debt

-It's always the last thing on my list of things to do and even though it's something I want to do, those things always fall into the last or never category

-Zombie apocalypse is coming and I had to prepare?

-I have this super cute fella who I rarely spend enough quality time with (lately it's mostly time spent with me freaking out over the latest assignment or addition to my to-do list that I have zero time for) 

See isn't he adorable?

But anyways.... at the very least I figured I should really try and be better about this because Elizabeth is just so adorable and growing so quick and I feel as though I am really not doing her cute face justice by not sharing it with you. So here goes.

Lots has happened with Elizabeth in the past few months. She's walking and talking and just as fun as can be lately. I love playing with her and literally watching as her mind grows and figures out new things. It's also fun to have conversations with her now because she'll try talking to me and I only catch like one word out of 10 that she's trying to say. It'll go something like, "ga, blah, nana, ba, ta, BALL, la, buh ba, ta, na" and although I know in her mind that sentence makes perfect sense; I wish in my ears it did too. But it's still fun to talk to her and see her try and communicate what's in her thoughts. 

She also loves to play in her bed when she wakes up!

  Let's see..... we've gone on lots of adventures lately. We've been to the zoo which was quite fun despite the spurts of rain that happened while we were there. I've never seen Elizabeth so happy and active as at the zoo. She wanted to run all over and explore and see all the animals. She also made the noises for elephants, sheep, pig, cow (her favorite), and birds. It really was a lot of fun and I wish that I had more opportunities to do things like this with her. 

Watching the polar bears

Having so much fun running around the zoo!

The park is also our new fun place to be and as long as there isn't any rain we are there! If it's cold its not a problem cause we just bundle up and have fun! Libby is such a daredevil and from day one at the park would climb up the structure herself, get situated at the top of the closest slide and SWOOSH downs she goes, all by herself, no fear. She'd do this for hours if I'd let her too. But the swings have really been the area of hesitation. She'll want to get in them and swing for about 3 seconds and then she wants back out again. Although there is a big swing at our normal park that she's sort of ok with and I think she likes it better because it's like a big chair. (see below) 

This is her preparing to go down

Checking out the beautiful leaves

SO pretty girl

And DOWN she goes!

The BIG swing!

 The other big thing that has happened recently is Halloween and of course Elizabeth was a cow because that's the animal noise she can consistently do and because it was too freaking adorable. So I'll end today with the little cow girl and also a pic of her in my favorite outfit (that she owns of course!). 

Ha Ha...Moo!

Just LOVE that skirt! She also has a black top with a pink skull on it that I got her but couldn't find that picture~

Playing Catch Up

There's been a lot going on in the past week and I haven't had a chance to sit down and write about any of it! Last Saturday my favorite family down in Corvallis (I watched all 3 of their children and continue to visit them frequently) invited my man and I down for a visit. We were excited because at our last get together we did an 'adults only' night out and it's been awhile since I've seen the kids. They have three kids: oldest is a 5-year old boy (M), then 2-year old girl (A) and finally the newest boy(L) is one. They are the most amazing kids and I've always had a most special relationship with the entire family. 

So we drove down Saturday evening and unfortunately A. wasn't feeling well and went straight to bed and L. being young still heads to bed early as well. So it was just M with Cole and I all to himself (and Max the dog). M. is at this age where he's really becoming a boy and is less interested in playing with any girls and will choose the dude if the choice is given. So needless to say he and Cole were like peas in a pod or something. :)

They spent the remainder of the evening building lego castles while Max and I hung out and watched. It was pretty adorable seeing them interact and for once getting to sit back and enjoy someone else playing. And at the end of the night, M. wanted Cole to put him to bed. It was heartbreaking for me but adorable that he loved Cole so much. 

Elizabeth and I had a pretty fun day today as Fridays are "Tiny Tots" group at the library. It's like a giant playgroup where we sing, read, play with toys and have a great time together. Elizabeth loves to go and although she is usually shy and just hangs out with me; today she was all over the place. She loves the teacher "Jane" and was making friends left and right leaving no time to hang out and sing songs with me! I think I was the one having a harder time with the separation than she.

Here are a few pictures of her fun......

Want to play ball with me?

Making new friends

Peek-a-boo! Can you see me?

Girl's Gotta have her Shoes

Another day, another adventure. Today we traveled to the mall. This isn't typically somewhere that we would go except that Elizabeth's mom had bought her these great new jelly sandals from GAPkids and I decided we should get another pair as I can see they are going to be used a lot! PLUS, they were on sale! So we packed up around 9:45am and headed to the mall with snacks and the stroller and had a great time. We found the shoes.....

....and I found some things at Bath and Body to buy with this giftcard I've had in my wallet for far too long. It was a good trip for us. Plus it's always fun to do something outside of the house and we got back just in time for nap so I'm hoping she'll sleep well today. Didn't sleep great yesterday as she woke up after only about an hour (unusual for the girl who sleeps about 2 hours) and although visibly tired; wouldn't go back to sleep. I guess it just happens sometimes. Although if it were me, I'd have slept the whole day. But unfortunately in life we only get naps at the beginning and end of things. The part in the middle where we work till we want to die is when we never have time to rest. Oh well. 

I thought I'd share a few more pictures today of Elizabeth that her grandma sent me and I just love. 

Didn't I tell you that she loves DORA? In fact while we were at GAP today she was reading a Dora book in her stroller and loving life. "Do-da" is her way of saying Dora and it's adorable. She used to say "Ra-ra" which for the longest time I always thought was me (Ta-ra..... unfortunately just like Do-ra) Oh well. ;)

And here's one last one of the little angel girl. I just love her. 

 AND who couldn't love those curls with those big eyes!

Clouds, Toes and Kisses

Today has been so fun despite the fact that I have been so tired and not sleeping nearly enough lately. Elizabeth has been in such a good mood and she is really figuring out so much around her that mostly its fun to just watch her play. It was another horrendously cloudy morning here in Portland and so I really wasn't feeling the desire to walk around in the cold air and so we hung out at the house and played together. 

She's such a funny little roo now that she's learning things about the world and also learning what's right and what's wrong. Like on the couch today she thought it was hilarious to stand up and would giggle whenever I sat her back down and said, "Bum-Bum's down on the couch". But maybe she really just thought the word "bum-bum" was the funny part. ;)

She also can climb the stairs to her room all by herself now so we did that and then decided to play in there for awhile because since the weather's been good we haven't really done anything up there for awhile. It was fun listening to one of her old "Music Together" class CD's and singing all the familiar songs together. She got really tired while playing in there today and eventually just asked to be on my lap and we sat together and read stories (Goodnight Moon being one of the favorites) and she gave me lots of hugs and kisses. I love when she's sweet like that and just wants to snuggle. And I taught her how to do eskimo kisses with her nose and she loved it! 

Today was also the first time she got terribly upset when mommy had to leave for work. Usually she says bye-bye and continues playing but all morning she wanted mommy and was so upset when she had to go. I was expecting we would get to this stage eventually and luckily I am used to dealing with it. Distraction always works best and we had the tears gone in about 2 mins with that method. :)

Another really funny part of today..........Toes! Elizabeth loves her toes, my toes.... songs about toes. We have one that we sing at the "Tiny Tots" group at the library that goes:

"Everybody knows, I love my toes

Everybody knows, I love my toes

I love my eyes, my ears, my elbows and my nose

But everybody knows, I love my TOES!" 

She loves when I sing this and today we sang it a lot. And she loves to play with my toes because I always have them painted and she's fascinated by it. In her room she would take the pillow and cover my toes and then reveal them in a "Ta-Da!" fashion and just thought it was hilarious! But the funniest part was when she leaned down and gave my toes a kiss! She just cracks me up. 

It's been a good day but I am definitely thankful to be going home later and taking a very long nap (just like Elizabeth is doing now). It's a hard life having fun. ;)