Happy 2nd Birthday to Our Baby!

 From baby to toddler went by waaaayyy too fast.  Like a blink of the eye, our little baby princess is a little toddler.  And she is so darn smart!  

We had a great birthday.  Quincey is in love with frogs and has been for the last four or five months.  So, we had a frog themed birthday party, and she couldn't get enough of it.  I tried my best to make her a frog cake which she thought was pretty cool and we got frog balloons that she absolutely loved.  She is still playing with them.  

She didn't enjoy having happy birthday sung to her but she sure did enjoy opening up her presents!

It's been awe inspiring to watch her grow, learn, and change over the past year.  It's insane how much they change.  She can now vocalize her needs and wants.  And has such a fun personality.  

She loves the show tumble leaf, she loves her frogs, she still loves playing in her sandbox, she loves getting into the hot tub, she loves any type of water, she says funny things like, "no like it anymore" or "lello" for yellow, she loves to "run" which essentially means she wants Joe or I to run around the house and she chases us, she loves to swing, she tells us when she doesn't want to pick up her toys that "she can't reach them", she says she got a hurty when she gets hurt and wants us to kiss it, she loves her binki at night (we are gonna have to work on this one), she likes morning snuggles, she loves broccoli, peas, carrots, and cauliflower, she doesn't like meat very much unless its ribeye steak made by papa, she now calls me mom instead of mama, she constantly says to Joe and I, "whatcha doing mom? Whatcha doing papa?" she likes to jump high (papa throwing her in the air), she still loves being outside, she currently hates the wind and wants a hat on with the smallest breeze, she absolutely loves hearing airplanes and finding them in the sky, she always says that she can hear the owls when she hears the pigeon doves in the morning, she loves "black" popsicles (grape), she repeats herself over and over when she's excited, She is a great sleeper now, she is starting to show signs for potty training, she loves to play with new friends at the park, and finally, she continues to get cuter and cuter every day.  

We are absolutely in love with our little toddler!

Quincey Helps Mommy Make Cookies

 I am just soaking up every day with Quincey.  I know I will look back when she is an adult and wonder where my baby went.  I don’t want to feel like I didn’t try to enjoy absolutely all of it.  It’s the little things that are the best like…. Making cookies with mommy!

I will not take for granted the fact that I have my own sweet little baby I get to make cookies with.  She loved pouring the ingredients in and, of course, she really loved licking the beaters.  

I remember my mom giving me a beat to lick.  It was always the best part of baking.

And I desperately wanted her to smile for the camera.  She got frustrated with me and started crying.  Probably her LEAST favorite part of making cookies!

Quincey and Her Bumbo

 When Quincey was tiny tiny tiny we got her a bumbo.  I thought she would love it but after a couple uses it was clear that she did not like being restricted to this chair.  I dug it out the other day so I could attempt to sell it (which I did) but in the mean time, Quincey ended up LOVING it!  She toted it around everywhere and wanted to sit in it.  She also started calling it her potty chair.  I guess it looks similar to the potty chair I introduced her to recently.  She even decided it would be fun to wear her bumbo chair as a hat.  She is one silly lovable little girl!

It Snowed!

 A couple weeks ago, we woke up to a backyard full of snow.  I had been wanting it to snow at least once this year.  I can’t say I miss the brutal Wyoming winters but I do miss a good snow storm so, we wasted no time getting bundled up and heading into the snow.  Quincey absolutely loved it.  She especially loved eating it! We even went to the park to play in it.

Joe made a makeshift sled.  He took a hard shell suitcase he was given from the airline when they lost his luggage once and cut it in half, tied some rope on it and tada!  It was perfect but Quincey was not having it.  She went down the little hill once but after that, she didn’t want anything to do with it.  But, she enjoys pulling it around the backyard even though all the snow is melted.

We even made a snowman.  And, curtesy of our fridge, we had a carrot for the nose and…. Blackberries for the eyes.  It was NOT the best looking snowman, that’s for sure!

Family Park Time

 Quincey and I go to the park almost every day.  It's always a treat to have papa not working and able to join us!!!

Naughty Quinney!

 I feel like it may just be a right of passage for parents to have their kids color on things they are not supposed to.  Luckily, she hasn't done it again, but we definitely had our run-in with the sharpie PERMANENT marker.  

I was upstairs organizing the sock drawer and I could hear Quincey playing.  She was doing the usual.  Nothing new but then, I started to hear her talking about "goldbug" and I could also hear something on the wall.  I left my bedroom and there she was.... Standing there, with a black permanent marker making gold bugs on the wall!

She got in trouble and luckily we haven't had to deal with it again.  But, truth be told, it was hard to be mad at her.  She was pretty cute and looked oh so innocent when I found her.  She said, "Mama, goldbug!"

Out and About

 We don't get to go anywhere lately because of the Omicron strain of Covid but we sure do still like to get into the outdoors together, as a family, whenever we can.  One of our favorites is a quick trip to the Sandia foothills.  Quincey is now big enough to walk herself and loves to explore.  So, she thinks it's great although mama and papa don't get much exercise because she wants to stop and look at every rock, twig, and leaf.  It's so fun to watch her explore her world, though.