Tiny Tid-Bits

So I post all these little funny stories about Shordy called Shordyisms, but I don't have those started for our Tiny yet.  So, I've decided to post all the fun milestones and stories about our Tiny girl and call them Tiny Tid-Bits.  This is for the entire year of 2012, b/c I'm not sure exactly what I've posted with pics and doing it this way I'll have all of her stories and milestones in one place.  So...

January:

~She finally rolls from her back to her belly...both her and Shordy took a long time to do this.
~She started to scootch around while sitting up...this is her first way of getting mobile.
~While at Ty & Liz's in Achorage she was able to stand unassisted for a few seconds.  Ty did this...I wanted to knock her over.  I don't want her mobile yet!  :)
~Her top left tooth popped through.  She's been an early teether, and she's an easy teether.  She doesn't really fever or fuss.  Just drools, but she does that anyway...drooliest baby I swear!  :)
~Tries to pull herself up on things if she gets close enough to something to grab a hold of.
~Started rocking on her hand and knees...Aaaahhh...I'm not ready for her to be mobile yet!  :)

February:

~Dad starts helping her stand unassisted.
~About 2 weeks after her top left tooth popped through all 4 of her top front teeth are in!  All 4...and she didn't hardly fuss at all.  Good teether!!
~She's able to go from her belly to sitting up...and of course scootchin' around.
~Middle of February she started crawling 3-4 steps.
~She has started crawling to different toys and my plants and pulling herself up.
~Towards the end of February she was crawling very well across a room and pulling herself up on things and then she decided to let go and stand on her own.
~She crawled up the stairs from the playroom into the kitchen...2 stairs.  Our world is about to change drastically...again.  :)

March

~For her 9 month appointment she was 18.2 lbs 50% and 28" 75%.
~She got yet another bottom tooth...don't remember which one, but I wrote it down on March 11...another bottom tooth.  :)
~This girl LOVES to climb the stairs, play in my plants, and in the dog bowls.  We have resorted to putting the plants and dog food/water into the bathroom and shutting the door, b/c she will not listen to "No" at all.
~On March 13, not even 10 months old, she stood up from the floor with zero assistance from a couch or toy or person.  Just stood up.
~In less than a week she was standing up from the floor VERY regularly.
~On March 28 she took just a tiny step while standing.
~On March 29th I could see a bottom pre-molar coming in.

April

~She got Roseola the first week of April and broke out in the typical rash on Easter...but had some nasty high fevers 3-4 days leading up to the rash.
~I have discovered that singing to her is the only thing that keeps her still long enough to change her diaper.  She hates to hold still, but she loves singing and will sit still and listen to you sing to her...she likes "Crazy Girl" during diaper changes.
~She starts to sign "All Done"
~Crawls down 2 stairs in Idaho by herself.
~On April 28 I can see 3 other molars coming in...he mouth is swollen and red but she's not fussy or fevering.

May

~Took 4-5 steps while we were waiting in the Ogden Hospital to see Statlyn.  She would walk a lot sooner but she LOVES to "jump" so is always "hopping" off 2 feet.  Hasn't figured out how to lift one foot at a time...which is ok with me.  :)
~She can scoot down all our stairs by herself, and is walking 6-8 steps at a time by May 6th.
~On May 7th, less than a year old, she has 12 teeth!  4 top, 4 bottom, and 4 molars.  Craziness!!  We started calling her piranha.  :)
~On May 14 she walked across the lawn while holding my water bottle but won't walk that far in the house.
~Signs "all done" while saying "ya-ya-ya-ya-ya".
~Starts walking across the room and kitchen more frequently.
~On her first birthday, May 20th, she was really starting to walk a lot more and even change directions while walking.
~Walking all over, including outside.
~Trying to sign "milk"
~Asked to go "outside"...with her tone of voice and a "sign" at the door.

June

~She tried to sign dad while saying "Da" and while talking to him.  Then she started actually saying "Da!" when she sees her daddy.
~She's singing along and mimicking after I sing a Baby Signing Time song.
~She's started signing "baby" and singing the Baby Signing Time theme song.
~At her 1 year appointment she was 20lbs 50% and 30.5" 90%...one tall little girl.  :)
~She's starting to bee-bop/dance along to music.
~Yup...she's figured out how to fit her finger in her nose...and it's spending a lot of time there.  :)
~She's been making this hilarious face where she scrunches up her nose, closes her eyes and makes this funny snorty sound through her nose.  It's so dang funny.  She does it when she's walking around and when she's eating and has food all over her face.  It makes me smile every time.
~She's started to throw her first temper tantrums where she yells, screams, and is laying down on the floor to have this tantrum.  Oh boy.
~She is currently signing: baby, wash hands, hat, dog, please, thank you, more, all done ,milk, brush teeth, and dad.
~She signs AND says baby and ball.

July

~She says "Uh-oh" when something drops.
~She started signing "sleep clothes" (pj's), and she signs it over and over and over and over and over and over again, b/c she's so proud I know what she's saying.  So cute!
~And of course, she started signing "fish".  That's a regular one in our house.  :)
~While Grandpa Pond was visiting she started signing grandpa and saying "bup-pa" when she sees him.
~Saying "gunk-ga" and signing thank you...I love that her verbal language is developing just as fast as her ASL.

August

~She was trying to wrap up her Stella doll in a blanket and feed her a bottle...amazing how different little girls are and how they instinctually know what to do with their baby dolls.
~I totally neglected to write down stuff in August while we were in Idaho...whoops.  :)

September

~Started saying "cow" and she says it so dang cute!  I have it on video.
~I hear her singing on her own what I think are the songs from Baby Signing Time.
~She's saying and signing, "goggy"(doggy), "bir"(bird), and "Da-ee"(daddy) , "cow"(with her lips pursed and the cutest face), "car", "bu-bu"(bug).
~She likes just hanging out in her little rocking chair and watching her Baby Signing Time videos.
~I find her putting her Stella doll in her rocking chair and rocking her and jibbering to her in a very mommy sounding tone.  :)
~She started saying her own name when asked in pics or in the mirror who she is and she says it, "Dee-dee"...so cute.
~So her favorite word is "cow", and she says and signs it for anything she wants but doesn't know the sign or word.  And then she'll say the word cow, with a VERY pronounced "ow" sound, and the with pursed lips and "moo's" with her head tilted back...it is so dang funny!
~She signs and says "pi" for pig and does a little snort...or a cough...or I'm not exactly sure what the sound is.  :)
~Signs and says "tat" for cat and then says "ow" for meow.

October

~She's figured out how to terrorize her big brother.  She will grab a toy he's playing with and then run away to me or Shayne with a smile while Shordy is squealing and chasing after her.
~Whenever she falls down she'll quickly say, "R U ok?" even before Shayne or I can say it or pick her up.  :)
~Regularly signing and saying thank you when given things.

November

~She's begun to climb on chairs.  Nothing is safe any longer.
~Signs and says "guck" for duck and then says, "kop-kop-kop" for her duck quack.
~While knocking on a door she'll say "ba-kah" for knock-knock.
~We've discovered she's a complete water bug in a pool, and does as well with her water wings as her big brother does.  She LOVES the water...but she's loved being in the water ever since she was just 2 weeks old.
~Climbing on a chair to table and then standing on the table.  Then climbing on couch to piano and then playing with the remotes and the phone.  Ugh...did I mention nothing is safe?
~Saying "Gi-ken" while signing chicken.
~She loves to dance like a crazy girl with her Dad when he turns on the music.
~She now gives you a "5" and then a fist bump while then trying to say "Boom-shock-a-lock-a"!  It's pretty dang cute...she learned it all from Dad.
~She attempts to give you the "I love you" sign with her fingers when you tell her, "I love you!"  She waves her hand in the air with her first finger up...that's as close as she can get, but it's so sweet.
~She tries to finger spell "A,B,C" from the Signing Time videos...yup, she's already moved onto the Signing Time stuff.  She's just soaking up the signs.

December

~We watched her walking up the stairs upright...not crawling.  Made us a little sad to see our baby girl acting so big...not a baby any more, but a true toddler.  :(
~She started hopping off both feet...this pretty much took Shordy a full 2 years to do this.  And just 2 days later she was doing it consistently.  This girl has loved to hop/bounce since she was 4 months old.


Ok...this is what I wrote down in my planner throughout the entire year of 2012 of what our Tiny girl was up to.  At this age they do something new almost every day I swear.  She is a very active, messy, and busy little girl, but she's such a smart little whip as well.  We definitely have our work cut out for ourselves, but she is such a cute little girl with such a sweet smile and happy disposition I think she'll live to adulthood.  ;)

We sure do love this Tiny Girl!!

Shordyisms for 2012

So, I have been slowly catching up on 2012 and I realized that I posted all the pics, but I haven't posted all the funny little things Shordy says, but I have written them down.  I posted them up until March, but I need to post the rest of them.  I print a blog book for each year and use it as my journal, so I definitely need to post these, so I can share them with my kids when they get older.  I loved to read the things my mom wrote about me in her own journal.  So, here's the rest of Shordy's funny little stories for 2012:

April:

He was playing with a toy frog and he tells me that this frog is from South America.  Not sure where he learned that, but he was pretty adamant it was from South America.

He has complete dialogues with his "Cars" characters.  It's amazing his how he uses his imagination in his play...it's also amazing how all of his self-play/imagination is verbalized out loud...all. day. long.  :)

When asked to go to bed or do something he doesn't really want to do, he'll tip his head to the side, give you puppy dog eyes, and say, "Maybe we can watch a "Wood Would"...or something?"

When he's stuck, or has fallen down, he'll say, "A little help here Dad?"

He started saying his night time prayers all by himself this month.  He gets frustrated when he can't remember EVERYTHING we had him say when we were helping him and won't finish his prayers until he says it ALL.  So we are working on teaching him what it means to say prayers and that he doesn't have to remember everything and he can just talk to Heavenly Father and tell him what he feels like he should.  But...it's gonna be a process, b/c this boy is such a perfectionist.  I'm just proud he's saying them by himself.  :)

On my birthday he made my day when he shared his toast with his little sister all by himself...even without her asking.  He just walked up to her and asked if she wanted a piece of his toast.  Makes his Mamma proud.

May:

We went on a drive to Homer on Memorial Day and he and Dad went to look in the tide pools at the end of the Spit and he kept saying, "Mom!  We're gonna look for some sea creatures!"

June:

If he really wants something he says, "Please, oh please, oh please, oh please, oh please."  Or..."A little help here please!"

He started to count in Spanish.  He can count to 4 really well...getting to 10 is questionable.  :)

When told he needs to pick up his toys he says, "My tummy aches.  It hurts.  So, you need to help me pick up my toys."  Or he would say..."My tummy hurts.  It says I need to watch a movie."

I was busy in the kitchen one day, but over heard him playing with a stuffed dog.  I stopped to watch for a second and watched him tell his dog he hadn't been nice, then he proceeded to put him in time-out on the bottom step (my time out spot for both kids) and then use the timer and tell him he had to stay in time out until the timer beeped.  :)

We were driving in the car and while he's playing with a McDonald's toy,  I over hear him say..."I'm a stinky beaver!"  I just laughed and started asking questions about why he would say, "Stinky beaver" and FINALLY figured out he was quoting a line from "Cars" where Lightening McQueen says, "Float like a Cadillac.  Sting like a Beamer"  Instead of hearing/saying "Sting like a Beamer"...he thought it said, "Stinky Beaver."  Shayne and I laughed about this for a LONG time...and he continued to say it all year.  Even with clarification.  Every once in awhile we would hear the line, "Stinky Beaver"...and just laugh.  :)  Probably one of my favorite lines ALL YEAR!

We were outside one day at a playground and he sees these ants on the ground and begins to inspect them.  He then informed me quite matter-of-factly that these were baby ants with diapers.  :)  Not sure why he thought they had diapers, but he was pretty sure they were baby ants with diapers.

July:

He calls mosquitoes, "Mozzy flies".  He gets this from his Dad.  In Australia they call mosquitoes, Mozzies.  So, to Shordy they were Mozzy flies.  :)

September:

He loves Dinosaur Train, so this next thing he said while playing came from this PBS show.  He was playing, not sure what exactly, but I over hear him say, "Let's go see a mystery---dun dun dun."

He came up to me with some of the foam letters from the foam mat on the floor, and he proceeds to ask me if I want some "Hotton' Candy".  He tried cotton candy for the first time in Idaho, so he was all about it, but thought it was called, "hotton candy" and REFUSED to listen to me when I tried to correct him.  So, in our house, it's "hotton candy".  :)

I don't remember why he said this next line...I must have showed him something or given him something but his response was, "That's spectacular Mom!"  Doesn't that just make you feel good?!  And what almost-4-year-old uses the word, spectacular?

October:

They are both sleeping in the same room, and if Tiny wakes up first and is crying I can hear him say over and over and over and over and over again, "I'm right here!  Stop crying!  Did you hear me?!  I'm right here!  Stop crying!"

I made him a Superman/Batman reversible cape for Halloween and the first day I finished it he wore it all over and proceeded to jump of my couches ALL. DAY. LONG.  :)

November:

He started swimming all over the place with his water wings which is a first for him.  He has always been a little bit scared of the water and hates it in his face and ears, but we went to a conference with Shayne in Girdwood and there was a pool at the hotel and he LOVED swimming on his own with his water wings.  I was so glad he was doing it too.

He had an old cell phone we let the kids play with one day and we proceeded to have this conversation, "Mom, sing your song loud."  (I'm not sure what song I was singing)  Then he pretends to talk on the phone and then stops and says to me, "Sssshhhhh!  Be quiest!  I'm on the phone!!"  Hmmm...he hasn't heard this before has he?!  :)

We were headed to town and I asked him to put on his coat.  He brought it to me and says, "Mom, my coat is being grumpy, I can't put it on!"  When I looked at his coat his sleeves were inside-out because of how he had taken it off previously.  So, now every time his sleeves are inside out he tells us his coat is being "grumpy".  I have to agree...seems like a grumpy sort of thing.  :)

I've been teaching him to read in the last couple of months and I was so pleasantly surprised when he was eating a box of Dots from Halloween, and he proceeds to say, "Mom!  It says, 'Dots!'".  Yeah for him!!!

After this last incident I found him often attempting to sound out words he would see on his toys or stuff in the house.  How awesome is that?!  His world is just completely opening up!

One day he's in the kitchen and he does this little spin move and says, "I'm a Rock Star!"

I hear him say, "P. I. E.  Mom!  That spells pie!"  A couple of days later he finger spells with ASL, "B-A-B-Y and M-O-M and says "Baby has 2 B's and Mom and 2 M's."  He figured out how to spell them from the Signing Time ABC's video we had been watching while driving in the car.

He was noticing how his position changes the sizes of things...depth perception.  Anyway he says, "Look Mom.  The words get smaller when I get bigger"  He then stands up and looks down at some letters he has on the floor.  "See...they get smaller"

He had this whole conversation with his Dad one day after he saw some pics of when he was born...like of the actual C-section.  "I was in Mom's tummy and she went to the hospital where they cut mom open and pulled me out."  When asked who pulled him out he said, "Doc cut me out".  It was a pretty detailed conversation.  :)

He started making up non-sense words this month.  Like calling random things, "Contin" or "Trentin".  He would name toys this or build things with his legos and call them these nonsense words.  Pretty funny.

To his Dad one day when he was trying to do something, "Sure you can do it Dad.  Just need to believe in yourself."  How cute is that?

December:

We had this conversation one day, and I'm not exactly what triggered it other than talking about why the sun didn't come up for very long in Alaska in December.  So he says, "Jesus and Heavenly Father don't live in Idaho.  They live in Alaska and they use their hands to push the sun down to Idaho.  The sun takes a long nap."  I loved his very logical thinking.  It was a very concrete way of explaining why there was more sun in Idaho and than Alaska...and since Jesus and Heavenly Father are in charge of that stuff, that must be the explanation.  :)

I focused very much on how Christmas was about celebrating Jesus' birthday.  We removed most of Santa from our Christmas celebration.  So, on Christmas night after a day of fun presents and good food, we started to get kids ready for bed.  But, Shordy was adamant and upset to the point of crying that Christmas wasn't over yet, b/c he hadn't seen Jesus for His birthday.  He was determined Christmas wasn't over b/c we didn't actually see Jesus to wish him a Happy Birthday.  I though it was so cute he would feel like this, and I'm determined to keep that feeling in our home, but explain that the things we do leading up to Christmas and the Christmas story we read are all in celebration of Jesus' birthday.

He says to me one day, "The flute is going around in my belly.  I need vitamins."  :)  There had been a stomach flu going around and he must have heard me talk about it to a friend or Shayne.  And, they love to take their vitamins so he was looking for an extra excuse to take more vitamins.  :)

Ok...that's all my Shordyisms and stories about our sweet Shordy boy for 2012.  He is such a thinker and great imaginer.  He is very aware of his surroundings and incorporates everything he hears and sees into his everyday play and questions.  We love his inquisitive mind and love the way he entertains us every day.

Love this sweet boy!!

Ice Fishing w/ the Williams'

Ted & John hanging out together

Shordy with is fish!  Pretty proud of it.

Tiny seriously LOVED this fish!  She hugged it and played with it until there were no scales left on the things.  Seriously...she had scales all over her and all over my coat.  She LOVED it!

I thought it was cool how you could see the hole through the ice with water on top of it...it had warmed up enough to melt some of the ice and it was flowing over top of the thick ice layer on the lake.

John with is fish...though he wouldn't hold it so his dad, Jeff held it for him.  :)

The weather stayed nice and balmy, considering we had been dealing with -25 degree weather, so we decided to go ice fishing with the Williams family to Sport Lake.

So we bundled up all the kids and headed out to the lake.  It was fun!  We drilled about 3 holes and let the kids fish.  George, Shordy, and John all caught fish.  Tiny played with Shordy's until it's scales came off...she LOVED it!  Charlie (Charlotte) got cold so went back home with her mom, Annie, who also took Ted (who is Tiny's age) home for a nap.  Jeff (Williams dad) stayed with his older boys and we all hung out and fished some more.  While the fishing was super hot or fast...it was good enough to keep the boys engaged for the most part.

Overall, it was a fun day of fishing!  Shordy caught a fish, Tiny mauled it to death (literally), and we were able to hang out with some good friends.

Good day!

Christmas Morning

Dad and Shordy putting the trains together.  He didn't even open all his presents until MUCH later b/c he was too busy playing with his trains.

Pure joy right there.  Pure joy!

Tiny eating breakfast and chillin' with her cow pillow pet her dad got for her.  She loved it.

Our finished advent calendar.  Shordy loved getting out a new part of the nativity every day.  The days where it was just stars wasn't nearly as fun, but he loved it towards the end when it was wise men, shepherds, and angles.  Fun!

This Christmas has to be one of my favorites yet!  Shordy was ecstatic and so excited...and that makes it that  much more fun for mom & dad.

We started our morning by looking at our stockings, but before we went any further we always stop and read the story of the first Christmas.  Before kids we read it straight from Luke 2, but since kids I found a little book called, "My Very First Christmas Story".  It's the LDS version and it includes the story from the Book of Mormon and Luke 2 with beautiful pictures to depict it as well.  It's very nice...so we read that together as a family before we start opening presents.  It's a tradition Shayne had with his family and he has brought to ours...and I love it.

After reading about the First Christmas, we started opening presents.  But, we didn't even make it very far with that, b/c Shordy was SO EXCITED about his train set sitting on the floor from Santa!!  We facetimed with Grammy Pond and he opened the present from her which was another Thomas the Train set...and then he was done for!  We had to suspend all present opening so Shordy and Dad could go in the play room and set up all the trains he had received for Christmas.  Even Tiny was pretty content to open like 2 or 3 presents and play with them for a bit.  She got stuff (a crib, clothes, backpack, etc.) for her Stella doll, that she got last year for Christmas.

While the trains were being set up, I cut up a bunch of fruit and that's what we ate for breakfast.  Shordy was way too busy to stop and eat.  :)  After the trains were set up, Shayne & I proceeded to open the presents from each other and our families.  I was pretty stoked to get a pair of LL Bean Sheepskin slippers...AWESOME!   And a Skoop...it's an insulated skirt.  It's like a pair of snow pants, but it's a skirt...so it's way cuter!  You wear it over your jeans while running into town or where ever and you stay warm...and you're cute too.  I LOVE it!  Shayne got a Louisville Slugger (which he requested) and some fishing books, new clothes for work, and other misc stuff...not as big of Christmas for him this year.  :(

The amazing thing is that it has been SUPER cold the week before Christmas...like -25 degrees was the high.  But, it warmed up on Christmas Eve and it started to snow...and snow...and snow...and snow.  By Christmas afternoon it had snowed about 18".  It was pretty crazy.

Because Shayne is the ward mission leader the Elders came to our house to Skype or Facetime with their families.  They were each on a computer talking to their families in the playroom while Shordy played with is trains.  It was kinda cool.  Shayne ended up shoveling a lot of snow that day.  Shordy was pretty darn content to sit in the playroom and play with his trains...all day.  You know it's been a good Christmas when your kids play with their new toys all day.  :)  Yeah!!

Then of course we've started the new tradition of having a Spanish seafood paella for our Christmas dinner...so Shayne made the paella, and it was DELICIOUS!  One of my favorite foods.  Thank you Babe for bringing this wonderful food and new tradition to our family!

So...this was such a fun Christmas!  I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful little family to make these memories and share these traditions with.  We are a very blessed family and recognize our blessings everyday.  How amazing it is to have the opportunity to teach our children about Christ and why celebrating his birth is so important to us, and to share our testimonies and our feelings about Christ with our children.  What a special time of year.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve this year was pretty chill for us.

We made our Christmas sugar cookies and delivered some and then came home and had our little dinner of smoked meats, seafood, and cheese and crackers.

We have the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve and it's always our Christmas pj's.  Shordy and Tiny had so much fun opening their presents they then opened Mom & Dad's too.  :)

Then kids went to bed and Santa arrived shortly after to leave their one present.  Mom & Dad also wrapped and put put the presents from our family.

It's kinda nice this year, we moved our Christmas tree to the other side of the room after we sold the piano.  There's much more room for it, but it won't last long, b/c  next year there is going to be a wood burning stove where the Christmas tree is.  But for this year it's very nice.

I love the last pic of Christmas Eve...and the quiet peace and pure happiness you can feel coming from the pic...and especially the anticipation of joy that will be arriving shortly.  :)

Soldotna Ward Christmas Party

Can you see Shordy still turned around to watch the live nativity scene?  He LOVED it and just sat and stared at it even while the rest of the kids started singing the primary Christmas songs.  So sweet.

My 2 sweet kids

Our Santa was camera shy...you never really see his face, just Shordy's VERY excited one.  :)  And Tiny had a death grip hold on my shirt in fear of Santa.  

Our ward Christmas party has gotten so large we no longer fit into the gym for the dinner and program.  So, we reserve the local Soldotna High School common area to have the party.  We have LOTS of non-members and less active members who come to the party.  Our Bishop is an amateur photographer and so he sets up a little Christmas scene and Santa comes and we can take pics with Santa.  We took one this year, I'll have to scan it in.  I wanted it to just be the kids and Santa, but Tiny wasn't having that...so I'm in the pic as well.

After a great dinner the primary and youth put on a little program with a live nativity acted out and the primary kids sing.  Shordy was completely enthralled with the nativity scene.  I'm pretty sure he thought it was the real wise men, and the real Mary & Joseph on the stage.  He just sat and stared at them.  Even when it was time for the primary kids to turn around and sing the primary Christmas songs he kept staring at the nativity scene.  I thought it was so sweet.

Tiny didn't want to be left out so she promptly left Dad's lap and climbed up onto the stage with her big brother.  I thought it was cute she wanted to be up there with him.

I'm especially glad Shayne was with me this year.  In years past he's been at basketball games and I have had to go by myself, and it hasn't always been fun for me.  So this year I was glad to be there all together as a family.