Spring!

Pleased to report that the first flowers of spring are popping up here in our little town. Holly has given up on the playground and keeps heading for the woods. She picks up the pinecones and says, "TWEE!" (tree). Plays with sticks for a while. Then pets and greets all the trees in the area "Hi, TWEE!" followed by running up and down the slopes giggling.

February in Photos

From top to bottom: Petting the bull at our local brewery, running with a ball (that was unfortunately not her's---sorry Davis!), playing "Where's Holly?" in the baskets (she pronounces her name "haw-ee"), putting socks on the bear so we can go outside, rolling around on the rug.

There's a party in my tummy!

So first off, for those of you who read this title and started singing - the answer is- yes- we just saw Yo Gabba Gabba. Holly loved it and we may need therapy. My mother pointed out that it's not like she was a huge fan of Mr. Roger's either, so we may just need to accept this one. We were just so excited when she shared our love of Shaun the Sheep! I mean, here's a show we can all get into together! Alas, no. We're stuck with Frodo showing us how to do the puppet master and a bunch of annoying songs permanently drilled into our brains. Happily, we have no cable (and neither does Chelsea) so she'll just have to get by without regular viewings. I'm sure she won't know what she's missing. Now if we could only rid our brain of those songs...

Holly has been really enjoying the lovely weather we've been having. All you have to do is say the word "outside" and she's off and running to get her socks and shoes. She can't quite get them on herself, but she still tries. We have 4 major parks in the area and our amazing museum. This photo is of her watching butterflies at the museum.

Her vocabulary is constantly expanding. We had broccoli on Sunday night with dinner. I buried it in with the mashed potatoes only to find that Holly didn't really like anything but the broccoli. She ate all of hers (spitting out the potatoes as she went) and then turned to me and said, "docky?" I had no idea what she was saying, but she persisted, "mama docky?" Finally, I asked her if she wanted my broccoli. "DOCKY!" she repeated many times as she ate all of my broccoli. If only they had a baby translator, this would be much easier.

It seems like there is always so much to report! She's getting more teeth. Sleeping better. Eating more than I could ever imagine. Running at high speed. Giving me "doggie kisses". Cooking up amazing meals in her play kitchen (rubber duck a la orange anyone?). Climbing up and over everything. She thinks every woman in every book or catalog (what else are those catalogs of expensive baby clothes for except to entertain her?) is "mama" which can be quite flattering sometimes. She walks around the house with the harmonica in her mouth breathing in and out interesting melodies. She terrorizes the cats. Loves every dog within a 10 mile radius. And of course, loves to giggle and snuggle her way through the day.

All Night Long!

So once before Holly slept through the night but it was an oddity and pretty much never repeated... until now. Last night, Holly slept all night in her crib in her room. 7:30pm until 6am. She awoke happy. Smiling. And gave us both lots of kisses. I don't know that she'll sleep through tonight, but I certainly think it's part of a trend (and not an odd night out) since she's been sleeping most of the night in her crib for a few weeks now. But during those last few weeks she would often awake at midnight or 3am for a few minutes asking for rocking or milk. Yes- we know- we could have probably reached this stage a long time ago if we let her cry. I think being a parent means hearing lots of advice from friends, family, neighbors, colleagues and random strangers on how you should do everything--- binkies to thumbs, bottles to breast, co-sleeping to crib, daycare to home care--- we've heard plenty of solicited and unsolicited advice along the way about what we're doing "right" and "wrong". We did it the best way we knew how for us and for her. We're happy, she's happy and we probably wouldn't change a thing if we had it to do all over again. So raise your sippy cup along with the three of us- THREE CHEERS FOR HOLLY!

Loves to slide