Libby - 28 months

Libby regularly speaks in complete sentences now. But the novelty has not worn off for me, and I am thoroughly impressed each time she puts together her thoughts. I love to see her little brain work. She'll sometimes start a sentence, pause to think of the word she wants, and then start the sentence over. It's as if, now that she understands how a sentence should be put together, she wants to do it right. Sometimes this means starting her sentence over 5 times, but she eventually gets it.

Before Christmas, I checked out as many Christmas books from the library as I could. One of them was a little red book, about 3 inches x 4 inches called (so creatively) "Christmas." Something about the size of the book was captivating to Libby and she started carrying it everywhere and asking for it in her crib. A while later, we were at the library (it's sort of our second home), and Libby found some companion books while she was browsing the shelves by herself. I think they have different authors, but they must be in the same series because they are the same size and style.

To make a long story short, Libby has a collection of 5 small books that absolutely, positively MUST go to bed with her at naptime and bedtime and MUST come downstairs with her to breakfast first thing in the morning. The "Christmas" book was due back a week or so ago (I'd already renewed it the maximum number of times) and Libby did NOT want to give it up. She usually loves dropping the books off in the return slot, but she was clinging tight to "mine red book!" I was able to find a different small red book (this one titled "Halloween") and distract her long enough to get "Christmas" in the slot. She was still a little upset, but she recovered. The other four books ("President's Day," "Springtime," "New Year's Day," and "The Hero" are due soon. It's going to be a rough day when we have to return those.

Libby can often fill in the blank when we're reading a favorite book because she has the words memorized. I knew "President's Day" was a favorite when she could finish my sentences with "Jimmy Carter" and "George Washington."

Piper - 3 months

I am so enjoying Piper being small. I love love love her cuddling next to me at night. She will sleep in her crib (at the foot of our bed) now for several hours, but I often bring her to bed with me anyway because I sleep better with her as my personal heater/teddy bear.

Piper smiles so easily and has started laughing this past month. It seriously makes my day to hear her laugh.

I'm so glad this little girl is part of our family!

Christmas at home

We had a nice, low-key Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve, we had dinner with our new friends Patty and Aron and their 2 boys. Their boys are older than our kids (like middle school and high school aged) but Libby played really well with them. Or maybe I should say they played really well with her. :) They were nice to entertain her.

Libby loves to open presents and we tried to get her excited ahead of time about Christmas, but I don't think she really understood that there was a certain day appointed when she would finally be able to open presents. Christmas morning, Jared carried Libby downstairs. She was laying her head on his shoulder, but she peeked around for a second, saw all the presents, and beamed up with the cutest smile. Then, she layed her head right back down.

We let Libby open most of the presents, including ours, because it's just so much more exciting for a 2 year old.

I got Libby a pair of child safety scissors (the kind that won't cut hair) and she loves them. She spent 30 straight minutes sitting on Jared's lap Christmas day just opening and closing them. Best $3 gift ever.

And, of course, she loved her Pez dispenser and devoured the first packet of candy in minutes. (We rationed the other 2 packets over the next couple days.)

And Piper was just darling. She's certainly my favorite present of 2012!