22 Months!!!

Thank you soooo much for all your support and comments on the children's book project! I really appreciate all your encouragement and book recommendations, etc. I feel a lot better about tackling this with you guys on my side!!

A few weeks ago (I'm a bit behind), Maura turned 22 months. That means that in less than two months, she'll be 2!!! What?

Here's the last two months' bunny chair pics:

{yes, this is really how she is a lot of the time!!!}

{yikes, this hair is really starting to get out of control, its growing so fast now!}

She's definitely more like a real big kid now (how did this all happen so fast?). And she's in some sort of phase (terrible twos come early?)...lots of tantrums and meltdowns and I want it my way fast. I'd say about 85% of the time she is awesome, an angel, really fun to be around, she's my best friend and then the rest of the time...I don't know what to do with myself - cry, ignore her, laugh hysterically at how dramatic she looks. When is real discipline supposed to start?
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We've been keeping busy...I find that this helps keep the rough times to a minimum...plus, summer is just fun...so we've been hitting up the beach, playground, splash pad, etc. I love playdates...both for the adult interaction for me and the whole socialization, sharing, etc. thing for Maura. We usually have at least one a week.

{a bit of an aggressive hug with Morgan in our pool}

{with Jack in his backyard}

{picnic lunch with Jack at the park}

{with baby Emerson and her cool mama, the infamous Holly}

As far as developmental stuff goes, Maura learned how to walk up and down stairs on her own!! It's so cute to watch (she holds on to the wall/railing with one hand, and holds one of our hands with her other hand). She also got three more teeth in, both bottom cuspids and one of the top ones. (I guess teeth shape is genetic?!, because she totally has her Dad's!!!) She's still taking one nap a day (thank goodness) in the middle of the afternoon for about two hours. She is getting up earlier in the morning than she used to though and usually ends up going to bed later because of all the fun summer stuff we've been doing (which usually pushed nap time back which pushes bed time back).

On the food front, Maura has moved to a booster seat at the table - she really likes it and I think its helping her eat more/sit longer. She also loves eating on the stools at the kitchen island. She's getting much better at eating things you hold in your hand like corn on the cob (loooves it!), hot dog in a roll, sandwiches, burritos, etc. She had her first (and subsequent) Popsicle and Chipwich (ok, I got this one for me, but who in their right mind can resist ice-cream sandwiched between chocolate chip cookies?!) and she now likes eating apples whole (although she doesn't get very far into them).

This summer was the first (and second, third, fifth, eleventh) time that Maura rode on a carousel...and man, does she looove riding those horses around and around!!!

In June, we finished up her series of swim lessons at the local YMCA. For some reason, she loves the ocean, bath time and our friend's pool, but not so much the deep end at the Y. Oh well, I'm definitely still glad we did it:)

Maura recently inherited this play kitchen from her cousins who are a bit too old for it. She is loving it, it keeps her busy for awhile - yay! Unfortunately, they couldn't give us any of the food or pots and pans, so I have to go buy her some of that, but for now I've just stocked it with stuff from the real kitchen or fake food from some of her other toys.  She doesn't seem to mind:) Some of the other stuff that she's into now are still her cars from the movie "Cars", anything "Thomas the Train" and Disney's Pixie Hollow fairies like Tinkerbell and her whole nature-helping gang. She just watched her first princess/Barbie movie the other day and its killing me, but she is soooo into it!!! (Ugh, I was hoping to put off that whole princess thing for another few years!)

{OMG, you guys, these ikat shorts slay me, they are so cute!!! from Gymboree}

Here's some more random pics that I couldn't resist:

{picking the yellow "flowers"...I didn't have the heart to tell her they were weeds!}

{watching a plane fly by}

{reading at the book store with Dada}

{helping me plant flowers...since this post covers the last two months, some of these are from May, when the weather was still really iffy here}

I really can't believe that the next time I write one of these posts will be for her second birthday! I still look at her every day and am in awe that she is mine...that I helped create this unique little human being...that she is going to be a part of my life forever and that I get to see her change and grow through all of it...and I just feel really lucky to have her:)

Ps. Sorry, I totally meant to have this written and posted on Monday, but I keep getting sucked into staying up late watching the Olympics, so then I get nothing done at night.

Pps. Did you guys realize they were bringing back some of the previous contestants on Design Star All-Stars? It just started last night. Anybody watching? How did you feel about the winner of Design Star this season?