The Sweet Things in Life

Lately Mckinley has really been coming into those "terrible toddler years" (terrible two's I really don't think covers it) and I have found myself very often frustrated with her. This leads to loads of guilt on my part and the ever questioning mind (i.e. are we handling this right, is she happy, etc.). Of course the answers to those questions always fall on the right side of the line, but still, it is turning into a period of time that is challenging to say the least. 

There are days however that I look at Mckinley and just cannot help but smile or laugh at the crazy girl she is becoming. It makes me feel so silly that I ever had questions or became frustrated with her. Every hard day is washed away by the joy I get in witnessing the person she is becoming. There are so many little things that Mckinley does that are uniquely her and which I will cherish forever. I want so badly to remember these things instead of the challenging time that this period can be.

For that reason, I wanted to make an ever-growing list, by no means which is extensive, of things that Mckinley does that seem to melt my heart. I don't need a list to remember that Mckinley is about the sweetest thing alive, but I still want some actual documentation. I want them documented so that I can look back and remember the innocent sweet girl she is today, and also so that Mckinley can look back and see that there were things that she did even from a young age that made her her.

So here are some things that you do Mckinley that melt my heart:

1. The way you make barking noises at Max and bring him toys (his or yours) to play with...but then you also scream whenever he comes near you while you are eating (smart girl already---don't trust that dog near food!).
2. Your random leg hugs, just because.
3. The way you kiss pictures of different items in books, pausing my reading, because you love them (i.e. dogs, cats, babies, bugs).
4. That you try and fit your doll's shoes (which are about 2" long) onto your feet. :)
5. How you ask for "dada" every single morning when I get you up from bed.
6. Your undying love for Ellie (your stuffed elephant) and that you will only snuggle with mom or dad when you have her in your arms.
7. The pure joy you get from spinning in circles or stomping your feet.
8. The way you are mesmerized by babies. Your face lights up whether you see them on TV or in person!
9. Your funny little body expressions (crouch walk and hand shake...hopefully video to come!).
10. How you will sit and look at a book on your own and chat at each page like you are reading it yourself.
11. That no matter how frustrated I get with you I still get to hear "mama" 1,000 times a day because you love me and want to share something with me! AND, that I can get a kiss from you whenever I ask!

As I said earlier, this list is by no means extensive of all the things you do that are special or make me smile. On the contrary, this list is only a small example of why we love you so much.

I feel so lucky that I get to be Mckinley's mom and that even though she drives me crazy about hundred times a day, it is always easily forgotten. I'm sure every mom and dad feel this way, but it is nice to verbalize exactly why our daughter is so special. I hope that I can recreate a post like this at least once a year so that I document why Mckinley is special and amazing at each stage of her life. I know that I will cherish those posts, but I hope Mckinley will as well.

Playtime

I feel sure Mckinley enjoys nothing more in life than reading books...our little bookworm, I know. However, on occasion we can get Mckinley to play with us. :) In actuality she obviously really enjoys playing (what little kid doesn't), just not as much as the 60+ books we read a day. Here is a little video proof of Mckinley playing in action. She shows us how apparently being a good girl is related to playing cars! :)

 

PS
If you want to hear the full effects of the video (i.e. Mckinley claiming she is a good girl for playing with cars) then you might need to pause the music player on the bottom of the blog.

Chatterbox

So this is one of those annoying/I like to brag about my AMAZING kid type of posts. It really is more for me and Kev so that we can look back and remember what Mckinley was like at this point in her life, but those who read our blog will be subject to the obnoxiousness too! :)

Now that we have that settled...Mckinley is becoming quite the little talker. It has come on all of the sudden too. I mean, really she doesn't actually "talk", but she says A LOT. While we were in Hawaii I noticed that Mckinley learned 3 new words (potty, beep, and morning). While Mckinley had a small vocabulary before our trip, she learned words over a long period of time, so 3 words in 9 days stuck out to me. After we got back from Hawaii it seemed Mckinley was saying a new word about every other day. So Kevin and I tried to add up how many words she can say and it totalled over 30. Again, to probably most other people they don't know that she is saying half of those words because she either doesn't say them completely properly (i.e. boo for book or tha you for thank you) or they just don't catch that she said the word. BUT mom and dad notice and other people notice about half the time too.

This language things really seems to be ramping up exponentially because this past Sunday (to our huge surprise) she said 4 new words. She said "sno" when she saw it was snowing, "come" (when I told her daddy was "coming back to the car soon", "kick" (when daddy told her she can't kick mom), and "buddy" (when she said "buddy boy" in reference to something Kevin was saying about Kyan). I know brag, brag, brag....Annoying! Too bad, you read my blog so you have to hear me brag a little. I don't think it is that bad since I know I am bragging too, right?

The best thing about this new language development though is that she seems to understand about 10x as much as she can say. Communicating with her gets easier and easier each day. It is fun to see her understand a request that we ask of her that she never understood before. However, it also has meant that we have to start being more careful of what we say in front of her---"boobie" or "what the crap" aren't really things I need to hear from Mckinley. :)

Hawaiian Adventures!

This Christmas we spent 9 wonderful days in Maui, Hawaii. It was the first time to Hawaii for both Kevin and myself (and obviously Mckinley too). It was everything I could have hoped for and exactly what our family needed--but really, what family doesn't need a 9 day vacation devoted to spending time with each other?

We left the morning of the 20th with quite a bit of apprehension for how Mckinley was going to do over the very long day's travel. Amazingly, but not that surprisingly, she did fantastic! The day ended up being about a 13 hour trek by the time we arrived at our condo and Mckinley barely let out a cry the entire day! :) Keep in mind this trek included one 2.5 hr flight to San Fran, one 2.5 hr layover, and one 5.5hr flight to Maui in addition to all other travels to and from airports. We have flown cross country with Mckinley two times before and she has always been GREAT, but you never know. She is much older now (making it a little difficult for dad to hold her on his lap during the flights--since my growing belly makes it even more difficult for me) and mobile--two things that make flights pretty hard on a babe. Really though, we could not have asked for the day to go any better.

Enough about boring travel though...on to Maui! We stayed in an amazing beach-front condo with Kevin's parents (his brother and his family were also in a condo across the hall). To say that it was the perfect place for a family to stay is an understatement. The beach in front of our condo was perfect---huge, uncrowded, great for water activities, and literally 60 seconds from our condo door. Mckinley got lots of sand time in but what she really loved was standing in the surf!

We spent our 9 days enjoying time with our family and taking in all that Hawaii has to offer. A few highlights were a Luau, Warren & Annabelle's, surf lessons (Kev), snorkeling (Kev), the Hana drive, shopping, and sunbathing. Of course we also celebrated Christmas in Hawaii too! What was especially nice was that my dad and Leann were also in Maui for three of the same days we were. We got to go to the Luau with them (leaving Kinley with Grandma B and Grandpa D).

It was an incredible trip and one I am sure we will make again at some point in the future. Honestly (and as corny as it may sound) the best part was getting to spend 9-uninterrupted days with my husband and daughter. Mckinley LOVED getting to see her dad every day and I loved it too! :) Soon we will be adding a new member to the family, and as exciting as that is, it will change they dynamic of our family forever. Having this trip to make memories of our family of three was priceless.

So now on to Kevin's favorite part of any blog post (and probably many others)....pictures:

                    Airplanes (and the birds and cars) on the runway were SO exciting to Mckinley!

                                                      Getting ready to boogie board!

                                                  Black sand beach on the Hana drive!

This was what Kinley was like at 10pm before we boarded our LONG flight home....she was so cute running around the airport! :)











Our return trip went just as well as our trip out to Maui...which was even more of a surprise because we had a redeye! Mckinley was the perfect little traveler (although we have no intentions of doing it again ANY time soon)! Poor daddy had to hold a sleeping baby/giant child for 5.5hrs through the middle of the night (I think he may have secretly enjoying the snuggle time a little because Mckinley NEVER lets you hold her while she sleeps!).

We have lots of other pictures from Grandma and Grandpa that I can't upload right now...I hope to get them up soon in another post.

The trip was so amazing and as I have said a million times, I am so glad we did it. A huge thanks to Grandma B and Grandpa D for making such a great trip possible (even if it was the idea of another smart lady!). Mckinley unfortunately will not remember this trip, but we will, and we will tell her all about it and make sure we return so that she can make memories to remember! The time spent with my family was what made the trip perfect, but Hawaii was obviously not that bad of a place to spend with them either! :)

So, hopefully you made it through this mammoth post and have not decided to boycott my future blog posts! I promise to keep them a little more brief in the future!

Christmas Celebrations!

Christmas this year was pretty crazy for us. Since we were in Hawaii for the actual day of Christmas we had to spread things out in order to get to celebrate with all of our family. So our events began on December 18th. This was two days before we left for Hawaii and we decided to do our Christmas morning this day. Mckinley is young enough that she has no idea what is actually going on so I figured what the heck is the difference between December 18th and 25th to her? Nothing. However, the day did not really go as planned.

On "Christmas Eve" (December 17th) I noticed at about midnight that our power had gone out---we were having a really strong windstorm, but I was hopeful that the power would be back on in the morning for my planned festivities. Unfortunately this was not so. Being the stubborn planner that I am though, I pushed forward with my plans (which included making crepes---just on the BBQ instead of the stove).

The morning went really well in spite of the fact that it must have been about 30 degrees in our house. Granted our "Christmas Morning" video is a little dark since we had no lights, the lights on the Christmas tree were not on, we were bundled up in winter clothes, and we had to eat cold crepes by the time they were all cooked via the BBQ. It was still a great morning of memories with our family though!

After we finished our morning we packed up and headed to my brother's house for a little warmer extended family celebration. Mckinley was showered with both love and presents from her Grandma Cheryl, Papa Steve, Uncle Brian, Aunt Gina, and Aunt Crista (and her cousins too of course). We had lots of fun with the fam and then headed home (which now had power!!) and crashed after a very long, eventful day!

We also celebrated Christams in Hawaii with Kevin's side of the family. It was a new experience celebrating Christmas in 84 degree, muggy weather, but it was SO much fun (more to come on Hawaii soon). We even had a little lighted Christmas tree to put gifts under. Mckinley woke up with a horrible cold, but she battled through it and seemed to still enjoy herself. Here are some photos of the crazy event (there were three kids 2 1/2 and younger!).

Yes, those are Twilight Sweet Tarts....a Kevin white elephant pick up.

This last picture was our attempt at getting all three girls in one picture...this never happens!! Obviously, our picture of the picture attempt isn't so great either! :)

We also had a quick celebration with my dad today! Christmas was about two weeks long for us this year and it was fantastic! It was our last Christmas with only one kiddo, which seems really hard to believe. While Mckinley won't remember this Christmas, we will. It was a completely different experience in many ways, but I do not think I would have changed a thing. Now we have those memories of cold Christmas morning, cooking crepes on the BBQ and warm Christmas mornings with palm trees and pineapple!