Cecilia turns TWO!

People, my baby is 2 years old.

I was telling someone about her a while back and I said, "You know that rhyme about the little girl with the little curl? She is that rhyme exactly."  It goes,

There was a little girl

Who had a little curl

Right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good

She was very, very, good.

And when she was bad

She was horrid.

This girl is a mix of sweet as can be and defiant Hulk!  But I love her for it.

She is completely obsessed with Peppa Pig.

She loves the color orange.

She adores playing with her brother.

She loves being in the center of the action.

She always wants to hold a balloon.

She loves to play outside.

She could eat waffles every day.

She hates bath time lately (not sure why).

She loves dancing to her theme song "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel.

She talks up a storm.

She hates sticky things on her fingers.

She loves play-doh.

She has the highest pitched voice ever. So cute.

She's obsessed with my water bottle.

She watches Book of Life every day with her big brother.

She rips all bows and elastics out of her hair.

She takes off her diaper every chance she gets.

She is absolutely, 100%, perfect.

Thirty-Eight Things

This is easily becoming my favorite birthday tradition. Looking over the past year was amazing and reminded me of just how good my life is! It was a really hard year, but look at how many good things happened too!  Tomorrow I start a fresh year of new happy memories!!!

01. This book. 

02. Cecilia turning one year old and this hilarious picture of her being afraid of the candle on her cake. 

03. Making a wedding cake for the very first time & mastering Italian Buttercream.

04. Our annual pumpkin-carving party. 

05. Having the fiery red hair I always wanted (and this Yeti mask from a kids meal). 

06. Visiting the Ogden Dinosaur Park for the first time with the entire family. 

07. Halloween with these cute kids. 

08. My awesome Halloween mantle. 

09. That month I reconnected with my DSLR (I need to do that again), 

10. Thanksgiving with Jenny Lemmons and her kiddos.

11. Handmade ornament exchange with the Renegade Craft Society.

12. Little blessings that make a big difference.

13. This freaking amazing mantle Matt and I made for the Ward Christmas Party out of cardboard and foam.

14. Taking our kids to meet a Food Network Star and having the best Macarons of my life.

15. Making gingerbread houses with Jon & Liz's family.

16. Christmas with my wonderful husband and children and finishing all of the homemade pajamas in time.

17. New Year's Eve with family.

18. New Year's Day with even more family!

19. Watching all of the Best Picture nominees with Chachi.

20. Taking our kids to the Museum of Natural Curiosity for the first time.

21. Losing 30 pounds.

22. Attending my first blogging conference and making tons of new, creative, friends!

23. Learning to love bike-riding again.

24. Throwing the most epic tween party ever!

25. The time Ella conquered her fears and we rocked the Go-Karts!

26. Attending the LDS Blogger training and meeting so many wonderful women.

27. Our mini-vacation to Snowbird.

28. Participating in the "Listen to Your Mother"live show.

29. Attending the Opera with Chachi.

30. Working with Utah's First Lady on the Uplifting Families initiative.

31. The night over the Summer when Bianca, Eves, and I ran around the block and set up a picnic blanket to watch neighborhood fireworks together!

32. Summer swimming at the Bountiful Rec Center.

33. Visits from Stacy Crapo, Emily Foley, Kirsti Call, and Hilary Arveseth.

34. Checking items off of my Baking Bucket List, like these homemade marshmallows.  Starting a Facebook Group of bakers from around the country and doing baking challenges together. So fun!

35. Riding the big roller coasters with Evangeline during our family's first visit to Lagoon.

36. Taking a laminated dough class with Lolly and Annie.

37. Our family visit to The Leonardo children's museum.

38. Winning this amazing prize at a blogger event!

Cecilia at 22 months

Oh, this girl.

She starts each and every morning by crawling into my bed and saying repeatedly, Peppa Pig TB? Peppa Pig TB? Peppa Pig TB?! because she wants me to groggily hand over my iPhone so she can turn on YouTube Kids and watch looped episodes of Peppa Pig.

She is passionate about food and eats roughly three times what Jude eats at every meal. And yet, she stays at a very shrimpy size, wearing 9-12 month clothes.  She is so tiny, but is a good talker. Often when we are in public, people will hear her talk and be startled since it seems as though full sentences are coming out of a 10 month old!

Ella was a very opinionated and strong-willed child, even as an infant, but it was paired with her timidity to take on the world and cautious decision-making. Cecilia has got all of the strong-will of her oldest sister, but backs it up with brute force and volume. If she wants something she will plow-through, climb over, push down, or go around whatever is in her way. This past week she has begun physically fighting with Jude when they want the same toy and she has spent many 2 minute stretches in Time Out for hitting.

She is the funniest mix of sweet and demon.  There is no in between.  One moment she is speaking to you in the smallest, gentlest little voice.  She will put her hands on either side of your face and give you repeated kisses followed by "I luv voo".  She loves cuddling stuffies more than any child we have had and likes to snuggle with 3-4 Beanie Boos at a time,

The very next moment she is diving off of furniture while screaming Weeeeeee! and knocking over Jude's tower of blocks so he cries.  She loves grabbing things from his hands, not because she wants them, just because she wants to take them from him. She has a deep, throaty, Mr. T laugh that is hilarious and it doesn't matter how many times she gets knocked over while jumping with the big kids on the trampoline, she just gets back up.

She takes one nap each day after lunch (at the same time as Jude) and recently I have been trying to wake her from that nap since she got into the habit of waking up exactly at midnight every night and keeping us up.  She is not a very good sleeper and wakes multiple times each night.  Sometimes she just talks a bit and goes back to sleep, but other times she cries and cries.

She has not completely warmed to Nursery in church yet.  She goes in spurts of playing happily and then noticing I am not there and sobbing for a while.  The nursery leaders have figured out that if they wait through the short, crying jags she just gets through it on her own and goes back to being fine without me coming in.

The instant we get into the car she requests Big Block Sing Song and sings along in the cutest way to her favorite songs.  When she is joyful, all the world is joyful!  She is a burst of sunshine and energy and life.  She wants in on all of the shenanigans, no matter what they may be.

I had a rough go of adjusting to the idea of this little surprise baby that came into our life.  Last week I was playing with her and realized we would be absolutely lost without her.  She is so very adored.  She is a strong, wonderful, little person who is making our family better and is going to make the world a better place.  We needed her.

Summer Sewing Camp

When I became an adult I was all about complaining about my Mom not passing on certain skills to me.  She quilted, painted, sewed, crafted, could get any stain out of any piece of laundry, knitted, etc. "Why didn't she teach me?!" I would lament. 

Now that I have five children I know EXACTLY why she didn't teach me those things.  By the time you actually have 10 seconds to sit down and sew/quilt/craft the last thing you want to do is teach one of your kids how to do it.  The kids you are with all day, every day, non-stop.  So, sorry Mom. I get it.

Can I sew? Yes. Can I teach my kids to sew? Yes. Do I want to teach my kids how to sew? Not right now.  Not when I have two toddlers and I am considering potty training one of them and the other one likes to hit people and scream "NO!" all the time.

A woman in our church teaches week-long sewing camps in the Summer.  There are four different weeks and I signed up the redheads for 3 of the 4 (there were scheduling conflicts or I would have gone 4/4).  Each week was $15 per student. Even though she set the price I feel like I'm robbing the teacher.

Week one the redheads learned to thread their machine (top thread and bobbin) and practiced sewing straight lines and pivoting on both fabric and paper with stitch guides (like this one).  Then they learned to measure and cut fabric, follow a simple pattern and also make gathers.  They both came home at week's end with a half apron with a ruffle at the bottom and they were SO PROUD!!!

We just finished week two and today they returned home triumphant, each with a maxi skirt they had sewn.  They are so thrilled with their skirts and both carefully folded them and put them away so they could be worn next Sunday to church. I love that they are getting a bit of time away from home each day, learning a new skill, and are gaining confidence and having pride in creating!  

If you don't have a Martha from Church in your life and you have the patience to teach your kids sewing I highly recommend these books.  Sewing School teaches kids how to hand sew. I have this book and it is awesome. It has step by step lessons, free patterns and fun guides and info for you to guide your kids through the learning process.  Sewing School 2 is the same format, but teaches kids how to machine sew.  I just ordered it to try and keep this momentum going after Sewing Camp is finished at the end of this month.

Age Gap

 

Me: Your hair looks like Flock of Seagulls right now. 

Matt: What song does Flock of Seagulls sing?

Me: "And I raaa-aaaa-aaan. I ran so far a-waaaa-aaaaay..."

Matt: Wasn't that Thompson Twins?

Me: No. They sang "Woah, hold me now. Oh, warm my heart. Stay with me! Let lovin' start. Let lovin' start".

Matt: Then who sang "Earth below us, drifting, falling"?

Me: Peter Schilling. Dude, I am only three months older than you. Where were you in the 80's?!