Taelyn - 2 Years

At two years old, Taelyn is now 26.8 lbs., and 34 inches tall.

Taelyn is definitely a big girl now that she is two. In addition to sleeping in a bed, she also likes to sit at the table in a big girl seat instead of her high chair, reads big girl books (not board books), and she now refuses to take a bath. Instead, she wants to take a shower! And the initial stages of potty training have been going on for quite a while. Taelyn will tell us when she needs to use the toilet and will sit there for a while until she gets bored. Then we put her diaper back on and she ends up going to the bathroom shortly after. She has had one successful toilet attempt so far. Potty training is by no means complete, but she's getting there.

Taelyn's talking has grown quite a bit as well. She is speaking full sentences, using phrases and words that we have never specifically taught her. She learns from everything around her. She especially loves to tell us when she is hungry. She will announce that it is breakfast time and that she wants to eat Honey Crunchies cereal. Or if she wants a snack, she will say, "Mommy, eat snack... T eat dried fruit." The girl loves to eat! Taelyn also knows all of the letters of the alphabet (although she still has trouble saying V and W), basic colors, and at times she can count up to ten. We are still working on her counting and identifying what each number looks like. Sometimes she gets the numbers right and sometimes she doesn't. But she seems to have mastered 1, 2, and 3.

Some other activities that Taelyn loves are coloring, painting, playing with play dough, making a "tent" to crawl in to, reading books, playing with stickers, dressing up as Abby, going for walks, playing at the playground, swimming, and smelling flowers. Whenever we go for walks, she stops at every flower to smell it. And she always says, "No pick flowers. Hmmm [as she smells them], smell nice." She likes to give herself little reminders about what is and is not acceptable behavior, and she knows that she should not pick flowers from flower beds.

Taelyn also loves to play with her sister (and fight too). When we make a tent, she insists that Kaelia comes inside to play with her. Taelyn will also "read" books to Kaelia; this is pretty comical because the book is always facing Taelyn, and she tilts it upside down to show Kaelia what is on the page. Taelyn will also try to make Kaelia laugh by making funny faces and tickling her. While she loves her sister very much, Taelyn also likes her own space and doesn't want Kaelia to touch her or her things at times. One of Taelyn's most common phrases lately has been "No, Kae-ya" over the many things that Taelyn doesn't want Kaelia to touch. We are working on the phrase "No thank you, Kaelia" instead.

Here are some of our favorite Taelyn pictures and memories from the past year.

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Kaelia - 8 Months

This has been such a great month for Kaelia: she has learned to crawl, pull herself up to a stand, walk along furniture, crawl up one step, turn the pages in her books, and "talk" a little more! Kaelia went through the stages of mobility so fast. She attempted to crawl during the first week of the month, and was fluently crawling by the second week. During week three, she was already moving along the furniture.

Kaelia's verbal knowledge is increasing as well. She loves to hold her books by herself and turn the pages. She also started using the "b" consonant by saying "ba ba ba" over and over again. She especially likes "talking" to Taelyn; the two of them say "ba ba ba" to each other while with each syllable, their faces get closer and closer together.

At 8 months, Kaelia is now 17.7 lbs. 27.6 inches tall, and has a head circumference of 16.7 inches. Her growth was not a significant gaon from last month due to all of her sudden activity level.

Taelyn's 2nd Birthday Party

Birthday parties are not always the fun and games the people think of when it involves babies and toddlers. While Taelyn's first birthday party was a bit overwhelming for her, her second was a small improvement. Still filled with up and down moments, overall, she had a great time. Taelyn insisted on wearing her Abby costume all day (including nap time) and then to the party. She opened presents at home where she got a huge stuffed caterpillar from Kaelia and a sticker book and castle from us. Taelyn loved them all.

We then went to a local restaurant that has picnic tables set up around a large playground/kid playing area for the birthday party. There are several jungle gyms, a climbing wall, coin-operated riding machines, and a bouncy castle. 15 of Taelyn's favorite people in South Africa came to join in on the festivities.

The start of the party did not look too promising. It was raining (the only time all week) and Taelyn was incredibly cranky from waking up much earlier than usual from her nap. But as the party went on, so did the rain, and Taelyn warmed up a lot more, having a fun-filled time. She enjoyed repeat trips to the slide, and we could not pry her away from the bouncy castle.

When it was time for cake, everyone crowded around to sing Happy Birthday. Taelyn was already familiar with the song thanks to a great Elmo card from Great Aunt Andy that had been singing to her the entire week before. But because she was a bit cranky that day, she immediately clung to me at the start of the song in a bit of a panic. At the end of the song, though, Taelyn started smiling and clapping. She then proceeded to blow out the candles and had to stand on the table in order to bend over close enough. With a little help, the flames were out, and we all enjoyed eating her Winnie the Pooh cake. Taelyn really liked this part too, contrary to her first birthday.

Overall, the party was a success. Taelyn came home exhausted and happy with a full bell and fun gifts from her friends.

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Got My Nose

Justin and Kaelia had some good laughs the other day as Kaelia tried to eat his nose. She also had the hiccups which made her laughing even funnier. Here is some footage of it all.

Kaelia's Crawling!

Our little monkey has mastered crawling this week. She started off about a week ago with one to two "steps" followed by a big belly flop. Now she is slowly motoring all around the house, following us all around. To add to her mobility, she also now pulls herself up to stand constantly. She will crawl over to Taelyn's bookshelf, pull herself up, and then pull all of the books off the shelf. Actually, as I am writing this blog entry while sitting next to Kaelia on the floor, she is pulling up on my shirt and arms to stand next to me and see what I am doing. It is quite obvious that Kaelia is pretty excited about these new skills because she can now be around us all the time which is what makes her happiest.

Big Girl Bed

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day for our little big girl, because Taelyn got her first big girl bed! She has been eagerly awaiting this day for weeks now. It all started on our vacation over Christmas when we gave Taelyn choices about where she could sleep at each place we stayed. We brought our pack-n-play and we often had an extra bed in the room. So we told Taelyn she could sleep in the crib or the big girl bed and Kaelia would take whatever Taelyn didn't choose. Every time, Taelyn wanted the big girl bed. It was really cute because she didn't want to go to sleep, so she had tears in her eyes and her voice was half crying, half whining as she said "big girl bed" over and over again. Then once we got back from vacation, she didn't want to sleep in her crib at all. We finally let her sleep in our "big girl bed" for naps and put a big girl pillow in her crib for bedtime at night. But now Taelyn has her own bed, and she absolutely loves it!

After the bed arrived at our house yesterday, Taelyn and I set off to the store in search of the perfect sheets for her new big girl bed. The kids department had beds already set up with lots of toys and accessories, so Taelyn had a fun time at the store. She then picked out her own sheet set, and we went home to put it on her bed. She loves to play on her bed now as well as sleep.

Kaelia - 7 Months

Kaelia is now 7 months old and changing every day. She has continued to try new solid foods, eating some rice cereal mixed with a sweet fruit or veggie in both the morning and evening. Her favorite foods so far are butternut squash and bananas. And the food is certainly helping her grow as she is now 17.1 lbs., 26.8 inches long, and has a head circumference of 16.5 inches.

Kaelia has also been growing developmentally. She has mastered sitting up and will go from sitting to all fours. Crawling is just around the corner as she will now rock back and forth and then lunge forward and flop on her belly. And Kaelia can pull herself up to a stand now. She is so eager to get moving so she can follow her sister around. Kaelia also got her first tooth this month.

Her personality is shining more and more every day as well. She loves to be around people (especially Taelyn) and gets mad whenever we leave the room. And she gets very excited when people give her attention. Peek-a-boo is one of her favorite games; she particularly likes when we cover our faces for a long time so she can grab our hands herself. And she loves it when Justin bounces her on the bed and when I dance with her. We call her our little gorilla because she will often beat her fits on her chest and cry out when someone gets her excited. She is actually doing it right now as I write this blog! In general, though, Kaelia is very calm and easy-going.