Babies, Birthdays, and Easter! Oh My!

Slacker. That's what I am. See how it's been three months since my last post? Yeah. Mostly that's because January and February just sucked. Nothing horrible or terrible... just the pollution, weather, and stress of life seemed to suck the life out of us.

Of course, one of the bitter-sweet parts of February was the passing of my Grandma McLelland. Such an amazing lady. Sad that her health and life were quickly taken away after a "routine" colonoscopy (don't even get me stared...) But so so happy that she's back with Grandpa and Uncle Mike. We'll miss her dearly, but I know she's in a much better place. I will forever be grateful for the example she was. The love she shared. And for being one of those people who make you feel like you're always doing something good. Lover her dearly.

In much happier news... March has been a huge shift in goodness and happiness. Especially the last couple of weeks.

ABC

Just wanted to write this down for my own memory: Several weeks ago, while C was taking a bath she kept making an "O" sound while holding her little letter O. (She has some foam letters in the bathtub.) I didn't think much of it because she likes to make an "O" sound a lot. So I simply said, "Yes, that's an O" and went on my way.

Well, a week or two later, I noticed that she kept making this pirate "aarrrgh" sound... and I also noticed that this time she was holding the letter "R." So I began to wonder what this girl knew.

Keep in mind, C is not much a talker. We know she understands A LOT and is really smart... she just much rather be moving than talking.

Well that night as Tom and I were reading to her I wanted to perform a little experiment. I went and grabbed 12 random letters and then put them on my lap. I asked C, "Where's the letter G" and one by one she very quickly and decidedly always found the right letter. Holy Cow!? Where did this girl learn her alphabet!?

It's really fun to see how much she knows... especially because she keeps so much of it to herself.

Other exciting things...

On March 23rd I hit the half-way mark for pregnancy #2 (that's 20 weeks, in case you were wondering.) And we were able to get a sneak peek of our little GUY who'll be here the beginning of August!

See how cute he is:

We also celebrated C's 2nd birthday that same weekend!  We took a train ride, carousel ride, and tried to make it a fun day for her.

She was super blessed with all sorts of fun presents. We are so lucky to have such amazing family both far and near. Here she is opening one of her favorite gifts from Tom's aunt and uncle (who are basically just AWESOME.)

This is here peeking around the corner as I bring in Grandma and Grandpa Konie's gift!

A new bike! Yay!

Later that night we went to Grandma and Grandpa McLelland's where she got more fun gifts (including the bubble machine that made both C and A very happy!) and she got to show off her awesome "blowing" skills at cake time.

Thank you, everyone!!!

Our main gift for her was a new big girl bed! She's been sleeping in the crib (as a toddler bed) but we'll need to transform that back to crib in the next few months. It's a good thing we got it early as she now has two beds in that room and has now decided to sleep on the floor instead. *sigh*

Easter

And here's how "on top of things" I am. I'm blogging about Easter on the actual day. Way to go me. We keep things pretty simple. We had a lovely time at Church today. Came home and did a little Easter Egg hunt. Most of C's eggs were filled with stickers... which she loved putting all over herself (and on my belly... which she points at and says "ball." Thanks, kid.). She also got a little treat of dark chocolate chips (one of her favorite special snacks).

Before church. I know I'm biased, but she's so beautiful:

And look! I did her hair (something more than throwing a bow in it). It lasted almost all of church. (I call that a win.)

mmmm.... Chocolate.

"This is mine, Dad. Lay off."

Hope you are all well!!!