The Grays

It was wonderful to have my mom here for a week long visit. The girls had fun being spoiled with shopping trips and getaways to the Children’s Museum and the Aquarium. I enjoyed spending time alone with her when the girls were sleeping and as always she was so much help around the house and Bill and I got away for a special date night and a long run. Can’t wait to see her again in April! xo

Robin at 22 Months

What to say about Robin at 22 months?

I’ll just make a list 🙂

She’s terrified of vacuum cleaners and toys or puzzles that make animal noises. Terrified.

Not only is it difficult to get her IN her car seat, but now she also doesn’t want to get OUT.

She will not side down when she eats a meal or a snack. Robin is definitely going to be one of those kids who has a standing desk or sits on an exercise ball at school (and of course BVSD offers those).

At naptime and bedtime she wants to be put in her crib with her milk bottle, only to call me in as soon I close the door by saying, “All done milk!”

At naptime and bedtime she also likes to play a game where she hides her paci in her sleepsack and I have to find it.

She calls her paci, ‘Cat Lilly’. We don’t know exactly why, it used to be ‘Cat Paci’ (the string is decorated with cats). She doesn’t use it as much during the day as she used to, thankfully, but she still likes to know where it is at all times and treats it like a lovey.

Robin can hum ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ in perfect harmony and she often sings it in Spanish (usually ‘brilla brilla estrellita, la la la la la lolita’ lol). She also knows the words to Mommy’s version of ‘You are my Sunshine’ and she puts herself to sleep and wakes up in the morning by singing songs.

She likes for Bill or myself to pick her up while she instructs us exactly where she wants us to take her (“THIS WAY, THIS WAY!”).

She’s a perfect angel when Bill puts her to sleep but she throws an absolute FIT if he puts her to sleep when I’m in the house, so he usually only puts her to sleep on Wednesday nights while I’m at yoga.

Every Tuesday I take her with me to watch Lilly at gymnastics and this week THREE SEPARATE PEOPLE pulled me aside to tell me how cute and funny Robin is. Two people used the words, “I just cannot get over her” (no joke) and one said she’s so cute she just couldn’t stand it. It’s pretty much the Robin Show whenever we go out. 🙂

This Winter has been unusually warm in Boulder but this past week we finally got the snow we have been waiting for, with a blizzard on Sunday that brought 10-12″. We had fun taking the girls outside for a walk in the snow and catching up with our neighbors who were all outside enjoying the snow as well. Living across from the park we were amazed by the number of people outside – all day long we saw people cross country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, and walking around in the snow. The next day was a true ‘bluebird’ day in Boulder and the girls had fun sledding with the neighborhood kids. I never really enjoyed the snow like I do here, there’s just so much to do!

At 21 months Robin is talking more each day. She repeats much of what I say and pays close attention to Lilly, most often repeating what Lilly says as well. If there’s an item she doesn’t know the word for she points to it and says ‘Mommy, a-dat’ (what’s that?). Then she looks me in the eye and says, ‘Mommy, ___’ over and over again, practicing the pronunciation. She loves playing games around the house with Lilly and dancing. It takes skilled hands to put Robin down for a nap or to sleep at bedtime, she really fights it but falls asleep almost immediately once she is in her crib. Robin continues to eat lots of different foods but we need to work on her table manners because it is difficult to get her to sit down! Suddenly she’s starting to look so much older, her hair is longer and she seems so tall now. Such a sweetie.

Lilly at 3.5

At 3.5 Lilly continues to amaze us with her kindness, knowledge, and beauty inside and out. She is capable of doing activities and joining in conversations with much older children and seems to really enjoy preschool and learning. Lately we’ve noticed that she’s working to develop her explanations. For example, the other day Bill took her to a friend’s house to fix his door and when L came home she really worked to explain the entire process and what they did step-by-step to fix the door. She is involved in gymnastics and swimming now and very much looks forward to each of those classes. Whenever we ask her what she wants to do she says, “go swimming” :).

The past few weeks L has been more interested in sports and running (partially due to her new running shoes). We used to think of her as slightly ‘less coordinated’ (like myself) but actually she’s impressed us lately with suggesting races around the park and has been doing a great job on her Strider balance bike.

Lilly is very aware of feelings and has a strong emotional intelligence. She plays somewhat independently but more often relies on Bill and myself for instructed play. She loves helping to prepare food in the kitchen and her favorite game is playing hide and seek with Robin. Currently she’s interested in the planets and rocketships and she enjoys our afternoons learning new Spanish songs. We love her to the moon (and back)!

For the first time ever we took the girls on a real road trip! We left at 4:30 in the morning on Saturday to head to Arizona for the week. Bill and I were bit nervous about how the girls would do on the road but I’m happy to say they did far better than we had imagined. And, in retrospect, it was less stressful and more fun than flying. Robin got pretty upset just before lunch but other than that they were happy (Lilly was especially happy since we bought her a DVD player). The girls had their first visit to McDonald’s, where they both ate pb&j that I made them, lol. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel and arrived at 8:30pm.

The girls had so much fun playing with Leela and Tevin this year. Leela and Lilly played hide and seek, played in their tent, made art projects together, etc, and Robin followed them around much of the time. It was wonderful to see them all together. Highlights of the trip include our annual trip to the ‘club’ for dinner, siblings night out, meeting up with Scott, Baree, and Mira in Phoenix, and visiting the Wild Animal Park with Mark, Tevin, and Grandma. It’s amazing to see my niece and nephew change and grow. Leela is all grown up and learning to read, and Tevin is sweet as can be and entirely obsessed with animals (future world class veterinarian or marine biologist).

We headed for home early Monday morning and the trip home was just about as uneventful as our trip out there. We had planned to leave at 4:30 but were slightly delayed after Lilly spiked a 102 fever Sunday evening. We watched her closely and she woke up after her fever broke early in the morning and seemed to be in good enough shape to return home, which she was. We made it home by 9:15 but the whole house was asleep before the ball dropped at midnight. Long day!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

For the complete set of photos, click here.

20 months deserves 2 photos in my book! Robin is learning new words every day now. She is inquisitive and insistent when it comes to learning – if she doesn’t know the word for an object she will point to it and look at you fixedly in the eye (it’s almost scary how good her eye contact is) until you say what it is and she repeats it. Sometimes I don’t know where she comes from, lol. Robin continues to love her baby doll and is constantly following her sister around (and vice versa). Several times a day she asks where Daddy is (ah-Dada?) and I always have to give her a very specific answer or else she isn’t satisfied. She does the same for Nana, Boppa, Gamma, Gampa, and sometimes Leela and Tevin. It happens so often that Lilly has started answering for me: “Daddy is at work, he will be home for dinner; Grandpa is at his house in Arizona, we’ll see him soon”. She is just so darned cute!

Siblings Night Out is always one of my favorite nights of the year! This year Todd arranged for us to have an hour of ‘jump time’ at Sky Zone in Phoenix. SO MUCH FUN! Afterwards we went out for dinner (and plenty of drinks) at the Yard House, followed by an evening out bowling. What will next year have in store?

This year we had a very Merry Christmas indeed! We celebrated with Grandma, Grandpa, Mark, Pinata, Leela, Tevin, Aunt Terry, Gary, Jason, and Billy in Arizona. Todd was missed (travelling from Shanghai with Jessica) but we’re hoping he and Jessica will join us next year.

We had Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma and Grandpa’s after listening to the neighborhood carolers and Aunt Terry read Christmas stories to the kids before bedtime. Lilly and Leela each picked one gift to open on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning Lilly was up bright and early at 6:30. We tried to keep her in our room for a bit (in hopes of keeping things quiet so she wouldn’t wake up the rest of the house) but she was so excited that there was no stopping her. There is no doubt that Lilly was a very good girl this year and Santa spoiled her with lots of presents! The kids had fun showing everyone their new toys and playing together. We all joined together around 10 to open the family gifts. At that point it was pretty apparent that Robin was not feeling well (low-grade fever, cough, runny nose) and she needed some extra attention so we didn’t open her gifts until later.

After the kids were asleep we sat outside by the fire with drinks in hand catching up with one another. It’s sad to be living so far away from my parents and siblings but always such a special time when we get together. Merry Christmas!

For the complete set of photos (of which there are many), click here.

Tonight Lilly decided not to sleep with her beloved Froggy, that she has slept with every night since she was 3 months old and carried around with her most of the time between 14 months and 2.5 years. She told Bill: “Daddy, I do not need these snuggly things in here any more”. Not to worry Froggy, I will keep you safe until you sneak in with Lilly’s most prized belongings for college.