fresh air

We met up with one of Marc's co-worker's for a little nature hike this morning.  He lives on this beautiful property about an hour from our house.  We weren't sure what our little city girl was going to think of it all, but as always, she's just full of surprises.

Throwing rocks into the water...





And then she took a little spill into the mud while looking for rocks...



"Dada, FIX!"  (And Marc wanted to know who dresses their kid in a white sweater for a hike in a creek.  You may be wondering the same thing.  In my defense, this weather has been driving me nuts and I didn't think she would even need to wear it!)



But our little trooper just dusted herself off and kept hiking!





Sweet girl.

Sorry to keep you all hanging.  We're home and everyone survived!  We actually had a great time.  After we dropped her off at my parents, where she was too busy raiding Uma's purse to even bother saying goodbye to us, we hit up our first winery by 11am.  And the wine that was consumed all day long definitely helped us to relax and enjoy our time away.  We stayed at a great b&b and managed to do some shopping in between wineries.  Of course we were both wide awake by 7am, wondering how she slept, what she was doing, etc.  After a quick phone call to check in on her, we managed to have another great day of wine tasting and shopping.

This is what little miss was up to when we went to pick her up.  Notice the band-aids on each knee due to a couple of falls earlier in the week (she barely even has a little brush burn).  Ugh, those band-aids.  All she talks about all day is her boo-boo's as she checks to make sure her band-aids are still in place.





Oh, she had to take a break for a phone call on one of her imaginary phones.



Love this girl.

(whenever she is playing in her room and it gets a little too quiet, you can guarantee that she will have every piece of clothing out of her dressers and on the floor)

So apparently, Poppy has passed off her separation anxiety onto me. Lately, I just can't stand to be away from her! I seriously think she wakes up a little cuter each day. Is that possible? Anyways, tomorrow night will be my first night away her. I know she will be absolutely fine and my parents will spoil her rotten, like they always do. But will I be ok? I am sooooo looking forward to a weekend away with my man, and the fact that we'll be going to one of my favorite spots makes it even better, but I sure am going to miss waking up to little miss sassy pants.

Mmmmm...

ice-cream!







That's my girl!

Two.

Life with little miss 2-year-old Poppy has been interesting, to say the least.  She keeps us on our toes.  First thing in the morning when I go into her room to get her, is one of my favorite parts of our day.  She is always so, so, sweet, full of smiles and hugs and kisses and books.  But from the minute you leave her room, you never know what to expect.  You have to be ready for a meltdown or a stand-off over the littlest thing.  Her newest issue is that she does not want to wear clothes.  At all.  And has come pretty close to ripping a few of her shirts to get them off.  If I let her wear a diaper and her crocs all day, she would be in heaven.

To say she's a daddy's girl, would be putting it mildly.  She is going through a major separation anxiety phase with Marc.  She wants to be carried by him all day long, and if he is out of eye-sight, she freaks out.  It was kind of cute the first couple of days, but now we're looking forward to this little phase to be over.





She's still all about Elmo.  She's really not interested in watching anything else on tv.  And she loves her Elmo books.  Last week I found a really old (copyright 1983) Sesame Street book in my library that I was going to throw out.  Instead of throwing it out, I brought him home for Poppy.  She saw Big Bird on the cover and immediately got excited.  She began flipping through the pages looking for Elmo, and saying "where's Elmo?"  and eventually she started calling out "Elllllmoooooo" (like she was calling out for a dog).  Um, yeah, Marc informed both of us that apparently Elmo wasn't in the original Sesame Street cast, and was not born in time for  this book.  At least once a day, she'll pick that book up and flip through the pages and call out for Elmo.  Poor thing.

We had a speech evaluation done on her last week and she was evaluated as being mildly to moderately behind for her age, but not behind enough to receive services.  The speech therapist said that even though we can't understand the majority of what she is saying to us, she doesn't seem to get frustrated by it, and she is "talking", so we really shouldn't be concerned.  She felt confident that Poppy would catch up within the next couple of months and gave us a few exercises we can do with her in the mean-time.  We both felt good about the evaluation and we're already noticing an improvement in just the past week alone.

Sleep.  I can't believe how drastically I've gone from dreading bedtime because of all the tantrums and crying and refusing to sleep, to now absolutely loving it.  We love reading our books and singing lullabies together in our rocking chair.  Then I scoop her up like a little baby and carry her over to bed.  Up until a few weeks ago, she would start crying at this point, but now she just gives me a little kiss, lays down and asks me to tuck her in with her blankie.  Love this girl.  And now that she is sleeping through the night, she sleeps more and more each day!  Lately we've had naps that  have been up to 4 hours long! 







Sweet, wild, loving, unpredictable.  That's our girl.  Couldn't love her more if I tried.

A little bit of celebrating...

Our week began with my birthday dinner at Shogun, our favorite Hibachi restaurant.  This was Poppy's first time and we weren't sure how she would like the food, or if she would freak out because of the flames at the table.  Luckily, she loved it and had an absolute blast.

Well, she loved almost all of it.  She didn't like wearing the wig, but she did keep it on while they sang Happy Birthday to us.  How stinkin' cute does she look?  And now the cat is out of the bag, I'm 30.  But they say 30 is the new 20, right?

Now onto Poppy's birthday festivities...

Party #1 was on Thursday, her actual birthday.  She did great at blowing out her candles and then she proceeded to pick each strawberry off the cake and take a little nibble out of each one before putting them back on the cake. 

Thursday was also our 5th wedding anniversary...

And for our anniversary, Marc planned a little wine weekend getaway at a bed and breakfast in Niagara-on-the-lake (for later in May).  My first question was, can we bring Poppy?  His answer was of course, no.  I immediately welled up with tears.  I know she'll be fine- she'll be spoiled at my parents house, but I'm not sure I am ready to be away from her!  But that's a post for another day...

............................

Saturday was Poppy's birthday party #2...

She was sooo not happy to wake up from her nap and have to get changed into her Hanbok, and then come downstairs to a house filled with people.  Luckily, after an outfit change, she warmed up and was able to enjoy her party.

This was her little cake Aunt Andrea made for her.  As soon as she blew out the candles, all of the kids started yelling, "Poppy smoosh the cake!  Eat it Poppy!  Smoosh it!!!"  And she just very carefully would take a little lick of frosting and then turn the cake plate, and take another lick of frosting.  She's such a delicate little flower.

And of course, you need ice-cream when you have birthday cake!

One of her favorite gifts - the red wagon.  Our house is now filled with new toys, new outfits, and lots of cake.  After a nice brunch with family this morning, today we are trying to get back to normal around here.  Hope everyone has a great mama's day!  Next up - Poppy's 2 year update!

too much

going on around here lately.  MIL's bday, my 30th bday, Poppy's bday, our 5th anniversary, mother's day and lots of parties.  All within 7 days.  I'm pooped and we're only half-way through the festivities.  LOTS of pics and updates to come, too tired to upload now.  Hopefully I'll have time on Sunday.  Zzzzzzzzzz.