Starlynn Grace

What She Says vs What She Means

2012-01-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

Starlynn has the cutest things she says and I'll tell you what they mean.

"A tree top a wind blows!" = Starlynn has always liked singing "rock a bye baby". Well, one day, daddy put her in a blanket and swung her back and forth. After that, she'd come up to you with a blanket and say, "a tree top a wind blows!!" Which means she wants you to swing her in the blanket and sing rock a bye baby. For one day and one day only she said "a tree top a wind blows hey hey!" It was so hilarious we couldn't get enough of her saying it so we didn't give into her right away.

"Arms up!" = When she says "arms up!" and starts pulling at her shirt, she is either looking at the bath tub filling with water or a really pretty dress. It means, take my clothes off so I can get in the bath/put that dress on!

"Wings are wet" = She got the sleeves on her shirt wet. She watches a lot of Tinkerbell and they can't fly with their wings wet.

"A pock-a-rosies!!!!!" = said while she holds her hands out for you to take. She wants to play "Ring-A-Round the Rosie" (pocket full of posies)

Awisious! = Delicious

"Night Dreams" = "Good Night, Sweet Dreams" is what we always say to her and she answers back "Night Dreams!"

Starlynn and Her Savior

2011-11-13T21:11:00.000-08:00

Starlynn has recognized pictures of Jesus' face for a while now and a couple of weeks ago in church, she sat with my mom who was sitting next to one of her friends. That friend pulled out some pictures of Jesus and showed Starlynn the wounds on his hands. Starlynn said "Jesus owies".

Tonight I was reading Starlynn some Book of Mormon stories from these great older kids story/picture books and I opened to a picture of Jesus's hands with just the wound on it and she said "Jesus" without any prompting or without seeing his face. It was very sweet.

I paraphrased by the pictures the story of him showing himself to the Lamanites in the Americas and blessing the children and she was trying to repeat everything I said. I closed the book and she said "more Jesus?" So I opened it back up and we read some more.

For a long time I felt as if I wasn't doing a good job helping my kids remember where they came from or even why they are here, but I feel better when tender moments like that happen. I know she doesn't understand yet but I bore my testimony to her tonight that Jesus got those wounds for her so that she could be happy and that He loves her very much.

The Puyallup Fair 2011

2011-09-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

The Puyallup Fair was a little more fun this year because you could go on more rides, and next year, I think will be able to go on all the kiddy rides.

First stop was the Giant Slide:

Your reaction?? I did it! With a big jump up in the air:

Next stop, Merry-Go-Round! Look how relaxed and poised you are up there! From riding real horses :)

Then, it was hot air balloons. You really wanted to ride them and knew exactly what they were, again from your Barbie and the Three Muskateers movie. And mommy is weak-sauce. Even that amount of going around and around in a circle was too much for me! I felt sick. But you were "whoo hoo-ing" the whole time.

In a little space ship thing. You actually did pull down that handle a couple times so it would go up.

And the boats again, remember those pics from last year. Look how big you are now!

This is you pointing and signing "more" to the planes that you didn't get to ride because you were too short. Next year baby!

No, you cannot get a motorcycle when you are older.

Kept your eyes on daddy most of the ride. And here you are waving at him:

Driving a car!!

I love how you are wearing daddy's hat and we can barely see your face; It was hot and sunny that day!

The choo choo ride of course was a must!!! I took a pictures of the wheel of course because it had a star on it!

And then we went around and looked at animals and walked through exhibits and ate. All the while you didn't throw one tantrum!

Once we (or I should say DADDY) convinced you to try a piece of cotton candy, you liked it, so we gave you a bigger piece, looked away for a few seconds, looked back and it was GONE!!! Crazy girl!

And then after eating lunch, daddy and Brad going on a couple rides and all that, we went BACK to the kiddy rides, because daddy bought way more tickets than he should have. SO, Giant Slide again! Once with mommy:

And then back again with Uncle Bradley! Up those 100 something stairs, and...

down! Despite the look of terror on your face, you would do this slide all day!

Firetruck ride:

Spinny ride with daddy!!! You smiled the whole time because of your deep love of spinning!

Hot air balloons again, this time with daddy:

And we let you get one souvenir. Which was a mistake sorry to say little girl. You didn't even look at this thing once we bought it for you. Argh! Won't be doing that again!

And of course the best part... a big long nap all the way home and then you slept for another hour or more on the couch. Good times had by all!

So Much

2011-09-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

"So Much"
My heart just melts, melts, melts when she does this! You say, "I love you Starlynn", and she answers "so much!" And that is her way of saying "I love you too." Sometimes, when she gives me a big hug she'll just say "so much!" and I know she means "I love you."

Leadline

2011-08-27T16:33:00.001-07:00

Back on July 30th, you had your first Leadline Class at a schooling show at Reber Ranch! You liked waving to the crowd and getting your blue ribbon! You wanted to get off half-way through but I managed to keep you up there. It had been a long day and you were a trooper!

I couldn't get you to put your feet back in the stirrups however! Show off ;)

Good boy Sammy! You got the "prettiest boots" award.

At the Barn Again

2011-08-27T15:14:00.000-07:00

"A Reins" you tell me and show me the reins

You with Grandma Laura riding Chip

Barbie and the 3 Muskateers

2011-08-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

I can't describe Starlynn any better than this right now. Someone gave us a "Barbie and the Three Muskateers" DVD. Needless to say, Starlynn LOVES it and it describes her to a T. She is a princess who is not afraid to get dirt under her fingernails. Things she does from the movie:

Bows at people and says "Highness"
Scrubs a floor with a toothbrush (not my favorite thing)
Points her finger at you and says "one week!"
and recently, anything that was long like a sword, or with my lip gloss she'd pull it out and say "on guard!"

Yesterday, she got a sword at the zoo (wouldn't put it down and was "on-guard-ing" us a lot). This morning when she got dressed for church and then picked up her sword, saying "princess", I knew she just couldn't be a happier little girl. Well, actually, probably she could be a little happier if she was sitting on a horse!

She even takes a wide stance and puts her arm behind her back. This is all from the movie :)

Here is a little trailer of the movie:

3 Favorite Photos

2011-08-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

If I were to choose a few photos to put in a contest, these are a few of the interesting/funny ones my photography teachers would have wanted me to submit... I know they aren't perfect technical-wise, but they are just a few of my favorites :)

This is What Happens in a Year and Two Months

2011-08-15T07:32:00.001-07:00

Your little baby.....

transforms into a little girl.
Still every bit the animal lover though!

Grandma Sue and Papa

2011-07-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

This picture personifies how much you love your Great-Grandpa Charlie and your Great-Grandma Sue, and also, how much they love you!

Ice Cream Performer

2011-07-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks to ice cream we finally got her to say "are you kidding me" on video.

Because I Know She Knows

2011-07-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

Starlynn is intelligent. Check that... KIDS are intelligent. I know this because of all the many things she picks up on and how she can use her new found wisdom in correct context.

SO, I think that often, I don't treat Starlynn is as capable as I know she is. BUT, we were at the barn (an area I like to be thorough) and Starlynn wanted to ride, but didn't want to brush her horse first (be quiet Rachel). I kept telling her that if she didn't want to brush her horse, she couldn't ride her horse. Even with me "forcing her hand" (holding the brush in her hand and trying to make her brush the horse), she flat-out refused. So, sticking to my guns, we left the barn without her getting to ride. Yes, much protesting, but I just kept explaining her her why she didn't get to ride.

So, the next day on the way to the barn, I talked her her practically the entire way there about "Brush FIRST, THEN ride."

To my immense relief, she picked up a brush and got the shavings off Mynkie and then we proceeded to have a wonderful ride and she has been brushing her horsies ever since, and sweeping the barn and raking the isle (baby-style).

She's a clever little thing and I know if I give her reasonable expectations and stick to my guns, she'll learn some pretty good manners.

The Things She Says

2011-07-17T21:00:00.001-07:00

So, I know pretty soon, I won't be able to write blogs like this
because she'll be saying EVERYTHING. She can already almost repeat
everything we say. But, there are still some things that are so cute
how she says them in baby-language.

It's crazy how adult-like they try and sound.

Tonight was so hilarious I'm forgetting other things she says. Ok...
So, she grabs a toy and tries to get it to work but the batteries are
out. She keeps trying then after a minute she goes "you kidding me?"
in the same tone her daddy says "are you kidding me?" during a video
game.

I am guilty of one as well. Sometimes when both of the kid are crying
and I'm having a rough day, I'll just say "why me?" Well, you guessed
it. One day nearing nap time Starlynn was fussing and she flops down
and goes "why me?!" Soooo funny.

Ok, trying to think of a few and how to spell it:

"Eatabow" (tinkerbelle)
"youme" (excuse me)
No taint tyou (no thank you)

Ok, my phone (that I'm typing on) is gonna die soon. I'll type more
later cuz I'm drawing blanks right now too.

"why me?!?!"

Ewwww Bugs

2011-07-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was making black-eyed peas to put in our dinner the other night, and I picked Starlynn up. She looked inside the pot and said, "Ew, bugs." I looked inside the pot and thought, yep, those look like bugs!
It didn't stop her from wanting to help me cook them though, the whole time saying, "Ew, bugs."

When they were done, she thought about eating them, but spit it out promptly. Then she fed it to Ellie Mae and then kept feeding Ellie Mae the "bugs" and laughing hysterically.

Barn Girl

2011-07-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

I just don't know about this little girl! She reminds me so much of me at the barn it's kind of a scary thing. She is a good girl though! Yes, she gets to ride horses and pet kitties and baby bunnies, but she also helps brush the horses and clean the barn.

The funniest and most memorable thing of the morning was when she was on Lilly (the horse), I was going to let Lilly graze and when Lilly went to put her head down, Starlynn pulls up on the reins, says "ah ah" (like a no no type ah ah) and clucks at her. Seriously???? Where does she get this? It's just in her blood I guess and she observes way more than I give her credit for apparently. I was laughing.

Then the poor kitty. She knows his name and runs around the barn calling "Spice!!!" He's a goooood cat.

Kissed to Sleep

2011-07-07T23:00:00.000-07:00

I was having an emotionally rough night and was having a hard time
controlling my temper with two crying kids at bed time.

I knew I needed to outpour the love to reverse my anger. So I handed
Launa over to daddy to get to sleep (which he did), then I went into
Starlynn's room to calm her hysterics. She said "hugs" and I held her
and laid down next to her.

For showing love Starlynn rewarded me by kissing me all over my face
(in the pitch dark)... on my cheeks, nose, forehead, chin. Because
that's what I do to her at bedtime. It was tickleish though! I was
trying to pretend I was asleep and she was giving me chills and I was
trying really hard not to laugh. It was sweet. Then we layed forehead
to forehead and dozed off.

It was heaven. And I am so grateful for my children who are truly here
to teach me and love me so we can all get through this life together.

4th of July

2011-07-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

You very much enjoyed "works, pretties". (Fireworks, pretties) At least after a while.

We started off throwing snap its for a few days and doing smoke bombs during the day. Then daddy got out the loud stuff and you clung to Uncle Ben or whoever was closest and stuck your bottom lip out, not sure if you wanted to cry or not.

Then, unfortunately you got burned by a sparkler spark. It was the 4th or 5th sparkler we played with and you were liking it. Darn sparkler. A spark went under your shirt on your neck and burned you a little. But, like a tough girl, you only cried for about 10 minutes while we cleaned you up and got you ice. Mommy and Daddy feel really bad and won't be giving you any sparklers any time soon.

I thought it would traumatize you, but you wanted to go back out and watch. So I wrapped you up in a big blanket and held you on my lap on the porch. I had to cover your ears for the loudest ones, but you'd say "yay, pretties" after about each one. :)

Around 10:30 or so, you started falling asleep out there in my arms, but would wake up when a loud one went off or when someone would yell. So, at 10:45, I took you inside and you fell asleep in my arms when I was walking you downstairs to go to bed. So I just layed you in your bed wrapped in the big blanket and you slept until 8am the next morning.

What was the very first thing you did when you woke up? "Works! Pretties!" And you kept repeating like you were missing out on the show, so I had to open the front door and show you it was daylight and that the fireworks were all done. lol. So cute!

Working with Daddy

2011-07-07T10:37:00.001-07:00

We had to go out to daddy's work and I let you get out of the car and
you got to drive the lawn mower back in from the back acres. You
weren't too sure about it until we had to leave and then you had many
moments of whining "daddy...dive (drive)", and were pretty concerned
that we left daddy behind at work.

You are a daddy's girl! Always asking "dad go?" I answer "daddy's at
work" and around 3 or 4 in tge afternoon you'll start saying "daddy
home". :)

Cupboards and Baby Dolls

2011-07-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

A few videos of what you're up to!

Your imagination is wonderful!!! I love to watch you play and invent fun games :)

Combination

2011-07-04T09:33:00.001-07:00

I really love the combination of doing Your Baby Can Read and Baby
Signing Time together. Mostly, because Starlynn can communicate more
words that she can read by signing them even if she can't say them
that well yet. And she's learning more words and meanings watching
both of them.

Northwest Kid Extraordinaire

2011-06-18T10:42:00.001-07:00

I guess I shouldn't be mad that it is raining when Starlynn is not. She just put on her boots and ran right out there shouting "raining!!!" and giggling. I did put a coat on her, but I had to get these pictures first.

June 14th

2011-06-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

I think it's crazy that you are now 2 years and 1 month old. We've stopped counting months but I just know before we know it, you'll be 2 1/2. Then you'll be 3. And you are getting so tall and your hair is getting so long. Sigh. Such a big girl :)

First Fall and First Canter

2011-06-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

Starlynn-

I took you horseback riding today :) Just me and you. When we were bringing Mynkie in from the pasture, I was silly and let go of you to get the gate open and when Mynkie backed up, you weren't expecting that so you had your first fall off today. I think it scared you a little, but it was in really slow motion and you landed on your feet then crumpled, so you didn't get hurt. You did cry, but I think it was mostly over not being on the horse anymore.

I didn't feed any energy into it, just picked you up as if nothing had happened. Then we took Mynk in, and you were done crying and excited to lead her.

I can say "go get a brush", and you'll move your little legs into the tack room and grab a brush (the hot pink one every time) and I grabbed a brush and we brushed Mynk. Then you were patient as I tacked her up and then we went riding!

You started out in the buddy saddle behind my saddle, but it just freaks me out to much not being able to see you. So I moved you to the front of me and we ride for about a half hour like that. We went to the outdoor arena and made about 20 laps.

So, you had your first fall off AND your first canter today. I was laughing so hard because your head was bobbling around and your helmet was smacking my chest. So we stopped. Your eyes were huge but you weren't crying--but you weren't laughing either!

It was a really fun day. You helped me put Mynk away... bringing me the brush I had used before and said "here go" which I thought was the cutest thing of the day. Then you played in the dirt with one of my clients while I brought the rest of the horses in.

It was a good day. I'm sorry you fell off! I realize all the things that could have gone wrong and I promise to be more careful! But I'm glad you weren't traumatized and don't seem to hold onto any grudge or memory of it. I love you! It's fun having you at the barn with me!

Love,
Mommy

"Me"

2011-06-08T14:09:00.001-07:00

I find it quite impressive that you use the pro-noun "me" so well.

You have said:

"Please help me." Usually it's just "Help please", but of your own accord, just by listening to adults' language patterns I think, you have said a few times, "Please help me".

Also, a lot of kids say "hold you" when they want to be held, (because we say, 'do you want me to hold you?') But once, you walked up to me and said, "Hold me mommy." It was almost cuter than you saying "hold you", but really sad all at the same time because you are growing up too fast. Literally.

Birthday Videos

2011-06-06T08:57:00.001-07:00

These videos are almost a month late, but they deserve to be posted :)

Singing Happy Birthday to Starlynn:

Starlynn saying "ice cream"

"Sentances"

2011-06-04T13:13:00.001-07:00

You just said:

"ho hey nauna, I uhming."

(it's ok Launa, I'm coming.)

Hanks

2011-05-26T22:12:00.001-07:00

My favorite thing about Starlynn today:
Every time I got her something or gave her something she said "Hanks." And one time, "Hanks, mom."

At least she's a grateful girl. :)

More Burt Day

2011-05-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

I guess Starlynn really liked her cake too. Everytime I pull out a baking dish she says Burt Day, and today, when I made brownies... "ice eeem" (ice cream). She's a monster :)

"Burt-Day"

2011-05-22T11:43:00.001-07:00

Whenever we have done something fun this week, or whenever people have
come over this week, Starlynn says "burt day", (birthday!). And she's
getting good at holding 2 fingers up (all the time). Apparently she
loved her birthday parties and we're still celebrating a week later!
This morning she was playing in her room with daddy and the big
birthday balloon is in there. "appy" she says (happy) and then a few
seconds later "burt day".

Miss Bossy Pants Part 1

2011-05-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

My job will now be getting "Miss Bossy Pants Part 2" of when Starlynn makes Ellie lay on her dog bed and tells her to stay. And "Part 3" would be Starlynn telling Ellie Mae to get out of the kitchen.

Here is Starlynn dragging Ellie around the yard. And at the end you'll see her try to put Ellie through the gate that is "her" area.

And this is Ellie wising up and not letting Starlynn get a hold of her collar! (Forgive the yard, it's a work in progress! Should be gorgeous soon!)

Long Nap

2011-05-17T15:17:00.001-07:00

Going on 3 1/2 hours now! On the couch!

Just a Cute Pic

2011-05-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

Outside, outside!! You always want to go outside! Even if you aren't dressed for the day yet :)

Two Years Old!

2011-05-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

Starlynn-

You turned two! We had a big day planned for you and you were blessed with sunshine for you and all your friends. We went to a park in Port Orchard with some friends (LOTS of friends: Aeris, Gavin, Corbin, Landon, Andrew, Emma, Bailee, Naomi, Noelle, Gracie, Jaxon and Jillian and all their parents). And we played at the park and rode the miniature trains, then went on a ferry ride, THEN went to ride horses!! Needless to say, this morning you are so worn out, you fell asleep in your bath towel sitting on the couch.

Pictures of your Day:

How old are you Starlynn? This is how you try to hold up two fingers. The index and ring finger are stretching though. You're really trying!
Playing in the Park:

Riding the Miniature Trains:

Birthday canopy with a princess balloon that sang to you (compliments of Grandpa Bob). We had lunch then cake and presents here:

Then, we went on a ferry ride to get home! Here you are with Papa:
Playing Ring around the Rosie with Jaxon, Jillian and Gracie:
And here you are with your family:
I think you really understood what the day was about toward the end. Without any prompting you kept holding up your "two" fingers:

It was a day we will always remember with you! You are a little angel and so enthusiastic about everything in life. You make everyone feel good around you. We have loved every moment with you so far and feel blessed to be able to watch you grow.

(All of these pictures compliments of your Grandma Ni!)

Excuse Me

2011-05-12T13:14:00.000-07:00

Starlynn just burped and said something, and then after a second I realized she said "excuse me". lol. Because that's what we always tell her to say.

Write like Mama

2011-05-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

Starlynn loves pens. And she likes to be like me. So when she gets pens she is very precise and succinct. This isn't the best example, but you get the idea. She tries to write on the lines and she writes small.

Mommy writes in the squares of calendar's and doesn't write over lines... and so does Starlynn.
Now this one is very recent and I am VERY impressed. I know it was on purpose. I just looked at my to do list for today. I had done and checked off number one and three. I hadn't done number two yet. But Starlynn checked it off anyway. Isn't that amazing???? She is such a little stinker.

Big Sister

2011-05-02T08:26:00.000-07:00

Starlynn-

You are such a wonderful big sister. Yes, your attempts at helping can be a little rough, as you are just about to turn 2, but all in all, you are just so loving.

Yesterday, your grandma and I got to watch you and help you because Launa was fussing and you wanted to hold her on the bed. You started bouncing up and down a little and saying "shhh, shhh, shhhh" like a mommy. It was so cute.

Then you both laid back on the pillow and you kept hugging her and giving her long kisses on her cheeks. What was so sweet about this was that Launa did indeed stop fussing and even gave you a couple little smiles. It melted mommy's heart to see the sisterly bond between you two already.

While lying down, you tried to put the binky in her mouth and she kept spitting it out and you'd say "opp it" (stop it) and put it back on her mouth. :D So funny. You are a bossy little thing.

While her little fists are moving around and touching your face, you'll just close your eyes or hold very still and then smile or laugh from it.

I am so proud of you.

Everyone thinks you are older than you are. They all guess 2 1/2, closer to 3 and you aren't quite 2 yet. It's because you act pretty mature most of the time. And people think you are pretty tall, but really you aren't taller than any kids your age or even a little older than you.

Last night, we had some people over you'd never met, and you hugged every single one of them like they were your best friends. You have quite the way with people. Please always use that for good purposes and you can affect the lives of many with your loving spirit.

I love you!

-Mommy

Butt Hurt

2011-04-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Rude title, right?

Well, there are some words you directly teach your kids and some you inadvertenly teach them. Like when daddy says, "I'm gonna swat your butt", and grandma says, "you have such a cute little butt-butt", your child learns the word "butt".

Today Starlynn had a little bit of tummy problems and got a pretty bad diaper rash. She grabs her bum and says, "mommy, butt". I said, "What's wrong? Does it hurt?"

"Hurt. Butt."

"Ok Star, come here and mommy will help."

It's sad but funny too because she says that word so cutely.

Now this is very personal but my husband and mom cracked up, so I'll tell it here just for the laugh and memories.

The first time I knew Starlynn knew the word butt was when I was changing clothes and she walked up to be and put her hand on my bum and said, "Hi butt."

lol... Kids!

Observatory

2011-04-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

Starlynn has an observatory . . . it's the world.

It is pretty scary to me, actually, how much she learns just by watching. When I am doing any task and she's watching me, I am thinking in my head, "stop it! stop learning!" lol

Examples:

I've never taught her how to get off a horse correctly, I just usually pull her off. Well yesterday, when we got the horse back in the barn (she's still up there) and stopped, she swings her leg behind her, lays her belly on the saddle then starts to slide down. Sigh.

We have a little egg-cooker frying pan... just a tiny little thing. Starlynn grabs it today and then comes and bumps it against my leg several times. This, in case you don't know, is from Tangled. I think maybe the only negative outcome of that movie now is that my daughter likes to hit things with a frying pan LOL.

Yoga Poses... its really funny to watch her practice yoga with me. She's really good of course, and more flexible than me.

Writing: Starlynn no longer colors all over a page. Because she watches me writing a lot, she makes small little zig zag lines in rows on a piece of paper. Wow.

She not only watches big actions, but DETAILS. Like, if I hold my fingers a certain way on Launa's binkie, she tries to do it the EXACT same way.

That's my Starlynn!!

This is a good thing, because she'll be able to do so much, but also a bad thing. Like when we're at the park and kids are leaping off of high places, I get scared she might try to as well. But, I think she does know her limits. I let her explore her limits herself (letting her fall off of things she shouldn't be on, etc) and so she is pretty wise. But still... I get a little nervous when I see her "studying" somebody. I am just going to teach her to be a leader and not a follower.

Horseback Riding!

2011-04-16T22:42:00.001-07:00

Toddler

2011-04-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

Hi Starlynn-

You are SUCH a TODDLER right now. Completely fun, funny, cute and crazy... saying new words every day and doing new things every day, and also completely frustrating and challenging for mommy and daddy :) Being a girl, you're a bit on the whiny side which grates on our ear drums sometimes, but then you'll do something, say something, or give us a hug and a kiss and all is forgotten.

You're a great big sister and always make sure we're taking care of Launa well.

You say your whole alphabet now (except for "c" and "w" you won't even attempt yet), and you like to try and count your fingers. You read several words and like us writing out your letters, and you can say "circle" "square" and "star" (they sound like "urtle" "ware" and "tar".)

You climb, climb, climb. There is pretty much no where that you think is off limits to you. For instance, you can climb into the baby excersaucer all on your own. You get your legs down in there and everything. But, I have to come get you out :)

You remain an animal lover and also still LOVE being outside. I take you to the barn with me in the mornings to feed the horses and you have such a great time and I LOVE having you with me. You're a great little barn buddy!

Yesterday, you helped daddy wash the car and didn't care that you were drenched in medium-weather. All that mattered to you was that you were outside with your daddy!
Right now, you're challenging mommy to figure out how to get you not to yell "no", and "stop it" and "don't" all the time, but we'll figure it out. You still dole out enough hugs and kisses and laughs that I'm never very upset for long (and neither are you).

Daddy and I love you so much! And so does your little sister. She has gotten old enough to be able to start watching you, and she likes to look at your face :)

Now we are off to ride the miniature trains with daddy.

Being Clever Isn't Always a Good Thing

2011-03-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

Starlynn can open anything. Pill bottles (bad thing), juices... anything with a twisty top. Which is pretty irritating for mommy actually. Like, when mommy is brushing little girl's hair... just brushing away, enjoying the little curls and she looks up and see her little girl with her mascara brush in her blackened mouth...

Ugh.

Starlynn thought she looked cute anyway.

Starlynn Sitting on Horses

2011-03-22T11:12:00.001-07:00

This is the not-to-shabby consequence of having a working mom: you get to sit on the horses while mom cleans their stalls :)

I know a lot of people will think I'm crazy but honestly there was no safer place for her when I had to clean stalls. My other choices were sitting in the car screaming where I couldn't see her or running around the horse's legs, which makes me more nervous than her on their backs. The horses were eating their breakfasts so stood really still and I was never more than an arm reach away. Starlynn LOVED it. Of course :) She sat really still and didn't move a muscle (until Rosco, see below)

Here she is on Gold Digger:

And now she is on Blue:

And then we did Rosco:

She started scootching her bum back and I had to stop and go over there, I thought she wanted down. But then she laid her head down on him and just stayed there. Who taught her this stuff?? She's never seen me do it even though I do it all the time :)

She sat on Brandi too, but Brandi's stall was too dark to take a pic.

We turned horses out, filled their waters and basically Starlynn had the morning of her life!

Toddler Bed

2011-03-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Starlynn-

Right now you are learning to sleep in your toddler bed. When daddy brought it home and set up up you went ballistic with excitement. But, you didn't last your first night in it. I ended up putting you back in your crib because I was too tired. But daddy moved you into your bed after you fell asleep and you slept almost the rest of the night. Except once when you heard Launa.

Then the next couple nights, mommy stayed in your room next to your bed and let you rub my arm until you fell all the way asleep. Then last night, I stayed in for a few minutes and thought you were asleep and left your room and then I heard you crying a minute later and you were trying to find the door in the darkness. I put you back in bed but you kept getting out and stood crying in the middle of your room.

Finally, I am sorry to say, I swatted your little behind and told you not to get up again and that worked.

Tonight, I didn't stay in your room, but am right outside it listening for you. You were quiet for a while and then the phone rang and I heard you call for me but I just say "lay down and go to sleep" through your door and you obeyed! You didn't get out of your bed and have been very quiet for over 5 minutes now so I think you're asleep.

Good girl!

I love you precious. You have a cute bed time routine of getting a piggy back ride from daddy down the stairs, and then we kneel down by your bed and say prayers. Then we do kisses and daddy goes upstairs while I wait for you to fall asleep.

We love you so much.

Daddy and Mommy

"Sunny Day"

2011-03-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

Something pretty cute just happened and I am constantly amazed at how clever such young toddlers are.

Volume 3 of "Baby Signing Time" is called "A New Day". The babies learn words/signs like day, sun, wind, rain, flower, tree, etc.

There is a song called Sunny Day. The lady puts sun glasses on and sings this song.

Just a few minutes ago Starlynn got a hold of my sun glasses and after playing with them for a few minutes she signs sun, which I loved in and of itself. But then she tries to sing the Sunny Day song, she signs Sunny Day and signs "un un, day".

So cute. I just never know what she has in store next!

Close, Maybe?

2011-03-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

I think potty training might be right around the corner. I could probably do it now if I wanted, but I am just not wanting to yet. But just a little bit ago, Starlynn told me "hoo hee" and then "diaper". I thought she was telling me her diaper was dirty, but in fact, she ended up going "hoo hee" a few minutes later. She was able to tell me beFORE she went potty that she needed to go.

Sigh, I just have no idea what I am doing, so I guess I better do some reading up and then potty train my little girl who is starting to not like her diapers too much.

Also, I put on facebook about Starlynn's attempted first night in her new toddler bed. She wasn't falling asleep there, but Garrett took her from her crib and put her in her bed after she fell asleep. She woke up once when Launa did at around 3:00 and cried a lot (she was TIRED), but went back to sleep until her normal time.

Last night, we decided to try it again. I laid on the floor next to her bed until she fell all the way asleep, (I didn't want to traumatize her by starting "crying it out" since I've never really done that before.)

Then I cheated, because I put a fan on low in her room for some white noise so she wouldn't hear Launa in our room a room over from hers during the night. It worked and she slept perfectly in her bed until about 7:15 this morning.

She's growing up! I actually don't like it too much sometimes, I miss my baby. But it's also fun to see her go through all her stages of life with such enthusiasm.

Parenthood..........

Starlynn's Little Sister

2011-03-04T11:56:00.001-08:00

Video of their first encounter:

Playing

2011-02-15T20:18:00.001-08:00

Am I creating a monster just like me? Or is she like that naturally?

What I mean is, I can NOT stay inside all day long, without physical exercise. Even when it is so so painful to walk because of current pregnancy and even when I am not supposed to be. I feel Starlynn is the same way. She loves to go "bye bye" everyday and I just feel guilty if she doesn't get some stimulation outside of the house and some physical exercise. It makes ME stir-crazy just to think of it.

But, you know... when you see that Vitamin D outside in Seattle, you HAVE to get outside. Starlynn and I took the car a short distance in our neighborhood to the park. Then she got to ride her bike that she needs about 1-2 more inches to push the pedals all the way around. But daddy installed a rope to it and pulled her up and down the sidewalk. And once it went off the side and she had her first bike accident. But I put her right back up on that 'horse' and she stopped crying and was just fine.

See, and I am so glad we got out in that sunshine because as usual, the next day it was pouring. Daddy had a test to do by Southcenter mall, so I took the stroller so I could lean on it and not look too ridiculous going through the mall and then she got to play in the play place. What was so wonderful about this??? Last time I took her I had to help her do everything cuz she was still just a wee bit young. This time, I got to sit the whole time and watch her climb and go down the slide all by herself 20-30 times in a row. It was marvelous... something I've been looking forward to (that is, not having to help her on the playgrounds.)

The only time I had to get up was because when another kid would come up to the slide she'd YELL, "Mine! Go!" Oh the little attitude she has. I went up to her and held her arm and talked in her ear like I was talking to an adult, "Starlynn, these are everybody's, not just yours. You say 'mine' one more time then we are done playing and we will leave."

I left her to play more, totally expecting her to do it again, but to my surprise she didn't! I think she knew what she was doing was not good and she didn't need to understand my words to catch my meaning. Thankfully. Because I didn't really want to have to follow through, but I was prepared to anyway.

I told Garrett this and he thought it was hilarious. I told him it wasn't. She is a pretty little blonde and I am not going to let her be that snotty girl that everyone hates. He said, "I want her standing up for herself with boys though. She can tell them to 'go'." I agreed.

And here is our little Valentine earlier that day. She loves tromping around in mommy's shoes and she LOOOOVES that bear. I wish I could catch on tape the way she says "bear". It's the cutest thing ever.

5 More Videos of Starlynn

2011-02-10T16:22:00.000-08:00

This is her VERY willingly "diving" off her daddy's shoulders. Isn't the best video of it, but you get the idea that she needs no coaxing from her daddy to launch herself to the ground!

This is her doing some signs with an almost near disaster:

Here she is signing "Dad", "Papa" and "Mom"

Here is 2 Different Attempts at "The Popcorn Song". The second one is a little better, but I thought I'd put both of them up since she did different motions in each. When she looks at me and says "mom" its because I am not singing! She is kinda bossy and controlling like that ;) She likes us all singing at the same time.

Starlynn This Morning

2011-02-10T09:32:00.000-08:00

Starlynn LOVES scrambled eggs. One of the dishes she eats "all gone" every single time. I just wanted to get a quick video of her eating them, and we got the special treat of catching how she likes to pray at mealtimes. :-)

Independent Dresser

2011-01-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

We're in for some fun the older Starlynn gets. I just took her to her closet and asked her what she wanted to wear. I gave her a choice of colors and she pointed at a blue shirt and said "boo". I pulled out a green shirt instead and brought it up to her and she whined and pointed at the blue shirt again and said "boo!"

So, she's wearing a blue shirt she picked out today.

Growing Up So Fast

2011-01-17T08:22:00.000-08:00

It seems like everyday we go "What did she just say??" or "Did she just say ________?" or, "Did you just hear that?"

The two most recent ones I can remember are she said "Boccdi" (Broccoli) when I put it on her tray, and she LOVES Broccoli.

And then she was having a rough day with teething and a runny nose and Garrett and I were in the Costco parking lot with her and she does "it hurts". Which I love that she can say because usually babies just cry. I attribute this to two things. If she accidently bumps me or whatever I would say "ow, that hurts mommy." Then it progressed into I would say "ow" and she would say "hurt". Then, her Baby Signing Time DVDs teach her how to sign hurt and tell us where it hurts. I love that she was able to tell us she was hurting (which we knew) and so we were sympathetic with her attitude instead of getting annoyed.

She's just getting so tall and her hair is getting so long and she's saying and doing so much. I love it!

During nursery yesterday I had to change her diaper and then when I took her back I just couldn't leave! I watched her and watched her with a big smile on my face. She has friends and she's so cute with the other kids and her teachers. When I was a nursery leader, I didn't realize the impact I was making on the kids. But, I am so grateful to her teachers because she learns so many good things. :)

Mini-Star Stories

2011-01-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

Fake Snoring
Starlynn "plays" sleep all the time with us. She'll say "nigh night" and pat a pillow, blanket or the floor and wants you to lay down, or she lays down and we do the fake snoring with our eyes closed. She has gotten really good at fake snoring.

So, we went to see Garrett's parents and family over the New Year Holiday weekend. Starlynn had a great time and was 98% of the time perfectly social and agreeable.

The last night we spent there, Garrett and I had the treat of a really memorable moment. Starlynn was sleeping in a pack n' play in our room. She slept through the night every night. It was about 6 in the morning, and still dark outside and in our room. Usually if she wakes up at this time, we bring her in bed with us and she goes back to sleep until 7/7:30. Well, the last morning we were there, Garrett and I heard her wake up and stand up, but she didn't fuss, and we didn't move a muscle. After a few seconds, she started fake snoring. We heard her lay back down, fake snore some more, and then soon, we heard the sounds of her sleep breathing.

I didn't know that Garrett had heard it, because we both just stayed quiet like we were sleeping, until he asked me later when we woke up for real if I had heard what she did that morning.

Gotta love it. She fake snored herself back to sleep.

Parrot
I am really enjoying how much Starlynn can/will say now, because she tries to say just about everything. She says most of Garrett and my siblings names. And the other day, Garrett called for me using my name and right after I hear Starlynn go "essie!"

So, the parrot syndrome is fun, but also dangerous. Example: our dogs are annoying and Garrett and I have the bad habit of saying "shut up" to them. Well, the first time Starlynn said "sshh-up"..... yeah..... we are making valiant efforts to fix the problem (mostly by not saying it ourselves).

Signing
One of Starlynn's very favorite thing is sign-language. My brother, Ben, had mentioned "Baby Signing Time" DVDs and one day I went to the library and was looking through DVDs and those popped out at me because of his mention.

She uses sign language like a game. Riding in her carseat, she'll just go through a gammut of them (saying the words along with them). "dah-dough" (cracker) "dough-dee" (cookie) "Apple" "Nana" (banana) "Boat" "ar" (car) "Dad" "papa" (she prefers those signs over mom and grandma... I ask her to do mom and grandma and she just signs dad and papa). "eeep" (sleep) "bafh" (bath) "bapes" (grapes--this is my alltime favorite.. I love the way she says "bapes") "awter" (water) "bood" (bird) "ohsie" (horsie). Man, I could go on forever. She knows a lot of them!

And the best one I think was I looked in the rear-view and she said and signed: "eat eesow" (eat cereal) I cracked up because we never even practiced "cereal".

She'll even do the signs and I'll say the word and she just goes through em. It's a fun game to her!

Papa!!!!!!!!
So, we're sitting in sunday school in the Benton City ward, and her papa and grandma were not in there. Well, papa came in to get his stuff and then went back out to leave, but unfortunately for him, Starlynn caught sight of him. She was trying to climb over the pew to get to him, and when he walked away she said "papa" and the farther he walked away the louder her "papas" got. She wouldn't stop saying papa even after he walked out of the chapel, so Garrett had to take her out. Luckily, all the people were just smiling about the episode instead of getting upset at her loudness.

She just couldn't believe her papa would walk away from her like that. :)

Secret Code Entered
On the way BACK from the tri-cities, Garrett and I like to stop and Miner's Burgers in Yakima. During this visit, Starlynn was climbing on the arcade games, her favorite one being the car races. Garrett is watching her push buttons, and all of the sudden, the game starts and words on the bottom of the screen said "secret code entered".

I told Garrett we need to attach a video camera to her to see how she does things. She is always fixing electronics for me, or programming computers to do things. We could learn a lot from her!

Teriyaki
I LOVE taking Starlynn out for teriyaki. As a mom, it is so comforting to know when your child had a good meal. She just chows down on the brown rice... surprisingly making most of it into her mouth with a fork. I told Garrett I'd take her to eat teriyaki any day, because I know she'll be full and happy for a while afterward. This last time, she liked eating the chicken and gyozas too.

Grandma Grace
We got to visit with Grandma Grace in Kennewick, and Uncle Dale and Aunt Emily too. Starlynn is amazing. She loves all of her grandma's and papas. She walked right up to Grandma Grace in her chair and held her arms out for her. Grandma picked her up and Starlynn snuggled in for several long moments. And this happened a couple times. What a sweet spirit she has. I feel blessed and humbled everyday that I have the task of being her mother.

Maple Valley Library
I like to take Starlynn to the Maple Valley Library. We go there about once a week or every 10 days or so. I decided to take her there as a good opportunity to teach her about inside, quite voices that can transfer over to church. Plus, we love books AND... this is one of Starlynn's best friends. "bear, bear, bear" she says as she climbs all over him and sits on him and get's majorly staticy hair. I am able to get a little bit of editing and writing done at this library while Starlynn plays with books, the large stuffed animals and the kids computers.

Holidays

2010-12-27T06:56:00.000-08:00

Poor little bug... The holidays wear her out too. She fell asleep watching Aladdin last night at 7 and at 7 this morning, she's still sleepin' away. She's been sleeping til 8:00 lately but usually goes to bed around 9:00. Maybe she'll sleep til 8 today too.

I'm so proud of her with how good she's been. I actually have never really spanked her that much or especially warned her I was going to give her one and then do it, but for some reason, if she's being loud or whiney and I ask her, "do you want a spankin'?" she answers, "no" and then that's the end of it. I don't know why it's working when she's never really been spanked before but it works for me!

She is saying more and more and I get so excited to see her when she wakes up every morning!

2010 Santa Picture

2010-12-22T20:55:00.001-08:00

Look how much she's changed in a year! Last year on Santa's lap (7 Months Old)

This year on Santa's lap! 19 Months Old:
She didn't smile this year, but she didn't cry either! I consider that a success. She looked at him and talked with him though.

We love our little Christmas angel!

Christmas Jammies

2010-12-22T20:17:00.000-08:00

Starlynn in her Christmas jammies :) They say "I've been good!" (and she has).

Thanks Grandma Laura!

Zoolights

2010-12-21T21:54:00.000-08:00

Auntie Carrie (or Wee Wee) as Starlynn calls her (supposed to be Rie Rie--end of CarRIE) suggested we take Starlynn to the Zoolights at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. So, we (me, Garrett, Starlynn, my mom and Carrie) packed up in the car and went! It was really fun. I was super pumped up to do camel rides, but then found out kids 2 and under couldn't do it. I still would have but the line was too long. Next year! And I am going to lie and say Starlynn is 3. (She'll be 2 1/2.) We were able to teach Starlynn what a camel says (spitting sound). It's super funny.

I took some snap shots of OTHER people riding the camels. So cool! I've never ridden a camel before and I'm looking forward to it next ye

We bought Starlynn a light stick after that, which she loved. She wouldn't hold it still for a pic, but as a result, we got this kinda cool pic:

Not many exibits were open, it being night and all, but a few were! We went into the aquarium and spent about 20-30 minutes. She loves our little aquarium so you can imagine her joy at the big aquarium!

Then we looked at some frogs and turtles

And by far, her favorite was the Meerkats. She started meowing at them. When she first walked up, one took a look at the pink thing that she is and scurried away from her. It was funny. They were super amazing and she looked at them for a long time. In the gift shop, my mom got her a meerkat book and puppet for Christmas. I am just itching to have her open it Christmas morning.

She was perfectly well behaved and entertainment galore as always. Oh, we heard the wolves howling at the full moon. That was MY favorite part of the whole thing. It was so perfect, we thought it was a played recording at first.

Here is a picture of some of the lights throughout the zoo:

And here is our little family all bundled up!

Good times!

Random Vid and Pics

2010-12-19T18:52:00.000-08:00

Mommy can't get enough of these eyes...

And SHE can't get enough of being on horses! Gold Digger tolerates her well.

And DADDY can't get enough of his girls: (sorry about the dirty dog blanket and bathroom mat in the background... they were headed to the wash). I realized AFTER Garrett took this pic, not the best thing to wear for my first 26 week maternity pic. 26 weeks was the first "belly shot" I took with Starlynn, so wanted to do the same with her baby sister, but it didn't turn out too well. Oh well! Still an okay pic.

And the chubby bunny strikes again:

Starlynn's Trip to See Papa Wade

2010-12-14T09:29:00.000-08:00

Starlynn was a very good kid to travel with. She has always loved waving to airplanes that fly over our house, so you can imagine her excitment when she learned how they looked and how big they were up close. Here is her saying "airplane" in the SeaTac airport:

Coloring at the SeaTac airport:

On the plane from Seattle to Denver: (we bought tickets late and it was cheapest to fly through Denver)Playing Peek-a-Boo with the people behind us:
She fell asleep once we were up in the air, it wasn't too comfortable for me to hold her the whole flight, but I value a sleeping baby above all else. Then, I had a fruit roll up for her to eat on the landing and we had no ear problems.

THEN, we had a 3 hour layover in Denver. I know... long, but I think a long layover with a toddler is second best to a nonstop flight. She was able to get so much stimulation and exercise that she could go to sleep quickly on the next flight. A short layover would have been bad. Not enough time to get the wiggles out!

So, the Denver airport has fun moving sidewalks all over the place, which she couldn't get enough of:Then, when mommy and Grandma got too tired, we watched airplanes for a while:
And then we played on the golf carts, which nobody seemed to mind. And I got a soft place to sit while she climbed all over and said "bye bye" to everyone:

So, the Denver to Santa Barbara flight was pretty good. There was a moment of tears when I wouldn't let her push the flight attendant call button and the plane wasn't moving yet. She was really tired, and all the cabin lights were on so I couldn't get her to sleep. But then we watched out the window while we took off and that was fun, and then she went to sleep, and this time, the flight wasn't full so my mom moved to the bench next to us and I was able to lay her down next to me with her legs over my legs. Everyone slept so it was nice and dark for her. She fussed a couple times in her sleep but I was able to get her to go back to sleep.

She woke up and was happy happy happy getting our luggage and getting into the rental car. Then she talked our ear off for about 25 minutes of our hour long drive to Lompoc then fell asleep and I was able to transfer her into her pack and play in the hotel room without waking her.

Next morning: HAPPY GIRL! This is us outside our hotel ready to go see Papa.
She was a charmer for Papa. The first day, I wore a shirt where my armpits showed, so I had to go BACK and change. Argh. Mom took Starlynn in with her. I didn't get in until about 2 hours later, because when they are doing "count", no one can move locations. So I sat and sat and sat and got pretty ticked. Anyway, I didn't get to see Starlynn's initial reacting to papa, but I heard she went right up to him and was her usual charming self.

She was great everyday. She would fall asleep when she needed to. She'd eat with us, walk with us, play with other babies and kids and loved chasing birds. Oh, the weather was so nice here. Papa loved her of course!

The first day after visiting, we took long naps in the hotel, then went shopping, then to dinner and then we took Starlynn to see Tangled. What a cute movie. Starlynn has been sitting through movies now, and so I wasn't nervous about trying to take her to a movie. She sat in my lap 80% of the time, and the other 20%, she walked to the row in front of us and got popcorn from the teenage girls who loved sharing with her, and she'd stand in the isle sometimes. We only had one moment of loudness, but then we sat in the front row and she kept watching. It was a great movie and it was fun to take Starlynn with us.

The second day, we went straight out to the beach which was about 10 miles out. She had mixed emotions about it, but all and all, had a great time there. There was also an Amtrak station there, so she got to see a choo choo, which always makes her day.

Here are some beach videos and pics:

I wanted barefoot beach baby pics, but she was having none of it:

Grandma taught her to run away from the water, and after a while she started freaking out when a wave would come in. It was super funny, but I guess we accidentally taught her to be afraid of the water.

Man, I was so tired that I was moving so slow and my back hurt really bad. Carrying TWO babies around is hard. So, mom got the bigger cardio workout and carried Starlynn back up to the car:

Washing the gritty sand off: She loves baths! Always looking for a "hat" which was the ice bucket this time:I put my little girl in her first pony tail. I told my mom, "Now I understand why you loved your little girls in pony tails so much". Oh my goodness she was cute:

The trip home was smooth as well. She slept on both flights again, and she was more easily contained on our Denver layover on the way back. It took her until 10:00pm to fall asleep on the Denver to Seattle flight though. There was no sleepy energy on the plane like there was before. Everyone stayed awake with reading lights on and I was irritated at people all around me, but I kept calm, and eventually, Starlynn finally gave up and slept until the landing, when she got pretty ticked off at her ears and not being able to get comfortable to sleep.

But then, she was okay once I got her to look outside the window again, and then she just cuddled into me walking to baggage claim and then we got to see daddy and get in our own car! She was ecstatic and got chatty again on the way home. She slept til 8 this morning and seems as healthy and happy as ever to be home with her daddy and doggies.

She missed her daddy a lot. She said "daddy", like she was calling loudly for him about 20-30 times a day.

So, that was Starlynn's adventure. She was great to travel with and papa was sure happy to see her. :-) (Oh, he got his pic taken with her... we'll have to wait for him to send it to us.)

It's good to be home.

Marymoor Dog Park

2010-12-06T21:19:00.000-08:00

Garrett and I had some errands to do in the Redmond/Bellevue area, so we decided to take Atlas along and go to Marymoor, which is a HUGE off leash dog park that is really fun.

We had a great time and Starlynn was in heaven with all the dogs there. I didn't get any pics of her with dogs because I was too busy making sure she stayed safe. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her with this beautiful cocker spaniel who came up to her tail a waggin' and let Starlynn hug and pet him for several minutes. There were about 10 other dogs around so I was keeping my eye on them and didn't get a pic.

I definitely think it was one of Starlynn's favorite places thus far. It is also one of Garrett's as we always run into Great Danes. Today we saw 5 of them.

Though we want a Dane again someday when the TIME and SPACE is right, we also know that we want to get our kids a Cocker Spaniel. Garrett and I both had one when we were little. Ours was "Ginger", and I think Garrett's was "Snuggles". There is just something about spaniels and kids that is perfect. They really are great with the little ones and they are so soft and sweet! Cocker Spaniel:

Here are some pics of Starlynn in areas where there weren't a lot of dogs:

Remember when I wrote about her using the bed rail as a train track? It has progressed to anything long and straight now. This is her sitting on the sidewalk railing. She was scootching her bum along it and going "ta ta ta ta choo choo". See Garrett! You don't need a BOY to have a kid that loves trains so much!

Starlynn Opens a Bank Account

2010-12-02T18:39:00.000-08:00

The piggy bank Garrett got for Starlynn was FULL, thanks to generous grandparents and our household's loose pocket change. So, we decided to go to Wells Fargo (because of the free stuffed horse) and open her very own savings account.

Guess what she has so far?? $125!! Only $16 of that was bills. As you might guess, we were there for a while!

It felt good to open her savings account for her, and we will enjoy watching it grow for her! (Untouchable until college probably.)

Bye, Bye Money

Her Wells Fargo horsie!

Starlynn 18 Months

2010-11-28T21:06:00.001-08:00

Well, I know this is a little behind, but I thought I'd still give an update on Starlynn, who is now 18 Months Old.

Wow... she is pretty much just constant entertainment.

Starlynn's Imagination
I love that she can imagine-play so well. Grandma Sue got her a little table and chairs, and a tea set. She'll pour you and herself some "tea" and then we'll sip it, and she'll say "mmmmm", even though we were only sipping air. :-)

Garrett and I got a new free bed and when we were putting the frame together, she straddled it and moved around the edge going "ta ta ta toochoo" (translates into chug chug chug choo choo!). I was open-mouth amazed at this. No one prompted her to do anything like it, but wow... a bed frame does indeed look like railroad tracks! I just want to squeeze her up.

Love of Music and Dancing Continues
We always get lots of comments at church about how cute and entertaining (read: distracting) Starlynn is. During the songs, she stands on the pew and waves her arms around while she is "singing". She's the conductor! She is always inventing new dance moves and is singing and dancing even when there isn't music. I honestly can't wait until she's 3 and I can put her in dance classes (ballet, whatever). I am all for supporting whatever passions my children have whole-heartedly. I have always noticed Starlynn's love of singing and dancing. Yes, her love of animals and climbing and other things are strong too. And I will support these as well.

Words and Expressions
You already saw in the video below most of her animal sounds and a couple of her signs. A few words I think I can remember that she's added is: (some of these might be repeats from the last list)

Nigh-nigh for Nigh-Night
Beh (for Ben)
She now says BAnana, instead of just nana
Bite (for whenever she wants some of your food, which is all the time)
Out
Go
"go out"
Boot (for button and book)
Baby
ahna (for Launa)
More
peeees (please)
She makes a sound that sounds like the word "keys" but I don't know how to type it
Dights (lights)
Boowd (bird)
Affe (giraffe)
Bobbow (bottle)

That's all I can remember for "new words"

She's starting to make "sentences" too. Simple ones like "nigh nigh da da". Today she said "go bye bye no no" . . . I have no idea what she was trying to get across, but it was cute nonetheless.

"Ubbadee"
So, when she's super hyper, she starts bouncing up and down and going "ubbadee ubbadee ubbadee" over, and over and over again. And it's really cute. Had NO idea where it came from, but still cute. However, yesterday I finally figured out what she was saying because she was saying it fast like that and then she slowed down and said "up and down", and then started saying it super fast again making it sound like "ubbadee".

"Nine-BOPP"
As I have mentioned before, Starlynn loves counting, but everything is "nine, nine, nine". Well, we like to count down with the microwave. She'll look at it now and go "nine-BOPP". The other day, when she wanted to go to bed, part of our routine is to get her bottle ready together. She walked into the kitchen looking tired and fussy, looked at me and said, nine-BOPP. lol. She wanted to go to bed.

"Bapf"
That means bath. And I think it's the first word we'll have to start spelling. Even if you say the word in a sentence and not directly at her, she'll go "bapf?" and start heading for the stairs and taking her clothes off. She'll get upset if you don't follow her within a few minutes to get her her bath. The other day, no one even said the word and she started pulling at her clothes and saying "bapf!". :-) At least it's always in the evenings when bath times usually occur.

Monkey Climber
Pretty much, I've given up. She climbs everything. Now, she moves a chair up to the back of the couch, climbs onto it, and then hoists herself over the back of the couch to land in it, laughing the whole time. She sits on the arms of the couch and whinnies like a horse and bounces "ubbadee". She climbs onto the bar stools, on the fence outside in the park. Pretty much anything. If she falls, oh well! She stops fussing if she sees I'm not running over to her, and then she just does it again!

Well, I think I've talked enough about her for now. Yes, she is getting a little toddler-will-of-her-own, but she is still really cuddly, kissy and sweet too. Most of the time she wants to just sit with you and do whatever YOU'RE doing (whether you'd like her to or not). :)

That's it for now!

Here is a couple recent pics of her:

"Oh no . . . daddy made me wear a tie!"

At Midcrest Farm, seeing some beautiful Arabians (she owned that barn too).

This is pretty much how I was able to get a lot of my writing done. She'd sit with daddy and snack and watch her DVDs:

It's hard not to buy stuff for her when you know she'll be so grateful! The way she was constantly giggling and hugging that pillow pal made it impossible to say no.

At the ward harvest festival. It was cute to see all the kids dressed up.

At Thanksgiving. She ate so much of the cheese ball before dinner was served, that she hardly touched it. Oh well.

The Love of Snow Must Run in the Genes

2010-11-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

She pretty much hates it. Just like a lot of her family hates it. It's pretty through the window she thinks, but don't put her down in it. She'll learn to love it even more when she has to take care of horses or try and drive (or not be able to drive) in it.

Well, anyway, maybe if we get her some actual snow clothes/boots/gloves, she can learn to love the snow for her childhood. Then she can go back to hating it when she's an adult. lol

New Video of Starlynn

2010-11-16T19:18:00.000-08:00

In the bath being silly and showing off some of her tricks...

Catches on Quick

2010-10-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

Starlynn is so hilarious. We've only sung the "popcorn popping on the apricot tree" song a couple times. Last night when I asked her if she wanted popcorn, she put her hands up in the air and opened and closed her fingers and said "pop pop pop pop".

Wow. She kinda scares me sometimes she catches on to stuff so quick.

One of the funniest things we still quote all the time:

So, when you ask her what a chicken says, she says "bup bup bup bup bup" (like "buck buck buck buck buck". So, one day, my mom was eating dinner after we had all eaten, but Starlynn is there in her face wanting stuff off her plate. She tried to give her different bites of stuff and Starlynn kept pushing it away. Finally I go, "Starlynn, do you want a bite of chicken?" She answered "bup bup bup bup bup". Which we CRACKED up to.

My mom said, "she hasn't made the connection between the animal and the meat yet." But actually, I think she has! lol The other day when the word "chicks" came up on the screen, she did her bup bup thing. :D And I put chicken on her tray once without saying the word chicken at ALL, and she did her bup thing again. So funny.

"A" "B"

When Starlynn sees words or letters, she starts saying "A, B, A, B, A, B, D, D". She used to say "I" "D" over and over again, but now it's "A", "B". She brought the letter "D" over to me the other day and was saying "D, D, D, D"

Well, that's a couple of the things she's been up to lately. Grandma Sue got her a little table and a tea set. Starlynn is VERY good at pretending already, I am very impressed. She will "pour" the tea and "sip" her little cups and make some for you too. Last night she'd put a popcorn into her cup and drink it out lol.

So, needless to say, we are super entertained all the time. Love this bug! Garrett and her are quite the pair. He's home all the time now which means I am off at the barn working more. They snuggle, play, snuggle, play, eat eat eat, snuggle and play. I love seeing how much she has bonded with him. He'll pick her up and she'll put her head on his shoulder and they'll just stay like that for several minutes. She loves her daddy.

Copy-Cat

2010-10-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

I love that Star is trying to say almost everything she hears now.

"Ok Starlynn, let's get your socks."

"ocks"
--
"Let's go to the park!"

"ark"
--
"Blue paint!"

"boo"

I think the next few months are going to be awesome with all the words she'll be saying. I think it's a good thing we don't swear cuz she'd probably try and say it!

At the Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

Here we go to the Pumpkin Patch!
Starlynn on the cart ready to go for a ride and find her pumpkins!

Searching and searching for the perfect one!

Where is the cutest little pumpkin??

There it is!!!

Little pumpkin with her mama!
Our smiling little pumpkin:
The little pumpkin with her not so little daddy pumpkin:
'Here are our pumpkins we got to take home!

To Starlynn, all the world is a play ground. She will put her arms up and say "whoooo hoooo"! This is her doing that riding on the cart with her pumpkins. :)

The end! We'll post pics when we carve them :)

"Nine"

2010-10-07T08:44:00.000-07:00

Starlynn LOVES to count. BUT, the only number she can say is "nine". So, she'll line coins up, or her animal toys, or watch the count down on the microwave and say "nine, nine, nine". She'll hold her pointer finger up at random times and say "nine" and if you start counting from 1 to 10 she smiles so big and tries to join in. I think this kid is really going to like school.

The Arts and Crafts Family

2010-09-29T18:52:00.001-07:00

Today, we were the arts and crafts family! Garrett slaved away for about 6 hours cutting out 24 stenciled letters to make my four horses names. We are making really, really cool name things for their stalls.*
I, Leslie, made a Unicorn horn. I am doing a Halloween party for my clients at the barn, and all the horses will be in costume. Taza (the white horse) is going to be a Unicorn, and today I finished phase 1 of sculpting the horn.**

Danny the horse is going to be an Indian Pony, and I bought finger paints to decorate him, AND for Starlynn to do some experimenting with.

Starlynn finger-painted,

Foot-Painted,

And body painted!

Her artwork is now on display and she smiles at it every time we walk by.

We are all proud little artists today!

*For the stalls, we are cutting 30 x 30 squares of plywood, gluing the wood letter names toward the top, then I bought modge podge and I am going to invite the students to bring a photo of them riding the horses (one photo per horse) and we are going to slowly build a collage of each horse. So it will be a wonderful, colorful mess when it's all done (hopefully in a while so new students can put their pics up too). And it will be something I can unscrew from the stall doors and take with us wherever! Or switch it up for a new horse.

**Someone gave me the idea to use air-dry clay or quick-dry clay for the horn. I had never heard of such clay. But dried, it will be a lot lighter than regular clay. I made a paper cone, shaped the clay around it, then used a sharp knife to draw the spiral line, and then a butter knife and my fingers to widen the spiral. It'll take 2-3 days to completely air-dry and then I am going to paint it some sort of shimmering white. Now I have to figure out how to get it to stay on his forehead. Is there such thing as white electrical tape?

Starlynn Says...

2010-09-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

Okay... here is our previous list:

Bubble
Horse
Fish
Dada
Papa
Mom (not mama... just mom)
Boo (for Uncle Boo)
Up (Upf)
Dee or Dow (Down)
Ball
Dog
Juice (ooos)
Shoes (ooshs), kinda backwards, but it does sound different than Juice.
Kiss (iss)

Now added to the list:
"Mine" (clear as day, not in a stubborn way)
"Buh Bye"
"Hi"
"daddy" (not just dada or dad anymore)
"mommy" (same as above)
"Buddy" (for our chihuahua)
"Mae" (she calls out for Ellie Mae, the dog)
"Belly" (ask her where her belly button is and she'll lift up her shirt as say "beyee")
"Outside" (yes, clear as day... she says outside)
"Alright" (granted, she has only said this once)
"More" ("mo")
and just yesterday, she added "Cookie". freaked me out, she said it like she's been saying it forever.
"Brush" ("ush" or 'brush' without the 'r')
"Bird" (yes, without the 'r')
"affe" (is giraffe)

(that's about 29 so far)

Animals noises she can make on cue:
Horse whinny
elephant sound
uff uff (dog bark)
ahahahaha (goat)
boooowww (cow)
still doesn't do a cat very often
cute growly sound in the back of her voice for a tiger, lion or a wookie lol

The Cucumber

2010-09-27T08:06:00.000-07:00

This is the story of one little cucumber who was peeled of it's skin and then given to a baby. The baby was only 16 months old. You would think that the cucumber would still have some self to speak of when she had had her fill. But this is how the story goes:

This baby loves vegetables, and dug right in for her first bite:

Mmmmm... the baby likes the cucumber!

After a few minutes, baby's parents said it was time to go, and by the time they moved her into the car, the cucumber was down on both sides.

Upon arriving at their destination, only ten minutes from their house, the poor cucumber was virtually non-existent:

This poor cucumber learned the hard way that 16 months old or not, the baby will eat you until you're gone!

Dear Starlynn

2010-09-02T12:30:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd take a moment to tell you about all the things you are doing and saying.

First and foremost, you brighten everyone's day. All your grandparents and aunties, uncles, and especially your parents are blessed by your smiling face and sweet voice.

You can walk anywhere you want to go, and are working on running now. And sadly for mommy, you climb EVERYTHING. Just like your daddy did when he was a baby. You have been standing up in your high chair for a while now, but the other day, in no time at all and without making any noise, you were standing ON the TRAY! About gave mommy a heart attack. You push chairs up to tables and then climb on the chair and then to the table. I don't think you think that anything is out of your reach. Which I guess can be a good thing in the future.

You have LOTS of teeth. The four center on the top, and now one of the canines on the top. The four center on the bottom, and FOUR molars. Overall, you have been a very pleasant teething baby. Only one or two has given you trouble with fevers and crying. The other ones, I didn't even know you were cutting sometimes! And those teeth make for an OH SO CUTE smile, which you show off very often.

You know "up" and "down" very well. When you are climbing up or going up stairs, you say "upf". When you are getting down or going down you say "dee" or "dow".

Songs and music are among your all time favorite things. You like to sing ("ahhhhh" ohhhhhh" "dee dee dee" "na na na") and dance dance dance when you hear music. You like to dance so much, I think we'll put you in dance classes when you turn 3. You know the hand motions to the "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "There Was a Little House", and "Wheels on the Bus". Counting also makes you really happy. You try really hard to count with your fingers, but have only managed to hold up your pointer finger, but a couple of times you have done "two".

Animals are among your all time favorites. When asked, you can tell us what a horsie says, a dog dog says, and an elephant says. And sometimes you meow, when you feel like it. I love it when you whinny like a horse though. And everyone thinks the elephant thing is pretty funny, because you even stick your nose up into the air. To you, a doggy says "uff uff". You love on all the animals, giving them loves and hugs. One of these days, you'll have to learn that not all doggies are safe, because you go up to any one you see.

You are reading several words. I know for sure you can read "arms up", "tongue", "shoes", "yes", "bubble", "bird". There are more but I can't think of them right now.

Quick list of words that I can think of that you say:

Bubble
Horse
Fish
Dada
Papa
Mom (not mama... just mom)
Boo (for Uncle Boo)
Up (Upf)
Dee or Dow (Down)
Ball
Dog
Juice (ooos)
Shoes (ooshs), kinda backwards, but it does sound different than Juice.
Kiss (iss)

I love, love, love, love, love you. You are very free with your hugs and kisses and that's good, because I can't get enough. Daddy loves you so much too. You two have a lot of chasing and tickling games. It's pretty cute. And you snuggle him a lot too.

You are looking more like a little girl every day. It makes me sad, but it also makes me so excited to see all you have in store for us in the days and years to come. You are already one of my best friends.

Thank you, sweet girl, for picking us.

A Couple Vids of Starlynn

2010-08-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hilarious Moment

2010-08-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

Super funny moment. To me at least. Starlynn fell asleep holding her bottle in her car seat. She dropped it as she dozed off and mostly asleep went to pick it back up and put it in her mouth, but instead, she grabbed her Zebra and put it's nose in her mouth. Sucked on it a few times, realized something was wrong, took it out, halfway opened her eyes to look at it, put it in her lap and fell back asleep. I was trying not to laugh loud and wake her up!

Anyway, Garrett and I are potentially going to join the YMCA. I just took Starlynn swimming there on our guest pass. She loved it. It was funny though... we were in for about a half hour, so when I got out my legs felt like led and starlynn felt like she was 50lbs.

More Stuff She's Up To

2010-08-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

Okay... so today she was up to a BUNCH of her "tricks". I tried to catch them on video, but she just mauls the camera when I bring it out.

This morning, Garrett and I were watching "her" DVD with her. She was reading many different words. She was doing the actions to a few of these words as they came on the screen: "hi" (waving and saying hi), point, yes (nods her head yes), clap, dog (says dog dog), wave, bubble (says bahbow).

Her favorite songs are "Wheels on the Bus" (she starts waving her arm back and forth making "sss" sounds for "swish, swish, swish", and then when you sing "the mommies on the bus go shh shhh shhh", she'll put her finger to her mouth and say "shhh shhh shhh"). "5 little ducks". And then "There was a little house in the middle of the woods", she can do almost all the hand motions to that. I have to get it on film! As soon as she hears "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", she starts pointing at her toes.

Then, one of the cutest things I love: Garrett was taking her into Primary with him around Father's Day when the kids were practicing "I'm so Glad when Daddy Comes Home". At the end, they say, "And give him what? I great big kiss." And then blow a kiss. She learned to do it in primary (blow a kiss) and when the kids performed the song, she did the kiss part on her own. A few weeks ago, I played that song in the car. She froze and listened to it and then blew the kiss at the end. So cute. I play that song for her a lot. When she hears it she holds her hands up in the air and opens and closes her fingers very "musically".

A couple days ago, Starlynn grabbed her shoes and took them to her Grandma Laura. Grandma put them on, and then Starlynn walked over to me, grabbed my finger, PULLED on me until I stood up and then walked me down the hallway to the front door. I opened it up and we ended up going on a walk outside. LOL She tries to do that a lot now. Sometimes I let her succeed. And when I don't she throws quite a fit. But, I tell her that's the way the cookie crumbles and she can't always get what she wants.

She plays with her blanket forever. Or if she has a towel or rag, she'll wipe things off, and I say "clean, clean, clean!" and she giggles hysterically. I can ask her to clean my face and she'll come over and wipe my face, giggling.

We play tickle games where she tickles my feet and we go tickle other people's feet.

Ask her what a dog says and she says "oh oh oh" with the head motions of "woof woof woof". And still, every time she sees a picture of a cow she says "bowwwwww".

Ok, again, that's all I can remember right now.

I love babies! I love watching her with the babies at church. They're all such little smarties, and so funny. She likes playing with them until she doesn't--she's swatted a couple of them. (lol, such a brat). But then I tell her be nice, and she pets them and says "ice".

Only 3 1/2 more months until she can go to nursery!

I'll post more pics soon.

Oh, I just remembered one more thing. My one "safe" place where I could put her and do things was her high chair, and that has been 'taken' away from me because she stands up in it!! Argh! She stands up and walks accross the couch, gets in her swing and stands up. Of course, I am always telling her "sit down!" Now, I just say, "Starlynn!" and she goes "dih dow", and sits down. Hilarious. If I tell Ellie Mae to "sit", she says "dow". "Dih Dow".

Miracle of Life

2010-07-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

I am always so amazed at how fast babies grow and learn. The summer-feeling has brought back memories of LAST summer, when I was healing from giving birth and caring for a little creature who liked to be swaddled. Now she's 2 feet tall, walking all over the place and talking up a storm.

She is a MAGNET and SPONGE all at the same time. You show her something once and she can do it. And, things you don't even mean to teach her directly, she does. Here are a few of the things she is doing lately that completely entertain us:

Ellie Mae (the dog) is not allowed to be in the kitchen. If she starts to come in, we point at the family room and say "out". Well, little missy Star looks at Ellie, points to the side of Ellie and says "Ow", short and staccato just like we say "out".
She can show you were her toes, fingers, hair, head, eyes, mouth, and ears are. She still won't point at her nose for some reason.
The other day, my mom picked her up, and Starlynn patted her and said "uhguhmuh". I think "guhmuh" is pretty close to "grandma".
When you ask her what a cow says, or when she sees a picture of a cow, she says "bow"
You know when babies sometimes pat your face or pull your hair a little over enthusiastically? Garrett doesn't like when she does that to me, so he always grabs her hand and makes her stroke my face gently and says "be nice to mommy." And we tell her "nice" for animals and show her how to pet them nice. One day, she poked me or something and I said "OW!" really loud, and she instantly started stroking my face and said "ice". Of course I laughed a lot. Now she does it all the time (strokes my face and says "ice".)
She waves at EVERYBODY. In the store, at church, to all of us. And said "I" or "hi". Today, she sat by the chapel door to the church and waved at several people as they came in, like it was her calling.
Last night, she was playing with one of the couch pillows. I kept telling her, "hurry! lay down quick!" She'd lay down, giggling, then I'd cover her with the pillow and she would squeal with laughter and throw the pillow of of her. We had to have repeated that like 20 times, and my jaws hurt so bad because I was laughing so much.

Well, that is all I can think of for now. I know there is more, and I am going to try and do better at writing things on here when they happen so I can keep a better "journal" of her. I have some cute pics of her eating watermelon, playing at the river, and playing at the Pacific Science Center, but I need to download them.

Toodles!

"Uh Oh" and more pictures

2010-07-04T17:09:00.000-07:00

Isn't it fun when babies learn something new, they repeat it over and over and over and over again. Good thing it's usually cute! Her new thing, is saying "Uh Oh", and it sounds oh-so-cute. She said it for about an hour in the car yesterday. And then last night, she was holding something and I said "Uh Oh", and she dropped what she was holding, said "Uh Oh" and then bent down to pick it up. lol

I love, love, love, love watching babies learn and make so many connections. The other day, she pointed at one of her flashcards on the dresser that said "Head" and said "ah" and then pointed to her head. You can ask her a few body parts and she'll point to them (most of the time). Ask her where her tongue is and she'll stick it out at you.

Oh, and today in church, she started "singing", and was actually on key!

She has two molars now, both on the left side, one top, one bottom. And she's working on the other side!

She's our world and Garrett and I kiss on her so much I think we annoy her sometimes. :D

Here are some pics from this past month:

Uhm, Deja Vu? Didn't I already learn my lesson not to leave the diaper bag within her arms reach?
"Organizing" the Tupperware Cupboard:

Playing in Church:
Riding on Grandma Grace's Walker:
Pick me up Uncle Ben!
Playing with the Rock Band Drums:

With Grandma Laura! (Who she chooses over her mommy sometimes.)

Bed Head and Sleepy Face

On the beach of the Columbia River in St. Helen's Oregon (while we were at the Hodgson Family Reunion). I love baby/beach pictures.

(Sorry if my legs blind you)

Riding Horses

2010-06-21T12:27:00.001-07:00

Garrett and I took Starlynn horse back riding this morning. She loves it. We were riding Danny who we just got. We are in the process of making him look better! He is an angel horse with Starlynn. He is 22 and all three of us love him immensely!

Guess what? We got Daddy on a horse too!

Then Starlynn rode with him and mommy could not get them to get off the horse!!!

Starlynn clucks (clicks her tongue) at the horses! She learned to brush them today too. And you better believe she'll be helping muck stalls in no time!

Heavenly Week

2010-06-09T18:24:00.000-07:00

Starlynn has slept all through the night, until 6:30/6:45 in the morning all week, AND has taken a 1 hr nap in the morning and TWO hour nap every afternoon.

Except today. Today she took a THREE hour nap (from 2:30 to 5:30). Which, when I got home from being at the barn for two of those hours (easiest $ my manny has ever made) I was kinda upset actually that she was still sleeping. I hope the sleepiness comes back at about 8:30.

Which, it probably will cuz she's whiney right now.

I decided to come blog, because I was trying to feed her some of her pureed food, and she didn't want me too. I have a video I haven't uploaded yet of the first time she fed herself a meal with a spoon. Now, I can't feed her anymore. Yes, it is messy. But it keeps her occupied and happy for a long time, so I'd rather clean up the mess than fight her not to make a mess.

She has a very strong toddler "I DO IT" attitude already. Bless me. Apparently I was the same way. I said, "I do it myself" quite alot. I think my daughter is going to give me a run for my money. :D lol

She's pretty funny.

One of her big teeth in the back is cutting. One edge made it's appearance yesterday. Poor kiddo. I still think she's a pretty tolerant teething baby.

Starlynn's Words

2010-06-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

Every day brings more new things Starlynn can say/do.

Currently, her words consist of:

"Dada"
"Daddy"
"Bubble" (Bah Bow) and today she even put an "s" on the end "Bah-Bows"
"Hat"
"Dog"
"Horse"
"Bye Bye" (Buh Buh)
"Fish"
"Papa"
"Eye"

Sinse she was really little, she has thought hats are hilarious. So, everytime I have something on my head (ANYTHING: A hat, a towel, a hood or any random object I decide to put on it, I say "Hat!" and Ben does that with her a lot too. These babies are sponges, because one day, she just pointed at my hat and said very clearly, "Hat". She'll put stuff (a washcloth or a wipe) on her head and say "Hat!"

And she likes to bore your eye out while saying "eeeeeyyyyee".

She's a chatter box! We're all in for it!

12 Months Old

2010-05-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

I just realized I haven't written "stats" on her 12 month mark.

~I actually don't know how much she weighs. When she hurt her hand she weight 18.6lbs. I am guessing she is 19.5 lbs or 20 lbs.

~I do know she is 30 inches long. :-) Holy smokes. I think she actually IS pretty tall for a 1 year old, I don't know.

~She delights me everyday with new things she can do and say. I pulled out her stuffed animal duck the other day and she totally said "duck".

~The dogs all know themselves as "dog dogs". Here, she is patting the dog over and over saying "dog dog dog dog dog dog dog"
~She dances ALL the time. Every time she hears music, and even when she doesn't. She has music in her head.

~Uhm, she has quite the strong personality (read: temper). I am kinda worried about what is to come. I know I always write about all the fru-fru-frilly and peaches and cream stuff about her, but wow... she has a temper! I don't know where she would have gotten it from (LOL-- because both of her parents are so even tempered and all.) We have toddler temper tantrums already. I am holding strong though, and hopefully she'll get the message sooner rather than later.

~Her love of horses is totally not my fault. Is it my fault that she gets all giddy when I put her on their backs? I didn't prep her or anything, I just did it! She says "horse" (not "hiss" or "orse" but "HORSE" about 25 times a day. ~She can go all the way up and down the stairs on her own.

~Can lower herself down feet first from beds and couches.

~Looooves her daddy. Can say "daddy" too as well as "dada" of course.
~Likes to flip through books on her own. (and likes to be read to)

~Says "ba" (ball) everytime she sees it and then will pick it up and throw (drop and bounce) it.

~Bubble machine is a new fascination. Cracked me up yesterday when she stood up next to it on the table and said "babbo".

~She hugs and kisses EVERYTHING!!!! Here is a pic of her hugging her daddy in a photo:
Raising kids is so much fun (and really hard). I have constant worry that I am a bad parent, but I try to do my best, and she teaches me love and patience and to SMILE AND HAVE FUN everyday!

Walking!

2010-05-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

We have some real walking going on. I guess I'll consider her an official walker when she starts tearing around the house by herself... but she's not far off!

Of course, she had been doing this for about a half hour, doing really well, and then when I pull the camera out, she gets fussy and doesn't want to do it anymore, and I don't get a truly good walking clip, but anyway, you can get the idea. We are very excited. She loves the game of walking to mommy. :-)

I'll try and get better videos of her tomorrow. She was doing SOOO good. Her little legs just get going too fast for her to keep up. :)

Paparazzi

2010-05-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

Pictures from her Birthday Weekend, taken with Grandma's Ni's (who we affectionately call "the paparazzi" Fancy Camera.

Birthday Weekend Part 1

2010-05-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Starlynn very much enjoyed her birthday party!!! Here are a few pics of cake and presents:

Test it with a finger first:

What the bananas?

I should probably taste it:
Holy beans that is good, I better dip more fingers in!
After several more fist fulls:
Okay, this pic should have been up top, but blogger is givin' me problems right now:Hugging her horsie from Aunt Mikaela:

Hard to take a candid pic of this one. She always cheeses the camera.

Starlynn LOVES getting clothes.

Another "ham" picture. Fridge Phonics from Aunt Marie and Uncle Scott, she loves em!

Her first set of coins from Grandpa Charlie!!! We all got all emotional. It's a family tradition. They are all coins from the year she was born.

Starlynn in Seattle

2010-05-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

We started out the day by getting some grub at Ivar's. Yum Yum. Starlynn enjoyed a couple french fries, a couple bites of clam chowder, and above all, a refreshing lemon:

Then, we took our leftover "chips" and went outside to feed the seagulls. We started with this fearless seagull.

Then, we decided he was getting way too many fries being so fearless, so we decided to feed some of the ones flying around:
Then, we thought maybe this one would be fearless like the other one, but kept walking away as we tried to approach him. I set the bread on the railing and he looked at it like, "yeah, whatever, I know your trap."
Starlynn loves all animals furry and feathery!
Then, we walked along the peirs, and then went to Pike Place Market. She spent most of her time on Uncle Brandon's shoulders. We didn't catch it on film, but she would lean all the way around and look at his face. After our Seattle-day, Starlynn now smiles at Uncle Brandon all the time instead of just staring him down like she usually does.

Then, we wash off the city-grit:

We had a good day!

Baby Story

2010-04-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Starlynn, my mom and I went to meet Cathi's "Story", the new baby horse. In the tradition of cool registered horse names, this is Story's registered name: Her dad's name is Apaladin. Story's name is Once Apalatime CM. Barn name: Story!!

Of course, Starlynn LOOOOVED her. This is the tail end of a couple of the hugs Starlynn was giving Story's neck.
Me letting Story nuzzle me. She is the SWEETEST foal I think I've ever met. And so so pretty!
We were standing some distance away after petting her for a while, and Starlynn kept squirming out of my arms. I just held one of Starlynn's hands and she walked ALL the way across that pasture to get to the baby horse. Then, Story closed the gap and walked up to Starlynn and sniffed her head for a while.
Precious, eh? It was definitely a memory I am treasuring. I wish we would have gotten a video of her walking across the pasture. I was barely balancing her. Nothing to motivate a girl forward like a pretty horse!
Oh, did I mention Starlynn says "horse" now? Well, her version is "hisss". Garrett was holding her at Reber while I was bringing horses in, and she started pointing at them and saying "hisss, hisss". So cute. She was saying it to Story and Sisoeles too, especially while she was walking across the pasture.

Inventor of Games

2010-04-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

Last night, I was sitting on the ground with my legs stretched out and Starlynn came up to me, put her hands on my leg, got her feet up under her super fast, and then pushed up off me and balanced for a second and fell down. She laughed a little and then did the whole thing over again. I started laughing a lot because she did it about 15 times in a row, laughing harder each time.

Then, I held her up in a standing position and then let go. Every time I let go, she'd squeal with laughter while trying to hold her balance like, "which way am I going to fall this time?"

We were both cracking up pretty good together. She is so cute widening her stance and then using her arms to balance. She always has really slow, controlled falls now.

All of these games she invented lead to her first unassisted steps. It was only about 2 of them, but they were there!

I'm really excited for her to be a walker. I feel like my back will feel a lot better.

Big Blog for the Big 11 Month Old

2010-04-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

I got out to take some 11 Month pics of Starlynn today. She got her first pair of jeans and tennis shoes this week. I almost took her out of this outfit because she just looked TOO grown up!

At 11 Months Starlynn is:

Standing on her own with no support for up to 5 seconds.
Says "hi", "dada", "mama", "baba", "dog", and "fish". She is now trying to say "shoe" by saying "sssssshh" when I bring her shoes out and start putting them on her feet while saying "Starlynn's shoe!" Oh, she now says these above words at all the appropriate times. She will say "nananana" when you give her a banana or when Ben (and now everybody) calls her 'Pirhana'.
She got her first big owie by putting her hand on the glass fireplace. Huge blisters! Her hand is wrapped to keep the area clean while the blisters pop and heal. Besides the initial pain, she has been pretty much pain free since. She crawls, claps, and generally leaves her wrap alone. Babies are so adaptable!! She just does everything with her other hand now.
She can throw the big ball (see below).
She is the LOVEY-EST (I know that's not a word) baby ever. She hugs EVERYTHING and says "aaaaaaahhhhh" in sweet little tones.
Everything is funny.
She is cruising down the couches pretty fast.
She pulls herself up on EVERYTHING. Including our legs and then pushes forward so we will walk with her following.
She only has to hold one of my hands to walk forward now.
She crawls really fast and likes to be chased, she'll squeal and laugh and spin around getting ready for the tickles.
Climbs stairs, and has lowered herself down a couple too.
Has sat on a horse several times... I'm creating a monster. She loves it!
Still eats everything. Started turning down chunks of food, but as soon as I pureed it, she ate it again. Sometimes she'll finger feed herself, sometimes she wants it pureed and fed to her.
Still only has 7 teeth. I swore there was 8 at one time, but there is just 7. :-)
She is a joy to be around and LITERALLY the light of our lives. As Grandpa Charlie says, "she spreads joy wherever she goes!"
She waves hi and bye to people, even strangers.
Oh yes, and she is still a sucker for the camera as can be seen below:

Sharing string cheese with daddy:

Monkey Face:
I FINALLY was able to get her Monkey-face and monkey-sounds which she does ALL THE TIME on video :-)

Turtle Peek-A-Boo:
Of course as soon as I turn the camera on, things aren't as cool as the first couple times she did them. We were in the mall and Ben put the stroller shade cover up and she looked like a little turtle popping out of her shell. Then she figures out how to get rid of it.

Throwing the Ball:
Starlynn is getting the art down of picking up and throwing the ball. Be patient with her, and keep watching! Because of course as soon as I turned on the camera, she couldn't do it as easily, but she gets it again toward the end of the video.

Tummy Tickles from Daddy:
Again, she was kinda winding down by the time I got the camera, but tummy tickles are her favorite!

Using the iPhone:
Starlynn tries to use her fingers on the iPhone like mommy and daddy do (in between chewing on it)

Bed Head

2010-04-01T19:50:00.001-07:00

Star has enough hair for me to make fun do's out of the bath and when she wakes up, she has bed head now. :-)

Growing Up =

2010-03-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

HARD WORK!

It seemed to me that Bug ate a LOT of food yesterday. Today, she slept way more than usual. Her naps were longer, she took an extra one, and she went to bed an hour and a half early. The times she was awake, she was rubbing her eyes, yawning and generally being a little fussy. Still had lots of giggles and smiles of course--she's Starlynn, but poor baby just wasn't too happy today.

I'm glad she makes sure she get's all the sleep she needs. Except for when her grandparents (Garrett's parents) are in town. ;-) Then she fights me tooth and nail to get her to sleep. She knows there is excitement going on!

But, it's been quite a peaceful day because little Bug slept through almost all of it!

Starfish

2010-03-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

Climber

2010-03-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

Starlynn just climbed up 3 stairs to the small landing. I'm in trouble. Baby gate shopping today. She had no problems... like she's done it lots before.

On the Road to Walking

2010-03-24T20:39:00.001-07:00

Starlynn Grace is just growing up so fast!!! She is pulling herself up on everything, including her parents' legs, couches, entertainment centers, her exersaucer, the aquarium stand, uhm.... a box of huggies diapers, just ANYTHING, and is cruising to get to what she wants.

She also suckers you in to taking her for walks, you'll be holding her around the waste helping her stand and she'll grab your fingers, take your hands off her sides and start walking around. Hurts the back after a while though... time to get on craigslist and find a walker!

She has let go of things and balanced herself a time or two as well. Freaked me out the first time I instictively jutted my hand out and grabbed her arm. :-) She has taken several falls from the standing position but has only cried on a couple of them.

Anyway..... more fun is just around the corner! She is so strong, and I just love watching her discover the world.

My kitchen is still safe, she get's on the kitchen floor and turns around back to the carpet. Safe for now.

Horsie Horsie

2010-03-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

"Auntie" Leann saw Starlynn's reaction to the little stuffed horse she was sitting on at the horse show.

Of course, it was a bit of a struggle to not buy the thing for her, but one of the reasons I didn't (besides lack of money) was that I didn't want to have to sit there and hold her on it all day long (bit of a long fall).

Leann said she would give us this one she had at her house from when her daughter (now 16) was a baby.

Of course, Starlynn LOVES it. She will bounce up and down on it and it will keep her stationary for a period of time while she is watching her dvds or something. She gives it snuggles, and it is perfect. She has dived off of it, and no harm, no foul! Perfect. :-)

Starlynn is a pretty lucky girl. I hope to teach her to be very grateful and gracious.

Multi-Functional Car Seat

2010-03-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

Transports my baby in the car safely AND keeps her entertained at home for half hour stretches at a time. :-)
(yes she's playing with the remote in the above pic but she usually just plays with the straps and also will just rock the car seat.)

Thank You Auntie Cathi

2010-03-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

-from Starlynn Grace

Auntie Cathi went to Alaska and brought me back this totally awesome hoodie. It is my new favorite. After I sat on Auntie Cathi's preggo horse, and after she gave me this sweatshirt we went out to a little cafe.

I kept trying to grab everything on Cathi's plate, and she finally handed me this little yellow wedge of something. I put it in my mouth and the my whole body shuddered. It tasted weird, but really good! I kept eating it even though it was making my face pucker and body shudder. Auntie Cathi and Matt and my mommy were all laughing so hard they could barely breathe. I don't know what was so funny, I was just busy trying to figure that sweet/bitter yellow thing out.

A lemon? Is that what mommy called it?

Anyway, thanks again for the sweatshirt Cathi!

High Chair Videos

2010-03-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

Riding Horses

2010-03-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

It's in the blood. At the horseshow, she saw this thing and leaned in toward it. I could barely peel her off it. She was clinging to it like a little koala bear. And laughing and bouncing up and down and hugging it, giving it loves.

THEN, tonight we went and saw Auntie Cathi's horse who is due with her first foal next week. I don't think Starlynn wanted to get off this horse either, but Sisoeles was like "dude, have you seen my belly?? I don't need an extra 20 lbs sitting on me." Cute pics none the less. Thanks Cathi!

Mischeif Managed

2010-03-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

Not!!

So, Starlynn has been crawling several feet here and there for a while now. But, I never considered it crawling-crawling, because my life was still fairly easy. Well, NOW she's crawling-crawling ALL OVER and although no injuries have occured yet, I am... well, I am trying desperately to make sure they don't happen. But that girl is quick, and I'm not used to it yet. I'll get used to it fast-like I guess!

Daylight savings time has been pretty wonderful according to nap and bedtime schedules. We'll see how long it lasts. Not sure how I'm going to deal with it not getting dark until 9 or 10 at night this summer. "Time" will tell. heehee.

Here is a quick pic of Starlynn from mom's iPhone. I'm not brave enough to leave her completely by herself. Though, she's taken a couple topples when she is standing up next to something and doesn't care too much.

10 Months Old

2010-03-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

For some reason, 10 months old is kinda freakin' me out. I think because it's only 2 months away from her 1 year birthday! Little Bug is very busy learning and growing:

Has mostly given up rolling and army crawling for real crawling. She get's anywhere she wants to go now.
She is pulling herself up on stuff, which means life is getting interesting. Like:
Standing up in her crib and then getting "stuck" (hasn't figured out how to sit/lay back down yet)
Likes to stand and look at the fish
She turns off daddy's xbox and pulls down things from the entertainment center.
uhm... as you've seen she likes to play Patty Cake and loves eentsy weensy spider and all sorts of songs with hand motions, and just music in general.When the "hot dog dance" on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse comes on, she stops whatever she is doing and STARES at the TV until it's over. heehee.
Went to the zoo for the first time
Goes to storytime on Tuesdays and to her Parent/Toddler swimming class on Fridays.
MOSTLY sleeps through the night. Usually only wakes up at around midnight or 1, and I give her a bottle and she goes back to sleep.
Takes 3 naps a day. (one of them is only 45 minutes to an hour after she wakes up though), the other one around 11:00, and the other one around 3:30. Those naps go for an hour, sometimes more. Goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:30. Wakes up at 6:30, much to my chagrin.
Still hasn't refused or spit out a single food. I have to share pretty much everything with her.
Starting to drink from a sippy cup, but still mostly from her bottle.
Loves going places, either in the car or in her stroller.
"gagagaga" "babababa" and "dadadadadadada" Hasn't said "mama" since I posted that blog about her doing it. BUT, she always gives me huge snuggles and loves, and I can't ever walk out of the room without her fussing a little (unless she doesn't see me leave), so I know she loves me. :) Still says "ffffshhhh" a lot too. And can even make whistling sounds when she is making "s" sounds. "dddggg" too.
Will do these things on command (when nobody is watching of course, only when it's just a couple close people, she does that classic thing of 'forgetting' when it's time to perform) : kick, kick, kick! (she'll kick her legs), clap your hands, arms up, patty cake, throw em in the pan, wave your arms.

Well, that's probably enough of a list of what she's up to now.

Good Morning

2010-03-13T07:18:00.000-08:00

I love waking up to find that Starlynn is already awake and sitting up and playing with her stuffed animals in her crib.