You and your brother crack me up.

it's so hard to get a normal, good picture of the two of you. good thing we like funny, silly pictures even more.

these are some pictures i took, while trying to get a good one of the two of you in your new Christmas PJs, which you opened on Christmas Eve.

Soooo, we're a little behind.

time to play catch-up...

the final verdict on staying the night with grandma and papa is that you LOVED it. and they loved it. and so, it's definitely something we'll do again sometime. i was a little lonely, but i did get a lot done. thanks, Grandma and Papa!

later that week, after grandma and papa's, we went and picked up daddy and sam at the airport. you were a little bit shy with daddy at first, but you were so happy to see him, and sam too.

then, a couple days later, we headed to bartlesville to begin the Christmas celebrating. Christmas really was a great time. we spent Christmas Eve celebrating with all your cousins, and your two great grandmas, great uncle, and grandma and pappy.

You loved holding your baby cousin, Kayla. any time she would fuss, you would hug her and say, "it's okay, baby..it's okay..."

you also loved riding on your cousins' scooters. you're going to be a daredevil. i am already mentally preparing.

at night, you and sam slept together on a pallet we made you on the floor. you two looked so sweet. i think we'll get you bunk beds soon, so you can enjoy sharing a room before you get old enough to be annoyed at each others' existence.

I know it's going to be so fun to look back at these pictures with you, some day, and talk about the good times we have had as a family.

i love you!

love, mom

It's you and me!

the past couple weeks have been a little bit weird, with Daddy and Sam gone.

you love to see pictures of the two of them. you laugh and say, "that funny Sam," or "that funny Daddy." it's pretty cute. you don't seem too disturbed that they've not been here. i guess you're confident that they'll be back soon. and they will! we are going to pick them up on friday at the airport. since pappy's surgeries have gone pretty well, they'll be home as scheduled.

meanwhile, you and i have done a lot of hanging out. your new favorite place to hang out is the dryer, in fact. we've also done a bit of shopping, and some visiting. we went to see your grandpa over the weekend, and you two had fun doing crossword puzzles together. grandpa sure got a kick out of you. he liked this picture of you mopping his floor. said you were "working for your supper."

and then we went to grandma and papa's. you're still there! it's weird to be here in the house, knowing that you're not asleep in the other room. i'm glad i'll see you tomorrow! it's your first time to spend the night away, and they said you've been a really good girl. i think it's neat that you're getting to really know each other so well. but like i said, i'll be glad to see you tomorrow. and even more glad when friday gets here, and we get to pick up sam and daddy!

i love you! i've had fun with you all to myself:)

love, mom

These two Christmas card pictures probably won't make the cut.

i know you're pretty disappointed. actually, i kind of am. daddy insists we put a picture on our cards this year where everyone's eyes are open. and no fingers are in noses. these are the funniest ones to me, though.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

this year, your birthday fell on Thanksgiving, as it will every several years. it's appropriate, because we are super thankful for you!

we've watched you grow a ton over the past year.

you're running around all the time, chasing your brother and trying to keep up with him. i think that's why you get hurt more than he did, paired with the fact that you're just fearless. bumps and bruises have become like a part of your wardrobe. the last black eye faded just in time for you to get a fat lip. you're getting especially good at jumping. both feet leave the ground almost every time now.

you love what sam loves, and you sing the spiderman song all the time. i can't be thankful enough that you two love each other so much. i hope that never changes. we celebrate your birthdays together. on sam's birthday, we went to fun city pizza, where you guys had a good time and played and got presents from us. on your birthday, we went to have thanksgiving/birthday time with your grandma and papa, where we had more cake and presents, and of course, thanksgiving food.

your favorite present was this gigantic care bear. you still love your care bear that you got from aunt michelle last year, and you sleep with both of them, plus a moose, a cat, and sometimes several other stuffed animals. you call the care bears your "babies," and you love to rub noses with them and touch the little hearts on their bottoms. it's like your comforting little goodnight ritual. as soon as you pulled your new care bear out of the bag, you rubbed noses with it.

you still love animals. you love to look out the window while we're driving and yell, "Animal!" or "MOOOOOO!" when we see cows. you love to look at dogs, but they still make you nervous. we actually got a dog last week, on a whim, but you are so terrified of her that we have to give her away. she's going to live with your friend Ivy, so maybe someday you and Rhuby will be friends.

you've been stringing more and more words together, and we feel like you've really taken some big steps just in the last few weeks at communicating.

you're our sweet little girl, and we love you a ton! happy birthday.

love, mom

you got your second black eye!

i'm not really sure how you got this one. you definitely didn't dive out of a shopping cart, like last time.

you and sam were playing with toys in his room. you started crying, and when i came in, you were laying down, and sam said you had fallen and hit your face on a toy. there was a little knot next to your eye, already swollen. whatever it was, it got you pretty good.

This is the sweetest picture ever.

(be sure to click the picture, to see the big version :) )

the neatest thing about it is that you guys had no idea i was even watching you, much less taking pictures. i love that you and your brother love each other so much. love, mom

Happy 23 Months Birthday!

wow, i managed to miss it again! the time is flying by, and this month, like last month, i didn't take note of the 27th until it was already past.....

this month, you got two new cousins! your aunt michelle had her baby, Troy, on the 17th. and your aunt Keri had Kayla just this afternoon! (the 28th). so you're not the youngest in the family anymore. i hope you get to meet both of your baby cousins really soon.

you like to sing, especially Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star, which sounds like:

"tinkle tinkle, little start......how i wonder WHATchoo art.... "

really, it's unbearably cute. you also like to sing wiggles songs, like "fruit salad, yummy yummy" (froot sad-id, yuh yummy) and "toot toot chugga chugga, big red car" (too too, chuh chuh, big red car) ... you still don't really like captain feathersword, but you do really like jeff, because he's always sleeping. you always point to him and say "he nigh nigh!" and then scrunch up your face and pretend to snore. ("*snort* - shoooooooo, *snort* - shooooo")
i'll take a picture of you making that face tomorrow; it's pretty funny.

you are an increasingly finicky eater lately. i'm pretty sure you'd be very happy living off of chips, ramen noodles, and candy, but we're really trying not to let you turn into a giant ball of starch.

you haven't been throwing nearly as many fits lately. daddy decided it was time to stop letting you get away with that, and he gave you a stern talking to. you really haven't thrown fits (on that level) since. go, daddy!

people keep saying how pretty your eyes are, lately. and marveling that they still seem to be changing color. usually an eye color is pretty set early in the first few months of life, but sam's didn't settle until well past two. your grandma says that mine didn't either. and yours are the same, which i think is pretty neat. sam's ended up looking a lot like mine, but i think that yours will be a little lighter or more blue-green than brown-green, like ours.

you say your name now, though i'm not sure you realize it's YOUR name. today when you saw bella, you pointed at her and laughed and said "Lib-beth! MON, Lib-beth!" ( mon = come on)

you are super attached to the blue care bear that your aunt michelle got you for your birthday last year. you sleep with him and carry around and call him "baby." in fact, you call most bears "baby" now, in his honor.

i think you're pretty cute. i can't believe your birthday is less than a month away.
love, mom

p.s. sorry for the somewhat boogery pictures. we can't keep your nose clean lately.

you're a little girl.

i know that sounds sort of obvious. but just in the last couple weeks, you've seemed to cross some invisible threshold between baby and little girl. it seemed so sudden! i feel like i'm going to wake up tomorrow, and you'll be 16.
please don't grow up any faster!
love, mom

Who's that girl??

in this first picture, you look totally different than i've ever seen you look. i know you're holding your mouth funny, because you're chewing on some candy, but still, you look so grown up, or something. it's hard to put my finger on it. you just suddenly seem to be so much bigger and older.

you say all kinds of funny things, and you like to count with daddy. you take turns saying numbers. daddy says, "one," then you say "two," etc., up to about five. sometimes when you're counting on your own, you say, "one, two, three, two..." and today, while we were reading about the ABCs, you pointed to the A, B, and C, and said, "A....2.....3.....2...."

you're a pretty silly little girl, but i can tell you're learning so much all the time.

here's another picture of you looking grown up, painting a big painting with sam.

Happy 22 Months Birthday!

Holy Cow! your 22 month day passed, and i didn't even realize it until two days later. and then didn't get around to posting about it until 3 days later. it's almost october. i don't know where the time is going! i'm changing the date on the post to the right day - the 27th.... i can't believe you'll be 2 and sam will be 5 in less than two months.

you are getting bigger and bigger, despite having days where you eat almost nothing. being sick last week didn't help with that whole eating thing, but luckily, you didn't get the stomach bug as bad as sam and daddy.

you wear 24 month and 2T clothes, for the most part, and you skipped right over size 6, into a size 7 shoe. i'm not sure how this happened.

your hair is getting longer and longer, and i think it's almost time to give you your first haircut. i'm not sure if i want to try to do it myself, or if we'll need to take you somewhere. for sam's first haircut, at about your age, i started with the scissors and quickly learned he was going to be way too wiggly for my amateur cutting skills. so, we got the clippers out and buzzed it. i promise NOT to do this to you.

you are getting more and more expressive all the time. you string lots of words together. you have pavlovian responses to the sound of a bag crinkling, or pieces of skittles or m&ms clanking against each other. instead of drooling, though, you say "i want some! i want some! i want some!" and you persist until either we give you some of whatever it is that you want, or until you collapse onto the floor in a fit of crying and screaming. usually you forget or get over it with some kind of distraction, but the fits have been frequent lately. i think it's a combination of feeling frustrated with your inability to communicate the way you want to, plus just not knowing how to deal with the word "no!" you also might be getting your molars. i don't feel anything back there yet, but it's about time for those teeth to show up, and you sure have been crankier than usual over the past few weeks. yesterday it looked like you were sticking your tongue back there on your gums a lot.

you are 100% obsessed with the wiggles. every few days your favorite character seems to change. at first it was Wags. then it was Sam (i'm guessing this has something to do with your brother being named sam.) then it was Henry the Octopus, then Dorothy the Dinosaur. today in the car, you were trying to sing "toot too, chugga chugga, big red car." it came out sounding more like "big red cah.....too too chuh chuh....(something something something...)," but we could definitely tell what you were singing.

you are really interested in bugs and little critters. you like to go watch amy run around in her cage, or burrow under the wood shavings, or eat her food. you slip her goldfish crackers, when you think we're not looking. you also like to find little beetles or moths or whatever has found its way into the house, and you come and tell us that you found a bug, then watch with interest when i scoop whatever it is up and throw it outside. last week at the park, there was a bumblebee kind of languishing on the sidewalk, and you seemed to know there was something wrong with it. you didn't want to leave it when it was time to keep walking, and you kept turning back to it and saying, "awwww. awwwww," with a pitiful look on your face. maybe someday you'll be a veterinarian. do they have bug vets? maybe not.

it's so neat watching you turn into this beautiful little girl.
i love you!
love, mom

you love the park

this afternoon, we went to the park to ride bikes. sam just got a new bike from a friend of ours, and you had your trusty dora car. mostly, you wanted to run or to swing. you like it when we push you really high! also, your hair can make an actual ponytail now.

you're getting so big!
love, mom