2 Year Stats

Went for Delilah's 2 year check up this morning. Here are her stats:
Height: 2 feet, 10 inches (50th %)
Weight: 26.5 pounds (50th %)
Head Circumference: Who cares? She's in the normal range

Now on to the fun stuff about Delilah being two:

Favorite Activities: READING AND DRAWING!!! She goes to 'school' two days a week, and the teacher told me that Delilah's favorite part is story time. When Miss Gina gets a book, Delilah starts rounding up the other kids and telling them it's time for, "book. Book! Come, here, Addison (or Emmy or whomever)...time for book." Then she sits as close to Miss Gina as possible. She also loves to color and draw, or as she calls it, "write". She used to hold crayons near and dear to her heart, but now that she's discovered markers, they are her favorite. She prefers to have as many colors as possible, but will only draw for a few seconds with each color before switching. This is the one thing that will actually keep her absorbed enough that I can walk away for any length of time and get something else done.
-Speaking of reading and writing...Delilah is starting to do a bit of both. I've mentioned her ability to read before and she's added a few words to her repertoire. She can now read about 10 words (her favorites are hi, mama, dada, yes, and elmo), can sing the alphabet, and can recognize about a quarter of the letters in the alphabet. She can also write the letter 'm', if you don't mind it having 3 humps instead of 2. :) She constantly puts a marker in my hand and tells me to 'write'.

Food: She still eats a lot, but is getting a bit pickier. Peanut butter and yogurt are favorites. Grapes are her go-to fruit, and she loves fruit smoothies. Edamame, spinach, and carrots are about the only veggies she'll eat. She also loves the 'pizzas' we make her using English muffins, spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese. We call her our Baby Barista b/c while she obviously doesn't drink coffee, she can almost make it by herself. She scoops 4 scoops of beans into the grinder, and grinds them. Pours them into the filter. Closes the coffee pot, and pushes 'on'. Then opens the cabinet, grabs a coffee cup and puts a spoonful of sugar in it. I just have to get the filter and the water. How cute is that?

Colors/Shapes/Numbers: She knows about a dozen colors and can count to ten. Sometimes she adds an 'eleven!' with a flourish. She also knows about a dozen shapes. Her favorite shapes are oval, octagon, and trapezoid. Not kidding. She'll recognize those 3 from a mile away. But let's not call Mensa just yet b/c I kid you not when I say that she still doesn't always recognize a circle.

Language: Knows a ton of words and speaks in 2 and 3 word sentences. Favorite phrase right now is "Delilah do it!", which she says whenever she decides that she's a big girl and Mommy can go mind her own business.

Potty Training: We have one children's book about it that Delilah reads, but other than that we've done nothing to promote potty training. So imagine my surprise when she walked up to me and randomly said, "Lila potty, Mommy. Poopy in potty." So I took her to the bathroom and she used the potty. She now asks to go all the time, but has yet to actually 'go' again, if you know what I mean. Whatever. We'll get there, when we get there.

Sleeping: Sleeps from about 7:30pm to 7:30 am and naps from about 12:30-2 or 2:30 every day. Bedtime ritual includes reading from 3 books, 'swaddling' (as much as you can swaddle a 2 year old), saying our prayers (her saying 'amen' is the sweetest thing ever), rocking in her chair, and then going to sleep in the crib. The 3 books chosen change every few weeks, but her current favorites are "My First Astros Book", "Goodnight, Moon", and "One Sleepy Baby". She sometimes requests a 4th book...her children's Bible. I'd say Chris and I split bedtime duties 50/50...it's such a nice, sweet time with her that we both like to do it.

Personality: I saved my favorite for last. I just love her little personality. She's starting to understand the concept of 'silly' and will do things she thinks are funny, say "Delilah silly", then crack herself up. She's a bit of a daredevil and likes to swing high, turn somersaults, jump on baby trampolines, and hear loud noises (like the blender or hair dryer...they make her laugh). When she wants to rest, she'll climb up on the couch, tell Chris or I to sit next to her, grab a blanket, cuddle up and say, "Delilah cozy". At our playgroups she's a little more anti-social than most of the kids. Not in a bad way, she's just happy doing her own thing even if everyone else is doing something else. She currently hates socks and dresses...but if we call it a "long shirt" she'll put a dress on. She is a bit of a tomboy...as evidenced by her party preference of the green dinosaur over the pink bunny. Loves dancing to music...especially if there's enough room for her to twirl. She also still really likes to drum with Daddy. She loves giving kisses, and her hugs are the best. And she's very fair with her hugs and kisses...if she gives them to one person, she has to give them to every person in the room. She likes water and will lay down in her tub and go 'swimming'. She remembers her friends now and asks for them when she misses them...her favorites right now are Avari (A-vee), Makinley (Kin-ley), Lexi, and whichever cousin she saw most recently. And she still can't wait to see Runyon every morning when she wakes up.

And that's our girl these days. Sweet, spirited, loving, defiant, silly, brave, smart, and joyful all rolled up into one cuddly little package. I don't know what to do with how much I love her.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Our sweet baby girl turned two years old today!! I'll do another post next week (after her check-up) with all her stats, etc. But this post is all about her party!! Chris left work early and we met up with all Red's friends at a local inflatables playhouse called Loco-Motion. Everyone had such a fantastic time...the pictures speak for themselves!

Lots of inflatable bouncy houses to play on, climb on, and slide on!

Delilah and Lila playing air hockey. Too cute!!

There were also all these little rooms set up as a miniature village, with a grocery store, animal hospital, theatre, etc. The kids loved playing in them.

For party favors, we let each kid choose a plush animal that they got to help stuff at the stuffing station. The girls were all choosing the pink bear, the poodle, the fluffy bunny. Not Delilah. She looked at the wall of choices and distinctly said, "Green! Green di-no-sauh!" I love her!
Then it was pizza and cupcake time! Since Red is SLIGHTLY obsessed with Elmo, I took it upon myself to craft some Elmo cupcakes. I think they turned out pretty well, especially since every single kid immediately recognized who it was supposed to be! :)

Red frosting (pricked with a fork to look more like fur), white candy melt eyes, mini brown m&m pupils, orange Reese's Pieces nose, and half-Oreo mouths.
When everyone started singing Happy Birthday, Delilah got SO HAPPY. Her little face lit up and she kept looking around at everyone, so giddy and almost unable to believe that she was the center of so much attention. Her reaction completely melted mine and Chris's hearts.
All the kiddos enjoying the food

Such a happy birthday girl

Good night

First Haircut!

Today is Delilah's birthday and while there will definitely be more on that later, I thought I'd take advantage of her naptime and post about her first hair cut this morning!!

The day started off with Mommy and Daddy singing Happy Birthday, and a giant Elmo balloon waiting at her table downstairs.

Then I decided that it was time to take the plunge and get Delilah her first haircut. She's needed one for a LONG TIME, but I've been avoiding it. And since her hair is curly and her bangs curl off to the side, I could trick myself into thinking it wasn't that long and it wasn't that scraggly. It was. Here are the befores. Don't judge.

(How cute are those converse shoes? Thanks, Mimi!)
In the red firetruck, all draped in a cape like a big girl.
Combing out the tresses. The only time Delilah cried was when Miss Colleen sprayed water on her hair to wet it down. After that, she was as good as gold. Of course, the steady supply of suckers and the Dora movie certainly helped!

The first chop! (Yes, I cried. Why do we moms do that?! It's just hair!!)

All done! What a big girl!
High-fiving Miss Colleen
Cute and sassy bob from the back.
My precious doll.

First Baseball Game

For those of you who don't know, Chris is a DIE HARD baseball fan, especially the NL league, especially the Astros. It took longer than you would have thought, but we finally took Delilah to her first baseball game. While we were in Rockport, we made the quick trip over to Corpus Christi to watch two of the Astros farm teams (the Corpus Christi Hooks and the RoundRock Express) play each other.
Red has never seen a baseball field, but when we walked up the stadium stairs and she saw the field for the first time, she yelled out really loudly, "All Riiiigghhht!!!!" I'm pretty sure it made Chris's week. :)
We had great seats along the 3rd base line, and Red stayed put for the first two innings. Then we played in the awesome kids' area behind the outfield for awhile, then we came back and watched another inning or so. We had such a fun time...can't wait to do it again!

"Come on, Dad, we gotta get down there!"

Racing down our row.
The view from our seats. So close to the action!

First funnel cake. "Holy s*#$, Dad, have you tried this? Quit taking pictures and eat some. It's amazing!"
Family pic. The lady who took this picture said we were, "raising her right" by bringing our daughter to baseball games. So cute. :)

Rockport Vacation: Part II (Easter Egg Hunt!)

Last year, Delilah napped through her first Easter Egg hunt, and I had no idea if she'd be interested this year. She was EXTREMELY interested. The Easter Bunny hid a TON of eggs for D and the 4 boys and they had a blast finding them all.

The hunt is on!

Getting some help from Daddy and her sweet cousins

Enjoying the fruits of her labors

Sugar-induced meltdown. "Mommy...why can't I have my 1000th piece of chocolate before lunch?!?!?"

And I will end again with another picture of my favorite two people in the world. After the Easter hunt craziness, and the sugar meltdown, Chris took Delilah outside to cuddle on the porch. When she was all snuggled into his chest, he told her the story of Easter Sunday and why the day is so beautiful and important. Thank you, Lord, for my incredible blessings.

Rockport Vacation: Part I (Outside!)

Team Huntley just returned from a lovely 6-day vacation over the Easter holiday. My parents were out of the country and graciously let us use their beach house in Rockport while they were away. We were joined for part of the time by my sister, Jenny, and her family, as well as Jenny's husband's sister (got that?) and her family. We had a great time getting sun, going for boat rides, fishing, going to a basball game, Easter Egg hunting, and having a great fish fry. This first post is full of pictures of us enjoying the weather...which was beautiful, just awfully windy at times!

John and Jeff with some of the redfish and trout that everyone caught
Chris proudly holding one of his trout

The dogs VERY interested in the catch

Brenden and Delilah trying to be all grown up in the loungers :)
Runyon was in heaven on this trip!

Going for a boat ride. The trip was cut very short b/c Red DID NOT want to wear her life vest.

Playing in the baby pool

Worn out

We took Delilah to the beach for the first time and she loved it. She's played in a sand box before, but the endless stretch of beach was almost too much joy for her to handle. It was really windy, so we didn't let her get in the water. I was afraid she'd think it was too cold, and then not want to get in it the rest of the summer. She didn't mind at all...with all that sand to play in, I don't know if she even noticed the ocean.

Oh, I love them so much.