23 Months Old

I painted Mena's toe nails for the first time this month. They turned out ok as long as you don't look too close; she was kind of squirmy during the painting but was excited when I was done. They match her little Husker dress. Mena is now in size 3T which means clothes no longer come with diaper covers, but she did a good job of keeping her dress down all day. Mena's weight is still around 30 pounds, but we've moved her up to size 3 tops and bottoms. She's still wearing size 6 shoes. She got another tooth this month. The new tooth fills in the gap on the left side on the bottom between her front teeth and the 1 year molar.

Mattress Fun

Mena is learning to run and jump/bounce on a mattress to improve her balance. She's enjoying it but is still learning when/where it is ok to jump. So far she has jumped on her bed and fell off once. Then she jumped on the couch and fell off it. She hasn't jumped on either since then so hopefully she'll stick to jumping on the mattress only. I also showed Mena how to do a somersault. She knows how to get into the starting position herself. With my help she can flip over. The other picture is of her tipping over onto her side when she tried to do it herself. She laughed and laughed and laughed with excitement over her "somersault."

Art Time

I ordered some art supplies for the daycare and our mornings have gotten a lot more interesting now. In the first picture Mena is painting with her bingo dabbers. In the second picture Mena is putting glitter on the glue to decorate her letter M. She's really enjoying the projects we've done so far.

Visit to Fremont

Mena and I started our day at the sprinkler park in Fremont with Briget (a friend from high school) and her daughter Sami. Mena was a little shy and stayed by my side most of the time since it was the first time she'd met Briget and Sami. The four of us went to lunch at Burger King. After lunch Mena and I went to Edgewood where Grandpa Olson now lives. The second picture is of Mena coloring with Grandma Frye and then the third picture is of Mena putting the colors away with Grandma Olson. It was a fun busy day and Mena fell asleep in the car before we ever left Fremont!

Baking

Mena is enjoying the kitchen more since I started having her help me do the baking. In the first picture we were making cornbread from scratch. In the second picture she is licking the brownie spoon which she enjoyed!

Backyard Fun

After the neighborhood pool party, Mena was more interested in our sprinkler. Then with Traven in the toddler swing, Mena was forced to use the big girl swing. She wasn't too sure about it at first, but she's liking it now as long as we don't swing her too high.

Neighborhood Pool Party

As members of the Witherbee Neighborhood Association we were invited to the neighborhood pool and ice cream party. We skipped the pool part and took Mena into the sprinkler part of the city pool. She wasn't too sure what to think at first but was having a lot of fun after about 30 minutes. She did try going down a little slide into a little pool. We didn't get a picture since Gene was helping her at the top and I was catching her at the bottom. We met up with Gene after I got her out of the pool. Gene said, "Did she like it?" I said, "Absolutely not; she was horrified!" We took her back to the sprinklers for a bit before we went to get our ice cream.

Outdoor Blues Concert

We took Mena to SouthPointe Mall for a Blues Concert fundraiser for KZUM. It was a hot evening and I forgot her cup in the car. She quickly figured out how to drink my water. Totally we figure she drank about 2 1/2 cups of water in just a few hours which made for a very soaked diaper when we got home! The second picture she is pointing behind us to let us know that someone brought a puppy with them. The third picture is of Mena and Daddy dancing to the music. The fourth picture is of Mena getting to look upclose at a person on stilts for the first time. She stared from a distance but got a little scared up close.

Family Picture

Another item on the developmental charts is that she should point to the correct person when I ask her to. I think she was getting confused on finding me in the pictures because so many of the pictures were with my long hair so we took a current picture for her to look at. I've hung this one up on a cabinet at her eye level. She spends more time looking at Daddy than Mommy, but most of our conversation is about Daddy being gone at work. Mena has learned to repeat "Dada gone" after I say it. It's pretty cute to hear her say it. She's also learned to say "ah done" (all done) and repeats it after me when I say it during the day (all done eating, all done coloring, all done whatever activity I/we were doing).

Stacking

The developmental charts say Mena should be stacking 6 blocks high. For the longest time I couldn't even get Mena interested in stacking, but one day she discovered the joy of stacking. The pegs she stacked 17 high and it fell on the 18th. The blocks she stacked 7 high and it fell on the 8th. She was so proud of herself!

Little Shopper

Oh my! I thought Mena was doing pretty well with steering toys at home so I let her push a cart at HyVee. She is a crazy driver! I kept laughing out loud & resteering her in the right direction. She had a lot of fun!