So It Appears....

....as though 2011 is NOT my best bloggin' year thus far.  But that's okay, because the first several weeks of the year are proving to be some of the best weeks of my life! Bloggin' schmoggin'.  I WANT to be better at blogging regularly again, but life has this way of speeding up, instead of slowing down, so it doesnt appear the 'ol blog here is gonna be rejuvenated as I had hoped.
So I am done making promises for more posts or pics to come.  I cant promise (obviously...as I have promised twice and delivered once).  But I will try to post once a week just so I have a record of our weeks and our playdates and Whitney's latest. Deal? Deal.

So for now, some pics from Whitney lately:



When the sky was falling attic fell last month, I was forced embraced the opportunity to go through some OLD boxes that had been stored in far-away corners of the attic.  I found a doll I LOOOVED as a child, and after a good cleaning and some febreze, Whitney was THRILLED to add the new baby to her collection.

I was happy just snapping pics of her caring for her babies, giving them hugs and kisses, and making them bottles and feeding them  That wasnt enough fun for Whitney though! She decided that it wasnt good enough to walk her baby around the dining room table anymore.  She wanted to go outside and walk for REAL!

So we did. :) And she thought it was the COOLEST idea EVER!

We walked up and down a few houses, with Bailey on our heels, of course...and then greeted Daddy as he was finishing up the first lawn-mowing of the Spring!

Alas, the warmer temps were just a tease, so we were stuck inside again the next day.  Whitney is so adaptable, she didnt care that we had been in the same house for daaaays...but Mommy was going a bit stir-crazy.  Last year, when Whitney was just becoming mobile, I didnt really mind staying home a few days in a row.  But now that she is actively engaging in stories and imaginative play and climbing/running/jumping, I feel the need to escape the house after just one day inside.  Thankfully, the days are warming up again (70s alllll week and 80s this weekend!!) and Whitney was thrilled to paint for a while before naptime on a chilly day. 

Believe it or not, this picture is not a product of cabin fever, but the result of a little closet-cleaning in preparation for our upcoming trip.  My mom has bought Whitney some of the CUTEST bathing suits on the planet, but I reallllly wanted to see if my FAVORITE bathing suit still fit Whitney.  She didnt want to take her "Daddy shirt" off, so I slipped the bikini top on over the shirt.  I thought I'd get an idea of how tight it was and then pack it away for a potential baby sister some day.  I guess I shouldnt have been surprised when my shade-wearing bikini babe didnt want to take her bathing suit off!  She wore it, just like that, with the shades and the wand for over an hour.  It will certainly make its way into the suitcase next month :)

We spent a really fun moring at the zoo around the corner from our house to celebrate our friend's daughter's birthday.  Kylie was about Whitney's age when I met her while working with her Mom and Dad.  She turned 9 last week.  Insane.  Whitney and I were excited to check out some parrots and bugs and butterflies and frogs in an exhibit close to the birthday festivities :)

On Sunday, Eric and I were excited to have Whitney's Papa move in for a few days while he attended a work conference in our town.  Whitney LOOOVES Eric's Dad.  LOVES.  When he would walk in the door from work, she would RUN to the door squealing "PAPAAA!!!" as loud as she could.  We were all REALLY happy to have him here :)

Whitney and Papa had an awesome time baby-sitting each other on Sunday evening while Eric and I got to attend our first Small Group meeting for our church.  Our church is reading the book "Radical" and we have divided into small groups to discuss.  We REALLLLY enjoyed our meeting on Sunday evening, and loved getting to know more of our church members.  And it was especially nice to get out knowing that Whitney was HAPPY and having fun at home with her Papa. 

No tears at the church nursery drop-off all month, no tears or anxiety as we left her with Papa at home, and no fears or concerns during gym class/outings/or other social gatherings.  I think its safe to say our kid has a healthy attachment and knows we always come back. Parenting success feels great :)



On Valentine's Day, I said, "I think Daddy and Papa are home!" and it took about 2.4 seconds for these two to start stalking the windows and doors. :)



So we went out front to wait for Daddy to pull down our street. 

She couldnt wait for Daddy's car to round the corner, so she took off RUNNING towards the gates.

When she saw Daddy's car coming, she turned on her heels and started sprinting back towards the house to meet him!

Bailey and Whitney performed a nice little "Welcome Home, Daddy" dance, bounding and jumping around the driveway!

I recently noticed that we have about 6 pictures of me and Whitney from recent days. If we didnt get the pics from Christmas, we would have about 2 pics of the us together.  So Eric was nice enough to try snapping a few mommy/daughter pics.  Whitney was too wound up to cooperate, so this was the best we could get. 

She was even MORE wound up and excited when the doorbell rang and her Uncle Daniel, Aunt Crystal, and fabulous cousins, Kyle and Dean arrived for a yummy Valentine's dinner!

Eric and Daniel made a DELICIOUS dinner for all of us, and we were thrilled to spend time laughing and catching up as a family.  We got to celebrate Crystal's birthday with Whitney's new-found favorite, CAKE!!

She has started getting really excited about birthdays lately.  Going to birthday parties is always fun, but Whitney has started asking "Whittey's bir-day, Mommy? Whittey's bir-day today?" So again, it was no surprise when she asked to wear her first birthday party hat when she woke up yesterday. :) Another funny: We went to Outback for dinner on Friday night.  When we walked in, the servers were happily singing their birthday song to an unsuspecting diner.  When their song ended, Whitney excitedly yelled "HAPPY BIR-DAY!" while clapping, and when that wasnt cute enough, she yelled "CAKE!! Time for CAKE!" She will LOVE every second of her birthday party this April :)

And after a fun weekend, we were happy to spend a gorgeous morning relaxing at the park with "da boys" and "Aunt Summer". 
Last night, Eric's dad took us out to dinner at one of his favorite places, the Tilted Kilt.  Its a fun restaurant with a "Hooters" sorta flair to it, as the girls all wear teeny tiny kilts and cropped button-down shirts as they serve the tables.  Our server had a pretty flower tattoo across the entire side of her abdomen.  Whitney couldnt help but stare at it as the nice waitress took our order.  We werent sure whether to ackowledge the body art in front of the server, so we just said "wasnt that a pretty flower" when the waitress moved onto the next table.  Whitney continued to impress the waitrress throughout the meal, and she finally asked how old Whitney was.  I told her that Whitney is almost two, and the waitress replied "I'll have a baby soon, too."  Shocked, we all couldnt help but look at this tiny girl's abdomen in disbelief.  She said "Yep. Im 8 weeks along."  We all congratulated the nice waitress and made more small talk before she walked away.  I quietly said "Well those flowers will be growing soon!", to which Whitney loudly and proudly proclaimed, "FLOWERS GROW!" as the waitress kindly ignored our rambunctious toddler's excited observation and tendency to repeat everything she hears. :)

We have a Hollywood Studios playdate this week and some 80-degree days this weekend, and another Magic Kingdom playdate scheduled for the beginning of next week.  My friend Erin and I had fun watching our girls play today while she made a Minnie Mouse skirt and I made a Cinderella skirt and tee for the girls to sport at the parks this week. :) Rest assured, there will be plenty of picture-taking in the next several days :)