February Review

February was a good month for our family and it was an especially big month for this little girl.

I think it's safe to say that Kiwi is officially potty trained. As mentioned earlier, I was initially resistant to the idea because I was still feeling sick and wasn't feeling up to dealing with the messes that come with potty training, but she did amazingly well. It really only took about a week and she has hardly had any accidents at all. She skipped right over pull ups altogether (except at night) and wears her "Tinkerbells" and "Doras" as she calls them every day all day. We gave the last of our size five diapers to one of her friends and Mike and I are thrilled to to be free of diaper changing responsibilities and diaper costs...at least for a few months.

Apparently ditching the diapers made this little one eager to shed all traces of babyhood. On her own she decided she wanted to sleep in a big girl bed. One side of our crib comes off to convert it to a toddler bed and here she is.

She loves the freedom of being able to climb in at night and climb on and off it during the day. Luckily for us she still hasn't attempted to get out on her own at night or in the morning. Every morning I hear, "Mommmeee, I ready to get up now!" and I go in to find her waiting (sometimes patiently, sometimes not) for me to get her up. We never told her she had to do this, but I am certainly not going to be the one to introduce the idea that she now has the ability to get out whenever she wants. I'm sure she will figure it out on her own soon enough.

I can't believe how fast she is growing up! February 14th marked her half birthday making her officially 2 and 1/2, but there are times it feels as if I have two four year olds. These are usually quickly followed by incidents of hitting her brother and/or fit throwing that quickly remind me that she is indeed still two.

We love our little Kiwi and are proud of everything she is learning and doing.

Also in February, my body decided it liked me again. On Valentine's Day I enjoyed a Mexican feast (usually one of my favorite foods) of chips, salsa, beans, and enchiladas. I hadn't been able to look at salsa, let alone eat it, since Thanksgiving weekend so I was happy to welcome it back into my diet. My energy is up and the fogginess that seemed to engulf me is all but gone. This is definitely the "honeymoon" stage of pregnancy. We have our ultrasound next week and we can't wait to get a peek at our little one.

A card Little Man colored for me...it's some of the best coloring I've seen him do

Valentine's Day morning, Little Man and Mike appeared with a bowl full of fresh delicious fruit and home made cream to dip it in. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries...all the berries I love but that are so expensive during the winter that I can't justify buying them fresh. It was a delicious treat and I would take that over the traditional breakfast in bed any day. Little Man also had a cute card he made and Mike a very thoughtful, sweet card (Kiwi had been asleep the night before while they worked on all of this). It was a great way to start the morning and made me feel very loved. Later, we all exchanged small gifts as a family and that night my cousins came over to babysit while we went to a fireside at the church on marriage.

The Friday before we celebrated by going out to eat at the Olive Garden (one of my favorite places, but yet another kind of cuisine that was off limits for a a couple of months...I love that I like food again!) and going to Home Depot to buy a new kitchen sink. Pretty romantic hey? We have been thrilled with our new sink, however, and it was an exciting purchase for us.

We also enjoyed mild weather through the month and were able to go to the park several times and even squeezed in another zoo trip with our good friends Miranda, Sage, and Kya before the moved to New Mexico.

Here's the kiddos pretending to be stuck in a shark's mouth.

And now it's March! Yay! One step closer to spring and sunshine, walks, more parks, short sleeves, flowers, and all the things I start to get really antsy for at the end of winter.