Our little monkey

So, this past week Nicole has picked up a new trick: CLIMBING!!! She know keeps me even more on my toes and I worry alot more. She also falls off of everything, even if I'm less than a foot away. She has worried me a few times, but she hasn't broken anything.....yet.

In addition to the slide that she has managed to climb up backwards, she has mastered the following:

The stairs (but that has been for several months now)

The couch

The dining room chairs

The brick ledge on our walkway (yes, the taller part)


The bathtub (and she knows how to hold onto the toilet to get out)



Her stroller

We have also had to do some home repairs and Nicole has decided that she makes a good helper. She loves to help me work on the front yard in the dirt and watering the lawn. She really loves to help her dad and she helped him fix the kitchen sink.

First, you have to inspect the damage.

Next, a good helper hands dad the tools.....and makes sure the cabinet doors stay closed. The entire time Nick was working on it and when we had the doors open so it would dry out, she would sneak by and close them (I guess she does remember some of the good habits I try to teach her...).

Finally, a good helper makes time for a good story during the union mandated breaks.



I really think she likes to be a good helper because of the reward at the end:

Finally, there are two things that Nicole has done this week that totally melted my heart and stuck a smile on my face:

First, she has developed a total love of reading (yah!!) and loves to snuggle up to read a story. And has figured out some of her favorites. One of her favorites is about daddy animals coming home and at the end the child's dad comes home to the child shouting "daddy! daddy! daddy!". It's a lift the flap book and Nicole is in love with it!

Second, Nicole and I were playing with her legos on the floor earlier this afternoon. We are both quietly playing with our own pieces and just exsisting near each other, not really playing together. She gets up from her legos, walks over to me, bends down and gives me a kiss on the mouth and then stands back up and walks back to her legos. Isn't that the SWEETEST?!?! This is the first time she has given kisses without being told to.

I LOVE OUR BABY GIRL!!!

Having Fun!

I am behind on updating everyone on Nicole's latest adventures, so here is a rundown:

I recently read on a blog that a great activity for toddlers is to hand them several stacking cups and let them explore. Don't give guidance or direction, just let them play and explore. I did this for Nicole and it has kept her busy for 20+ minutes on several occasions.....however, occasionally I do jump in and play (I can't let her have all the fun!).

Here is a picture of the cards we made for Nicole's wonderful grandparents!! We really don't know what we would do with out them in our lives!!

Nick and Nicole made me a beautiful card that says: "I love you with all my fingers and toes". It amazes me to compare her hand print on my shirt from last Mother's Day to the handprints in the card!

After church, she decided to have some playtime in the front yard!

She did stop waving for long enough to wave goodbye to dad's boat!

We spend almost all of our freetime outside playing with the hose! On occasion I get the smart idea to put her in a swimsuit before we go out to play. Aunt Hannah would be proud of Nicole's patriotic swimsuit!

A while ago we had a painting play date at our house. Imagine Nicole painting with 3 other one year olds and one 2 year old! We had so much fun and got paint everywhere!

Happy Birthday Aunt Stacy!! We were invited to share in Stacy's birthday celebration at Don Jose's and Nicole had her first sampling of salsa. This is one area where she is more like her dad than her mom! She LOVED the salsa!! She would dip her chip (after a while it was a fork because I had to take away the chips due to her choking on one) before every bite! She even managed to eat one of the big pieces of tomato in the salsa!

Of course with this wonderful weather, we have spent lots of time at the park! The swing is her favorite (the slides come in at a close second).

Finally, I'm caught up to today!! This morning Nicole went to her first swimming lesson. She cried during the whole lesson. I hope it goes better next week! Nicole is very lucky that Nick is working in Chino on a side job, so he is able to be a part of her swimming lesson!

After swimming lessons we went to a splash park in Corona for a playdate with her painting buddies. Nicole preferred looking at the nonwater playground than being part of the splash park.

But I was able to get her in the water long enough for two pictures!

Learning through life

So, I am posting several pictures of Nicole learning during our day to day activities. Sadly, I don't have a picture to post of Nicole eating her yogurt today. She figured out how to scoop the yogurt out of the cup with a spoon and put it in her mouth. However, most of the yogurt landed on her and the highchair tray. She then painted with the yogurt. We had a BLAST!!!

While playing outside, I decided to pull weeds out of the planter. Nicole had other plans for the weeds though. She would walk to the bucket, pull out a handful and put them back into the planter. She kept this up for about 15 minutes.

Here are the weeds that Nicole put back for me.

We have also decided to give Nicole her first chore: sweeping! Everytime we go outside she drags the broom along with her. She has been doing this for 3 days now.

On Wednesday we went to visit my parents while Nick was doing electrical work at Valley. Nicole learned the basics about running her own business. She found out that there is alot of paperwork involved.

However, playing with the stamps is quite a bit of fun!!

What can I say? Like mother, like daughter! She 'read' 3 books like this!

A "new" classroom

As many of you know, due to budget issues, I stopped working yesterday. I am sad that I am no longer in the classroom, but I am very excited that I get to spend more time at home with Nicole and managing the house. That being said, I have spent some time creating a classroom for Nicole. Even though she is too young for formal teaching, there is SO much that I want her to be able to explore and experience and I wanted to make sure all the supplies I need are in one spot and not easily accessible to her (like the bubbles, paint, and crayons). I also decided to make her toy area a little more appropriate for her and am trying to find ways to make it more Nicole-friendly.

I took advantage of a Target coupon and printed pictures of what should be in each bucket. This way as she grows she can help me put toys back into the correct bucket. However, I only did 10 of the buckets, because I can't decide what to put in the other two.

Here are the finished buckets with pictures. She currently has 3 that are full of books (like mother, like daughter).

Here is part of her "classroom". It is in the dining room since that is where her highchair already is and it is an easy place to do art activities. The shelving thing was a baby shower gift and it has side pockets for small things like paint and bubbles. The front pockets are just the right size for wooden puzzles, paper, and other fun projects. On the left I added a ribbon with clothespins to showcase her projets. In the middle is a pocket chart where I can put flashcards or other goodies on display.

Today I have also found a great reason to put her classroom in the dining room! She finishes eating way before I do, so I can easily grab a puzzle or some crayons and paper to keep her occupied while the rest of us finish our meal.

Since three toy buckets (and her bedroom bookshelf) weren't enough to contain all her toys, she has a basket filled with fun books to read and a little reading chair. The chair also blocks my cookie jar and cookbooks from a curious toddler. I also have two green baskets for her crayons and coloring books. The other one is basically empty until I figure out a use for it. Above that is my cd player and all kinds of CD's with children's praise music and fun learning songs.

The other day I got an awesome deal on the Melissa and Doug alphabet magnets, and so I made the mistake of putting them on the dishwasher for Nicole to play with. However, after she went to bed I spent the next 30 minutes trying to track down all of the magnets that she had gotten EVERYWHERE! My solution was to use a magnetic tray so I can easily clean them up once she is done with them. So far it works great!!!

I cannot take credit for this fun activity. I saw it on Pinterest the other day and thought it was great! It is a discovery basket that I can give to Nicole while I am working on dinner or need to occupy her for a few minutes. The idea is to change out the objects when she seems to lose interest in the items. Also, she only gets to play with it for short periods of time so that it doesn't become "just another toy".

Another Pinterest idea. This is great for distracting Nicole when she gets into the baby wipes. It is a Kleenex box filled with scraps of fabric that are about 2 feet long. I used a variety of fabric types so she can feel/explore the different types of fabric. The best part is, it takes about 15 seconds to clean it up!!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Feel free to come by sometime to learn and explore with us! (Just call first)!!