Lilah at 2!

This adorable sweet girl is 2!  And what a laugh of an (and sometimes frustrating) adventure it has been!  I have to say 2 is not as bad as I thought it would be.  She talks so much now.  We play "peek-a-la-loo" (peek-a-boo), we learn manners ("peez" and "dank you"), we love water anywhere/anytime. Hop On Pop is our favorite book (Pop Pop) and she calls flip flops ("pop pops" also).  She loves bubbles, other kids, Curious George, Dora, Elmo and Minions.  She sings "Shine" which is actually Katy Perry's firework song.  She is hitting and has a bit of a temper, but we're trying our best.  She is 2 after all.  She understands we are having a baby, but she told us she has two babies in her baby!  Our attempts at potty training so far have been a complete failure.  We have successfully pooped in the potty once in 2 months... that's it.  We'll get there?  Wish us luck!

playdoh

Visiting mom at work

She prefers to sleep diaper-less, what a hoot!

"folding" laundry= trying on laundry

Ryan Van Pelt gets chapsticked by Lilah

Children's Museum 

Minion button surgery

Swimming in Kansas City

Taking care of Baby Reagan with Aunt Carrie

I can't handle this cute face

My graduation party buddy

Another Baby to Love-- The Family Grows!

Bopper and his grand girls

Ben and I have been blessed with another beautiful little girl, Adeline Alice Nelson.  She is named for a wonderful great grandmother, Alice Gerard, who passed away the week before I found out I was pregnant.  Adeline is just a name we liked and close to great aunt's name, Adelaide.  I went in for an induction on July 10th and the labor was fast (and painful!).  But the end result was a surprise and a wonderful one at 1:30pm!  Lilah, Bopper and Gaga came to the hospital that evening to meet Adeline.  Lilah was so sweet and gentle with her.  She really likes her "little seester."  Lilah can almost say Adeline.

My girls

Meet Adeline Alice Nelson

The Otto's meet Adeline

Having two kids at home is different than what I thought--- it's way harder!  It's chaos for sure, but a pretty happy chaos.  I was breastfeeding Adeline on the couch and Lilah opened up the door to the garage and ran outside all before I could even sit up from the couch... thank goodness Gaga was here to chase after her!  A leash?  A front fence?  We'll have to figure out how to contain this energetic 2 year old during feeds.... there may be a lot of Sesame Street and Dora coming to our house.  So far Lilah has really enjoyed having a baby around.  Although, Lilah is rather adamant that Adeline has her wubbanub in her mouth at all times... and she really enforces this.  But overall, she is wild about this new baby at our house (Rooney... not so much).   We can't thank the Otto's enough for watching Lilah while we were in the hospital and keeping our house together.  In addition, Bopper Otto reconstructed a front pole for us and performed many other handy projects around the house.  We are so grateful!   We can't wait to see where this family takes us-- there will be plenty of adventures for sure!

A smiley face!

Bopper helped Lilah catch her first fish!  She considers it a member of our family

The Fishing Team

Princess Adeline

Wood Markers & New Beds

Ben and I spent many long hours (while 9 months pregnant also!) building a beautiful loft bed for Lilah since she was being evicted from the crib for the new baby.   Ben and I convinced ourselves this was a great idea and that she would love her new bed.   After it was finally built, Lilah tried it out.  She jumped so much she hit one of the sides giving herself a black eye during nap time.  Next up, bedtime.  Bedtime went well.  Other than attempting to get my hugely pregnant body up and down the ladder for book reading, it went great!  New bed was a hit!  We should have known that the silence shortly after leaving her room was not a good sign.  Usually we hear talking and playing for 1+hours after we leave her room at bedtime.  Lilah had found the spare parts kit we stupidly left on the windowsill and was having a wee of a time "accesorizing" her new bed. This included a wood marker intended to touch up scratches on the wood.  Lilah used this to decorate her body, her face, her new Frozen sheets and about everything else in her bed.  Elsa now has a mustache.  The next morning (which was Father's Day and a day I had to work all day), Lilah was VERY proud of her artwork and showed it off.  I had to leave for work, bless Ben's heart for cleaning up this little nugget and poor Elsa. 

Elsa with facial hair

She looks like a wild animal!

Note the black left eye and marker on her face

Proudly showing off her artwork

The Luge Extroidinaire

Although it wasn't her first time sledding, it was her first time out in the snow this winter!  We finally got 2+ inches of snow when it was above 0 degrees, so we hit the sledding hill at Butler University.  We initally tried the big kid hill, but quickly decided the small side hill was more up Lilah's aisle.  Lilah refuses to call it snow, she calls all snow "ice".  We've tried.  But we did some sledding on some ice.

She was outstanding.  Not only did she grin ear-to-ear all the way down, but she would laugh and scream "MORE!" at the bottom.  Lilah preferred the laying "luge" position over the traditional sitting position, but that's what I would expect out of a future Luge Olympian.  Now, walking in her snow suit was another story.  She waddled to the best of her ability, but our little penguin mostly wiggled on the ground and couldn't get up.  We had to giggle a bit.  

Overall, sledding was a huge success.  Even if she did eat some gray snow at the end in the parking lot.  She loves her "ice".