My favorite pictures from 2012

On this last day of 2012, I decided to go back and post one of my favorite photos from each month.  What great memories these provide and we look forward to the fun things to happen in 2013.

Happy New Year!

January--Sledding for the first time!

February--Sliding fun (a little blurry...she was going so fast!)

March--A total ham!

April--Trying to find daddy for a bike ride

May--A hard day at the zoo with friends!

June--A dancing machine!

July--Niagara Falls

August--mommy and Tabs!

September--Singing in the rain

October--goofing around in the basement

November--building Cinderella a castle

December--She loves dressing up!

This picture is from awhile back, but makes me giggle when I see it.  A few days after Thanksgiving we went to the grocery store to get some groceries.  All of us went as it makes it a bit easier for everyone when that happens.  Tabs was getting anxious towards the end...proceeding to touch everything and to not use her listening ears.  As we were checking out, she accidently knocked over James' coffee, which was still rather full (the teenage clerk leaned over and said "whoa...that's a lot of coffee).  We cleaned it up, but it was a prelude to what would become at least the next half of our day.

When we got home we could tell that Tabs was tired.  We offered to put her down for a nap, but she wasn't interested and was more interested in throwing a tantrum (yes, while we would love to say our daughter is perfect, she is two....see October 28 blog post).  So we decided that since she wasn't using her listening ears that she could get a timeout.  Once she calmed down we asked her if she wanted out of timeout and she said no.  Hum we thought...how is timeout going to be timeout if she wants to stay in it.  So, we made her get out of timeout, which just caused the whole cycle to start over again.

Finally, by about noon (when we should have been eating lunch), she marched to the top of the stairs and laid down, and fell asleep.  Ahhh...the life of a two year old!

 

Fun car photos

Sometimes you just have to take these photos....

On our way to Wisconsin Dells in November!

After a fun playdate with a friend!

A Day in the Life of an Elf

This year we took a Saturday morning to head up to downtown Minneapolis and visit Macy's 8th floor exhibit.  As it was last year, it was decked out with fun figurines acting out "A Day in the Life of an Elf".  When we went last year Tabs seemed to have a good time, but it was much more fun this year to watch her really trying to figure out what was going on.  She loved looking at everything and kept asking what things were.  Of course, at the end of it was Santa (see previous post).  We also stayed for a fun puppet show, which Tabs loved!

It's something fun to do during the holiday, so we may just make it an annual tradition!

Getting ready to head in.  All dressed up for Santa!

Along the way.

Some of the moving figurines

Tabs and daddy near the elves' kitchen!

Tabs and mommy at the workshop

Awaiting the puppet show.  As you can see, pink baby came with!

Just being goofy!

Santa came while we were in Indiana. The look on her face was priceless! Needless to say she LOVES it!

Because of the snow in Indiana every store except the grocery store was closed. Tabs made the best of it and had fun running the aisles.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Santa said "Put her on my lap and run".  Hopefully he doesn't hold this against Tabs!

Winter fun!

Winter arrived a few weeks ago, so Tabitha made sure to take full advantage of it with grandpa.  Even though it was cold outside, she couldn't complain about the snow.  A nice 15" of wet, heavy snow...perfect for snowball and snowman making, as well as sledding.  She even went down the hill by herself!

Snowball making with grandpa

Ready for her sledding excursion (good thing grandma and grandpa have a hill!)

First run down...not so bad!

Getting ready to go on her own!

So much fun!  Let's do it again!!!

A little lovin' for Fred...

A Puzzle Master

It started about a year ago.  For Christmas I got Tabitha an age appropriate puzzle.  A puzzle of animals that had the pictures underneath so that you can see where they were going.  At the time she was just shy of 18 months, but loved it.  Within one week or so she had the thing mastered.  So, it was back to Target to get another similar type of puzzle.  Again, it was mastered within about one week.

This fall, we had to make a stop to Walgreens.  Tabs and James were in the car and Tabs was napping, so I tried to kill some additional time in the store.  I walked the aisles and soon came upon the toy aisle.  There I found a twelve piece Cinderella puzzle.  I decided to buy it as Tabs wasn't feeling well and it may be something that she could do while just hanging out.  Never mind that the age level was for about 5 and up.  She loved the puzzle and soon began to work on it.  The first month or so was slow going and she needed a lot of help.  But now...a month and a half later she has the thing mastered yet again.

Working on it as soon as she woke up one morning

All done!

Showing Fred and Pink Baby how to be a puzzle master!

More silly zoo pictures

These pictures were taken a few weeks ago, but they continue the trend that we take pictures of Tabitha next to scary animals.  Perhaps you will recognize the crocodile from previous posts...it seems to enjoy that same spot.

Here we go....

Next to the crocodile

Running through the tunnel (yes, not a great picture but still funny)

Next to the warty pigs

Actually this is James' hand, but a pretty cool photo

Brown bear, brown bear what do you see?

Check out our favorite photographer's latest blogpost about Tabitha.  There are lots of fun pictures to Tabitha's second birthday photoshoot.  Thanks Jessica!  You are the best!

www.jessicabarkerphotography.wordpress.com

Christmas program 2012

Friday was Tabitha's Christmas program at school.  It's a short program with lots of singing, but so fun to watch all of the kids get so excited about it.  Tabs has been practicing for weeks her songs and we were even able to get a sneak peak of what songs she would be singing. 

The toddlers only had a few songs, but she did great.  Next year, when she's in one of the older classrooms she will have a lot more songs to learn.

Here are some fun photos from Friday.  A video will be coming soon (there's problems uploading it)

With one of her teachers after the program (and after a cookie--as seen on her face)

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My feet hurt

A few weeks ago as I picked up Tabitha at school she complained about her feet hurting.  Really, I thought? I just had her feet measured about a month ago...she really can't be growing out of her shoes already.  I kind of blew it off and decided to worry about it later as I was in a hurry to get going so that we could get home at a decent hour.

Once we arrived home, we went through our usual routine.  Walk into the house, sit down on our stool, and take off shoes, hats, and coats.  As Tabitha asked for help I looked down and suddenly understood why her feet hurt.  I quickly realized that that day must have been done of those where they were practicing putting on  their own shoes after nap.

See if you can spot the reason why Tabs' feet hurt....

Yep...not only are the shoes on the wrong feet, the socks all in a bunchy, but (the hard part to see) the tongue of the shoe is also all messed up.  At least she's learning to get them on :)

A little tighter

After learning the news of what happened today in Connecticut, the first thing I could think about is how long until I could give my little girl a hug.  It seems like the majority of posts on Facebook this afternoon revolved around the same thing.  Everyone it seemed, was going to hug their children a little tighter tonight.

I don't even have the words to describe how I feel, and I do not know anyone.  If you had asked me how I felt if this had happened three years ago, I would tell you that I would have felt sad.  However, as a parent I feel much different than just sad.  I feel sad, I feel heartbroken for those families.  I can't describe it, yet I am 100% positive I feel much different today than I would have three years ago.

All I could do this afternoon when I saw Tabitha was hug her a little tighter, and somehow she sensed it as she just wanted to be held by me for most of the evening.

My heart and prayers go out to those families who were involved today.

A future vet?

We spent some time in Wisconsin Dells a few weeks ago for a quick getaway.  The plan (which never goes as planned with kids) was to leave daddy in Wisconsin after our vacation so he could hunt with his friend.  So, when we arrived in Wisconsin we stopped at a store to get James his hunting license so we didn't have to worry about it later.

As we were walking down the aisle trailing after James, we came to the end of the aisle.  James had turned right and I was headed that way.  Tabitha stopped and proceeded to turn left.  Why?  She had spotted a tiny pink thing amongst all of the camouflage.  So, knowing that it would take James awhile, I followed her over and she had found a tiny Cinderella flashlight.  In case you didn't know this, she is in LOVE with Cinderella and princesses.  Once again I caved and bought her the flashlight (it ended up being good comfort later when she got sick on our vacation).

Once we came home, Tabitha decided that she was going to start playing doctor with her flashlight.  At first it was with James and me.  Looking in our mouths and our ears.  I guess that wasn't good enough though.  She then decided that she would start examining Fred.  Good thing Fred has a pretty laid back personality as he just went right along with the examination.

When I asked Tabitha if she is going to be a vet when she grows up, she screamed YES!  Based on her exam on Fred, she has a promising future.

Checking the fur

Fred handled this exam better than he normally does.  Guess Tabs has a way with the animals!

Elmo!

Tabitha is obsessed with Elmo.  She loves the cute, furry, red monster.  She often asks if she can watch Elmo in the TV (meaning Sesame Street).

Somehow over the years, I have managed to subscribe to many, many email lists that have sale items.  One of them is called Zuily.  They buy in bulk from a site and then offer a everything at a discount.  They send an email everyday and most days I tend not to even open it.  I fear dangerous things could happen to my checkbook if I do such a thing.  However, one day it caught my eye when I saw Elmo at 65+% off.  I decided to have a peek.  Oh my...such cute things that Tabitha would love.

Let's just say in the end I caved.  I bought Tabitha a three-piece outfit.  It still cost more than I had wanted to spend, but it was worth it when I saw Tabitha's look while I opened up the package when it arrived.

Her response: Thanks mommy for buying Elmo

Not loving the vest (she also doesn't like sweaters and socks)

Finally leaving on the vest (let's just say there was some bribery involved).  The face says it all though about how happy she is be wearing it.

A good picture at grandma and grandpa's house. (The vest didn't stay on after the picture though)