time flies with a toddler

I kick myself for not posting more, mainly because I know I will want to reread this in a year or so myself. Every day I swear that Holland gets more funny and witty, and dare I admit it- even cuter! I realize that I am the most biased person, but she is just the coolest two year old!

One of my favorite sayings that Holland has started saying is "All done, NOT!" It just cracks me up. We have complete conversations all the time and constantly I am amazed at what she knows and can comprehend. (everything!)

Here are two videos from a few weeks ago. My goal is to try to take a video of her today putting puzzles together. I was just amazed the other morning when I watched her put 2 puzzles with interlocking pieces that do not have outlines on the cardboard... I am horrible at puzzles, so it is exciting to see how great she is! Hopefully, those will come later today!

--and these videos are just Holland being a total goofball a few weeks. I admit, she had eated a bit of ice cream before these were taken and was obviously on some sort of sugar rush.

And now January videos

Well, look at that- exactly a month since my last post. I guess that is better than waiting two months, right?

Here are 4 little videos I took of Holland the other day in the bath. She absolutely loves taking baths and can and will stay in there as long as I let her. We switch back and forth between her normal bath toys and her foam letters and numbers that are a big hit. I know that a lot of what she is saying in these are hard for anyone other than her mother to understand, but hopefully you get the gist of most of what she is saying...









I know that was a lot to share at one time... I liked at least a little something she did in all of them though.

Not a whole lot to share in other news. Holland seriously is getting funnier and more adorable daily. I tell Joe all the time that she is the most genuine person I know. Everyday she tells me the sweetest heart-felt things. From just the sweetest "thank you mama" for everything (never with prompting) to "I love you" or today she even said "bless you mommy" when I sneezed. She is pretty sweet. Generally Holland has been quite the mama's girl, but lately she is requesting that her dad do a lot with her. Yesterday in fact when she woke up (at about 6 am, so Joe was still here) I went in to get her/change her and she said "no mom- go away, I want dad". So, Joe came in and I asked her again if she wanted me or dad to change her diaper and she said "no mom- I want dad, go away" She did say it sweetly at least... This morning she was very sad as Joe left for work because she wanted him to stay and color and draw. Most evenings (including this very second!) Holland and Joe color and draw on her magnadoodle. It is pretty cute!

Oh, and we are finally getting closer on potty training! Holland had just not shown any interest at all, so we kept talking about it, but not pushing it. She had used the potty back in MAY, but nothing since then until last week. Now at least she uses it in the mornings. Usually once or twice. The excitement she shows after using it is so incredible! Hopefully not that long down the road we won't have to pay for diapers anymore!!

December videos

Here are 4 videos- 3 taken in the last 2 days and then one a few weeks ago. The first two are very blurry- but somewhat depict Holland sledding- but alone and with Joe:





And this one was taken yesterday morning. Holland was in just one of those super goofy moods where you just never know what she is going to do next!



And here is one taken on 12/8- the first real snow we had fall. It was really warm out and felt so nice to just run around in the litle bit of snowfall that was on the ground!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

And, just like that the year is over. I won't even apologize for not posting in six weeks, yet again- as really this blog is only for me anyway- right?

We had a really nice Christmas here- just the 3 of us for the first time. Granted, it would be really nice to have family nearby- preferably family living close by. As it turned out though- the only options we would have had to visit family would most likely have fallen through anyway as all of the Pacific NW got hit with crazy snowstorms. So, it was just us 3- and that was okay. Totally okay. In fact, normally I after Christmas I always felt that depressing sunken feeling after Christmas, but this year- it is just continuing. I have always felt that the Christmas Spirit should linger on, and maybe just maybe it actually will this year.

Holland truly enjoyed our little Christmas morning, and therefore we truly enjoyed just watching her. We spent hours opening presents as of course she wanted to play with every gift after opening it. (and why wouldn't/shouldn't she?!) So we did that, ate some, took it easy and then went sledding. All in all a very nice day!!

As for recent Holland nuances- as this post is far more wordy than my normal tendencies... She is just a very silly girl! Holland carries her favorite baby (now named Chauncey) everywhere. Chauncey generally sits next to us at the table, rides in the car, you get the picture... Another favorite current silly thing is Holland tells me that she is a "tiny little baby" and likes to "learn" to talk. I ask her to say words like "mama", "dada" "bye-bye" and she uses this little baby voice. It is pretty cute. Hide and go seek is the number one game of choice around here. Holland *loves* the act of finding more than anything. Of course, most of the time barky Modoc is a total spoiler, but that is life in our loud house.

I have many, many videos I might add soon on here. If I ever get around to it that is... Maybe tomorrow as the weekend still lingers on?

New year, new layout

Maybe this will become more of a quarterly blog. Ha. I am offically going to quit adding a paragraph each infrequent post to apologize for my tardiness. From now on, consider any post one more than there was before. Maybe one day I will report the little things that make me laugh each day. Maybe...

So, as you all (if anyone even reads this?!) know, Holland has now been 2 for a full month! Crazy how the time flies. Her vocabulary is exploding more and more daily. She says the funniest things. A new thing she has started is every single time she falls down, runs into something, etc., the first thing out of her mouth is "Mo Mo did it!" (Mo Mo of course being Modoc, our dog...) Often times Modoc is not even in the same room, but I think she has learned that it is nice to have a scapgoat sometimes.

Another fun Holland-ism is her love for pretend chocolate. She will pick a specific spot and pick "chocolate" from it and then ask Joe and I (and Modoc...) if we would like some "tok-let". This will go on for a very long time often, but it makes me smile. I find it more funny because I honestly do not even believe we have ever had chocolate (minus some cocoa graham crackers, or something of the sort...)

Holland sadly got her first black eye a little over a week ago. She was dancing and spinning so fast in the living room, lost her balance and hit the table. She hit it just right, so that not only did it smack her eye, but her forehead as well. Poor girl looked like she lost a bad fight. There is still a trace of a bruise under her eye, but I think that the frequent doeses of arnica minimized the bruising and swelling.

Holland has developed quite the love for speed! Everything, everywhere she insists to "GO FAST!" She will run around in our living room, yelling "run fast" and then to mix it up will start to "run sssllllooooooow". She gets a kick out of the slow motion movements.

All right. I know that my attention span when reading other blogs stops after a few paragraphs, so better time to call it a day. I be right back to add a recent video of Holland helping me read one of her favorite books. Usually she does this with even more animation, but of course, everything changes with a camera in your face...

urgh- 2nd time here we go

So, I apologize; but apparently I will never be able to keep up with most blogger's timelines. I am however completely annoyed because I had what was probably my longest blog post ever, but silly me let my laptop overheat on my couch and it was all lost! Very frustrating!

Another frustration is that I have probably at least 10 videos that I have been waiting far too long to upload, but yesterday after uploading the first video my magicwonder camcorder broke :( It was only a small part that came off, and I am certain that it can be repaired after taking it to an electronic repair place nearby this week.

But, on to Holland, since I would imagine that is what most of you care about. She is amazing! Holland truly makes me laugh out loud everyday and amazes me more and more everyday. She is getting a lot better with counting. She now usually says, " one, two, six, eight". Often she will add "ten". She does like to repeat all of the numbers after me, but that is usually what you get when you ask her to count. She does also loves shapes. Holland's fave is probably the octagon, closely followed by the star!

What amazes me more than anything though is Holland's coordination skills. She truly is amazing!! Holland can easily keep up with very coordinated kids from our playgroups that are a year or more older than she is. She can climb anything! Most things are intended for kids much older than she is, and she just climbs and conquers things like there is no problem! I will have to take a video soon because words will simply not do what she does justice! It is so fun to be a proud mom and to constantly hear how amazing my child at something is though :)

Here is the one video that I currenly have to share. I am not sure why the picture is so off! It was taken approx. 3 weeks ago (eek! how time flies!)


And, for anyone that did not know- we just took a small trip to the mountains this week. It was just to a town (McCall) that is only a 2 hour drive from our home and a very beautiful location! Here are a few pictures that we took:

intended video

This is the video that I thought I included yesterday. It is a little long, so I totally understand if you skip it. I find the the last two minutes the best, if you want to keep it shorter.

no excuses

I don't know how it happens. Days turn into months, which turn into weeks which turns into an inevitable MONTH before I add another post on here? I don't suppose I really have a following anyway, but it is something that I had wanted to stay with consistent with, but sadly have failed a bit! Maybe I will pick up my second wind now. Who knows!

Anyway- so much has transpired lately. Holland moved to what had been our guest room a little over a week ago. I thought it might take awhile for the transition, but she has done phenomenal. She now loves going to bed with her two favorite babies on her new big bed. (and it really is a BIG bed- a Queen- what had and still will be when necessary- our guest bed) Holland's current favorite thing to watch by far is her Signing Times Videos. She loves them so! She does not even watch any other tv- and requests Signing Times all the time- by singing a cute little song. She has picked up a ton. I just wish I had started being more consistent with signing earlier. If I had only known how easy it could be!!

Holland often is getting sweeter everyday. She is very generous with her "thank-you's" and "I'm Sorry!" And this is without prodding from Joe and I. It is just genuine sweetness! She also showers me with kisses and hugs daily. The girl is just the sweetest! She is however currently cutting her two year molars (I am pretty certain anyway...) and is having a really hard time with them. I have read that they are incredibly painful as I can only imagine. The last few nights I gave her some teething tablets that seemed to help immensely and she was able to sleep all night. (hey- even getting up at 5:30 is all night in my book!)

As many of you have seen- Holland has definitely turned into a fish in the water! This past Sunday she definitely even stepped it up a notch from where she had been! She was standing up on a raft and jumping and practically diving into the water, often going underwater and would come up laughing and repeat! It is amazing to see how much she loves the water.

Well, that is only a drop in the bucket, but it gives anyone interested a bit of an idea on what our sweet, silly girl is conquering lately.
And, finally- here are three recent videos of Holland. The first two are just primarily Holland in her new room. I still have yet to decorate it, so it is pretty bare bones, but hopefully I will be able to liven it up soon! (you might notice that I did paint a wall though!) The last video is close to a month old, but it just shows one of Holland's favorite activities- stacking blocks. Try to ignore my counting in the beginning, apparently I need a lesson in counting myself as I can't believe how off I was! I will blame it on the camera blocking my view.

EDIT- Apparently one of the videos is not the one I thought it was! I meant to include one of Holland in her room, on her bed, putting babies to sleep, etc- but insead just uploaded one of her reading the same book for a few minutes. So, I will work on still uploading the intended video now, but if you do watch the reading one- just be prepared it is not the fastest moving video :)

another swimming video

Here is another video of Holland in the pool this weekend. She loves the water so!

50th post!

... and it has only taken, oh about 8 months.

I thought I would share some videos and pictures of my little water baby. Until about a week and a half ago, Holland had sworn off anything that had to do with water. She was terrified of swimming pools and even baths! I believe this all started because on Father's Day, Joe was going to jump in the pool with Holland and he lifted her over the edge (she was wearing a suit with built in floats) and I think it just really scared her, like she was going to be thrown in and left or something. So, for about 2 weeks, our water-loving baby was in hiding, but I am so happy to report that she is back!

She now does not want out of the water. (which stinks because the water is now filled with green algae and we can't shock it till this evening..) She is totally content to just swim on her own, generally does not even want to be touched. And, she does great! She swims back and forth between Joe and I- swims to the ladder, etc. I need to take a better video of her new swimming skills, but for now I only have one very short one...

So, here is the said video. The first 5 seconds is how Holland generally acts in the pool. But, she got grumpy because she just wanted me to join her.



And, here is another video- it was taken on the downside of take two of filling up our pool. (Had to drain it twice, fill it three times...) Holland had such a great time just jumping and splashing around!


And just to make this 50th post even longer, I thought I would add some swimming pictures as well:

another video...

Sorry, I haven't changed my slow-posting style. Here is a video taken of Holland this morning before we set out to run an errand to the store. I was hoping to get her saying more things she has started saying- but maybe next time.

I also have a few other videos I need to upload. Maybe I will actually get around to them tonight- don't hold your breath though!

So, for now, this will have to do :)

almost an entire week since we returned from vacation...

and I am barely getting around to this thing. I don't know why I find it so hard to add new posts.

So, as most of you know, our trip for the most part was a lot of fun. There were just some hard times (the first day for one- almost everything that could go wrong, did- flight longer than planned, horrible traffic, rental car couldn't find our key, had us waiting forever to get our unwanted car, condo key missing, etc...) Some days Holland did excellent, some days were more trying. She had a really great time at the zoo. She really loved the petting zoo. I did realize that it is certainly not necessary to try to do something grand and amazing for little ones, it is just the little things that are so big to Holland- and that is fun also.

Here is a little video of Holland taking on the beach. The first day Holland did manange to get her feet a little wet, but after that, she wanted nowhere near the water. Her favorite aspect by far, was just saying "bye bye" to the ocean. She would just yell GO!!! Bye, water! Funny girl.

yet another video

I have been meaning to share this video from this Monday I believe. But, I have been a little lackadaisical in my blogging I suppose...

This is just Holland being the silly girl that she is:


We leave tomorrow for our vacation to San Diego!!! I am sure that we will have tons of pictures and videos to share upon our arrival! I can't wait to go to SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo with Holland! It should be a great time!

Catch up time

Well, last Tuesday Holland and I got back from visiting my parents, grandparents and some other extended family members. One might think that surely I would have had an update, at least a few pictures or a video to share before now. But, I have been known to procrastinate.

This first video is taken before we left, Holland in our backyard. Most days we spend at least a few hours outside, with the majority of her time spent going up and down our 3 porch steps and then just hanging out on the patio and her little picnic table.



This video is taken just a few minutes later. Holland is fascinated with the number TWO! She seems to show zero interest in pursuing her counting past the number two at this point however. Maybe next week :) Holland also displays some impressive jumping off the steps moves in this clip.



And this one was taken at my parents' house. Holland was dancing around and spinning and making herself dizzy. It makes me dizzy just watching it!!

Rocking with friends

This weekend we had a great visit with my childhood friend, her husband and their 2 children. Holland really loved having two other children to play with all the time and they all got along so great! You will see that in this little video:

more videos?!

Here are yet two more videos that I took today. Lately, more and more Holland just is so sweet and funny (sometimes more funny than sweet or vice versa!) and I like to grab the camcorder for those times!

In this one Holland was just eating lunch. I just found it really cute how she was swaying to the African music in the background...



This video shows Holland totally tormenting Modoc. She, as most of you all know, likes to feed Modoc. Today I bought a cheap bucket and she thought it was extra fun to put his food in the bucket and then run around the house laughing like crazy!

A nice day at the park

2 posts in a day?! Woah!

Here are 2 short videos of Holland this morning at the park closest to our house. They are a little similar- mostly just her climbing the stairs and sliding... We probably will drive to another park later this afternoon, though I think that posting more than 4 videos in a day would just be overkill!

Silly antics

Thought I would share a video from yesterday as well as another one taken earlier this week... The one from yesterday unfortunately cut off short because the battery ran dead. But here is the background you didn't get- Holland was playing in the backyard and picked up a rock as she loves to do. She kept playing around and pretending to put it in her rock and sometimes actually putting it in her mouth. So, I threw it in the trash can inside. Then, she thought it would be funny to find other rocks, sticks or just dirt and run inside with them and throw them in the trash. You will also see that she is did not want me following her!!



This one needs no narrative- just Holland being Holland :)

No fear

Here is a little video of Holland doing something she enjoys- She likes to stand up on her pony and then bounce back in the seat yelling "whee" (when she stands she says wooah) At least in this video she held on all the time, she also likes to stand without holding onto anything, but we are trying to get her to at least always hold on- it seems to be working most of the time :) She truly has no fear in almost anything! (which can be a scary thing for us!!)