Birthdays!!

Danica climbed a big hurdle--she is no longer mommy's baby. She is mommy's big 2 year old.

It is hard to believe that it has only been two years. Until you see how much she has truly grown.

We had a party at the Park for Danica--since that is her favorite place to go. The defining element of the party was the cake. Once Danica saw the toys on the top of the cake--nothing could distract her. Not little things like opening presents or eating cupcakes.
Of course it was too windy again this year to actually blow out the candles, but Danica was more interested in the eating the frosting to wait. Of course that was until she actually got the Elmo and Big Bird cars. Then she didn't even care about the frosting.

Overall the party was a lot of fun. The other children had a great time opening Danica's presents while Danica was playing with Big Bird and Elmo. Of course she got a lot of Elmo. Danica has a mild (major) obsession with all things Elmo and Sesame Street. (Note the shirt--she loves to name all of the characters on her shirt. All you have to do is ask).

But I did say BirthdayS in my title. This weekend we went to the Birthday party for Aunt Phyllis. After cake, ice cream and m&m Danica was focused on playing. And this is my favorite one to watch her play with.

Ghosts and Goblins and...Little Red Riding Hood

Memories--Here are a picture of Danica at Halloween last year. She was a ballerina and so super cute.

And here are some pictures and a video of Danica at Halloween this year. She was Little Red Riding Hood. She is so tall that the costume (I got the one for 2 year olds) was almost too small.

We went to a neighborhood Halloween party. She loved the cupcake walk, the candy the people. But what she loved more than anything else was the bean bag toss game. She kept running back to it. She became almost a permanent fixture at the table.

No one minded because really she didn't care about the candy. She didn't care if they gave her any or not. All she wanted to do was toss the bean bags through the holes.

umm I think it has been a while...

My Aunt Shirley subtlely reminded me that I was slacking a little on my blog updates--okay maybe she blantantly called me out and maybe I have been slacking a lot on my blog updates but you get the picture...

Anyway, Danica and I have been doing well--just nothing exciting enough to warrant pictures and a blog update. But you ask so I deliver.

Every weekend morning (or better yet every morning I am off work), Danica and I have been going to the park. Danica knows the route so well she gets excited the moment she first sees the playground equipment in the distance. The screaming exuberance is contagious.

Her favorite part is the slide--she would spend all day going up the stairs and down the slide if I would let her. And she gets even more excited if she can drag me up to the top so I have to go down the slide with her--fortunately for me I am also the photographer so you don't get to see those pictures. :)

I had noticed that she also seemed to love playing with the sand--so I invested 99 cents into a sand toy kit that became an instant hit. So now I am the look out for more sand toys. Her other newly discovered--or at least new to the blogging community--passion is all things Sesame Street with Elmo and Rubber Duckie as the strong leaders of the group. So she could not contain her excitment when we showed up at the park the first time and Duckie was there to play with.

This morning Danica was obsessed with the sand as well as the duck, so this Duckie got a nice sand scrub. Oh the pampered life of the playground pets. :)

The Vacation Continues

After the whirlwind of the first week of our vacation, Danica and I have slowed down a little for our second week of our vacation. We have spent more time at home playing, coloring (lots of coloring), watching Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba (Danica's two personal favorites), and reading. I found that Barnes and Nobel had a big sale on their clearance books and got Danica three kids books. She loved them and has had Grandpa and I read them to her repeatedly.

I took this picture with my phone. Danica stole the bandana I had on my head for my yoga class (thats the best way to keep my short hair out of my face). And she had such a great smile on her face I had to share it with all of you. Hopefully I get the same laugh that I did.

Vacation!!

I had to take a vacation since Danica's sitter "Nana" took a vacation. And Danica and I have been super busy on this vacation.

Friday we went to a party for a friend's kid's birthday. Danica went into the bounce house--and loved it. Which is why this picture is not so good--she was moving way too much for the camera on my phone to be effective. :)

As we were trying to leave she saw a cupcake. I am thoroughly convince that she is addicted to cupcakes--she doesn't even care what the flavor is. But we couldn't leave until she got her cupcake.

We went bowling on Saturday with friends--well I bowled and Danica played with the younger kids and teens watching them in the arcade. Apparently Danica's favorite game is Skiball. The teen would hand her the ball and she would run it up to the end of the alley and then try to get it into a hole.

Monday, my dad smoked a corned beef (yummy homemade pastrami) and a pork butt. We have had the best sandwiches ever. And Danica steals pieces every chance she gets. I made myself a salad with pastrami on top--I only got about half of the pastrami. :)

Tuesday we ran errands.

Wednesday, I took Danica to a splish splash pad. And she made a lot of friends. Although she wasn't as sure about the water coming from over her head. She liked to splash more than she liked to be splashed. :)

More updates to come. We have a full schedule for the rest of our vacation. :)

When A Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

Yep she has discovered pudding!!

Before and After

We went to a cousin's wedding reception last weekend. And Danica had a ton of fun. But I had to share the before and after pictures.

Before--she had a cute little hair decoration that matched her dress. Her dress was pristine. Everything was perfect--and I managed to get her cute little smile on camera. Perfection:

After chasing her around the cultural hall and church for an hour and having her steal the strawberries off of our plates so she could eat them stem side first (no amount of coaxing would convince her she would be happier starting at the other end), we headed home. The hair decoration had come off by her own hand, and she seemed more impressed with the crazy hair style that the removal created. You can't see it in picture, but the dress is now covered in food (as was the table cloth--sorry Miriam). But what can I say, I still got her cute little smile in the picture, and I still happen to think she is perfection:

Do you hear what I hear?

Danica's Aunt Laurel and Uncle Shane gave her a keyboard a while ago. I have been avoiding putting batteries in it because she has been so impressed with the button pushing without sounds that I figured why ruin a nice quiet toy. Well, we finally broke down an put the batteries in. So every night we are blessed with her musical talent.

The video below will give you an idea of how musically gifted she is but it is in the dark because I was really trying to convince Danica that it was time to go to bed. Not necessarily very successful at that particular moment.

Summer's Here

Some signs that summer is here:

Danica and I have lots of invitations to go play at friend's pools.
An upcoming vacation where Danica and I are going to spend lots of time together.
The market at the corn field is finally open after we have been watching the corn grow into 5 foot tall plants.
The local farmers market has the the yummiest tomatoes to make the yummiest tomatoes.
I get to make the best sandwich with Laughing Cow cheese wedge, basil from my container garden, and heirloom tomatoes.
Ice cream socials every Friday at work--fun, friends, and ice cream--what more could a friend want. :)
Oh yeah and finally Danica gets to eat watermelon--and she eats it like a Nicoll with a little salt. :)

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

Danica putting the watermelon rind in the secret compartment of her musical table.

Success!! The watermelon rind has been forced into the secret compartment. Yes I do realize it is not that secret.

Proof that I in no way have to force her to eat the watermelon. Yep she's a Nicoll. :)

Party Time

Danica and I went to the Nana School Reunion, where all the kids that Nana (Danica's sitter) has watched all got together. There was a pool and games and lots of fun to be had.

Here is Danica at the start of the party. Aren't those the cutest flip flops ever:

And Danica's favorite game was drop the balls into the tub of water the other kids were using to fill the balls up so they could squirt water on people...until she figured out that she could also squirt water on people. Then it was no holds barred. :)

Let the Good Times Roll

This weekend Danica and I got to meet up with friends from New Mexico at a surprise birthday party. Danica had a ton of fun throwing birthday balloons in the air and then saying "ut-oh" as they came down. She giggled even more if they came down straight onto her head.

After eating a little pizza we went outside so Danica could get some of her pent up energy out. She immediately found the broom and started trying to help with sweeping the patio. And she quickly made the broom the prized toy to play with. :)
Now if only I can get her to do that for the kitchen and bathroom at home, but something tells me without all the other kids trying to "play" too she won't be nearly as interested. :)

Day trip to Vernon

I wish the reason for the trip had been happier, but yesterday we went up to Vernon to attend my great uncle's funeral.

The service was beautiful. And I know the next family reunion won't be the same without JT. I think to honor him I will make something that needs to sit on the cooling rack he gave me as a wedding gift. So many options. :)

Danica had fun playing with her toys and running around. She had Grandpa walk around the church with her about 4 times. Then we sat in the mothers room throughout most of the service so that I could hear the service and Danica could run around and play.

I completely blame the hair on the wind--the wind was crazy.

We also went up to the upper ranch. They have thinned out the trees a bunch and it was a big surprise. We could see the trailers from the road. Danica slept most of the time we were at the upper ranch so I didn't take any pictures.

Then we went to the lower ranch and showed Danica a bunch of the pictures on the wall.

But her favorite part was the windmill. She kept pointing at it and talking about it--in a language we have yet to understand.

Then we went out to see the horses. Again with the wind--you think I am exaggerating--I am not--it was crazy. :)

Cody let her get on the back of the horse--first she wanted to sit side saddle. How ladylike--Glorya would be proud!
Then she decided to straddle the horse--tell me she isn't a cowgirl at heart!

Dinner with a smile

Every day I love to come home to Danica. She really makes me laugh and smile no matter what. And today she was particularly cute--she absolutely loved the sauce Grandpa made to go with the chicken tenders. And she loved watching Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader (we had not watched it with her until tonight). But you can tell from the video why we ended up having dinner with a smile:

Saturday in the Park

Saturday Danica and I went to Playtopia--which is really one of the coolest parks I have ever been to. I hadn't been there until my friends invited us, but I am seriously considering having Danica's birthday there. Anyway, we had tons of fun at the park. The weather was perfect and with the all over shade, all of the play equipment was not hot.

Here is Danica and I on the slide--afterwards she tried to get every big kid going down the slide to take her with them:

Here is Danica after she tried to copy the big kids going up the slide:

Here is Danica jumping on all of the play equipment. She really loved the sound she made when she would jump:

Finally--Danica's favorite thing to do was jump on the draw bridge because it made the draw bridge go up and down:

Cousin's Dinner

This past week we went to Cafe Rio for cousin's dinner. Overall, I really enjoyed my food. I thought the meat on the salad was quite tasty. I enjoyed catching up with the cousins. But I really loved watching Danica's expressions, particularly as she was stealing food from Grandpa's plate. :)

"No really everyone--Grandpa wanted me to steal his beans and rice"--Danica

Mother's Day Weekend

Danica and I had a very busy Mother's Day weekend. We started celebrating early with a Pool Party and BBQ at a friends house. Danica had not really been in a pool much until the party but she loved it. She stood on the first step of the pool splashing and kicking--and of course giggling. Then one of my friends let us use her pool toy for babies, which looks like an inner-tube but has leg holes for the baby's legs to go through. And she loved that. My dad and I are going to start looking for one for her to use throughout the summer because she had so much fun being lead around the pool on that.

Here are some pictures from the party:


Then on Sunday we decided to go to Harper's Nursery and get the herbs that I wanted for Mother's Day. Unfortunately they did not have any thyme that looked good for cooking (the onese there were more for ground cover). But they had Rosemary and Basil. So that is what I got, but they told me to try again in two weeks and they should have more options.

So I took the Basil (I named him Rathbone) and Rosemary (Rosie) home and transplanted them. Here are some pictures of them now: I am hoping they will grow as quickly as Danica did. :)



Finally, Dad noticed that we had a hummingbird who built a nest on our carport. I had seen the hummingbird a couple of times flying around some of our bushes--I showed Danica and of course she giggled. But it was neat to see the nest. I had never been this close to one.

Dancing with Danica

Danica's favorite show has become Dancing with the Stars. Every week she gets very excited as the music starts. She loves to spin herself in a circle. Or she bounces up and down while moving her arms. The whole time she is laughing her cute little giggle.

This week she started wanting Grandpa and I to get into the action as well. She has come over to our chairs, taken our hands and had us help her spin. So we are now her dance partners.

I would take pictures but everytime she sees the light, she stops. She really is not as shy as she likes to pretend to me. :)

18 months...can you believe it?

I know that I can't. I have been looking at her in amazement thinking where did the time go?

But yesterday we went to her 18 month check up. She is doing very well, except she really wants nothing to do with laying on the exam table. The moment I set her down on it she starts crying...and my heart just breaks.

But she is now 33 inches tall (90 percentile) and 23.11 pds. (50 percentile). And I did clarify, and that means she is taller than average but she is average weight. I am pretty sure that means she is a typical Nicoll--tall and lanky. :)

Weekend fun

Work has been crazy all week--by all week I mean Monday and Tuesday. Monday I had to run a workshop on campus for new students, and it ended up being larger than anyone anticipated. Than Tuesday I had to MC an event on campus--which went well until the closing when I suddenly said it was 2005. Huh? Where did that come from? :)

So I have not had a chance to update everyone on the weekend fun. My friend and I took our kids to the Salsa Fest in Tempe. It was a blast!! I got to try like 50 different salsas. Some were great. Some I am not sure why those people were in a competition--but to each their own.

My friend and I were not really big fans of paying $7 for burritos, particularly for the kids who were probably not going to eat much anyway, so we went to Chick-fil-a. This was the first time I had taken Danica into Chick-fil-a. We had always gone through the drive-thru, so I knew she loved their food. But I had no idea how much she would love their play area.

She had so much fun that she did not want to stop to eat--which if you know Danica really is a feat. She usually can't wait to eat. She also got to go on her first slide ride with on of my friend's kids and seemed to love it.

And yes I finally had a chance to post a picture. Aren't you all impressed? :)

Crazy Weekend

Danica and I went to Tammy's softball game this weekend. Danica ran and ran and ran. I do not actually know what happened at the game because most of my time was spent watching Danica.

But Danica also had a blast. She found this man hole cover just outside the field that made the greatest sound when she danced on it. And she danced and danced and danced. This I enjoyed because she danced in one place that I could watch from a seat. :)

Hopefully next time my niece Jess will be there too. She can run and run and run after Danica. :)

I promise pictures soon. I have some great ones to share on my phone but I am still figuring out the best way to get them off my phone and onto my computer. :)