Silly Big Girl

Danika is getting so big and she surprises me everyday. She is now walking constantly, unless she wants to get somewhere really fast. In that case she crawls. But her walking is getting faster, though still a bit...reckless.

She was so excited when she got into Auntie Jamie's shoes, with a little help of course. She tried to move around, but didn't have much success in that since the shoes are pretty heavy for her.

Danika's new words are "ki-ki" for kitty, "puppy", "papa" and of course she still uses mama and "ba-ba" which means just about everything else! It can get pretty confusing. It used to be that "ba-ba" was just her bottle, but now it is everything. It is basically the first thing she says in the morning, or after getting up from a nap, or in coming up to someone. Luckily, from the wonderful Baby Einstein "My First Sign Language" DVD, she learned milk in sign language! So now we ask her if she wants milk and she does a movement that looks like she is trying to snap. It works well! And she is talking more and sounds like she is actually trying to say stuff, so pretty soon you can call our house and she might talk you ear off!

Another great accomplishment for Danika is that she finally has figured out to hold her own bottle! Thanks to Katelyn Jacobs for giving us a Dr. Browns (?) bottle, she is holding it and drinking all by herself! My arm has the long needed rest, thank goodness! What makes things funny though is that now she is practically inseparable from it! She wants it all the time and has it in her mouth even when it is empty. Sometimes I wonder if she is drinking from it or just holding it in her mouth at times. Who knows. She is such a goof. Gets it from her Papa.

Today we had fun with Papa by asking him for a special gift for her birthday. I sat her on his lap and asked her what she wanted Papa to get her. Then I whispered in her ear and she whispered aloud "Puppy". It was cute, unfortunately Papa didn't quite catch what she said since she was whispering. The rehearsal went better than the actual performance. :D

Valentines Day Photo Shoot

Since it was so dreary outside and we were so confined from the cold and everything, our photo shoot was less extensive as the year before with the kisses all over the face, but we got some cute photos anyways!

Big Girl Necklace

     I was going through an old box of mine and found this Minnie Mouse necklace that I used to wear when I was little. 

     Nothing too fancy, and Minnie is a little worse for wear and her nose is a little rubbed off, but while I was holding it and looking at it, Danika came up and wanted to see it.

     I held it out to her and she smiled while holding it, thankfully not pulling it or breaking it. I decided to take a chance with it and try to have her wear it. Keep in min

d that this necklace has the type of connectors that screw in, so she could do so damage to this necklace if she wanted to. 

     She was not entirely sure about it when I put it around her neck at first, but thanks to my "Quick Thinking Mommy Skills" I distracted her with a book before she could try to tug it off, and it was a success! She wore the necklace for the whole day and never tried to take it off! I was so proud and thought she looked even older with it on. Funny how one piece of accessory can add so much, lol! 

"Wanna Go Splash-splash?"

The other day, Danika was getting fussy and tired, but it was too early for her to go to bed. So, to keep her awake, we tend to give her a bath. So I look at her and say, "Do you want to take a bath?" Danika looks at me, with no real expression, then Grandma asks her," Wanna go 'splash-splash'?" She looks at us both and turns and walks away.

We are not sure where she is going, but she heads to the hallway, walks to the bathroom door and bangs on it. I open the door for her and she walks right up to the bathtub and did her little happy dance!

Evidently she really wanted to go "Splash-splash"! Haha!

Loving Michelle Obama's Dress

At the Inauguration Ball, Michelle Obama got some criticism for her dress. She has one fan in particular that approved and showed it.

My little fashionista...

Trip to Redding

Danika and I went to Redding to visit my friend Jaimie Alena. The first time we took the trip to Redding, Danika was six months old, and cried almost the whole way there. And back then, her carseat had to be facing backwards so there wasn't much I could do to entertain her while driving.

Needless-to-say, I was very excited that Danika would be facing forward so that I can hand her books and talk with her more. We left in the morning and it was so foggy and wet, but Danika settled in with her books and eventually fell asleep with her head in a terrible looking position. The drive there was a little difficult. Instead of a four hour drive, it took us more like six! Danika's naps were very short and few, so she got antsy very quickly and would toss the books aside that I had given her. So we stopped more times than I wanted. But we finally made it to Jaimie's apartment and proceeded to move in. :)

At Jaimie's apartment, there are stairs, and Danika LOVES stairs since we don't have any at our house. So naturally, she wanted to go up and down those stairs at least ten times when we got there. During the whole weekend we were there, it was her favorite thing to do.

We had such a great time visiting (and excercizing with the stairs) and luckily it took us only 3 1/2 hours to get back home and we didn't have to stop once! Thank God! Such great times and wonderful memories, I can't wait to be able to go back and visit again.