Our first baby, CeCe has really taken to Fiona more and more and the older she gets, the closer they seem to be. Fiona loves to give her hugs and kisses and throw throw her frisbee, she calls her in from the yard, gives her her food bowl and laughs at her wagging tail. CeCe is always following her around loves for us all to be together. I try to either throw frisbees in the yard or take her for walks every evening, but lately she has been putting the brakes on during walks. It is the strangest thing, we will get a few minutes in and then all of a sudden she will freeze and really dig in no matter how hard you pull. Sometimes I am able to coax her further, sometimes not. At first of course I thought she was injured, so I always check her legs and paws, but nothing. Then one day it dawned on me; this started soon after I found out I was pregnant. I know CeCe knows I'm pregnant because she has already started nosing my belly some nights in bed.

So I put together this little theory, and so far I have been right every time. CeCe will pull back if I am with her by myself and Pat and Fiona are at home. The same thing happens if Pat takes her by herself and Fiona and I are home. She doesn't pull back when we are all together or if someone just isn't home when we leave for the walk. This has been consistent EVERY SINGLE TIME since I started this little experiment. She is Shepherding us! Once we get outside of a certain radius of the house, she gets uncomfortable with us being separated and pulls to head home. What a mama dog, right?

Sometimes I can't believe how intuitive animals how and how protective and loyal they can be. Especially German Shepherds. Her job is going to get harder when we introduce a new baby in March, but I know she is up for the challenge!

We love you CeCe, even when you push your toys on us and steal the covers. 

Two Years!

Our girl is two years old! She loves bubbles, blankets, and tucking in her babies. She is decisive, determined, and sweet as pie. She like her new tricycle, doll house, and train, but I think the water table from aunt Becci is her favorite! She repeats just about everything we say and I'm pretty sure she understands our lengthy conversations about animals, playing outside, and eating cupcakes. She stopped saying "dolshers" for shoulders, but started saying "cubby" for cuddle. I will correct her letters and numbers, but I will not correct her silly words! She is working on counting 1-5. She has trouble showing two on her fingers, but she's getting the idea. She at least knows five is more than one because when Pat asks her if she wants one or five M&Ms, she says five! She got a new stool to help mama at the counter and she loves to stand up there and make pizzas, frost cupcakes, and eat snacks. We love this little girl and are trying to hold on to these days before they slip away. Here's to two years, baby!

20 Months

Fiona got her tubes replaced and since then, she has been saying new words everyday! Sosh for lotion, which she is obsessed with rubbing on her hands. Ow for owl, faffle for waffle among others. She is obsessed with her touch and feel books, and of course, Brown Bear, Brown Bear. She likes to push around her doll buggy, but does not want anything to be in it. She has grown incredibly attached to her bunny, "goggin" and her blanket, "lankie". She is good at getting her winter hat on and can even do one mitten. She always takes them off in the car and then when I open the door, she puts her hands up and says "Go?" like where did they go, hahaha. Probably her most common word, Go!

She is showing early signs of  potty training, which is exciting and scary. She points to her diaper after she has gone, she does not like to be wet very long. She also likes to play with wipes, so maybe sometimes she tells us she needs a change just so she can try to steal one...

She is starting to prefer Pat for certain things, especially when she wants to read books. She runs to great us at the door and comes in for a hug which is just the sweetest, most awesome feeling for us. 

Love you, Ona bear!

18 Months

Wow, it has been 2 months since I added an update here! Life has been so crazy, but our little girl has been making us smile and laugh every day. She loves to play outside now and cries when we have to come in. She moved up to the toddler room at school and does all the big kid things like drawing, music class, and playground time. She knows to come in and sit down so we can help her take off her shoes! She loved the donuts at the cider mill and carrying her "boo bucket". She had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease the week leading up to Halloween, so she didn't get to come to work for our Boo Bash, but she still dressed up at home and at grandma's house as a kangaroo! she loved it once she realized she could put things in the pouch :) She is getting into the make believe stage and likes to play with her fridge I made out of a cardboard box. She carries around bowls and stirs in them with tiny spoons. And she LOVES to talk on the phone. She will turn anything into a phone and just bladabladablada away, it cracks us up every time! She is giving CeCe a lot more attention and wanting to hug her or press heads together. She also just became attached to her lovey, the white bunny. We are trying to set rules for where she can take it, but so far we get a mini tantrum every time we take it away. That attachment happened REALLY quickly!

She runs to the fridge and whines when she is hungry and also will pat her diaper when she is messy. We ask if she needs a change and she will go lay down on the floor in front of our changing station! She likes to climb the stairs when it is bed time and MUST brush her teeth, it's pretty cute (she just chews the bristles and sucks in the bubblegum toothpaste). We had our first tub poop the other night too....

She is currently working on stacking her blocks as I type this, another task she gets very proud of. It is so fun to watch her master new skills. Meal time is sometimes our least favorite time of day because she gets picky and throws all the food to the dog, but on days when she eats well, it seriously makes me so happy.

We love you so much Fiona bird, we can't believe you are already 18 months!

16 Months

Fiona says "nana" for banana and "gog" for dog this week. Of course she also says mama and dada, but not sure if she associates those names with us yet. She says dada a lot when she is happy and mama a lot when she is unhappy...hmm.

We ask her, "Do you want to go up to bed?" and she will start climbing the stairs! She loves carrying around this sugar bowl from her tea set from Aunt Becci, so I have been calling her Sugar Bowl Queen. We went to the downtown playground this weekend and it took her a little while to warm up, but she eventually starting climbing up things and running around on the wood chips. We were so proud of her!

She has been trying more foods lately and this week's favorites are guacamole on just about anything, and cannellini beans (she didn't like the rest of the ingredients of my white chicken chili!)

She is getting braver and more curious each day and she loves her dog, CeCe. She has been much more handsy with her so we have to remind her to be nice and pet softly.

She is just growing so quickly I can hardly keep up. My favorite thing is when I kneel down, often she will run in for a quick hug. I melt! We love her so so much.