Big girl bed!

So I finally converted Danica's crib to a toddler bed. I know that it's odd that an almost three year old was still in a crib but she never tried to climb out of it. So why change it. Plus she moves around so much when she sleeps. I just finally put a pillow in her bed last week. She is completely into Dora and Diego right now so I found a Dora pillowcase which she carried around by itself for 2 days before I even put it on the pillow. The look on her face yesterday when I took the side off the crib was just hilarious! She climbed right up onto the bed and was just so pleased with herself! I had to get her out of my way while I put the side rails on because they weren't the easiest thing to do by myself. Jason and I had picked up a new Dora sheet set and fleece blanket for her at Target Sunday. When we handed her the blanket to hold at the store she said "Oh, thank you much!" She then proceed to snuggle it the rest of the time we were at the store, and in the car on the way home.

I put the sheet on before she went to bed last night and she snuggled right down in her "big girl bed" She is very proud of her bed. We figured it was time to change it with since we attempting potty training. I say attempting because she hasn't quite caught on. But we don't use any diapers any more and just use the more expensive pullups! But Dani loves her "big girl panties" They also have Dora on them. Do you sense a theme here?
She didn't take a nap yesterday (of course) so when it was time for bed she was so tired. She barely finished singing twinkle twinkle and was asleep shortly after I left the room. She didn't get up until I went to get her in the morning after I heard her call for me. We'll see how long that lasts!

Oh so tired!

We have a little girl who thinks that she doesn't need naps anymore. But since this was taken at 6 in the evening... clearly she does. She had been watching a movie while I was getting dinner ready and when I went in to get her this is what I found. The green line in the middle is from the balloon around her wrist. She had gotten it at the grocery store earlier in the day. I figure its a dollar and it offers her hours of entertainment.


Jason got a great close up of her face all snuggled up. She normally doesn't fall asleep watching movies so you know she was tired!

Play time!

Danica has gotten to play with Larissa quite a bit in the last week or so. Kelli and I took the girls to a playground and also to an indoor park where they had a blast.

They were climbing over everything and were always aware of where each other was. With all the other kids there they would call for each other if one couldn't see the other one.

They wouldn't let the other kids slide down with them. A little boy tried to sit on the slide next to Danica while she was waiting for Larissa and she told him "NO! That's 'Rissa's!" I had to laugh. They were getting along very well that day.

One of the things at the indoor park was a spinning thing. The girls loved it. There were however some minor disagreements that involved which one got to spin them and which direction they would be going. Fortunately they hadn't eaten lunch yet. Especially since Danica was in it once by herself and a different girl got in and starting going way too fast. I had to tell her to slow down because Danica was getting scared. She did for all of 2 seconds and then sped right back up again. Let's just say the a big pet peeve of mine and Kelli's is when you go to a place like this and completely stop supervising your children. When the waver that you have to sign to get in says you have to watch your own kids and then you let them run free, it bugs us. The ages range of kids in there was from about one to 7. And there were a couple of 6 or 7 year old boys there that were just wild. Including climbing on top of the playhouses and then getting in the houses and just holding the door shut so no other kid could come in. Sorry for the vent but the moms weren't even watching them at all. They were too busy chatting with each other. Drove me and Kelli nuts. We left while that group was eating lunch. I don't even want to think about what kind of energy the kids had after they got some sugar in them!

Couple of cuties

So instead of reposting the same pictures and basically retelling the same story, I put in a link to my friend Kelli's blog. It has some cute pictures of Danica and her friend Larissa.

http://jklpinkertons.blogspot.com/2008/09/twins.html

So click the link to see them!

Happy Grandparents Day!

Making cookies

Danica had her first adventure in baking last week. I decided to make some cake mix cookies with her. Reason for cake mix ones over regular cookies were: alot faster, fewer ingredients, and they don't make tons and tons (that I will then eat!) Plus they're yummy.

I mixed anything that needed a mixer first and then let Danica add stuff. She suprised me by being patient and not getting upset when I needed to take the bowl back and mix it some more.
She spilled a tiny bit of the mix on the table and was very concerned by it. Once I told her it was okay she was fine with it.
She really liked stirring the mix. She did not however like it when she got a little of the batter on her hands. I can't wait to try something that requires hand mixing with her! That will be interesting!
Adding the chocolate chips!
Danica's job while I scooped out the dough was to say "plop!" when the mounds of dough hit the pan. She was very amused. And so proud of her cookies.

She had to have a little snack of chocolate chips while we waited for the cookies to bake. If you look carefully you can see the chocolate drool out the side of her mouth!She was very proud of her cookies. And they turned out quite tasty too. It is kind of a cross between cookie, cake and brownie in taste and texture. They are definitely better fresh. Two days later...not so good.

The Redwoods

Danica's Grandma and Grandpa Ryther came out to visit a week ago. None of us had ever been to the Redwoods so we had decided that would be a good time to go. Danica was a champ in the car driving down there. I think it took about 6 hours of drive time. We stopped in southern Oregon at some wineries that Jason and I had wanted to go to. It helped break up the drive. Jeanine (Jason's mom) found a great cabin to stay in. It was at the Redwoods RV campground by Cresent City. They looked really new and were comfortable enough for the 5 of us.

Here's Danica sitting on the couch with Papa and Daddy. What you don't see is that they were trying to get her to give them some of her Kix cereal. She wasn't havin' any of that. Danica doesn't share food! (She get's that from her dad:)

We went on a trail that lead to what is known as the boy scout tree. Here you see Danica in the carrier backpack. She did however walk at least a mile on the trail before becoming tired enough to go in the carrier.

This is is in front of the boy scout tree. It doesn't even begin to show how big it is.
Danica had worn herself out walking. Plus it was naptime. So she slept on quite a bit of the hike back out. Did I mention that it was a 5.4 total mile hike?
Jason and Don went on a separate, more challenging hike (that Jeanine and I passed on) the next morning. This is Don standing on a tree that has fallen down.


There was some mist in the forest that morning and Jason got some amazing pictures of it. I can't wait to see how they look developed!

The campground had a big playstructure for kids who stay there. Danica loved it. It didn't have a swing but the 4 slides made up for it.
She loved the speaking tube thing.
We had a great time down there and found a couple of good places to eat. Eagle eye Don spotted an burger joint that proved very yummy. Old fashioned ice cream treats were has there as well! We also had some tasty seafood. It was a good trip and nice to make it down there before we move. A few more days would have been nice but since it basically takes a day to go and a day to come back and Don and Jeanine were only here for a limited time, that wasn't possible. It does make me want to see the Sequoia forest.