Happy Easter!

I know she doesn't look very happy in this first picture but it's because she wanted to see the picture on the camera. She just doesn't have the patience to take a picture first. I loved this dress when I saw it in the store. Mainly because it has no pink on it!

All dresses up and ready to go to church!
Of course she smiled as soon as I picked her up!
She discovered she could swish her dress back and forth. And then of course she started twirling.

She understood the concept of finding the Easter eggs pretty quickly. Danica got very excited whenever she would find another one. We used plastic ones because knowing Dusty she would have tried to eat them.

And she put them in her basket. Of course Dusty had to try to get in on the action. It was so much fun to watch her running around carrying eggs wearing Dora slippers. She loves her slippers and would never take them off if she could. I'm sure that she will want to "find" more eggs over the next few days until Jason and I get tired of hiding them and and the eggs "disappear". All in all it was a pretty good Easter.

A fun day

It was a beautiful day here on Monday. Sunny and almost 60. So Jason and I took Danica to the park to play for a bit. It was pretty crowded since it was so nice and there wasn't any school.

Jason loves this picture because the blue bars brings out the blue in her eyes so much.
Here she is getting ready to go down the slide. We just like it because she actually has hair to blow in the wind!

Later that day Dani had gone to play in her room and after awhile she got pretty quiet. That usually means she is up to something. Jason went in to check on her and called me in to she what she was doing.
At this point there were 18 blocks that she had stacked up. By herself, without any help. Notice that she is actually checking to make sure the blocks are lined up correctly. :)
This is about as tall as she could get. Either 21 or 22 high. After that it was too unstable and she couldn't reach any more.
She was on her tiptoes for this one. You can't quite see it but she has her tongue sticking out in concentration. She was so proud of herself that she had built such a big tower. She also enjoyed knocking it down!

Beans everywhere!

The other day Larissa came over to play with Danica for a couple of hours. She quickly discovered the container of beans that we have to play with. (Much less messy than a sand table!)
Danica and Larissa could have played for hours with the beans. They had a blast scooping them up and dumping them out.
Then they decided that it would be more fun to be in the beans! Needless to say there were beans everywere around them. I even found some later hiding in a vase.

Swim class

We've signed Danica up for swimming class at the Y so she doesn't end up a fraidy cat of the water like her mommy is. The only trick is to not get her ears wet because of the tubes. Easier said than done.

Clinbing out of the pool!
Contemplating taking that big step. And then taking that big step! Over and over and over.
Passing the ball to another kid. While singing of course. And she didn't want to give the ball up.

Working on her leg kicks.
Blowing bubbles with Daddy!
She has become so much more confident in just a couple weeks in the pool. She doesn't hold you with the same death grip as before. She loves to step in the water and doesn't like it when she has to stop that to do somethng else. Including leaving.

Random photos

I wanted to share some of the random pictures that we have taken over the last little while.
This one is of Jason playing with Danica on our bed. She loves getting tossed around by her daddy. One of the things she particularly loves is climbing on his back and getting bounced up and down. She hangs on for dear life until he tosses her off and then she climbs right back on again! (Notice the drool spot on the back of his shirt.)Danica has started to love being carried around on someone's back (particularly mine!). It doesn't matter if it is while you are standing or if she gets to ride you like a horse. It's all good.
I just had to show that her hair is almost long enough for full pigtails! Yea!

Danica absolutely adores the kitchen that she got for Christmas. She loves to cook with it and loves all the drawers and doors that it has. She has even dedicated a little drawer as the silverware drawer! Granted, nothing else can really fit in that drawer but I think it is cute!
What a ham!
She went through a phase where she loved the phone book. She would carry this heavy thing over and ask to read. She always manages to find the tiny animal pictures in adds for vets and pet stores!

Here she is just absolutely unable to keep her eyes open while watching a movie. But she is hanging on to her popcorn for dear life. I guess that she knows that Dusty will try to steal it. (notice Dusty eying the goodies!). She likes to watch her shows while sitting on the old tv rocker that we have.

Ear Tubes

Sorry it took so long for me to give an update on Danica's surgery. She did really well. We had to be in Portland at 6:00 in the morning so Dani and I left at 5:00. She stayed awake the whole drive up there and was in a pretty good mood. That is until we got taken back into the pre-op area. As soon as the nurse took out her stethascope Danica freaked out. In case you didn't know, Danica does NOT like doctors. She then proceeded to cry for the next half hour while they were getting everything ready for her (paperwork, etc.) Then the anesthesiologist gave her some percocet to calm her down so they would be able to do the surgery. I really wan't some to take home because she was hilarious on drugs! Very smiley. All the nurses came by to she her because she was so funny. The tubes only took about 20 to put in. That includes the time to knock her out too. She did not wake up happy from anesthesia. She did a little better after she was able to eat and drink something. One reason she was so fussy before surgery was because she was hungry and a hungry Danica is a cranky Danica. She is doing great now and we have a recheck in a couple of weeks. I just hope that these tubes cut down on the ear infections.

Quick update

So yes it has been awhile since I've posted anything but here are the excuses.
1. Hassel of the holidays. This actually should count for more since it has many layers. Not only did I have to work this Christmas but I made dinner for several friends (hi Kim, Rachelle and Kevin!) all while having a terrible cold. Except for dessert which was made by Kevin yum-oh!
2. My week off following Christmas I was still wiped out from the cold and feeling lazy.
3. Then I went back to work.
4. Danica got the stomach flu.
5. Then Jason got the stomach flu.
6. Then I got the stomach flu.
So you see I have my reasons. But I did want to give a quick Danica update. At Danica's 2 year check we brought up some issue with her Dr. They mainly were that she wasn't talking as much as she should be and her gross motor skills weren't up to par. Well, at the appointment she had yet another ear infection which makes 5 in less than a year so we got a referral for an ENT and she will be getting tubes put in this Thursday morning. And since she isn't talking she saw an audiologist to check her hearing which came out good. She then got evaluated by a physical therapist who recommends 12 weeks of PT to work on her walking, running and balance. We missed the first appointment (see reason #6) so she starts it tomorrow. She also saw a speech pathologist and will have 3 weeks of speech therapy to try to get her a little caught up. And this has all been in the last month and a half. So we've been busy. She also started swim classes at the YMCA on Saturdays to help get her used to the water. We would like her to feel comfortable in water unlike her mom.
So that is the quick rundown of what we have been doing. And yes I will post more pictures soon!