Kelsi Turns 2!!

I have never had 2 years of my life go by faster than the last 2 have! People are always telling me don't blink and now I know why. I remember the day Kelsi was born like it was yesterday. The thing about being a parent is that you stay so busy taking care of your child and working that the days turn to weeks and then before you know it another year has passed. As we were getting ready for Kelsi's birthday party we were looking through the pics from her 1st birthday party. Another thing about being a parent is how you don't notice how much your child changes in a year because over the course of the year the changes take place before your eyes. When we looked back at the pics it was crazy how much Kelsi changed over the last year. I so badly want to hold on to every milestone she reaches and remember when she says new words for the first time and hold on to every little memory. I keep a calendar of the funny things she says and does. She is truly nonstop entertainment  Carol and I ask each other "Do you say that?" to try to figure out where she gets some of the stuff she says from. She is so observant. Here are a few hilarious things she has done throughout the last year and milestones along the way:

January- learns to walk, starts table food, shakes head no

February- waves bye, high fives, shakes your hand, says "Ahh" when she drinks something

March- Came off of the bottle completely, says words such as hot, fish, dog, and shoes

April- 1st Easter egg hunt at Grannie Susie's, starts going to daycare at Mrs. Carole's

May- cut last 2 teeth, had hand foot and mouth, starts hugging people, competes with Grannie and Grandaddy for the other one's kisses, does touchdown, put your dukes up, crosses arms really fast, thumbs up but not actually sticking all the way up, says color eyes is ba-lue

June- says pease, starts dancing, picked up my phone and said "cheese", when she wants to go outside she gets keys to stick in door, at the beach she walked on beach for first time, picked up shells after watching us pick up about 2, loved the beach and water, got airbrushed Nemo hat and shirt from G/GD, wore sunglasses the whole time, pulls on mama's shirt when we shop so I can give her a kiss

July- when you ask her if she loves ___ she giggles, hugs and pats back, holds your cheeks to give you a kiss, went to the GA aquarium, gets blanket and Nemo then wants to get out of crib, says wanna ride and wanna bite, tries to do turkey sound with tongue, says "I want to see it", "I dunno", "Cue me (excuse me)", "tunder" (thunder)

August- if eyes are closed she says "Sh, seepin", says "all done", "gone, gone", "Oh gosh!", "alright", "thanks", "We're home!", "No, I'm Not!", "Hmm, let me see", "oopsie", "awe-fum", "wanna read it", "pizza", "moon"; went potty for 1st time

September- know daycare friends by name in pics, loves rice, says "I did it!", got tricycle from G/GD, said "Missed you" and garbage instead of trash

October- went to pumpkin patch for 1st time, says "umbrella", "he-a" for here, instead of hold me she says "hold you", tries to do Donald duck impressions, passed out papers on coffee table and called daycare kids names out

November- says: daddy's at work, what happened?, when you ask her "Where's Daddy's little girl?" she puts her hand on her chest and pats it and says "He-a", cheeses for pics, know where everything is and says she found it, covers her face and asks "Where did Kelsi go?", what a mess!, you see it?, calls gummies "mummies", says "ta-da!", calls her dad TJ, told TJ "Stop that Daddy! Cool it!" when he was tickling her, bess you (Bless you), tried on my shoe and said "I like 'em!"

December- says: Let's go, oh man!, tink you presents (tku for the presents), I la you (I love you), any word on something like a coffee cup is a name- Kelsi Jeffares, when getting m & ms for going potty she asked "How many I get?", folded hands to pray and said "our fa-da"

January- very independent and moody and has started becoming very vocal the last few days; for example raising her voice and saying "No! Now!" I see a lot of time out coming in year 2!

This time last year Kelsi barely had any little sprigs of hair. Now she has a little head full that curls up in the back and I have to put her hair up in the mornings so that it won't get in her eyes. When she turned one we have pics of her taking those first wobbly steps to Grannie and Grandaddy. We held our breath the first several weeks as she tittered and tottered around. Now she runs up and down the hallway and all over the place just like a grown up. Last year she knew a few words and could say little things like animal noises and identify her body parts. Now she knows her colors, can count to 6 by herself, knows any animal she sees and the noise it makes and can act like them, the names of everyone in our family, fruits, veggies, she can identify triangles, circles  and rectangles, knows here first, middle, and last name and so many other things. She tells you when she needs to potty and what she wants to eat and when she is tired. She is so smart! She surprises us with the things she knows sometimes. If you really listen to her it's hard to believe that she makes all the connections that she does. I am very grateful that Kelsi started daycare this year. I was very nervous about her going to daycare for the first time. Mrs. Carole has truly been a God send and has taught Kelsi so much!

There are truly no words to express how much I love Kelsi. Sometimes it's still hard for me to believe that I am the mother of such a beautiful  sweet, smart little girl. Today when I was packing to leave work I saw one of Kelsi's pics on my filing cabinet and I took at a few seconds to look at her. Her sweet little face was staring back at me with her little pig tails...no longer a baby- now our little girl. I thought to myself at that moment I am so truly blessed.

And as I do everyday I left work to head to the best part of my day. Every afternoon when I open the door at daycare the bell rings and I hear Kelsi shout "My Mama!!" Every afternoon she is so excited like it's her first time seeing me. And everyday when she comes running to my arms with that huge grin on her face all the stresses of the world disappear. Many things in life may change, but one thing will remain the same- that little girl is my world.

Kelsi you melt Mama's heart and you light up my life. You are everything I ever hoped for, and you grow more smart and beautiful by the day!

Christmas 2012

Christmas was so much fun this year! At daycare Kelsi learned about the baby Jesus. Every time she saw a nativity she was sure to point out the "baby Jesus". So sweet! At the beginning of December we took her to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops. She did not want anything to do with Santa or anything that was fake in the North Pole there like snowmen or elves. She did however love "riding" all of the fourwheelers in the store. We also took her to Calloway Gardens to see Fantasy in Lights. She loved it! We went on a week night, and we were the only car riding through so we stopped so she could see all the lights. We were even able to get out and take pictures. She also got to stick her head out the sunroof with her Daddy, which she loved. Her favorite part of the lights was the jack-in-the- box. She kept saying "again". She also enjoyed helping Grandaddy drive through the lights since we were the only ones in the line. Another part of Calloway that she enjoyed was the gingerbread man cookies.

We celebrated Christmas at Grannie Susie's, Grannie Juanita's, Grannie and Grandaddy's, and Nanny Carolyn's. We also had our "annual girls' Christmas Party". And we exchanged presents with Braxton. We are very blessed to have so many family and friends in our lives during Christmas and year round. As a result of all the festivities Kelsi has enough babies to start her own daycare! This also includes 2 doll strollers, high chair, swing, and baby bed.

It was so much fun doing Santa with Kelsi this year. On Christmas Eve she was very concerned about leaving the milk and cookies for Santa, which we did .We also read "The Night Before Christmas" and watched "Shrek the Halls". "Shrek" has become one of Kelsi's favorite movies in addition to "Tangled" (which she lovingly refers to as Punzel). On Christmas morning the first thing Kelsi wanted to check on was the milk. We showed her it and most of the cookies were gone. She picked up the remainder of a cookie and started eating it on the way to the tree to check out all of her presents.

The presents were wrapped and Kelsi was sure to get every bit of wrapping paper off of each present before checking it out.  She also became very good at unwrapping presents. She loved all the presents, and in between she would say "Hmmm, I pick." After she opened all of her presents we showed her her "big" gift from Santa this year- her kitchen  Her reaction was priceless! There was a lot of "wows!" as she discovered the cupcakes and hotdog and cups, etc. She loves to put something in the microwave or oven and say "Cook. Wait (with arms crossed)" then 5 seconds later "Ready! Eat!".

                                       

She was also very excited when she discovered Donkey and Shrek in one of the boxes. This was a Christmas that we are sure to remember. It was the first one where Kelsi started to understand what was going on, and we had a blast!