Tu-tu-tu! ( Two more months until two!)

With her favorite thing being a tutu these days, I thought the title for this blog should have a tutu twist, so there you go! : ) When thinking about what she should wear for her 22 month post, I realized, why tell her what to wear, during a month like this? I need to represent her "free will" that is most often exercised while getting dressed and let her choose for herself!
From head to toe, Bekah decided on her Ballerina Headband, Pink Leotard, New tutu, pink leggings with ruffles and ballet slippers!

She made sure to include accessories such as a puppy purse and a pink bracelet!

This month has definitely been the month of opinions on dressing and through experience, we have learned:

- if I sing a song about the church dress I want her to wear she just may put it on

- get her outside first and then put her jacket on her, she will abide, realizing the jacket does feel better!

- if I select 3 or 4 outfits for her and then, let her decide which one, it helps

- if do her hair and clip her nails in front of TV, she is always none the wiser!

I am all about her expressing herself and having fun dressing up, so many days she looks just like this!

Along with opinions on dressing, she has opinions on whether or not she wants to: clean up, wash her hands, get into the car, come inside,  leave the park (many of them being transitions). Distracting her with what will happen next often times works, but when that does not work, time out has been a biggie in our house this past month and as I look back, I can say it has been effective!

It works like this now: she does something she knows she is not supposed to, I tell her no and remind her if she does it again, she will go to time out. Sometimes, we don't mention time out until the 2nd or 3rd time, it just depends on what she did. I have discovered that time out works best up in her room , with the door shut. We put her in there for 1 minute, and then, when the time is up, she says sorry and we tell her we love her and give her a big hug. She responds well to this and I am very happy with where we are here.

This is one area that I do struggle in (discipline), always wondering if I am doing what she needs, being to hard on her, being too lenient, if I am doing the right thing . . . As a teacher, I never felt like discipline was my specialty, but we always found a way to make things work, and I am hopeful that it will be the same with Bekah. I just keep praying about it and calling on those wise mommy friends of mine!

For the last pic, I asked Daddy to get in to represent probably the cutest part of this month:

As of now, when daddy is in the room, as my friend  appropriately stated, "mommy is chopped liver!"

It is sooo true y'all! It is precious to see and not an ounce of jealousy fills my heart, for this daddy deserves every bit of her adoration, he is amazing with her!

It's been a month full of losts of personality, opinions, smiles, laughs and fun!

- she now knows all her colors

- chooses to sometimes talk in short sentences

- she does lots of imitative play with her dollies, it's really cool too if I want her to do something, I just have Barbara do it first, and what do you know? Now Bekah wants to wash her hands!

- she generalizes thoughts and ideas so much now! she saw my new shoes that looked like rani's and said, "rani's shoes!" she saw a big heart, medium heart and small heart on a page in a book and said, "daddy heart, mommy heart, baby heart" while pointing to each one! so cool!

- she loves to play copy cat, only she must be the one in charge, for if you decide to make a move on your own, she looks at you as if to say, " what are you doing? i didn't do that!"

- she knocks on things that won't open or are stuck, even a marker lid, she goes, "knock knock!" teehee!

- whenever she misses something or someone, she walks around the house saying, "tan jacket, where are you?" "charlie, where are you?"  she even said, "evie, where are you?" the other day!

- is now telling me when she has a dirty diaper!

A shout out to some of her tutus:

Tutu #1

Tutu #2

Tutu #3

( one of the days I let her wear whatever she wanted while running errands)

(There are about 4 more tutus out there . . )

But when there is not a tutu in tow, there may be sunglasses . . .

A new thing we started at dinner time is, giving her books once she finishes. That way, mommy and daddy can actually finish their meals too! It makes for a nice family dinner, it isn't so rushed this way and works so well!

(Yes, that is a pink bathing suit/tutu on her while the temp is surely no more than 40 outside!)

Special thanks to the book that started it all, Richard Scarry's, What Do People Do All Day?

Look familiar? I remember looking at this book for hours in our school library when I was younger. It has sooo many cute little pictures and words, it's great for vocabulary building and like mommy like daughter, Bekah too could look at it for quite a long time! Thanks Gramommy!

And what do you know, us Burkharts finally jumped on the band wagon and turned her carseat around! She LOVES it! Now, every time we get to where we are going, she says, "more carseat, more driving, vroom, vroom!" and may or may not begin to cry!

This month has also been great in the way that we have resumed our little daily/weekly routine that I find myself just LOVING! I love the schedule that has sort of worked itself out for us this year and I know that Bekah does too. Here is a snapshot of our week, just to make sure I document this sweet time in our lives where we play, play, play!

(Thank you to all the dear kids and mommies who have made our days here in Houston so blessed!)

Mondays:

Music class in the morning (I had to sign a waiver saying I would not take pics of other kids in the class, so, we will let this activity go without a picture) and then,

the park with our playgroup in the afternoon!

Bekah, looking for her new favorite thing, ladybugs:

Daddy recently taught her how to hunt for ladybugs and now she looks for them everywhere!

Daddy is such a good teacher!

When we are not hunting for ladybugs, we can be seen with our friends, like the soon to be big brother Jack:

Jack and Bekah on their way to the playground set:

We also love to sing and dance with our friends at the park, like Ring Around the Rosie with Anders and Colt:

BFF's, Colt and Jack! These guys really do love each other!

Colt, showing his manners and helping out the girls : ).

This is Bekah with her friend from music class, Chloe : ).

Afternoons at the park are the best!

Tuesdays:

Tuesdays are our free days where we don't have anything planned and I love it! We can do impromptu shopping/errands such this day when we went to Pottery Barn Kids! Bekah had been so good, shopping for most of the morning, I took her here to play as a reward and she could have stayed there for hours, it was so much fun! She was in heaven with all their little tables, little kitchens and baby doll toys! They even happened to have storytime as soon as we walked in!

Other Tuesdays we might make plans to see friends that we don't see as often, like Zoe. Bekah loves playing with Zoe, and I promise, Zoe does too, she just wasn't into this hug that Bekah was wanting to give, teehee!

We also love to see the Smiths and the LeRouax' but we must always be having too much fun to take pics because I don't have a pic of them since before Christmas!

Wednesdays:

Wednesday mornings we walk to the library for storytime and this particular day, Daddy got to go with us!

We love seeing our neighborhood friends here too!

( Ting, Jack, Courtney and Colt)

Lately, instead of singing the songs, Bekah has ventured off to the books, not such a bad thing : ).

Notice she chose a ballerina book : )

Wednesday afternoons we tend to go to the Children's Museum too : ).

Thursdays:

Thursday mornings I am so excited about because Bekah and I go to BSF ( Bible Study Fellowship). They have a children's program and of course, one for women and I simple adore going and I couldn't be more excited and grateful that two spots just opened up for Bekah and I to join! Bekah also gets to play with another one of her friends named Jack!

Thursday afternoons are open to do such things as,

have a Bitty Baby Playdate with friends!

Abby, Lina and Bekah all have Bitty Babies and so, we mommies thought that the girls needed to meet one another's babies!

I didn't get a pic of Abby with her baby, but here is the cutie with her letter blocks:

Lina with Bella:

Bekah with Barbara : )

( and yes, the girls now know one another's babies' names! I thought it was cute, the way both of the girls were looking down for their pics, showing off their eyelashes perhaps?)

Fridays:

Friday mornings are open  and then on Friday afternoons, our West U playgroup gets together at one another's houses to play : ) Here are some of the kids looking out the window watching the doggies play,

so cute!

What a special and fun filled month Bekah boo! Every day, you make me giggle and smile, you are my favorite gal to spend my days with! I know I am constantly kissing you and telling you how much I love you but I just can't help it, I want to tell you and hug you all the time! Each day I ask you "Who loves Bekah?" and I get everything from "Jesus, to Hamburgers (?) to Rani, to Daddy!" Teeheee, it sounds like you are feeling pretty loved these days and I always hope you feel that way!