Helena - 18 Months

Helena turned 18 months old on January 21st, so we went to the doctor this past week for her well-baby checkup.  Fortunately, she did not have to get any shots during this visit, which means she was a very happy girl.  While we were there, we also got her latest measurements.  Helena is now 33.5 inches tall (90th percentile) and 21 pounds, 5 ounces (7th percentile)!  She has been learning new words everyday and is even forming short sentences now.  Her current hobbies include quacking like a duck, looking at books, showing us her belly button, and acting crazy:

The shirt says it all...

 

Snow Day

Thanks to five inches of snow, the girls got to spend yesterday at home playing outside.  The day's activities including clearing the deck, building a snowman (which ended up as more of a snowmound due to the powdery snow), and shovel rides courtesy of Dad.

 

New Bed!

We just moved Helena from her crib to her very first big girl bed!  She definitely seems to enjoy having more room for all the babies she takes to bed with her, and she quickly figured out how to get herself up and down without any trouble.  The first couple of nights were a little rough, but now it's really starting to grow on her.

Christmas at Home

Each Christmas, Santa is kind enough to make a special trip to our house after we get back from Oklahoma.  This year, Sophie awoke bright and early and came into our room to get us up so we could see all the presents he dropped off.  Helena wasn't nearly as excited about the presents until we started opening them and she realized there were toys inside. 

And the aftermath:

We always love our time with friends and family but, despite the mess, nothing quite compares to seeing how excited the girls are when they wake up in our house and see that Santa has visited.

Christmas in Oklahoma

We started off our Christmas break with a quick trip to Oklahoma to celebrate Christmas with friends and family.  The girls always have fun seeing everybody, but this year the highlight was definitely getting to play with their cousins and getting to visit their great-grandmothers:  

Early Christmas

Every year, our dear aunt sends early Christmas presents.  The girls really enjoy getting to open some gifts before Christmas Day, and it seems to make them even more excited about the holidays.  This year was no exception:

Sophie loved her new book and her new math toys (which she has been playing with non-stop since she opened them):

Even with all the fun toys, Helena's favorite gift was her kitty shirt (she loves Buster and Louise and "kitty cat" is one of her favorite things to say).  She liked it so much that she insisted that we put it on her immediately, over her pajamas:

Helena was upset that we would not open the cats' gift, so she tried to open it herself:

She was convinced there was a snack in there for her.  She was very sad to learn that it was really for Buster and Louise.  I guess the cat on the front of the bag didn't tip her off.

Despite the disappointment over the cat food, both girls had a blast opening their gifts and they spent the whole weekend playing with all their cool new toys.