Be My Valentine!?

Dear Kacie,

This post is going to be long! You turned 20 months old last week and you are just bursting with new knowledge every day!immediately 

Your Aunt Mallory came to stay with us for a few days.

You loved having her here! (probably because she can hold you, bend over, dance and run!

Sometimes being pregnant means that you get left behind… because you're slow...

For Valentines Day, Mallory was so kind to watch you and let mom and dad go out for a date! We didn't do much, we went and got Zupas because I wanted something light that wouldn't make me feel miserable. We had planned on going to Bridal Veil Falls (apparently a bad idea) but ended up at a park across from the Mt. Timpanogas Temple. There was hardly anyone there and there was a picnic table! The picnic table was great because sitting/laying on the ground is really not comfy these days.

Then we went to Target to walk around. I know that sounds kind of lame, but we can't do that with you because you just run everywhere so it was very nice not to have to chase you around. Then we went and got some dessert from Waffle Love. People rave about that place and while it certainly is super delicious, it isn't a place that we will go very often. $11 for a waffle? Yikes!!

It was fabulous going out in public and being able to hold your dads hand! I just didn't realize how much I miss that because he is always dealing with you. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE you and LOVE taking you places but I am in love with your father and we don't always get to show that like we used to. If it makes you feel better, from the time we left we missed you! We kept talking about how it was kind of lame that no one knew we had such an adorable little girl! We want everyone to know about you because we love you so much!

Daddy also got me some beautiful roses! Seriously, I want everything to be that deep red color!

For your Valentine's Day present, you got a Minnie Mouse balloon. We took it in with us in the morning when you woke up and when you saw it you got excited and said "Minnnaay!" It was perfect!

While we were gone, Uncle Colin and his friend Ethan came over and brought some rats for you to play with. You were scared at first but then apparently you enjoyed them! I wasn't there so I don't really know what happened but I bet you were cute!

The next day we got to just lounge around with daddy cause he didn't have to go to work or school on Monday. Don't let this picture fool you though because you were definitely up dancing around a few minutes before. But you do like to come cuddle by us when we lay on the ground.

I don't know whats worse, having a kid that hates bath time or having one that loves it sooooooo much. I suppose it would be miserable fighting to get you in the bath and then you crying the whole time, but it certainly isn't fun having you cry and scream when we try to take you out, even though you've been in for 45 minutes! Good thing is, we get some pretty cute pictures of you!

Your Aunt Mallory put this beauty together:

You are 20 months old now! You are learning every day and it's amazing to watch you!

I have my old iPod that just doesn't really work anymore. The battery dies after 10 minutes but you like to play on it. We don't give it to you often but you happened to find it charging one morning and I just couldn't deal with the crying that morning so I let you play with it during breakfast. It was quite funny watching you use it like you were actually doing something important!

And then you set it down to eat and kept giving me this look like "Mom, I'm busy on my phone, I'm eating my breakfast, don't bother me. I'm independent."

This banana bread had chocolate chips in it and one of them fell on your seat, so I had taken your pants off and set them aside but you found them and then tried to put them on!

It was actually quite impressive how well you did on your own! I can't believe how smart you are becoming!

One day we decided to sell our couch because it was the worst, and I hated it! So for a few days we had a big open living room! So we had out our memory foam mattress and you loved it! You crawled into it and made me fluff your pillow, and lay the blanket over you.

Later that day I was printing off apartment stuff and you were really excited about paper coming out so I decided to print you off a picture of Minnie Mouse! As it was coming out, you realized who it was and yelled "MINNAAAY!" and then colored it! It made you look so old holding the crayon like a toddler...

One of your favorite things these days is going outside. almost every day, you will get your socks and shoes and bring them to me to put on. Then you will walk over to the coat rack and get me to put on your minion jacket. Its sad because it is really cold outside so I don't take you out much. You end up just wandering around the house in your shoes and coat. 

You love to dance but your favorite dance move is simply turning in circles over and over again! You try to do the arm worm and you shake your booty too! Your newest dance move is just running around in circles instead of spinning. You just have a lot of energy!

Occasionally, though, you do calm down for a bit. It's not often but this particular night you laid down with daddy and helped him read scriptures

You still don't 'talk' but your vocabulary is definitely growing! You can say

App ju (Apple Juice)

Papa (Grandpa)

All whiiite (All right)

and our favorite is 

One, Two, Weeee! 

which is what you say if we both try to hold your hands because you want us to swing you! You still haven't figured out 'three' yet but I think you are just confused by 'three' and 'weee' sounding similar.

I've been making smoothies for myself and you tried mine one day and wouldn't stop drinking it so I got you some of your own. You really enjoy smoothies now which is nice because your taste buds seem to change frequently.

You also finally figured out that you could climb up on the couch on your own and that's been lame. You climb up there and try to ruin my adorable Valentine decorations and take all my pictures down.

There are definitely bad things about technology and I hope that as you continue to get older, we can continue to find ways to play with things other than phones and iPads. But, the fact of the matter is that we live in a technological world and you're surrounded by cell phones… and I'm pregnant and exhausted.

Someday I hope to have a home where there is a convenient place to set my phone where I can hear it but not have it by my side all the time. In the mornings though, I always bring my phone from my nightstand to the table for breakfast. If I try to leave my phone on the nightstand, you will go and get it for me and hand it to me! It's amazing how at such a young age you notice those kinds of patterns. 

One night you picked up both mine and dads phones and walked around like this:

This is slightly out of order but I was trying to get pictures of the couch and when you saw that I had the camera, you stepped in front and said "cheese" I didn't put that one online though because you are definitely not for sale!

Here you are with Uncle Colin 

And here is our brand new couch!!!! It is so beautiful and comfortable and squishy and big and wide and not at all lame like our old one. And it came with matching pillows which I love!

Come sit on it some time. It's amazing!

You are becoming more and more a daddy's girl. When he is home, you are with him. He was doing dishes and he had a few things that needed to be thrown away so you would climb up on the chair, dad would hand you the trash and say 'put it in the trash' and you would climb down, throw it in the trash and go back up to dad!

We just love to see you understanding things we say. Now if we can just get you to use more words!!

I'm thinking that when Kalvin gets here, you are going to be insanely jealous. You get all of our attention, all the time and although I think you will enjoy having him around, you will miss daddy. The good news is that you are a daddy's girl because for the first month or so I will be feeding Kalvin a lot so dad is the one that will be available for you!

Well, we love you so much and can't wait for you to start communicating!

Love,

Daddy and Mommy!