20 Months Old!

Kiera Rita turned 20 months old yesterday! She's such a kick recently, I can't stand it. Her new favorite lines are, "I don't see it" and "I can't find it". We laugh every single time. It never gets old! She knows more than one small child should and constantly shares it with us. She's almost at the point where she's "reading" Good Night Moon to us...she knows what's going on on every page and tells us. She can even tell me the color of the balloon...although she can identify the color red on most things...and green most of the time too. It's fascinating to just sit back and watch her. Currently, her favorite television shows are Dora the Explorer and Go Diego, Go...Go, go, go being her favorite of favorites. I think she has a crush on Diego because whenever he pops up in Dora she gets SO excited! It's adorable. She loves to dance and do the head bob when she does so. And she's recently discovered how to jump and she jumps so high!

On the flip side she's also getting very opinionated and gets very upset when she doesn't get her way. I was doing something last night and she wanted to go into the spare bedroom to "go nigh-nigh" (she loves to curl up in the bed, after turning off the light, and play like she's going to sleep...a McHugh all the way :) and I told her "no" because I was doing something. She would not have this...I let her have her crying, "nigh nigh nigh nigh nigh" and there was stomping and even a small head banging involved, but after three minutes she curled up on my lap with her thumb in her mouth and forgot all about it. I just have to learn not to give her everything she wants and she'll eventually get over it...it's so hard sometimes. It's no wonder so many of my children at school expect the world handed to them on a platter...because it's so easy to spoil them...especially to keep them quiet :)

I'm so freaking excited for the holiday season to officially begin this weekend! My dad and Camille will be down for our Christmas Celebration Saturday and we're going to have such a great time. Kiera can't get enough of my father when she's with him. It's "papa, papa, papa...". She loves him so much, it melts my heart!

On Tuesday we'll get to find out (hopefully) if Kiera's going to have a little sister or a little brother! Yea!! What a great Christmas present for all of us!!

Mom-Mom McHugh will also be in New Jersey for the week to attend the ultrasound and celebrate Christmas morning with us! I couldn't be more excited that she will be with us for the opening of gifts. Kiera definitely doesn't get the whole idea of Christmas yet, but she LOVES Santa and LOVES presents...so I think it will be a really fun morning when we rotate all her old toys to the basement and she has all brand new ones to play with!

Needless to say, I am just beside myself with joy this holiday! Next year will bring a whole new set of fabulousness too! I feel so blessed to have a happy and healthy family and that's all the present I need.

Holiday Cards...

My little girl has the most beautiful smile, but it's too bad you'll never see it in pictures...it's either so fast that the camera can't catch it or she down right refuses to do it :( It makes me SO sad! So this year, I've taken 100 pictures of the small child and in NOT ONE is she smiling for our holiday cards! However, I did manage to get the pugs in this year, which was a feat in itself, so cheers to that! Maybe next year she'll give us a smile with her new brother or sister...here's to hoping!

Let the Diving Begin!

Early in November, Kiera...who refuses to sit in her booster seat at our house, but is perfectly fine with it at Jen's...was eating on a chair in the kitchen when she went to get off of it (with my back turned) and dove onto the tile floor...oy!

Then last night she took a flying leap out of her crib...onto carpet, thank goodness, but still! She was screaming bloody murder and I was scared to death! She is definitely going to give us quite a run for our money with the calamities! I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with it!

Kiera has always been THE best baby when it comes to sleeping in her crib. She's been sleeping in there since the night we brought her home. I can count on one hand the number of nights that we've had to get her in her little life...and those have been times of sickness or teeth. We have our nighttime routine and she abides by it to a tee. I'm so nervous about having to put her in a bed. I don't want to have to lay with her to make her fall asleep, she shouldn't need that because she puts herself to sleep perfectly in her crib. But I know the minute I take away the bars she'll be out of there in a flash! I know there would come a time for this...I just didn't expect it to be this soon.

I'm having "sleeping" issues to begin with in my own mind because although we have four bedrooms in the house, only two are upstairs. Therefore Kiera and Baby McHugh Two will have to share a room. So...this will be a whole new dilemma for us! As I said, Kiera's been in her crib in her room from day one...this new baby will be with us in a bassinet or something similar until we know it won't wake up Kiera. Kiera used to wake up in the middle of the night and coo instead of cry and that would wake me up to feed her...but what if we have a screamer next??!! I can't put them in the same room, it's not fair to Kiera. Oy! My father, who has a bedroom downstairs, has offered to give it up to us, but #1 I don't want to take away his room #2 our furniture won't fit in that room, and #3 I don't want to be that far away from the babes! Sean and I may take up his offer in like ten years, bang out the two bedrooms to make them one, put in a bathroom and make it a master bedroom, but for now...we're stuck.

So that's been on my mind and now I need to begin seriously considering toddler beds...might as well get it over with before small being #2 comes into our lives! If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to pass them my way because I am STUCK!