Matilda is Five!

How am I possibly the mom to a 5-year old?  But alas, it is true.  

Honestly, Matilda is still a lot like she was when I posted last year. She still constantly pushes boundaries.  However, she is still very sweet and thoughtful at times.  

At her 5-year checkup, she was 39.3 inches tall (4%) and 31.3 pounds (3%).  She's still a slow eater.  She's still pretty picky too, but we are somewhat successful getting her to eat things she doesn't terribly like by telling her she won't get fruit at bedtime if she doesn't eat a good dinner.

She had a really hard time transitioning from her 3 day a week Mother's Day Out program to full-time dual language preschool.  There were many mornings with tears.   But, I'm happy to say, she is finally enjoying it.  She's picked up a ton of Spanish words and has a good group of close friends. Her friends' opinions mean a lot to her.

She is back to taking formal ballet lessons (along with tap) this semester.  She'll have a recital in a few weeks, and I'm really looking forward to it.  

She still loves dressing fancy and now has a ton of jewelry to accessorize with.

She's quite creative and paints and colors on a daily basis.  She also has a few art kits like stencils, sticker books, beads, etc. which she enjoys as well.

She still stays up late "reading" her books.  

She's recently started to like building elaborate castles out of her blocks and playing with her dolls and figurines in the castle.  She's going through a princess and unicorn phase.

We got her a fairy garden for her birthday (along with a fairy/ mermaid Barbie), and she has been singing the sweetest songs to the seeds to help them grow.  She actually makes up some pretty sweet and funny songs when she's playing by herself.

She loves her sister, reportedly more than she loves either Jason or I. (She recently started stack ranking her love.)

We love Matilda sooooo much.   Enjoy a few pictures from this past year...

Mabel's Two Years Old!

My sweet, silly Mabel is two!

Stats: She weighs 23 pounds (8%) and is 32.5 inches tall (24%).  She wears 2T clothes.  No new teeth, but her canines have been giving her heck for awhile.

Sleep: The only big thing to report here is that we converted her crib into a toddler bed in mid-February.  The first week she did great!  It was like nothing had changed.

But then she figured out she could get up.  We've battled with her staying in bed at bedtime or getting up too earlier, but overall she's still doing good.  We may try to move her into a twin bed in Matilda's room this summer.

Eat: She doesn't eat vegetables.  One time we cut cauliflower really small and mixed it in with Hamburger Helper and she ate it.  We felt like successful parents.

Sometimes she'll eat meat and fruit.  But she eats tons of sausage, eggs, and good ole iron fortified Cheerios, so her iron levels are good.

She has a decent amount of diary (yogurt, cheese, and some milk) and she loves carbs.  She probably has a lot more sugar than Matilda did at this age.  Oops.

Play/ Milestones: She's pretty good with her gross motor skills.  She can jump off the ground, run, summersault, and loves hanging off bars like a monkey. She also mimics me working out and does some pretty legitimate looking squats and weight lifting with 3 pound dumbbells.  

She loves playing outside.  I can't wait until this summer when she's back in the pool again.  I have a feeling she's going to be even wilder than she was last year in the water.

New words in the past few months include bless you, baa-baa, up please/ help please (both sound like "upies"), meow-meow (for cat), light, eyes, poo-poo, swimsuit, baby, two, me, mine, yea (also pronounced yeo sometimes), and water (pronounced "la-lo").  Oh and she says ball-ball for balls, bubbles, and soap.  She's probably still a bit behind for her age, but she gets her point across.

Her favorite things are still dancing, dogs, baths, and shoes, although watching Daniel Tiger, reading books, painting, and hanging on things are quickly becoming favorites as well.  Pretty much any of those will elicit an enthusiastic "yay!"

 She seems ready to potty train (does all of the normal cues), but doesn't seem to actual like going to the bathroom on the potty.  We'll get there.

She and Matilda are the bestest of friends.  While they pick on each other and are jealous of my time (and lap), they love each other fiercely. They ask for each other and get sad when apart.  They've been doing a great job playing with each other if they wake up earlier than us. 

5th and 2nd Birthday Party

We had a great birthday party weekend celebrating the girls' 5th and 2nd birthdays.  Last night, my parents and Trey, Mel, and kids came into town.  We celebrated Melanie's birthday with Mexican food and tres leches cake.  :)

This morning, we let the girls open their presents from us...

And then they helped me back cupcakes for the party.

And then they opened more presents and played with their cousins.

The chocolate cake (from El Bolillo with an added fairy/ unicorn on top) and homemade funfetti cupcakes came out nice this year.

Matilda requested a princess unicorn party, and I think we achieved it.  The party was at The Little Gym.  They brought the princess decorations, and we brought the unicorns.

As the guests arrived, the kids had free play.

Then there were a few organized games and activities.

        

And then we headed to the party room for cake and snacks.

The grandmas got were extra festive with matching unicorn T-shirts.

And before the day was over, I made sure to get a couple pictures with the girls.

It was a very fun day!