Here’s what’s great about 22 months, new words and phrases.

For instance when something won’t work my Sunny will say ” Mama, dis broken! You fix?”

When we get in the car she says “Mama, you get gas?” and will always ask me “Mama, who dis?” As in whose this singing on the radio? Then I will tell her “This, is the party people!” And then she’ll say “Party People!!!! La, La, La…”

She sings along to all of her favorite songs. But the BEST is when she already knows who sings the songs, for instance she will sing, “It’s been a long time….GAGA!!!! Dis GAGA!” or “I dee only girl in da world… Ri-hana! Dis Ri-hana Mama!”

I no longer let her listen to rap songs, but she can identify Nikki & Drake- but sadly never knows Jay-Z.

Also great about 22 months, is she LOVES clothes, make-up, baby dolls,  and her entourage of stuffed animals. That’s all I have to say. I could write a book about what’s not so great about 22 months old- but it’s Halloween and I’m feeling like celebrating the small victories. She’s counting, identifying all of her letters,  playing with puzzles, and sassing her parents into shape. She’s brilliant like her father and smart mouthes like her Mother and if you ask her what she’s going to be when she grows up she will tell you ” a girl.”

I have plenty of little mouse photos form this weekend, and tonight we’ll be attending the Brooklyn Halloween parade- need more coffee.

Oh Monday- you silly silly little day.

Happy Anniversary Mommy and Daddy!

How are you going to celebrate?

You should eat yummy pizza!

One day I’ll grow up and do the math here, it’s your 2 year wedding anniversary and yet I’ll be 2 years old  in just two months…

I’m REALLY smart- so you two better get your story straight! But until then, have some pizza!

Love, Gracie Girl

I never took Lamaze while pregnant with Sunny. I thought my body would guide me threw her delivery and it did- but in the most appalling and horrible way possible. I gave natural birth to a nearly nine pound turkey child.

Anyhoo… at some point in the early months I met a great group of ladies who had all taken Lamaze together and birthed winter ’09 babies like me! They welcomed Sunshine and I into their little group and we became honorary members of their Lamaze class. Now we see them at birthday parties, summer BBQ’s,  and (what’s turning into) an annual fall trip to a pumpkin farm.

You’ll be shocked to know that Sunny ( who was pretty sick this weekend with a nasty cold) did not participate in wearing the hat from her costume! What? Your shocked? Right! Anyway it’s a miracle I got her there by myself, with a cold, and into the bottom half of her rat mouse costume.

Our little babies are all getting so big! By next fall we’ll have more members for this exclusive club- new babies will be here, making some of the toddlers big brothers and sisters.

Later we headed back home where eventually we Matt carved our pumpkin.

Gracie’s totally into right?

I don’t know how we got here, to this place, where I tell Sunny to do something and then she tells me to suck it runs off with an attitude.

We are were potty training.  She is was doing great. Until today were we went to Target to pick out big girl undies and she chose Thomas the Tank Engine.

Me: Honey those are for boys.

Her: Choo- Choo!

Me: Okay, lets look at them.

Her: Okay, Mama.

I pull them out of the package and examine them…

Me: Honey, these have a special thing in them for little boys. I want you to have them, I do, but this special thing might hurt you.

Her: CHOO-CHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me: Do you want the princess ones? ( seriously, princess? This is my only option? I HATE the princess ones,  the Thomas ones are way cuter)

Her: Okay Mama. I big girl!

Me: You are buddy!

We get home  where she proceeds to go threw every bag and then says “where Choo-Choo?”

Me: Um…we got princesses remember? Do you want to go on the potty like a big girl?

Her: No choo-choo? No!  Pot!

With that she ran off and left me holding the bag…literally.

That’s. My. Girl.

My dear friend Erin sent me an email tonight with the title: I can’t believe how much they’ve grown.

She was referring to my  Sunshine and her best buddy Aidan , or Aid-dee as she calls him.

Aid-dee now has a baby brother, Sunny now has hair, and both of them  walk, talk, destroy stuff, and do a mean impersonation of a toddler.

I can’t believe it either Erin. I just can’t believe it.

Tomorrow she’ll be 22 months old.

She jumped in our bed last night and snuggled under my covers.  I told her how when she was a baby she used to sleep in Mommy and Daddy’s bed every single night.

She said. “No! Gay-cee big girl!”

Yep, you sure are, but you’ll always be Mama’s baby.

I was going to dress Sunny up as Richard Simmons for Halloween. She has a curly mullet, a big attitude, and can surely sweat to the oldies- but her mullet grew out just in time for her to avoid what would have been the funniest Halloween costume ever!

Well…it was the growing out of the mullet and the fact that I’m not the sewing maven I thought I was. So I, like many other adoring and well meaning parents, I purchased a Halloween costume from Pottery Barn. Yes, I paid full price. Yes, I am well aware that she will only wear it once. Yes, it crossed my mind that she would have made an awesome Michael Jackson too.

But she’s no mullet man- she’s a mouse. And we took her to the Brooklyn Rag-a-muffin parade where she pouted and sassed for two painful hours.

Right about…here is where she finally gave in to the mouse hat.

And right about… here is when she became a blind mouse- and took her hat off for good.

This year Matt and I will be dressing up too. It’s going to be awesome…she might even reward us with a smile.

She loves hot sauce on her pizza, underdogs at the park, and Monday’s when her Daddy has the day  off.

Happy Weekend friends.

This is sort of a Stephanieism- I use my husbands vacation days to plan family fun outings, like visiting a pumpkin farm on the first day of fall and picking pumpkins. Great idea, perfect day for it- too bad there were no pumpkins. I often visit a website or see a sign and only get half of the story. I google the NY aquarium and we go in the dead of winter- I might have looked more closely at their website were it tells you it’s an outdoor facility. Great.

So this weekend I google family pumpkin farm and we head 2 hours in one direction to pick pumpkins, er…ahhh…visit a petting zoo.

Here is my attempt at a Christmas card photo- of course it’s blurry!

It was a happy accident, a Stephanieism, my family adjusted and made the best of it. We’re a little team Matt, Sunny, and I.

A little team with big ideas  and big adventures. Maybe this is what Sunny will take away from being a member of this family- do what makes you happy, walk the way you’re pulled, and whatever you do only get half the story before storming the castle. And when people ask you were you get it from, tell ‘em, I get it from my Mama.