It has been soo long since my last post, impossible for me to fill in all of the gaps. Dahlia is now 2.5 years old. It occurred to me today that she will soon be three and it totally floored me. I've been really noticing her growing and changing, but in so many ways in my mind, she is still my baby. When I hold her and her legs dangle over mine, I think, "my gosh, wasn't she just barely the length of my lap?" It's funny how change occurs so.

Dahlia has been waking up/stirring shortly after going to sleep, almost still asleep but crying. Usually, Brad heads in to sooth her, but tonight I did and she cried for me for awhile even though I was rght next to her, rubbing her belly and stroking her cheek. She finally settled into playing with a lock of my hair and drifted back off into a deep sleep. It left me wondering what is going on with her? The only thing I could come up with is that this emoting may be the result of the need to discharge intense emotional experiences throughout the day...many occur, especially between her and Elias, but also between the two of us, too. Like, because I do still hold such a baby view of her, she gets frustrated with me because am often trying to do things for her without her approval, like breaking her muffin in half (mostly because I know she will invariably drop it) rather than letting her eat it as she wishes. We often have conflicts because she is hard to motivate. Anyway, I guess I have to start taking time to move away more and allow her to hold her own reigns around certain things.

Since Elias returned to school, Dahlia has started to blossom in directing her own play. For a long time, it seemed impossible to pin down her own interests, but now that she is out from under that which she adores, she has suddenly taken a striking interest in pretend play. It is fun to do...Elias was not into pretending very much, but Dahlia really goes for it! Elias is into make-believe, taking a found object and describing it as something else, like a mars rover from a series of things linked together, like a light socket with chain, a karabeener and a beaded chain. Dahlia pretend feeds her babies and makes a variety of pretend teas and pretend talks on the phone. Her pretend seems more around the act of doing something while Elias is about a more concrete object and what it can do. Maybe. I'll have to noodle on this a bit more, but I think that's right. At any rate, I am excited to see Dahlia become a little more of herself without Elias, not that she doesn't hold her own with him. She does.

Dahlia counted to 10 today, all on her own! Hooray, Dahlia!

Several weeks ago, I went a little crazy with the bubbles. I don't know why? There were simply too many bubbles in the tub, so, I did what any good mother would do...I dressed Dahlia in a sort of a turn of the century bubble wig, later to morph into a bubble goatee and mustache. She got a great kick out of it. I think she mostly enjoyed all of the smiles and giggles from others...really got her into the silly, bubble crazed mood.

Anyhoo, alas, today is another day and Dahlia has not had a bath now for one week because last Thursday she broke her leg. Of all the memorable childhood moments I thought I'd write about, a broken leg at 18 months was not one. In fact, the incident leading to her broken limb was so uneventful and lacking of any dramatic effect that I think I was in shock for the whole of her stay in the ER. She literally stepped funny on my foot, never fell or tumbled or anything, just stepped and all of the sudden was obviously in immense pain that would not falter. I took her straight away to the ER and there, in an x-ray, amplified about 10 times it's real size, a tiny hairline spiral fracture could be seen in her left tibia.

Dahlia had a tough first few days, in part because we weren't allowed to let her bear any weight on it, but also, as we were to discover later, it turned out her splint was digging into her heel, causing another injury. Poor baby. She fortunately seems to be doing so much better now that she has a permanent cast (a big full-leg PURPLE jobby), but ewwwww, was I fired up. She'll have to get a new cast on Monday so that they can check this heel injury. Elias is vying for a glow-in-the-dark replacement cast. We shall see.

She had been kinda dragging herself around on her belly or scooting on her bottom for the past few days. But today, she started walking on her little casted leg! I've been calling her "Peggy" or "Peg-leg" or "Hob-along."

Dahlia's latest trick besides snapping limbs has been developing feelings for a lovely. His name is Zach and he was actually a dolly given to Elias just after Dahlia was born. Elias is far too scientific to take a lovely, but he caught Dahlia's eye at just the right time for Dahlia. Sure, she's had dollies in the past, but this dolly, she calls him, "Zachy" and clutches him tightly under her arm. She has to put him to sleep and she has to sing to him. She puts hats and coats on and off of him and plays games with him like Up/Down where she lifts him up above her head and says "up" and then brings him down beneath her knees and says "down." She gives him lots of love and hugs and kisses. She also insists that Zachy be given milk (momma milk), one sip for her, one for Zachy. I feel pretty silly about it. It's hard not to laugh. I try to egg her on to give Zachy her own milk and she usually put his little head up to her belly button. Yesterday, she was feeding Zachy from her knees, which seemed very silly to me. She seems to embrace the silly factor quite freely.

Happy 4th of July!

Here's Dahlia a few weeks ago surveying the angle of a slide at a nearby park. Would she go down? I don't think she did. Todau, Dahlia went head first over the little playstructure in our yard. She leaned over the side as far as she could until plop! Over the edge, head first! Ouch...

There's Elias in the background. They are two peas in a pod. Elias follows her (more like, chases and tortures her) and she tags along behind him like a puppy, copying his actions and trying to repeat his words. It's very cute.

Dahlia is really starting to verbalize, she has been trying to say many, many things, like bubbles, water (wabee), eat, etc.

Dahlia has been having some separation anxiety lately, yet so have I! Brad and I went out for a date yesterday, and toward the end of our dessert, I spotted a little girl just around the same age as Dahlia and boy oh boy, I really wanted to get home!

Do you see a theme in these pictures? It's love to the Dahlia'th degree!!!

Dahlia likes to eat sand. She'll lick her little fingers, get them nice and wet and stick them straight into the sandbox. What comes out is pure, unadulterated sand covering fully her tiny little fingers. Then straight into the mouth to sample her delicious score. Yum. She does the same with dirt. With rocks and bark, she's a bit more selective (and devious). She'll pick up a rock or a bark chip and reach out her hand innocently, as if to say, "Look, mom, look at this wonderful treasure of the natural world I have discovered." She'll hold it, and turn around, continuing to look around for other delights when all of the sudden, and seemingly from out of nowhere, there is a noticeable bulge on one side of her cheek. I approach cautiously, because I don't want her to choke. She sees me coming and bolts in the other direction with the most devilish grin on her face. Then, she makes me dig, DIG in there while she wiggles and squirms for her dear freedom. Alas, the rock or bark is extracted. Always much bigger than I had imagined. She's a real stinky booger like that. That's just who she is.

Dahlia is officially one! She proved to be alot like her mommy and brother (and dad, too, for that matter), a natural fan of the chocolate! Look at that girl go!

On Dahlia's birthday, we had a fun party! All of her friends (well, most of them) came to enjoy the "buggy" themed extravaganza! We had ants on a log, butterflies, and weird fig and apple bugs, which looked really strange and I'm surprised everyone had eaten them at all! All of the kids got bug kits complete with bugs, a bug catcher, and tweezers, just in case the bugs were too gross to pick up. The day was nice and everyone played outside with bubbles and sidewalk chalk and in the sand box. Dahlia had a bunch of balloons, and two special balloons: a butterfly and a ladybug. It was really a wonderful party and just great fun. Elias was found, at one point before the candles had been blown out, hovering over the cake, picking off chunks of chocolate for himself! :-) I just can't believe she's already one. The year went by so quickly, it has been a blur...

I'm embarrassed by how long it has been since I've posted about the little miss. Since my last post, she's started walking, has a pretty full and ever expanding repertoire of words/signs, and has even peed on the potty! She's been on a plane and travelled across the country, and pretty much is a gal on the move! We've been having fun exploring the world together. She's enjoyed making lots of new friends and being dangerous, tis the season I suppose.

I love this picture of Dahlia. She is sitting what I like to believe is my old rocker from when I was a baby, although my mom insists that it was Matt's. I'm sure everything was Matt's as I was the second, but regardless, I remember it as my own, and Dahlia sitting in it with her baby feels very special to me. My mom was wanting to donate it to goodwill, but I insisted on disassembling it and stuffing it in my suitcase to take home. I hope it lasts until my kids have their own little squirts. I'm sentimental in that way.

Below, Dahlia is playing one of her favorite games with Grandma Margaret (peekaboo around the corner). She is a real charmer. She started really walking just before we travelled to Ohio for cousin Shaun's birthday. Dahlia got lots of practice trucking around the airport as we waited for our flights. She was an angel, slept alot of the air trips, both there and back and was very charming and friendly with all
of our neighbors. It was just her and I and it was fun to have such uninterrupted one on one time with each other. She really enjoyed Nana and Shaun quite a bit, too. Although she wasn't saying Nana while we were in Ohio, shortly after our return and while looking at a picture of her, Dahlia pointed to the picture and did say "Nana." She has also been saying "night night" and basically calls all birds, dogs, ducks and cats "dog dog."

Toward the end of our trip in Ohio, Shaun and Dahlia were really getting along just like brother and sister, complete with Dahlia stealing away his toys with a very stealth, inconspicuous nature of the little sister and Shaun running after her trying to rescue his stolen and prized possessing before being broken my little, careless and clumsy hands. Overall, I think a wonderful time was had by all.














So, in four days, that little stink, who thinks she can traverse stairs both up and down (and can't), will turn one year old. We are gearing up for a big party, with nice weather, to take place outside. Balloons and bugs, that's the plan. First birthday's are weird because they really don't get it. That's okay, though. Should be a fun time for the kids. And, as a special treat, Dahlia gets to spend her first birthday with Grandpa Ed and Grandma Lynn! I just can't believe that she is one. It does seem like yesterday that she was just born and I don't want her baby-ness to end!

Here's the thing about Dahlia, she's a real walker. She started walking a little two weeks ago. Last week, she really started moving. And this week, my little squirt is a walker. She walks down the hall, she walks in the yard, she walks up and down the sidewalk pushing her little cart. She's super cute, sometimes I can hardly stand from squeezing the be-jesuses right out of her!

She's playing with Grandpa Ron's watch in this picture. Always has been a real favorite with the little munchkins (with Elias up to mischief in the background).

Dahlia is really starting to try to talk and sign. She knows where her tongue and her ears are and she is fascinated by my nose. She likes to cuddle up to me and gives me kisses when I am very lucky... I can't believe in less than a month, we'll be celebrating her one year birthday!