23 months.

This girl turned 23 months last week.

With all the hoopla of Easter, I'm late posting but we cannot forget her last month as a ONE YEAR OLD!

 

Things I want to remember about Reyna at 23 months:

she is very independent - she likes to wash dishes! - loves her big mickey mouse - likes to jump on the bed - has outgrown her favorite pj's but still squeezes into them - knows the museum by heart - knows all her colors, shapes, and alphabet - sings songs - makes funny faces - loves to paint - loves bubbles - wants to brush her teeth 5 times a day - like the color purple - likes the hula hoop - swings on the big girls swing.

She is talking up a storm in full sentences and vivid description and we LOVE it!

She is funny and she knows it. 

Easter 2016.

We had a pretty low key, memory filled Easter. 

Everything was new, and exciting. 

 (warning: this post contains picture overload)

We painted egg for the first time. 

This is me telling her to put it in GENTLY.

 This is her THROWING it in.

 She was so excited to find that the egg had turned color EVERYTIME!

 The kit has stickers in it to make faces on the eggs and that was a hit. 

She is making her funny face to match here.

On Saturday morning we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at a friends house and celebrated with all these kiddos!

Also, the host has a 3 year old and a 3 WEEK OLD BABY!

 She hunted those eggs so hard!

Then we sat and opened every.single.one.

 

What a cutie!

 making silly faces at the camera...again.

Thanks Papa!

On Easter we went to church and played with the Easter Bunny toys. 

She liked her basket and still asks for eggs every morning. 

Overall, it was a great celebration and refreshing weekend.

Easter basket 2016.

I've mentioned this before. I LOVE holidays. I love traditions.

Easter is beautiful for so many reasons. the weather. the eggs. the colors. 

the reason. the bunny. the basket.

All of it is great.

I had a good time finding Easter basket fillers.

I'll admit it is hard not buying every cute thing you see!

I know this may be unimportant but its a parenting thing so here it goes.

I have been very intentional about including things that are meaningful and no too consumer-y. 

(Like a Frozen book about Easter or an Elmo Easter basket)

Also, tried to include things that she needs or I was gonna buy anyways.

This is what I came up with.

The Pinwheel and bunny were 50% off at Hobby Lobby.

Frida Kahlo book is beautiful and my favorite artist (I was gonna buy it anyway)

The bowl set is from Target (need)

The other stuff is just fun!

Of course, we have eggs. I filled them without candy. Not because we don't let her have candy but because we know she will have enough of that.

We filled eggs with:

gold fish

stickers

pretzels

stamps

bouncy balls

bubbles

I did have a parenting fail and sent my daughter to the school Easter egg hunt without a basket.

;(

They sent me this picture from school...

 

... a target bag.

Spring Break 2016.

In one word our Spring Break was: WET.
It rained, literally, everyday.

We made our way down to San Antonio and spent time with family for a few days.
We found gaps in the rain to play outside.

 And when we couldn't get outside, we played inside. She was reallllly into bubbles. 

Our house rule is - no bubbles in the house.

Well at Nana and Popo's house, apparently there are no rules.

We made it out to the DOseum with Popo one day. 

It is a lot of fun and you could spent hours there.

 She picked up a love for Tinker Toys ;)

She spent about 30 minutes making this "sun".

 She also went to Chuck-e- cheese with Nana, the park, and the library. 

We headed home on Thursday and over the weekend, we had some sunshine so we played outside.

 She loves picking flowers in our front yard.

It was a good time and now we are back in school and hunkering down for March Madness!

Weekenders.

This weekend was full of new adventures in parenting.
Lets just say that we conquered lots of newness.
Ill admit that most after school adventures are for mom's sake. Reyna loves doing them but she would be just fine going home and playing with her toys. So when I scheduled a spot at gymnastics at 8:30AM! this weekend, it was really all about her. And when she was invited to a birthday party at a BOUNCE place, it was her!

She was ready to go to "gym-astics" even though she had no idea what it was!

 We were the first ones there - on purpose. Its sort of like an open gym time so you can do anything you want. Because it was her first time, I wanted her to be able to try things at her own pace. Its a good thing I did because some of those kids are fast and bouncy and flippy!

She loved just falling onto the huge mats.

 There is a playground area with a ball pit. Another first. 

After watching Mommy play was to hard for too long ;) she fell in love!

 We even tried the trampoline! If I hold her hands, she will bounce as high as I can bounce her.
We also sat and bounced and she loved that! Otherwise, walking was sooo fun for her.

 of all the wonderful, fun, new things in there, this was her favorite. LOL.

 She loved balance beams (we have one at home). She tried all of them. At all heights.

 There is a foam pit with these "fluffy" blocks. I thought for sure she would not like it but I was wrong. She was practically jumping in the pit from 4 feet high!

When we were walking out the door she said "Thats fun"! 

The next day was party day. It was at a place called Jump 'n Place.

It has about 7 inflatables. Again, we showed up right on time so that we could navigate with some patience before the mobs of kids showed up. I was down right impressed! She wanted to try everything! She was not at all scared. 

This slide is about 12 feet high! She climbed all by herself!

 Here she is "bounding" up and down. there were obstacles and balls and lots of kids and she did great!

Here she is with some little friends. (insert heart eyes here)

 Also, she requested a braid. Oh my! That is what my dreams are made of. I had one in my hair so she wanted to be like Mama - and Elsa. LOL

She was so proud and wanted to show Papa (more on that later).

Later that evening, we went to a baby shower where there were about 6 other kids. 

One that she knows well. 

Through the entire weekend, I learned a lot about my daughter.

I learned:
- that I underestimate her physical ability
- she is very self confident in her physical ability
- she learns best by example (imagine me in those bounce houses)
- She takes verbal direction well, too
- verbal praise is her reward system (she often says 'yay, reyna' when she does something well)
- She is a social butterfly
- she has good social etiquette (gives hugs hi and bye, shakes hands, etc) without being told
- she is one well behaved kid!!

The Craft Gallery.

I have always, as long as I can remember, wanted to have a fabric/craft store. 

I ran across a bucketlist from middle school and among "Design a pair of basketball shoes" and "Own a WNBA team", was also listed "Own a craft store".

Etsy really has allowed a lot of people to do that and I have had a successful one for a few years now.

But Waco offers LOTS of small business opportunities. 

I finally decided to rent a small booth at a place called The Craft Gallery. They specialize in  homemade gifts and decor. Its a small place and my booth is one of many but still, its mine! 

There is something so satisfying to me about having tangible items in a brick and mortar place. 

The booth is only 4 feet wide and 3 feet deep. 

You rent the booth monthly and they manage the property and sales for you. 

I don't actually "work" there. I just go in and refill the display! 

Its open Mon-Sat from 10a-6p.

The hardest part was creating enough inventory to fill the space. I spent the last couple of months making a few different items - blankets, pillows, crowns, dream catchers, hoop art. I put them all out yesterday. 

( I have plans for a bench there at the bottom to put the pillows in and my store 

name with go at the top)

By putting a few different types of items, I can see what sticks. What people buy more of and restock those items. I will say, my booth is one of the most colorful ones so hopefully that draws people in. 

Wish me luck!