Our sweet Veronika is turning 18 months old this upcoming Friday and it’s hard to believe a year and a half has already passed… way too quickly. She’s growing up. She’s talking non-stop – she knows and says probably over 30 different words and is now saying small phrases like, “where is Papa?” and “go there”, and “no more” and “more, please.” I don’t recall Natasha saying so much at this age, but she also did not have an older sibling to copy.

She also lets me know when she goes in her diaper… which is pretty funny. She then requests to be changed. But at the same time, she developed a fear of the potty and won’t sit on it so I am not pushing the issue at all.

We’re thinking of having her starts Gymnastics in February but haven’t decided yet! She’s definitely growing up.

Natasha got a lot of great puzzles for her birthday, one of which (in the picture above) has lowercase letters spelling out the word for each picture. Natasha has learned uppercase letters (capitals) months ago, but she only knows a few lowercase letters which is what we’ve been working on.

She’s finding it harder to learn lowercase letters than uppercase ones, but she already knows a few. She does confuse a small “t” with an “f”, an “n” with a “u”, etc. but overall she’s catching on. She loves this puzzle and can pretty much do it unassisted but I pressure her to repeat all the letters back to me after she completes each picture. We’re making progress!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY TO OUR SWEET GIRL!

Yesterday Natasha returned for her 2nd year of gymnastics. The “Tumbling Toddlers” parent+tot class was scheduled for 10:15am, and so when we arrived, I was a bit surprised to see a bunch of tiny toddlers who looked no older than 2.5 waiting for their class to start. Soon enough the program director approached us and inquired about Natasha’s age, and when I told her that she’s turning 3 this Friday, she recommended we switch to the “Jumping Juniors” class, which is not parent+tot. Oops. Was I read to let her go? Was she ready to attend a class all on her own?

I walked Natasha to the big trampoline and was told I could sit on a bench and watch… but only for the first class. Next week, all the parents will have to remain in the seating-area behind a glass wall. We could still watch our kids, but they cannot see us.

So… our big-girl is now attending ballet & gymnastics all on her own. No more parents+tot classes, she’s too big. Natasha didn’t seem to mind; when she got stuck, she just watched the other kids and copied what they did. What a relief… so proud of her! And this just means that in February, Veronika will probably start gymnastics as well, “Bouncing Babies” class which is at the same time as her sister’s.

My sweet Natasha attended her very first ballet class today. She put on her pink bodysuit, tights, tutu, and ballet slippers and told me that she was a princess. Her first class went very well; only 2 little girls attended today so she got lots of individual attention. I cannot even describe how happy and excited she was! She was pretty mesmerized by the entire 45-minute class.

I cannot describe the class since I only watched the first 10 minutes before the kids were led away into a different room. But Natasha did great and did not care that she couldn’t see me. I think it’s good that she is so independent and wasn’t afraid of anything. She danced, learned different ballet moves, standing on the tips of her toes; they used different toys, instruments, and other objects throughout the class. She did not want to leave and is already looking forward to next week. My sweet girl is growing up!

Today is day 5 of our poor Natasha fighting the stomach flu. She’s getting relatively better, but still has the symptoms coming in, although less frequently. Her doctor wanted her to stick to the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast), so this has been 95% of her menu the past few days. We’ve been slowly adding back other foods, but in small quantities. She’s been in a lot of pain but hopefully she’ll recover over the long weekend.

On a brighter note, the sit+stand stroller we bought (see previous entry) was delivered and we got  a chance to try it out. We’re still getting used to it and so are the girls; Natasha couldn’t really make up her mind on whether she wanted to sit, stand, or walk, but she liked it overall. Veronika uses the entire thing is climbing-grounds so that was pretty frustrating, although expected.

Being stuck home for almost a week (sickies and all), I let the girls play on the balcony yesterday to get some much-needed fresh air. They had fun playing with their sand & water table, although sand will have to wait until next year because *someone* thinks it’s food… =)