A Toddler's Artistic Endeavors

Lately, Merrilee has shown a lot more interest in coloring.  We permanently keep out some paper and crayons that she can get whenever she wants to color. Luckily we have not (yet) encountered any problems with drawing on walls, eating crayons, etc. Merrilee is a very obedient and structured little girl (Thank you Merrilee!).

The other day she was coloring and I asked her what she was drawing....she said "Around!" I've never demonstrated how or told her to draw circles or anything like that. Its amazing how children learn by exploring! Well, she figured out how to draw "Around" on her own...

And then, just yesterday, she brought me this picture...

I said, "Tell me about your picture." She said, "Yummy Cake! And fire!" Oh the mind of a two year old! I love it! I think she was thinking of her birthday cake (with candles) she had almost exactly a month ago...Rainbow chip. Notice how she makes use of all the space on the page. :) We have started an "Art Gallery" on the wall on Merrilee's level. Some of these creations are combined efforts, and some are completely from the artist herself.

We are proud of our little budding artist! Maybe sometime soon I will feel like being an overachieving mom and actually get out some paints, or maybe we will start with markers. :)

We have a 2 year old!

I can't believe we can say we have a 2 year old! That makes us feel like we are starting to get old and actually be "grown-ups" or something.  Last Saturday Merrilee turned 2! I remember when she was born 2 years ago. She came 2 weeks early and unexpectedly after a long day of teaching. I was sick as a dog and we had nothing ready! Nevertheless, Merrilee decided to enter the world and join our family the night of Feb. 4. What a blessing she has been to us. She has always been such a happy, easy-going girl. We love watching her grow up!

Newborn 

1 year old

2 year old

Here are some of our favorite things about Merrilee as a now 2 year old:
-She copies what we say (We have to be careful!)
-She likes to sing songs with us.  She knows many words to many songs. Her current favorites are "I am a Child of God" and "Twinkle, Twinkle"
-She sits and very expressively reads books to herself.
-She says "Pease" and "Tankoo" and "You Kelcom" often
-She loves dancing!
-She gives the biggest hugs and kisses
-She counts to 10 and knows (can recognize) almost all of her letters!(Between all the reading she does and how many times she insists we sing the ABC's...She is basically self-taught!)
-She knows how to make Alice giggle and laugh and then gives her baby sister loves.
-She is so pretty! (We get comments from strangers all the time about how beautiful she is. Yes. That's right. We make beautiful children. :)


We put together a fun little birthday celebration for Merrilee.  The morning of her birthday was basically our usual morning routine. When we put her down for her nap, then we decorated and set up her "Big" birthday present. Right before she woke up, the power went out! Our basement doesn't get much "natural" lighting (as you can see from the two tiny windows in the picture), so this is what Merrilee woke up to...except a darker version. (I love how Alice is sticking out of the tent in both pictures looking at the camera! haha!)

Since the power was out, we decided to go outside for a walk to the park until the power came back on. These days, Merrilee wants Alice to do a lot of activities with her. She insists that Alice swings next to her at the park every time now!

When we got back from the park the power was back on, so we baked a cake, wrapped presents and let the girls play together in the new crawl and seek fun center!

We invited my sister and her family downstairs for a little "party".  We had cake and ice cream, watched Merrilee open some presents, and had a fun dance party!

After our little party we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Brewer's house. Merrilee loves her great grandparents! Every time we go over there she gives Grandma and Grandpa big hugs and likes to play with them. It was so nice of G & G Brewer to get Merrilee a present! Thank you! 

Reading the card

Giving grandpa a big "thank you" hug

Reading with Grandpa

It was a fabulous day for everybody and we still can't believe we have a 2 year old! We love you Merrilee! :)

Mornings with Merrilee

Merrilee is such a good little girl.  Every morning we take her out of her crib and let her kind of roam around to play and do whatever.  Without fail, every morning we see a scene like this...

Merrilee will sit and read books for an hour at a time! She is usually very gentle with her books and we've only had one or two book casualties from moments of despair.  She'll turn the pages and "read" to herself.  She even does cute little voice inflections like she's reading in her own baby language. Lately her favorite book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. She'll read it by herself, but she will also bring it to either me or Ben several times a day for us to read it to her. We are proud parents of our little reader! :)

Growing Up

Merrilee is growing up so fast! She is just so cute! I can't help but smother her with loves all day long with her long crazy hair, cute teeth and chubby cheeks!  Her daily routine consists of waking up and playing anywhere from 45 min. to 3 hours. She eats somewhere in there and then goes down for a nap (sometimes). Sometimes she skips her morning nap and plays even longer until afternoon nap time.  Sometimes she skips her afternoon nap if she's already had a morning nap.  She is basically all over the place with her nap schedule.

She loves music! (YEAH!) she loves strumming the guitar, beating drums, and most of all she loves playing the piano. If I ever try to get a few minutes of practice or pleasure playing in, Merrilee is standing right next to me plinking away on the keys.  Sometimes she'll start to cry or whine until I pick her up and let her sit on my lap to play.  When this happens, she immediately removes my hands from the keyboard if they are on it. She wants to do it all by herself.  Of course, as a former public school music teacher and current private piano teacher, this enthusiasm for music from my firstborn makes me extremely happy. :)

Merrilee's 1 year molars are all coming in at once.  She had a few days where she was very irritable. Poor thing. But she is over the worst of it I think.

We hope Merrilee will start to walk before the new baby comes.  I think she is pretty close, but she sure likes to take her time with these milestones! She is a little Speedy Gonzalas when it comes to crawling though.  She likes to chase her daddy and mommy around all day long and likes to have crawling races with her daddy. Daddy will crawl around on the floor and Merrilee laughs and laughs while trying to keep up with him. So cute.

Lately, her favorite toy (besides the musical instruments) is a little train that has lots of buttons and plays music. Her Nana Dunn got it for her for Christmas. That thing will keep her occupied for a good amount of time!

Another one of her favorite things is Bath time! If we leave the bathroom door open while not in use, she will most certainly crawl in and stand up next to the tub and giggle and talk about how much she loves baths. I don't bathe her every day, but I'm starting to be tempted to just because she loves it so much. She only has one bath toy, a pink rubber duck.  I think we will need to invest in some more bath toys! My favorite is doing awesome hair-do's to her hair after bath time, as demonstrated below...

I can't wait to have another sweet little girl to add to the cuteness in our house. Girls are so fun! About 9 more weeks to go! (give or take...still questionable on the due date)

P.S. The above photos are products of experimenting with editing photos at this free website.

Almost 1 year!

Merrilee turns 1 on FRIDAY! Can you believe it? This year has gone by so fast. Here are some pictures showing how Merilee has grown this past year. 

Feb.4, 2010, Merrilee Anne Brewer, 6 lbs 13 oz. 18 in. long.

As you can probably tell from the pictures, Merrilee truly lives up to her name...She is a constant joy and is almost always smiling and happy. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. Look forward to a 1 Year Birthday post coming soon...