There are many posts in the works, to catch up on the happenings of Sloane. There will be cute pictures and good quotes to come. But today was her first day of daycare!
We have been very fortunate that Sloane has only been with us, Nini and Papa 2, or friends. She is ready for playing with children her age and listening to other adults. We signed her up for 1 1/2 days at a local college (and it is were Aunt Morgan went as a little one). Her class room is in a new building with big windows. There are students who do student teaching in the classrooms and make the ratio great. And we are hoping it leads to potty training…..
This morning Sloane was very excited to go to ‘school’ and wanted to leave right away. Adam brought her and she rushed right in a found a baby. The report from her teacher was that she was very happy until nap time. She got a little sad but calmed down with a guggie and a back rub. I went to pick her up and got to spend a little time in the room. She was right at home! Finding the play dough, washing her hands in the little sink, and playing with the dress up hats.
Sad because we were too slow getting out the door, she wanted to go “right now!”Good bye from Mommy-OSloane has a baby radar- will find dolls anywhere
But the best thing was how she says the other kids names. She calls Mable, Maple. All afternoon it was Maple this, Maple that. She would then say ‘forget other kiddos names’ though after a while she did remember some.
Sloane turned two years old! She was so excited and had the biggest grin when we sing her happy birthday (which we did many times). She is very good an opening presents though a little poky at it.
I would say her hair is bed head, but this is a regular lookTrampoline from Nini and Papa2Maera helping with presents.She picked out her outfit and refused to wear a shirt under the jumper. Luckily she is a warm one.Swinging on Sunday. Snow still on ground from Wednesday. Stella baby has her new pajamas on from G and Pa.
We had planned a party on her birthday, but the forecast was all over the map. We had snow on Wednesday and it was a nightmare! So to prevent people from driving in potential sleet, we decided to reschedule for January. Luckily I hadn’t told Sloane it was her party that day, so she wasn’t sad. We went over to Nini and Papa2’s house and the Wades braved the flurries to come celebrate. We had a nice quite morning. In the afternoon, we video chatted with G and Pa, and Jesse and Lida so they could watch Sloane open presents. Sloane had a blast all day.
I think it is incredible to think about how much she has grown and done in the past year. Walking, talking, singing, saying I love you, pretending, drawing, playing with play dough, reciting books. Here are some of my favorite things Sloane does:
Playing with her dolls. She loves her babies and is very attached to them. So far we have Big Girl, B Baby, and Stella baby. She gives them bottles and occasionally breastfeeds them. She feeds them pizza pie. She rocks them in her chair and sings them lullabies. And she baths them, but mostly Stella baby because all her clothes can come off.
Putting everyone down for a nap
Dancing. Most recently this is to Away in a manger playing from the Fisher Price nativity from Darby and family. She has some good moves. She has gone from just foot moves to adding in some arm and head moves as well.
https://youtu.be/2fdpH59oskg
Her memory. She loves to remember things that happen and have us tell her it again in story form. We talk about the names of our family and friends and fun things we have done together. Then she will pull a memory and make a connection out of no where. The other day I had her in a booster for the first time at our house. She says Alder has booster. He is a friend’s son and we saw him 2 weeks ago at a restaurant where he had a booster seat.
Her personality. Sloane is very easy going, though she does get her mind set on things. She is out going and does well in new situations. We’ll be testing this in January when she starts day care 1.5 days a week! But she doesn’t need to be in our laps for the first bit of a new place or event. She will explore and engage pretty quickly.
Writing a note, sitting on a suitcase, wearing an outfit she picked out!
Sloane is very talkative. Her sentences are almost full sentences now, but not quite. She is starting to articulate things such as saying baby and mama and then correcting it to baby and her mama. The funniest things to hear her pronounce are probiotics, brussel sprouts, and hippopotamus. Sloane says doog, instead of good. She also likes to joke and be funny. If I tell her I am going to take a shower, she’ll respond with stinky mama. She is quite humorous and I am regularly belly laughing with her.
Here is a little glimpse into our daily entertainment.
This year the whole Bramble crew was together. The Zipfel clan came out to Vancouver for a week. Aunt Morgan only made it for about 16 hours, but we had a blast while she was in town. The Thanksgiving meal was a group effort and Sloane enjoyed running through the kitchen while everyone was helping out. If you ask her what the turkey did before going into the oven she will say “take bath!” because she watched my mom rinse off the brine. Sloane tried her best to help too, and her little voice rang out with “Sloane do!” many times.
As my nephews say’ “OMG!” everyone looking at the camera and most of them are smiling, it was a thanksgiving miracle. This was right before we ate.
Sloane has made such big strides in her language and processing that it was really fun to watch her interact with everyone.
She enjoyed reading books with her cousins, taking walks, and all the long weekend with family. I think everyone enjoyed the good food.
It wasn’t all happy times, but Sloane made it through pretty well.What a cute family, if I do say so myself.While on a walk. Sloane walked over a mile on this walk!Two books for 4 kids… pretty good oddsAunt Darby got the cousins all matching storm trooper PJs. Sloane thought this was fun… Even better was the group booty shake that happened after this shot.
Every time we hang out with family we are excited for the next time.
I think this is the end of describing Sloane’s age in terms of months. There have been many birthdays in the past 3 months and she is understanding the concept of birthday. She asks me constantly when people’s birthdays are, such as Daddy-O birthday? Lida birthday? Bennett birthday? Today, she asked me the birthdays of all the babies in her picture book. I think her 2nd birthday will be really fun!
Top knot!
Sitting in the big chair
Today we went and got her flu shot. And she didn’t even cry. Like a champ, she just stared at me and then asked to see the band-aid. She got a little worked up when I had to pull on her pants and the band-aid was covered.
Sloane also asks for Adam and me to make up stories for her. She will dictate the characters and settings. Frequently it is about a bear and a rabbit, sometimes a bear and a bare naked rabbit. She will then interrupt the story to insert something she wants to hear, which 99% of the time is someone bumping their toes. Then she laughs and requests that the story include them getting a hug. She is definitely into slap-stick comedy.
I was putting pressure on myself to have the perfect Halloween costume for Sloane. My thinking was that next year Sloane will decide what she wants to be and this year was my last chance to have control. But I took too long- I couldn’t find the pieces for an ewok or Shirely Temple. Then Sloane and I were at the store and I found a tutu on super sale. It had a peacock on the front, so we headed to the boa section to finish the look. Once I saw Sloane’s reaction, I knew this was her costume.
Then her reaction after I made her headpiece was also amazing.
The end result was half peacock half flapper! She was a rockstar. We went over to the Wades house so Maera and Sloane could trick or treat together. They had so much fun and tried to go into the first house. Sloane did not actually say trick or treat, but she did say thank you! We haven’t clued her into what candy is, so she thought it was crinkly toy. I did guide her toward selecting candy I liked!
In the middle of October, we went to Edgefield for a night as a family. Not only was Sloane super good, but we all had so much fun. Adam and Sloane headed over after her nap while I was at the office. Once I got there, we headed to the soaking pool. This is one of the best reasons to spend the night out there. The pool is beautiful, warm, and tucked into lots of plants. And luckily there is a bar serving drinks in plastic cups! Sloane had fun climbing out and jumping in. Her favorite was walking around the bench seat in the pool. She made quite a few laps.
We ate dinner at the Power Station. Adam and I were married on the third floor of this building in the Attic. This visit was world’s different- week day in the fall with a 22 month old! There was a wait for a table. Sloane ran around with a couple other kids outside while we waited. That made dinner a little on the late side, but Sloane was a trooper. The next morning, we were able to sneak in another soak after breakfast. She was so exhausted from all the fun that she fell asleep before lunch.
We mostly hear about how Sloane looks like Adam. And there is no denying she has strong Bramble features. My opinion is that Sloane’s expressions look like me. Here are two classic examples- the wide eye side glance and the pitiful ‘where is my food face.’
On Adam’s birthday, we managed to beat the rain and hit up the pumpkin patch. It is a local farm where we buy our honey and we finally realized they do a pumpkin patch. It was a big hit with Sloane and for that matter Adam and me! Sloane got to see animals, do a hay bale maze, and a tractor ride to pick out pumpkins.
Sloane has awesome hair. This summer the ends lightened with the sun. Now the curls are multi toned and beautiful. We went for a walk last month and a woman we passed squealed back to us ‘her curls are bouncing!’ They are ridiculously cute. A few months ago I referred to Sloane’s hair as an old lady perm. Now it has grown longer into ringlets that are reminiscent of Shirley Temple. I hope they stick around and she loves them as much as we do.
https://youtu.be/M7EweLvSb0o
That spiral!Long hair in the bath, plus a nice balance moveCrown made by Aunt JesseWell, sometimes it is crazy hair
