











Then one day, there was no mommy or daddy bluebird. I was a little sad. But it turns out, the whole family is living in our backyard and is working on a new nest in the same birdhouse.
Not to mention, we have a nest in one of our rosebushes. I could kick myself for not getting a picture of the cute, tiny blue spotted eggs that were in the nest. But here are the sweet baby birds. Waiting on food to be dropped in their mouths (Collin and I bumped the rosebush trying to get a picture. I guess they thought it was their mommy or daddy).
We also have another nest under our deck. It's too high up to see if their are any eggs inside.
We're also hoping to grow some of our own fruits and veggies this year. Here's a picture of our first squash, blueberries, and what will hopefully be our first strawberries!

We (Mike) also fixed up the playground a bit this year. Hopefully the mulch will help when it rains and it won't be so muddy!
And what's a post about our backyard without our friend Rylee?
I knew I wanted a wooded backyard for a reason. (Besides not being able to walk right up into someone else's backyard from mine).
We've got a busy few months ahead of us, so I guess it's time to start party planning! I just checked the calendar, and it turns out your birthday falls on a Saturday this year. So at least the date's already picked! You go for your 18 month well checkup appointment in the morning, so I'll update on how much you've grown tomorrow. You've outgrown your summer shoes already, so I'm expecting pretty high numbers!
You are still doing well in the booster, but your appetite has decreased a bit. You want to feed yourself all of the time and you are doing well with a fork and a spoon. You love "yogurt shake its" (yogurt smoothies) and the occasional capri sun. Your other favorites are cereal bars, yogurt, cheese, any kind of dressing or dipping sauce, all fruits, yogurt raisins, and croutons.
You are definitely a daddy's girl. When Daddy is at work, any noise you hear is "dada?" You love to wave bye bye to Daddy in the morning and watch his truck pull in the driveway in the afternoon.
You are trying to talk a little more. Today I got you to say "out" twice! Once to get out of brother's fire truck and once to get out of the exersaucer. (Yes, you STILL will sit in it long enough for Mommy to get a shower.) Your other consistent words are dada (obviously), uh oh, yucky, yuck, bath (another favorite), belly, and bai (for the cat, Bailey). You don't say mama all that much anymore. You have also said ball and dirty.
Finally Collin let me take some pictures of him the other day so now I can do a little blog post just about him (because what's a blog post without pictures, right?) So here's some of the newest things I love about him and some of the little things I want to remember about this (rather interesting) phase of his life.
I love that he loves to play hide and seek, tic tac toe, tag, and the "kid game" all of the time. (Kid game = mommy or daddy get tucked into his bed and he listens out for us on the monitor; we re-enact his long, drawn out bedtime routine of asking for a hug, water, blanket, fan, music, etc. etc.). I love that he sings the theme song to "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" at the top of his lungs. I love that he carries around a piece of a magnet puzzle to determine if random objects are metal and puts a mirror in a glass of water to make rainbows with a flashlight. I love that he turns over different objects 50 items a day to see if they can be recycled.
I love that he practically stays attached to the stepstool, just in case there is a task to "help" me do. I love that he cleans up the toys every night even though we all know he's not the one who drug them all out. I love that he has figured out the child locks on the doors and can now do things like let the dog out/in or throw a diaper in the garage. I love that he really does help me all day long.
I love that he loves his sister. I love that he will not let her go down for nap or bedtime without giving her a hug and kiss. I love that he sings the ABC song to her almost every time she is crying.
I love that he asks me every day "What are we gonna do tomorrow?" I love that he tells me he loves me multiple times a day without me saying it first. I love that he still mispronounces the words music (musnic) and crayon (crayron). I love that sometimes he wants me to help him with things he is perfectly capable of doing on his own. I love that he still likes to snuggle with me.
Love, love, LOVE this kid!
Then we had a blast at our annual Mother's Day cookout out Nanna's!




Happy Mother's Day!
So, tonight you went to sleep without taking a bottle. Last night, after I gave you your last bottle and laid you down to sleep, Collin and I packed up every bottle in our house and the bottle warmer and took them down to the basement to the "baby gear" box. Right away. Literally, 5 minutes from the time I walked out of your room. I knew I had to pack them up right away or you would have gotten yet another bedtime bottle tonight. But, you didn't. Mommy's goal for taking it away was 15 months, but that didn't happen. Finally I told myself that when the last canister of formula was gone, that was it. (Actually, I bought you some more vanilla toddler formula, but you got it in a sippy cup tonight. I like the nutrition it gives you since you really don't drink that much whole milk.)
And capri suns.
But you'll always be our little baby girl!