Author: Jessica Dickerson

Okay, I totally thought I posted this blog weeks ago. Sorry y’all. As the title suggests, it’s just a mishmash of Heather stuff from October.

The book she’s “reading” is Henry’s Awful Mistake. If you don’t know the story (and/or aren’t familiar with Heather’s speech), it probably sounds like gibberish. But it’s not. Promise.

She pulled a long-sleeve shirt of hers out of the hamper and tried to put it on herself, but only got so far. And was fine with that—especially since she snatched my tablet to play with.

This is not her car seat. It’s Liam’s car seat, and it was sitting in our living room while he was visiting one day. But Heather decided it was her throne and spent a lot of time that afternoon reading books in it.

She loves her new easel.

This was more birthday cake. What made it interesting was that she was doing everything she could to just get the frosting. Silly girl.

To celebrate Heather’s birthday weekend, we went back up to Tilden Park to ride the train and carousel again. She’d really enjoyed it last time, so we thought it’d be a good treat.

Unfortunately, we sat too near the train engine and the loud whistle scared her to death. She cried the whole ride!

We had bought enough tickets to ride a few times, but Heather wasn’t interested in that. We waited for a while, then got in the very last car, so we’d be as far from the whistle as possible. But as soon as we sat down, Heather jumped up and dragged us off.

Basically, this sums up her feelings about the train: Run away! Run away!

Well, we still had the carousel. We knew she’d love that. And she did like looking at it. But the actual riding part made her cry some more. [Sigh.]

She was eventually happy sitting on one of those boring seats with me. I don’t know what was going on with her.  But we pretty much felt like we’d ruined her birthday treat.

The day of her actual birthday, however, Kyle won by bringing balloons home for her. I saw him pull into the driveway, so I sent Heather to open the door for him. She lost her little mind with excitement! “Gaminoos at the door! Gaminoos at the door!” (For unknown reasons, she called balloons “gaminoos” until the day before yesterday. She’s figured it out now, but I’m a little bit sad. It was so cute!)

For her birthday dinner, we had her favorites: hot dogs with ketchup, fries, and baked beans. Does it get any better?

We managed to get both sets of grandparents on video chat to watch her open presents.

Sitting in her new booster seat, examining toys from Papa and Bubbie.

Wearing the tutu Grandma made for her:

Yay birthday cake!

I know I haven’t written an explicit Heather update in a long time, but she’s pretty universally fabulous. She’s become quite chatty, putting several words together and speaking in simple sentences. Her speech is getting much clearer, too, although I still frequently serve as interpreter.

Heather loves to look at books, which pleases Kyle and me no end, of course. She also really enjoys coloring, which is why we got the easel for her. She really likes it! Music is another favorite. She requests certain songs: Child of God, Family Song (“Families Can Be Together Forever”), Temple Song (“I Love to See the Temple”), Popcorn Popping, Sunbeam Jesus Song (“Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam”), ABC Song, Twinkle Star, Row Boat, Baa Baa Sheep, and more. We go to story time at the library every Monday morning, and it’s a major highlight of her week.

Thankfully, Heather also loves going to nursery. As soon as sacrament meeting is over, she’s down and on her way to “Nursery Time!” She loves playing with her friends in nursery and at the park.

Her favorite TV shows (on Netflix) are Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. And Winnie the Pooh is still pretty much her favorite movie ever.

At her two-year checkup last week, the doctor said she is doing great! She weighs 26 pounds (approx. 50th percentile) and is 35.5″ tall (approx. 85th percentile). I can’t believe how different she looks than she used to. Pictures of her at 1 year old don’t even look like her. It’s weird.

Her typical day starts around 7:30, when Kyle gets her out of her crib. (She wakes up before that, but plays on her own for a little bit.) She eats breakfast (usually yogurt) soon after. The morning’s entertainment changes: sometimes we go to a zumba class at the church, sometimes the park, sometimes story time at the library, and sometimes we just chill at home. Lunch is around 11:30, then down for her nap soon after noon. Depending on when she actually falls asleep, she’ll get up around 3pm, give or take a half hour or so. Then we usually look at books or something until Kyle comes home from work. Then it’s dinner time, and bedtime is around 7:30pm. Heather can be sorta flexible with sleep times, but not too much. When she’s overtired, she is more likely to get night terrors, and that ain’t no joke. It’s pretty awful, so we try to make sure she’s getting enough sleep.

I can’t think of anything else to say about Heather except that Kyle and I both adore her. She keeps us laughing and generally lights up our lives. So now, I leave you with another video of Heather playing with her balloons:

Some friends from church and I take our kids to one of the many local parks every Thursday morning. It’s a fabulous excuse to get out of the house and let Heather run around.

She likes to swing, but only for 15 seconds at a time. Or less.

Mostly, Heather runs around on the playground equipment, scaring me to death all too frequently. She doesn’t realize that she can’t do certain things, so I used to have to spend a lot of time keeping her from walking off edges. But now, she’s doing things I hadn’t realized she could do! The tables have turned.

Kyle needed help washing the car. Fortunately, we have produced our own little minion for such things.

I decided it was time for Heather to get a haircut. The length was fine, but since it had never been cut, it was starting to look pretty mullet-ish. It needed some shaping.

I found a cute little kids’ salon in downtown Livermore.

They have adorable little seats for the kiddos: a Thomas the Tank Engine, and a Lightning McQueen car. Thomas even had buttons to push and a wheel to turn that kept Heather busy.

Here’s the after shot. Honestly, it didn’t seem like there was very much difference. But I’ve noticed, as I’ve had more time to look at it, that it is definitely better. Less shaggy in the back, and a better shape overall.

Heather had fun, and we even got a cute little certificate, complete with a lock of her hair attached.