Life With Ida : 4 Years

 

Since Ida's birthday last year, she has grown so much. It is so fun to watch her personality grow. She is always surprising me with how silly or fun or sweet or fierce she is.

Ida is always up for an adventure with Mom and/or Dad. Wherever we are, she is there too. She loves to go on walks, to the park, go swimming, or just go on a ride in the car with us.  When big sister isn't at school, Ida loves to play Barbies, be read to, or just follow her sister around and be with her. Ida is so sweet and randomly throughout the day she'll say "I just love you!" and give big hugs.  

Ida is my little nature girl. She is always by my side when I'm working in the garden... and sometimes she even asks to just go out and sit near the garden. It is fun to watch her interest in plants. She likes to dig and find worms, collect rocks, help spot new vegetables, and water the plants. 

Ida has been missing school a lot. She cannot wait to get back to school and play with her friends.  She has asked 2-5 times a week (every week since March) when she will get to go back to school again. While she is missing school, she still enjoys each day. I love her enthusiasm for all things.

Happy Birthday Sweet Ida!  We are so lucky to have you.  xxoo

Check out previous Life with Ida posts: 3 year, 2 year, 1 year, and her birth story

Life With Ida : 3 Years

Ida Rue is turning 3 yesterday! It feels like time has been flying, but when I look back on her 1 year and 2 year updates it seems like it was so long ago. Even just the last month was so full of new things.

Ida started preschool a last week. She can be clingy sometimes, so I wasn't sure if she would love it or cry when we left... turns out she loves it! When we dropped her off on her first day of school, she ran off to do some activities without even looking back. When I picked her up, she gushed about all her new friends and told me "I love my school!"

She is my little magnet and always loves to be by my side. Since I've been spending more time at home lately, we get to spend lots of time together. Ida loves to help out and chat or just sit there and cuddle. Sometimes when we're eating next to each other, she will reach her arm out and just rest her hand on my arm because she wants to cuddle at all times. ... and just when I think she is a momma's girl, she sees her dad and is all over him cuddling and playing. Ida gets to spend a lot of time with Ben during the day and they love to play and listen to music.

My little Ida loves to be outside. She jumps at any chance to get outside and run around. She likes to go on walks, help with the garden, run around with Clovey, picnic near the garden, and observe nature.

We spent a good amount of time this summer at the pool and Ida was quite the fishy. She was timid at first, but soon became excited for our weekly trips. We had play dates most weeks and she loved to run around with Cora's friends and their siblings.

Ida is really into reading. She will bring us books throughout the day and loves to cuddle up and read whenever she can. 

Happy birthday Ida Rue! You are such a light in our lives and a joy to watch grow.

Life With Ida : 2 Years

I'm looking back at all my Life With Ida updates and loving all the pictures of baby Ida. I'm enjoying seeing how much has changed in the last year and seeing all the progress our sweet Ida has made.

Ida is always making her grumpy face and it's one of my favorite things. She is super grumpy when she meets new people... and it's always a fun surprise when she doesn't have a grumpy face when she meets somebody. Some days she is grumpy and mean mugging at everyone we pass and other days she is smiley and waving to every single person we see.

Ida is getting more and more independent and it is so fun to watch all the things she is learning. This week, she can finally open the fridge and she's constantly disappearing and reappearing with a yogurt in her hand.  One day, I heard her go in the fridge and I told her from the next room "you better not come back in here with a yogurt in your hand" and she peeks around the corner with a yogurt and her sweet little voice was just like "peeeasse!" followed by all of us cracking up. I also love her little voice saying 'thank you' whenever you help her with something.

Ida is really into chanting (just like the rest of our family) and she'll always find something to chant. She was really into her birthday with all the chants of "fashion show" and her name. Sometimes when there is a game behind our house, we'll walk over to grab a little treat from the concession stand. As soon as she hears we're going over, she'll start chanting "treat! treat! treat!" and it is the cutest thing hearing her little voice chanting.

Ida is quite the fashionista. She loves to pick out her own clothes which often includes a pair of sunglasses. Our neighbors gave us a little tinkerbell nightgown hand-me-down and that has been Ida's favorite article of clothing lately. I love seeing the random things she picks to wear.

Ida loves to color... but also loves to be a stinker and color all over her body. When I work from home, she usually colors next to me for a bit. When she's really concentrating on coloring, she puts her hand up to her face and it's the cutest thing.

As always, Ida loves going out on walks. This month, we found a new-to-us discovery garden and our favorite backyard filled with black-eyed susans. Ida is always the first to request to go 'ouside' and runs off to get her shoes whenever we talk about going on a walk.

Happy 2nd birthday sweet Ida! We love watching you grow and can't wait to see everything the next year has in store for you. We love you so much and we're lucky to have you in our family.

Life With Ida : 23 Months

This is my last monthly update for my Ida boo, but I'll still do my yearly updates like I do with Cora. I can't believe my baby girl is almost 2 years old!!!

This month, Ida went on her first vacation. This was her first trip to the lake and she loved it! She loved hanging out on the dock playing in buckets of sand and water. She wasn't the biggest fan of swimming, but would warm up to it on occasion.

We're still working out on getting lots of walks with Ida. Some days she loves the strollers, some days she loves the backpack, and other days she insists on doing all the walking herself. I love that each day is different and we never know what we're going to encounter when we leave the house.

One of baby girl's new favorite things is pretending she is dead. It's a hilarious upgrade from pretending she is sleeping. Whenever she is upset or wants to add a little humor, she lays her head back and sticks her tongue out like she's a character in a movie. We all say "oh no! She died!" then she snaps open her eyes and cracks up giggling. I also love her sassy grumpy face. When she's really upset, she crosses her arms and pouts. She is such a character lately.

Ida is getting much more independent. She picks out her own outfits, grabs her own snacks (bringing them to one of us to open), takes her diaper off when it needs to be changed, picking up after herself (grabbing the broom and dustpan when she drops stuff on the ground), and insists on doing everything herself. It is fun to watch her gain her independence and it is nice to get a little break from having to run around taking care of every little thing.

My sweet Ida, It is such a pleasure to watch you grow up. I love your constant growth and surprises. I love your enthusiasm for adventure and go-with-the flow attitude. I love your cuddles and giggles and the joy that you bring to our life. You make me the luckiest Mama in the world.

Life With Ida : 22 Months

My sweet Ida is growing so quickly and this month is no exception. We have been busy enjoying all that summer has to offer with trips to the pool, community activities, and lots of playing outside.  

Most evenings, I try to spend some time in our backyard. We check on our garden and I get a little bit of time where the girls aren't clinging all over me. Ida loves to run off and play in the cottage playhouse, dig in the dirt pile, or play with Clovey. She loves to walk out in the back and check on our garden whenever I'm checking it out.

Ida is also a huge fan of hanging out on our front porch... mostly because thats where we always bring our afternoon snacks (she loves popcorn and posicles). The girls love to wave at neighbors driving and walking by. I will work on yard work or sit on the porch while the girls run around and pick flowers.

We're still doing an afternoon nap... which is very refreshing because Cora wasn't really napping at this age. Whenever she is getting a bit cranky, we know it's time for us to give her a good cuddle and put her down for a little nap.

It took her a bit to start talking, but Ida is getting pretty chatty this month. She is always talking about things going on around her and her favorite thing is asking where her sister is. I love listening to her figure out new words and I love that it is a little easier to communicate with her these days. She is becoming so silly and loves to do things to make us laugh whether its saying something silly (poopy), pretending to beat us up (punching sound effects included), or just making goofy faces. I'm loving love with my sweet little Ida and I can't believe she is getting so close to turning 2.