Ages and Stages: 30 Months

TWO AND A HALF!!!

Two and a half! I cannot wrap my head around that one. It was like I only conceptualized you in my mind as reaching two, and now you are half way through your third year already. This will likely be my last monthly update, but hey I did pretty good I would have to say!

This month you have been loving pretending you are Snow White, and I am dopey and acting out the scene where you are sleeping on the beds and we wake up. You also will get your broom and sing "whistle while you work". Within the last week you have started to pretend to be Sophia the First, and we even made you a special amulet you will wear haha. The other night you made me read that book four times in a row! And you don't usually do that. You have also been enjoying "building things" with our little blocks, castle block set, and the larger cardboard box "bricks" we have. We have also been doing more painting for the last few months, with water colors and the coloring books. But I think your favorite art activity is when we get out a big piece of freezer paper and you tell me what to draw and then you color it in. Alvin, Simon, Theodore and Frankenstein is a popular request but we have also done the Peanuts crew and characters from Peter Pan.

You still say funny things daily. Plus you can say normal things and it is hilarious, mostly because they just seem to adult for a two year old! The other day you told me, "But, that's not true". And then we were trying to get you to do something and you were saying "NO." and then you looked up and said "My answer is no." BAHAHAHA. You then explained, "ya that's what Elsa says" which is exactly what she says in a book we have. So funny. I don't remember if I wrote this last month or not but a while ago you told me to just "let him be" about one of your stuffed animals you were putting to bed.

You enjoy playing with little kids in general but sometimes are concerned about kids you don't know, especially boys. The other day we were at Playland Adventures and a 5 year old boy got on the bounce house you were on and you kept saying to him "No, don't get me!". And when we went to a new playgroup last week you had a bit of trouble sharing with the other kids (although that isn't very surprising given you age). I would like to keep going to give you more opportunity to play with kids your own age. You really don't like going to Library time anymore for some reason so we have pretty much given that up. You still love gymnastics though!

Ages and Stages: 29 Months!

Hi my darling littler girl! You are still the sweetest thing ever, no surprises there :). Lately you have been apologizing for lots of little things. You will say "I'm sorry" in the cutest little voice if you knock over some blocks or do something little. It melts my heart, and makes me feel a little bad since it's usually not anything you need to apologize for! But that doesn't mean you have stopped looking for ways to "make mommy nervous" as you like to say, or laugh and keep doing something sometimes when I say no. You still have your lively spirit that is for sure!

Another funny new phrase you have been saying a lot has been, "I smell something" or asking, "What do I smell" when there is something fragrant in the air. Most of the time, it has been when mommy is trying to sneak a chocolate kiss left over from your stocking hehe. But the other day at library time one of the little girls had used a very yummy smelling shampoo and you said "What do I smell Mommy? It's candy. I smell candy." Too freaking cute and funny.

You have learned to count and put up each corresponding finger on your hand, which you love to do anytime you want to count anything. You actually haven't been counting to far past 10 for the past few months. It has been harder to get you to concentrate on it, I think because your mind is more capable of deeper thought now and so you start to think about something else. You do a better job actually count things now though, like if there is something on the page of a book, rather than before when you would just count as high as you can as fast as you can.

You have of course loved to play pretend for a year now, but recently this has come to also include imaginary things. So before usually you would pretend to be someone or an animal or you would say we were someone or an animal, now you will pretend that someone is there when there isn't anything physical around. You will carry imaginary food or items and give them to us too. Or the other day you were pretending something and pretended to go over to the "Big Red Barn" which was the space near our fridge. You will also "move" things around on pictures in a book. For example one time you said that the person in the book was sad so you gave him something to cheer him up.

You are again trying to escape clothing whenever possible! You are also more vocal against sleeping lately saying things like "It's not nap time." or "It's not bed time. It's time to play, mommy will you play with me?". You don't get too mad about it (or at least usually), you are just more articulate where as before sometimes you would just be more whiny or cranky. You have been sleeping great though! Along the same lines, you will tell me to "say yes" sometimes when you ask me something now. Most recently it was when you asked to go to Memere and Papa's.

Also wanted to add that you have been doing extra well with the potty the last few days, and telling us on multiple occasions when you have to pee (not just poop). Although it's not uncommon that there is about an accident a day around here. I put you in pull ups at night (and they are typically wet when you wake up) and if we go somewhere, but usually you will keep them dry while we are out.  You stray dry through nap most of the time so I usually don't put one on you then.

And  the last thing I want to mention, just because I can see wondering when we started later, is that we started you on a daily vitamin this week per your daddy's request. We went with the flintstones toddler gummies as they passed my inspection of ingredients and have no artificial sweeteners or colors. The first day, you of course wanted more than the serving size of two,  but the next day you were fine.

Ages and Stages: 25 months!

Oh how I love you! You are so funny and cute and spirited! You still love puzzles and playing pretend! Recently you have been all about your princess dresses and "glass slippers" (really just white. Toddler dress shoes or hot pink water shoes). In fact, two nights ago you insisted in sleeping with your dress over your pjs! You have also gotten a little to brave when climbing lately. We have thus had to rearrange the living room a bit but you still try to climb up on the arm of her couch and jump down onto the cushions. We have been trying to channel this energy in a safer way by making a mountain of cushions on he floor which is working pretty well so far but we might have to introduce time outs in the near future.

You speak just like a little adult now. Everything is in sentences, sometimes quite impressive ones. In fact, you have progressed from using "no" frequently (and event went through an 'ow' phase), to using the word "not" when disagreeing with us. :P It is very cute especially when used like "I think not".

 Temper tantrums have crept up in number, but they don't really last that long, so we haven't had anything too traumatic yet. Usually I just offer a hug but you don't usually want one, so I wait until you are ready and then you will calm down a bit and I will hold you until you are relaxed. It can be hard sometimes, when you get mad about things that are pointless to adults, or something that I can't do anything about (or when you get so frustrated you can't decide what you want). But you are so funny and fun and sweet most of the time that it makes up for all of the crankiness anyway! We have been very busy lately and it's been hard to keep up with these monthly updates but I will continue them as long as I can!!

***Updated to add that a favorite past time lately has been taking on and off your Velcro sneakers, again  and again and again! :p

Ages and Stages: 2 Years!!

Forgive me for being a few days late but I wanted to wait until after your doctors appointment so I would have accurate stats for weight and height. Which are, 21lbs (1% at our doctors office) and 34 inches (55%). And your head is at

Kylie you are so incredible! I want to remember everything, because you say about a dozen hilarious things a day, but sadly, I often don't even remember them long enough to tell Daddy at the end of the day. At this exact moment I am sitting on the floor beside you attempting to type this and remember what I want to say, while you are looking at a Sesame Street calendar from 1990 that Memere kept for Daddy haha. Wow, talk about coming full circle! You find the pictures very interesting.

Okay, so you still absolutely love puzzles and really like the body puzzle I got you for your birthday. You also are very into dinosaurs right now and Daddy found you a nice play set for your birthday as well. You still LOVE to play pretend and most recently you have been pretending that you are Fozzie, I am Miss Piggy and Daddy is Kermit OR that you are "D.W.", I am Binky, and Daddy is Mr. Ratburn LOL!!! Another thing that cracks me up is this new game that you just started where you force me to look into my closet, Daddy to look into his closet and then you run into your room too look in your closet and then say "I have books in my closet" and name anything else you see. We have also played a pretty fun game where I pretend to be Santa and you tell me what you want for Christmas and so do all your toys.  You will make up your own songs by singing gibberish to the melody of songs you know. You can count up to 18! You are a great little helper and love to do things "all by myself" as you would put it. :)

You have been eating really well lately! And since we weaned a few weeks ago you have been sleeping through the night more than ever! Sometimes you still wake up once though and ask for a snack.

Ages and Stages: 23 Months

Another quick little monthly update while you take a monster nap (over three hours now-should I wake you up, are you still over tired from the long weekend, is this why you have been a little cranky at naptime and bedtime this week). ANYWAY, you love to play with your stuffed animals and any type of little figure (the wooden melissa and doug people, the fisher price little people and animals, your baby dolls, Tinkerbell, Cinderella, your minions,  and we can't for get Georgie, or the Jerry and Ryan puppets! etc. etc. ) It's so funny because you will play with them with each other really well, but then you will be very lovey with them too, giving them hugs and saying I love you. In fact you have been very liberal with your "I love you's" recently. You even said " I love you big girl" to one of the mannequins at old navy the other day. lol You also love and are A pro at puzzles!!
You will do at least 6 in a row and we even have some 8 and 12 piece ones you can do yourself!!

You know most of your letters by sight now but sometimes you say K is X and I is T and P is R. But you can usually get that last one right if I ask you to try again. You can count to 13 and then will say random letters like "16,19, 22, 28..". You say the cutest things all the time! I love that you can tell me what you want to eat now. Recently I have been really loving it when you say "hmmmm" and just throw out "someday" into the conversations. I hope I never forget your expressions and the way your little voice sounds when you say those things! You also say things are your "favorite" sometimes even though it might be debatable in some situations. And a few times when you have been trying to tell me what you want, you say "the thing I like to do" lol. I love that!  You are just the best and are so funny!

Ages and Stages: 22 months

Forgive me baby girl but this might be a shorter post as I have to type it on the ipad. Right now I am currently sitting next to you listening to you play with your "magic school bus" and little people.

"Man! Are you alright? I'll help you and give you wipe" [sounds sort of like wife :p]. "That's a very good boy. Good boys and girls". Then you bring in the dolphin, "get out, get out kids".

You play so well!! We recently purchased a train table at a garage sale and you love playing on that with the train tracks (particularly the bridge piece) and your little wood people and town blocks. You still love to paint and color and play with stickers. But the thing you LOVE to play with most of all is puzzles! You still like Cinderella and the dwarfs but your new favorite is the Lion King. We have the book and will watch the songs on YouTube. You will often sing Hakuna mata and even say the "nothing, what's a matta with you?" part lol. You also sing "Can you feel the love tonight" and will randomly talk about the circle of life :p. In fact, you call one of your puzzles your "Mufasa puzzle" because it has a cartoon male lion and cub on it! You are just sooooo awesome!

Your bottom two year molars are pretty much all the way through except a tiny piece of gum in the back, and on top they are just starting to pop through. You've actually had a hard time a few times the past week or so and bit me in the face the other day so bad it left a mark. We tried time out after that but it didn't seem to phase you. We know it's just your teeth hurting but we want you to learn it's not okay to bite people. The pain seems to be the worst right before they break through. You are down to nursing right before bed to fall asleep and if you wake up during the night, which is usually between 3:30 and 5:00am.

Random things I always want to remember:

When you say "honey" at the end of a sentence randomly.
"Bow to the king".
"Excuse me, bag".

Ages and Stages: 21 Months

Ah, you are such a little toddler now! You look so long and lean! You still fit into some 12 month clothes :P but are mostly wearing 18 month right now. We still can't get over how smart you are. You are literally repeating EVERYTHING now. Phrases and little sentences and everything. And of course you are communicating your own ideas through sentences and phrases too. Sometimes you will add "today" or "this morning" to random things you say and it is just too cute, especially when it doesn't really fit what you have said. I also can't get enough of the "you're so beautiful's" I get from you almost every day, as you cup my head in your hands. The other day you even told me, "you're so cute, mommy". The only time you are really that quiet is if we are around a lot of people. Recently you have been reciting the first few lines of your favorite book "Cinderella": "Once upon a time there was a girl named Cinderella. She lived with her stepmother. Stepmother didn't like Cinderella. She worked very hard every day." You come up with the cutest little games to play now, like for example when you go to the glass door and come and run into our arms and then tell us "Tinkerbelle too fast" or "Snow White too fast", referring to yourself. I love it when you pretend to be someone, last night you were pretending you were Sneezy the dawrf! You will say "Sneezy likes..." and "Sneezy is..." you know exactly how to play. You love to play with all your stuffed animals and wrap them up like your babies, so they become "baby Ernie", "baby Rosita", etc. You also love to take them and show them how to slide down the slide. Recently some favorites have been "George" (the monkey beanie baby), Spot, and Simba.You also have been really into playing with stickers lately, so we have been doing a lot of that. You still love to paint so I try to do that every once in a while too. I got you a little Melissa & Doug puzzle where you put shapes in corresponding parts of the picture and you like to do that and then clap for yourself and say horray!

We have been going to the park quite a bit lately and you love to see the other kids there. You will say "Hey, little boy, hey, hey, come mere" or "Hey, little girl, whatca thinking?". You are not shy at all and will basically follow around anyone you take a liking too.

You are definitely getting your bottom 2 year molars. They have given you some trouble here and there, but so far not as much as the 12 year molars (in my opinion). But I can tell they are just barely starting to pop through so I'm sure we have a long way to go. You have been nursing basically twice a day, for nap and night time and wake up once during the night. Except we did have a little regression on nursing frequency and night waking for a week or two at the end of April when your molars seemed to be hurting the worst.

Ages and stages: 20 Months!

Hello my little darling! You are now 20 months old and looking very toddlerish these days. I don't think there is any baby fat left on that cute little body of yours. You are talking in sentences more and more now. Sometimes they are a bit jumbled or broken up but it is still so amazing to hear you make this more advanced kind of communication. You have always been so much fun to play with but the jump in communication skills just makes it more fun!

Lately you have been loving to read your Cinderella book and talk about her, the mean stepmother and little mice (which is always followed by a hehehe). We sometimes watch videos of the songs on youtube and you love that. You have a little wand that you will carry around , saying "bibbidi bobbidi boo" and you also have a dress we call your Cinderella dress that you love to wear. You also love Mr. Noodle from Elmo's world and will talk about him quite regularly too.

Your songs of choice lately have been some we sing at library time; "open, shut them" and "sticky sticky bubble gum" but you still sing your old favorites "twinkle, twinkle" and "rock a bye baby". Speaking of, you have been all about babies lately. Your dolls are one of your absolute favorite things to play with now (not your tea party set anymore), and anytime we see a baby you have to go over and try to hug it. Thankfully, the moms at story time are very accommodating. This is perfect since your new baby cousin Nila is due any day now! :)

You like to play with your farm set, and town blocks quite a bit still. You like your puzzles too but I'm afraid you might grow out of them soon, they are just a piece of cake for you now. You were loving bath time until about two weeks ago when all of a sudden you started refusing it. We are pretty confused about it, maybe it will be the topic of a future post. You like to play this adorable "night, night....wake up!" game with me and daddy and any number of your babies or stuffed animals. You still looooove books and we read them all the time!

We have seen a few little tantrums, which breaks my heart. Mostly they have happened when you were really tired and hungry for one of them. I just feel bad not being able to rationalize with you for somethings. You love to run around the stores now and have been refusing to sit in the cart so I've generally been avoiding them as much as possible. Also you have been waking up in the middle of the night for like two hours at a tine again. Gah! Those nights are hard, but when this happened a while ago it passed so hopefully it will again soon! All in all though we are having a blast most days! Especially with the weather starting to warm up. I am so looking forward to all the fun we are going to have this summer!!

I LOVE THIS AGE!

Can I just say how much I LOVE this age :) Not that I didn't love all the months up til now but this age is just so fun. So much PLAY, so many HUGS, so many "thank you, mommy"s and "I love mommy"s and "mommy and daddy and Kylie and mommy and daddy and Kylie and mommy are family". GAH! THE BEST!

Also can I just say how sad it makes me that it all is going by so fast! SLOW DOWN!

And now for a darling picture taken on Easter:

Ages and Stages: 19 months

Well my little darling, you are now nineteen months old. I waited until today to write this up since we had a well-check up yesterday and I could include your official stats ;). You are now a whopping 19.38lbs ha ha. But you are definitely getting longer. The nurse measured you at 32 inches which also means that you have finally started to grow out of the 12 month pants and fit into 18 month pants! Your head circumference continues to hold strong on the top half of the charts at 87%. You have been nursing less this month (well, with a brief increase during the flu), and for the past week it has only been 3 or 4 four times a day, and last night was only once during the night, wahoo! (I'm sure tonight will be like 3 times since I said that). You have been eating well lately, with no major changes from last month except that in an attempt to get you to drink more cows milk I have been putting it in your little tea cups and you will try and drink it from there. It seems to make it more interesting but it is also quite messy!

Now on to more important things, you are still our little chatter box and can easily say multiple word phrases. In fact, you like to randomly spout out a few lines from Hop on Pop once in a while. "Dad is sad. Bery, bery sad. Had bad day. What day Dad had." and yesterday you told me "Rosita is on the bike" while looking at our "Elmo's Potty" book. Of course, it is not perfectly enunciated, but I mean no one expects that at this age. You love to point out stop signs where ever we go and are starting to point out relationships. You love to talk about "big" and "little" things when appropriate and if there are three animals or maybe even a set of three inanimate objects you will refer to them as "mommy, daddy, and baby" whatever they are. You will pretend nurse you baby dolls and pretend feed any of your stuffed animals, or adults or yourself. One of your favorite things to do (and has been for a few months actually) is to play tea parties in your house.

You had your first flu about a week ago and we watched quite a bit of T.V. for a few days. I think your favorite was Cindrella (we have the book too and you had been interested in that for a while) you love the mice and will say "Cinderella, mice, hehehehehe". You have also been talking a lot about "Mr. Noodle" from Elmo's world lately and it's so adorably funny! We have been getting many books out of the library lately, you love to read! We got a "literacy to go kit" about colors and you really liked the books inside that; "Lemons are Not Red" and "Pinkalicious".  You have really been enjoying the Sandra Boynton books too when we get them. But really you like pretty much any book that it's hard to say if you have "favorites". It's funny though if there is something that you don't like in a book you will say "no" to the picture (or something on T.V. , etc.). That has a been a favorite word around here lately, but I'd like to do a whole other post on that. Thankfully you have also been saying "pank you" so that has been a very pleasing surprise. You really are our sweet girl!

Ages and Stages: 18 months

I can't believe you are half way through your second year of life already! I remember how far away eighteen months seemed at the beginning when I was still counting your age in weeks, and now here we are! You still say many many words, I would really guess over 200, you pretty much know all basic vocabulary. Yesterday we were listening to music and you looked at me and said, "whoa, trumpet", when a trumpet started playing in the middle of the song. I mean seriously!!! That little brain of yours! Now a days you have been entertaining us with some intense jibber-jabber as well. You just love to try and speak in sentences! Sometimes you can get out a slightly slurred "That's a bunny", "Where's daddy", and other phrases. There are also phrases you can get out almost perfectly, just recently you have learned to say "Hi, how are you" when you pretend to answer the phone. But a lot of the time, your sentences contain a mix of jibber-jabber and real words. Ex: "jiiberrerer cheerios, jibbeer eeeesh eeesh Elmo, Burt, Ernie", etc.

You love to sing songs and know some like "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep" completely by yourself. You will start singing parts of songs randomly out of the blue, which is so cute to me! You have also started using names of titles of books, like "All the World", "Hop on Pop", "Llama, Llama, Red Pajama" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" to name a few. Plus, you will try to read some of the simple rhyming ones with me (same examples as above actually).

You know all of your basic shapes now: circle, oval, rectangle, triangle, diamond, star, heart (if those last too really count I'm not sure ha). You now know the color brown and grey as well as the others you have known for a while. You can do you chunky puzzles all by yourself, which I think is awesome :). And you have started to stack blocks by yourself, the other day you got a stack of 8 blocks all by yourself! You still LOVE to put caps on bottles and covers on containers. I'm hoping I wrote that down before since you have loved to do that for quite a few months at least. Oh and I almost forgot, you can say the ENTIRE abc's and count to ten!! Sometimes you will go even further saying "eleven, twelve, fourteen, nineteen, twenty!". There are I'm sure lots of other things I am forgetting to mention but I hope I am getting them on video!

Your hair is getting longer and you don't look very babyish anymore. You've lost most of the fat on your body (not that you had much anyway), and I can feel your little muscles in your arms and legs. You are really looking like a toddler now-a-days! The only thing that keeps you looking babyish is the fact that you are still quite petite, but you are definitely growing and look so big to mommy, daddy and the rest of our family! You are still breastfeeding and feed quite regularly (unless we are out of the house doing something fun), but I have noticed that your feedings are getting significantly shorter. It is almost as though you want to make sure they are there but then you realize you would rather be playing or exploring.

Here's to hoping the next six months go by a little slower ;)

Ages and Stages: 17 Months

Hi baby girl you are now slightly over 17 months! I used to write a monthly update in your baby book but the spaces available only went up to 12 months, so since you have turned one year old, I have felt the need to write on here more often. Mostly because, you NEVER SLOW DOWN! You just keep learning more and more, and keep doing more and more, it is so crazy! I would probably have to do weekly updates to keep up completely, that is just not possible what with chasing you around all day :P. You still love to climb on everything, and you still really love to jump around on the bed. We have started a daily ritual of playing ring-around-the-rosie there, which you can sing basically all by yourself. You continue to sing lots and lots of songs with me (pretty much anything I sing). Twinkle Twinkle you know all by yourself, you know most of "Rain, Rain, Go Away" and "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and you are getting really close to the Whole ABC's. You will usually stop around Q and then if I say R, S you can start back up again and say the rest! You love little nursery rhymes too. At first it started with an obsession with Hey Diddle Diddle and Humpty Dumpty, which I'm sure I have wrote about (at least I hope I did), but now you really like all of them in our books and love to try to say them with me. Of course none of this is perfect English, but it is definitely recognizable! You can count to 10 with someone and you have even done it by yourself at least once. Plus you know all of "one, two, buckle my shoe..." and can say it all without any help! You also love to try say some of our shorter rhyming books when I read those, as well. For example, Dr. Suess' ABCs and All the World, which you call "All World". You are using two word phrases quite a bit now, and some three word phrases. You will also just say words with pauses in between but they are in sequence so it's like a pre-sentance. Like the other day you said "hair" "mouth" "chin" because there was a hair suck to your chin and in your mouth. Maybe I'm easily amused but, stuff like that just amazes me! You know a few more colors including pink and white, and I pretty sure you know brown now too. AND you know "square" "circle" and "triangle"! I should also mention that it is hilarious to hear you say triangle ;) Oh and by the way, Rhinoceros is another one that is quite amusing! Oh my gosh I could go on and on all day about the number of words you know, it's incredible! Definitely over 100 probably closer to 150 or more. No joke. How is all this possible before 18 months of age? I don't know, I hardly believe it myself!

We have been doing a little better on getting you to drink cow's milk, a.k.a moo-moo milk around these parts, mostly by actually mooing when you drink it (oh the dignity you loose as a parent :P). And it's looking like most of the worrying we have been doing about you starting to get pickier about food was for nothing. You have been eating meats a bit better, we started doing cottage cheese and you like that fairly well, and you have been eating cheese and yogurt like a champ again! So basically I just wish you would eat eggs again and then I wouldn't complain at all!

I think night weaning/crib sleeping are on the horizon, but I'm trying to take it slow and not pressure myself or you too much.

Ages and stages: 16 months

Hi babe, it's January 2nd and you are about half through your sixteenth month of life. But you have just been doing so much lately I felt I needed to record some of it! First of all you are saying SO MANY words. I think you say more words than you don't say at this point. Really you know so many animals, and foods, and basic vocabulary words it's crazy. Plus, you have learned your COLORS! Well, just the basic colors: red, blue, orange, yellow, green, and purple. Once in a while you mix up yellow and orange or blue and purple, but really, how amazing for how young you are! I was not expecting this until after two! You have also been stringing two words together more often. You have done "nigh night baby" for a while now but you have been saying things like "daddy's shoes", and other things that of course I can't think of now (one of the reasons why I wanted to get this written down asap, so I wouldn't forget and then go back and wonder when it started). Anyway, it's really cute and pretty amazing to watch you learn and get to see more what's going inside that little brain of yours.

Oh and you have been all about climbing lately! The fist time you climbed on a chair by yourself was over Christmas at grammies house (I think it was Christmas Eve to be exact). You had gotten up on the chair that was sitting by the step into the addition. A few days later when we were back home, while I was scooping out the squash, I looked over and you were standing up in the new stroller you got for you babies! Then you learned how to get up into our dining chairs. Daddy just ordered you a little climbing tower/slide activity center thing and it is supposed to arrive today so that will be fun! And hopefully satisfy some of your climbing urges. Fingers crossed!

We do all have colds right now, so that has been slightly frustrating. It has meant for a few sleeping challenges (taking long naps=great, going to bed late=not so great), eating less solids, and nursing more. But we will get through, and if some extra Sesame Street is my greatest fault as a parent, I can deal with that for a few days until we all feel better!

Ages and Stages: 16 Months

You turned 16 months yesterday little lady! You continue to keep us in awe of everything you do and how fast you learn. You LOVE singing songs now, and will sing "All of the rain drops", "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Jingle Bells" with me. You also love to say "Chug Chug" in Little Red Caboose and "Pop" in Pop Goes the Wehsal. Your new favorite again is the ABC's (or AB's as you refer to them) and it is so fun to listen to you say "oh oh oh P" and "Now [jibberish] AB's" at the end! You really like all songs though right now and will often say and sign "more, more" every time we sing. You can say some numbers, the ones you say most often are "two", "eight", and "thirteen" (don't ask me why).

You still love to play with your babies (you really like the gingerbread men a.k.a. ginger babies that I brought out for Christmas). You also love your Sesame Street dolls Abby, Elmo, and most recently Ernie. You just got a tea set as well that you love playing with.

Your molars are finally all the way through but now your canine teeth are coming! These have been much less painful than the molars but you still have your hands in your mouth almost constantly, yesterday you had both hands in there! Sometimes I wonder if it effects how you eat as well but for the most part you eat good, you love your veggies and fruits. Peas, carrots, corn, avocados, oranges, apples, bananas, pineapples, beans, and tomatoes are probably your favorites.

I could go on an on but it's now playtime :)

Ages and Stages: 12-14 Months

Lately you have been impressing us very much with all the things you know. You can point and say "eyes", "nose", "mouth", "hair", "teeth", and sometimes "ears". You also know your "toes" "foot" and "hands". You can tell us what a sheep, horse, chicken, cow, kitty, monkey and lion/tiger says. You actually have been able to do the horse and cow for quite a while but you do it so consistently now and you just seem to be learning a new one each day. Last night we were playing with the blocks and while I was building a tower you had picked on up and started saying "puppy", and it was the puppy block, then you pointed to one with a ball and said ball, then you really blew my mind when you said "kitty, meow" and I looked over to you holding a block with the cat picture. It's just amazing to watch you learn!

You have definitely been making progress with your shape sorter toy you got for you birthday. You can put in all the shapes easily by yourself if I show you where to put them. It's so funny, you always pick up the heart and star first when I dump them out, they must be your favorites (you say "heart" too). There are three shape holes on your little red car too, and you have been having fun with those. You can do the circle and square completely by yourself but the triangle is more difficult. You like to say "woah" a lot now and "mmmmm" (even so weird things like a cold bottle or after you have dipped your hand into mommy's tea). Which reminds me, you remember the things we have told you are "hot", like the stove and humidifier, and will say it when you are near them. Also you have started to say "no, no" to things we don't want you to touch like the garbage, but also when you don't want us to do something, like wash your face. Let's see what else do you say? "Art" for paintings/pictures hanging on the wall, "sky" which is always accompanied by a forceful arm thrust towards the sky.; "Nice" when you give hugs and pats on the back; you say "duck"; "bear"(which has a Forest Gump like accent to it); "bird" and "mouse". I'm sure there are others that I can't remember now as well!

You do seem a bit more timid around strangers now, especially the doctors when they try to listen to your heart/lungs, or look in your mouth or ears. You have really hated that the last two times we've gone. You remember your grandparents, but are sometimes shy and timid at first with the extended families. You do love Amanda Getchell though and always want to go to her right when you see her no matter how long it's been since you have seen her last. Last night you were saying her name, something like "Ah-mawn-ya", with a rhythmic emphasis on each syllable.

You are just too cute and make me laugh all the time. It's so funny to see your "skeptical" face, I can only imagine what you must be thinking!  You will dance anytime you hear music now. You love the outdoors and often get frustrated (sometimes extremely frustrated) if you want to go outside but we can't. You "sneak" around, by walking slightly crouched down with a mischievous grin on your face.  You love run down to our bedroom, get on the bed and wait for us to come down and tickle you. You also love to play with your reflection in the mirror. Daddy and I just love your personality!

Breastfeeding: Our Story from 5 months to 11 months

Our breastfeeding experience from 5months to one year has been far less eventful then the in the beginning. We have had to deal with distractability and occasional biting, but the biggest change has been the addition of solid food. Around 6 ½ months I switched from the Ameda Purely Yours to the Medela Pump in Style and noticed a slight increase in my output. A common day would be 15oz, although sometimes 14 or 16. I think the most I ever pumped in one day was 17oz. And the most I have ever pumped at one sitting has been 9oz when I was really full on one side because I forgot to feed you with it all night. You were definitely not eating that much at daycare, probably only around 10oz a day. I got such a good freezer stash going I didn’t have to worry so much about wasting milk (and subsequently did end up wasting some milk). You started eating solids at about 6 months; having purees at dinner time when we would eat. At 7 months I told the daycare you could start there as well and they fed you twice a day when you would cooperate. At that point I didn’t notice any change in your milk feedings, you ate just as often as you had before for me. It wasn’t until you were 10months (ish) that I started to notice a drop in nursing. You had been eating some finger foods at home since 8 ½  months and daycare asked to switch you over at a little over 9 months. I was a little nervous of choking at first but I let you. By 10 months you were eating really well, you love finger foods and will eat just about anything. The drop in nursing frequency and corresponding dip in milk supply has been so gradually it is barely even noticeable. I now pump about 13oz each day. I find myself thinking “well, I think she used to nurse more than this”.  You definitely have dropped and evening feeding, but I think, in addition to being more filled up on solid foods, you have dropped day feedings because of distractability. At first it was a temporary issue.  It started around 5 months when you started to pop off and look around  and do it again and again and again. You still nursed as often as you had but you were less focused. We also has a rough time nursing when you had your ear infection because it was uncomfortable. For both of these issues, it helped to walk around and bounce you at the same time and also take advantage of the sessions when you were very sleepy. This type of distraction was short lived. Now, you are very preoccupied with playing, especially if we are some place new or anyone is visiting. So you aren’t interested in nursing as often during the day, which I think is why it feels like you don’t nurse as often now. I notice sometimes I am still full after you eat, or that I have an overactive let down. I have also been less hungry lately, another sign that you aren’t eating as much as you used to. Like I said this has been so gradual it didn’t even become noticeable about 10months or a little after.

Now at about 11 months, I’m not really sure exactly how often you nurse during the day with me because we are often busy on the weekends but it seems to be about every 3 to 4 hours. On weekdays we typically  nurse at 5am, 4:30pm, 7:30pm (you used to eat once more in the evening and go to bed later) usually with two night feedings. Sometimes you eat more at night if you are sick or teething, and there was one little stretch which seemed like a growth spurt because, not only were you waking up three or four times a night, you were eating on both sides each time and usually you only eat on one side at a time during the night. This only lasted a few days. I guess all in all you still do nurse quite often. Which is fine! I was actually dreading the return of my period because I have felt like we haven’t been nursing as much lately.

Biting has been a reoccurring, but small, issue since you got your top teeth. Sometimes I will say no in a stern voice but I think the thing that works the best is just to ignore it all together because sometimes it seems like you might want to get me to say no again-like a cause and effect game. So I will usually just not say much and stop nursing you for a bit. It only seems to happen at the end of feedings anyway. I think sometimes it is just something to do for you-you chew on your sippy cup so why not this too?, but sometimes I can tell it is because your teeth hurt. So in those cases we find something you can bite on for relief. It isn’t fun to be bit, but it is nowhere near the pain I had when I first started breastfeeding.

Message To Baby Girl On Her First Birthday

You are turning one year old my little love! It feels like just yesterday that I was looking at a positive pregnancy test. My stomach was fluttering with the rush of excitement of the unknown. But I had no second thoughts at all, I knew I wanted to be a mother like I knew how to breathe, it was automatic- inevitable in my mind.  I thank God every day for allowing me this gift. You are everything I imagined and more. I keep retracing the steps in my mind of how we have gotten to where we are now. Last year at this time the air was full of anticipation for your arrival. Would you come early, would you come late, when would you make your appearance? And even though I am sentimental that our first year together went by so fast, I can’t even stay sad because of how happy and proud I am of the little girl you have become. You have grown into such a smart, sweet, fun, determined and completely adorable baby girl. You put the sunshine in every one of my days and bring me immense joy. Sometimes it is terrifying how much I love you. There is nothing better than when I get kisses from you, or when you wrap those little arms around my neck, give me a big hug and squeeze. You are my angel. Your  whole family loves you so much, and we all fight for your attention, but I am the luckiest of all because I get to be your mom.  There is nothing that makes me happier! Love you to the moon and back a thousand times, Mommy

Ages and Stages: 8-12 Months

When you turned 8 months it seemed like you started to do everything! Crawl, clap, etc. You took your first steps at 9 and a half months but weren’t really that gung ho about walking until about 10 months. Then at 11 months it seemed like another developmental leap, particularly in communication. Now at almost one year, you are so smart! Your favorite thing to do is move. You want to explore, run, and climb. And boy does it make mommy a nervous wreck. You split your eye open at daycare, and then got a major egg from Amanda’s coffee table (I cried as much as you when that happened). You can mimic us and are starting to learn words! This morning you said cheese before I even said it. It’s so funny to year you try that one because it is just the “ch” sound for now. You will even say “moo” when we see cows or I ask you what sound they make.  You rock your babies/stuffed animals, give them kisses and even put them on a pillow to go “night-night”. You give kisses to your elmo seat too and even try to wrestle him sometimes! It’s hilarious. We have put the mattress on the floor now and you love to climb on it and wait for someone to come tickle you. Now that you can communicate more, it is pretty easy to tell what you want, the hard part is that sometimes what you want is not safe, and you don’t like it when you don’t get your way! You will sit down and put your head all the way down on the floor and cry in frustration. It makes me feel so bad to take something away or tell you no, but I try to remember that temper tantrums are a normal part of development that is very important and actually a good sign.

We ended up cutting your long front piece of hair at a little over 8 months because it was getting into your eyes, and then it was the same length as the rest of your hair-which has grown in so well since! It is a dirty blond/golden light brown color- very pretty. In some light it looks light and in some light it looks darker. And you are getting a few little curls in the back, they make my heart melt! Your face is looking more and more toddlerish each day. Especially when I look back at your pictures at 5 or 6 months, your face has thinned out quite a bit. Your one little roll on each leg seems to be going away too, but you still have a healthy amount of baby fat all over your body, and your little tummy sticks out a bit when it’s really full. You are the cutest, and soo pretty. Not that looks matter, but daddy and I can’t help but comment on it every night as we watch you sleep.

You love to read books. You will go over to the shelf get a book and come sit on my lap for me to read it. The ones you like best are the ones with real pictures of babies and animals and lift-the flap books, but there are some others illustrated ones you like too: Goodnight moon, Everywhere Babies, Time for Bed my Love, The Big Red Barn, Sleep Little Angel. You like a lot of books really, but there are definitely some you don’t care for.  You will clap and sometimes dance a bit when I sing a song or put on music. You can put all your rings on the peg, gears on the caterpillar and also like to play with your “Little people” School Bus set. You LOVE to play with the remote and phone, but you will settle on your own phone which you hold up to your ear the wrong way and say “hi” while walking around. One day you were walking around with your phone and a little purse and it was soo cute! You also like to pull your “Going to Grandmas” suitcase along behind you. 

Your still a good eater but seem like you might be starting to get pickier. You don’t like chicken or turkey as much as you used to. I think berries might give you diarrhea, Strawberries and Blueberries anyway. Your still breastfeeding in morning, after work, to fall asleep at night, and at least once during the night. On the weekends you probably eat two more times during the day. You have transitioned to one nap for 1.5 to 2 hours around 11 or 11:30am (I can't exactly remember when that stared but probably around 9 months with two naps a day once in a while). Bed time is usually around 8pm and you get up around 7am. You have two more teeth coming, the bottom lateral incisors. The right one has cut completely through and the left one is working on it.