What happened to my tiny baby?

Photos from April 13, 2012

When miss L was born they told us, "no solids until four months." When mister W was a baby they told us, "no solids until between four and six months based on whether or not baby is hungry for more." For sweet little man we were told, "no solids at all until six months." Isn't it funny how in such a short time all of that can change?

It was no matter for us though. It seems like with sweet little man things are just going so darn fast that we forget to be concerned about things like milestones and solids. So... when we realized sweet little man was around six and a half months old and that he was seeming veeerrrryyyy interested in our food, we decided that perhaps it was time for him to try out some oatmeal.

He was more interested in the spoon than the oatmeal but he did eat some. Only time will tell if he will be a picky eater like his sister or a "mikey" like his brother. :o)

Weekly Update!

Hi everyone!

Happy New Year! We didn't do much this year in the way of celebrating, but we did have a really fantastic week. Brad worked but not too much, and we had some really great bonding time as a family.

On Saturday we had our annual Maggiano's dinner with our church group. We lucked out and got a private room, which was PERFECT for families with young kids. We ate an enormous amount of food and had a really wonderful time.



















We stayed out late and had a really great time with some very good friends!



L is now 16 months old. I know it's hard to believe right?!

I thought I might update you on some things that she's doing so that I can remember too!

Words L can say:

• Hi!
• Uh-oh
• Mama
• Daddy
• Moo
• and either Jack/James or Cat.  It's definitely something but we don't know what yet.

Words L can sign:

• Hi
• Bye
• Milk
• Eat
• Cheese
• Banana
• Airplane
• Light
• Cat
• Train
• Sleep
• Brush Teeth
• More
• Yes (nodding)
• No (shaking head)
• All done

I never realized how great yes and no can be.  It's fantastic to have her answer a question when you ask!

Some other things we're doing at 16 months:

• L goes to time out now and she's actually beginning to "get" it.  She'll sit for 30 seconds  and actually put herself in time out earlier this week.  I'm just happy that it seems to really be helping to snuff out some of the less desirable habits we've developed (hitting).
• L is eating bigger bites now and actually chewing a bit of her food.
• L helps clean up her own spills.  I like to think this is my excellent modeling.  :o)
• L does not help clean up her own toys, yet.
• L can point to her nose, eyes and belly button (and to your belly button too!).
• L will ask to be held (holding her arms up) and then point to where she wants us to go.
• L is 100% a daddy's girl.  I'm alright if he's not around, but if he's in the house she wants to be with him.
• L has 16 teeth.
• L is still a daredevil.  She will slide or jump off anything including the couch.
• L eats with a plate and fork most all the time.
• L love love loves sitting in chairs, whether they are just her size or a lot bigger, she likes chairs.
• L is obsessed with buckles.  She can't connect them yet but she is working feverishly on doing so in her carseat, in a shopping cart, in a stroller in someone else's carseat...

Foods that L currently likes:

• cheese (favorite)
• milk (another favorite)
• bananas
• spinach pancakes
• waffles
• apples
• pears
• peas
• mandarin oranges
• quesadillas
• bread
• sunbutter (sunflower butter)
• cereal bars (we call these crack bars because the child is hopelessly addicted to them.  she sees the box with the grover on it and points to it and signs eat ferociously)
• goldfish
• sadly... french fries... where did I go wrong? oh yeah, it was when I gave her french fries!

There aren't a lot of foods that L doesn't like.  There are definitely those she prefers over others.  She doesn't like cold cuts very much but she'll eat them if nothing else is around.  L does not like carrots or broccoli, although I think that's as much a texture issue as anything.  I'm going to try to give her carrot and broccoli purees and see if she'll eat those soon.  She's not crazy about veggies other than peas, spinach and potatoes, but she'll eat them if they are on her plate.

Brad and I are just constantly shocked by how much L has grown and changed and so I thought I'd write it all down to help us remember.  Before long she'll be grown and like a lot more food and say a lot more words and just be all grown up and I'll need help remembering!

Have a wonderful week and we'll see you soon!

Weekly Update

It's been crazy around here this week. Starting out I thought I'd have all of these great photos from halloween parties that we were going to. As it ended up, we didn't do any of those things.

We have had an awful cold all week long. I was sick first, then L and Brad followed close behind. We've been sniffling, sneezing and hacking all week long. L wasn't sleeping much, so I wasn't sleeping much and we didn't get out of our pajamas until Friday night to hand out candy. I was sad not to have photos from halloween.

By yesterday we were feeling better (well, L and I are, poor Brad is still feeling awful), and we were able to get a few good shots for the week.

Before going to the store last night I got some great photos of L getting her shoes on.









Have I mentioned lately that I'm pretty sure my daughter has the most beautiful eyes in the world?



I made some pumpkin soup on Friday night, and we didn't end up eating it, but last night I heated it up for dinner. We fed about half of L's serving to her, and then let her go after the second half. I'm not sure if she got much actually IN her mouth, but she really enjoyed making a big mess.













I guess we're feeling adventurous when it comes to food lately. Today for lunch L and I had some fish sticks. She's never had ketchup before, so I thought it might be fun to try it out. It was funny. She ended up eating the ketchup with her fingers and then taking a bite of the fish.





We were eating and snapping some photos when L heard an airplane outside. She is waaaaaaaaaaay into airplanes lately, so she looked for it.



Then she turned around and signed airplane.



Have a great week!

Weekly Update

Hi everyone! It's birthday week around here. We are celebrating in full swing.

Friday we went to dinner nearby at a shopping center that has these beautiful fountains. The fountains are an attraction for families because kids can actually run through them. Sweet baby L is a dare-devil by nature so we were sure that she would be so excited!

Here we are going into dinner. Sweet baby L looks a little cranky.



It's very cute. L will now play peek a boo with nearly anything handy. She especially likes to play with things that she can see through.



I love the breath marks on that lid. Hee hee.

After dinner we headed out to the fountains. You know, the ones that L was going to be so excited to see!





She was less than thrilled. I thought she'd warm up to the fountains, but she was sticking to her guns.



I think that this is part of a larger problem we're having lately. We are headed straight into the thick of some hardcore seperation anxiety. I think that her nervousness was due less to the water and more to the fact that the place was crawling with kids. She wanted to stay right with us and when we were just sitting, she was happy.



... but when we got close to the action, she wanted to be on us like glue.





She eventually did get a few feet from us, but stayed pretty close and well enough away from the water.





This next thing may come as a shock to most of you. It came as a shock to me. L has developed a little bit of a ... naughty streak. Seriously, if any kid has snacks in a 50 foot area around her, she knows it. She also knows all the things that she shouldn't be into, and I'm finding that she's to the age now where I have to chase her a lot more to get her out of whatever she's into!

snack stealing:



All of that is, of course, riddled with lovey times too.



Sweet baby L is officially off of baby food, formula and the bottle! She is eating just about anything. This meal was spinach pancakes, goat cheese and goldfish crackers (yum!). A friend just told me that kids develop their taste for foods between 9 and 15 months, so I'm trying to make it work to her advantage and hoping she develops a taste for things that are good for her.



Along with our newfound seperation anxiety, she is also becoming much more attached to her pink blanket. I love this photo.



On Saturday night we went to a park near our house. The park is near an airport and is airplaned themed. It was hilarious when all the kids in park stopped to point at planes overhead.

I don't know what this face says, but it's saying something.



Checking out where Daddy is:



Getting distracted by the man behind her telling his kid, "no."















And... after all that hard playing, L knew exactly what she wanted.



Starbucks! (and seriously... to the person who put a starbucks on a playground... pure genius.)

We won't be here next week, but may get something posted anyway. See you soon!