Jan. 2012

Hard to believe my 'newborn' is 15 months old!!!!!  She just had her 15 month check up yesterday.  She's healthy as a horse!  26 pounds and 2 oz..... 31 some odd inches long!  She's between her 18 month and 2t clothes.... I'm leaning more towards 2t... but I have so many 18 month clothes and NO 2T!  EEK!  Doc was very impressed with her language development.... Elizabeth even showed off a little..... I am very happy that she's starting to come out of her shell... She even reached up to the doc for doc to hold her!!! I'm not sure whose child this is.

I've tried very hard to be supportive and understanding of her 'fear' of new situations and people but at the same time assure her she's OK and gently nudge her towards being more social.  She still has a 'warm up' period but she is getting much better and will let others hold her and will play with others.  I'm very relieved.  She's not a social butterfly but at times she appears to be!  Sometimes in the grocery store she will YELL "HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII" to people walking by... and keep yelling it until they reply : )  Or yell "DADDDDDDDDDDDAAAAA" to any guy around... NICE!  She calls many guys grandpa, which most like it, I'm waiting for someone to be offended though!  We discussed her jaw and eye, again.  The eye seems to be better at times (others not so much) while the jaw doesn't seems to have improved any.  We'll be going on May/June to the specialists to see what they think.  She's so beautiful but of course if something needs altered to avert problems in the future we'd have to consider our options.

The infamous bear!

She has most of her teeth in.  We definitely know anytime one is ready to pop through because she has a very difficult time sleeping (up most of the night).  Her nights are for sure more good than bad.  Many a night she sleeps through the entire night!!! Yeah!  Not so sure why I'm still so tired, but still feels like I'm not sleeping......  She has about 2 bad nights a week where she won't go to sleep or wakes up and won't go back to sleep.  I have a few battle scars from our romps but many nights she cuddles up to me and goes to sleep.  She has this bear that sings "Sweet Dreams, Baby" in the most off-pitched,loud, obnoxious voice imaginable.  Of course she likes to have it curled up to her playing for about 20 minutes straight.  I've contemplated throwing it out the window or giving it the Nobel Peace prize, depending on the night. 

Cute pic.... except it was taken at 2 am!

She's eating well, except for meat..... not a big fan.  She loves the fork and gets this huge smile on her face when she 'pokes it' on her own.  We cheer for her and she gets this smug little grin like "Watch this" and then flings something across the table..... (No cheering for that, though!).  She loves noodles, apples, oranges, green beans, rigatoni, and pineapple to name a few. 

Elizabeth is obsessed with the 'boon' (moon) right now.  The other night was a full moon and she just kept going to the window pointing and laughing and yelling "booooooon".... Unfortunately, has a hard time letting it go and couldn't sleep just kept deliriously saying 'boooooon, boooon'.  Difficult not to laugh!  The next night I made sure all the blinds were closed : ) 

Elizabeth loves to play chase.... She loves to be chases and to chase you.  She yells "go, go, go, go, go" and she runs with her back straight as an arrow and little legs just pumping up and down.

Seth had his first birthday party in January.  The big highlight to her was getting pulled around in his new wagon.  She may grow up to be a queen because she loves to parade around.... waving to her people! 

She's such a loving baby....She takes care of her dolls as if she was their mother.  She carries them around, makes crying noises for them, then pats them and gives them kisses (I'm sure she's replaying her first 9 months of life).  She feed her babies and gives them drinks.  She even likes us to put diapers on them.  Speaking of diapers, she's not too found of having hers changed right now..... She goes into that alligator roll and is basically impossible to pin down.  One way to make her comply is to give her a picture of grandpa.  She will just look at it and put out grandpa's ears and eyes, and nose... So cute!  Of course she couldn't leave it at that... she now wants to carry around grandpa's picture all day, giving him kisses!  If by chance we go outside and don't go to his house.... she lets me know, screaming 'Grammmmmmmkkkkkkkkkaaaaa' and reaching out for him like he's her life line!  So adorable! 

Kissing her picture of Grandpa

Feeding her baby!

Dec. 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like..... CHRISTMAS!!! My favorite time of year... and I can say I hope this is one thing I do pass on to my precious little angel.... I hope she loves Christmas as much as I do..... So far, so good!!!!

The house is all decorated.... We put our tree up the second week of December.  Elizabeth and Daddy decorated our tiny tree while mommy was at school one day.  Elizabeth says "ho ho" when asked what Santa says.  Christopher Popinkins visited after Thanksgiving.  Elizabeth notices him but is too busy to pay much attention to him.  Hopefully he'll come back again next year!  We went to Daniel's band concert and she just loved to hear the music (and I think loved staying up past her bed time.....)  We also went to Rachel's choir concert.  (see below)


I'm happy to say she is now very good at feeding herself.  She's shown some interest in the fork, but hasn't really used it herself yet.  She loved to feed people though. She chased Grandpa around all night feeding him apples one night!  Speaking of Grandpa.... she's now decided to call most people 'gram-ka'... which she does quite loudly!  NICE!  At Rachel's choir concert she was obsessed with this older gentleman and kept calling him Gram-ka all night and wanted to go to him!!!!  EEK!

I can finally say she says 'mama'.... I swear she's said every other word in the book (loves saying 'appy' for happy now)... she's been holding out on me but I think she finally felt bad for me and frankly tired of me trying to get her to say it, so now she uses it...

She's so good at walking, she basically runs all over the house and says 'go go go go'.  She did get her first big bruise on her head this month... OOPS!

As for Christmas it was a wonderful time, except for seeing Santa..... We took her to the mall to see Santa, she was fine, all smiles and waves until Audie set her on his lap and we started to back up.... then came the screaming/crying..... The pic is adorable as she tries to jump off of Santa's lap!  Maybe next year we'll get a smile!  We went to Nana's for Christmas Eve.  Elizabeth started off as her typical 'shy girl' but after a while warmed up and was trying to run the show!

I must point out the most funny story from Christmas Eve was my attire... I got 'all dressed up' but apparently forgot to put on my dress pants... I went to Christmas Eve still wearing my sweat pants! NICE! BUT Elizabeth was in her dress and looked very cute

The kids singing (OK, Jenna sang and the rest played....)  

So I brought Elizabeth home for a good night's sleep before Santa arrived.  On Christmas morn Elizabeth had a blast.  She definitely 'got it'... she knew to open the presents... something is inside! It didn't dawn on me that she'd want to play with each thing as we opened it.... DUH!  It was so much fun seeing her little eyes light up as she found what was inside.... She got an elmo who plays with alphabet blocks, a talking wooden puzzle, clothes, Tag JR, singing/walking dog, David books, and much more!  Elizabeth's stocking was knitted for her by Mrs. Hawkins (Kathy's mom, from my work).... has her name and Rudolph on it... so special!

Elizabeth and I then went to my dad's to open presents.  She was a trooper as it was right at her nap time.... since it wasn't her house she pushed through and opened more presents! She got a slide, a toy box, and much more....she went home, got a quick nap in and then we were off to my moms!  At mom's she got a baby which she absolutely loves and drags around everywhere! 

I know people say each year gets better and she'll know more next year, blablablab... I can't imagine her being any more perfect than she was this year!  Such a wonderful year with just the most precious sweetheart!  Audie and I are so blessed!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!