Twenty/Twenty One Months

It's about time for an update on the little lady and she has been quite the busy little girl lately. Here are somethings that have been keeping her (and us) busy. Feel free to scroll down to the pictures at the bottom.

- Talking - She is starting to put more words together instead of just one word at a time. She is really into ownership and likes saying Daddy's chair, Mama's chair, Mary Beth's chair, Papa's tractor, etc. She confuses N and M some times. She says Map for Nap and Nahk for Milk. Some of our other favorites are Wok for Rock, Di gin for do it again, Boo for Blue, Ellow for Yellow, Wap for Lap and Poap for Soap. Fortunately, she no longer calls Soup "Poop" and she has moved on to calling it Boop. Much better. There are other words that she says perfectly like hat, door, more, eat and apple.

- Manners - She says nope when she doesn't want something. We have no idea where she picked this up from but we are working on no ma'am and no sir. We also are working on saying I'm sorry and Please on a more frequent basis. She is such a sweet girl though so as soon as we remind her of the right thing to say, the says it right away.

- Observant - The girl can spot a school bus and any baby from miles away. We will be driving down the road and out of nowhere, she will start saying Ool Bus or Baby and sure enough, I can normally find what she is talking about. She is quick and my new challenge for myself it to try and find the bus or baby before she does but it rarely happens.

- Stats - We think she is gaining a little bit of weight but she still doesn't eat very much. She definitely is getting taller and seems to take up the full length of her crib even though she still has a ways to go. She is wearing size four diapers and is moving into 18 month clothes. Leggings fit best and we have to safety pin the waist of most of her other pants.

- Potty training - MB has tee teed in the potty three times and the first time was on 3/10. It was a complete surprise to her and she was a little concerned as to what was going on. She still likes to keep items in her potty more than she likes to use it. We are going to start potty training at some point around her second birthday because we think she is starting to get a little more interested in it and we would love to only have one in diapers.

- Music - She really loves music, especially a toddler music CD I bought for our trip to Charleston. Sometimes I look in the rear view mirror and she has her arms in the air moving them from side to side and a big ole grin on her face. We were scanning the radio on our trip to Charleston (I can't listen to the CD ALL the time) and it landed on the 80's song, "Let's Hear it for the Boys". MB loved that song and danced for the entire thing, it was hilarious!

- Barney - I never thought that I would be recording Barney on my DVR but that is our reality now. The girls loves the purple dinosaur and she watches the show with 100% focus. We do not watch TV often but if TV is a must, this is always her choice. She can sing along with some of his songs and she is so proud of herself. She calls all TV shows and cartoons movies.

- Hide and Seek - I included a video of her finding Easter Eggs and this has been such a fun thing for us to lately. She gets to excited and keeps saying more, more, more!

- Big Changes - She gave up her pacifiers like a true champ. We think she went into withdrawal because the day after she gave them up, she woke up with a fever and had five teeth coming in! It has been a rough few weeks and after the double ear infection, she is starting to feel more like herself. I am just glad that she is back to sleeping through the night again!

- Colors - She can recognize most colors and tell us what they are before we ask her. A month or so ago, when we would ask her what color something was, she would always say Pink. We would have to ask her twice to get the real color.

- The Cat did it - I guess everyone needs a scapegoat and MB's is the cat that visits Mimi and Papa's house while she is there visiting. She talks about that cat the entire time and she is constantly looking for it. A month ago, she finally got the nerve to pet the cat and it clawed at her arm and scratched her. It was so traumatic for her but she doesn't give up that easy. She still loves that cat but she blames every scratch she has gotten since then on that cat. She will pull up her pants leg or point to her wrist and say "Meow that" for Meow did that and furrows her eyebrows in deep concern to get our sympathy. It doesn't matter how many times we tell her the cat didn't scratch her this time, she doesn't believe us. It's so amazing how good her memory is on things like that.

- Book Worm - I can't tell you how many times a day MB brings me a book to read and says book, wap (lap). We read tons of books and she will scan her bookshelf trying to pick out just the right now. She has a book memorized with Dan and I am trying to catch them reciting the book on camera so hopefully I can catch that soon. She much rather watch videos of herself than make new ones.

- Singing Along - She is starting to sing along to certain words in songs and right before I get to the end, she starts asking me to sing it again. Whenever we are riding in the car and she get a little cranky, all we have to do is start singing one of her favorite songs.

- Side - We have been spending a lot more time out"side" and I am glad that MB has come around. She didn't want anything to do with the outdoors or grass last year but she has loved walking through the yard and picking flowers since everything is in bloom.

- Shy - Lately MB has gotten really shy around older men, to the point of crawling in our laps and closing her eyes for several minutes until she thinks she they have gone away. One of the pictures below are from her hiding from an older man when we were riding the trolley from the top of Stone Mountain. She has always been really friendly to strangers so we are not sure why she is shying away now.

- Funny Moment - When Dan was out of town a few weeks ago, I had to get out of the house so I took MB to Jason's Deli by myself. We were doing really well and were enjoying chatting with this older lady and then a young guy came and sat at the table that was right next to MB's seat. She talked to him and he went on and on about how much she was like his niece, etc. and they became fast friends. She was putting on a show for him and I was cracking up. Next thing I know, she started flapping her arms because she was so excited and her ice cream bowl flew off the table, bounced off the floor and absolutely covered that guy in ice cream. I was in shock! I had no idea what to say or do. Mary Beth said "Uh Oh" and I was thinking, oh yeah, you can say that again little lady. He was dressed in nice clothes and he now had chocolate/vanilla swirl all over the right side of his body. I jumped up to get some napkins to help him get it off and I apologized a million times. I was so embarassed that I packed up our things right away, offered to pay his dry cleaning bill and told him we better get out of there before we do any more damage. He was so nice about it and seemed completely understanding. As we were practically running out of there with flushed faces, a lady stopped me to say that was the funniest thing she had seen in a while and told MB nice shot! She told me I would laugh one day and she was right, it just took me a few days to get over being so horrified! There is never a dull moment and Duane, if you are out there, I am truly sorry and hope that this will not deter you from having your own little chickadees one day! :-)

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks/months:

The first time we were able to have a bow in her hair without the headband, quite the accomplishment that lasted about one minute!

Picking flowers

Playing at the park with daddy. She looks so grown up here to me.

Kisses for me, love them!

More flower picking.

The cat that gets all the blame...this was before the clawing incident.

On top of Stone Mountain with my family.

Trying to pretend that an older gentleman did not try to talk to her and gripping daddy with all her might.

Seriously dad, is he gone already? I'm not turning around until he is gone.

It's important to find your own style and do what works for you. I think she pulls off this look quite nicely.