14 Months Old

My little love is 14 months old now! Before I know it she'll be old enough where it'll be silly to count by the months. I always thought it was ridiculous when people would say their kid was 21 months old... why not just say almost 2? Now I totally get it. They're so different each month. Always learning, always developing. She's accomplished so much since last month:

• Kicked the bottle to the curb! Now we're doing a full-time sippy situation. It took about 194 different cups, but we found the magic winner: A Pampers brand (who knew?) step 4 sippy cup that I picked up at Vons while grocery shopping. She's taken to it really well so I went back for more and bought the last one they had. I haven't been able to come across these anywhere else, so hopefully I can get my hands on a few more soon. It's not so much fun alternating between two cups vs. the bunches of bottles we had before.
• She's got some new words: duck and uck (yuck). I think she's a little confused by uck, because she uses it even when she likes something (like dinner). Silly goose - er duck. :-) She says up when she wants up and also when she wants to be put back down. Oh! And today (though it should count for next month's post technically) she did something super awesome. We were reading "That's Not My Pirate" and we were on the page that said his eye patch was too bumpy. So she repeated "bump". We were thrilled by this, so when we finished the book we asked her where the bumpy pirate was. She opened the book and turned to the page with that pirate and said "The bump." She also says "Wha's da?" Those are two words together, people. Someone call Harvard, stat.
• She's got 11 teeth now. Last month was a definite tooth boom. 3 of them molars, no less. And she did pretty well considering! So 6 on top and 5 on the bottom, if you're counting.
• She nods her head yes by bowing her whole body forward. It's awesome.
• Sleeping through the night consistently. It's awesome.
• I'm going to be honest and confess that I don't want to take away the pacifiers just yet... because I think she looks so cute and baby-like with them. The pedi said he's not concerned about that at least for another year, and I probably won't let it go that long, but for now, I like giving her the binks for nap and bedtime (really the only times she gets one... or if she's screaming in a restaurant!).
• She wears a size 6 shoe now (5 in sandals) and some 12-18 or 18-24 month clothes. I've started buying jammies in 2T! I have no update on her weight as the monthly dr. appts have slowed to every 3 months now. Next one's at the end of Sept! What I can tell you, is that she weighs a ton!
• Her favorite things are "dancing" to music (Wiggles are her fave, but she'll go for anything really), knocking down block towers, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, reading quietly by herself in the corner (she likes alone time periodically), running circles around me, jumping on my back and riding me like a pony (ha!), ravioli and all fruit.
• Speaking of food, she's a great eater! We have had a lot of luck in this department, thankfully. She has her daddy's palette for veggies and fruit.
• She's totally going through a daddy phase right now. I don't like this picking favorites business, but that very well may be because I'm not the one winning. Ah well, it'll be my turn eventually, right? Hubs says it's all in my head, but I suspect he's grinning ear to ear behind my back.
  

Taking pictures of her is now a whole new beast. She runs all over the place, and hardly has time to stop and pose for me like the little model she once was. What happened to my ham?!

Here's what I usually get - the back of her head haha. But at least it shows off all that hair that's coming in! Looks like she's getting my curls!

13 Months Old!

Yeah, you didn't think I was done with the whole monthly update/photos did you?! She really is getting harder and harder to photograph as she gets older. I was chasing her around the park this afternoon as she ran circles around me! *sigh* These aren't the best pics but they're pretty much all about where she's at right now. All over the place! Here's what we've been up to this past month:

• Gabriella's 7th tooth came out to join us this month. Bottom right. Err her left. Our right. 
• She is really making a great effort to repeat what we say. The other day hubby heard her say happy after he said it. She keeps saying "Tim". We don't know who Tim is. Either she has an imaginary friend, or a boyfriend. I thought as parents we were supposed to be experts at figuring out what our kid is saying!
• She pats her head when we ask her where her head is. When we ask where her belly is, sometimes she'll rub her tummy. And when we ask her where her nose is, she shakes her head no! Haha how do you explain the difference between no and nose to a toddler? She'll shake her head no if you say "know" also. Man this English language is hard.
• She finally gives hugs when we ask her for hugs! She kept giving us the cold shoulder with that for a while. Now if we can just get her to give us kisses, we'll be happy campers! Apparently she's in a no-PDA phase.
• Still taking a bottle. Has absolutely zero interest in trying one of the 16 different kinds of sippy cups we've gotten her. We've even tried just regular straws and drinking straight from a cup. It ain't happening. Bottles are cool, dude.
• Her naps have regulated themselves to being pretty clockwork now. 8:15 - 9:30 ish and 1 - 3 ish. She wakes up every day around 6 a.m. and goes to bed at 7:30. 
• Will only eat if she feeds herself. Otherwise she'll spit whatever it is out and put it back in herself. She's gotta be in control now. If it's something like soup, I just give her a spoon and after I give her a spoonful, she sticks her spoon in her mouth, as if she's the one doing it. Silly girl.
• Her favorite games right now are peek-a-boo, bringing me random items (and even ones that I ask for specifically!), and dancing. She loves grooving to music, especially her newest love, The Wiggles. Seriously this Wiggles shit is crazy. We looked at ticket prices to see them when they play in our area - umm $65 a ticket. Hey, they're a legit band, right? Adam and I get the music stuck in our heads all day long. I think we kind of like it, which is the scary part.
• I'm certain I'm missing a million other things, because she is growing by the minute! It's so funny to think that a couple months ago we had to carry her everywhere (or use the stroller), and now she prefers to walk around like us! Though admittedly it does slow us down, as she loves to stop for the occasional rock inspection or dog. She adores ALL dogs. True story - We were marveling at how much she loves pups and I said we should get her one. Then I realized we have one. Dog mama FAIL.

 The problems a 13 month old has: Which leaf should I eat?

 How am I supposed to fit all my stuff into this purse?!

 Where's my ride?!

 Peek-a-boo! OK, that's not really a problem, but it sure is fun!

The 12 Month Post

Can I keep counting by months? You know, so I don't have to say "My child is ONE!!?!!!!" all the time? OK, nice.

I'm obviously a little bit late in posting this, but I knew we had our 12 month dr. visit on the 30th so I wanted to wait so I can have all the numbers all ready to go for her one year 12 month post. Here is what Miss G has been up to since last month:

• Definitely walking! From her first step on May 24 (Daddy's Birthday!), to a bunch of steps on June 10, to really wanting to walk around now. I would say she really took off walking the week before her birthday (Friday night before her party she was walking all over the kitchen while I was baking!). Now she's walking more than crawling.
• Shaking her head no at me all the time now! "Gigi, will you give mama a kiss?" ::head shake:: "Aw Gabs, what about a hug?" ::head shake, mischievous grin:: The kid's got serious comic timing.
• She loves to feed herself at mealtime now. The day before her actual b-day my parents and I went out to lunch, and I ordered her first little meal! She fed herself all the little fruit I got her, and ate a little kid's slice of cheese pizza. Am I horrible to have let her have pizza? It's just bread, cheese and sauce, no?! ::ducks::
• She developed a little phobia of the bath, but we've been able to get her over it. She swallowed a little water when daddy was rinsing her hair one night and naturally DH and I freaked out. Since then she cried and tried to climb out of the tub every time we gave her a bath. My mom got her this for her birthday and now she LOVES the bath. Funny how a toy can make it not scary anymore.
• She's 24 lbs 13 oz and 31 inches tall (94th and 95th percentiles). Her head circumference is 19 inches, which measures off the charts! That's because she's full of thoughts.
• She's in size 4 diapers and 12-18 month clothes. Her jammies are 24 months/2T now, though! It's so funny to me that she's consistently in the 90th+ percentiles for height and weight, but clothing-wise she's pretty on target with her age. In fact, she's still wearing 6-12 month sizes from Janie and Jack and in dresses!
• She's a little chatterbox, but of course nobody knows what she's saying. She still says UP all the time, and mama and dada. She's started saying "hap" and we think she's trying to say happy. :-) She also says "at", which I think is the beginning of "that", and "pap" for papi (Romanian cutesy way of saying food). She tries hard to repeat what we're saying (today I could swear she said bubbles). She also likes to chew on her jelly sandals.
• She rang in her new year with 6 teeth total. 4 uppers, 2 lowers, and I swear she's working out some molars now. She bites on things all the time, and has been waking up a bit at night again.
• Sleep is fairly good around here. We're used to her sleeping soundly through the night again, so now that she seems to be teething again we're having to get back into the swing of waking up a couple times a night. And motrin doesn't seem to be helping too much. Hopefully these teeth all come in already so she doesn't have to deal with it for much longer. I hate seeing her in pain. :-(
• Naps are now 2x a day, and her afternoon one is a solid 3 hours (usually around 12-3ish, but can be flexible). It's amazing. I never put her on a set schedule of what time to nap (I just always put her down when she seems sleepy), and I'm wondering if I should do that, because it seems like a lot of people do. On the one hand it seems very convenient to always know when your little one will be going down for a nap so you can plan your day accordingly, but on the other hand, what happens if you HAVE to be out or something? What if your baby isn't tired AT ALL when their nap time comes, or what if they're super tired earlier? Like for G's birthday - I had the start time as 1 p.m., because at the time I printed the invites, she slept 3x a day, so I figured 1 would be best. Then she started on this longer nap kick, so I was worried about her being off at the party. We just kept her up a little later for her morning nap and she napped for 3 hours right before the party started! I love having this flexibility, yet I am worried that it might not be the best for her in the long run. Does she need more structure? ::sigh:: I really never know what to do. lol
• We moved up from our music class to regular Gymboree play and learn classes. They bring out the parachute and everything. And yeah, it freaks her out a tiny bit :-)
• She still finds me the funniest.person.ever. I love making her laugh. I have a soundtrack of it permanently lodged into my head, and it's positively glorious.
• She's started to not so much eat her books as sit and gingerly turn the pages and look at them. Real progress here!
• She really loves music (she grabbed the guitar from her "career" tray!) and "dances" (bounces up and down) when she hears it. I'm already chomping at the bit to put her in dance classes. They start at 18 months, ya?!?

For her actual birthday we took her to Build a Bear and let her pick out her own stuffed animal.

 We can now order her food from the kids' menu! She had a fruit and cheese plate and loved it. :-)

 Picking just the right bear (a dog!)

 Watching the fluffing!

 All done!

 She named her Dottie and got her a bikini. She's a summery dog.

We went back home and filled up her little pool and splashed around for a bit.

We ended the day with a little bit of cake and a pony ride. Such a perfect way to celebrate her 1st birthday!

11 Months!?!?!?!?!?

The !?!?!?!?!?!? is completely necessary, because this one totally snuck up on me. I was truckin' right along, when all of a sudden, BAM! My kid's nearly 1. Here are her accomplishments to date:

• Proud owner of 6 teeth total now. This month was a toothy one, and she got 4 teeth (all on top) in a matter of a couple weeks! Whew! I'm hoping the teething can subside for a little bit now, but I think the other bottom 2 are going to be coming in soon too. Poor girl needs a teething break already!
• She's still happy as a clam crawling and cruising everywhere. Her favorite is going up the stairs (and being "chased" by us in particular!). She stands independently for extended periods of time, but hasn't made that first step alone quite yet. She's very cautious with her movements, which gives me a huge sense of relief - if she were a daredevil I'd be petrified alllll the time. Now I'm just terrified like 79% of the time.
• Words she says - Mama, Dada, Up, and either "at" or "dat (that?)" The other day I asked her if she wanted tilapia for dinner and she responded back saying something garbled that sounded a bit like "laptop". Similar letters, so it sounds like she's really able to start repeating things to us. We need to start watching what we say!
• She's developed some hysterical preferences. She has the laugh and learn home (which I totally recommend, btw) and must always have the mailbox open. Don't even try to sneak it shut when she's not looking, because when she happens to catch a glance at the closed mailbox later on, she pops it right back open. Silly girl! Her new favorite thing is to throw all her toys out of her pen/pack n play/crib. One by one she drops them... the other day she went to throw out her pacifier, thought better of it, and popped it into her mouth. What foresight the kid has!
• She also loves being tickled now - she developed tickleishness all of a sudden it seems.
• Eating in front of her now is officially a problem. She wants what we have. And has developed a resoundingly high-pitched scream aimed specifically for getting this point across. So now she gets some table scraps to tide her over from time to time. I'm also still trying to get her to like a sippy cup and she hates them all. Can she just drink from a bottle until she's 12?
• She learned to shake her head "no" which cracks us up to no end. "Gigi did you clean your room?" ::head shake:: "Gigi are you ready for bed time?" ::head shake:: It's great.
• She wears 6-12 and 12-18 month clothes (the 12-18 in particular for leggings) and recently got fitted for her first walking shoes at Stride Rite! These shoes came highly recommended, and with walking surely right around the corner, I thought we ought to get her some shoes with good support. Her little chunkers are wide so we had to get special wider shoes! I love love love her lil chunky foots. 
• She flaps her arms like a seal when she gets super excited. Also, I think I ought to note that I'm the person she finds funniest. This is important because DH maintains that he is way funnier than I am and this is clearly untrue.

We won't have a weigh-in this month because our pedi said the next time he needs to see her is after her 1st birthday! Hooray for no shots/schlep across the valley for mama!

My little onesie stickers have dwindled down to just 1 more after this. As I lamented what ever would I do with myself on the 21st of each month after this June, I found these on etsy! She's getting harder and harder to photograph sitting still, but a huge part of me still wants to continue our little tradition into her second year.

Problem is that now there are like 8525827025 different choices in onesie stickers. When I was 9 months pregnant with G there was only 1 seller that I knew of that did these! I think I like the simplicity of those I pictured above, though. Easier to read. You know, since I'll have all these blurry pictures because my toddler will be running around. OMG toddler?! (Isn't it so irritating amusing how I constantly freak out over marvel at time passing by?)

10 Months Old

Well now this is just unfair. How am I to be expected to write about all of G's accomplishments now that she's into the double digits in months without sobbing like the baby she once was?! She will never again be only single-digit months old. I mean really, she's practically a child now, not a wee little baby. She'll always be my baby though, of course :-)

This month really was spent perfecting a lot of her new skills that she's acquired the last few months. She is cruising expertly and I'm afraid she's going to have her sights set on walking relatively soon. A week ago I found her rummaging through a laundry bin filled with her toys (ok it just happened to be a quick and easy way to keep her stuff all together in the living room!). She picked one up and stood there just inspecting it. Not holding on to anything. Just standing there holding her toy. I wish I could tell you what would have happened next, but I grabbed her because she was just so darn cute. So who knows? Maybe she would have busted out in a little jig or something. ;-)

She just loves getting into everything now and has an obsession with shoes, purses and jewelry. Well, the jewelry thing has been going on for months now, but I'm not sure if I've mentioned it yet. She LOVES staring at it and twiddling it around in her tiny fingers. My mom always has a lot of jewelry on (ok, but not in a crazy lady sort of way), and G adores it. And purses... well, she just happened to grab onto a little pink purse at Gymboree... and when I tried to take it from her, she freaked out. So, she now has her first purse. Oy. Mini temper tantrums already!? I thought that happened at 2, not 9 and a half months!

Her new thing this month is she helps me undress her. LOL. When I start to lift up her top or onesie she yanks it up and off over her head! It's so funny to see her do actual things that us "grown-ups" do, even if they're run of the mill, ordinary things. She's still comfortably in the 6-12 month size, which boggles my mind because she's in the 90th percentiles for height and weight. She does have some 18 month pants that she wears. It's kind of nice to see her be able to wear things a little bit longer - she blew through the 0-3 and 3-6 month stuff so fast, I was sad to put away outfits that were worn only once. Now it's funny because I'm getting sick of seeing some of her winter clothes that she's been wearing since December (I may just be ready for warm spring weather already!).

Words-wise she's still saying mama, dada, up and now nana (though not to her grandmas or anything in particular at this point). I'm really excited to see what new words will crop up next in her little vocabulary. Her upper teeth (not the front ones!) are thisclose to coming through, any hour now, seriously. I have a feeling that a bunch of teeth are going to break through really soon. We've had a couple nights where she wakes up uncomfortable for a bit, so hopefully we can get them all over with soon!

Anyhow here's my little munchkin on her 10 month birthday. Less than 2 months to go 'til her party!

Oh and here are some Easter-y shots I snapped of her the other day. I got this roll of paper from Michaels for $3 (after a coupon ;-)). It was so hard to get her to stay still! This little one loves to move around on me now. I usually take like 60-100 frames when I do a little shoot with her (I am indeed nuts - whatever she's a little ham and loves it), but I was only able to do about 30 before giving up... And I had like no natural light going so I had to bump up my ISO = noisy pictures. Ah well I still love em!