One Nap Wonder

Ah, toddlerdom.

It's like constantly caring for a drunk friend... I love her dearly, but she acts a fool constantly and sometimes embarrasses me in public. She'll break out in random singing and dancing for no reason, go from happily playing to crying and shouting "noooooooooo!" for no reason, fall without warning, and CANNOT EVER BE REASONED WITH. Toddler= miniature drunk person.

So what has the mini drunk person been up to?

Food- progressing slowly. She'll now eat chicken nuggets dipped in ketchup or barbecue sauce, she LOVES tacos, and will gladly eat a PB&J- or just straight peanut butter. If it's a fruit, she'll likely eat it. If it's orange, she'll hesitate, and if you try to feed her carrots, you'd better duck and cover because she'll fling them at you. She's better about actually trying things- sometimes- but has the amazing ability to be able to survive on only macaroni and cheese, yogurt, fruit pouches, and graham crackers. Oy vey.

Teeth- twelve! She has one full set of molars now (both sides, top and bottom) which has contributed to her better eating habits. She can chew things much easier now... the bottom molars were the first to arrive and made her miserable. The top ones kind of sneaked in and when I saw them up there I thought "ah, ok. That's why she's been a little grumpy." No big deal. So obviously the two-year-old molars will be complete and total hell. She's been a little chompy lately and I'm guessing new teeth are on their way. 

Potty training- Yep, we bought a potty. A cute, bright pink, shiny Baby Bjorn potty. The pediatrician gave us the go-ahead because her verbal and cognitive skills are so far advanced for her age. So far, we've had one stray poo nugget and a whole bunch of toots that have landed in that potty. Every drop of pee and actual bowel movement have landed in her diapers (or the bath. GAAAHHHH). Why? BECAUSE SHE'S SO STUBBORN. Upon advice from my dear aunt, I haven't pushed it at all. In fact, I'll occasionally ask if she needs to go potty, and when she shouts "NO!" I leave it at that. I'm sure she'll do it when she's ready and when it's her idea. I think part of it is that she does not like actually sitting on the potty with her bare bum. The other major contributing factor is that she's 20 months old (what?!) and is obviously the one in charge here. I do think that when she seems to show some more interest, I'm going to try the boot-camp-style-potty-training-in-three-days approach, although I'll have to take some time off from work to do so. "Oh, you're on vacation next week? Where are you going?" "Nowhere. I'm staying home and cleaning pee and poo all day long" Woo.

Sleep- That's the big change going on currently. My amazing sleeper/napper suddenly went AWOL and left behind a crazy animal who refused to sleep well most days. She would sleep fine for the AM nap, then run circles around her crib while squealing and laughing like freaking crazed animal when PM nap time came around. After about 45 minutes, she'd pass out and sleep for maybe 45 minutes or an hour. All signs pointed to shifting to one nap. I decided to bite the bullet and just make the switch, since the time change was that weekend and her whole schedule would be screwed up anyways. Why not add to the mayhem? Day 1, Saturday, was the neighborhood's garage sale, so she accompanied me and Grammy all around the neighborhood in the morning, and breezed right through nap time without even realizing she was tired. She ate a decent lunch, then completely passed out when I put her in bed around 12:45. I had accounted for some settling-down time, not realizing that she would fall asleep before I could make it across the house to turn the baby monitor on. And then... she woke up about an hour and a half later. UGH. I was hoping for a 2+ hour nap since she was only getting one. I suddenly heard her shouting "ELMOOOOOOOO" and saw that she was desperately trying to reach out of the crib (she apparently had enough and threw Elmo out of the crib, then realized how terrible of an idea that was). When I walked in her room, I quickly realized she had a poo in her diaper and that was likely the culprit of the 1.5 hour nap. I changed her diaper, and put a wildly protesting toddler BACK INTO HER CRIB. Yep, I went there. I put her back down. She cried, then settled down and appeared to fall asleep again. About 15-20 minutes later, she popped up like a prairie dog and threw her Elmo out AGAIN. Nap time over. Sigh. The next day- same thing. An hour and a half into her nap, a poo appeared in her little diaper and woke her up. I changed her, and again put a very upset toddler back into bed. She whined for a few minutes, then laid down. 15-20 minutes later... she was asleep. Asleep! Hooray! And slept for a little over an hour. Score one for mommy.
Since then, the one-nap-a-day schedule has gone well. Knock on wood. She's down around 12:45 and falls asleep almost immediately. Today, she let me know it was nap time by saying "nap. Night-night." Yesterday, she slept from 12:45 until a little after 4, when I woke her up. I'm guessing that was a fluke. She goes right to sleep at bedtime, too, and seems to be a much happier kid now that she's on this schedule. We survived! So far. And omg. It is so liberating to have a one-nap toddler in the house. We can go places now and not worry about overtired toddler meltdowns or cramming trips in between naps.

Development- I don't know if she truly is a genius child or what, but she seems to be pretty advanced for her age. Some preemie. She knows 6 or 7 colors now and a few shapes. She can grab two identical objects and says "two!" Hubby counted to five the other day, and she said "six seven" when he was done. She actually freaks us out when she does those things... it comes out of nowhere. She can name her books, and has the majority of them memorized. i.e. her opposites book. I say "big" and she'll follow up with "small." And so on, through almost the entire book. She's been stringing together two words since about a month ago, starting with things like "puppy cold," "grandma's house," "mommy's shoes" and "daddy's shoes." Now she'll say "I get you" and one time (probably another fluke) she said "I want a cookie." In the car on Friday, she said "hungry. Eat. Mac n cheese!" and she loves to say "go, baby!" God, I love her. My favorite thing for her to say, still, is "Mommy." She sometimes says a drunk-sounding version of "love you."

She had her 18-month appointment and is actually a bit of a peanut now. She had been short and fat, then tall and skinny, and now she's short and skinny. The doctor isn't worried at all, and said we're doing a great job with her. She has one more shot, and then she's done with vaccines until she's 4. Whew. Otherwise, she's incredibly healthy. She may have a touch of asthma and we're going to get that checked out, but it's to be expected since I have asthma and she was a preemie.

Friday (3/14) sucked. Majorly. I could use some prayers... I'll go into more details when I know more. I've been a nervous wreck all weekend. I'm so glad I have my little miracle child to keep me occupied and make me smile- I just love her to pieces, and I hope she always knows that.

Danger Mouse, the Manners Monster

I've created a monster.
My intentions were good, and I thought I was being so smart by teaching my young toddler to have manners. I have this strong aversion to the whole point-and-grunt thing that toddlers do when they want something. So a while ago (like, months ago) when Emma was eating and was pointing and grunting when she wanted more, I taught her to say "more." Bam. Worked like a charm. Except, when she wanted anything at all, she would say "more." As in, she wanted me to open the door, so she would point to the doorknob and say "more!" You get the idea. So then I reprogrammed that little baby brain of hers and taught her to say "please" when she wants something because I'm a super genius like that. It worked. Very well. Too well.
So now, I have this crazy Energizer Bunny of an almost-two-year-old running around the house shouting "BEEEEZ" all day long. Beez= please in Emma speak. So anytime she wants something, she literally begs without realizing that this is what she's doing. Hence, the Manners Monster.
So when the Manners Monster's not busy begging for something, she's risking her life by doing something completely and utterly dangerous. Her gross motor skills are pretty much on-target now for the most part- she walks with no issues at all, can climb like a mountain climber, and has recently started running. Ah, yes. Toddler running... we had our first incident this afternoon of her gaining too much speed and falling on hands and knees on the sidewalk in front of the house. She looked more offended than hurt. So add walking, running, and climbing all over everything minus the fear of harming herself and you have one adorable little Danger Mouse. Danger Mouse's favorite activities include trying to climb onto Mommy and Daddy's bed while holding something in one hand, walking full speed directly into something because she's not looking where she's going, crawling off the edge of Mommy and Daddy's bed, and trying to sit on the arms of her Pottery Barn chair and almost falling backwards. Mommy has had a few epic moments of catching Danger Mouse just as she's about to face plant.
I've been having far more Epic Mommy Moments than Rookie Mom Moments lately and I don't know if I've leveled-up or if I've gotten so used to making dumb mistakes that I don't even commit them to memory anymore. I'm certainly still in the learning curve. Today, Danger Mouse kicked off one shoe as I tried pulling her out of the shopping cart in the checkout line. After a sweet teenaged girl picked up the shoe from the ground for me, I toyed with the idea of putting the shoe back on the toddler, or being that totally chill mom that let her go with just one shoe until we got into the car. Or should I have taken off the other one? I decided to then put the shoe back on her... by balancing on one foot while I sat Danger Mouse on the thigh of my right leg (balancing on the left foot in an awkward tree-pose-esque display of absurdity) and proceeded to put her shoe back on. While still wearing the diaper bag on my shoulder because I'm a boss like that.
Ok, ok. Time to pretend like I'm somewhat organized by giving you bulleted points about the center of my universe these days:
Food- This is where I wish I could proudly announce that the days of feeding troubles are behind us but... nope. Nope nope nope. She had about 1-2 weeks of complete and total finickiness that far exceeded anything she's ever done before. I was hopeful that it was a side effect of having two molars popping through the gumline at the same time, and I think I was right. But for that period of time, I really thought I'd be begging a ten-year-old Emma to just please eat something other than toast and yogurt. But she did improve over time. In fact, she has eaten taco meat and chicken nuggets. SAY WHAT?! Yep. My little "I'd be Vegan but I like cheese too much" kid graciously ate some of my taco one night and has, on three separate occasions, eaten a chicken nugget for dinner. I have got to be one of the rare parents out there who is flat-out excited that my young toddler has eaten a chicken nugget... I feel like the majority of parents out there worry that their child will turn into a chicken nugget if they eat another one. But Danger Manners apparently really likes barbecue sauce, which is her dipping sauce of choice for just about anything. Apparently she is not afraid of strong flavors... she calls barbecue sauce "happy sauce." She has been a little finicky again this weekend but I'm guessing molars three and four are going to be making their debut soon. They are the top ones, so I'm not really going to know what's going on with those.
She still LOVES toast, yogurt, and graham crackers more than anything. She has surprisingly dialed down her love of cheese, but will eat almost anything that is considered a fruit. She actually enjoys broccoli, but struggles with the texture and spits it out after trying to chew it. We give her some pouches of fruit and veggie blends for toddlers to make sure she's getting her vegetables because it's the only way she'll eat them right now. Other than sweet potatoes, and occasionally some steamed peas. She still holds a strong grudge against carrots.

Teeth- Ten! Four on the top in the front, four on the bottom in the front, and two bottom molars. Having been bitten far too many times, I can attest that they are really, really sharp.

Talking- This is old news. Her spoken vocabulary is well over 100 words by now but I lost count after my last blog post. They aren't kidding when they say a young child will suddenly have a language explosion- there's no stopping her now. She picks up new words so quickly. Case in point (this happened yesterday):
Mommy- "blah blah blah blah blah and also..."
Emma- (interrupting) "Also!"
Mommy- (laughing) "You're so funny. And you don't even know why you're funny, you really don't..."
Emma- "Don't!" (starts laughing hysterically)
She has even started stringing some words together every-so-often. I told her we needed to let the puppy inside one morning and she proclaimed "cold puppy!" She also says "go baby" when she sits on her little push car. I'm going to take a stab at her words list, and it'll probably be the last time I do it.

Mommy
Daddy
Grandma
Grandpa
Grammy
Pop
Auntie
Aimee
Gracie
Chelsea
Jonnie
Baby
Uncle
Elmo
Emma
Tubby (For "Chubby Bunny" her stuffed animal that she sleeps with)

Puppy
Cow
Fish
Monkey
Sheep
Piggy
Mouse
Bird
Bear
Owl
Duckie
Turtle
Bee

Toast
Cheese
Yogurt
Graham Crackers
Crunchies
Pouch
Milk
Drink
Pancake
Waffle (one of my favorites)
Cookie
Banana
Pear
Apple
Orange
Peas
Broccoli
Grapes
Peach

Shoes
Socks
Hat
Shirt
Pants
Jammies
Blankie
Diaper

More
Please
Hi
Bye-Bye
Night-Night
Go
No
Yes
Hot
Cold (she knows the difference between hot and cold, too)
Nice
Up
Down

Bubble
Ball
Book
Read
Outside
Balloon
Spoon
ABC's
Moon
Boom
Rainbow
Beads
Cup
TV
Truck
Airplane
Rain
Tree
Grass
Potty
Bath
Eat
Drink
Pretty (she says "ooooooh pretty!")
Yummy
Happy

Eyes
Nose
Ear
Mouth
Elbow
Toes
Feet
Teeth
Poopy
Pee-Pee

(She can point to all of her body parts now)

Animal sounds:
Quack quack
Moo
Baa
Peep peep
Ooh ooh Aah aah (monkey)
Growls for a lion or tiger
Arf arf (dog)
Meow
Buzz

So that's 105 words I could think of off the top of my head. She truly amazes me.
I mean, really... watching her learn and grow has been more educational and philosophical for me than any of my studies in college. It's absolutely astonishing to watch how rapidly a little one learns such ground-breaking concepts. Every night I tell her it's bath time and ask her to go get her towel, and she always remembers that it's in her bedroom next to her crib and finds her way there without help. This from a baby that wasn't even sitting up on her own a year ago.

Walking- and running, and climbing. There's no stopping her now.

Sleep- still going strong. She's still at two naps per day, which is working out. She doesn't seem to be ready to switch to one nap yet and I'm ok with that. She has been taking 1.5 hours in the morning and 1-1.5 in the afternoon. She's in bed by 8pm most nights and sleeps until 7:30 or 8am with nary a peep. Some nights she wakes up and cries for a few seconds and goes right back to sleep.

Cuddling- So if I neglected to mention it before, we are a bottle-free household. I finally decided that the bottle feeding was more for me than Danger Mouse, so I tapered her off. I was really, really sad about it but I knew it was the right thing to do because she wasn't reliant upon it and continuing it was only going to make it traumatic to stop later on. She dealt with it fine- she was pretty peeved the first night, a little ticked the second night, and by nights three and four she practically forgot about the bottle completely. Mission accomplished. So every night, during the time previously occupied by bottle drinking, I sit next to her in the glider and read stories to her, while she licks the back of her Elmo's head. It's this strange self-soothing thing she's been doing that started with licking (if you can even call it licking, more like sticking her tongue out and touching it to something) her bicep, which has transitioned to doing this to stuffed animals. Weirdo. Anyways, we read stories and sometimes she'll lean on me while we rock and read. Then it's kisses and hugs, and I put her down in bed and she snuggles in and drifts off to sleep. Perfection... most nights. She sleeps with her Tubby, Elmo, and Blankie. And wakes up in a darned good mood, unlike her mother.

So that's the update on my crazy little bundle of joy. I'm really glad I decided to create this blog, because it's been really eye-opening to read back through old entries. Especially the NICU days, which seem so distant now. We'll be doing the March of Dimes walk again this year, for Emma and for a special little warrior who is currently growing big and strong in the NICU and will hopefully be adjusting to her life at home by the time the walk comes around :)
90210 out.

Farewell, 2013.

Dear Future Self,

Hi. *waves* If you're missing the baby and toddler days, just remember this one thing: bath poop. See? You don't miss those days anymore, do you?! You're welcome.

Love,

90210 of the Past

I've come to know that there are some things that no one prepares you for when it comes to entering parenthood, and one of those things is how absolutely horrifying bath poop is. I believe I may have blogged about this when she was a baby, because I vividly remember picking her up from her baby bathtub and discovering some green formula poo after a bath one night and the complete freakout that ensued. I can't remember exactly when that was, but I know it happened in the old house, so it was prior to March 2013. And then there was a lengthy period of time sans bath poop, but nothing good lasts that long, right? Right.

It all started with bath toots, which made the Monster laugh. So she'd keep trying to toot, and sometimes would push so hard the toot would be accompanied by something even more foul. There's no amount of preparation that makes you ready to deal with bath poop. 

The most memorable incident happened when she, of course, tried too hard to toot and... you know the rest. I at least had the sense to grab her out of the tub, because she tends to tap dance when there's a poop floating in the tub. So while I wrestled the poo out of the water, the Monster pooed (just a little) on the floor. When that was cleaned up, I put her back into the bathtub while it filled with water, turned my back to get the soap, and turned back around to find my adorable, sweet little toddler holding the shower head with both hands and spraying water directly into the center of the bathtub.

So, Future Self... just remember THAT. And be grateful if you're reading this when the bath poop stage is far passed.

Notice I didn't warn you about the poop talk? I feel like we're on that level now, where we can talk about these things without feeling embarrassed. 

As is typical, I read over my last entry and realized that I really need to dedicate more time to this blog because things continue to change so rapidly. She was at about 12 spoken words at my last blog post. Now I don't even know how many words she can say, but I'm guessing it's far over 30. Here are the ones I can remember, and they are all words that she uses correctly, not just repeats (not in order, I'm trying to group them to remember them easier):

Mommy

Daddy

Pop Pop

Aimee (her cousin)

Baby

Puppy

Bird

Fish

Elmo

Emma

Toast

Cheese

Apple

Yogurt

Cookie

Pear

Banana (she says "baa" for banana)

Peas

Shoes

Socks

Hat

More

Please

Hi

Bye-Bye

Yes

No

Happy

Up

Down

Cold (she says "brrr brrr" when something's cold, I guess that counts)

Hush

Nice 

Bubble (on my last post, I wasn't sure if "bubble" was a word or a coincidence, but it's definitely a word and she uses it accurately now)

Ball

Book

Read

Outside

Balloon

Spoon

ABC's

Moon

Boom

Rainbow ("bow")

Beads (she LOVES playing with Mardi Gras beads)

Eyes

Nose

Elbow

Poopy

Pee-Pee (guess we're almost ready for potty training!)

Body parts she can point to:

Head

Eyes (she can say the word too)

Nose (can say the word)

Ears

Elbow (can say the word too)

Mouth

Fingers

Toes

Hands

Feet

Belly

Bellybutton

Hair

Knees

Animal Noises:

Cow (we call her the Angry Cow because she moos angrily these days)

Lamb

Lion

Kitty

Tiger

So, yea. She's quite the chatter box these days and is picking up about 1-2 new words every day. Yesterday she (finally) learned "book" and "read" and today she learned "socks." I figured she'd learn "book" and "read" a lot sooner than she did considering they're easy words to say and she LOVES books and reading. I guess it wasn't a necessity because she could always get us to read her a book without even saying anything.

An interesting turn of events happened tonight. She's been extra finicky about food lately, so I was feeding her a late snack after we got home tonight. As she finished up her pasta, I walked into the kitchen to get a wet paper towel to clean her up and she looked at me and said "toast!" I said "do you want some toast?" And she said, I kid you not, "yes!" Clearly a fluke. So she said "toast" again and I asked the same question, and got the same reply of "yes!" So I made her some toast, and she gobbled it down. I believe that counts as her first real request for something and her level of communication just took a significant leap. She's been able to say "more" for a while, but for her to desire toast and ask for it out of the blue... well, it certainly floored me.

She won't stop growing up. And it's making me sad. At some point this week, she will have her last bottle ever because I've decided to drop her nighttime bottle. I need it more than she does... no, really. I do. I've only been continuing it because I cherish that time that we spend together, but she doesn't rely on it to go to sleep and the longer we continue this, the more difficult it'll be to break the habit. If she were truly comforted by it, then I'd hesitate to drop it. But I think she really doesn't need it at all, and it has been me that's clinging to the last little piece of her babyhood. *sigh*

Otherwise, she still hasn't gained but maybe .5 pounds since she was 9 months old. She's still a picky eater but is slowly accepting new foods. She walks very well and can now walk backwards. My little Monster loves to climb and go up and down steps. And she's becoming more interested in TV, but only watches for  a few minutes at a time. Still loves books, and now really loves shoes. OMG shoes. She'll zero-in on a pair of my shoes from across the room and isn't satisfied until they're both on her feet and she's perilously walking around the house. She's still not snuggly, and is sleeping like a champ at night and during the day, for the most part. She had what I believe to be a case of Roseola (Sixth Disease)- three days of fever, and about four days of a rash. And she was such a horrible grump when she had her rash, I was certain we'd all perish.

Thanksgiving was great, but she refused to even try the turkey, or anything else for that matter. Same thing for Christmas dinner, although she did enjoy Grandma's rolls. She had so much fun on Christmas, although she got a little overwhelmed by all of the noise, gifts, and excitement. She was so gentle with the Christmas tree, and would pet it and say "nice."

I'm doing my New Year's post early because I can't promise that I'll blog again soon enough for it to be a true New Year's post:

1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
- got a promotion!

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
- once again, I don't do New Year's resolutions.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
- YES! One of my best friends had her baby boy in February :)

4. Did anyone close to you die?
- No. And I'm so completely grateful for another year without a significant loss.

5. What countries did you visit?
- None, again. I'm doubting I'll go out of the country again until the super family cruise in about two years (CANNOT WAIT!)

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
- Free time. My job has consumed my life, and I'm regretting the lack of "me time"

7. What date from 2013 will remain etched in your memory, and why?
-7/9/13, the Monster's first birthday! 

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
- I got a promotion at work. Someone in upper-upper-management compared my experience to being thrown into a flaming pool and being told to swim to the side without a life preserver. Pretty much sums it up. And I'm still alive! And still employed! 

9. What was your biggest failure?
- Finishing craft projects. I REALLY need to finish them at some point.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
- It was a surprisingly healthy year. My endometriosis is back with a vengeance, though, and that always sucks. 

11. What was the best thing you bought?
- My new house. OMG. It's my "realistic dream home" AKA everything I could ask for within budget.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
- My husband, without a doubt. This year was very trying for me- my job is indescribably stressful. Add to that being a mommy of a toddler, and I had some moments of being a complete and total bear. And no matter how many nights I had to work instead of spending time with him, or was far too exhausted to do much of anything, or needed to sob in his arms, or vent about how things just weren't fair, he was always there for me. He's my biggest supporter, and is so forgiving. He loves the baby more than anything, and is such a great example to her of a kind, loving, gentle, and trustworthy man. I can only hope Emma marries a man just like him :)

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
- Let's not go there.

14. Where did most of your money go?
- A down payment for the new house. Furniture for the new house. Stuff for the new house. And the baby- LOTS of stuff for the baby. And the PS4, XBOX One, and Wii U... because my husband is spoiled.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
- Emma's first birthday! And Christmas. 

16. What song will always remind you of 2013?
- Probably "Old McDonald" or the ABC Song

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier or sadder: Happier still. Didn't think it was possible, but we have so much to be thankful for!
Thinner or fatter? Thinner. STILL. I haven't been this small since high school, and apparently it's not a medical issue that we know of. However, it's difficult to find work clothes in my size  and I've spent a lot of money at the tailor so far :(
Richer or poorer? Poorer. The down payment for the house wiped out a chunk of our savings account. And toddlers are expensive! 

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
- Blogging. Crafting. 

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
- Working.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
- Christmas Eve at my parents' house. Then gifts at home on Christmas morning. Then Christmas afternoon/evening at the in-laws' house. 

21. Did you fall in love in 2013?
- Cheesy as it may sound, I've fallen more in love with my child and my husband and that's the darned truth.

22. How many one-night stands?
- Zero. Point. Zero.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
- Mad Men again, but I was also really digging Downton Abbey

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
- I'll agree with what I said last year. Hate is a strong word, but I have a more negative view of a handful of people and choose to keep my distance from them now.

25. What was the best book you read?
- Hmmmm... well I haven't finished "The Cider House Rules" yet but that tops the list. I also liked Harry Potter and The Bloodletter's Daughter was pretty good as well.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
- Lorde

27. What did you want and get?
- This new house!

28. What did you want and not get?
- A winning lotto ticket.

29. What was your favorite film?
- I'm not sure what movies I watched this year! Bah! 

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
- I turned 27, and I spent it trying to avoid a nervous breakdown because of the pressure at work. Hubby scheduled me a hair appointment, because I hadn't had my hair done in over a year, but that was about it for the birthday festivities.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably satisfying?

- It was already immeasurably satisfying. I had my husband and my child in my life every day, and we were all healthy and happy.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
- Droopy in the beginning, because none of my clothes fit. But it has improved recently, because I've been an avid Ann Taylor Loft shopper and they actually have clothes small enough for me.

33. What kept you sane?
- My husband. And my Kindle.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
- No one, really. Although Justin Timberlake will always have a special place in my heart.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
- Same as last year: marriage equality.

36. Who did you miss?
- My best friend, and my family in North Carolina.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
- I became closer to some awesome people at work.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:
- Don't ever expect that someone recognizes your need for help. And you can't hold it against someone for not helping you if you didn't ask.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
- I'm deferring this one. I can't think of anything right now :(

Toddlers are Rude Little People

Wait... it's November already? Nooooo...
I've had intentions of updating my blog for the last month but lots of things happened all at the same time and, you know, I value my job and my two hours of relaxation time I get every night after crazy baby goes to bed.
Erm, crazy toddler.
I re-read my last post to see what my life was like when I left off on this blog-thing and my, my, how things have changed.
Oh, and remember how awesome I am at jinxing myself? Like, doing a hospital happy-dance when I made it to 32 weeks and pretty much publicly declared that I would make it to 34 weeks? And then my water broke that night. You'd think I would have learned the power that this blog holds, because I wrote that epic "I'm a mommy hear me roar" kind of post about how I was enjoying rocking my child to sleep with a bottle at night and I didn't care what anyone else said. So, clearly you know what happened next. Crazy toddler refused to let me rock her to sleep at night ever again. As in, the very next night she protested falling asleep in my arms. And eventually stopped letting me rock her to sleep for her naps. *sigh* So now we've stopped the morning nap bottle and I plop her into her crib and hand her Chubby Bunny. She actually does great with putting herself to sleep- I hand her the bunny and she flips over onto her tummy and wiggles her butt (we call it twerking herself to sleep) and if she's not fully ready to go to bed, she moves around and plays until she's ready for night-night. I was about to drop the afternoon nap bottle but realized the time change was upon us and changing her schedule and dropping another bottle may have resulted in full-on toddler warfare. And she just got a round of shots yesterday, so I'm just going to let it ride for a bit longer before I drop the afternoon bottle. The nighttime bottle will be most difficult, but I'm in no hurry and she certainly isn't either. She still gets a morning bottle after breakfast because she needs to get her dose of Miralax (yep, still has a broken pooper) and she won't drink enough liquid at one time from her straw cup to get her full dose that way. So I'm open to suggestions on that.
I was so fearful of the time change and did my best to adjust her schedule slowly leading up to it. Luckily, she also started adjusting her own schedule the week before and ended up settling into the time change flawlessly. Whew.
Before I get to the updates, I need to step up on my soap box because I've discovered that one thing irks me more than most things do. And also, I'm short, so stepping up on any type of platform is usually a good thing for me to do. Anyways. Ahem. Please, for the love of God and all things that are holy, do NOT call me ridiculous or give me the aww-bless-your-heart look for being a safety-oriented mom. Fair warning- the next person who does that will be subject to a verbal beat-down.
I like to play devil's advocate with myself but I just can't seem to wrap my head around this one. How on earth could someone think it's silly for me to be safe when it comes to my child? Or tell me I'm going overboard? Or say I'm being ridiculous? Is it because you turned your child forward-facing in the car seat exactly on his/her first birthday and ended up not getting into a front-end collision that could have killed your front-facing child? How about we talk to the thousands of mourning parents who will always remember that if they had just followed the safety recommendations, their child would be alive. Go on youtube, you'll find some videos that will make you cry and want to hug your child. And it's not a huge group of dumb-asses who just had no clue that you shouldn't let your young toddler play with an electrical socket. It's parents who thought they were being safe enough and the odds were not in their favor. Sure, there are plenty of parents who did follow the safety recommendations and still suffered a loss but, dammit, if something were to happen to my sweet little angel, I wouldn't want to live knowing that I didn't do everything I could have done to protect her. Even if I had a second child, I'd still do everything the same way.
I'll never forget seeing a facebook post from a parent who held her little 8- or 9-month-old child as he died in her arms from a brain injury that happened in the bathtub. A $10 faucet cover could have saved his life. And his parents were not neglectful in any way, but I have to think that they will always feel like they could have saved him. That thought would be unbearable to me.
Or the youtube video that told the story of a little boy who didn't live to see his first birthday because he was improperly strapped into a car seat. The video is complete with photos of this poor baby in the hospital, swollen, with tubes and wires all over him. And a photo of the mother holding her baby son as he passed away with a priest standing over them.
So yes. I have a $10 faucet cover in the bathtub. And an inflatable baby tub. I followed SIDS recommendations to the T. I watch her like a hawk at all times. And I'm keeping her rear-facing in the car as long as she can. She doesn't know any different- she's always been rear-facing. She can still see out the window and I give her a book to read to keep her entertained, and all is well. Sure, there are times when I wish I didn't have to turn into Stretch Armstrong to hand her something in the car at a stoplight. But the evidence on why it's better to keep her rear-facing as long as possible is enough to not make me at all tempted to turn her carseat around. It's also a great excuse to not have to drive people somewhere... "the car seat is still rear-facing so the front passenger seat has no leg room." Works every time.
So. Call me ridiculous about being safe. But brace yourself for the wrath that will ensue.

Heavy stuff over. Now onto baby updates.
And forgive me if I sound braggy... but my kid amazes me. I'll admit that I was very afraid of how she would develop after having such serious and frequent episodes of brady's and desats for the first three months of her life. But she's right on target.
She started walking on October 19th and luckily she did it in front of her mommy AND daddy, and mommy had the iPhone camera rolling to capture every wobbly step :) She's still quite wobbly but getting the hang of it. I sincerely debated dressing her up as a zombie or a drunk redneck for Halloween because she does the PERFECT zombie walk which also happens to look like an inebriated person. More inebriated than zombie, though, because she has a tendency to fall a lot or slam down on her bottom mid-stride. Hilarious.

Talking: There's no stopping her now. Here's her list of words, mostly in order because I've forgotten some of the order (And there have been many instances when I thought a word was a coincidence because I figured there was no way she had learned the word already, but over time realized that it was, in fact, a real word):
Puppy
mommy
bird
daddy
night-night
hi
bye-bye
baby
happy
more
please
uh-oh
That's 12 words. Possibly 13- I taught her to say "bubble" at the doctor's office yesterday because she was a horrible grump and rapidly approaching nuclear meltdown mode and I was trying to distract her. There were some decals on the wall of fish, a mermaid, and some bubbles. So I pointed at each of them and told her what they were, and after I said "bubbles" a few times, the darned kid said "bubble" clear as day. Not "buh-buh" but "buh-buhlll" And then proceeded to do it again. And again. And again. But now she thinks every picture on the wall is a bubble, because she pointed at hubby's Batman poster today and called it a bubble, which is nearly the same as Batman. Yep. Genius.

She also knows six-ish body parts. The 'ish' is because she has started getting confused and has temporarily forgotten where her ears are. She started with bellybutton, and now knows head, ears (on some days), mouth, nose, and feet. When it was just those, she did pretty well. Then I tried to introduce "knees" and she started confusing her mouth with her ears. Typical girl- knows where her mouth is, but forgets where her ears are.

About a month or two ago, she figured out how to ask for something by either pointing at what she wants, gesturing, or doing the ultimate rude-toddler method of grabbing an object and forcefully placing it into your hand. She sucks at being subtle. If I sit on the floor of her playroom, she'll grab a book, place it in my hand, and plop herself down into my lap until I start reading to her. She remains obsessed with books.

The latest development is animal noises. She knows cow, lamb, and lion. Yes, lion. She does this hilarious "roar" that sounds more like she's possessed by some evil demon or channeling her inner metal band singer.

I have no way to estimate how many words she actually knows, but I think it's far more than I realize. I sometimes experiment to see if she understands me and am frequently amazed when she does. In the bath the other night, I held out a ball in one hand and a small bottle of soap in another hand. I asked her to grab the ball, and she did. Alright, must have been a coincidence because she had been playing with the ball a few moments prior. So I held both objects again and asked her to grab the soap, and she grabbed the damn soap. So I started squealing and clapping like a total idiot because she really amazes me when she does stuff like that. She is pretty good at following directions too. She knows the difference between "Emma, say 'mommy'" and "Emma, where is mommy?" (or puppy, or daddy). She knows how to bring something to me, or put something inside of something else (i.e. "Emma put the ball in the bucket."). She gives the best kisses on demand, and now gives hugs (thanks to Pop Pop!!!).

And, of course, she's still a picky eater. UGH! For the last two and a half days, she's been on a hunger strike and has refused to eat much of anything. She refused toast yesterday, so you know it's bad... she pretty much ended up binging on graham crackers today. We're just going to keep trying in a calm manner without pressuring her to eat. I refuse to have a chicken-nuggets-and-macaroni-and-cheese-only toddler.

Her personality has remained mostly the same- rambunctious, easily irritated, incredibly goofy, and not at all snuggly. My little cheesy poof shows affection by smiling and flashing those beautiful, big, blue eyes that twinkle when she's happy. She laughs at everyone and everything (especially her Auntie Lauren. And naturally they are the best of friends). She loves books more than anything else and is a phone/car keys bandit. She loves it when I chase her around the playroom and has the cheesiest little laugh in the world. She officially hates sitting in a shopping cart for longer than about 15-20 minutes and then throws a complete temper tantrum when she can't walk in the store. She wakes up happy and sleeps a lot for her age- two 1.5 hour naps per day and about 11-12 hours of sleep (straight!) at night. In fact, she dropped her night wakings entirely at about 7 months of age and I didn't even realize it until a few months later because I assumed that she would start night-waking again.
Pretty sure I just jinxed that.

Flippity Flop

Time to bare my soul to the blogosphere for the 800th time...

I admit it: I'm a big-time flip-flopper of a mom. I've been repeatedly told that Geminis (which I am) are wishy-washy and, well... guilty as charged. Call it what you want, but I can't seem to make a major parenting decision without changing my mind a billion times. Why? After some soul searching, I realized... it's because my heart tells me one thing, and the interwebs tell me another. Solution? Go with the heart.

At one point, I identified myself as being a middle-ground parent... somewhere between parent-led scheduling and attachment parenting. But there's nothing like a training on attachment-based therapy to make you question every single choice you've made as a parent in an attempt to help your child be independent. Serious face-palm.

I found myself trying to figure out how to correct the bad habit of giving the toddler/baby a bottle and rocking her to sleep for every nap and at bedtime and then I caught myself. Bad habit?! BAD?! Lord, have mercy.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is in no way a bad habit. How on earth could it be bad that the last thing my little angel sees before her eyes grow too heavy to stay open is her mommy smiling down at her? The last thing she hears is mommy humming her some lullabies? The last thing she smells is my skin (and probably the milk that inevitably ends up on my shirt)? That the last thing she feels is my warmth, my touch, my love... HOW IS THAT BAD?!?!?!

I've always taken her lead. There was a point in time when she didn't want me to hold her at bedtime and she much preferred to wiggle herself to sleep in her crib. We did that for a while, until she had her sleep regression at about 11 months. That was when she impulsively rolled over, sat herself up, and wailed like a banshee because she was tired but couldn't stop herself from sitting up like a big girl. That's when I began my "bad habit" of rocking her to sleep and we've maintained that ever since, with a few exceptions. There have been a few nights that she is too wound up to be rocked to sleep, and she'd prefer to sit in her crib and play with her Chubby Bunny until she falls asleep. But that's not often.

But you know what? She's in bed around 7:30 or 8:00 most nights and sleeps until about 7:00 or 7:30 with barely a peep. Sometimes she'll wake up extra early, but will put herself back to sleep (like this morning, THANK GOD). So my "bad habit" doesn't seem to have any ill effect on her at all.

Babies are not meant to be convenient. In a world in which most parents work outside of the home, we've suddenly adopted a philosophy of trying to have these little independent mini-adults running around so that we get our precious sleep and don't have to deal anything inconvenient. Pfffttt... that's absolutely silly. Bring on the full parenting experience- I signed up to be a parent, not a babysitter.

So I flip-flopped a hundred times about whether or not to start putting her in her crib awake instead of rocking her to sleep. My final decision is to rock her to sleep... she won't be in high school and need me to rock her to sleep. And when she's in high school, I'll so sorely miss these times.

My latest flip-flopping is about her bottles. She has finally (hallelujah) started drinking from a straw cup and still despises sippy cups. Whatever, I'll take what I can get at this point... but I've still been giving her milk in a bottle at nap time and bed time and for some reason this bothered me. Again, thanks to the interwebs for putting it into my mind that my child is supposed to be broken of the "bottle habit" at 12 months. Nah. She's fine... the only thing I do worry about is her teeth, but at least she doesn't fall asleep with the bottle in her mouth. She finished her milk and then drifts off to sleep... I brush her teeth every night. But I should probably give her a sip of water after her bedtime bottle for extra protection against bottle rot. Anyways... I read some stuff online today that made so much sense- why take away something that comforts her? She'll grow out of it and decide when she no longer needs it. I definitely trust that- she certainly tells us when she's had enough of something. She broke herself of the pacifier habit at only a few months of age. I found a pacifier and gave it to her to see what she would do, and she chewed on the plastic part and clearly had no idea what it was intended for. Then she threw it and moved on with her little life.

So that's where I stand- I'm going to continue to be the horrible mother who gives her one-year-old a bottle and rocks her to sleep every night. Jeez, someone should take away my parenting license pronto before I start getting really crazy and doing something like holding her when she's being clingy. The horror.

Alright. Moving right along...

New developments: Baby Bird points with her fat little index finger now. And her little thumb sticks out too (making an "L" shape) so I've been trying to teach her to say "pew pew pew" while she's pointing at things so it makes it look like she's shooting an imaginary gun. I should probably stop encouraging that.
She's been making strides with eating table food, and she apparently loves anything covered in tomato sauce, go figure. She ate veggie pasta with tomato sauce the other night and I couldn't give it to her fast enough. I'm not even sure if she really even chewed it... her days of gagging on everything are behind us. HOORAY!!! She ate tortellini a few weeks ago and I seriously thought I was going to do a victory lap around the house. I had the urge to call everyone who cared and tell them about my amazing child that just ate three tortellini. I'm so serious, too- I haven't been that excited about something in a very long time.
She's still not walking, and I don't even care. Really, I don't... she's doing it in her own time and is getting closer day-by-day so I'm not at all concerned. She recently started cruising on furniture a lot more, and letting go of one piece of furniture to switch over to another one nearby. She's also being daring and letting go of her support to stand on her own for a few seconds at a time.
She's talking up a storm now, too. She has little conversations with herself about whatever she's playing with and you can easily tell the emotion behind her gibberish- sometimes she's clearly happy, and other times she's a little peeved or confused.
Her favorite things in the whole world are birds. Specifically, big, black, loud crows. She was sitting in her highchair yesterday morning eating her breakfast and watching outside to see if one of the crows would land on the lightpost. I was in the kitchen getting everything ready for the day, when I heard her excitedly say "bird!" I looked over and she was pointing out the sliding glass door, and there was a giant crow perched on top of the lightpost. She also pointed at the dog the other morning and said "puppy." So stinking cute.
She's still holding steady at six words- puppy, mommy, bird, daddy, hi, and night-night. "Baby" may be the next one, but I'm not sure on that yet.
Her favorite person in the world is apparently her Grammy. She hadn't seen her Grammy in a week, and wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything other than her Grammy yesterday morning. I ceased to exist the moment she saw her and she wouldn't let anyone else hold her, nor would she let Grammy put her down. I'm pretty sure she made her Grammy's day. I happen to love her Grammy too, so we have that in common :)
She has also discovered how to put things into other things... like putting blocks into a bucket, and then dumping them out. We have this Fischer Price activity barn and one side has a cow's face with an open mouth and you can feed it little plastic veggies. She picked up on that and does it all the time (and it's really not that easy). The other side has a chicken with a little chute underneath it and a basket at the bottom. There are plastic slightly-larger-than-life-sized eggs that you can put down the chute so they land in the basket. She's mastered that too. She can work buttons, switches, and is starting to try shape-sorting, although she's a long way from mastering that.
AND. She likes me to hold her now. :) She gives lots of kisses, and clings to me at times.

So, yea. Life is wonderful... I've never felt so much love in my heart and I feel so lucky to have such a cute, sweet, beautiful, amazing child. When I'm being a horrible mother and rocking her while she sleeps at night, I remind myself how fortunate I am to have my little cuddle bug in my arms and to have had another day with her in my life. My arms were empty for years and I longed to hold a child of my own. Now I'm never going to let her go...
(holy sappiness.)

The White Flag Still Flies

It's 10pm on a Saturday and I'm blogging against my better judgment. But fear not, I've been doing lots of things against my better judgment lately and all has worked out well so far.
Apparently my last post was on Emma's first birthday, and much has happened since then.
For instance... I'm now the mother of a one-year-old. I hesitate to call her a toddler because she's not walking yet and I'm going to milk every last drop of baby-hood out of this kid. Heck, I'll probably not refer to her as a toddler until she's preschool aged. Or maybe she'll just be my baby for ever and ever and ever. That sounds better to me.
I made it through her first birthday with minimal tears, and most of them were from happiness at the fact that we made it through the first year and are still a family of three. Yep, we all survived those 365 days somehow and have some now-distant memories, like:
My extreme fear of SIDS. I forgot to mention this in a previous post, but we weaned ourselves of the motion-sensing diaper clip at about 10 months of age. Pathetic, I know. But it was a sincere God-send and the only reason I was able to sleep at all for those first ten months. I was ready to ditch the clip before hubby was... his philosophy was to keep it on her until she started taking it off in the middle of the night. I figured she was past the danger zone for SIDS but agreed to keep it on her for a while. Until I was woken up in the middle of the night to an obnoxious beeping sound, only to find my peacefully slumbering baby in her crib with her clip lying next to her on the mattress. So that was the final time we used the clip, and we haven't looked back.
The bradys. You know what's absolutely absurd? Sometimes I forget about the bradys, like it never happened. I realized that I told someone recently that she stayed in the NICU for three weeks but was a healthy baby, and only later remembered that she was not, in fact, healthy at all. She practically died in my arms on daily basis for almost two months straight. But no more of that!
Spit up. YES, I'm so glad to not be drenched in spit-up anymore. It did absolutely nothing positive for my skin or clothes and made me smell absolutely wretched. In fact, I recently pulled a shirt out of the drawer that I hadn't worn in quite a while and couldn't figure out why I kept catching a whiff of vomit stink throughout the day (luckily it was a t-shirt that I only wear around the house). Then I looked in the mirror, and saw the faint outline of a stain, and the memory of those awful nights of projectile vomiting from December/January came flooding back. When we moved from the old house, I could clearly see the stains in the carpet from the vomit puddles.
Being up all night. I was reading some old blog posts recently about the mommy meltdowns and sleepless nights and thought... jeez, I'm tired. I went to bed at 10:30 last night and got up at 7:30. YAWN. LOL.
Alright, There's so much more to the list, but I need to get on to the good stuff.

Food: That white flag is still flying shamefully high. I feel so defeated when it comes to feeding this kid, who still refuses pretty much everything that's not baby fruit. We've had some small victories, though, and now she'll eat small amounts of cheese, toast, goldfish crackers (the whole grain kind, of course), cold macaroni and cheese, and muffins. She may like bagels, but I'm not sure on that. And tonight, she actually ate some boiled carrots and leftover long-grain and wild rice from the other night. I was shocked at how much she liked the rice. But the issue is that she'll only eat small amounts of each thing before she loses interest and starts grumping. Except for toast, because she'll sometimes eat almost half a slice of that. The last few days have been tough because she hasn't wanted to eat much of anything (even a sweet potato!), likely due to her teething. The gagging has subsided a little bit, but she still doesn't want much to do with anything I've tried giving her. UGH. I also struggle with finding the time to prepare table food for her. I try to give her a sample of what we eat, but she usually wants nothing to do with it. I even bought some fancy-shmancy Gerber toddler entrees, and she thought I had lost my mind when I tried to get her to eat them. In her defense, the texture of the "ravioli" was a little off-putting. So, as always, I'm open to suggestions on how/what to feed her. Everything I've read has suggested repetition and gentle encouragement. So, onwards I march.
We're weaning her from baby formula! And the bank account really appreciates that! I figured my super-picky kid would take issue with transitioning from formula to cow's milk and that we'd slowly transition her from one to the other. On a whim, I gave her some milk in her bottle and she clearly loved it. She's a milk fiend... we're still finishing up the last bit of baby formula we have, and then we'll keep some toddler formula on hand while she's still being such a picky eater. I want to make sure she's getting the nutrients she needs, even on her fussy days. Now to wean her from her naptime and bedtime bottles.
Speaking of bottles. She hates sippy cups. And straw cups. And training cups. And basically anything that's not a bottle. UGH. I just have to keep reminding myself that she's technically only 11 months old still.

Teeth: SIX! And numbers 7 and 8 are making their triumphant (and grumpy) debut. She likes brushing her teeth at night before bed :)

Sleep: Still going strong! She has had a few short-lived sleep regressions but is still sleeping about 11-12 hours straight at night. She'll sometimes wake up around 6 or 6:30 in the morning and talk to herself and stand up in her crib, but she falls back asleep for another hour or so. At night, I get her fully asleep (most nights) before I put her down, and still put her on her back because it's the easiest for me to do. At some point, she flips herself on her tummy and remains in some sort of face-down position throughout the night. Most of the time, she looks like a drunk person who's passed out on the floor. We keep her "Chubby Bunny" in her crib with her and sometimes she'll sleep with her arm around it, although apparently the two of them are not on the best of terms because the bunny has ended up on the floor at some point in the middle of the night.

Words: SIX!!! Yes, SIX!!! In this order (I think, sometimes it's hard to tell when a word is a coincidence or a real word until after she's said it a few times):
1. Puppy
2. Mommy
3. Bird (yep. BIRD. My child is so strange)
4. Daddy
5. Hi
6. Night-Night

She speaks some crazy version of baby gibberish and I swear it sounds like she's an Indian rapper most days. She uses all kinds of inflection and expressions and tells some really interesting sounding stories, if only I could understand what she's actually saying.

Development: She's pretty much on-target for her actual age with the exception of walking. But she could care less about walking- she's far too content with crawling. She pulls herself up on everything but isn't yet standing without support... she can take her time on that. I'm in no hurry ;) Her language development is amazing and her little hands are still really agile.

Growth: My miracle-gro baby has grown less than a half pound in the last four months. The doctor isn't worried and she's still healthy, but I guess she decided to take a break from growing. That's fine with me, too, because it's been nice to have her stay in the same size of clothing for longer than two months.

This kid can certainly dazzle an audience and I think we have a pop star in the making. She can sing... I kid you not. It's the darned cutest thing ever- I'll walk around and sing or hum to her and lately she's been humming right back at me. It usually just consists of repeating one high note and one low note back and forth, but I'm blown away that she can do that. She also "beat-boxes" when she goes back and forth between clicking her tongue on the top of her palette and popping her lips... I'm inclined to think that it's some sort of highly advanced skill for a one-year-old, but I could be wrong on that.

Oh, and she has finally realized that she needs her mommy and daddy! FINALLY! If she's scared (usually of thunder or the vacuum cleaner), she'll hurriedly crawl over to me and climb into my lap as quickly as possible and proceed to cling to me like a baby koala. She's starting to cuddle a little, too. Woohoo!

Her current favorite thing to do is read books. Well, sit in mommy's lap while mommy reads a book and Emma interacts accordingly (like on the page in her elephant book that shows an elephant stomping... I taught her to stomp her foot when we get to that page, and to nuzzle into mommy when we get to the page showing elephants nuzzling. so. cute.), then she'll proceed to go back through the book and "read" it herself. She uses her little thumbs to open up the pages and helps me turn them when I'm reading her the book. All I have to do is tell her to get a book, and she'll climb into my lap and wait for the fun to begin. I really cherish those moments :)

Year One

I'm hoping I can make this a yearly tradition, either in writing or on video (when she's old enough to actually answer the questions):

YEAR ONE!

How old are you? One!

What is your nickname? It changes every few weeks. The most common have been sweet potato, tater, and boo-boo. Although lately it's been moo.

What is your favorite color? I don't think you have one yet.

What is your favorite animal? Puppy, duh.

What is your favorite book? "Pat the Bunny" although it ends up being more like "Eat the Bunny"

What is your favorite TV show? Baby Einstein, but that's because it's really the only thing we let you watch.

What is your favorite movie? You've never watched a movie. You're still a baby and have an incredibly short attention span.

What is your favorite song? Anything that is music.

What is your favorite drink? Formula, and you literally will not drink anything else.

What is your favorite dinner? Sweet potatoes.

What is your favorite snack? Puffs or yogurt melts

What is your favorite outfit? You really could care less about clothes.

What is your favorite game? Refuse to go to sleep? Oh, wait... no. Probably pulling yourself up in the pack n play and then slamming your little butt down as hard as you can, if you consider that a "game"

What is your favorite toy? For the last few days, it's been a little ball with a bell inside it. It looks like a cat toy, but it's not. You like to hold it and shake it incessantly.

Who is your best friend? I'd like to think it's me (mommy) but I'm pretty sure it's the dog.

What is your favorite thing to do? Be carried around by mommy.

What is your favorite holiday? I'm going with Christmas on this one.

What is your favorite thing to take to bed with you at night? I don't think you care, but we've been putting your "Chubby Bunny" in your crib with you. You love that little guy... Grammy bought him for you after Easter.

Where is your favorite place to go? Shopping!

Where do you want to go on vacation? I think you're already looking forward to going on that cruise when Pop retires, right? ;)

What do you want to be when you grow up? Hopefully a doctor. 

What did you do on your birthday? Grumped a lot. Decided that sitting in the bath is for babies, so you stood for almost the whole thing and laughed in my face (literally). We went grocery shopping where you made some new friends. Mommy took you for a walk around the block. You ate apple/strawberry/banana and oatmeal for breakfast, mac 'n cheese with veggies and cheerios for lunch, and sweet potato/turkey/grains for dinner with some baby "cheetos" and yogurt melts. And then you adamantly refused to go to bed until almost 10pm. You gave mommy and daddy sweet little kisses with your tongue sticking out. And you played with your new toy- a big Barn with lots of activities on it.