Snowy weekends are getting old

If we don't happen to go somewhere in the morning, by the afternoon Gabrielle just stands by the door and waves bye-bye until we take her somewhere.  Haha....with this snowy weather it is hard to find things to do with a little one on the weekends.  Sunday we finally just packed up and went to Toys 'R Us and let her run around and look at everything for about an hour :)  Seriously, she loved it.  We went to the Outback afterwards for an early dinner.  Gabs got a grilled cheese and vegetables, but a few minutes into dinner she was pointing at the french fries on Nick's plate.  He gave her one - big mistake!  She refused to eat anything else for dinner once she had that one french fry......so our child ate french fries for dinner ::cringe::

And I found a way to get Gabi to eat eggs.  Well, mom did, I guess.  When she was babysitting last week she gave Gab a hard fried egg (contrary to my warnings that Gabi hates eggs) and she ate the whole darned thing!  Well, I tried this theory out again today and made her a hard fried egg and she gobbled the whole thing up.  Talk about picky!  I guess she just doesn't like the spongy texture of scrambled eggs?? 

She is also getting such a sense of humor.  She will laugh at jokes, do "funny" things to make us laugh, and pretend she doesn't know things for the sole purpose of being funny.  Dancing is also a definite favorite lately.  Whenever she hears a bit of music she will dance and clap - even sitting in the shopping cart she will clap along to the cheesy grocery store music.  Funny!

The only thing worse than getting your blood drawn.....

Is holding down your baby while hers is getting drawn :(  Gabi had to go to the lab for an actual venipuncture today on her teeny tiny arm.  It is a routine test for one-year olds checking for lead and hemoglobin levels.  I took the little babe right before her nap and she actually fell asleep in the car on the way there.  I woke her up and we went in, luckily not having to wait hardly at all.  Right before the phlebotomist stuck the needle in Gabi looked right at her and gave a cheerful little "hi!"  Unfortunately the mean lady only responded with a big stick in the arm.  They had trouble finding Gabi's veins and it took forevvvvver to get the blood out.  At first I thought they missed the vein, but then it slowly started to come out.  The poor babe sat with the needle in her arm for 3-5 minutes I think.  By the time they were done my hands were wet with her tears and it was time for lunch and a nap.  She survived and is sleeping soundly now!

The babe's battle wound....

 

We were all a little bit under the weather last week.  Nick was the only one who really got sick, but me and Gabs felt it little for a couple of days :(

The step is the perfect height for a little chair.  She finds it pretty special.

Ooooh....trying to get fingerprints on my lens!!  I was quicker than her this time.

 Blanket hog....

This is the blanket she usually sleeps with and it lives in her crib.  Packing for Grandma's the other day it was out and she kept trying to run around with it.  This resulted a few trips and falls......I knew there was a reason we had her miniature blankies!

Giving her caterpillar kisses......

........before sitting on him

I think she needs a horsey.  She rides/bounces on her poor unicorn.....

I never in my wildest dreams would think that a one-year old would enjoy looking at flash cards.  I never make her look at them, but it's one of her favorite things to do to get her bucket and look through all of the cards.  Yesterday a card read "hat" without the picture and pointed at it and said "kitty".  I'm thinking she mistook it for "cat".  I don't know, but I really think she is getting the hang words connecting with pictures connecting with actions.  She is getting very good at recognizing words.  She has a book with six words on each page - I will ask her to point to a certain word and she can (I'd say about 80-90% of the time getting it right).  Pretty good!

The card says/shows "touch your ears".  She has so much fun reading/copying the pictures!

In exciting news for me, the MSU basketball games are almost over!!!!  Yay!  I know Nick isn't excited about this, but I am.  He is going to try a softball league again this summer, so hopefully they do better than they did last year.  Yesterday we went to the Aluminum Show....don't ever see if you get the chance...it wasn't good.  Nick's whole family went for his mom's birthday and everyone was pretty disappointed.  We're going to see the Alvin Ailey dance show next week and that will be AWESOME!  I can't wait!  Ok, I hear little miss is up so I gotta run!

It's great to have neighbor as a daycare provider.....

Except when her kids get the stomach flu!  Ugh, yes I get a text this morning from our daycare saying that her daughter has been throwing up all night.  Gabrielle was supposed to go to daycare tomorrow, but I'm not about to send her over there with yucky stomach bugs floating around and a caregiver that could very well be sick by then too. 

I called my mom and luckily my parents were willing to take a teeny overnight guest tonight :)  I have to be up at 4am for work and they live an hour away - an overnight was the only option.  We got another giant snow storm last night so the roads were awful today.  I packed up all of G's stuff and drove an hour and a half to drive over there, stayed for a little bit, then drove an hour and a half back on yucky snowy roads. 

We all got to where we needed to go safely, and that's all that matters I guess!  Gabrielle will get some quality time in with G&G M.  Hopefully it goes ok.  I think she has developed a little bit of separation anxiety from me lately, but I think she will have fun.  :)    

A Big 15 Months

We went for her checkup this morning and things seemed good.  Gabi was exceptionally uncooperative with the doctor and nurses and she didn't want them to do anything to her.  She had a giant silent red-faced scream when I just sat her on the weight scale.  All of that went right along with asking for suggestions on dealing with a strong-willed child.  The doctor said I seem to be doing pretty much everything that she would suggest.  She said that we can start using time-outs lasting from 30 second to one minute, though I'm not sure those are the key to our tantrums.  Time outs are used for aggression and discipline issues which aren't a big issue with Gabi.  She will listen and obey, but you may get a screaming fit because of it.  The doc said that with independent "do it herself" type kids you want to make as many "yes" opportunities as possible instead of having everything off limits. When I have to say no and there is a tantrum she said to ignore it/her if possible or else remain very calm and try your best to reason with her.  If she whines or screams for something, we need to talk her down to a calm level and then help her get it.  Yep yep.  Sounds like our amazing parenting instincts were right on ;)

Her language is right on track with where I thought it would be - the lower end of normal.  Gabrielle says about 5-8 words, depending how you count and they want to see between 5-15 words.  The doctor thinks Gabrielle is a very smart little girl and thinks her receptive language is extremely high even though her language output is lower/normal.  She estimated that Gabi understands about 95% of what is said to her and at least 50% of things not directed at her.  When the doctor told me that she thought Gabi was very smart, Gabi pointed at her head, smiled, and nodded.  Haha!

Everything else was at or above where they wanted it to be.  We just have to direct her intelligence and passion to good, not evil :)

She is staying right on her growth curve - weight and height are small and very proportional and head is very large.  They seem to be very happy she has stayed consistent with her growth, even though she's a bit top-heavy.

21 lbs 6 oz - 25th percentile
29.5 inches - 21st percentile
Head was off the charts, they remeasured and it was about the 98th percentile.  She didn't write down the exact measurement and I forgot to ask her. 

• Can correctly nod yes or no when we ask her if she did "poo poo" or if she needs a nap (most of the time...)
• Actually, she nods yes and no to about everything whether we ask for it or not.
• She knows all of her main body parts (everything on face, tummy, feet/toes)
• Wears 12 month size clothes and either size 3 or 4 shoes/diapers.  However, we still have quite a few 12 month pants that are way too big yet and she still wears some 6 and 9 month clothes too.
• Officially takes one nap per day!  It was a hard adjustment for me at first to just have one break a day, but I just love it now!  It is definitely nice to not have the day consumed with naps.  She goes down between 12:30 and 1:00pm and will sleep for 1.5-3 hours.  She goes to bed at night between 8:00 and 8:30pm and will wake up between 7:00 and 8:00am.
• We finally moved her crib to the lowest level on Sunday. 
• Current words include: dog, kitty, dada/dad, and hi.  She can repeat red, blue, and green pretty well when asked, and is also working on tree and down.  "Hi" is her favorite word right now.  She says it in the most distinct and clear little voice and usually accompanies it with a wave. 
• Says her first PHRASE! "ah dah" (all done).  When she is eating she will set her food down, look at you, and say "ahhhhhhh dah!" and nod her head once (while smiling).  A-dorable.
• Can drink out of an open cup by herself.  The key is not letting her try and walk around with it (immediate disaster) and she still needs some help setting the cup down and not spilling.
• We finally gave her peanut butter on Sunday!  She totally did fine and it's a huge weight off my shoulders knowing that we won't have to deal with a serious nut allergy.  We've already done eggs and strawberries, so all we have yet to try is fish/shellfish now I think.
• She eats a pretty solid 3 meals and 2 snacks a day.  She still gets a bottle of milk in the morning and at night......and still uses her pacifier.  My goal is to have both of those gone by around 18 months....we'll see.  I tried switching her two bottles to sippy cups hoping that she wouldn't care.  Oh. my. goodness.  She was absolutely irate.  I went back to bottles and I'm hoping she will kind of wean herself in the next few months.  Hoping....   
• She is pretty bored with most of her toys :/  She loves her books, though she doesn't like to look at them by herself anymore.....she insists on you reading them to her. 
• I actually have to comb her hair now because it gets so snarly and knotted.  Nick and I joke that she'll have the coolest mullet in town - the top is straight and the back is curly :)  In the morning and after her nap I wet the back down and comb it out again.....this is result until she lays on it next......
• She doesn't really like to color yet....but she does disassemble the toddler grippy crayons I bought her.  They are these big plastic knob-like things that you stick a crayon in and it's lets them grip it easier.  Well, she'll make a couple of scribbles and then dig the crayon out of the holder. 
• She still has 7 teeth (4 top, 3 bottom), but also has at least one molar all the way through and at least one more on its way.  I say at least because unless I can get a quick glimpse while she is yawning or crying I don't get many views back there :) 
• She loves to run around in big open spaces and loves to clap and dance to music.  The Two and a Half Men theme song is one of her favorites :)
• It was in the 40's on Sunday so Nick and I took her for a walk around our subdivision.  It is a half mile and it took a loooooong time.  Gabi has to stop and point at everything and inspect everything.  The snow was melting so there were puddles and Gabi enjoyed discovering those.  She would stop walking once she was in a puddle, look down, and stomp her feet in it.  Ugh.  She found it pretty amusing.
• Her personality is continuing to develop like we suspected it would - she is very stubborn and passionate about what she likes and doesn't like.  We do the best we can with this and hope that as her language continues to develop she will become a bit less.....animated......in regards to what she wants/doesn't want.

Quote of the Month:
Nick: "I don't know if I like how her personality is developing..........." he slowly says with a half smile on his face.
Me: "Why?"
Nick: "Because she's pretty stubborn.  I think we're going to have some epic battles with this one.  It's hard being the boss all day at work and then coming home and having a one year old tell you no all night". 

And here is kind of gross story if you're interested.....Gabi got her first bloody nose the other day.  Sorta.  We were outside playing - it was freezing - eventually we came in.  Gabrielle didn't want to come in (as usual) and was throwing a fit (as usual).  All of a sudden she got this snotty bloody nose!  It wasn't too bad, but it was a decent amount.  I was trying to wipe her face off and she projectile snotted blood all over her curtain in her room.  Eww!  So I had to take her curtain down, Oxy Clean it, wash it, dry it, iron it, and put it back up.  At least the blood stain came out, right??

So, traditional toys are not so fun anymore but mom's necklaces are super exciting!

One of the playgroups Gabi goes to has this big trough with rice, cups, beads, etc in it for the kids to play with.  It is one of Gabrielle's favorite things, so on one particularly whiny evening I put some uncooked rice in a bowl and let her play.  She loved it and it totally entertained her for about an hour. 

Yes, it made a bit of a mess........but this happy little face is worth it!

Newborn Photography ~ Lydia

I had the privilege of taking some newborn photos for our dear friend from college, his wife, and their newborn daughter.  This was my first time photographing a newborn since I didn't get my camera until Gabrielle was about seven months old.  Baby L wasn't going to make it easy on me by being sleepy and snuggly - she had to keep an eye on what was going on!  She was such a sweetie and her parents are doing a great job.  I'm not going to lie, she added more fuel to my baby fever fire, haha!  But no no, we won't be going there for a while yet :)

This is one of my favorites.  She has such a dainty little pose :)

After being awake for the hour and a half that I was there, she finally gave me a couple of really adorable sleepy smiles right before I left :)

Jumpin Jax!

Gabrielle had a fun little outing this morning with her friend Kaylyn.  The four of us (Kaylyn's mommy came too, haha) met up at Jumpin Jax.  It is a big facility with lots of big blown up bounce houses.  They had a huge open area to run in middle which was one of Gabi's favorites :)  There were little play houses and slides perfect for the girls' ages.  Gabi was a big girl and learned how to go down the slide all by herself!  I still had to help her a bit to climb up on the little fort, but then she would slide down the slide all by herself :)  They had a big toddler land which the girls spent a lot of time in too.  It was pretty much baby jail...giant blow-up style.  Gabi was so excited when we got to the facility and I put her in the toddler land and as soon as her feet touched the bouncy ground she just wailed, and wailed, and wailed.  Eventually I got her in there and she got used to it - and loved it.  Like I thought.


She's having the time of her life, mid-bounce, in this picture!

"Ok, time for snacks!"

The bounce house actually had a slide in it too!  G went down it countless times on her tummy and once sitting up!

Down she goes!

Yay!  Now getting out of the way before Kaylyn runs her over was key......

The facility was SO big.  G-force looked so teeny running through it!

Der.  I waited until just before we left when Gabi girl was exhausted to try and get a picture of the two of us.  Oh well - she is napping hard now :)