monthly updates – Page 3

William 6 Months

August 25, 2015 peanutsmiles

Dear William,

How is it possible I am writing your 6 month post? How are we already half way through your first year of life? In my mind, you’re still 3 months old and I’m shocked at what you’re capable of. This month felt like a game-changer in your development. You learned to sit up, roll over, fall asleep on your own and through the night and started baby food. You continue to be the happiest and smiliest baby ever. Seriously, when you smile, your whole face lights up and it is the best ever.

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Stats

Height

Weight

Head Circumference

Sleep

This month we bit the bullet and did some sleep training. It was a very random decision. I put you down one evening after lots of fussing and decided on the spot that we were going to sleep train you. After 20 minutes of crying, I went in, put your pacifier back in your mouth, rubbed your belly a little and walked out. You cried for another 20 minutes and then fell asleep. Then around 5, you woke up and I went and fed you and you feel asleep while eating. The next evening, you cried for 20 minutes or so. When you woke up around 4, I just let you fuss and again, after about 20 minutes you fell back asleep. I think part of your challenge with sleeping was you were on the cusp of rolling over from back to front. I would watch you on the monitor and you kept trying to roll and would get 98% of the way,give up and roll back. After 4-5 nights of this, you figured out how to roll over and would then fall asleep without crying as soon as I laid you to down. On average, we’re putting you to bed as close to 8 as possible and you sleep until 6 or 6:30. I can’t tell you what a big difference this has made in my attitude and co-coherence. I wish I would have done it weeks earlier. I feel like I can function again and am just more positive in general. Naps at home are better too. We haven’t swaddled you in a long time and you’ll fall asleep within 5 minutes of being put down and will sleep anywhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours. Although you’re able to roll onto your tummy, you usually just roll onto your side and sleep that way. Sleep at daycare is better but still a pretty questionable. You will fall asleep in your crib, but usually only sleep between 15-45 min. I think it is just too light and noisy in there and have assumed that you won’t sleep well there ever. I would love it if you surprised me though!

Eating

Eating is still great. You switch between bottles and nursing great. You’ve continued to show lots of interest in our food and over the past week or so seemed more hungry or that milk wasn’t enough for you anymore. So I dug out the highchair and mixed up some rice cereal and you loved it! You kept trying to reach for the spoon and would eagerly open your mouth for more. Because it is a glorified liquid, a lot of it fell out of your mouth and was all over your neck and bib, but you did finish the whole bowl. The following day, you tried some squash. You ate several bites and never turned it down or made a face of disgust, but didn’t seem to love it as much as the rice cereal. You’ve also had green beans, pears and bananas. Much to my surprise, two little teeth popped through your bottom gums at the very end of the month. Surprisingly, you weren’t too crabby or didn’t drool a whole lot more than normal!

Development

Two major milestones this month, both of which happened within a couple days of each other. First, you learned to sit up by yourself! Yeah! Such a game-changing milestone and new perspective of the world for you. Being able to sit up with a few toys in front of you makes you so much more content with life. Additionally, the length of time you can sit up without tumbling over has increased very quickly! The second milestone was rolling over both ways. These two milestones have mellowed you out a bit. You seem much more content with life and less of a squirming-worming whenever you’re being held. You continue to love your playmat and exersaucer. You enjoy this toy much more then Lexi ever did, but can still see through us as we often put you in there so we can get something. i.e. make dinner or clean up. Other favorite activities include peek-a-boo. You can be in a full out cry and we start to play peek-a-boo and you are all smiles and laughter. You also LOVE to be tickled, like Whoa! You’re ticklish everywhere and love to laugh. You do talk and babble, but I think Lexi overshadows you a bit in that department and it is hard to talk over all her chatter. You are definitely a mama’s boy. You’re happiest in my arms and am constantly looking for me or follow me around a room when I’m not next to you.

Other occurrences

We went to the cabin one weekend and you did a great job in the car for both rides as well as sleeping. I put you in the ergo several times and I was surprised at how well you did in it! You’re such a little cuddle bug and love to snuggle!

Big sister Lexi still adores you, but is WAY too rough with you. Most of the time she is trying to be sweet, but her ‘love pats’ turn into hits and her hugs turn into laying on top of you. Good intentions, but we need to work on the execution a bit. There are also times, when she just straight up hits and kicks you or rips things from your hands. It often feels like these moments of yelling and timeouts leave me feeling depleted and like I’m speaking to the walls as she repeatedly does that same thing over again. In the grand scheme of things, there are probably more sweet moments than naughty as she really does love you and loves to take care of you. Just yesterday you were fussing in the exersaucer while I was making dinner and she ran into the kitchen and asks where your nookie is because you are crying. There was also a thunderstorm and she gave you her giraffe so you could be brave from the thunder. Then, she was dancing and spinning her windmill around and had you laughing hysterically. These are the moments that I hope to remember and not the yelling and timeouts that often get the best of me.

Happy six months little man! We love you to pieces and can’t get enough of your big smiles, sweet laughter and ticklish little bod.

Love,

Mama

William, William Monthly Updates

William 1 Month

March 25, 2015January 23, 2019 peanutsmiles

Dear William,

It is hard for me to believe that 4 weeks ago Daddy and I were heading to the hospital to meet you. It feels like forever ago, yet in my mind it still feels like you’re a couple of days old. This past month has been a mix of emotions for mommy. I have these moments where I’m bursting with joy and bring myself to tears staring at you and thanking God for blessing us with this perfect little boy. Then, I have these moments where I just want to cry because I don’t have enough arms to take care of you and your sister and question myself over and over. You’re eating and your sister needs to go to the bathroom and I have to choose–Do I stop; make you angry and cover yourself and myself in sticky breast milk or take the chance of Lexi not being able to hold it and pee her pants? Then I worry; Am I not holding you enough? It feels like I’m always putting you down once you’ve fallen asleep so I can do something for Lexi or get something else done (like write this letter) instead of just enjoying you and not worrying about the messy tornado the house has become or making dinner. Then, I worry; Am I holding you too much and creating bad habits and you’re not going to be able to sleep by yourself? Both thoughts are complete contradictions of one other, but honest thoughts. For now, I’m blaming it on the swing of hormones my body is going through and hoping that I’m not going crazy! Overall, taking care of two is so much harder than I ever imagined.

One month stats:

10 lbs .5 oz (56.2%)
22″ long (81%)
15 in head circumference (85%)

Overall, eating is going well. Once my milk stabilized (around 10 days), I felt much more in control and you were able to latch much better. Frequency of eating is all over the board. If I had to guess, I would say you eat every 3 hours or so. Occasionally, you’ll go 5 hours if you fall into a deep sleep. Around 2.5 weeks you started giving us longer night stretches. Most nights you eat around 9, 1:30 and then again around 7. Of course, there are nights where you wake more often than this, but there have been several nights where this is the ‘schedule’. Also around the 2.5 week timeframe, you started showing some signs of intense gassiness. You scrunch up your face turn bright red and cry and squirm for 30 seconds or so and then go completely calm.

This continues to occur almost all day and prevents you from falling into a deep sleep. You’ll sleep for 30 to 45 minute stretches but then wake yourself with these gas pains. It is so hard to watch you experience these as you’re clearly in pain and discomfort but there is nothing that we can do to help. At 3 weeks, we took you to the doctor to see if there was anything we could do or give you. They suggested some gas drops, but they didn’t really work. We also had tried prune juice in a bottle, which helped you poop but didn’t take away the gassiness and fussiness. (By the way, you take a bottle like a champ!) One thing the lactation consultant suggested that did help was to have me recline way back or nearly lay down during let down. It comes out pretty strong and quickly so you you were making lots of gulping noises and you would choke on the milk, which then would also spray all over your face when you pulled off. The gassiness is still there, but you seem to do a much better job eating when you can control the let down. You’re still eating on just one side per feeding and do a great job of latching on and off. Within the last two days, I feel like the gassiness has gotten better. You still have it and wince and cry in pain, but you don’t seem to be in as much pain and it isn’t lasting all day. Additionally, you seem to have some results of all your pushing and grunting as now we’re hearing toots and seeing you poop as a result.

Speaking of poop–you like to do it frequently and like to have your diaper changed immediately. I would say you poop 6-8 times between the hours of 7 am and 2 pm. We are going through a ton of diapers (you switched from newborns at about week 3 to size 1s).

Back to the gas, I’ve removed dairy and caffeine from my diet to see if either of those things are triggers for you. They weren’t, thank God! I was willing to try anything to help you get some relief, but no dairy for me was terrible. Milk or cheese is in nearly every recipe that I have and is a big part of my diet.

Today at the doctor for your 1 month checkup–they gave us a prescription for reflux to see if that may be causing the fussiness. You rarely spit up, but I do hear a lot of noises so you may be spitting up and swallowing it again?! We shall see! After your done eating, I try and lay you flat on my legs to get your stomach to settle and then either put you on my shoulder or have you sit up to burp. You usually give me one good burp.

Other interesting notes:

You have the scrawniest little frog legs ever. You love to kick (especially during diaper changes) and push off things with your long little string bean legs. No chubby thighs for you!
You love to keep your hands right by your face (also evidenced by your ultrasound pics)

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Your wearing 3 month clothes (you never fit into newborn clothes)
Around the 1 week mark, the baby acne came in full force and it is still pretty intense. Hopefully it starts to get better in the next couple of weeks. However, the rest of your skin is silky and smooth and I love to run my hands on it. Your wrinkly old man hands and feet went about just after week 1.
You love to cuddle and be held–especially with a soft blanket wrapped around your head. If you’re really upset, I’ll wrap a blanket around you hold you really tight and close to me and bounce up and down and it usually calms you down and puts you right to sleep. You also do really well hanging out in the Ergo. It almost always puts your to sleep and I love feeling your fast little breaths on my chest.
I think you might love your pacifier more than me. Seriously. You really really like to sooth yourself with it. And Lexi really likes to take it from you. If it falls out of your mouth you squirm and arch your back to try and reach it. You’ve even rolled over because you were squirming so much!
Around week 2 we had you start sleeping in your bedroom. We were switching between the rock and play and the crib and swaddling and not swaddling trying to figure out what worked best to have you sleep the longest. Around week 3, we started swaddling you and having you sleep in the crib every night. You were a little resistant at first, but I think it has been helping you sleep for longer stretches.
Around 3 weeks, you started to smile at us. Those gummy grins are far and few between, but they have made a couple of appearances.

Your big sister Lexi adores you. She is constantly asking where ‘Buddy’ is and telling us she wants to see you. She loves to give you kisses and hugs (honestly, like 10 or more a day). She also loves to put herself right in your line of sight and announce, ‘He’s wooking at you’. This is especially true during diaper changes. She literally gets right up in your face so your noses are touching. She has started to act out a little. I’m sure part of it is from her being 2 and the other part from the lack of attention she’s getting. She’ll often tell me that you aren’t hungry when your crying or that you don’t need to be burped but she needs me to color with her.

I’m not sure what we’re going to call you yet. William? Will? I don’t know. For now, it is just William, but am hoping as your little personality starts to shine, we’ll have a better sense of what suits you best.

Well there you have it Mr. William. Your first month captured in way more detail than you probably ever cared to know. The most important thing we want you to know is how much your Daddy and I love you. We are so excited to watch you grow into your own little person and help teach you and guide you along in this crazy life.

Love,

Mama

William, William Monthly Updates

William Week 1

March 4, 2015December 3, 2016 peanutsmiles

Dear William,

You are officially one week old! I feel like I said this in nearly every monthly post of Lexi’s, but I can hardly believe it is only one week and that it is already one week. I’m going to be completely honest, this week was really hard for me.

We came home from the hospital on Thursday afternoon, a day earlier than we needed to, but I was just ready. I was uncomfortable in the hospital bed, the food wasn’t great and just wanted to start adjusting to our new life. That first night wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t great. We started putting you in your crib and I slept in our bed, but I think the house was too cold for you as you just didn’t want to sleep alone. You did a good job sleeping in my arms, so we spent a majority of the night sleeping in the rocking chair.

Overall, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday I was just in a lot of pain, hormonal, tired and was having a hard time seeing when the pain would dissipate. Between the pain from the tare, uterine contractions, bruise on my back from the epidural fiasco, my milk coming in, EXTREME engorgement and very little control of my bladder I was just having a really hard time adjusting. I became mean, short-tempered and frustrated, and knew I was, but wasn’t able to control it.

In addition to the pain I was feeling, Lexi started to misbehave more than normal. She was deliberately disobeying us and not listening. This, with my lack of patience was not a good combination. However, by Monday, I felt like I had turned a corner and could start to see things getting better.

We visited the doctor on Monday and you weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz and were 20.5″ long and your head was 14.5″. Your weight and height are in the 75% and head is 90%. Everything else continued to look great for you. The doctor even said that since you are pretty much at your birth weight we don’t have to do the 1-month checkup for you as they really just want to make sure you’re up to your birth weight and you’re pretty much there!

It has been interesting watch Lexi adjust to you over the week. When she first met you in the hospital, she could have cared less about you and was really excited about the cool new train that you got her. Overall, she didn’t like the hospital and wanted to leave and go to Grandma’s house. When she came to visit again that evening, she was still pretty unimpressed with you but kept asking who you were. On Thursday, she definitely started to show more interest and asked what you were doing and who you were over and over. She also went with Daddy to pick out a pal for you. Her original pick was a purple bunny, but eventually settled on a Raccoon and was pretty excited to give it to you. The following days she warmed up a little bit every day. At first, Daddy would ask her to give you a kiss and she refused. She didn’t even want to be near you, and didn’t like the additional attention you received over her. By the end of the week, she would touch your head and is constantly asking where ‘brother’ is and what he is doing or why he is crying. I’ve even caught her touching your head and giving you unprompted kisses.

Other notes about your first week:

You really dislike diaper changes and kick a lot during them.
Your umbilical cord is almost ready to fall out and it really smells
You love to have your hands by your face, but have really long finger nails and scratch yourself so we’ve been wearing sleeping gowns with hand protectors a lot
You barely squeezed into a newborn outfit when you came home from the hospital. I tried a different one a couple days later and you couldn’t get into it. You’ve got some broad shoulders buddy.
You love to cuddle up in a ball with mom and dad and love to have warm blankets wrapped around you while you sleep.
Overall, you’re pretty content and just like to sleep and eat 🙂
The first week you met all of your grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, the Mauer’s and the Vossen’s.
You eat every two hours or so–mostly because I need you to, to help manage my milk. Hopefully this will start to stretch out a bit once it has maintained itself.

And that wraps up your first week buddy. We love you so much and are so excited to have you join our family.

Love,

Mama

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures, Lexi ‘accidentally’ played with my phone and locked me out of it, which meant all of my unsaved pictures were cleared.

Alexis Monthly Posts, Lexi

Lexi is 2!!

December 4, 2014December 2, 2016 peanutsmiles

Happy Birthday my sweet Lexi!!! It is hard to believe you are already two, and at the same time that you are only two. You feel like you have been a part of our family forever and it feels like you are a lot older than two. I remember being in labor, the excitement, anticipation and series of events like it was yesterday.

You bring your Daddy and I so much happiness everyday. Daddy is constantly saying ‘I love the bunks.’ or ‘Lexi is the best/sweetest.’ or ‘I know it’s good for her to sleep, but I can’t wait until she wakes up.’ I couldn’t agree more. I always feel like I am racing to get home from work to see you and can’t get here fast enough. When I am home, I want to be with you whether it is putting you down for bed or being there when you wake up or even having you run errands with me. You have an infectious smile and giggle and the expressions you make and the way you talk with your eyes makes my heart dance with delight. You are a true sparkle of happiness in our lives and your grandparents and aunts and uncles. They love you and can’t get enough time to spend with you.

Your personality starts to come through more and more everyday. You look identical to me when I was your age (when you see pictures of me, you say ‘That’s Lexi’) but I think you have more of your Dad’s personality. You’re pretty shy with new people and new places but eventually warm up (and love to talk!). You’re are just happy and content with your simple little life. You definitely have a little bit of mine and daddy’s stubbornness in you and don’t seem to be a fan of change. You don’t like to change your clothes (and prefer to keep your jammies on all day) and don’t like getting ready to leave the house.

You are quite the chatter box. You talk in full sentences and it is a rare occurrence for us not be able to understand what you are saying. You love to chat to yourself, talk to your pals, announce what you see whether we are driving or what you see on TV or in books. You also are pretty good at picking up on phrases Mommy and Daddy commonly say such as: ‘how about’ ‘hey’ ‘be careful’ ‘get down from there’ ‘i love you’ ‘sweet dreams’ ‘see you later’ and ‘sure’ ‘don’t touch, only look’, ‘no jumping, only sit on couch’–you’ve even nailed the inflection. Some of my favorite things are when you say large words like ‘dangerous. quesadilla and patient.’

Favorite Books: Curious George, books where you need to find things and little princess books
Favorite Shows: Thomas, Frozen, Despicable Me, The Little Mermaid and Dinosaur Train
Favorite Foods: Anything sweet, Chocolate Milk, Juice, Mac’N Cheese, Raspberries, Blueberries, Yogurt, Popcorn, Ice Cream and Fruit Snacks
Favorite Songs: Let it Go, Thrift Shop, Shut up and Dance, Scalliwag, Everything is Awesome
Favorite Activities: Dancing, Running Fast, Playing with Pals, Bulldozer and Diggers, Reading books, Talking, Playing with Papa and Grandma, Taking Baths and Singing songs

You’ve been pooping on the potty for months now, but in the last week you’ve been wearing underwear every day and been doing a great job ‘tinkling’ on the potty. You’re even waking up dry from naps and bedtime. Keep it up big girl!

You can repeat the numbers correctly from 1-15, but I wouldn’t say you really grasp the idea of counting. When we ask you to count, you just repeat the numbers, but don’t necessarily look at the grouping of items and put a number with each object. We’re working on you ABC’s but about 8 letters in you forget the order.

You continue to be a rockstar sleeper. You go down for bed between 9 and 10 and wake up between 8 and 9. You also will take a nap from 2-5 everyday. Daddy and I love to watch you on the monitor when you’re waking up or as you’re falling asleep as you chat, sing songs, move about your crib and just generally be happy for 20-30 minutes before we get you in the morning or before you fall asleep at night.

You know about half of your colors. You’re very good at identifying pink and blue and get green about 80% of the time and red about 50%. You haven’t figured out purple, orange, yellow, black, brown and white yet.

We’re beginning to see what the ‘terrible twos’ are all about. You usually have some kind of tantrum every day. Some days there are many and they are dramatic, other days they are in-frequent and minimal. All of the time, they are about really trivial things like putting your boots on or not allowing you to play with chapstick. You definitely throw more of a stink for me than anyone else. Going to the bathroom and leaving the house are the most common reasons for you to have a tantrum and it usually consists of having your body become limp like a spaghetti noodle, kicking screaming and throwing your body in all directions to make it very difficult for me to get you to do anything. Sometimes, I just walk away and let you have your moment and within about a minute or so, you come find me for some comfort. It is amazing that I can make you that angry, but you almost instantly forgive me and want some love from to console you.

Lexi, Daddy and I love you so much and feel so blessed to have you in our lives. We can’t wait to see what this next year brings you and how you are going to react to being a big sister.

Love,

Mama

Alexis Monthly Posts, Lexi

Lexi 1 year 11 months (24 months)

December 4, 2014March 30, 2015 peanutsmiles

Dear Lexi,

Your monthly letter completely escaped me. I took notes throughout the month, but procrastinated in writing it because, by gosh, you are TWO my sweet girl and don’t know how to articulate this happy, sweet, funny and smart little munchkin you’ve become. Three months later…here we are. The details and stories aren’t as vivid but I’m sure if you ever dare to read this 15 years from now, you’ll suffice.

Favorite memories:

Not necessarily a ‘favorite’ memory, but a huge milestone: you are officially potty trained. We put you in underwear over Thanksgiving break since I was home from work and had the time to work with you and bring you to the potty often. The first day was pretty rough. I think you had 6 accidents. I was ready to give up, but knew I needed to stick it out for a couple more days. Day 2 was a little better, maybe 4 accidents and by day 3 you maybe just had one. We didn’t necessarily use one of the ‘potty training methods’ out there as you didn’t react well to them when we tried back in August. This time, I just would very casually bring you to the potty every hour or two, and you always went. We didn’t make a big fuss about it or talk about it a lot–we just did it, and you seemed to respond pretty well to it. We also were only attempting to train you in the day, not for naps or night time, but after two solid weeks of waking up dry, we quit putting diapers on you. March update: you’ve had less then 5 night time accidents. Way to rock it my big girl! (minor note: You have a really hard time wearing any kind of character underwear as you get rashes on your bum–so we’ve stuck to the Gerber cloth type training pants and Gap)

We started a Mommy and Me swimming class this month. The first couple classes were a little rough as you had NO interest in doing what the class was doing and just wanted to play. The teacher was also requesting you to do pretty advanced tasks that you just weren’t capable of yet, but nonetheless, by the third week you were listening to the teacher and doing a much better job. One of the evenings, we stayed after class to swim and you blossomed. We were able to work on things like kicking and floating on your back and you rocked them. You also got comfortable going down the tot slide and probably went down it 30 times that night. To say you LOVED it was a complete understatement. I wish I would have had a waterproof camera to capture your big smile every time you went down.

I also took you to get your first haircut this month. The mullet had just gotten out of control and we needed some direction. We went to a specialty kids place, they put you in a little seat, gave you a sucker and let you watch Frozen. I wanted them to keep your hair as long as possible but get it out of your eyes and eliminate the mullet. They suggested bangs as kids your age have a hard time brushing the hair to the side. Even though I’m not a fan of bangs, the logic made sense and we went with it. You were terrified the entire time and kept wanting to give me hugs. And the amount of hair they cut was pathetic and totally not worth the $20. However, they did give you a nice little certificate with a little bag of your hair for your baby book.

One night I had made Mac N’ Cheese for dinner and you and I were sitting at the table and for whatever reason I told you to take a ‘Big Bite’ but said it in a slightly lower octave and kind of loud and you thought it was the funniest thing you ever heard. You giggled uncontrollably, which of course prompted me to repeat this because that sweet little giggle of yours is seriously the happiest noise I’ve ever heard in my life. Thankfully, we got it on video, but this little saying has become a regular part of our vocabulary and has even stuck around 3 months later.

Notes:

You LOVE to read Curious George. It is usually read every night before bedtime. You also love Frozen, Minions, Ariel and your little Princess Books. You refer to Despicable Me as Minions and New Minions.

You are amazed by Christmas lights on people’s homes. Whenever you notice them you yell ‘Wook at that mama. Wook Wook Wook!’

You absolutely adore Papa! You talk about him at home frequently and pretend to talk to him on your phone, specifically about how you’re going to eat Gum Drops and play diggers together. Whenever you see him your face lights up in excitement, it is so sweet!

You love to help Daddy shovel the snow. You chatter away while you’re out there, usually saying ‘I heping’

We went to the Children’s museum for the first time this month and you are such a shy and timid little girl sometimes. You’re very polite and wait your turn for things, but then get frustrated and angry when the other kids budge in line or take things from your hands. You say ‘That’s Wexi’s’ and furrow your brows, but don’t ever take things from other kids or push. Part of me is happy that you’re so well behaved, but the other part of me wants you to stick up for yourself and not let other kids push you around. I hope that you’ll be able to learn do stick up for yourself yet still be the sweet polite little girl that you are.

Of course after the Children’t museum, you got a cold. You were pretty run down and fell asleep while watching one of your shows, (which never happens).

This month you’ve also learned to easily climb up and down the stools at the counter and sit and eat there occasionally.

Thats it my sweet girl. Officially, your last monthly post. I’ve loved capturing the past two years for you (and for me) and hope you’ll enjoy looking over these as you get older. We love you more than you will ever know.

Love,

Mama

Alexis Monthly Posts, Lexi

Lexi 1 year 11 months (23 months)

November 4, 2014February 8, 2017 peanutsmiles

Dear Lexi,

What an eventful month this has been, and I’m afraid, I don’t have too many pictures or things to report as Mama and Daddy were in Hawaii for 2 of the 4 weeks. Thankfully, that wonderful grandma of yours went above and beyond in volunteering to take time off of work and watch you for Mama and Daddy. I knew you would be in great hands with her but was very nervous leaving you for such a long time. I wasn’t sure if you would recognize that we were gone and feel abandoned or if it wouldn’t cross your mind. For the most part, I think you did fantastic. You didn’t ask about us and had lots of fun with Grandma, Papa and Auntie She-She, but there were some minor side affects to your behavior once we returned home. There were lots and lots and lots of hugs and kisses and snuggles for the days following, which was awesome. On the down side, I did think you felt abandoned to a small degree as you had several wake ups in the middle of the night crying for mama. As soon as I went and got you you put your head on my shoulder and went to sleep. We’ve worked through this and I think you’re in a much better place now, but still feel bad if we made you feel abandoned.

On a related note, Mama and dada were gone for 12 days and although we had a great time, it was just too long to be away from you. The last two days, I just wanted to be home and see you. I did pretty good for the first 6 days and then each day got a little tougher as I missed you more and more.

Favorite moments

One of my favorite moments this month was seeing you at the airport when we came home. Grandma texted me and said you were out in the car so I ran out to see you and you had the biggest smile on your face and were kicking your legs in your car seat and exclaimed, MAMA!!!! I picked you up and you have me a HUGE hug and just nuzzled your head into my shoulders. I brought you inside to see Daddy and you pointed and gave Daddy a big hug. You quickly came back to mama, and kept nuzzeling your head into my shoulder. I definitely teared up when I saw you and heard your little voice call my name. Your extensive love for both of us continued for several days with lots of hugs and kisses.

On the second night after returning from Hawaii, I was putting you to bed and you were not having it. You were very upset and trying to climb out of your crib. To help you settle down and actually lay down, I promised you I would lie on the floor and hold your hand while you feel asleep. Through your tears, you begged for me to sing twinkle twinkle. So there I lay on the floor and your little hand holding onto my pointer finger. After two rounds of the song you had stopped crying and were falling to sleep. I stopped singing and slowly pulled my hand away. About 30 seconds later, your little voice peeped up and asked to hold my hand and rolled over to the edge of the crib so your face was smushed against the crib slots. Once holding my finger, you requested more Twinkle Twinkle and it just broke my heart and I started getting very weepy. I felt so guilty for leaving you and causing you any anxiety that you may be experiencing. With my voice cracking and tears streaming down my face, I held onto your little hand made my way through the song and let you fall asleep. I’m not sure what it was about this moment, but I felt so vulnerable and responsible for you and just missed you so much–i just broke down.

The day after we got back also was Halloween. We’ve been attempting to practice wearing your costume throughout the month, but you just didn’t like it so I was a little nervous how the evening was going to unfold. We practiced trick or treating the night before upstairs. You went to each door in your costume and said trick or treat and than daddy or I would open the door and give you some candy. So that evening you were at least compliant in putt your your costume one. It was very cold and luckily, your winter jacket was the same color as your costume so we were able to put it on underneath to help keep you warm. Once the first round of kids came to our door, you wanted to go out with them and were all about it. Daddy took you to the first couple of houses and then came home. And then I took you out and we went all the way around the block. Oh my stars you were so cute and funny. The first house you went to with Daddy, you got a kit-kat and once it was put into your bucket, you looked up and told Lief and Karen, ‘Owww, that’s Mama’s!’. You did a great job saying trick or treat, and please and thank you to every house you went to. And in between houses you would have little conversations with yourself. You would repeat me saying, ‘What do you say?’, and then respond to your own question with ‘Tank you’. You held onto my hand the entire time and were just chatting away about the stars in the sky and the airplanes you could see. When we got to a street you would say, ‘Stop, ook for cars. No cars, et’s go!’ You would even comment about people’s grass and rocks by saying things like ‘Oww nice rocks’ as you walked over them. You were just too darn cute!!!

At the beginning of the month, you and I were outside and I was cutting all of our plants down for the winter and you were so good playing by yourself for at least an hour. You sat on the stones by the hose and played with a stick in the dirt. I think this moment sticks out in my mind because it was just another sign of how you’re growing up. Normally, you would be right at my side and wanting me to play with you, but you were so content on your own creating your own fun in the dirt. Your getting so big sweet one!

Notes:

You continue to do a great job of letting us know when you have to go poop on the potty.

You often get the word ‘you’ mixed up with the word ‘me’ For example, you’ll request to be carried by saying ‘Carry-you’

You love to watch youtube videos of airplanes taking off and landing. In fact, Daddy bribes you with this when you’re going down for a nap that you get to watch one when you wake up.

You love to read Curious George, watch the minions and Frozen.

You’ve gotten more adventurous in the tub and will lay down on your tummy, put your face in the water and will even attempt to float on your back. Overall, you love the bath and you love to take showers with me.

You LOVE to show Daddy how you look. If we put a new outfit on or do your hair, you request that we go and show Daddy how you look.

While at Grandma’s house, you helped papa with work projects like raking the leaves, you would go to the park and swing at least once, sometimes twice a day, you would go and look at the diggers in the park, you went to the pumpkin patch and to the Zoo. While at the zoo, you were watching the polar bears and saw one of them poop and yelled out ‘Ohhh Poo-poo!’ You also would watch Thomas with papa and play cards with him every night. You had tea-parties with Auntie She-She and Grandma T and had so much fun!

I can’t believe you’re going to be 2 next month!!!! We love you Lexi and are so happy to be back home with you.

Love,

Mama

Alexis Monthly Posts, Lexi

Lexi 1 year 9 months (22 Months)

October 4, 2014March 22, 2015 peanutsmiles

My little love bug,

You really are the sweetest, happiest, most easy-going toddler I have ever seen. You LOVE to give mama and daddy hugs and kisses and do so, unprompted several times throughout the day. You just go with the flow, are a great sleeper and eater and have just blended into our lives seamlessly. I’m a little nervous how we’ll all react to a child that may not be any of these things.

Favorite Moments:

This has happened several times throughout the month, but to varying degrees. You and I were doing something in mama and daddy’s bathroom and daddy was working on the computer and he sneezed a couple of times. Without interruption of what you were playing with or looking up or anything, called out bless you for each sneeze and just kept going about your business. It was just funny how you didn’t hesitate and he couldn’t hear you, but you knew that’s what you say when someone sneezes. So sweet my little girl.

Dancing continues to be one of your favorite things to do. You love all and any music. Your favorite songs right now are Thrift Shop and Let it Go. If music is on, your dancing in one way or another. You’ll clap your hands to the beat (and are amazing accurate) bounce your head, move your hips or jump. I love that this is a theme that I continue to write about every month. I think next year we’ll put you in a dance class if you still seem to love it as much as you do now.

While Daddy is working, you love to come downstairs and play (and usually get into things). One day, he hears a thud and looks over the ledge and you had gone into the diaper bag, grabbed the changing pad, unfolded it, got a diaper and put your baby down on the pad and we’re attempting to change it’s pants. You’re going to be such a good big sister and I have a feeling want to always be helping mama.

Your long-term memory is getting much stronger as you recall things from a days or weeks ago and tell us about it. The most common story you like to tell us about is being woke up from your nap by Thunder. This happened at least a month ago, if not more, but you tell us about it several times a week. Whenever you hear a big noise, you tell us it is thunder. Then proceed to tell us words or phrases that help you tell a story. In this case it would be “Thunder? scary. i nap. boom. wake up. i scream.” Of course the expression and your big wide eyes that go along with this little story make it that much better. It is little moments like these that stand out to me and make being a mom so fun. It is so exciting to see the output of your brain developing and how much you’re growing and learning.

For awhile now, we’ve been trying to teach you that you if you aren’t in your high chair eating, you must eat at your table and not walk around the house with food. We frequently tell you that you need to chew and swallow before you can leave the kitchen and will have you go AHHH to check your mouth. In typical Lexi fashion, we were sharing an apple and you were at your table and I was sitting on the stool chewing and you had finished your piece got up, looked at me, pointed with your finger and in a very forceful and demanding voice told me chew and swallow. You’re a ham sweet girl and I’m glad all those times we’ve said it to you, it registered.

Notes:

For whatever reason, you’ve decided that on the floor and in the corner of the couches between the ottomans is ‘Lexi’s spot’. You regularly have several blankets, pillows, pals and dump your whole bucket of toys there and like to make this little nest for yourself to play in. You play with the toys, pretend to sleep, watch shows etc… Its so funny that you’ve selected this little area and the moment we clean it up, you go and recreate the mess almost instantaneously.

You have a slight obsession with trains–specifically Thomas the Train. Last month I bought some new books for you and one of them is an ABC Thomas the Train book and I kid you not, we probably read it 5-10 times a day. I think you honestly have it memorized. You refer to it as ‘All Aboard’ as that is the first line in the book, “A is for All Aboard.” We’ve only had it for a month, but it looks like we’ve had it for years as you take it to bed with you and everywhere you go in the house.

Update on the potty training topic. Last month you had your little set back, but it only really lasted a week or so. You’re back to almost pooping exclusively on the toilet! Yeah!!! You have some unusual habits with it though. You don’t let daddy in there while you go, but you’ll let me in there as long as I close my eyes. You also like to hold my nose or hair while you go.

The weather has started to get a little colder and while we’re playing outside some nights you’ll rub your arms and shrug your shoulder and say ‘It’s chilly.’

You really like to go inside closets and close the door and then say ‘Where’s Lexi?’ Also, as you’re closing the doors, you remind yourself out loud to ‘watch your fingers’ to make sure they don’t get pinched.

You officially have a mullet. Your hair is getting pretty long in the back and longer on the sides. I’m not sure what to do with it. I don’t know if it is just a stage you need to go through so it can get long, or if we should get it cut.

You like to tell us when things are your’s. You’ll say ‘that’s Lexi’s’–specifically about chap stick, your palls, pillows, blankets etc…

You love to wear your jammies and tell us you’re going to keep them on when it is time to get dressed for the day. You also have an afinity towards polka dots (your definitely my child on this one). You always request to wear shirts that have polka dots on them.

This month we started drinking from a cup without a cover or sippy function and you are doing great!

You’re attempting to go down the stairs without holding onto a railing or spindel.

You love yogurt and call it o-gurt and request to eat it every morning for breakfast.

You are so close to counting to 10 by yourself. You easily count 1,2,3,4 get stuck on 5, but when we say it, you continue with 6,7,8,9,10.

You are so verbal and talk all the time and are turning more and more phrases into full sentences each week.

September was another great month. We love every part of you so much and are so grateful on what an easy addition you have been to our life.

Love,

Mama

Alexis Monthly Posts, Lexi

Lexi 1 year 9 months (21 months)

September 4, 2014March 22, 2015 peanutsmiles

Dear Lexi,

We just finished the last ‘official’ month of summer and I have mixed emotions. I’m not ready for the cold weather to start yet, but it has been insanely busy so I’m ready for things to settle down a bit. It feels like this month has gone by really quickly and really slowly at the same time. Looking over my notes from the month, I questioned, “Did that really happen this month, it feels like that happened so long ago.” You continue to develop more personality every day. You get very upset if we don’t give you or allow you to do something and fall to the floor in tears—very tantrum like. You’ll even swing your whole upper body and head your head back and forth if I’m holding you and almost try to bang your head against mine, and then get even more upset if you do as it hurts. It is a very interesting little pattern you have. You continue to be very shy around new people and places for the first 20 minutes or so requesting to be held or hiding between my legs but eventually warm up and leave my side. Overall, you are a very happy little girl and love to play, dance, be tickled and give hugs to mama and dada.

Favorite moments:

At the very beginning of the month, all of the neighbors got together for National Night Out and it was so fun to just watch you run around and play with all of the other kids. It was one of the first times I felt like I had a small child and not a baby. You were happy and content playing with the kids and didn’t need mama or dada by your side. It was so nice to talk with other neighbors and just know you were OK playing without constantly worrying about what you were doing or where you were.

We headed up to the Tansey cabin for an evening to spend some time with Tara, Dan and their kids and I loved watching you play with Megan. You are about 4 months apart and both have blond hair and little pigtails and it was just too fun to watch you playing with your cousin! There was a couple of times where you were both in your diapers and standing on either side of a coffee table coloring. Melts my heart to see you start to develop relationships with your cousins as I have so many memories and much fun with mine.

Two little sayings you picked up from us and say on a regular basis are: A-dookie-dookie for okie-dokie and ‘up-e-go’ for up-we-go whenever you want to be picked up or are laying down and are getting up. So cute!

We regularly catch you having conversations with yourself. While dada was working he heard you playing on your slide downstairs and hears you tell yourself to ‘Sit-Down’, which you proceeded to do and than thanked yourself for doing so. It is funny to hear the stuff we say so often repeated back to us and fun to see you pick up on it.

You sit down and read to yourself on a regular basis, but there were two instances that were particulary cute. The first was while I was putting clothes away in your room and you were sitting on the rocking chair with your book ‘Things that go’ and you were flipping through the pages and pointing out the different pictures on the book. ‘Farmer, Ambu-ence (ambulance), doc-or-tor (doctor), boy, garbage truck. The other scenario was you had propped your pillow up against the side of the crib and were leaning against it with one of your blankets wrapped around your shoulders and reading your monster book. As we were spying on you doing this, we caught you adjusting your blanket to make sure it was wrapped around you just so. Just too darn funny!

For the first time this month, you started to sing along with me. We were in snuggling in the rocking chair before bed and I was singing Twinkle Twinkle and you slowly attempted to repeat the words after me. It literally melted my heart and recorded how sweet it was to hear your little voice singing a song with me. You’ve started to do this more often and will attempt to sing ‘Let it Go’ from Frozen even though you only say, Let go, you will tell me that ‘I singin’.

You also really love the song ‘Happy Birthday’ and soley refer to it as ‘Happy Daddy’ as you like to watch videos of the family singing happy birthday to dada for his birthday. As we sing the song over and over and over again, you request we sing it to different people, most commonly, Ashley and Courtney, but also very obscure things like eggs and the sky and different animals.

Hands down, one of my favorite things every day is an unprompted hug from you. We’ll be playing chalk outside or laying on the couch and you open your arms up really wide and run to us and squeeze extra tight and say ‘Huuug’. It is seriously the best!

Notes:

You continue to get better and better at puzzles. I would say you can get 90% of the pieces in by yourself. You do much better with animals as you are able to match up the feet. You ask to do puzzles almost every day.

Your Favorite toys: princess castle, chalk, reading books, playing with necklaces, slide

You attempt to say our last name and it usually comes out something like ‘Sam—pon’

Your bedtime routine has changed a bit over the month. After giving Dada hugs and kisses and saying good-night, you proceed to say bye-bye or nigh-nigh to everything in sight including your cars, your house, your babies, the trees—really anything that you can see, you try and say good-night to. In an effort to make it go faster and not have you need to fall asleep with me, we’ve been making changes. We have cut down on our songs and our books to one song and one book. You almost always ask/beg to snuggle with me before you go into your crib where you would like to fall asleep. While we’re snuggling you ask for me to hug you, which means you want me to wrap my arms tight around you. If you don’t fall asleep in my arms, which I try not to let you, there are epic screams when I put you into your crib and beg for more snuggle time and cling to my neck and wrap your legs around my body so you don’t have to go in. I’ve also been making a better effort to not threaten you that I’m going to put you in your crib if you don’t listen so it doesn’t feel so much like a punishment and it is just something that we do.

This month has brought some ups and downs of potty training. You were doing really good with telling us and going to the potty so we attempted potty training. We put you in under ware and had you going to the bathroom every 20 minutes and you were not having it. I think there was too much pressure for you to go and you started moving in the opposite direction and refusing to go into the bathroom. So we stopped doing that and rarely ask you if you need to go and you’ve started to come around the corner again and will go maybe once a day and will usually tell us when you need to go.

We also went to the State Fair for your first time. I was going there for work, and decided to have you and Dada meet me there. It didn’t turn out very well. You missed your nap and are not a fan of your stroller at the moment so there were some epic meltdowns to begin the day and quickly realized that visiting the animals wouldn’t be very fun as you pretty much need to be out of your stroller to see them and to put you back in is such a fight, it wasn’t worth it to take you in and out. So we ended up getting a few pieces of food, taking your to the tractor area to let you run around and then headed home. Hopefully we’ll have more success next time.

This month, I also started a new job at Best Buy which is going really well and I really like it. And so far, the commute is better than UHC and I feel more fulfilled and not so much as I was settling.

You also learned to open the fridge and pantry this month which has opened a new set of challenges as you regularly like to go into both and take things out, or pick out the food you want to eat. We’ve had to rubber-band them shut—which you really don’t like.

You’re starting to understand what the word ‘scared’ means and tell us you’re scared of everything, with thunder being the most prominent. You regularly ask us about thunder and tell us it is scary. When it actually is thundering, you want to snuggle or ask to hold our hands.

You’ve also started to like to play games on the i-pad and ask to play them on a regular basis, as well as watch shows and movies.

That’s it for now my sweet girl! We love you so much and can’t wait to watch you become a big sister, 6 months and counting!

Love,

Mama

Alexis Monthly Posts, Lexi

Lexi 19 months (1 year 7 months)

July 4, 2014February 8, 2017 peanutsmiles

Dear Lexi,

You are 19 months old today, which means you’re only 4 months away from being two. I feel like I can easily say you’re ‘almost two’, which is strange because I would have never considered saying you were almost one at this point last year. We are in the heart of summer and were lucky to enjoy several of the fun activities that often come with summer this month.

Favorite Moments:

Your 20^th month started off with the booms of the 4^th of July fireworks. We headed to Excelsior to watch the airshow and fireworks. You loved watching the airplanes and every time one flew by there was wide eyes, pointing and ‘Oh Wow and owwww’ sounds escaping your little body. You were absolutely fascinated with them. The fireworks were a little less impressive to you. By the time they started to go off, you were pretty tired and just wanted to go home, and kept asking me ‘home’ while they were going off.

The following weekend we made a trip to the Wisconsin Dells with Mitch, Teresa and Nessa. The weather wasn’t super warm, which made the outdoor pools breathtakingly chilly, but we did find a favorite spot at a wave pool. Instead of several waves coming, one really large one would come every 5 minutes or so and sweet girl, you loved it when the water would sweep your legs out from under you and woosh past you. You would go down the kiddie slides with mama and dada but I wouldn’t say that you particularly enjoyed it. Your face usually showed terror, but not enough to prevent you from going again. You also rode on a little balloon ride that you hated and literally crawled out from the buckle so I could hold you. I think it was the spinning and the quick up and down movements that made your tummy flutter.

At some point throughout the month you learned how to ‘cheers’ a glass and do it on a regular basis. You raise your glass and say cheers and will bang your cup against anything that you can. In fact, you often ‘cheers’ yourself with your milk and water cups.

You’ve come to grow an obsession with the book, Love you Forever and solely refer to it as ‘Cwazy’. There is a line in the book that say’s “This kid is driving me CRAZY!” and you love it! Admittedly, the book is a little creepy, but you ask to read it all the time and read it to yourself as well. From time to time, we hear you say the word ‘me’ and the respond ‘CWAZY’ and giggle to yourself as I typically read the line and pause after the word me, so you can say ‘CWAZY’.

At the end of the month we were also able to make a trip up to the B-well cabin and went for a boat ride down to Duluth, which I thought was really fun as I have been up there nearly every year but have never really been out on the lake aside from a little canoe ride. For you, the highlight of the trip was going for a ride on the mini-bike with dada. You were terrified at first, but then became more comfortable as time went on and now ask to watch yourself riding the ‘cycle’ whenever you see my phone. We also printed a picture out of you and dada on the cycle and you’d think it was Christmas morning every time you see it.

Overall, I think the best part of the month was the fact that I only worked 3 days a week and was home to do fun things with you and enjoy the summer. We went to the Zoo with Grandma and She-She, went swimming at Elm Creek, played in your pool at our house, went to different parks and on bike rides. It was great and so fun to enjoy those activities with you.

Notes:

You regularly ask to go ‘Simmon’ and attempt to put your swim suit on over your clothes to let us know you would like to go ‘simmon’.

You’ve started to use the word sorry, but don’t know how to use it in the right context and say it at very random times or when you want us to stop doing something.

Your final eye tooth came in so you only have your 2-year molars left!

We’ve noticed you’ve started to slim down a bit and your belly doesn’t stick out quite as far and your thighs aren’t as roly-poly.

You’ve learned how to pronounce you ‘G’s and can now say ‘Gamma’. You’ve also learned how to say Lexi and regularly tell us when something is your’s or when you want something you call it Lexi’s.

Your hair is long enough to put into a full ponytail, but we still prefer pigtails as they stay in better.

You wear a size 4 diapers, size 6.5-7 shoes and clothes depend on brand but typically wear a 3T on top and 18M-2T on bottom

You know all of your body parts and can count to 2 and say ABC when you’re reading to yourself.

You love to push your babies in your stroller outside and around the block.

When you go to sleep at night, you insist that you’re covered with a blanket or as you refer to as ‘carpet’

I’ve been working with you for months on this but you finally learned how to blow bubbles in the water.

While playing on your beloved slide, you were hot rodding, and I believe you were standing on top of it and feel off. I was in the kitchen making dinner so I didn’t see, but we think you feel on your wrist as you were holding it and saying ‘owie’ and couldn’t use it well at all. You nursed your arm for a good 4 days and we wondered if you had broken it or sprained it or something, but the doctor didn’t think you had and you seem to be fine now. You did get a pretty good bruise on it and occasionally nurse it if you bump it, but I think you’ll be just fine.

You also had a little sickness this month. You woke up with a pretty good fever and were very lethargic all day. Medicine helped, but when you woke up from your nap, you had a 104 degree temp and the medicine wasn’t kicking in an hour later so we took you to the doctor to get checked out to make sure it wasn’t something serious. You ended up throwing up for the first time as you were so terrified and upset about getting weighed. Blood tests looked fine, but then the next day a rash appeared all over your body that looked like Roseola again. That rash evolved into some nasty blisters most significantly on your bottom and face, with the ones on your bottom being the worst. It took several days for these to start to look better and eventually go away and involved conversations with the doctor everyday sometimes multiple times a day. You still have a little scaring on your bottom but hopefully they will continue to subside as more time passes.

That’s it for this month my little love bug. I love you!

Love,

Mama

Alexis Monthly Posts, Lexi

Lexi One Year 7 months (19 months)

July 4, 2014August 4, 2014 peanutsmiles

Dear Lexi,

Another month down in the books and it was busy! We had something every Friday, Saturday and Sunday the entire month! There were a couple of sleepovers at Grandma B’s house and lots of time spent outside playing. We were also up at a cabin with the Sampson’s for several days and you had so much fun playing with your cousins’s Ashy and Coco!

Favorite Moments:

At the beginning of the month, I took a day off work so we could take you to the zoo for the first time! We made the long trek down to the Minnesota Zoo. I hadn’t been there in almost 20 years and was excited to see how it had changed. The highlight of your trip for sure was seeing the sharks. I’m not sure what it is, but you get SO excited about sharks! All of the other animals were too far away for you to really see and many of them were pretty obscure, you don’t know what a moose or a camel is so you were pretty un-phased. It was still fun and you enjoyed being outside and walking around with mom and dad.

This month you turned a corner and have finally been able to ask for giraffee. It comes out as draffee, but you ask for it a lot and your eyes get huge and twinkle with delight whenever you see him. You seem to ask for him most when you are in the car. I’m not sure if you’ve had it in the car a few times and you are used to it or if the car makes you sleepy and you want it to cuddle, but it is so sweet to hear your little voice asking for draffee.

The several days at the cabin brought many favorite moments this month. The sleeping arrangements weren’t ideal, but we made it work and you weren’t too crabby. You and Coco were pretty much inseparable the entire time. You would follow her around and read books together, play with your animals, pretend to take naps, play cards, color etc… It was so fun to watch the two of you together.

There was two days were the sun came out and it was warm enough to go swimming and you loved it! They had a little floaty that you could sit in and you thought it was the best thing ever. We would sing songs and spin you in circles and you would kick your little legs and kept repeating, ‘I simmin, I simmin, I kick, I kick.’

We also had the boat up at the cabin with us and you loved going to boat rides. You would hand us your life jacket, put your arms through the holes by yourself and say ‘boat, boat boat’. You loved going fast and watching the everyone tube. It was a much different experience than last year when you hated wearing your life jacket and you screamed the entire time.

Throughout the month, you continued to add more words to your vocabulary and have started putting phrases together. A few of the most popular ones are: ‘oh gosh,’ ‘oh man,’ ‘lets go’, ‘I simmin,’ ‘oops-e-daisy,’ ‘i sorry (but never use this one in the right context)’

Every time we go to the park, you get a little better at climbing the stairs and going down slides. This month, you attempted to climb up a little rope/chain ladder and you did great. I didn’t know how well you were going to do, but you only slipped once, caught yourself and continued climbing.

While I was at work one day, you were playing with your little people race car track and got your hand stuck in the flap that the cars go through right before they finish the race. You calmly called to Dadda, ‘uh-oh Dada, uh-oh,’ ‘uh-oh Dada, uh-oh’. Dada peered over the ledge and sees you just looking up at him with your arm stuck in the ramp. He said it was the funniest thing as you clearly couldn’t get your arm out yourself, but didn’t panic at all and just called for dada to come help you.

Notes:

Right after your 18 month shots, you had Roseola. You’re fever came about 24 hours after your shots, so I thought you were still reacting to that, and then the next day, you had little red dots most notably on your hands and feet, but were also on your back and neck too. For whatever reason, you were terrified of the doctor that was evaluating you, (in your defense, she was a little creepy looking) and screamed in terror and held onto my neck with a death grip and attempted to climb up me until a little ball to avoid being an inch closer to her.

Mom and Dad got you a little slide to play with and you were very hesitant it at first but now love it. You climb up it and slide down it and have even become a little show-off and stand on top of it too. It provides a good amount of entertainment for you as you bring your pals, your cars and pretty much anything you can push down it with you.

Nursery Rhymes continue to be a favorite. We finally got a large book with what feels like over a hundred nursery rhymes. I never realized how gruesome some of them where and how many of them really make no sense at all. (3 blind mice, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater)

Your attention span is noticeably longer as you sit through longer books and TV shows. You still have an obsession with Daniel Tiger, Choo Choo Bob and Dinosaur Train and ask to watch them non-stop, literally sometime you ask over 20 times a day. Usually we only let you watch if you’re not feeling well, had some sort of incident or we really need to get something done without you in our hair.

You love to sleep with your pals cheek to cheek. Most of the time, we turn the monitor on and see you sprawled on your back with giraffee and piggy or doggy on each side of your face.

You love the sit-n-spin and giggle as you go round and round.

I would say you’re officially in ‘parrot mode’ where you repeat 70% of everything we say.

While changing your diaper (which you call diapy) you almost always say tummy, which means you want a wipe to wash your tummy with. Not sure where you got that from but it happens almost every diaper change.

Your top eye tooth came in and turned your happy smily personality into an angry whiny little toddler. Thankfully, it only lasted a day or two.

We went to a splash pad for the first time. I would say you kind-of liked it. The water was pretty cold, and you didn’t like anything that sprayed in your face and wouldn’t go anywhere by yourself. However, if I held your hands and we ran through things that sprayed low, you seemed to really like it. I’m curious to see if you like it more as you go a few additional times. That seems to be a common thread with many actives for you.

As we go through our bedtime routine, you are very particular about which songs you want me to sing you to. If I start to sing a song you don’t want, you tell me ‘no, no, no, stop, stop, stop.’ So, i’ll start listing songs and you veto most of them. A popular one this month has been ‘Take me out to the ball game’

And that rounds out your 19th month my sweet girl. Dada and I love you profusely and just can’t get enough of you.

Love,

Mama