A few of her new talents

Today she learned that her little blocks can stack on top of each other. She had a pretty good time stacking them up and knocking them down and doing it all over again.

I also love the new thing she is doing with her balls. She holds 2 with 1 hand! A few days ago I was cleaning up and putting them away and grabbed both together and she watched me so ever since then she does what I did. She use to have 5 of those balls but 2 have disappeared so that is what she has to do if she wants to carry all 3 at one time.

14 Months!

Well another month has come and gone and now we have a 14 month old! Here is what Jacie has been up:

• Went back down to size 3 diapers during the day and size 4 at night. The 4's fit but I think the 3's fit better and don't sag so much.
• wearing a variety of sizes still, but usually fits 12 month best
• NO MORE BOTTLES! She is full time sippy cup. Even night time!!
• Finally has started to eat more meats. She is now willing to eat chicken, turkey, bologna, and taco meat.
• Loves her veggies
• Enjoys fruits but so far not liking oranges, watermelon, and pineapples but I will keep trying!
• Sometimes enjoys feeding our dog more than herself.
• Getting better at forks and spoons but no where near mastering them. When she gets frustrated she throws them on the floor.
• Makes a kiss noise when she blows kisses
• Can now wave hi and say "hi" while doing it
• She is now saying "uh oh" instead of just "uh" when something drops
• Her comprehension just blows my mind!
• "meow" is a cat
• "baaa" is a sheep
• "moo" is a cow
• For a dog she pants or snorts
• She loves shoes... if it was up to her she would wear them all day!
• Able to help us get her dressed. She will put her arms through the arm holes and lift up her legs for her shorts and will lift up her feet for her shoes.
• Also able to help get undressed. She steps out of her pants and puts her hands up for her shirt.
• Learned how to throw a ball and loves playing with all her balls... all 3.
• So badly wants to hug and kiss the cat and dog.
• She also wants to climb all over and push the cat around... good thing he has been so patient with her.
• She is now dancing with her whole body, not just her head and arms.
• Can do all the hand movements to patty cake
• Can do "twinkle hands" for twinkle twinkle little stay
• Will "row" her arms for row row row your boat
• Tries to climb on everything.
• Got tooth #7 on the bottom
• After we get her out of her crib in the morning she knows to walk over to her changing mat and lay down on it (we took out her changing table out last month and put the mat on the floor)
• Tries to color at restaurants
• Brushes her hair
• Tries to brush her teeth
• Started sleeping with a baby doll
• Full of curiosity and into EVERYTHING!!

This is been one of the best months (although I am sure I will continue to say that) !! I have LOVED spending all my days with her this summer and am sad I am down to my last few weeks before going back to school. She is so much fun and learning so much. I love watching her grow!!!!!

*** okay when I started writing this I really thought I wouldn't have much to say but I think this is my longest monthly update I have done yet.

Twinkies???

So this morning as I was going through a few more bags of old clothes to put in sell, give away or keep piles. I saw a few more preemie sized clothes in there. We really only had a very little amount of preemie although she was able to fit into most of them until she was 1 month old.

I found this outfit and thought it looks like it would fit a baby doll... gosh! was she ever this small?!?!?! So I went to find her baby doll and sure enough it fits. Funny thing is I was like its big but oh well but then I went back at some pictures I took of her before we came home from the hospital and it pretty much looks exactly like it did on her!!! This is the same type of outfit just different patterns. The one she is wearing is ALREADY packed up and I don't have any pictures of her in this one.

Photobooth Fun

I love photobooth. Its something I forget about but when I remember I do love taking pictures with Jacie. I can usually get some cute pictures because she loves looking at herself and it makes her smile =) Here are some oldies and and a newbie.

Operation bedtime bottle

For the past month Jacie has only taken 1 bottle a day at night. I wanted to try to switch her off but didn't exactly know how to since sucking on a bottle is relaxing to babies right? Okay so 2 weeks ago I decided to just try it cold turkey! We got in her rocker and I handed her a sippy cup. She grabbed it and was fine. Drank about 2oz then stopped. She was refusing it but not screaming or anything. I just thought she was full and didn't want to drink anymore so I laid her down and she stayed down. I thought "That was easy!" Well as soon and I grabbed the monitor she was SCREAMING very loud. I watched her for a bit hoping she would relax but nope. When I went in she was standing up and reaching her arm out to her sippy cup. I got her out of the crib and tried to give it to her again. Her screaming just got louder and louder and she was angry that I was trying to give her that instead of a bottle!! So I just decided she wasn't ready and caved in and got her a real bottle and she drank the rest and went right to bed.

So I started thinking how are we going to do this??????

This week I had rearranged the kitchen. That involved packing up the bottles and moving in the sippy cups that use to be in the pantry into the cabinets to take the bottles place. I then saw some 11oz bottles and thought these are nice. I will just keep these out for bedtime and pack the rest up. The 11oz bottles also come with a different/fast flow nipple. Well, as we started giving her those bottles we notice she wasn't keeping it in her mouth and continuing to suck but was using it more like a sippy cup. I thought oh good! This will get her use to more of a "sippy cup" feel. We continued for a few days then I switched it up again...

I then changed those bottle nipples to sippy cup nipples that look like bottle nipples! It looks like a bottle and feels like a bottle but is 100% a sippy cup in disguise!!!! She then did awesome and has been doing awesome with them.

Next change will be replacing that nipple with more of a real sippy cup nipple but as of 3 nights ago I can honestly say "JACIE IS NO LONGER TAKING BOTTLES" As happy as I am to be done with that change I am sad to say goodbye once again to another part of her babyhood!

Little Fashionista

Jacie's current obsession is...

BRACELETS

...but not real bracelets. These are rings that go on this toy:

For almost a week they have been a daily accessory. She will find them when she wakes up, wear them around the house, wear them to eat. Pretty much everywhere!!

Today as we were walking out of the house to run errands she turned around and walked off. I said "Where are you going? We are going byebye" She then grabbed both of the rings and put them on and then continued on her way to the garage. Sure enough those rings stayed on her the whole 2 1/2 hours we were out and about. Jacie got many compliments on her pretty bracelets too =)

She is definitely starting her own fashion statement!!

Babies-r-us

This story begins ways back in February 2010 when we got the baby furniture. We ordered everything then including the toddler rail that went to the crib. Granted we knew we weren't going to need that for a while but we went ahead and did it. The furniture came in a week later except they told us the rail wouldn't be here until October. Okay, so fast forward 8 months later. I had a 5 month old and was not thinking in any way of a toddler rail! I didn't realize we never received a call from them. Last weekend I rearranged her room some, took the changing table out and moved it to my closet, moved in a few more toys from the living room into there and then remembered.... we never got that toddler rail!!!

Ben then called up babies-r-us and explained our issue. They pulled up our account and told him their records show we picked it up in March of 2010! WHA??? no we didn't. They then said they would call us back. 3 days later and no returned call Ben called again and talked to someone different yet they told us the same thing but said he would look into it more. Ben explained they might have this all mixed up with our headboard issue we had when we first got her crib.

I figured we can't convinced them that we didn't pick this thing up and would just be out $100 and whenever we decide to change her crib we would just find 1 somewhere else.

Today they called Ben back and said they found it and it was at their store!!!!!! If they got it last October they have almost had it for a year! I am just glad they found it and everything is A-OKAY!

Impressed

Backstory: A few weeks ago Jacie got 2 little ducks from one of her daddies co workers. 1 is a cat-duck and 1 is a sheep-duck. She seriously loves those things and have since she first got them. If she has 1 in 1 hand she HAS to have the other in the other hand.

After her nap today I got her out of her crib. She saw the cat one and got it off the floor. I didn't see the sheep 1 anywhere and said to Jacie "Where is the other one? I don't see it" She then went over to her bottom drawer of her dresser and opened it up and sure enough the duck was inside. I then remembered she had put them in there this morning ( 4 hours earlier) when we were playing in her room. BUT the most impressive things to me was the I had put away some clothes in there while she was playing and I covered it up, but she knew to lift up the clothes and look underneath.

She seriously blew my mind with that!!! Ben and I agree she did not get that good remembering gene from him ;)

No one judge us but....

Jacie has suddenly starting insisting on acting like a dog!!!! (not only she is panting and barking like a dog now)

She wants to eat off the floor like really eat off the floor... like throw food on the floor just to get on all 4's and pick it up with her mouth!

** Thankfully this just happens during times when I have cheerios or puffs available for her to grab during play time.

I hope this phase goes away!! Mama and dada are not a fan!

update: she is now picking up toys with her mouth...

4th of July

I have told myself after this year we are going to really try to start some traditions on this day. Of course we have to find a perfect firework spot and then I would like to go to the parade the city holds. Last year and this year we have a sleeping child in her crib while we will watch the tops of the fireworks over the lake behind our house.

July 4, 2010

July 4, 2011

What a difference a year makes!

Let me set the scene

1. In kitchen cleaning.

2. Realized it was kind of quiet.

3. Turned around to find the baby gate door open.

4. Started walking down the hallway and said "Jacie!"

5. Heard a door slam.

6. Got to Jacie's closed door.

7. Opened the door.

8. Found Jacie in the middle of the room playing with her train.

9. Gave me a huge smile when she saw me!

Crazy kid!