MIss C is seventeen months old! (Ok, so that was on the 9th!)

I know this is a couple of days late but here goes:

1. Miss C's verbal skills are improving by the day. She is more vocal about what she wants to do and where she wants to go. When she gets up from either bed or a nap, she tells me "dia, dia" (sounds like die, die) so I change her diaper "milk" if she wants some milk, "snack" if she is hungry, "color" if she wants to color and often "pooh" or "cat" for whichever of her animals that she wants.

2. Miss C has discovered a love of shopping. We went to the Exchange last weekend to get some more pants for her and I held up two pairs to let her decide which color to get. She looked over both pairs (with quite the discerning eye) and chose one, grabbed it out of my and and immediately put it in the cart behind her seat. When I need to go to the store, I ask her if she wants to go on a "Shopping Adventure" and she says "yes, mama, shop, shop." Too funny!

3. Miss C is even better at matching thigns than I thought. Since she got her Little People's toy, I ask her to find different animals. She loves all of them and will just grab one at random and then find the matching animal on the mat and press the button to "talk" (she says it will talk too!).

4. Miss C adores coloring. I expect this is quite common at this age (and for many years to come). I tried coloring books but Miss C isn't quite into them yet but she does love her crayons (just the regular kind, not the triangle ones or the ones that look like eggs) and a basic pad of paper. I did discover that for going out, a spiral bound set of index cards is perfect. None of the pages come loose and Miss C has plenty of paper to color on.

Well, that's a few of her latest "tricks". DH has been gone a month but if the schedule holds true, he might actually be back in a couple of weeks. Yea! Its a shame that he has to miss so much of this but it could be worse, I suppose.

Ok, I am going to close out with a few new photos:

So, any thoughts on what to expect next?

Thank you

Just a quick thank you on the blog to my BFF, Alphagal and her lovely family.

Miss C just got the cutest gift in the world from them and while we are going to send a thank you card, we agreed that a video of Miss C enjoying her gift might be a nice addition.

Hope ya'll like it too!



PS In case you are curious, the reason Miss C signs penguin by pointing to her nose is because we played with a toy penguin she has (keep in mind, this started months ago) by "bonking" her nose with the penguin's nose. Kids are so darn smart!

Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!

We had a great day today.

We got today off from work because we have been working a lot on the weekends so Miss C and I had an "Adventure Day." We played at home all morning then after her nap we went out. We ended up at her school (I needed to pay so we decided to stop for a visit) and two stores. Because I figured Miss C wouldn't really be up for trick or treating this year (still a wee bit young), we wore out costume out in town. I think she is just adorable!

I am including a couple of photos and a short video. What do you think?

Time off

Well, we kind of had the weekend off. Kind of because I had duty so we still had to get up earlier than a normal weekend but Miss C really seemed to enjoy visiting my work. It was the second time she had been there (the first was last Christmas so she was much younger and really wouldn't remember) and she took over the place. I joked around that she was in charge but you all know I wasn't kidding!

We enjoyed a nice breakfast out on Saturday and that afternoon went out and found some papier-mâché pumpkins to decorate. I wanted to do something for Halloween and the day care doesn't let the kids wear costumes. I considered getting a real pumpkin to color but was lucky enough to find the papier-mâché ones because they are now Miss C's newest favorite toys. We both colored them on Saturday and she continues to add markings whenever the mood strikes. Another plus of our little excursion is we found a second hat (besides the ball cap we got a week or so ago) that Miss C digs because she can put it on herself. I am relieved because the weather here doesn't get warm for a while.

Today went to work again for turnover and then came home. Miss C is becoming much more vocal about her preferences so I ask her as often as I can for her decisions. Today was all about what to eat, when to play, what to color. I didn't realize how much she liked eggs until she yet again told me that she wanted "eggs" when i offered her a choice between cereal and eggs. Its funny, i thought she preferred cereal but maybe she is just changing?

Ok, enough for now. I am posting a couple of cute pictures and a new video. Let me know what you all think, ok? I think its hilarious!

Friends?

So, a funny thing happened last week. When I was walking Miss C into her class she pointed to one of her classmates and said her name "Nomi" (its Naomie but you know). Ok, so that's pretty cool but what happened after is even better.
We had to put up our stuff in one room then move to another because we were there with the early group. They congregate in one room until there are enough kids to require more than 2 teachers. Anyway, so we walk into the other room and Miss C walks over to this other little girl and they touch hands. Are you still with me?
When I went back to pick her up, one of Miss C's teachers told me that Miss C and "Nomi "are buddies. They apparently greet each other with hand touches and hugs and play together! Isn't that just the coolest. "Nomi" is a couple of months older than Miss C but they have been classmates since we got into the day care.
Needless to say, i am a little surprised. I didn't think kids really played together at this age. I think its cool though to know that Miss C looks for her little friend every day and when she sees her, she is set!
What do you all think?

Miss C is 16 Months old!

As I seem to do every month, wow! OK, so what has changed?

1. Vocabulary. Miss C's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds! She is working on different consonant sounds and says stuff like "silly", "banana" and "apple". She tries to say so much more. She is still signing but is happy using either. Its funny, if we can't quite understand her (not uncommon at this age, I am told), she signs it, says it then shows us! Like, hey, if you can't get it this way, how about this? She also tries to say "c"s and "k"s. When you ask her "what does a rooster say?" she replies with "cinkle, cinkle" (its always the same). What's really interesting is that she associates the same sound with my computer (she hears me type and must make some correlation because she says the same words!). Today she started to say "happy", "funny" and anything else she can figure out! It's so neat to literally watch her brain grow!

2. Hopping. DH has been working with Miss C on jumping and hopping. We all know our little angel loves to dance, heck she makes her toys dance, but now Miss C is trying to jump. While she only gets airborne on occasion (and usually on accident), when she says "hop", "jump" or "bounce" (talking about Tigger, of course) she slams a foot into the ground so she makes the same sound we do when we jump!

3. Interest in rocks. OK, so maybe we have a geologist in the making. We are apparently very lucky to have a gravel drive because Miss C loves to go outside and play with rocks. She can sit there and sort them for hours, if given the opportunity. When we go outside now we no longer spend much time rocking in our chairs, no, most of our time is spent walking up and down the driveway finding neat looking rocks.

4. Hiding stuff behind her back. OK, that one sounds a little off, so let me explain. A few weeks ago, in the car, I noticed Miss C would put stuff like a book or a pacifier under her right thigh when she drank water or ate a snack. At first I thought, whoa boy, we are in a new stage and asked myself if we were going to see her hiding stuff. Well, that turned out not to be the case. I gave it more thought and realized she hasn't quite grasped the concept of a pocket so she thinks we are just hiding stuff behind out backs when we get it! I tested this out by giving her some paper to hold. Yep, she put it under her leg when sitting and tried basically to stuff it in the back of her pants when standing. Pockets!

That's the short of it. This is a definitely interesting time. Miss C is still struggling to take naps as long as they would like at school (they have a 2 hour time blocked out) but she's such a mellow kid that she sits on her cot and reads a book to herself when she does wake up. I hope she can work through that soon!

Lots of adventures

Well, the weekend is almost over but we had a lot of fun.

Whenever we take Miss C out, we tell her we are going on an adventure because, as you all know, any outing with a little one is definitely an adventure!

On Thursday, DH picked Miss C up from school and they went on a grocery store adventure. Miss C split her time between eating an apple and talking into DH's phone. I guess she managed to snake the phone from him at some point then proceeded to impress everyone in the store by saying "hello, yes, yes" repeatedly into the phone. She's not quite at the stage where she is willing to talk to a person besides DH on the phone but she sure likes the concept.

On Friday, we all went over to our friends' B & S's house for dinner. We had some terrific pizza (thanks for making it, guys!) and Miss C was the darling of the dinner (go figure!). She discovered that there is a perfect pillow fort ready made under a built in desk and also found some finger puppets on a shelf just low enough for her to investigate each one. Before we left, B and S gave Miss C her very own bunny rabbit finger puppet. She carries it around the house and says "hop! hop!" while stomping her feet (she is really trying to hop though!).

On Saturday, we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Miss C enjoyed trying her lunch, my lunch and DH 's lunch as well as coloring and people watching. After we were done eating, I took Miss C on a walk through the restaurant to the bathroom to wash hands and she hammed it up the whole way, grinning at every smiling "granny" in the place and getting loads of applause for her walking and smiling.

Today we are relaxing at home (I had to work this morning but stuff happens, right?) watching some football and going outside (briefly, its chilly!) to play with rocks and flowers. DH is attempting to put Miss C down for a nap (we'll see how that goes) then it will start over again.

Have I mentioned how much I love this motherhood gig?! Hope ya'll are having fun too!