Check This Out.

I was finally able to get some pictures up.  Check out these posts to see them for yourself.

My Sweet Pea is 18 Months Old  &  Happy Mothers Day to Me

Happy Saturday!

Charmian

My Sweet Pea is 18 Months Old

I didn't want another month to pass without me doing a milestone post so even though it's pushing midnight and I have to be up tomorrow morning at 6:30 I'm going to get this done.

18th Month Milestones

HEIGHT/WEIGHT

 Teeny Tiny and if I'm being completely honest I sometimes worry about your size.  You still fit comfortably in your 12 month clothes.  When we attempted to weigh you, you were approximately 9kg.  And your height when we went in on Tuesday to become official residents was 75cm.  

SLEEPING

Somedays you're a two nap a day girl (like today) and other days you prefer to hold out for a lunch time snooze.  When you decide to only nap once you're ready to call it a night at about 7:00 p.m.  But on a normal two nap day you prefer an 8:30 bedtime.  I finally decided to do some night weaning and at 17 and a half months you were sleeping completely through the night.

HOORAY!!

EATING

Besides nursing every now and again during the day, at bedtime, and first thing in the morning you eat everything I eat with a few exceptions.  I wouldn't say you were a picky eater but you eat like a bird and prefer snacking all day long to big meals.  Your favorite food is still hard boiled eggs but now you've added bananas to your favorites list.

PLAYTIME

You are always busy.  You love to dance, and sing, and run, and hop, and read, and play mommy, and play weeble wobbles, and go to the park, and play in the sand, and chase the ducks, and dance, and cuddle the dogs, and army crawl, and sing, and climb on and off of everything, and go down the slide, and swing, and play legos with your friends, and see saw, and dance and sing.

Did I mention that you sing ALLLLLLLL the time and just like when you were a little itty bitty baby you are constantly dancing.  Even if you're just dancing to the song that you're singing.  The only time you aren't dancing and singing is when you're being bashful in a room full of strangers, or bigger kids, or heaven forbid a room full of strange big kids.

WHAT'S NEW 

Since the last time I posted it seems like everything is new.  You aren't a baby anymore in fact the only sign of your babyness that is still lingering is your hand, elbow, and knee dimples.  

You have 12 teeth.  Your most recent molar came in during our May Day vacation.  You are walking and talking and have your own idea of how everything is going to go.  You can throw one heck of a tantrum when things don't go the way you have envisioned.  We are slowly learning that the best way to handle your tantrum time is to totally ignore you.  I know, I know that's what everyone says to do, but do you know how hard it is to ignore you when you are having a total meltdown.  It is almost impossible.  And anything can set you off - you don't like the fact that I put your shoes on before mine, or I touched something in the house or, or, or....  At first we got mad, and then we tried reasoning with you  - but then we realized you are 17 months not 17 years old.  Then finally we just ignored you.  You know what just ignoring you works the best and we really should have done that option first since that's what everyone says to do but it's just so stinking hard.  You haven't had an official hair cut but I have been secretly trimming your hair for a while now.  I've just been slowly fading your baby mow-hawk into a little bob.  

Anywho - you are a little firecracker, you are constantly keeping us on our toes, you are the sweetest little girl who really loves her friends and family.  And we wouldn't change anything about you.  

Happy Eighteen Month/One and A Half Year Birthday!
Love you!!!

Mommy

Happy Mother's Day to Me!!!

Who needs flowers and cards 

when you get smiles and snuggles.

Merry Christmas!

May 
peace, love, and joy

be with you today 

and throughout the New Year.

Love Jon, Charmian, Alessandra, Dot, and Ripley

Happy Birthanksdaygiving!

Jon said we couldn't do Christmas until we did Thanksgiving.  And I told Jon we couldn't do Thanksgiving until we "officially" did Alessandra's birthday (with a strip down cake eating frenzy).  Being the practical folks that we are, we decided to do Birthanksdaygiving.  

We first planned the event and the menu, found the  recipes online, made our shopping list, scoured the city looking for all of the necessary ingredients to make as authentic of a Thanksgiving dinner as we could.  

Not to toot our own horn but Jon and I thought it was pretty darn spectacular!

We dirtied just about every pot, pan, dish and utensil we own - 

including the three new ones we had to buy just to make all the food.

With our tiny little oven we had to put the sweet potatoes on the very bottom 

and the stuffing and the green bean casserole had to share the only rack in the oven.

Here's the spread!

The only thing that was off was the turkey - but that's just because it was actually a rotisserie chicken.  :o)

We even had a real live Indian at our Thanksgiving ;o)

After we stuffed ourselves just shy of puking, 

Alessandra opened a couple more birthday presents,

and finished off the night with some carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

It was a complete success.

Happy Birthanksdaygiving!!! 

Happy Halloween

I hope this Halloween finds you with plenty of...

Sweets!

My Sweet Pea is Eleven Months Old

OH MY GOSH!!!

Did I really just type that!  I can't believe that in one short month my newborn, baby girl will be one year old and on the verge of toddlerdom.  

11th Month Milestones

HEIGHT/WEIGHT

 

 Still just a peanut with a few rolly polly areas.

SLEEPING

Two naps a day, just like before but they are pretty set nowadays.  

You'll nap from 10:30-11:00 until 11:30-12:00 and again from 3:00 to 4:00.

What I'm most happy about is your new trend of nighttime sleeping.

We usually put you to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 (p.m.) and you'll sleep until 4:00 (a.m.).  You wake up, nurse, and then will go back to sleep until 8:00 a.m.

HOORAY!!

EATING

Besides nursing every four hours through the day you eat everything I eat with a few exceptions.  You're current favorites are beans, eggs, and Daddy's Veggie Soup (okay, I'll be honest, you love anything your Daddy makes).

PLAYTIME

We have different stations set up around the house for you to play at.  So depending on what room Mommy is working in you have different things to play with.  In the kitchen we have all of your kitchen gadgets, water bottles, and bags.  In the bedroom we have the schrank (wardrobe) where you keep yourself busy pulling the dirty clothes out and putting them back in.  In the bathroom there is the cool contraption that hangs on the wall and it holds the prettiest white paper with pink writing.  You love pulling it out into a big pile on the floor and then ripping the squares apart.  Oh, and the purple stool, towels, and doggy brush are pretty cool too.  And last but not least the office/living room which has your toy box (read bright orange OBI crate) with all of your "real" toys in it.

You absolutely love to dance - I know I've said that on every monthly update but it's true.  You started out just headbanging to the music and now you have a whole set of different moves.  Whenever you hear music the biggest smile comes across your face and you groove to your little hearts content.

You are a pickle, not a normal pickle or a sweet and sour, you're a Zesty Dill.  You have so much spunk and sass that most days we don't know what to do with you.  We are constantly having to remind you to be gentle and not scratch, or pull hair, or pinch, or bite, or hit, or... you get the idea.  Someone told me once that you're too young to know what your doing but I can tell by the look on your face that you know exactly what you're doing which is why we've had to figure out, VERY quickly, how to handle it.  The solution we found is actually quite simple and it leads me to my next paragraph.  We tell you "No" or "Stop" and set you down or move you out of arms reach.  Once you're there we explain that you need to be gentle and that whatever your doing hurts us.  You then pull your bottom lip out so far you could wrap it around your head and you turn on your big crocodile tears.  You continue to pout and cry until we pick you back up and explain how that makes us feel.  This normally stops the behavior for at least an hour sometimes longer.  

You are a social butterfly in every sense of the word.  That's why the only punishment that actually hits home is being separated from people.  You love to flirt with adults, watch big kids play, and play with other kiddos your size.  You, quite simply, love people! 

WHAT'S NEW

You're crawling everywhere and can stand up with very little support.  You will cruise but you much prefer holding onto either your Mommy or Daddy's fingers and walking around.  

You have another tooth - so, four in total (Two American, One German, and One Italian).  Your most recent tooth came in somewhere between Italy and Austria but we're calling it your Italian tooth because you got it during our Italian vacation.  

Speaking of Italy, you can add two more countries to your list because we recently took a road trip through Austria to Italy.  

You are talking so much these days and now you say more than just "Nein, Nein!"  Whenever you see your Daddy you yell "Da Da".  If you want us to look at something you'll point and yell "Tha Tha".  We taught you a few signs and instead of just signing "all done" you yell "Du".  When you see your Mommy and you want to cuddle (but only if you want to cuddle) you yell "Ma Ma".  Notice I said you yell, that's because you currently only have one volume for your words and that's loud.  For all your other babbling though you do have a regular talking volume which is nice.  We are constantly having to remind you not to yell and to use your talking voice.  Oh, and sometimes, if we don't pay attention to you quickly enough you just scream at the top of your lungs.  We've found the only way to get you to stop is to blow in your face.

You are a total ham, and you make some of the funniest faces.  Just tonight your Daddy jokingly said to you - "Do you think you could be a little more boring!"  Of course we don't want you to change, we love you just the way you are, but there are days when you definitely test our patience.  

Happy Eleven Month Birthday!  We love you Sweet Pea!!!

Mommy & Dad

Oh, The Places You'll Go!!

I have this thing with feet. 

They're stinky and dirty but they also take us from one place to another. 

Some are cute some aren't but they are pretty useful.  

Really early on in my pregnancy with Pearce we had an ultrasound and we got the best picture of his tiny little feet.  After he was born the photographer took this picture of his foot, and as soon as I'm done nursing Alessandra I'm planning on getting a tattoo of those little feet on my ankle so that for the rest of my life every step I take Pearce is taking it with me.

Okay, on to the real reason I'm writing this post.

Enjoy!

A different take on a family portrait.

 

Oh, The Places You've Been!

Charmian

Vernazza & Riomaggiore

After a late start we grabbed a bus to Manarola where we caught a train to Vernazza.  

We spent the day in Vernazza and then headed back over to Riomaggiore for dinner.