Charleigh's 17 Month Update!

**Forgive me. These have been written for months, but forgotten about. Let's catch up. And yes, the 16 and 17 month pictures are pretty.... interesting. They aren't perfect and you know what? That's a-okay in this house ; ) Plus - You try taming a toddler!** 

Charleigh Liana, you turned 17 months on June 23rd!

You loved stuffed animals and baby dolls. LOVE THEM. We usually don't leave home without a small army of Elmo, baby, puppy, and teddy.

You are doing great in daycare. You are excited every morning to see your friends and you like your teachers. During the summer you have "water play" on Mondays and Wednesdays. They bring out sprinklers, water tables, and a little pool. I've been told you seem to love it the most and you splash around the entire time.

Your eating is no longer an issue. Your current favorite foods are bananas, corn, apples, and Spaghetti O's. Your vocabulary is coming along well. You are starting work on your ABCs and 123s. We are also working on your manners. You have please and thank you. Sometimes we just have to remind you to say them.

You are a pistol. You like what you like. You've gotten into a hitting phase. Sigh. I'm sure it's out of frustration and lack of communication, but time out has been introduced. The funniest thing happened last weekend. Papa caught you standing on the coffee table (something you know is not allowed) and he came and put you on the ground telling you that you can't do that. He wasn't going to put you in time out, but you immediately went to your time out corner and sat down for a minute. HA!  

You continue to be a great sleeper. We've moved your bedtime to 7pm. You like to have a story or two before bed and then we lay you in your crib with a few books. You immediately sit up and open the books to "read" by yourself. I shut your door and that is all she wrote. You typically only wake up if it's a teething night. You are a sleep lover like myself.

You like to dance. Anytime music comes on you stop and start bobbing up and down. You love to watch Sophia the First on Disney Jr. You dance every time the music for that show comes on.

You flew on a plane the day you turned 17 months and you threw quite the fit. You were overly tired and it was not pretty. The flight had been delayed a few hours and it was past nap time. Luckily for us all, the people were on the plane were extremely nice... until papa spilled all of your milk on one of the seats while exiting the plane.... ha! (We laugh about it now, but at that moment, I wanted to crawl under a seat and hide)

Month by month!

One!

Two!

Three!

 Four!

 

Five!

Six!

Seven!

Eight!

Nine!

Ten!

Eleven!

Twelve!

Thirteen!

Fourteen!

Fifteen!

Sixteen!

Seventeen!

(HA) Float on baby girl...

Charleigh's 16 Month Update!

**Forgive me. These have been written for months, but forgotten about. Let's catch up. And yes, the 16 and 17 month pictures are pretty.... interesting. They aren't perfect and you know what? That's a-okay in this house ; ) Plus - You try taming a toddler!**

You turned 16 months back on May 23rd!

 You are completely into stuffed animals. You feed them, rock them, rub their back, and love them. It's too cute. You go nuts for Elmo now. We were caught off guard when we were walking through a store one day and you said, "Elmo!" Sure enough there was a little toy Elmo. We had never introduced you to Elmo, but daycare said there are tons of Elmo books and they are your favorites.

Burrying papa.

We got you a small inflatable pool for $10 a few weeks back and you are obsessed! You will kick, splash, and even put your face in the water. Sometimes when we are inside the house you will go to the front door and say, "pool?"

You never want to come in when we go outside. You cry when it's time.

This biggest and best update this month is that you have learned how to say, "I love you." It's pretty sweet. Sometimes you say it clear as day, other times, it sounds like, "I yo-yo!"

You like to dance by just bending your knees up and down. You like to be read to, but there are times when you want to look at a book on your own. You will pick one out and go away from us to turn the pages and look at it.

You are still the best sleeper. You have even started asking to go to bed. Yup, you heard me right, asking to go to bed. You will grab your "blankie" and walk to the bottom of the stairs where the baby gate is and ask, "night night?" When we take you up to your room, you immediately ask for a book. We read Goodnight Moon a lot and then lay you down. You hardly ever cry at bedtime. You typically go to bed around 6:30-7pm and sleep until 6-6:30am. 12 hour sleeper here!

This picture cracks me up.

You're becoming a much better eater. Strawberries, mandarin oranges, apples, cheese, yogurt, applesauce, chicken, pizza, carrots, and pancakes. We are still working each day to get those veggies in you! I've started buying these squeeze things of sweet potatoes and carrots that you can feed yourself and that is helping on the quest to get you to love veggies.

You finished your 10 week program of gymnastics. You seemed to enjoy it very much. We are going to do swim lessons at the YMCA again soon. We attempted to take you to free swim over Memorial Day weekend and you screamed bloody murder. It was awful. When you took swim lessons at 4 months, you loved it!

Stats:

You wear size 18 months or 2T stuff.

You weigh about 24 pounds.

You wear size 4 shoes.

Your hair is getting so long. You've been rocking a pony tail smack dab on the top of your head.

You went to the beach for the 2nd time! Last time we went you were only 4 months old and you slept in your car seat on the beach. This time you loved the sand and played the whole time.

You've started some tantrum type behavior which isn't fun, but you do know what "no" means.

Here are your monthly pictures. It's amazing to see these pictures. I think right now is my most favorite age to date. You are such a little person now. You communicate more. You answer yes or no. You

 1 Month!

 2 Months!

 3 Months!

 4 Months!

 5 Months!

 6 Months!

 7 Months!

 8 Months!

9 Months!

 10 Months!

 11 Months!

 12 Months!

13 Months!

14 Months!

 15 Months!

16 Months! 

Float on my Charleigh girl...

Hi friends. Happy Thursday. It's a good old fashion rainy day here. I dig it.

What's been up around here? Just the normal summer time fun! Charleigh's vocabulary has taken off and she is starting to talk a lot more. She also had her first all girl meltdown when her favorite pair of shoes didn't fit. Ha! She is an 18-month-old energizer bunny and it's a lot of fun. She's working on counting to 10, ABC's, and colors. Her daycare does a ton of teaching. She is happy when I drop her off and happy when I pick her up. That's a good feeling.

I'm actually leaving my current company after a year and a half between two agents and going back to my old company. The transition has been smooth and welcomed. I won't be working for my old boss, but instead a new boss at the old company. Did I lose you? 

Last night was taco night. I have been a vegetarian for over 3 years now and the only time I miss meat is taco night. However, last night, I made great strides in the vegetarian taco concoction dilemma. Black beans, FRESH Maryland sweet corn roasted with garlic salt, paprika, and pepper, Spanish rice, refried beans, and avocado. Like the picture above, only no sour cream. I am allergic to that.  People always seem curious about Greg and what he eats. Ladies and gentlemen, he's from Wisconsin, he's a meat and potato sort of guy. I make taco meat for him of course. I make meat for him all week, every week. I don't have any problem cooking it for him and now Charleigh too. It's just a personal choice for me.

Float on...