18 months

My sweet baby girl, yes you are a toddler, but you will always be my baby.  I took some time off from monthly updates because it is so hard to find the time to blog.  You are busy, busy, busy and want lots of attention from your mommy.

You are so curious about everything and have become quite determined when it comes to getting what you want.  You can point and show us what you want and become very upset if it's something we won't let you have, such as a cellphone, computer, or bottle of medicine.

You love your kitties so much.  You give them hugs and try to share your food with them.  We are working on being gentle, but this is a tough concept for you.  Especially since your kitties are extremely tolerant and do not provide you with any natural consequences other than running away from you.

You are pretty fascinated by all animals.  You love to find dogs, or as you call them "wow wows".  As long as they don't get too close, you are very excited to see them.  You love to chase after birds and get down on the ground to inspect bugs.  You are definitely an animal lover like your mama.

Books and baby dolls are still a favorite.  You especially like books with animals in them of course.  And you just like to spend a lot of time exploring the world around you.

You can climb up and down the stairs all by yourself and can even walk down them if you hold my hand.  You have a newfound freedom of running all over the place.  You love to run outside and to find rocks, leaves, flowers, anything really.

It is also hard to take you to the store now, because you want to run around and touch everything you see.  It is all so new and exciting!

Your favorite word is "uh-oh" and "mama".  You also like to hold up your hands and say "wheredhego" which is "where did he go", but you condense it into one word. Or "wheredugo" which is "where did you go".  It is so cute.  You have a lot of words even though you don't always use them on a regular basis.

You know where your eyes are and can say "eye".  You poke me or daddy or the cats in the eye and say "eye".  We still need to work on the rest of the body parts though.

You know a cow says moo and a cat says meow and I think you know that a monkey says ooh ooh.  But animal noises are another thing we will work on.

You had your very first airplane ride to New York and did wonderfully well on the plane.  It was a very fun trip!  Your favorite part was the day we went to the beach.  That was mommy and daddy's favorite too.

I think that is enough of an update for now.  I'll end with some pictures.  I love you so much baby girl!

In Tahoe.

You love your kitty!

Happy girl eating ice cream.

So proud to be sitting in your own seat on the subway.

At the beach in NY.

15 months

Baby girl, this past month has been an exciting one.  You are definitely a walker now.  You mostly walk on your feet and are getting faster and faster.  You haven't given up knee walking, but are doing it much less and doing real walking much more.

You love to dance every time you hear music and you will give me the stereo remote when you want me to turn it on.  You know how to turn it off, but not on.

Your favorite things to do are read books and play with your baby dolls.  You are so sweet with your babies.  You wrap them in your blankies, carry them around, rock them, pat them, give them bottles and put them in the stroller.  I love watching you play.

You have had a language explosion!  You mostly have just 3 signs now, which are "milk" "water" and "all done".  Sometimes you will sign "more" and "eat/food", but rarely.  You really need to learn more signs because you use those 3 main signs for lots of different things and that makes it difficult to figure out what you really want.

You are saying so many more words.  You can say "hi" "no" and you say "guau guau" for dog which is apparently what dogs say in spanish, pronounced "wow wow".  Daddy said you also say "hola".  You say your cousin Josh's name and your cousin Avery.  You also say a word for your cousin Caitlyn, but I don't know what it is.  And I'm pretty sure I've heard you say "this" "ice" and "eat".  That's a lot of words for a little girl!  And of course you still love to carry on long conversations in jibberish. =)

Your favorite song is the itsy bitsy spider and you try to do the hand gestures.  Oh and you say "down" for "down comes the rain".  It is so cute.

You also love to lift up your shirt for mommy to beep your belly button, but you usually say "bop" instead of "beep".  And you like to find mommy's belly button.

You absolutely love to be naked and go wild whenever we let you run around with no clothes on.   It's a little hazardous right now since you are a long way off from potty training, but we still risk it every once in awhile because you have so much fun.

I love you so much and it is amazing to watch you and your personality grow everyday.

Having fun with your kitty.

Reading with your baby.

Playing with daddy.

14 months

Well baby girl, you did it, you started to walk!  I wasn't sure if you would make it by 14 months, but 2 days before you turned 14 months you decided it was time.

Over the past month there were a few times that you took a couple steps by yourself, but it was usually because you weren't paying attention and had no idea that you did it.  Then a few days ago, you were standing all by yourself and holding something in your hands.  You were staring at me with this look in your eyes like you were contemplating whether you should just go for it.  I anxiously waited and then you took about 5 steps and were so proud of yourself!  I was shouting, "Yay"!!!!! and clapping.  I was so proud of you.  Then you did it again for daddy to see.

We did manage to get some video of you walking later on, but you didn't have any clothes on.  Don't worry, we will not be posting that on the internet.  We will wait until we get some more video of you walking with clothes on to share with everybody.

You still prefer to get around by what we now call knee walking, but you are getting more and more confident about walking on your feet.  I'm sure I'll be chasing after you in no time!

Your favorite word is still uh-oh and you love to jabber away in your cute little baby jibberish.  If only I could understand what you're trying to say because you sure have a lot of stories to tell!

Even though I haven't been very successful getting you to use sign language, you are getting some nonverbal communication across.  Sometimes I'll stroke your skin and when I stop, you pick up my hand and put it on the spot I was stroking and give me a look that says, "mom, don't stop".

One of my favorite things that you do right now is pick up a book and bring it to me to read, then you back yourself into my lap and sit down.  When I'm done, you go pick a different book and climb into my lap again.

You have 8 teeth now and 4 more coming!  I can't wait until you get a break from teething.  I hate to see you in pain.

Love you baby girl, more and more everyday.  I'll end with some pictures.

Playing outside in the grass.

All dressed up for Easter.

13 months

Baby girl, sorry for the lateness of this post.  You are having a very rough time with teething, especially at night, which means I am a very tired mommy.  You like to nurse all night long to ease your teething pain!  It's okay though because I don't like for you to be in pain.

You added two more top teeth which means you have 7 now.  That fourth bottom tooth is about to break through and you have another bulging set on top waiting to work their way out!  I wish teething wasn't so difficult for you, but I'm trying to do everything I can to make it a little easier.

Your favorite word right now is uh-oh and it usually means you are about to do something you shouldn't be doing.  You also say key in a high pitched voice for kitty.  You can also say baby.

You finally realized that you can stand all by yourself, but you still don't seem to be very interested in walking on your own.  You started to walk on your knees and seem to be perfectly satisfied to get around that way.  Everyone thinks it's hilarious!  I really want you to walk by Easter, but I guess I have to be patient and wait for you to be ready.

I guess that's all for now.  I'll end with a photo of your beautiful cheesy smile.

1st Birthday Party

I am way behind on posting!  Baby girl, you keep me awfully busy these days.  I'm going to make this quick because I also need to do your 13 month post which should have been done a week and a half ago!

Your first birthday party was a huge success.  It was a butterfly themed party and Tia Jackie did a wonderful job with the decorations.  Auntie Sara made a beautiful butterfly birthday cake.  A ton of family and some friends came too and spoiled you with attention and gifts.

You had a great time and you loved the cupcake that I made special just for you.

Here are some pics from the big day.

12 months/ One Year!

Happy Birthday baby girl!  I can't believe it is already your first birthday.  Time has gone by so quickly.  I have loved getting to know you this first year and watching you grow.

You love to babble away in baby jibberish.  No real new words yet, although I think you have a word for kitty and for hello.  I think kitty sounds like tee tee.  And hello sounds like uh whoa because you say it every time you talk on your play phone.

You are so cute when you play now.  You love your dolls and I've seen you share your paci, try to put headbands on them and give them kisses.  You also love putting things inside boxes and reading your books.

You give kisses now, which I think is the most adorable thing in the world.  You lean in and make a mmmm sound.  I feel so special to get kisses from you.  You also can clap your hands now.

You have 3 new teeth.  Your two front teeth came in and you got another bottom tooth making a total of 5 teeth.  You have two more on top that are in the process of coming down and I think the other bottom tooth will come through soon too.

Another big accomplishment is that you can stand all by yourself, but you don't want to do it.  I saw you do it by accident the other day because you were distracted by holding a toy with both hands.  Then later that day I stood you up in your room and let go.  You stayed standing for a few seconds and then sat down.  I haven't been able to get you to do it again though.

You like to walk by pushing the computer chair around.  You will also walk if we hold your hands, but you're not ready to try it on your own quite yet.

I may add to this later, but I really wanted to get it posted on your actual birthday.  I will definitely add some pictures, but I don't have time right now.

I love you so much baby girl and had a great time celebrating your birthday.  Can't wait for your parties!  Those will be a separate post.

**Adding a photo of you on your birthday with your present from mommy and daddy, which you loved!

11 months

Wow baby girl, you are almost one year old!  Party planning is in progress.  And we have an awesome birthday present for you that I can't wait to give you.

You are now an expert furniture cruiser.  You haven't made any attempts to stand alone or walk and it may be awhile because you are an extremely cautious little girl.  When you get down from standing you slowly inch your way down until your butt reaches the floor.

You haven't really added any new words yet, but you did try to say ball once by saying ba and you made a kkk sound for kitty.  Also daddy said you were putting your shirt over your face and saying boo when you pulled it down.  You like to click your tongue and you have also discovered the fun of screaming.  We were home the other night and you were having a great time screaming, but I wanted you to be quiet because it was almost bedtime and I wanted you to calm down.  So I whispered, "shhhhh baby, use your quiet voice" and you responded by whispering "ahhhhhh".  It was very funny and shows just how smart you are.

You are working on at least two of your top teeth right now and you're having a really tough time with it.  I hate seeing you so miserable!  I think they finally started to break through, so hopefully you'll start feeling better.

You had your very first trip to Disneyland with all your cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma and papa, mommy and daddy.  You had a great time although you weren't too sure about some of the rides we took you on.  You were liked the characters, but only from a comfortable distance.  I think your favorite part about the whole trip was the hotel room.  You really liked crawling around and exploring everything in the room.

Well, I was only one day late this time and I did actually start writing this yesterday.  It would have been on time if I had finished it.  Next month will be the big first birthday post!

Love you baby girl!

I need something more

I love being a mom, but that's not all I want to be.  I feel like I've lost myself since becoming a mom and I want to change that.  I no longer do photography, unless you count snapping pictures of my baby.  I also haven't danced in years!

So I decided I need a hobby.  While I would love to get back into photography, at the moment I feel I need something new and exciting.  Some kind of artistic outlet that allows me to express my creative side.  I want to be crafty.  I started to look up some projects to work on for Raeya's room and I am very excited about them.

We'll see how it goes, but if I'm successful, I'll post some pictures.  If not, I guess I'll have to find some other way to express myself.  It just feels good to put it down in writing so hopefully I'll be more likely to make it happen.

10 Months

Sorry baby girl, I am late yet again with your post.  I blame it on the holidays.  Anyway, it was another exciting month.  You finally mastered real crawling and with that discovered the fun game of chase the cat.  You're not fast enough to catch the cat, but you laugh with delight each time you get close.  You also love to crawl around with an object in your mouth and in the spirit of Christmas, an ornament was one of the chosen objects.

You learned how to pull yourself up on furniture to stand and love going up and down.  You have also started to cruise the furniture a little bit.  Whenever I go to get you out of the crib now, you are almost always standing up waiting for me.

You are eating a lot more food now.  You really like puffs, cheerios and yogurt.  You also eat shredded carrots, cheese and apples and you eat peas too.

You still only have two real words, mama and dada, but you love to chatter away in your baby jibberish.  Mama seems to be your favorite word right now which is nice except I do occasionally need a break from your cuteness.

Okay baby girl, I need to finally post this thing since it has been sitting here for over a week.  I love you to the moon and back!