14 months

Time, please oh please slow down. I feel like I am constantly doing these darn monthly updates! 

This little girl is such a ham. She willingly sat for these pics and actually cheesed it up. Tongue smile and all. Usually if she sees me try and take a picture she quickly gets up or runs.  Unless food is involved. 

Weight- going to guess around 20 lbs. 

Height- Derek measured her at 27in. I don't think she has grown in 2 months but I don't think she's shrinking either. We'll go ahead and say daddy didn't measure you correctly. She's still wearing 12 month and 12-18 month clothes, size 3 diaper and a size 4 shoe. 

Teeth- The girl is never going to get teeth. She has 3 bottom and 1 top. Yeah, the inside of her mouth looks real nice. Her second top tooth keeps coming through and then going back and I have no idea where that fourth bottom tooth is. It's a bit concerning. 

Eating- with or without teeth, she can eat anything.  Grilled chicken and lunch meat aren't a favorite but she'll eat just about anything else. Looooves fruit. Except apples. Peas and corn are still her  favorite veggies but she's been eating green beans and cooked carrots from time to time too.  We introduced her to dip and now she has to have some if she sees it. She devoured pulled pork dipped in BBQ sauce, is a Long and loves cheese dip, loves guacamole and has had but still unsure about ranch and sour cream. She ate a good portion of a dill pickle too. Those few teeth are strong! And just like my pregnancy cravings, she is a huge fan of sweets and sugary breakfast foods. She will whine and point where we keep out sweets all day long. Not a big fan of juice and we don't push it. She did drink orange juice the other weekend though. Mommy and daddy were drinking it so of course she had to have it. Finally drinking cold milk. Basically, she would eat all day long if you let her. 

Saying- still not a lot. She makes pretty sad attempts at animal sounds and mimics other sounds but words are slow coming. And definitely not on cue. I'll have her tell daddy night night and she waits till she can't see him to say it.  She has been saying "eye dada" (hi) so at least she can string together the few words she can say. She can identify her nose, mouth, eyes, ears, toes, feet, hands and belly button. 

Sleeping- 7:30pm-7:30am and 1-2 naps depending on our day and if we're home in the morning. She's good with or without a morning nap but mommy likes the break.

Loves- reading, the dogs, gym class, when it's warm enough to play outside, pushing us over and laying on us, playing with my make up, coloring but more like playing in the crayon box, helping with laundry and Mickey Mouse clubhouse. She is finally starting to sit still to watch tv. Mickey holds her attention the best but still not very long. We tried out My Gym this month and she loved it. The teachers were shocked at how well she could climb and all she could do. She has no fear at all. 

We love you beyond words little one. You make us very proud parents with your constant happiness and adorable little face. I could just eat you up. 

5 on Friday: indoor activities

Is it just me or does Winter seem extra long this year? It doesn't help that we just got 10 inches of snow and the temperatures have been less then ideal. So what to do when you stuck inside with a 1 year old for countless days? Here are some of our favorite things. I can't take any credit for these, I got them all off Pinterest. 

1.  Mess free painting. Put some paint in a ziplock bag and tape it to the window. Let you little one use their fingers or a paint brush to make things. 

2.  Indoor water play. Just fill up a bowl with warm water and let them have at it. We added some soap for bubbles. 

3.  Sensory box. Ours has beans but I have seen countless ideas on Pinterest. She loves stirring them with a spoon and putting them in a cup and then dumping it out.

4. Pushing lids into a container. Cut a hole in a butter, sour cream, puffs, etc container and let your little one push things through the whole. We use the lids from squeeze pouches. 

5. Paper towel shoot:  tape an empty paper towel roll onto the wall and let your little one drop things down it. 

And here is where I got all these ideas:

http://teachingmama.org/20-ways-to-keep-toddlers-busy/

http://www.simplelittlehome.com/2012/03/50-ways-to-distract-toddler.html?m=1

365: Days 344-365

Phew! I successfully finished this project. Not that it was hard to take her pic but organizing the pics into a blog post was a little challenging. Did I do all 365 days? No, but pretty darn close. Here are the last few days of December.  

Dec 10: her hair is finally getting thicker

Dec 11: reading books 

Dec 12: Slightly warmer out so quick bike ride 

Dec 13: rather play with the crayons then color

Dec 14: ready to shop!

Dec 15: cute smile 

Dec 16: scrub a dub

Dec 17: guessing she is going to have curly hair

Dec 18: pure torture

Dec 19: warm weather!

Dec 20: matching best friends 

Dec 21: bath with Harper

 Dec 22: lovin big time on Pax

Dec 23: trolley light tour

Dec 24: pretty on Christmas Eve 

Dec 25: Christmas baby

Dec 26: fail

Dec 27: fail 

Dec 28: kstate bowl game

Dec 29: bedtime milk

Dec 30: way too cute

Dec 31: bringing in the new year the right way (5 hours early)

2013 in a slideshow

2013, you have been the best year yet. We experienced first smiles, rolling over, crawling, walking, first words and endless amounts of love. I'm sad to close this chapter but anxious for what 2014 holds for our family. Turn up the volume (cause this song is the shiz) and enjoy our year of Collins.

13 months (12/21/13)

I figured I'll keep doing these posts because she is learning so much and I'm better at blogging then writing in her baby book.  

She likes to stand on our scale and it says she's still 19.5 lbs but I think she is more like 20.5 lbs. I'll believe it with my own weight but not hers :)  No way is this girl standing still for us to measure her. I don't even have a guess for that one. 

She's wearing 12 and 12-18 month clothes. The 12-18 month pants are long on miss shorty but we just roll them. Same with her 18 month shirts. She wears a size 4 shoe and size 3 diaper.  

I believe it when they say babies are either mobile or talkative.  She's been walking for 4+ months but her vocabulary is slow coming. Other then the few words I listed on her 12 month update, she hasn't said much more. She learned to say "ho ho ho" for what Santa says but that's about her only new "word." She tries to say more and please but they said nothing like the actual word. She is incredibly smart though even if she doesn't have a huge vocabulary. I know she'll eventually talk and it's not concerning at all since she does say about 5 words. She gets extremely giggly when you mention milk or cookies. I think she secretly wants to be Santa. Even though she hated the real deal. Looking at him was fine but sitting on his lap? No way. She was squirming and trying to get off his lap ASAP. No tears though!

Still going to bed around 7:30-8pm and waking between 7-8am. She is still sleeping through the night but maybe 1 a week she'll cry for her binky. And that's something we need to wean her from but I'm scared to do it. We are finally getting sleep after 11 months!! She still only has 4 teeth so I don't think  it's doing too much damage yet. It looks like about 4 teeth are coming in though so the binky is going soon. We at least brush them twice a day. She is mostly down to 1 nap now around 12:30 for 2 hours. She'll take a morning nap if we lay her down but then the afternoon nap is hit or miss or pretty short. 

She is not a fan of cold milk so she has warm milk in a sippy  when she wakes up and before bed (but before we brush her teeth).   She doesn't drink much milk if we serve it at meals. She likes her food. She eats 3 meals and 2 snacks and has water with all that.

She's been a little more shy around strangers. She doesn't cry or anything but she won't willingly go to them. If I hand her to someone she is normally fine though. She'll wave to anybody and everybody though. She loves giving open mouth kisses and sometimes makes me give her 10+ kisses before she's had enough. No complaints here. 

Collins, you are the sweetest, best baby EVER!!   I have no idea what we did before you came along but I know I wouldn't change it for the world.  Love you like crazy.

Christmas shenanigans

6 days till Christmas and this girl still isn't done Christmas shopping. Gifts or no gifts, we have been getting in the Christmas spirit anyway. 

We attempted to see Santa at Bass Pro but we were about 5 hours too early. 

We successfully saw Santa at Breakfast with Santa that my brothers work puts on. She didn't cry but she was trying her hardest to get off his lap

Her cousins got their face painted so she did too. 

Harper won for best face paint 

She's been busy decorating and re decorating her Christmas tree

We drove around and looked at Christmas lights 

We've made and frosted cookies. 

And Santa made an early stop with her big gift. We leave Friday for Christmas so it was the last morning that worked. 

And today we attempted Santa at Bass Pro again. Her feelings towards him have not changed. She liked his elf though. And the carousel was only cool the first time. 

More shenanigans to come!