What's Going On?

Saturday, February 26, 2011

18 months (already?)

Yep, it's official we now have an 18 month old running around our house. Jade is getting so grown up and not just physically, but mentally as well. It seems like each day she says a new word or does something new. In this update I decided to just include a few of her favorite things....



Stacking cans (or anything that will stack) is her favorite thing to do. She would probably spend hours doing it if we let her. She will stack them all, clap for herself, take it apart and start all over again.



She even helps me clean up and put all the cans back after she is done.

Jade loves to dress up in big people clothes and shoes. We went up to a cabin with some friends recently and she decided to put our friend's shoes on. It was hilarious watching her walk around, she actually did pretty well considering their size!

She loves to try new or fun foods and Daddy helps out with that! Here she is discovering the fun of canned whip cream!
Priceless...

Jade's favorite toy right now is her megablocks. She loves to build tall towers with Daddy (actually I think Daddy builds them and she rips them down)!





In between building towers she likes to take breaks and relax in her wagon.

Jade is learning what "smile" means. This is usually the face we get when we ask her to smile.
Physical Development:
Height: 34 1/2 inches (98th percentile)
Weight: 28 lbs. (90th percentile)
She has 4 new teeth, yes all of her molars decided to make their appearance together. It's been fun!
She can put her own arms through her sleeves on her shirts.
She is no longer afraid to go down slides all by herself. It is so cute because she sits down at the top and pushes off and says "weee" all the way down, then laughs when she gets to the bottom.

Food/eating: Jade has become quite the picky eater but only when it comes to what I feed her. She will eat anything that Daddy gives her, silly girl. She is definitely his daughter though because she loves spicy/hot foods like Spicy Nacho Doritos, Flamin' Hot Cheetos, salsa right out of the packet, chipotle cheddar chex mix, and many more fun treats!

She is now down to only 1 maybe 2 bottles of milk a day, one in the morning when she wakes up and sometimes one at night before bed. The rest of the day she does great sipping milk, water, or juice from her cup.

She does not like to eat bread but will pull it apart to eat the insides!

Talking: She has been saying lots of new words daily and as we get her ready or do things with her we like to talk about what it is. She will repeat most every word we say. She has some trouble with the "S" sound though, she usually just skips it and for example will say "no" for snow or "ocks" for socks.

Some of her favorite words right now are: uh-oh, no, eat, up, side (for outside), pete (this is the name of her little lego guy), mom, dad, and basically anything we try to teach her, she is quite the imitator.

We recently taught her "hot" and now everything we feed her is hot so she has to blow on it before she will eat it. So I thought it would be good to teach her "cold" as well. Now everything is "col" as she says it! But she is so smart about it, just today she put her hand on the tile and said "hot," I said no it's cold and she so she went around the kitchen putting her hand on the floor, the fridge, and the window and said "col."

Most days she just jabbers away in a language only she can understand, but it is so cute to listen to her carry on a conversation. She definitely has a lot to say!

Temper: The tantrums have begun and if she does not get what she wants she will throw herself onto the floor and lay there whimpering. I have tried using one minute time outs with her, but she just screams in her room until we go and get her. Then she is pretty much inconsolable for about 10 minutes afterward. Any ideas?????? She is still in her whiny when mommy is home and angel for daddy phase, my friends say this is normal but I don't like it! We try to be fair and do things the same but for some reason she likes to cry alot more when I am around. Hopefully just a phase that will get better, especially with a new baby coming soon!

Toys/Playing: Her megablock legos are her favorite right now. She has progressed from building only with the ones, to the twos, and now she will stack even the big fours together. She has a little person in the set that we named Pete (because she could say it and it sounds so cute!) and she carries him around and puts him in his car and tower that she builds.

Sleeping: Jade goes to bed between 7:30 and 8pm each night and wakes up at about 7 or 8am. Most days she is great about this, but lately she has been crying out at night just for a few minutes. I think this is due to the 3 new molars that all coming in at the same time! Poor girl! She has recently started taking longer afternoon naps which is great because she seems to be a lot happier when she gets a 2-3 hour nap versus the 1 to 1/2 she used to take! I love it sometimes when I go in in the morning to wake her up because I have to go to work, I call her name and she rolls over and gives a little moan and won't get up. Too early for teenage sleeping habits?????

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

32 Weeks!

Some of my friends and family have wanted me to take a picture of myself so they could see my belly. Well here it is!! I figured I better at least take one picture this pregnancy, even though I don't think I look great. I remember with Jade I took one each month and kept close track of everything. I guess that is the difference between your first and all the rest of the babies. Plus, Jade keeps me so busy that time has gone by so fast. We are down to the last 8 weeks though, and can I just say YAHOO!!!!


Happy Valentine's Day


It was a very Happy Valentine's Day at our house. This year I am almost 7 1/2 months pregnant and we have an 18 month old so there was no going out alone for Ben and I, but we had a fun night together as a family.

We made these valentine cards from Jade...
I made Ben his ultimate favorite cookies (really the only dessert he will eat!). He can eat this much in one sitting!
Ben surprised me with flowers and he had hung up sweet pictures and sayings all over the house for me to find. And Jade made Daddy a calendar of pictures of them for him to keep and use at work.


I also tried making Chicken Cordon Bleu, it actually turned out pretty yummy! We had a great day and I love my sweet husband. Thanks for making me feel special!

Sunday Fun with Dad

On Sundays I tend to have a lot of meetings lately for Young Women's. When I came home this is the hair do I found on our little girl! Daddy and Jade had fun with the gel and seeing how long her hair is getting. It might be time for her first haircut soon?!


Doesn't this remind you of those old troll dolls?

This Sunday was also the first week that we dropped Jade off at nursery all by herself. I know we were 4 days early but she was so ready to go! As far as we know she enjoyed it and did not cry. When Ben picked her up she had this picture of what she learned.
Obviously we are still working on the coloring and not eating the crayons and crumpling your paper stage...
But she was so cute as she sat down and "read" to me what her paper said. I love her little voice when she reads. It is so matter of fact and she knows exactly what she is saying!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Is it too early to pick a college?

Jade has this thing lately where she likes to wear our clothes. Ben went to UVU and I went to USU so we have both have lots of clothing from those universities. She loves my Aggie hat and Ben's UVU t-shirt. What do you think, is it too early to start picking a college? After all what is the difference between 18 months and 18 years old? Those of you with toddlers know what I am talking about!

Go Aggies!
This hat may be a bit big but she should grow into it soon enough!




When you ask her to smile, this is the face you get...
Yeah, go UVU!

And last but not least, every college kid needs a big old textbook! She insists on carrying this gigantic and heavy book around the house. She loves to read and will sit in any corner and just jabber away, so cute!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A Cure for Boredom or for Extremely Cold Temperatures!


It has been so bitterly cold here lately that it is not possible to play outside. So we have been going stir crazy in our little house. There is only so much I can do to keep her entertained, we switch between playing in the living room, her room and the kitchen. I could tell Jade was getting a little bored of being inside all the time and I was going absolutely insane! So what better cure for boredom than a trip to the mall. We loaded up and had quite the adventure. She gets so excited to go outside and will hold her hands out for me to put her coat on whenever we open the front door. She loved being able to ride in her stroller again and was so content just riding around looking at things. We even found the cutest winter hat for only $2!

Soon though it was time for a pretzel stop, this has become a regular stop for us whenever we go to the mall. Jade absolutely loves the soft pretzels they sell there! You can see her chowing down below!


After a bit of shopping, Jade got super restless so we found this really cool playground in one end of the mall. I never knew it existed, it is in a corner of the mall I never go to. But I was quite impressed with it, maybe because it was better than being trapped in the house, but hey it was very entertaining for Jade and that is what we needed!

Jade had fun climbing, her newest fettish!
As you can tell by her face, she was amazed at the lights in the rock structure. She kept talking into them and trying to get the lights.

She loved crawling in, on, and around this dinosaur.

Oh, my do we have a water lover on our hands! When she saw this little fountain, she ran so fast that I could not keep up with her. Before I even got to her she had splashed a few times and got her shirt, face and arms soaking wet! Then she proceeded to lick the water like a kitty! She does this in the bath, but I really need to work on teaching her she can't do it with every pool of water. I am just hoping there was no bacteria or fungus growing in there, yuck!

She loved climbing up the slide and then going down it on her belly. She eventually got brave enough and I sent her down on her bottom a few times.