Maisie – 15 Months

Maisie turned 15 months on Wednesday.

Maisie’s biggest accomplishment this month was that she started walking!!!!  She had taken a step here and there but we had never seen her take more than one.  On April 25th, Lori called me from preschool and said she was taking a couple of steps at a time so she sent me a video.  From then until May 5th, she would take a few steps at a time but she would always fall forwards.  It appeared she was trying to drag her toes as she walked and she was also trying to go too fast.  This past weekend we went to my mom and dad’s and when we got home, it was like a light turned on for her.  She started lifting up her feet (instead of dragging her toes) and took 10-12 steps at a time.  We were clapping and cheering like crazy for her and she just kept on going.  The whole time she was walking, she was carrying something in one of her hands so it must have helped with her balance.  Since Sunday she has been taking more and more steps in a row, but she is not a full-time walker quite yet.  She gets so excited and even cheers for herself!

Maisie LOVES sleeping!  She often sleeps till 8 or 9am on the weekends.  Last weekend when we were at Granny Joy’s, she woke up around 6am and we didn’t get out of bed until 8:45am!  She laid in the crib the entire time playing with the stuffed animals.  I dozed off a couple of times, but I really don’t think she slept any more.  She just loves being in bed!  She usually takes a 2-3 hour nap on the weekends but sometimes they go even longer.  She practically begs to go to bed at night.  Micah thinks it is hilarious because he can carry her in the room and she tries to get out of his arms to get in the bed!  I definitely got what I prayed for with a baby that likes to sleep!

She is still using a pacifier at night time and for naps.  As soon as I get her up, she throws the paci back in the crib.  She went through a couple day stage where she wanted to keep it, her blanket, and her pillow pet, so I had to let her eat with them!

Maisie has finally decided that she likes milk and will drink a cup of it at a time.  She still eats decently well.  I gave her ketchup for the first time this past month and now she is obsessed with it.  Any time she sees it on our plate, she goes crazy for it!  We got her a high chair that attaches to our table so it is fun for her to get to eat with us each night.  Maisie does not know the difference between her car seat and her high chair!  Every time she gets in her car seat, she thinks she has got to eat something (because I give her and Ryan snacks in the afternoons).  She cries her little eyes out if she doesn’t get food in the car! 

She has gained several new teeth this month, most being her molars, which caused her to be quite cranky at times.  I’m writing this while she is asleep, but I think she has 10-12 teeth now?  (I will update it when I get the nerve to open her mouth wide enough to see for sure!).

She has pretty much moved up to the 18-month classroom at preschool.  She had a couple of biting instances and they decided to separate her and the girl she was biting, so they try to keep her in the older classroom when they can.  I think that helped a lot with her walking because all the kids in that class walk and none of the ones in the baby class did.  Maisie is doing well in the bigger class.  She even gets to sleep on a mat!  They have told me that they think she sleeps better on it than she did in her crib.

Maisie signs ‘more’ and ‘please’ all the time.  She’s basically saying the same words as she was last month, but has increased her use of ‘whoa!’ since she is walking and falling down a lot!  Every time she falls she says ‘whoa!”  Love it!

We always ask her, “Maisie, are you cute?” and every time she answers, “Yeah”!  At least she tells the truth!

I know I say this every month, but I am so at awe at how much stuff she understands.  One of my favorite things right now is that she lays down in the floor when I tell her it is time to change her diaper!

Maisie knows the proper way to get off of the couch and chairs. 

Maisie knows where her belly is and loves showing it off when we ask about it.

She loves to rock.  She scares me a lot of the time because she gets going so fast!

She went through a very needy stage for a couple of weeks.  There was one weekend when I held her almost the entire weekend because she would scream if I put her down.  One evening, Micah and Ryan were fishing and I was trying to make homemade pizza.  I had to put her down to prepare the dough and she cried so hard that I literally thought she was going to throw up.  I felt horrible but there was nothing I could do for her at the time.  When I was done, I picked her up and she started making a gagging sound and putting her hands to her mouth.  I put a towel under her in case she got sick, but after a couple of minutes she finally calmed down.  Isn’t this face pitiful?!

Maisie loves to act like she is talking on the phone.  She grabs my phone, puts it up to her ear, and jabbers away.  I really don’t know how she knows what talking on the phone even is because I never get to talk on it!

Miss Ashley has started fixing Maisie’s hair occasionally at preschool and I love it!  Here are her first pigtails:

And here she is with another cute do:

I was surprised that Maisie would sit still to get this done, but Ashley says that she does really well.  I have actually got to fix her hair a couple of times myself, even though I need lots of practice to make it look as cute as Ashley does!

When we went to Branson, we stayed at a hotel with an indoor pool.  I thought Maisie would love the water since she loves (or used to love) bath time so much.  She didn’t hate the water, but didn’t love it either … I think it might have been a bit too cold for her, though.  Here is a picture of her wearing her cute little swimsuit:

We spent a couple of weekends in a row with Becky and Maisie loves her Aunt Becky!  While at Branson, she would have rather had Aunt Becky hold her than mommy or daddy!

Here Maisie is enjoying cake at Ethan’s birthday party:

   

Maisie loves to play in the cabinets still.  The other day she was in one of the non-childproof cabinets (we only have two that are childproofed because of chemicals and glass pans).  I forgot there were some glass bowls in there and, of course, she found one and threw it on the ground.  Thankfully both Micah and I were close by and were able to grab her and get it cleaned up before she was injured.

Maisie is not a huge fan of baths anymore.  She doesn’t necessarily hate them, but is usually ready to get out as soon as she gets in.  Here she is reading a book right after bath time – Love!

Here are her 15-month pictures:

 

   

I love this spunky little girl more and more every day!  I think I could sit in the floor all day long and watch her learn to walk -  it’s one of the cutest stages for me.  I can already tell that Maisie is going to be full of personality (and maybe a little hard-headiness)!  I can not wait to see the girl she becomes!  Happy 15 months!!

Ryan – 4 years, 5 months

I’m going to start off by saying that I have really slacked this month with taking pictures and recording what Ryan has done, so this will probably be a short and sweet post.

Ryan was invited to one of his preschool friend’s (Landry Kate) birthday party in April. I wanted him to write on her card and he did a great job (once again I didn’t want to give it away because it was so cute!)

Here is the finished product:

He spent a lot of time on the card.  I especially loved the people pictures he drew!  He had a blast at the party.  They played on the Tumblebus for quite a while until Ryan decided he wanted to see Landry Kate’s bed so they all came in to look at it.  When we got ready to leave, he was no where to be found.  We finally found him and a couple of other kids hiding on top of her bed!

They have completed learning the alphabet in preschool and now are learning the numbers.  I’m so happy that he loves school work!

The other day it was storming and Ryan heard the thunder.  He told me that it was God bowling in Heaven!  Cuteness!

     

Ryan loves to play ‘the hiding game’ when he goes to bed.  He lays down on his pillow, I cover him up, and then I act like I can’t find him.  He either jumps out or I pull the covers down and he laughs and laughs!

Ryan is constantly saying, “Is ‘told ya’ a bad word?”  I always tell him no and he says, “Jackson at preschool says it is!".  Cracks me up!

Ryan has had horrible allergies in his eye for the past few weeks.  This is a picture they sent me from preschool one day when it first started:

It made me so sad when I got this picture because he looks horrible!  Thankfully they said the redness went down pretty quickly and when I picked him up it was barely red at all.  We have prescription eye drops to put in it, and although he hates getting them in, he will always cooperate because it makes his eyes feel so much better.  Poor little guy!  Thankfully they only get this bad for a few weeks in the Spring.

Ryan has a fear of kindergarten and is always telling me he doesn’t want to go.  Thankfully he has another year and a half before he goes.  He has a book about kindergarten and every time we read it, he gets the biggest sad face.  Hopefully he changes his mind about it soon.

He LOVES going fishing with Micah.  Micah said he could just stand there and cast the line out over and over and never get tired of it.  Micah has picked him up several times from preschool to take him, and I’m sure there will be many more of those days in his future.  So far, neither daddy or Ryan have caught a thing so the fact that he still likes it is great!  Micah says that he starts off with his pole and after a while will say, “How ‘bout we trade?” and then he will use Micah’s pole.

We were outside one beautiful Sunday and I was trying to take some pictures of Ryan.  As you can tell by the death look he is giving me, he was not up for pictures!  He was cracking me up by swinging the bat at me and acting like he was going to throw sticks at me for taking his picture.

I went to Rhea Lana’s and bought Ryan a NASA rocket suitcase and a fire truck.  Ryan LOVED them both and played with them constantly.  He even decided to sleep with the suitcase that night. 

 

Ryan has his first trip to Silver Dollar City and loved it.  He rode quite a few rides and liked them all, except for the rollercoaster. He wanted to ride the rollercoaster so I went with him and on the second trip around, I looked over and he was crying and yelling, “I want to get off of here!”.  I felt horrible but there was nothing I could do.  We got off when it stopped and he was sobbing.  One of Ryan’s favorite things there was shooting water at the people on the water rides.  He laughed so hard when he would get them wet.  Here are Ryan and Micah on the elephants:

Here is Ryan’s monthly picture:

In next month’s post, I’m sure you will see tan legs and blonder hair.  He is already getting tan lines from being outside at preschool and it hasn’t even been that warm yet.  Until next month …

Check Out The Purple Clad Jewel Blog …

I want to direct all my followers (there’s probably two of you!) to go check out The Purple Clad Jewel blog. 

Kasey and I go WAY back to the late 1990’s when I met her at college.  She was athletic and received a basketball scholarship … I was nerdy and worked for the Athletic Director/Women’s Basketball Coach videoing basketball games. Be jealous, be very jealous! 

Kasey was from another small town in NWA and I had met her a few summers before she came to college since she was on my BFF’s sister’s AAU team and I traveled to Nashville with the team.  I remember sitting in my dorm room watching a Razorback football game with her and we thought Houston Nutt was the best coach ever … unfortunately that didn’t last long. 

Anyway, I haven’t seen Kasey in years (well actually I did see her walking out of Old Navy with her mom a few months ago when she was prego), but I keep up with her through her blog, through Facebook, and through Instagram.  She has three of the cutest kids, is very crafty (I think she needs to giveaway one of her homemade items, btw), runs like a crazy woman, and loves going to yard sales!  

Kasey is doing a giveaway of some really cool Mira Stainless Steel containers – go here to check it out.  (Secretly I hope you don’t check it out so I have a better chance of winning … ha!)  And become a follower while you’re at it … you won’t regret it!

iPhone Pictures

I finally got rid of my phone from the early 2000’s (ha!) and got an iPhone!  Yippee!! And now Micah is getting one, too.  And we are even saving money by having them through Straight Talk, because we are very cheap!

So now I take a ton of pictures, mostly of horrible quality, but still ones that I do not want to forget.  Maybe one day I’ll remember to clean the fingerprints, the snot, and the food smears off of the camera lens before taking pictures! 

Here is a drop of pictures from mid-March and early April.  Enjoy!

Me and my handsome hubs:

Ryan and Ethan playing on the Gator that doesn’t work and fighting over who gets to ‘drive it’:

Ryan wrote his last name with chalk:

 

Ryan wearing his green on St. Patty’s Day – He and his daddy made a guys trip to town that day:

 

Sweet Maisie playing with a foam bullet:

 

LOVE this picture of the kids watching their daddy play a game on the Kindle:

 

Maisie sleeping on her pillow pet – AH!:

 

Maisie loves bathtime:

 

Ryan posing for a picture in his tent – This right here shows why I take way less pictures of him than I do of Maisie:

 

Me & Maisie:

 

The ‘tent’ we built in the living room one cold, rainy day:

 

Love this boy:

 

Me and Ryan:

 

Happy Maisie:

 

Sitting in her favorite chair – She was trying to put on the sandals that are about 3 sizes too big for her:

 

My fishin’ boys:

 

Maisie had a blast sitting on the countertop throwing things into the dishwasher. (Note our new granite countertops;  Do not note the unfinished backsplash, the honey oak cabinets, and the gold fixtures!):

 

Love this picture of my sweet babies:

I would like to tell myself that I could post these pictures weekly, but who am I kidding?!  It takes me over 2 weeks to do the kids’ monthly updates now. 

But I might surprise you!

Maisie – 14 Months

Maisie turned 14 months old on the 8th. 

Maisie is still sleeping well, although we’ve had a couple of nights where she has woken up crying and been up for 2 hours at a time. Nothing makes her happy, except for swaying back and forth, so I always give her Ibuprofen (since I assume it’s her teeth) and then when she calms down we rock until she decides it’s play time.  I let her play for a while and then she will finally go back to sleep.  Definitely not fun, but just thankful that it doesn’t happen often. The first night it happened, I had myself convinced that she had an ear infection so I made an appointment the next morning, but the doctor said everything was perfect with her.  I joked with Micah and said that I would be taking $30 out of her savings account to make up for the co-pay she caused us to pay! HA!

Maisie has 7 teeth now – she finally has 3 teeth on bottom now!  Her molars are very close to coming in and I assume that is why she has been waking up at night more.

Maisie has decided that I am no longer capable of feeding her.  She wants to eat everything, including things like yogurt, applesauce, etc. by herself.  And she doesn’t really know how to use a spoon, so you can imagine how messy she gets! 

Yes, this is a glass bowl that she is holding.  Thankfully she didn’t drop it and thankfully I remember not to give it to her now!

Her favorite food right now is probably Nutrigrain bars.  She also loves bananas, grilled cheeses, macaroni and cheese, and American cheese (see a pattern here?!).  She has been drinking milk much better now and doesn’t spit it out like she was doing.  She is also the master of shoving as much food as possible in her mouth!  Sometimes she shoves so much banana in that she can’t even chew it and it ends up coming back out of her mouth!

She has learned to climb this past month.  She climbs in and out of chairs, on and off the step stool (agh!!), and tries to get on the couch and the beds, although her little legs just aren’t quite long enough yet.  She is her happiest when she is sitting in one of her little chairs.  You can tell that she thinks she is big stuff!

Maisie loves turning light switches on and off.  We have to be careful when we’re carrying her out of a room because she will often grab the door facing to stop us from leaving until she is able to turn the light off.

We have got to go outside several times this past month and she loves it.  She isn’t a fan of sitting in the grass, so we mainly stick to the porch. We let her play on this little car toy one day and she loved it!

Maisie has started standing by herself for up to 30 seconds at a time. She still isn’t walking, although she has made a tiny bit of progress.  She realized one day that she could stand up near one of her blue chairs and push it to get places.  She pushed that chair all over the living room/kitchen one weekend but hasn’t touched it since then.  She finally started using the walker, after her initial crying fit that only lasted until she realized the walker could get her places.  We let her use it on the front porch and she can get around quickly in it, although we have to be alongside her the entire time so she doesn’t get it off the porch. And the biggest advancement is that sometimes (if we’re lucky) she will take a few steps while holding onto my hand.  After 2 or 3 steps she is completely over it and goes back to crawling.  It cracks me up how she really has no interest in walking at all.  I’m trying to remind myself that it’s probably a good thing because once she starts walking, it will be much more work.  But I also don’t want her pretty little knees to be red all summer from crawling in her shorts and dresses.

Maisie loves opening the cabinets and getting everything out that she can get her hands on.  I am constantly picking up her messes!

When Maisie thinks she is doing something funny, she will lean her head back, look up at the ceiling, and laugh!

Maisie loves holding her socks.  If she gets grumpy when I put her in the carseat, I can usually take off her socks and let her play with them and she is fine.  Silly girl!

Maisie’s hair is beginning to look like a mullet, but I still think it’s adorable.  The back is getting long and full of curls (at least for a few hours after she takes a bath) but the top and front isn’t growing enough to keep up with it.  Ain’t nothing wrong with a little Billy Ray haircut, is there?!

Maisie has added ‘uh oh’, ‘wow’, and ‘down’ to her vocabulary.  She loves standing up in the bathtub like Ryan does.  I’m always pointing my finger and saying ‘down’ to her, so now she points at me and says ‘down’.  It is really quite funny!

She is signing ‘more’ and ‘please’.  She occasionally signs ‘eat’.

She loves blowing kisses and waving ‘hi’ and ‘bye’.

She loves her daycare teachers.  She practically throws herself out of my arms to get to them in the mornings.  But at night she is always super excited to see me when I pick her up.

Speaking of preschool, Maisie has bit a little girl (Piper) two times in the past couple of weeks.  The last time it made a big mark on her wrist.  I really think she is doing it because her teeth hurt … or at least I hope that is the reason.  I told Mrs. Lori that if she kept it up she wouldn’t have any friends!

We had a huge mess in the crib one morning.  Maisie was wearing two-piece pajamas and decided to stick her hand in her diaper and smear it all over herself and the crib.  After getting a bath and doing laundry, she was as good as new!

Maisie makes me laugh because she is constantly answering ‘yeah’ or nodding her head ‘no’ when I ask her a question.  It is fun just to ask her questions to see what she does.

We discovered that Maisie fits perfectly in the bed of Ryan’s dump truck.  She loves being pushed around by him.  Ryan does a great job and usually drives slow, after being reminded a few times.

Ryan shared his ice cream with Maisie one night.  She was in heaven!  She just sat on the floor twirling her hands and feet around and signing ‘more’.  Love this picture of them!  And, yes, ice cream ended up on the carpet!

     

One of Maisie’s favorite toys is Ryan’s foam bullet gun.  She concentrates with all her might to get a bullet in the ‘chamber’ and then pulls it out and does it over and over.  She is really good at it and it keeps her entertained for quite some time.

Maisie gets super jealous when I hold or hug Ryan.  She can be across the room playing by herself and as soon as she sees Ryan near me, she will start crying and make her way over to try to push him away!

Here’s a picture of Maisie at the lake when we all went to watch Ryan and Micah fish.  Her happiness didn’t last long so we had to leave early, but it was fun while it lasted.

 

Here are Maisie’s 14-month pictures.  This was her first time in shorts this year and I am in love with her chubby, little legs.  And, I couldn’t narrow it down so I’m posting a few of my favorites out of the 20 or so I took!  (She is holding a teething tablet container that she had shoved in her mouth until I started taking pictures.)

I love how happy she is in this one and that you can see her chubby legs the best here:

Love how her ankles are crossed here:

And this cheesy grin is too cute:

 

Love her serious face:

 

And love how she is showing off her tongue here:

Happy 14 Months, Love Bug!