eating with a spoon

She's doing so well with eating with a spoon. Above, snow day, she's eating cheerios/chex with soy milk and she likes to pick up the bowl and drink some of the milk and then eat with a spoon which I tried to capture.

snow!

As we were leaving today to bring brother B to school, he said: for a second there I thought it was snowing. And when I looked up and saw the weather, it was in fact snowing. They say this is the earliest snowfall here ever (or at least I think I heard that on the news) and the last time it snowed was Christmas eve/day 2004 (and then Katrina hit the next year!)

It's not really possible to see the snow in the photos, but it was there!

The first picture on this list is of one of the homes we'd looked at first before we moved to Slidell; it's just down the block from where we eventually bought and currently live. The next ones are of our house and street (the first house is way prettier but we did not buy that one because we didn't really want to live in Slidell at that time and when we did buy here those houses weren't for sale). These top pictures were taken after the last ones, with the kids where you can't see snow too well. I'm standing in the garage taking the pictures of the kids to view our neighbor across the street. I'm in the car when the others are taken.

crying at the party

The tot group I go to had the Christmas party yesterday and I stopped to pick up Muggy's camera (since ours broke at the Dead Sea in Jordan) and T did not like the fact that Muggy walked away, back into work. Senorita cried and cried and cried for the first half of the party. Attached are pictures. She finally calmed down by playing with the 2 baskets and bows & styrofoam balls; then the group went to sing in the hospital.

she slept all night

Could it be because she had a short nap? But another day she had the very same lenght of nap and still woke up 2x's. Last night all she did was cry out two or 3 times while still lying down. She returned to slumber right away. Hmmm...

multi tasking

So she's begun to have books in her hand while we are nursing at night right before bedtime. She wants to try to look at the pictures and get milk and do some signs for the animals all at the same time. It's quite funny to see her signing bear and butterfly, using both hands, while nursing!

crying again

Last night she was feeling kind of sick so she woke around 10:30 and I nursed her and held her until she fell back to sleep. Then she slept till 4 when I repeated the procedure. Now that'll mess her up from the progress we'd done so far with the not nursing at the 3/4am wake-up call. The previous night she did a longer sleeping spell. But I did get about 4 straight hours of sleep within the last week.

We went to the park again today and she slid, twirled, swang, and bounced on the 4 way see-saw and she even hugged the characters on it. A picture will follow in a future post.

We went to the park to see the Christmas lights and the Santa. She cried intensely when being placed near Santa. It was something.But she enjoyed the concert (a school band was singing) and the lights. The next day (Sunday) we went to the Christmas parade which she loved as well. She was dancing with the bands/music and waving to the floats.

all done

Today she was looking through her BigBird photo album in which I have photos of her, Brother, and other family members along with the characters she knows (Dora, Elmo, etc.). The book has some empty pages at the end and when she got to the last page where there was no photo/picture, she made the sign for "all done/finished" and i was so excited!!

sleep update &various pictures

Since the last posting she had a sleep/crying episode. Luckily Baba was at work while this hour long crying episode lasted. She woke up around 2ish and stayed up until 3ish crying. I'd held her a bit and then put her down. But in the nights after that she's been sleeping till about 3, not waking around midnight, and then I've been nursing her at that time.

She's walking on her tiptoes sometimes now.

She loves the Baby signing times videos so Muggy has ordered them for a Christmas present & we won't have to get them from the library. The picture above shows her watching it. The picture before that is when she was taking off her shirt.

The first photo shows her and brother on the trampoline as he pulled her around on the sleeping bag. And the 2nd picture is of her licking the bowl of the chocolate tofu peanut butter pie which she LOVES-"yum yum" and sticks her tongue out in anticipation!

uh oh & sleeping patterns & casper slide

this week she began saying "uh-oh" when things fall to the ground.

for the past 2 weeks I've been cutting out her middle of the night nursing. it's been bedtime around 8/8:30 and then she'll wake up around midnight-1ish and then again between 3/4am and then 6/7am for the day. so i've been eliminating the feeding at 3/4 am and she's doing pretty well. she'll cry out and I'll pick her up and check her diaper and give her the chupete and she'll cry a little bit and fall back to sleep. last week she cried for about 20 minutes at a time when i was eliminating that feeding. and now it's gone to a few minutes of crying so we're doing ok with that. she's been going to sleep without nursing first this week so that's why i'm keeping the midnight nursing this week. since she made 16 months yesterday i'll have to stop very soon.

dancing at the wedding

my cousin got married nov 1 and at the wedding she was dancing to the music.

16 months and signing well

we got some dvd's from the library on baby signing and she LOVED them. she picked up quite a few new signs (as did I) and has begun using them. at this point she knows moon, cracker, milk, more, frog, socks, dog, drink, eat, chupete -pacifier, chicken/hen, cat. I do more with her and she'll soon pick them up as well. The dvd's were wonderful and I will be checking them out again since she asked for them by doing the "baby signing time" signs.

shoes

she loves to try on shoes and muggy (grandma) bought her some play high heels. they are too skinny for her fat feet but she got them on one day when muggy was watching her.

sleeping with the chupetes

as you can see by the photos, she loves to hold 3 of her chupetes at once. What a character. She knows the sign for it now too and asks as soon as she get buckled in the carseat.

wheeee/zoo

a favorite new activity of Senorita's is to sit in the big rocking chair and rock it very fast back & forth, almost to the point of tipping it over backwards (danger hazard which I must always be aware of) and say "wheeeeee." She also likes to get on the chair by the computer and sit/stand/slide off of it as I tried to get in the attached photos.

we went to the zoo over the weekend and she loved it--her first time. she climbed the tree with Brother and enjoyed seeing the animals. I forgot the camera but took pictures with my phone and haven't learned how to upload them yet.

our activities today

Today began in a rush when Big Brother went to school wearing his "Friday" school t-shirt; however because of the field trip the class was going on, he had to wear his uniform collared shirt. I got the call before I even got back home so I ran into the house and jumped back to bring the shirt over to him. Senorita was getting tired of being in the seat for so long--it ended up being nearly an hour with the original drive there and back and again, with stopping to put the cable bill in the box. So when we got home how ironic that she didn't want to get out of the car. She loves to sit in the driver seat and play with the keys and whatnot. Then I got her to come inside and play in the tub while I put clothes away in the room. I did that after she tried to go out in the rain and play with the puddles. Then we went in her room and she played with things while I straightened out her locker. All the while we were listening to some Spanish folk songs. When I nursed her before her nap she began pinching her own face & laughing. Is that a new activity?? Her face was red from her doing that to herself. What a monkey.

yum yum

She began doing a "yum yum" word when she eats something she likes. Big Brother was excited to hear her say that today for the first time but she began saying it a few days ago. It's so cute. And she's definitely saying "GAGA" for Brother's name. So we are up to woof (dog), wack (duck/chicken), GAGA(brother), yum-yum (delicious!), mama, baba. And when she sees the flag she makes the same sound of "aaahhwwwe" with a big smile.

first jacket

It was chilly enough today to wear a jacket. Here is a picture of how cute she looked.

painting

Today we painted outside on a big piece of cardboard (from new screen door we bought). Attached are some pictures. She began with one finger carefully touching it and then got it all over her body.

new teeth & things

Senorita is getting new teeth on the bottom, one on each side of the middle ones already up. Soon she'll have four on top & four on the bottom.

Tonight she actually sat down in the bathtub and played. Up until now I've just run the water and she played with it coming out of the spout while standing up. She never wanted to sit down.

She's still waking up twice (at least) a night but she did sleep from midnight until 5am when we were in TX, after that beach experience of the previous post.

She is noticing airplanes in the sky more often now. She makes woof sounds when she hears a dog bark and wack wack for ducks. She kind of says "gaga" for Brother's name.

And praise God for his protection yesterday when the bookshelf in the garage fell without warning. She'd just been standing there, near enough to have been hurt, but had just walked a bit to the other side. I can't thank God enough for that protection.

texas

Last weekend we went down to visit my sister in Texas and Baba and I drove down to Mexico for the day, 3 hours hours away from Corpus Christi. Senorita and Brother stayed with Muggy & Paw Paw with Nanny & her kids and they went to the beach for a while. Apparently T LOVED the waves and ran right into the water, getting knocked down countless times and getting up and going back for more.

yay!

2 nights in a row she slept for longer hours. She's been waking up 3 and 4 times a night since we got back from Jordan. Last night I was still up around midnight after having watched the Saints lose to Minnesota 30-27 (how frustrating) and she'd been sleeping since 8:15ish and then woke up just after midnight and not again until 5:30am. The night before she slept from 8:15ish until 3AM so I slept from 11 to 3 uninterrupted. Last night I slept from about 1am until 5:30 so two nights in a row I got a good chunk of sleep which I haven't had in months.

egg noodles in october

She likes to go to the food locker and "unh unh" for a pretzel or just to grab something to play with, usually the pasta which is kept on the bottom shelf. Since the door was open today she helped herself to the egg noodles that was clipped with a clothespin kind of clip. I knew she had the noodles and walked out of the kitchen and promptly heard the sound of spillage. She'd unhooked the bag and had egg noodles all over the floor by & in the cabinet in which she was sitting. Luckily I was able to grab the camera.

Yesterday she entertained herself sitting in the green laundry basket with a little puzzle car track for about 10 minutes. I snapped that picture as well as T wearing the headcover I got in Jordan (I only wear part of it to keep my hair back, but the other ladies there wear a second piece over it to cover their neck as well).

dvd & fireplace

She's been liking to get onto the fireplace and sit there and look at the dvd's that she pulled down. Then after that, today she climbed under the rack where the dvd player is and I wondered what she was doing. She had seen a ball behind there that she retrieved successfully.

She's been babbling like "bidha, bitha, bidha" and she's loving to look at pictures of herself and Baba that are up on the wall.

She makes the sound of "unh unh" a lot and that means she wants something. That little dog that's in the playpen in the above photo was on my top shelf in my locker and she saw it & did "unh- unh" and now she likes to carry that around & listen to the music it plays. But it can break so I have to be careful of her with it.

She seems to make the same sound when she sees a duck like a quack and a woof when she sees a dog. Then with B's picture she says something like dada sometimes. But she walks around seeing things she wants to see closer up or things to eat and she says "unh unh!"

T with dolls

She's liking to climb on the sofa (and the futon in her room) and sit there. The other day we had all her dolls out on the floor and then she wanted to sit up on the sofa so I put them all up with her and was able to snap this photo.

dancing

This week, I noticed she began to dance in place, moving her feet pretty fast in the same spot. I'll have to try & get video of it but it's mostly a foot dance without moving her body much. It's so cute.

kitchen cabinet & glasses

She'd done this before here and in Jordan but the other day she helped herself to taking out all the plastic containers and then getting into the cabinet & closing the door. Then later on, she took off her diaper and politely placed it in the same cabinet! She also likes to take off my glasses and put them on her face, all in one swooping motion. She can also get onto the futon in her room and sit there entertaining herself or waiting for me to read to her.

water slide

Today we went to a birthday party with a water slide. She loved it! I had to hold her down the slide part and she mostly enjoyed playing in the puddle that formed at the bottom. It was so cute and I had no camera to take the photos! Some of the kids were sliding into her and she just laughed at it. She had a good time eating some apple slices, cheese puffs, chicken tenders and macaroni & cheese. And the party was spongebob and she loves to look at him and point& smile so she enjoyed the decorations.

good night moon

I read an article about getting kids to sleep all the night (stuff which I knew already though) and it reminded me about doing a bedtime routine other than nursing--so I began reading "Buenos Noches Luna" each night to Senorita. Well she's of course still waking up 3 times a night, at the lastest time being around 6am. So a few days ago she cried out and I nursed her but she was kind of awake this time so she saw the book on the futon next to the rocking chair in her room. She wriggled out of my lap and walked over to get the book and slapped it down on my lap as if to say "Read this now!" It was so adorable that she was so determined to read this book! She loves it.

Tonight she was so sleepy after I bathed her I was going to not read it to her and I had put it on the changing table. When I sat down to nurse her she looked over to the changing table and pointed because she wanted to read it before nursing.

On another note, her top four teeth are coming out as I mentioned in the previous post. The left canine type tooth was the first to come down and then the front left one right after that. I thought they'd come out all the way before the right side but now they are all nearly even with each other--not all the way but just a part way out. And she LOVES to bite!

new things

Some new things that Senorita is now doing--putting her bottom lip out making herself look like an old toothless man. She did this on the ride during the evacuation and we laughed a lot at that.

She comes to me with her head down for me to kiss it, on her own, without me saying "besitos"

Muggy bought her some croc style shoes while evacuated (since I forgot to bring any for her) and now she loves to walk around the house in this shoes.

She is enjoying biting her toes and smiling. She also enjoys biting others and since she's getting her top 4 teeth (and has her 2 bottom middle ones already) it hurts a lot when she bites.

She can obey some commands and bring me things that we ask for, "donde esta tu muneca?" she'll bring her doll, etc.

She wakes up at least 3 times each night still and that's exhausting.

I'm cherishing every moment with her and so thankful to be able to see it in person.

Our camera doesn't seem to be working so I can't take any new photos of her teeth and crocs.

news

Well we had an evacuation on Aug 30 through Sept 4. Senorita did well for her first evacuation to TN. We took 12 hours to get to Chattanooga but that was because PawPaw had to go the scenic route; we didn't have traffic to warrant 12 hours. She stayed ok in the car seat without crying like before on her 5 minute rides. We gave her lots of snacks to keep her quiet.

She's still doing "mas" sign language and will do "leche" when nursing. She's so busy! Walking around digging and climbing and carrying and moving. My uncle in TN said she should be put to work at a factory ( but for those child labors laws! :> )

As I started this entry I saw her go into her room and heard her diaper bag rumbling. She came out with a diaper and gave it to me. She needed to be changed! What a character. Muggy bought her a little doll stroller at a flea market in TN and now she loves to push that around. She loves to wear sunglasses but hates the clips in her hair. We have to sneakily put one in and then play with her hands to avoid her from pulling it out.

She's had some injuries playing with a warm iron and got a little burn; she fell & hit her head this morning and had a red mark on her forehead; she grabbed the knife from the table and put it in her mouth before we could take it away. Praise God no injury from that incident. She's getting around the keyboard now so I'll have to quit for now

tools

Today she sat on the back patio & played with the open tool box. She took out wrenches and bolts and looked at them. Her hands were greasy with tool gunk. This activity entertained her for about 10-15 minutes. Then Baba came & sat down from cutting the tree and she walked to him; she cut her toe/dropped the wrench and started bleeding and crying. That ended that activity. I put medicine and a band aid on her toe and put a sock on her foot. She doesn't care much for socks (or clothes for that matter) but she kept the sock on for a while and now she's napping with it on.

cup

On August 13 she held her little shot glass cup and drank water from it without spilling it. She did it again the next day and can hold small amounts of liquid (either water or soy milk). She doesn't like sippie cups too too much but will drink water from them and nothing else. I've been giving her soy milk in a little shot glass type of cup (cups we got in Jordan for coffee/tea) and since we were in Jordan without a sippie cup she drank lots of water in a regular cup with lots of spilling. Lately she'd been drinking from cups better without spilling (while I held it) but now she wants to hold it on her own. So when I let her hold it, she drank from it successfully without a drop spilled! I'm so proud. She's babbling so well, saying biddy, buck buck and of course mama dada baba meme nanana (she says that when she's bothered & upset)

screaming

So now Senorita is a screamer. She screams quite bit each day when she wants something out of her reach or something that's been taken away from her. It's quite unnerving sometimes.

On the other hand, I'm proud to say she signed "mas" when I asked if she wanted more food on the 21st! So she does "leche" and "mas" now. How exciting.

first birthday

Today she made 1 year old. How time flies. I wish it were last year. All week I remembered last year and was wishing it was then, so I'd have my final week of pregnancy again. How I miss being pregnant with T! (and B!).

Here are some photos of the big day. Date is wrong because camera screen is broken and I cannot access the menu

Sick

Senorita was sick over the weekend and we took her to the doctor. She'd had fever since Thursday afternoon, all day Friday, and then on Saturday. So to the doctor we went; he gave her an antibiotic prescription. Her first dose was Sat. night. She still had fever and was listless and fussy on my birthday Sunday but perked up when Muggy & Paw Paw came over for cake & ice cream. The fever seemed to have stopped Sunday night but now she's getting a rash over her body from the antibiotics.

[I've tried to attach photos but it doesn't seem to be working. I'll have to try again later]