Getting sick and falling down

I forgot to mention that last week you picked up your first cold. Daddy was super sick and sure enough a few days later you came down with a fairly high fever, runny nose and a cough. I came home and then stayed home with you the next day. The fever went away after one day but the cough lingered a bit longer. It's always so sad to see you not feeling well. You tend to not have the same energy as you usually do, and you want to be held all the time... it's really cute. Luckily whatever you picked up was definitely a milder version of whatever it is that Daddy had. I also am thankful for the fact that you haven't had any UTIs since late October. It seems like the antibiotics we have you take are keeping that under control. You absolutely hate taking them, and it's a total pain to administer them to you every night, but if it keeps the infections under control then it's worth it. I am hopefully that when we go back in for tests next October that the reflux that you had has gotten better, may be we can give you a break from the antibiotics then. :)

I've mentioned before how you seem to be such a tough little cookie, not crying too much when you fall. Well the last few days have been tough on you. First you fell at the park while with your nanny - Lada. I am still not really clear on what you hit but you got 3 scratches on your nose and a little bruise. The next morning Lada came over and you were walking around in the kitchen trying to get into the dining room and tripped over the wood transition and your head hit the wall. You had a nice big red bump on your forehead. When I got home later that day I could barely see it, I was a bit surprised it didn't turn into a huge bruise, since you refused to let us put anything cold on it, and it seemed to be pretty large and red. Then this morning right after Lada arrived, you either tripped on your pants (PJ's I put on you were a little big) or just fell for no reason. It was right on the carpet and I didn't think you hurt yourself since I saw you put your hands forward to brace the fall, and there was nothing around you, but who knows, you definitely cried like something hurt. I know you're still getting the hang of this whole walking thing and there will be more bruises to come... I just hope you don't seriously hurt yourself. We had a bit of a scare a few days ago, where I got you out of our bed and let you walk around without shutting our bedroom door like I usually do. After a few minutes of entertaining yourself in our bathroom, you bolted out of the room, towards the stairs without me noticing right away! Daddy jumped out of bed, and luckily got there in time. It looked like if he were there a second later, you would have already stepped off the step. Soooo very scary!!! We only have a gate downstairs and I was waiting to see if we should bother w/a gate upstairs since our stairs are so wide and require much wider gates than normal stairs. Also I think I need to teach you how to go down on your tummy more, so that you stop trying to leap off the stairs.

We have barricaded the area around the TV with some gates because you wouldn't stop touching it. Hopefully you'll learn soon that it's off limits, although you seem to like to get into trouble. You love getting your way, and after you do something you know you shouldn't have, you laugh and waive your arms around in excitement. Oh boy!

What's a post without a picture?
Here is one of your favorite toys where you stack the little wooden rings on top of each other.
BTW...Your shirt says "made you smile" and you sure do... every single day!
We love you!

Flowers

Playing with flowers out in the back yard. I must have said the word pretty and flower a dozen times in these clips... haha

Yummy corn

After having yet another difficult time at dinner trying to figure out what it is you will eat and not throw off the high chair or push away with your hand, it turns out that you love corn! Woo hoo! The only vegetable sweet enough for your taste buds. I've given you a few bites before, but here you have the corn on the cob and you figure out how to bite it off. :)

Some more teeth

So why are you still not chewing your food very well? Who knows!?

Mac & Cheese

Your favorite this week was Mac & Cheese. These messy pictures say it all, you really enjoyed your dinner! I only wish you ate everything with such enthusiasm.

So being a walking toddler has given you a lot of freedom. You go around the house exploring all over. You have access to a few shelves full of Tupperware containers in the kitchen and you love pulling those out. Sometimes it gets pretty quiet and I immediately start wondering what are you up to? Last time that happened I had left some mail out on the table, sure enough once I got there you had ripped up a bunch of it into pieces, good thing it wasn't important. :) Gotta keep a close eye on you. You've managed to learn how to pull on the levers and open the doors. You did that to the bathroom door, and all the sudden I hear you hitting the toilet seat up and down. Also I found you with a box of tissues, pulling them out, one by one... how fun that must be! Who needs toys anyways, when you have tupperware, tissue boxes and toilet seats to play with!

Your love for pushing buttons has gotten you in a bit of trouble. You are exploring the gadgets near the TV, more specifically you love touching them which you know you're not allowed to do. The DVD player is always the one you go to for first. You know how to turn it on, and it lights up blue as soon as you push a button. Somehow when I tell you "No" or "Net" and "Nelzia", you turn to look at me, and then go right back to pushing another button. Seems like you're already starting to test me. Although when daddy says "No" you usually listen and walk away. This doesn't seem very fair to me. Once I took you by the hand and started walking away from the TV when you stopped, looked up at me with your toothy smile and let out a squeal of satisfaction! I tried so hard not to laugh, but it was so funny! Your face told it all, you knew that I didn't want you to touch the DVD player, you touched it anyways and you were so darn happy that you did. What a little mischievous monkey you are!

We're still working on having you point at the right features when we ask where your nose, ears, mouth, eyes are. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you just touch whatever comes to mind first. It's very cute though... you get excited to know what we ask of you and start clapping too.

You started saying bye as you waive to us. Also you now get a bit more upset when we leave... luckily I am the first one that leaves, so you don't mind so much because daddy is still home with you, but when he leaves you start crying a little bit. I wonder if this might get worse as you get older... I have a feeling it might and it will be that much harder to leave. It's already tough!

14 Months

Your biggest thing is walking, you are definitely getting better and better at it. You turn, change directions and keep walking. Also you've learned how to pick up toys on your way and get back up, so now we see you crawling less. You love stairs and those you love to climb. I am starting to teach you how to go down them on your tummy... since once you get to the stairs you seem to just want to leap right off... it's a work in progress. 

You love books and music. You often grab books off the table and start flipping pages and sometimes even babbling or pretending to read. You definitely have some favorites, the books that have colorful pages and only a few sentences per page seem to be the ones you favor since you like to turn the pages pretty fast. Goodnight moon, Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?, Runaway bunny and you love 10 little ladybugs book too because you get to touch the ladybugs that stick out of the book. There is a russian book you really like too that has the pop up pages and lots of animals which you recognize. You point at things like ball, bird, balloon, baby, mouse, dog and cat. I definitely think you recognize those sounds. 

The other thing you love is of course TV. I do try to limit that, but you still get a dose of it just about every morning if you wake up early enough to hang out in our bed with daddy while I am getting ready for work. You often point at it and talk while watching your favorite shows.

Music is a whole other ball game. Your favorite thing to do is push a button to have music come on, then you immediately start moving your body, but even if you hear music in the car you start wiggling around in your car-seat as well. To top it off, all we have to say is "dancing" and it gets you going! It is just the sweetest thing! Sometimes it seems like you try to sing along as well. 

Eating has been interesting. You're pretty much done with baby food. Your absolute favorite things are still cheese and most fruit. Also pasta and yogurt you eat very well. The rest are pretty hard to get you to eat. Anything green goes on the floor (that's usually the veggies), I have yet to see you get excited about a vegetable. Fruits on the other hand you have no problems with, except many of them i still mash up and put into your cereal. I've also introduced some citrus fruits like oranges and tangerines. Last week you loved getting pieces of chicken, you'd bite them off yourself. Fish you don't seem to like much at all. The chewing is still not mastered and we are working on weaning you off the bottle. You take the sippy cup well but only with water, if we put anything else in there like milk you don't want it. We'll see how long this takes. I also tried the straw, but you just don't know what to do with it, you end up biting it. 

Teeth

Have I mentioned that you bite? Well not all the time... it's usually when I try to 'brush' your teeth, or at least attempt to wipe them with a wet wash cloth. Well last night I did just that and what do you know, I felt 2 more teeth - molars! Now you really don't have any excuse to not chew your food. Also this explains why last week you would sometimes shove your whole hand in your mouth almost gagging, it was your teeth bothering you and since these are in the back, you had a hard time trying to teeth on things.