Friday Afternoon Fun

Just some impromptu fun with the camera after I put the recharged battery back in...

15 Months Old

Brantley Katherine turned 15 months old this week and yes, I am starting to wonder where the time has gone. She had her 15 month check up today and came away with a clean bill of health. She had her best weight gain yet, moving up into the 40th percentile from her usual 20th. She weighed 21.8lbs and is 31 inches tall (70th percentile). And her enormous brain put her head circumference into the 90th percentile. She is walking/running everywhere now which is usually a big help to me as there is less space for her to sit on my person than there used to be! Two new teeth broke through last weekend so that puts her up to 6 now. She is a total sweetheart and very loving and friendly. She is also really funny and makes me laugh on a daily basis. But there can be drama. Floor rolling, head banging on the floor or against the cabinet drama. These events can have legitimate sources (not letting her pull all of the tissues out of the tissue box) or can come from absolutely out of nowhere. They are usually over as quickly as they began and she is back to her sweet, happy self. Just a part of Toddlerhood, not one of the more fun parts but they are opportunities to nurture & attempt to help her normalize those feelings. And as verbal communication increases, I am hopeful it will become easier. Her vocabulary is expanding and she attempts to mimic words pretty well but does better imitating your actions. She will pretend to blow her nose, put on chapstick/lipstick, wash her hands, etc. And she has started putting things together that blow my mind…If you say “Let’s go change your diaper”, she walks to her room. If you say “Time to get ready for bed” she goes to the bathroom and bangs on the tub. If you ask her to go get certain toys or animals, she goes and gets them. We are currently working on Clean Up Time at the end of the day. She understands the concept but is not joining in whole heartedly yet! So I do most of the picking/putting up and then she tells the toys “Bye”. Although tonight she did put all 3 of the animals that stay in her rocking chair back into the rocking chair. Her favorite words right now are "Hey/Hi" and "Bye". Everyone in every store, restaurant, etc. gets a healthy dose of "Hey/Hi's" as do Kris and I alllll throughout the day. She is doing really well with "Bye" too. She will tell you "Bye" and wave when you leave, but the funniest is when Kris & I put her to bed and she tells us "Bye". She is sooooo much fun! And despite the fact that I don't go to bed a minute before 11:30pm every night, I can't wait to wake up every morning and try to be a better mother than I was the day before.

Snack Sharing...

End of the day snack sharing session with Daddy!

Mommy & Me- New Year, New Class

We thankfully started back to our Mommy & Me class this morning after having been on break since mid-November. This session is on Mondays at 10am because we have moved up to the "Just Movin'" class geared toward 11 to 22 month olds who are walking, or very, very close to it. We learned that goals of this class are cleaning up toys after play, more transition times (moving from one activity to another with cleaning up in between), taking turns (the children go to a rocking chair in the middle of the group for their introduction and then have to get out for the next child), following directions ("take one of the toys to Mommy"), and some of their old favorites from the previous class are held over (action songs, trampoline time, and story time). The session lasts 6 weeks so I feel confident that Brantley & I will be able to finish this one to the end! But March 5 is fast approaching... :) And for GrandPattie & Godmother Jennifer- She left the headband on the entire class.

Accessories make the Outfit...

Brantley has started experimenting with her version of accessories...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A good friend of mine told me that whatever you are or are doing on New Year's Eve at midnight is what you will be doing the rest of the year...I was asleep and I am VERY hopeful that her adage is true! We had a very low key New Year's Day and just went out to my parent's for black eyed peas (which Brantley DEVOURED), cabbage casserole, etc., all the traditional New Year's Day fare.
And then we came home & played outside for a bit...

Like I said, very low key! And a very relaxing start to 2011!