18 Month Little Lady

We did Tessa's 18 month photo shoot on the beach in Florida. It was really sunny so she has her shades on, and considering she isn't a fan of the sand this was as good as we got. They can't be too bad when you have such a perfect subject for the pics!!

It has been FOREVER since I've done an update about the little one so here it all is!

Stats:

23lbs 7ozs 38%

33 inches 86%

(as you can see she is still long and skinny, continues to fit anywhere from 9-12 month clothing up to 24 month pants)

Sleep:

We have improved greatly since my last posting about sleep. We've found that the key is to get as much energy out of her before nap time and wind down with books and milk downstairs.

She is napping about 3 hours in the afternoon 12-3pm or 1-4pm.

Going to bed by 8pm and sleeping until 7am.

Eating:

She is a really great eater over all, she is like any toddler some days she is starving and others she just snacks here and there. We don't really force it just try to offer her things she likes, but still give a good variety.

Some of her favorite things are: buttered pasta noodles, guacamole, tomatoes, any fruit but especially grapes and blueberries, gerber fruit snacks, yogurt and yogurt smoothies, green beans, roasted asparagus, peas, and bananas.

She is able to use a fork really well and can scoop yogurt on a spoon and get it into her mouth without too much mess. She loves to drink out of cups with straws (real straws). When she wants a bite or drink she gets your attention and then points into her mouth.

Her favorite things:

-She has a very deep love for one of my baby dolls from childhood, it is a life size newborn doll almost as big as her. She makes it do everything from looking out the window for visitors, to checking to see if it has a wet diaper. When we go for a walk sometimes she insists on bringing it and that means she is either going to carry the lifesize doll or the doll will ride in the stroller and she will push...yes that means it is a VERY slow walk either way. :)

-she loves to play outside all day long, and really enjoys the playground and swing set. She will swing on her belly airplane style, climbs the steps and can go down slides on her bottom all by herself!

-We took the baby gate down off the stairs and she loves to sit on the bottom step and eat a snack or read books...always with her baby right there too.

-Her favorite show is the Backyardigans....she points and laughs at the TV when they start singing there theme song...the laugh has gotten louder over time and will NEVER get old to us.

Other tid bits:

-She is concerned about having a wet or "uck" diaper as she would point to it and say. She lays down to get changed. The pediatrician encouraged me to get a potty chair and start offering her to go potty. I am worried she is still a little young, but she is so smart I guess we will try it out and see where it goes?

-We continue to work on saying words. Here is her vocabulary...dada, mama, ane (Zayne), go, vroom vroom (car), that, there, fish sound, uck, and pig sound. She also waves hi and bye. She communicates really well, but we don't have too many words yet.

I could write forever about our little lady because she is continually doing something new and great. Although we are now in the toddler stage and have some meltdowns and fits, she is such an extremely happy little girl. I don't get much time to blog but that is definitely not because we aren't up to much; we are just up to too much!

Destin Trip

We took our first family vacation in over a year in early May with Dan's parents. We rented a condo in Fort Walton Beach (Destin). It was our first time in this area of Florida and we really enjoyed it; not too busy and beautiful, very clean beaches. The condo we were at was just perfect...it has a zero entry pool perfect for Tessa and a toddler splash park, what more could you ask for. It also had a lazy river, beach, nature area, and our own private deck with a hot tub! Here are some of the highlights in pictures, of course I have a million more!

First time swimming since last summer...loved it...no fear!

Her favorite thing to say "huh?"

Her curls went crazy in the humidity, it was adorable.

There were tons of sting rays right along the bayside path just down from our condo. SCARY!

Bubbles!!

Some quick digging in the sand with Daddy, she quickly decided that the sand was "uck" "uck" and stayed on the towel with Mommy.

Here is an example of "uck" "uck", as some was on her leg. :)

Our sweet little princess

Dan and his Dad went deep sea fishing and caught a bunch!!

Lil ruffle bum

Hamming it up at the splash park. She doesn't mind getting her face wet at all which is great.

She loves to do anything that she thinks makes her "big"...like this.

I always love a feet in the sand picture...I love that we have a tiny pair to go with ours now :)

A little bit about sleeping!

I was looking back through my blog posts with a friend who has a 4 month old because I was trying to recall Tessa's sleep habits. I have many times talked to friends when we were experiencing a set back from good sleeping routine i.e. "sleep regression" but I somehow didn't seem to post ANYTHING about it in my blogs! Maybe a subconscious way of forgetting it for the next round, or that little bit of you that doesn't admit that you have challenges as a parent...I don't know. So, for what it is worth when I go back to this and try to remember what happened the last time I did this Tessa had a sleep regression at 4 months, 8/9 months and now I think we're entering another at 17 months. They all were crazy hard for a few days to a few weeks, but then just went right back to normal again. Since this is my 3rd round of this I think I've learned to just do what it takes to get sleep for both parties and it will be gone before you know it!

My favorite "real life" resource has been http://www.askmoxie.com/. It always made me realize that MANY others have had the same exact experiences and you are not alone, nor is it anything you as a Mom have caused.

Here is an excerpt from her website that helps me feel o.k. when it comes to sleeping habits in kiddos....
"In general, I think sleep crutches of all sorts, from pacifiers to rocking to loveys, get a super-bad rap. No one has to bring their Mom along to college to nurse them to sleep. And so what if you have to sleep with a white noise machine? If it bugs you when you're 30 you can break the habit your own self, and leave your poor parents out of it. If sleep crutches are working for you as a family, then party on with them for as long as they work, and then figure out the next thing."

As you may have guessed Tessa is rocked to sleep with a cup of milk. We use blackout shades, white noise machine, and she has a lovey. I do have to remind myself some times that she will in her own time not want these things and be all grown up, so I just spend those hours of trying to get her to sleep or back to sleep enjoying her snuggles! :)

New Indie Sisters Blog!

As most of you know my sister Janelle and I have been working on making bags. We started with a "shop" on Etsy.com but over the last few weeks have decided to take a more personal approach in a blog. After all, this is a hobby for us and we just weren't enjoying the formalities of using Etsy (although we still LOVE shopping on it).
By doing a blog we can write about other things we're working on, show new ideas, post sales, etc... so please check it out when you get a chance. We hope to have a "button" you can add to your own blog to help us get our name around, so stay tuned!

www.indiesisters.blogspot.com

Just send an email to indiesisters@gmail.com for any orders of bags available on the blog or for any custom orders!! We are really excited to try this and hope you enjoy. We will soon have a beach bag and another style of purse for sale!

Tessa's 17 Month Photo Shoot

Wow, it is unbelievable that Tessa is 17 months old, but spend a day with her and you will quickly see that she is a toddler and no longer a baby! Many things are much easier at this stage with her, but it has also brought along some new challenges....

The fun side of 17 months:

• watching her "mother" her babies. She dresses, feeds, snuggles, takes them on rides, etc...
• she is communicating better...like pointing to things and knowing where and when she wants something
• riding in the car is easier thanks to her new portable DVD player!
• she loves to be outside and will play out there FOREVER
• taking bike rides
• watching her personality develop... so far she is very strong willed, social, funny, and a cuddle bug
• i love love love when she fixes my hair, gives me hugs, swings spider style... she is able to show love in all new ways which is great!!

Here are the challenges :)

• she doesn't want to be confined or buckled in ANYTHING!!!! including carseat, stroller, highchair, booster seat, shopping cart, or even held in your arms! This pretty much affect everything we try to do. :)
• she loves to do things she isn't supposed to or allowed to do. Such as open and close the stairs gate and climb up and down the stairs. Open and close the screen door over and over and over (it is a huge step down to cement and really scares me)
• stand on things and give you this smirk like look at me
• wants to dress herself, brush her own teeth, and even sometimes put on her diaper!!
• has the melt to the floor can't grab ahold of her temper tantrums :)

I'm sure you can see the trend.....WE ARE GETTING INDEPENDENT!! I've been told that toddler is an indication to teenager and boy oh boy we may have our hands full of a teen that wants to be older than they are, make their own decisions, and do things even if you say not to!

But here are some pictures of our adorably challenging 17 month old!

It is all about her babies. She took a walk all the way around the block (since we have stroller resistance) the other night carrying her baby that is almost as big as her!

They are buddies and Zayne is really great with her, but not so much the other way around...he gets beat and chased by toys, ridden, and used as a step stool.

This is my favorite shot even thought it isn't her cute face!

swinging "spider" style if you didn't know what I was talking about