Sunday, January 31, 2010

I blinked and then

...more new things happened in the life of Heidi Jean.

She is the queen of imitation lately. She will say pretty much anything that we coax her to say--including, but not limited to: bread, butter, cheese, out, and P-U. She will do pretty much any sign that I show her (and does "please" "all done" and "more" without prompting). She nods and shakes her head all the time appropriately. She will imitate me doing my exercise video. Her squats may be deeper than mine, but my jumping jacks are better.

Her newest favorite pasttime is sitting on a stool at the breakfast bar and coloring or drawing. She also loves to stool-hop and crawl from stool to stool. She can even get up on them by herself, sometimes. Not that I would let her do that.

She's digging toast lately. Adores it. And we only get whole wheat bread, so I don't even feel bad for letting her have toast for breakfast every day. And she's into yogurt. Nothing hits the spot quite like the Wild Rice Soup we had a few weeks ago though.

We've moved the Cozy Coupe inside for her to ride around in here because mama was too cold to play outside with it.

She's also discovered it's fun to take toys with her places. So far we've taken the Little Tikes dad and girl, Blue doll, fraternal twin baby dolls, and 3 kids from the bus to various places (including daycare and shopping). Along with the trusty blanket. Paci stays home these days--relegated to the crib.

Have I mentioned that 18 months is my favorite of all the ages so far?

Monday, January 18, 2010

Nothing better than bath pics

Heidi Jean often has a fit when we tell her it's bath time. But then she refuses to get out. Her favorite toy in the bath has held steady for months and months. Soap bottles. Little tiny soap bottles.


She thinks she's super funny for pushing the soap bottles off the side of the tub.



Love this girl.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

One Point Five

In the last one point five years Heidi Jean has learned many things.

How to smile.
How to laugh.
How to say "mom" and "dada" and "bread" and "butter"
How to shake her head.
How to nod.
How to sign "more" and "all done" and "milk" and "eat" and "please"
How to giggle.

How to sit up.
How to roll over.
How to stand.
How to walk.
How to run.
How to climb.
How to jump.

How to sleep through the night.
How to eat from a bottle.
How to hold her bottle.
How to use a sippy cup.
How to use a fork and spoon.

How to stick her hand through her blankie.
How to splash and make bubbles in the tub.
How to laugh at her own jokes.
How to dance and sing.
How to moo and bark and baa and meow and tweet.

How to blow kisses and give hugs and kisses.
How to melt hearts.

Happy 18 Months Nutty!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Raising her right

My favorite little Green Bay Packer fan:






The extra-cheesy smiles are thanks to her Aunties Morgan and Shay-Shay :)

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Everything old is new again

Heidi got a Kangaroo Climber from Mom and Dad for her birthday this summer. Well, in all actuality, she got it a month or two before her birthday because I thought it was pointless to make her wait to use it until July 17th when she could get more use out of it if she got it earlier in the summer. Anyway. She got a KC in early June for her birthday. And she started actually using it about two months ago. I don't know if I was ahead of myself in buying it for her, if it's because she was a late walker/climber, or if she just had to see the thing for 5 months before she figured out what in the world it was for, but either way, we're getting our money's worth now.

Heidi will climb the sides, jump around inside, sometimes even crawl through the holes, put things down the slide, fling herself over the half door, and peek in through the windows, but her favorite thing to do is climb up inside and jump off into the waiting arms of either mom or dad.



Or maybe she just likes the fact that I brought it in the house for the winter. Perhaps it will go by the wayside again when it gets moved outside when the warm weather returns. Who knows.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The hair post

Seriously. What am I supposed to do about her hair. I've tried: baby shampoo, detangling spray, leave-in conditioner for babies, baby shampoo+really heavy conditioner that comes with hair dye kits, mom intensive moisture shampoo+mom intensive moisture conditioner, really expensive leave in repair conditioner. Kids' 2-in-1 shampoo & conditioner w/one of the aforementioned leave-in products. And any and all combinations of the above.

And still I'm left with this:



Ideas?
Other than extensions or shaving her head we're about out.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Three fairly random unrelated things

1. Nutty's new words are some of my favorites. They include:
  • Ho Ho Ho (okay, I trained her to say this one)
  • Whoa (often said when falling or jumping or for some reason, in the car)
  • Hot (particularly makes me proud because she said it today when I was near the oven and she was not). "Hot" is often followed by her attempts at blowing, which seems to actually be sucking in air, but a valiant effort none-the-less.
  • "Mow" (Heidi for "Meow")
  • Whee (said as she throws various baby dolls, figurines, blocks, etc. down the slide)
  • One, two, three (okay, I'll be honest, I usually say them and she usually makes grunting noises. Today it really did sound like she said "two" after I said "one." Verdict is still out.
2. New Year's Eve recap: The most fun I've had in a long time. Super abdominal workout from literally rolling-on-the-floor laughing. Brandy slush. Words that may or may not have come up during game play: gonads, treadmill, slong, mine is hard, mine is long, mine is greasy? And Luigi is mean.

3. New year, new resolution. Or really a repeat of last year's resolution. Last year I resolved to live more consciously. I'm resolving that again this year. Living more consciously means thinking more about my parenting (and occasionally putting this laptop down so I can actually play with my amazing, growing-way-too-fast daughter), my spending (and I actually thought of this at the beginning of the month, so I'm starting the cash-only plan for fun money and groceries), and generally living a healthier lifestyle (including meal-planning--which also helps with spending, exercising--ask me about my walk to Milwaukee, and *sigh* I will try to cut down on the Mountain Dew at least).

Happy 2010 everyone.

Oh yeah, I'm also attempting to do a Photo-a-day on Flickr. Here's the link. I'm new to Flickr, so it'll be a learning process, I'm sure.