First day of preschool

Blakely had her first day of preschool on August 11.  

She is still going to MDO but their 4 year old class is now a preschool class with a new teacher.  She still has another year after this year before kindergarten so I was fine with giving this class a shot and not moving her to pre-K at a new school.  

Short back story.  Blakely has had the same teacher for the 2 years she has been going to MDO.  Last spring the 4 year old teacher was let go from MDO and Blakely's teacher (Mrs. Anita) was again going to move up a class and would be Blakely's teacher.  I was thrilled.  I love her and totally trust her with my biggest baby.  Well a couple of months later the director of MDO got a new job at one of the public schools here so Mrs. Anita applied and got the director's job.  I was mildly concerned because that meant they would have to hire a new 4 year old teacher and I am totally spoiled with Blakely having always had the same one!  

But then I met the new teacher at orientation and she is very nice and really motivated to get the kids learning.  She had lots of plans and good ideas for this new preschool class and so far we are loving it.  Blakely is getting structured learning time but still getting plenty of play time (I am firmly in the camp that kids learn A LOT just by playing).  So everything is fine and I worried for no reason.  If this would have been Blakely's year before kindergarten I would have been SERIOUSLY worried with the last minute teacher change but it's not so everything is fine.  

I can't even tell you how big my girl is looking.  Gosh.  It is crazy.  She is such a little girl and no one can believe me when I tell them that she isn't even 4 yet.  They always think she is at least 5.  Here is her on her first day and last day of 3 year old MDO.  

Little miss long legs.  She is so grown up.  I love this "baby" so much.  She has handled becoming a big sister so well and is so helpful.  I can see the sassiness of 3 fading and the sweetness of 4 coming into view!  

The last baby thing

A few weeks ago we did away with the very last "baby" thing in Blakely's life.  We took her out of her crib.  :(

I was in the camp of CRIB FOR LIFE for a long time.  She loved her crib.  She slept wonderfully in her crib.  She has been able to climb out of it for nearly 2 years now but she just didn't.  We put her in there and she went to sleep.  She liked being in there.  

Want to know what finally made me make the change?  Gymnastics.  Blakely learned how to do rolls over the bar at gymnastics and then that very same afternoon decided the she could do those same rolls over the rail of her crib.  Here is the video of her first learning this.  At first she would let go and land on the mat on her back but by the end of class she had it down and did about 20 of these things in a row.  

Yeah...not safe to flip out of the crib.  

Lonnie and I started talking about it and decided that we didn't want to convert the crib to a toddler bed just to have to convert it back in a few months for a new baby (please, universe, please!) and then still have to get Blakely used to a new bed.  There is a queen bed in her room already so we thought we would just move her to that bed.  Will she fall off the queen bed?  We weren't sure but it is pretty high because it has a mattress topper on it as well as box springs and a frame.  I didn't want to put the mattress on the floor because that meant storing box springs and a bed frame somewhere in my house.  I am in a major purge mode and am trying to get rid of all our excess junk.  The idea of that just laying around....no.

So we just went for it and put her in the super big girl bed.  We laid pillows all around the sides of the bed and lined her 50 peeps up on the sides of the bed as well.  

Seriously a lot of peeps...

She freaking loves it.  Has never looked back.  She doesn't move a lot when she sleeps so falling off the bed hasn't been an issue.  Sometimes she gets turned sideways but eventually finds her way back to her pillow.  The best part?  It is so much easier to put her down at night.  I can get in the bed and snuggle with her while we read and sing songs.  Then we give kisses and she is already in a comfy position and goes right to sleep when I leave.  It rocks.  

We have had a few nights where she called me back down there a few times for "another hug and kiss" but other than that the transition has been smooth.  The first week or so I would go back down there immediately if she started calling for me because I didn't want her to get out of the bed.  That seemed to work because she doesn't get out and always waits for me to come and get her in the morning.  Sweet!  

I would say the most negative thing about it so far is that she is waking up earlier!  Ugh!  She usually sleeps until 7:30 but since this change she wakes up at 6.  Wayyyy too early for this mama.  Slowly but surely she is sleeping later.  We have made it to about 6:45 now and I am hoping to get back to the 7:30 routine since I function a lot better at that hour.  

I am so happy my girl loves her big girl bed!  The plan is to leave her there until we have another baby or don't and then we will make her a big girl room with her own new bed.  Ideally I will get pregnant in about 2 weeks (again, please universe!) the new baby will get Blakely's room with all the same furniture and then we can make Blakely a new big girl room.  I am trying not to plan that out too much but it is pretty hard.  Infertility puts your life on hold so much.  Anyway, I am thankful the transition went well and I am sure that now I have typed all this out that she will hate the bed from now on and get up 23 times per night. Hopefully not ;)  

First hair cut

On July 17th, at 2.75 years old, Blakely got her very first haircut.  I know that sounds crazy.  I really should have done it a few months ago but time just got away from me.  The girl had some seriously stringy hair and needed a trim like whoa.  I took her to my friend Hannah.  She does my hair and Lonnie's too.  Blakely has been with us a few times so I knew she would do fine sitting in the chair.  Hannah has even put her in the chair and brushed her hair before.  

I just wanted a tiny trim and that is exactly what Hannah did.  It immediately looked so much healthier.  The front part of her hair is starting to FINALLY catch up to the back now as well. I think in another month or so I will take her back for another trim.  

You can't even really tell a difference in the before and after pictures.  Except that her hair is dirtier in the after pics.  I took the before's before she went to MDO and the after was after a full day of playing and sweating.  Anyway, for documentation sake...

I really should take a better picture because now you can tell a difference when she wears her hair down.  One thing is for sure...her hair is getting so long!  

First trip to the dentist!

The week before we left for Florida Blakely had her first appointment with the dentist!  I was a little nervous and had been putting it off for months.  But recently she became really good with brushing her teeth and actually wanting to do it multiple times a day (thank you Bubb.le Gup.pies).  So I bit the bullet and made the call.  

We talked about it a little the week of the appointment but nothing too major.  I actually had an appointment to get a filling fixed a few days before her and I told her all about it and made it sound like a freaking carnival.  I certainly didn't show her this picture of me with fear written all over my face.  

I survived.  

She jumped right up in the chair and when Ms. Tammy laid it back she said "this is so fun!"  I think Ms. Tammy was expecting to only count her teeth and be done but since Blakely was so good she got to do the full exam. 

They brushed them, polished them, flossed them and even took X-rays.  Then Dr. Brien came over to check them out.  

He told her she had perfect teeth and then let her pick out a new toothbrush, toothpaste and a toy from the toy box.  

I took Shannon's advice and showed her some yo.utube videos on our way there.  She loved them.  I really think this is what helped us to be successful at the dentist.  She knew what to expect.  From the chair to the water sprayer she knew what was coming.  Another thing I think that helped was that I just sat over in my chair and didn't enter in.  I didn't really tell her what to do I just let Ms. Tammy talk to her.  She usually listens to other people better anyway!  A few times when she glanced at me I would open my mouth really wide so she would do the same and she did.  

In between brushing and flossing, Blakely looked over at me and said "I being a big girl, Mommy".  My heart just melted.  I was so proud of her.  Not just because she was being good at the dentist but because she is my little girl.  Not my baby.  My sweet little girl that is growing up so fast right before my eyes.  

17

Blakely is 17 months old today!  I've resigned myself to the fact that she is rapidly becoming a little girl.  It is amazing to watch really.  Here are a few of my favorite pics from this month.  

She climbed into his shirt and was soooo proud of herself!

Her big things this month.  

• Girl is obsessed with shoes.  All shoes.  My shoes, her shoes, or Lonnie's shoes.  Shoe was actually one of her first words...it sounds like ISH.  Her new favorite is to put on our shoes and walk around in them.  She thinks this is hilarious.  Also, wearing shoes with pajamas is cool too.  

so excited...

• She is also obsessed with bracelets or "pretties".  This is my aunt Jenni's fault.  She always wears bracelets and Blakely has played with them since she was months old.  I have given up on keeping any of my bracelets to myself.  The other day we were outside playing and she was running around like a wild child.  But girlfriend kept her left wrist raised up the whole time so her pretties wouldn't fall off.  Smart.  

• She is for real interested in the potty.  I am not sure what to do about it.  I still feel like she is too young to quite understand but then I also don't want to miss our opportunity to teach her about it either.  I guess I need to read a book.  Anytime I use the bathroom this is what she does.  I mean....this is hilarious!

• She loves fruit.  Especially berries.  Her favorites are strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.  She will eat a carton of raspberries in one sitting easily.  

• I am looking into getting her started in gymnastics.  My friend told me they can start when they are 18 months.  I think she is ready, don't you?

Hi mom!

• She went to her very first birthday party this month!  She had such a great time.  It was for our sweet friend Eli.  Katie did the party in a camping theme and everything was so adorable.  She had a huge tent set up and I swear B ran in and out of that thing 200 times.  

• Her vocabulary expands by the day it seems.  I can ask her to say a word and she tries to repeat it.  Most of the time it sounds pretty close.  Her newest 2 words are yellow (ya-yo) and purple (puhpuh).  Her most frequently used word is uh-oh.  
• I am working on teaching her shapes right now.  She can pick out a heart every time, star and diamond about half of the time.  For some reason circle, square, and triangle go right over her head.  The flashcards I have are the shape on the front and then an object in that shape on the back so she calls the square a cracker.  Then we have to eat a cracker so that is the end of the the shape lesson!
• Animals are still a big favorite around here.  I found these "toobs" (no idea why they spell it like that) of animals on Am.azon and at Mich.aels.  They are pretty small but she doesn't really put anything in her mouth anymore so I don't worry about it.  I also don't keep them out.  We put them up and bring them out to play when she wants to.  

We have this one which is pets.  We also have the jungle and ocean animals.  I can't really explain how much she loves these little animals!  They have other things besides animals as well.  I have the "on the road" toob (different types of cars, trucks, etc), "in the water" toob (types of boats, submarines, etc) and "in the air" toob (planes, hot air balloons, helicopters, etc).  We have a book of first words and her favorite page is the one with all of the tractors, trucks, boats, cars, and trains so I thought she would like these toobs as well.  I haven't given them all to her yet.  I'll be waiting for a rainy day :)

This girl makes us so happy.  After she goes to bed at night Lonnie and I sit around and talk about how great she is and how happy she makes us.  We are so lucky to be her parents!  She makes us laugh constantly.  She has such a little personality.  I look forward to watching that little personality grow and grow!  Happy 17 months Blakely!  

16 months + photo dump

Our sweet B is now 16 months old.  I feel like I say this each month but she has grown up so much!  It really blows my mind how much this little person understands.  Toddlers are so smart!  I thought at 16 months I would do the full update like I did months 1-12.  

A few things about Blakely this month...

Blakely will bring me a clean diaper when she is poopy.  If there isn't a clean one around she says "pie-puh" or she brings me the wipes.  I know she isn't ready to potty train but surely this is a good sign that she sort of understands?  Anyway, one morning while we were in the bathroom, she found her little Min.nie mouse seat that goes on our regular toilet.  I decided to just plop her on there and see how she reacted.  This is the look I got...

She had no clue what was going on but I let her sit there and we read a book for a few minutes.  She pooped!  I was pretty shocked but I think she just did it because she poops every morning like clockwork.  She didn't really understand the difference.  I haven't put her on there again and I probably won't.  I want to get her her own little potty...I think she will feel more comfortable with that.  

We have had some nice days this month.  Just a little tease of spring every few days.  It has been great to be able to take her outside and burn some energy.  It makes me look forward to better weather!

She loves playing with this mini basketball outside.  I throw it.  She goes to get it.  Repeat.  

She also loves to run around the car.  

Or she plays with sticks....she is obsessed.  

She makes the kissing noise when she kisses now.

She actually took a nap with me one morning.  She hasn't done this in AGES.  It was so very nice and I miss that.  

She can make a mess like no other.  When I take a shower with just the two of us at home (rare), I let her run around our bathroom and play with her toys.  She usually just plays with her bath toys or the things in one of the drawers that she knows she can get it.  Well, the other day this is what my bathroom looked like when I got out of the shower.  Keep in mind that there was not a single thing on the floor when I got in.  

She is very good at helping me pick things up though.  I make her help me pick her toys up before her nap, before we leave the house, and before bed.  So far she thinks that is fun.  So she did help me clean up those messes in the picture above.  

She can rock the pigtails now.  I think I can probably get most of her hair into one ponytail now but I haven't tried yet.  It would take some bribery to get her to be still for that!  

She is pretty sassy.  She gives this look quite a bit.  

sassy stance....

She loves laying on the kitchen floor.  She will lay there and play with her toys or she will squirm around and give the floor kisses. 

She knows where her tummy, ears, nose, tongue, teeth, hair, toes, and fingers are.  

Where's your tummy?

She has discovered her nostrils.  This leads to a finger in the nostril often.  :-/ 

She absolutely haaaaates getting water poured over her head in the bathtub.  This makes washing her hair super fun.  

EATING
For the most part, B is a good eater.  She definitely has things that she would prefer (bread, cheese, crackers) but she will eat some veggies as long as I give those to her first.  I made some chicken drumsticks the other night and she went to town on them!

She is sort of learning how to use her fork and spoon.  I hate it because it gets so messy.  She knows that she can make her food fly if she wants to.  She does pretty good with the spoon if she is eating yogurt or oatmeal.  She doesn't quite get the fork though.  

Her favorite foods are: mac & cheese, peas, bread or toast with butter, breakfast sausage, cheese slices, crackers of any kind, chicken, bananas, grapes, and greek yogurt

Her dislikes are: tuna (I've tried multiple times), red sauce (no spaghetti or ravioli), and carrots....she throws them away every time.  

She drinks a lot of milk each day.  I would guess probably about 24-26 ounces.  I give her three 9 ounce sippy cups a day but she doesn't finish each one.  I give her a cup of milk with her breakfast, her lunch and then with her dinner.  In between she gets water, which she likes, but not as much as milk!  

We did have a somewhat interesting experience with food this month.  One day for lunch I gave her one of those steam in the bag veggie combos...it was like potatoes and peppers or something.  I gave her some ranch dressing to use as a dip (thanks Shannon for the dip tip!).  She was loving it but after about 10 minutes I noticed she looked like she had a bright red ring around her mouth.  I washed her up and noticed it was spreading across her face and getting more red and splotchy.  I didn't freak out because she seemed fine.  I did call Lonnie and tell him.  It lasted about 30 minutes and then faded away.  I figured it was something in those steamer bags because she had ranch before.  A few days later I gave her some broccoli and cauliflower and ranch as dip.  SAME THING.  Major red splotchy rash appeared where the ranch dressing had touched her face...she is messy so it was pretty much all over. So, apparently she has become allergic to ranch dressing or something in it?  She doesn't have any other symptoms just a red rash where the ranch touches.  Isn't that strange?  Sooo no more ranch for a while.  I sure hope she outgrows it or something because she will be missing some yumminess!  

SLEEPING
Blakely goes to bed at 7 every night and wakes up at about 730 every morning.  We have almost completely cut out the morning nap.  She only naps in the morning if she wakes up before 730 or if she is sick.  I like only having the one nap.  We are able to go out and do things without having to run home for her nap.  She also has started sleeping later in the mornings because of the one nap.  

Her afternoon nap is usually at 1 and lasts until 3 or 330.  

TEETH
Let's talk about teeth.  If I could get my finger in there to check I would tell you.  All I know is that I am pretty sure she has all of them but one.  When the doctor looked in her mouth a couple of weeks ago he said she had a "full set" of molars".  I may be crazy but I really think she has her 2nd year molars already.  Is that crazy?  It feels like she has her canines and then 2 teeth past that.  I am going to bribe her with a sucker to see into her mouth better tomorrow.  I can't really complain too much because she has handled it pretty well.  She poured drool like a faucet for about a week and was just irritable in general.  Some days she didn't eat too well but that was really it.  Mouthful of chompers...

TALKING
Blakely has about 20+ words that she can say regularly and without prompting.  I have tried to make a list just so I can look back and see what she was actually saying.  She will try to mimic anything I ask her to say.  Sometimes it comes out pretty good and then others not so much.  It is adorable listening to her "talk" though.  

mama
dada
Gran Di (dan-die)
no
more (muh)
milk (mee)
up (bup)
hi
bye bye
please (bees)
thank you (tan-tu)
Minnie
duck (duh)
chicken (chi-chin)
fish (ish)
dog (daw)
cracker (cha-chuh)
bear (bur)
bird (buh)
ball (baa)
shoe (igsh...a very weird sound indeed)
uh oh
Pop Pop
diaper (pie-puh)
snack (na)
tree (tee)

HER FAVORITE TOYS
She got a farm animal puzzle for her birthday.  Well mama threw the puzzle out real quick because it didn't have an on/off button.  Therefore, it talked all.the.time.  Even in the middle of the night when no one was touching it!  Anyway, I kept the puzzle pieces for her to play with. I have them in a little basket and she loves them so much.  There are 8 of them and she knows them as her "animals".  There is a rooster, pig, cow, horse, sheep, dog, cat and a duck.  She can makes the noise for all of them except the duck and cat...can't quite get those down.  They are puzzle pieces so they are all sort of an odd shape.  The other day I turned them all face down.  Then I asked her where the dog was.  She reached right for the dog and turned it over.  I then asked her all of the other animals and she didn't miss a beat, turning each one over correctly the first time.  I was seriously blown away...I mean she knew the random shapes of the pieces and which one was which animal!  As I am typing this I am thinking I should do a post about Blakely's favorite toys!  


She still is loving her books.  When we put her to bed she wants us to look through like 25 books.  She would sit there forever just pointing to things in the books and us telling her what they were.  She doesn't really like for us to "read" them.  She just wants to know what every single thing on the page is.  Tree, grass, sky, flower, monkey, car, boat, water, butterfly...you get the idea.  

She loves playing with any type of ball.  She will roll it to me and I have recently taught her how to kick the ball.  

MOMMY'S FAVORITE
This may be a little mean but I have to tell it.  Keep in mind...DADDY'S GIRL...always has been.  Once he gets home from work she doesn't care a thing about mama...ever.  

A few weeks ago I took Blakely up to work to see Lonnie.  I do this frequently but I don't usually go inside.  He just comes out to the car to see us.  Well he was having a slow day so I decided to surprise him and go in.  I let her walk in on her own instead of carrying her...that is rare.  The room he was working in was very dark (he was reading mammograms that day).  When we walked in I guess her eyes hadn't adjusted so she couldn't really see him and he scared her by swooping her up.  She started screaming crying.  Like hysterical.  And leaning for me!!!  He handed her back to me and she stopped.  We walked around to see a few people and then I gave her back to him...screamed.  She did this multiple times.  I could not believe it.  She has always been the opposite from the day we brought her home.  She would cry cry cry when I held her and then I would hand her to Lonnie and she would snuggle up and go to sleep.  He told me at work that day that now he knew how I felt!  I think he got his feelings hurt a little bit but he got over it quick.  Dare I say she is becoming a bit of a Mommy's girl??  

My babytoddler definitely grew into a toddler in the last 4 months.  I could not be more proud of her.  

Pink pumpkin 1st birthday party!

I am pretty sure this is the longest post in the history of blogging.  I thought about breaking it into 2 posts but that got to be way too hard.  So here it all is with waaaay too many pictures :) 

Blakely's birthday party was on her actual birthday, last Saturday the 13th.  We had it at our house and I tried to keep it pretty small.  We just had our family and close friends.  Lonnie didn't think we really needed a party and I told him that he was insane.  He gave me the obligatory "she isn't even going to remember it" whine.  I told him that he just needed to get over it...we were having a party!  Let's face it, the party wasn't as much for her as it was for me, right?  A reason to craft, shop, decorate, and eat.  All awesome.

So I decided on a pumpkin theme.  Sarah and I decorate pumpkins every year so this just seemed like the perfect way to go.  At first, I was just going to do orange, green, and white for the colors but I felt like it needed something.  It wasn't "girly" enough.  I decided to throw some pink in and then I found this invitation...

Yeah, it was perfect!

I have been planning the party for a few months now and most spare time I had was spent making things for the party or making lists of things to do/get for the party.  I got a lot of the ideas from Pin.terest but I didn't pin any of them because I didn't want everyone to see before the party!  Plus, if I pinned then people would be expecting some sort of awesome and that was too much pressure.  I definitely had a vision though, and I feel like it came together perfectly.  I had a lot of help of course...thank you Sarah!  And my mom for coming over and watching B every night for like 2 weeks so I could get stuff done.  It is amazing how much there is to do for a party for a one year old.  I had fun doing it but I am definitely glad it is done and now I can focus on something else.  Like Christmas!

All in all it was a great day celebrating our sweet girl.  I actually didn't cry once that day!  We are so very lucky to have so many friends and family that love our Blakely.  I couldn't have asked for anything more for her big birthday.  

Here is a complete picture overload for you now :)

The driveway from the front door

This was our "pumpkin path" leading to the front door.  Pumpkin shaped place mats (super cheap).

B waiting for the party to start.  

Hi everyone!

This was in my entryway.  

a few up close...

Pumpkin favors that I made

This was the living room.   

So there is one pumpkin (that Sarah so beautifully chevron-ed!).  I had all of the other real pumpkins that we painted displayed behind the couch.  

Here is a close-up of the pumpkins...

I had picture frames of B's monthly pictures throughout the house.  Some were on the food table and some were in the shelving in my living room.  

I had all of the food set up in my dining room.  Here is a pic of the table and then a close up of the different dishes.  

Pumpkin dip in a carved out pumpkin 

Cheese ball made to look like a pumpkin

These were pinwheels that I (meaning my mom) stuck a toothpick though with some parsley so it would sort of look like a pumpkin.  Not a great pic but you get the idea..

Veggie cups

ADORABLE cookies that I had made at the last minute.  They are shaped liked pumpkins.  

Salted caramel cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes.  The place I got these is going to be on Cup.cake Wars soon...

This might have been my favorite thing from the party...so cute...

I didn't get a picture of the drinks after we put them out but I had two large clear dispensers.  One with orange soda and the other with pink lemonade.  I seriously love the straws too!

I also had water bottles.  Dudes, that is duc.t tape on the water bottles.  So easy and SO CUTE!

Blakely had a great time opening her gifts.  Basically she sat there while everyone watched her...perfect for my attention loving child.  The chair was her gift from me and Lonnie.

She was kind of over it after a while ;)

All of the kids played with her toys after she finished opening.  

Blakely and Aunt Sarah

Lonnie with his brother and sister-in-law

All of her presents...she's not spoiled...Geeezzz

After gifts we did cake!

She totally spit it out at first...

Yes, he did smash cake in my face.  

I got him back though ;)

She wasn't the biggest fan of cake.  She mostly just wanted to feed it to everyone else.  I have a picture of her shoving cake in just about everyone's mouth!

At the end of the party we tried to get a picture of Blakely with my friends' babies.  This is how that went.  

If you made it through all of that then you are my best friend for life!!!  And, I will share a secret with you.  I haven't taken any of these decorations down.  I can't bring myself to do it.  Maybe before Thanksgiving.  Maybe.