Saturday, October 27, 2012

12 months old!

On October 13, Blakely turned 12 months old!  Babycen.ter tried to tell me that she was now a toddler....nojustno!


Firsts this month:

B will finally clap!  I have been trying to get her to clap for months and she finally got it while we were in LA.  Now she does it all the time, especially if she is really proud of herself.  

First time riding on a bike.  

She had her first french fry...

Blake became a full time walker on 10-6.  She had taken some steps before but didn't really realize what she was doing.  Then one day she figured out what she was doing and she got so excited.  After that it was just a matter of days before she walked everywhere and rarely crawled.  It is totally adorable to see her walking.  It definitely makes me realize how grown up she is.  We have many more boo boo's now for sure.  She has bruises up and down both shins and usually has at least one on her face.  Usually she just bumps into things but a few times she has really crashed and it scared the heck out of me!

Blakely can "shake her booty"!  If I turn on any music she will start dancing.  She will even start doing it now if one of her toys sings a song.  All we have to do is tell her to shake it and she goes to town.  She actually has a bit of rhythm!

Feeding:
Blakely is almost completely weaned from nursing and on whole milk.  I do still nurse her in the morning.  She gets milk or water throughout the day but drinks a whole sippy cup of milk before her afternoon nap and before bed.  I am planning on cutting out the morning nursing this weekend (TEARS), so she will get a sippy of milk then too.  

In general, she is a good eater.  Her favorites right now are green beans, peas, sliced cheese, bread, grapes, cheerios, any of the pouches, and cottage cheese.  The biggest problem I am having with meals is that she wants to just throw everything on the floor because she thinks it is funny.  At first I just gave her something else to eat thinking she didn't want that.  Now I have been telling her that if she throws it on the floor then she is done eating.  A couple of days ago I gave her lunch and she immediately threw handfuls on the floor.  I told her no multiple times (which she totally understands) and she kept doing it.  So I took her out of the chair and told her lunch was over.  She cried for a minute and then walked around the kitchen whining for about 5 minutes.  Then I put her back in the chair and she ate every single thing on the tray.  So that tactic has worked for the past few days but I feel like it won't forever!  

Sleeping:  Sleep is great right now.  She was going to bed at 8 and sleeping until 630-7.  But now I am putting her down at 7.  She was getting really fussy around 7 each night and it was a struggle for that last hour.  So now she goes from 7 to anywhere from 6-7 the next morning.  I think now that she is walking she needs more rest.  She takes 2 naps a day.  One in the morning around 9 and the other in the afternoon around 130-2.  Most of the times both naps are about an hour.  Sometimes I will get 1.5 hours ;)

Clothing: mostly 12 month but some 18 month pants to fit over her cloth booty

Diapers: cloth during the day and disposable at night.  She wears a size 3 but about to move to a size 4.  

Weight: 20 pounds 6 ounces

Height: almost 30 inches
IT IS NOT NAP TIME, MOM!!

Eyes:  super blue with a dark blue rim on the outside.  

Hair:  light brown and sometimes looks a little red.  


Talking:  Yeah, we have a major talker on our hands.  I am not even kidding when I say she walks around the house all day long talking....constantly.  She talks to the wall, her toys, her hands, me, the dogs, really anything.  Most of the stuff I have no clue what she is saying, but she sure does!  Some of the words that I can decipher are
Ba-ball (this also means up if she is tugging on your leg)
Dada
Mama-only when crying and she doesn't call me that yet
Dan Di-Gran Di
Isth-that means shoe.  She always sprays some spit out on this one :)
Na Na-no no
Hi
Bye Bye
UH oh
Dusth dee-Dusty, our dog

A few other things I want to remember:

One of our dogs, Darwin, barks at every little thing that walks by.  I keep him outside in the yard most of the day.  Blakely will go over to the window when he is barking and knock in it and say NA NA!  So cute..

She loves to make a huge mess and can do it in no time flat.  


She understands SO much.  I really can't even believe how much of what we say she understands.  She knows the difference between our shoes.  I can say "where is Mommy's shoe?" and she will pick up mine.  Same with daddy's shoe and Blakely's shoe.  I can tell her to put her ball in her tunnel and she will do it.  She can also point to Mommy, Daddy, and Blakely's nose and ears.  If I tell her to rock she will crawl into her rocking chair and start rocking.  

She loves to pretend like she is talking on the phone.  She will pick up anything that resembles a phone, hold it to her ear and start talking.  She has my phone in this pic but you can't see it.  


I really feel like she has become such a little person this month.  She is still a baby in many ways but she is just so independent now.  I feel like we can almost have conversations because she understands me so much.  Learning every single second...

The other day when she woke up from her afternoon nap I could hear her on the monitor saying uh-oh over and over again.  Normally she wakes up crying.  I went into her room and the closer I got to the crib the more frantic the uh-oh began to sound.  I picked her up and she was nearly screaming UH-OH UH-OH!!!.  She pointed to the ground and she had thrown Jaffy her Giraffe out of the crib.  I picked him up and handed him to her and she tossed him back in the crib and was happy!  It was adorable...she just wanted to make sure Jaffy was IN the crib.  

Also, I can ask Blakely what the big brown dog says and she responds with UFF UFF..way cute.  

Dear Blakely,

I can't even believe it has been a whole year with you in our lives.  Part of me thinks it has gone by so fast but then another part doesn't remember life without you.  You are everything sweetie...just everything.  I absolutely love being your Mommy.  You make me smile and laugh everyday.  My heart just bursts with love for you every second of the day.  I am so proud of you, pea pod.  I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us!  

Love, Mommy


Monday, October 22, 2012

The Weekend

We took a little weekend getaway this past weekend.  I picked Lonnie up from work on Friday and we drove about 4 hours away to a place called Big Ce.dar L.odge.  We have been before but not  since Blakely was born.  It is really a great place, especially in the fall.  The trees were gorgeous.

We got there late Friday night.  B did great in the car.  She slept the last half of the drive and then played for about 30 minutes when we got there.  Then I put her down and she went straight to sleep.  Lonnie had a meeting the next day so it was just me and Blakely until late afternoon.  We ordered breakfast from room service and at it together in the bed.  After her morning nap I put her in the stroller and we went walking.  She loved it and the weather was perfect.  I snapped a few pictures with my phone because the card in my good camera is messed up or something.  






I took her back to the room for lunch.  More room service :)


After her afternoon nap we played in the big rocking chairs on the balcony.  


Then we took another little walk when Lonnie got out of the meeting. 


That night we all three went to dinner with some of the people from Lonnie's meeting.  B was the only child with 10 other adults.  I was a little nervous how she would do but she actually did well.  We had to take her outside a couple of times just so she could run around.  She stayed up an hour past bedtime so she was close to melting down but we left just before that could happen.  

On Sunday we headed back home.  The drive through the Ozark Mountains was absolutely gorgeous.  Colorful trees, green pastures, and blue skies with bright sunshine!  It was the perfect time of year to drive through there.  We stopped in Little Rock to drop Lonnie off at the airport because he has to go to Chicago for a few days.  B and I headed home after that.  She was super excited to get home to all of her birthday toys!

So Blakely and I are going to have a few days of just Mommy/daughter time since Daddy is out of town.  Today we went to the gym and then went on a lunch date.  

When we got home I took her outside to play in the yard.  She loved tearing up as many leaves as she could!  


Tomorrow I think we will go to the gym and then maybe the library.  On Wednesday she has her one year pictures.  I still haven't figured out what she is going to wear...probably should get on that!

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  And thank you for all of the sweet comments on her birthday party post!  



Thursday, October 18, 2012

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.