G’n'R Out West

So the big news around here is that Adelle has really learned how to kiss.  She was always a big cuddler, but it was like pulling teeth trying to get a kiss out of her.  Well, for a human to get a kiss out of a her.  Every dog we meet gets an endless supply, but she had no interest in sharing the love with Greg and I…  And then something changed.  These last few days she’s been pursing her lips and giving out spontaneous kisses.  It has been really fun.  She is teething so she is snotty…and had a bloody nose this weekend, so mostly she left a little something behind with the kisses…but kisses are kisses and you aren’t going to see me complain.

As for the bloody noses, that is where the lessons come in.  We have a fridge that has a freezer on one side and a fridge on the other.  Greg was rooting around this morning looking for something, and Adelle had her nose in there checking things out, and then something shifted and a frozen container of spaghetti sauce hit her on the nose.  It was a sad moment.

Anyway, she is fine, but I guess we’ll be a bit more careful in the future.

Adelle loves to help out around the house, you can’t do any chores without her running behind saying ‘helpa, helpa’.  When she puts away the groceries she finds the milk containers particularly heavy, today I even caught her her whimpering a bit under the weight, but it never seemed to occur to her to just put it down, or maybe go play while I did the chores, such a cute little helper.

Adelle got some stickers the other day from a friend.  They are her new favorite passtime.  She loves to put them on her cheeks or your cheeks.  Then she takes them off and spends some time organizing them before getting to the task of doing it all over again.

A year and a half old, and what a month we’ve had….

Sleep:
She is still a great sleeper, although she is sleeping closer to 10 1/2 hours a night now.  The last 3 nights have been pretty brutal…but maybe she is teething.  She sleeps restlessly from 8-12 and then is pretty much awake until she gets up for the day at 7 am.  She will rest when we lie with her, but she just tosses and turns and doesn’t get a very good sleep.  It makes me sad for her, but we have some nice cuddles, and I am sure this too will pass.  It happened when she got her last molar….so this might be her eye teeth…maybe?? 

She is still napping, although I am not convinced it will last long. 

Eating:
She is officially weaned.  Today she actually asked for some mama milk.  I offered it to her and she had no clue what to do.  I can’t believe she forgot.  Anyway, she seemed a little confused, but not upset, so we didn’t dwell on it. 

She is now drinking her milk from a proper cup at the table.  She is really good at it, but between the tantrums, the accidents and just plain goofing around it spills at pretty much every meal.  Growing pains….

Her eating has been great this month.  She will usually eat what we eat, and with few exceptions that is all we offer her.  She will often protest certain parts of the meal, but more often then not gives in as she continues to get used to the rules.  She has also learned that sometimes eating that last bite of veggies is worth it to have some delicious fruit for dessert. 

Getting Around:
She is constantly using the stool to check out what we are doing.  She has also really been putting in some time mastering the stairs and walking up them and down them properly.  It is a work in progress, but she is so proud of herself.  

Hair:
It is growing and I am putting it in ponytails all the time.  She LOVES to see her hair in ponytails.  She loves barrettes too, but mostly she organizes them, it is rare that she actually wants one in her hair. 

Eyes:
Mostly brown…sometimes green.  I think I will take this part of my post out. I though the eyes were still in transition, but I think they are just a browny greeny mixture that just looks different in different light.

Language:
She knows lots of words and has started to really love copying what we say.  It is fun to teach her new words.  She still only uses one word sentances.

She has also learned to pick out and say the names of her grandparents and cousins in pictures, we are now working on aunties and uncles.  She is starting to recognize them, but it isn’t as consistent as the grandparents and cousins.   

Personality:
So emotional, and it is really coming out as a never ending series of temper tantrums.  We are still trying to figure out how to help her through them…but at the moment we still can get pretty frustrated with ourselves.  She’s been doing this for a good few weeks though and we are getting a bit more clever at getting her out of them.  She is just so darn stubborn that she hates to give up on something…even if it is something she is clearly regretting while she is doing it.

One aspect of her personality that has really come through this month is her love for being a little helper.  She loves to clean up, do laundry, do the dishes, cook, vacuum, and perhaps her all time favorite is putting away groceries.  When she is done her chore she always asks for more and she can get very upset when there is nothing left to do.  Now if only we can figure out how to keep her excited about chores for another 15 years!

Stuff that happened this month:
- she called Greg ‘geg’ she was so proud to figure out his name, he was less excited about it.
- She helped me bake cookies for the first time and she loved it.
- She learned Ring Around the Rosy and wants to play it constantly.
- She learnd how to put on her boots all by herself.  They are the only shoes she can put on alone, so she is just trilled with herself.

Adelle’s boot technique

Her beloved swimsuit

Greg and I love to snowshoe, Adelle it appears, just barely tolerates her overly excitable parents

A video expose of Adelle’s cute giggle, her love for spinning and her sign for ‘please’ (rubbing her chest/belly)

Poor little Adelle had a bit of a bad morning.  She woke up, and promptly drank a full glass of water, and then a second of milk.  We got ready for daycare and jumped into the car.  Just as I was parking at daycare Adelle started coughing…only it wasn’t coughing…it was puking.  So sad.

We turned around and went home.  I left the windows open in the car and we ran inside to clean up (leaving the car for naptime!).  We got all cleaned up just in time for puke #2.  So fun!  Then we cleaned up again…and puke number 3 came, and so on and so forth. 

Poor little girl, I don’t think she was near as bothered by the barfing as she was by the mess.  My girl hates to see a mess and she was beside herself trying to figure out how to get a cuddle after her puke, while being totally stressed out about the messy puke all over both of us.  Needless to say, if the neighbours had been feeling nosy today they would have seen a few pukes, some lightening speed stripping and then some quick dashes upstairs for more cloths. 

After a while the colour came back into Adelle’s face and instead of a cuddle, she dragged me upstairs.  Once in her room she took some time to evaluate her options and thoughtfully picked out her outfit for the day (complete with a bib - which,according to Adelle, is a fashion necessity some days).  After she ensured I did her hair, she must have decided she looked presentable, as she then dragged me back downstairs requesting an orange. 

I managed to get her to eat a few bits of bread before giving in and letting her eat the orange….then the orange came back up and dirtied her bib.  Much to Adelle’s displeasure I took the bib off and put it in the laundry.  Despite the bib trauma she was able to fully recover and actually had a good lunch, nap and dinner - all puke free. 

Greg tagged me off mid morning after the majority of the puking was over.  He got to spend the day with spunky tantrumy Adelle.  The jury is still out one which Adelle is easier to spend time with.  

I am not sure what happened this morning…but apparently it is over.  Thank goodness. 

Is that a multi-word sentence?  If so…gosh darn, our baby is a genius.

Yesterday I was giving her some left-over steak for lunch, she was practically drooling as I cut it up for her.  Then I added a few veggies to her tray, and voila a perfect meal…or so I thought.  As it turns out, the veggies were one of the many tragic mistakes I have made in the past few days.  She refused to touch a single thing on her plate and didn’t eat until just before dinner that night!

Today I looked at her while we were eating our oatmeal.  She stuck her hand up towards my face swiping it back and forth yelling ‘no, no, no, no no’.  It is so sad that just looking at her can ruin her whole meal!

By far the funniest thing about living with a toddler is that you can offend them to the point of tears without realizing you’ve even done something wrong.  Then, in the next instant, they are snuggled up on you because they are crying.  I live for those snuggles.

Here is a shot of Adelle’s new hair cut.  We went to a kids hair cut place, they did a great job and she even had the confidence to sit on her own (in a race car) for the entire cut. 

And, here is my little girl cleaning up a mess on her tray.  Her favorite part of messes is the clean up.  I swear she gets more excitement from cleaning her crayon off the wall then she does from putting it there!  She also loves to find things to throw in the garbage.  Throwing things in the garbage, is probably one of her favorite hobbies…second only to washing her hands these days.  These toddler years can be a little draining…but there are certainly a few habits she is picking up that I am quite enjoying.