17 Months Old

Some observations about Shelby at 17 months old:

• She has some new words, including "outside" and "bow." What a girly girl! She asks for bows in the morning while we get dressed, and will hand the bow to you if she pulls it out of her hair and say "bow?" like she's asking you to put it back in. She also loves her shoes, saying the word "shoes" and carrying around things like paper gift bags and her pouch of crayons like a purse. Oh dear.
• She's been saying "hi" and "bye" for a while now, but she's been really into saying it lately at the appropriate time, and to specific people. Those people can be total strangers, grocery check out people, or her classmates... she will say hi and bye over and over again until they acknowledge her! She is quite the attention seeker!
• She is obsessed with blueberries and yogurt, more so than usual. But only YoBaby organic baby yogurt. Of course her favorite foods would be expensive avocado, blueberries and organic yogurt! No expense spared for our growing girl ;)
• She is really into saying "all done" after meals and will even take off her bib and clean her face if we give her the cloth. She's still getting the hang of utensils and loves trying to drink out of an open cup. She still douses herself though! She will also say "down" and "up" when she wants to move or get out of her high chair.
• We still bathe her in her little baby tub and will keep doing so until she no longer fits! We bathed her in a regular tub on vacation and she hated it! She doesn't like water to be poured on her head and screamed bloody murder every time. In her baby tub, we can lean her back on the reclining backrest and she will happily suck her thumb while we wash her hair.
• She also screams bloody murder when we try to brush her teeth and I am hoping she will warm up to this necessary task soon!
• I think she is finally starting to fully wean. I wasn't pushing it because she sleeps all night and is down to only nursing once or twice a day, and everything I read said you should let them wean on their own. She nurses a little at bedtime but hasn't nursed to sleep in a long time and will happily play in her crib until drifting off to sleep. No matter what time we put her down - 7:00, 7:15 or 7:25 - she always seems to fall asleep right at 7:30. When we got back from vacation, she discovered a fun new game of throwing every lovey out of her crib and then calling for us to come get them!
• She really wants us to down on the ground playing with her at all times and if we are sitting on the couch or sitting down, she will march over and try to push us out of the chair! It's pretty cute.
• She is also getting really good at mimicking things we do. It's funny to see what she will copy and what she thinks is funny.
• I think she's getting bored with her baby toys and it's probably time to change them out for some different and more complicated toys. What are your favorite toys for an 18 month old?
• She is a confident walker, almost-runner and climber and has started to figure out how to gingerly scott herself back down steps, although we will not be removing the baby gates anytime soon! She will confidently climb up to the highest platform on our neighborhood playground and stand at the edge and wait for you to pick her up. This makes me very nervous, but she loves it.
• On our vacation, we also taught her "jump" in the pool and she jumped into our arms a few times. The pool had a small ledge running all the way around so she could sit level with the water. It wasn't so much a jump as it was a scoot, but it was still cute! Scott says he wants her to go underwater by the end of the summer, but I am not sure if she is brave enough for that, considering how much she hates water in her face!
• Her hair is getting so long and will now hang down her back when it's wet. I love her crazy curls and how funny her bed head looks when she first wakes up. She is starting to look more like a little girl and less like a baby every day. It makes me want to cry and I can't believe she will be a year and a half old next month!

Beach Video

Here's a short video of Shelby on vacation. I love the Little Miss Priss walking, the crazy post-nap bed head and playing that net like an air guitar. We found that net discarded on the beach one morning and she couldn't put it down for the rest of the trip. Don't worry... that trip at the end didn't end in tears!

Back from the Beach

We had an amazing beach vacation to the beautiful Florida gulf! It was great to get away for an entire week and relax (sort of). It's impossible to truly relax with an active toddler, but we played, strolled, vegged out and beached as much as possible before crashing each night. We were on central time, so the sun was high in the sky and days began early at 6:00 a.m. but ended earlier, too, as we were usually in bed before 10:00 every night!

The area we stayed in - Rosemary Beach - is absolutely perfect for families with children and we never ran out of things to do. Besides the beach and pool, there were wonderful walking trails, interesting play spaces, yummy kid-friendly restaurants that weren't Stevie B's Pizza, pretty water fountains, and toy and ice cream stores galore. The perfect place to spoil a kid rotten! Fortunately, Shelby is still a little too young to beg for ice cream and candy, but she did get spoiled by being allowed to watch Sesame Street every morning, drink lots of juice and nibble on a bite of donut!

We started off most mornings with an active stroll to nearby Alys Beach. There was a cute little donut truck there, where we could fuel up with a sweet treat before strolling around the incredibly beautiful walking trails and park areas.

After that, we'd suit up for a trip to the beach and then the pool. It was so convenient to have our chairs and umbrella set up for us each morning, and our gulf-front pool was a welcome and refreshing way to cool off after we had enough sun and sand. Shelby was a little more cautious here than she was in Wrightsville Beach (my family is safe - no damage or flooding from Irene). Although the waves were smaller, the shore break was a little steeper and the tiny waves snuck up a little faster. I also think her eyes were more sensitive to the bright reflection off the white sand. She also didnt' seem to like much sand to get on her. She seemed to enjoy herself much better in the shade of the pool. The ocean water was so clear, you could see everything - we saw schools of small fish, crabs, stingrays and even a couple of tiny sharks!

After our busy mornings, we retreated to the cool AC in our house and had lunch and then Shelby (and sometimes mommy) crashed for a nap. I was able to get back out to the beach sans baby for a few of the days and enjoy some sun and solitude - it was heavenly! I feel completely peaceful and recharged when I get to sit on the beach and read, swim in the ocean and walk along the edge of the water. Sun, sand and salt is good for my soul! The crystal blue waters and white sand made me feel like I was in the Caribbean... it reminded me so much of Grand Cayman were we spent our honeymoon. And the slow season had already started so we practically had the beach to ourselves.

We never ran out of choices for delicious and kid-friendly restaurants and our afternoons/early evenings were spent eating out, shopping and strolling around the incredibly adorable downtown Rosemary. It was so perfectly planned, it almost felt like we were in the Disney World of beaches - so quaint and cute! We hardly got in our car all week, except to venture to nearby Seaside one night and Grayton Beach on another night.

We have some friends that live down there and they graciously offered to babysit, so on our final night there we put Shelby to bed early and got to have a special date night in Grayton Beach! Heaven! The waitress and manager kept apologizing for the wait, but we hardly noticed and told them the could take their time - it was wonderful to not have to rush through a dinner. They even gave us a free dessert for our "wait." A dinner out was a nice way to end the week - thanks Chris and Mauri! We got together a few other times and it was fun to dine with friends, discover some colorful local "dives" when we were tired of the spiffed up tourist restaurants and get the inside scoop on the day's forecast straight from the weatherman himself!

As fun as vacations are, it's nice to be back in our own home and we're rested, refueled and ready to head into fall and football season! We even said it "felt like fall" today - and it was still over 90 degrees! It's amazing what you think feels like fall after you spend a balmy week at the beach and return to the relative low humidity of Atlanta.There were even a few leaves in our yard. Yep, fall is definitely in the air!

A bunch of pictures (but just a fraction of the many, many pictures we took) from our trip are in the new gallery. Look on the right side of the page or click here.

Happy 17 Months from the Beach!

Smile!

Shelby after school, laying on my lap. She's hot, sweaty and covered in crumbs but I think she looks adorable anyway. She looks so old!

Shelby's Manners

A cute, yet very messy dinner. Shelby decided it would be fun to dump her food out and yell into her bowl. She does that a lot now - yells into cups, bowls, etc. to hear her echo. A few moments before, she was wearing her bowl like a hat and even said "hat." She's also started to put things back into containers (crayons into the cup, etc.) and you can see here where she puts a couple of peas back into her dish. So... I guess she's sort of cleaning up? (Nah!) She's not normally this rambunctious and animated at dinner. I guess it's time to work on some table manners!

Social Butterfly

Shelby is feeling much better after her bout with croup, which is good because we had a busy weekend jam-packed with birthday parties. On Saturday morning we went to Athens for a birthday party and Shelby had a great time toddling around and visiting with little friends. She did great when her nap time got pushed back more than an hour and napped without a problem at our friend's house. It was a good test run for this fall when we will try to make it to a couple of tailgates.

On Sunday morning we went to another birthday party and it was once again a perfect opportunity to wear her out with lots of playtime and interaction! She napped for nearly three hours on both days. Pictures of our weekend are in the gallery.

She's been super clingy with me lately, which I think is a lingering byproduct of her classroom transition. We thought she'd be fully transitioned after the first week, but then she was out sick for three days so it was like starting all over again. She cried a little on Monday but was better today. I think it is a developmental thing and she's putting two and two together and predicting when we might leave her. Scott's mom came over this weekend and she started immediately crying when she saw her, which she has never done before! I think it was because she can now actually remember the times she's come over to babysit and that it means that mom and dad might leave! We had made dinner plans together and were not leaving this time, but it's interesting to see her memory develop. I just wish my poor baby wouldn't cry!

She was in a great mood today after school and was really funny and cute. She will bounce a ball with us and has discovered the fun of crawling in between my legs. She thought she was being hilarious! She's a funny girl.

Shelby's Words

Today I made a list of all the words that I could think of that Shelby can either say or recognize. It really added up! Some she can say, some she knows the sign/motion for and some are objects she can identify when you say the word. It's amazing how fast she is picking things up!

1. Mama
2. Daddy
3. cat
4. dog
5. duck
6. turtle
7. water
8. banana
9. up
10. down
11. ball
12. balloon
13. bubbles
14. light
15. night night
16. shoe
17. hat
18. brush teeth
19. foot
20. head
21. eyes
22. ear
23. nose
24. mouth
25. hand
26. Grover
27. Elmo
28. all done
29. more
30. hi
31. bye bye
32. no
33. yes
34. uh oh
35. mine

Poor Baby!

While everyone else was sending their babies off to the first day of school today, I was home with mine... she has croup! It is heartbreaking to listen to her little "seal bark" cough and I feel so bad for her when she can't sleep! She's hoarse from coughing and she was so tired tonight, she fell asleep during bathtime and bedtime! It's horrible because she seems fine during the day and then the coughing fits come at night. From scarlet fever to croup.... it seems like Shelby's caught everything in her short little life. I hate to see her suffer and wish I could take it all away.

At her doctor's appointment today she weighed in at 20 pounds and 14 ounces. She still hasn't broken 21 pounds yet! It seems like she eats well, but I guess she is just going to be a little tiny bean for a while longer!

My Baby's Growing Up!

We made it through the first week of Shelby's classroom transition! She cried for a minute or two each morning at drop off and Scott said it was heartbreaking! I am glad I don't have to do drop offs... I wouldn't be able to do it! She cried a little less each day and her teachers said she was fine the rest of the day. She had no problem napping without the crib, and warmed up quickly to her new surroundings. I know this is only the first of many transitions and new moments for her, but it never gets easy! Shelby going off to college? I don't even want to think about it!

I guess she has to grow up sometime. This is a pretty fun stage we're in right now because it seems like she is doing something new and cute every day. Plus, how adorable are toddlers when they walk? Her teachers call her "Little Lady" because she walks with such sass! Here are a few fun new things that Shelby's up to lately:

• She's starting to string together words and it's so sweet! She now consistently says "all done" when she's finished eating and says "mama bye" in the mornings. It makes my heart melt!
• She has also started saying "mine" - and can be very possessive about some objects!
• She enjoys taking steps backwards. It's weird and funny at the same time, like she's trying to moonwalk!
• She also enjoys standing or leaning against walls. Weird, I know.
• She is getting good at identifying objects and their uses. She will often bring me my shoes and try to put them on me, or want me to put them on myself. She also brushes her hair with a brush. So cute!
• She can also identify drawings of dogs and cats in many different books, even though the illustration style is different in each one.
• When we say "brush your teeth" she moves her finger back and forth in front of her mouth to mimic tooth brushing. Now... if we could only get her to actually tolerate a real toothbrush!

I know why toddlers are so cute - it's to make the tantrums more bearable! She hasn't had a full-blown meltdown tantrum yet, but I can tell she's is getting more fussy and demanding, more often. It's like she gets frustrated because she doesn't have the words or ability to express her wants. We went grocery shopping after school this week and she fussed a little, which she's never done before while shopping. Once again... I was almost that parent! It's kind of funny because when you try to give her the object that you think she wants and it's not what she wants, she turns away dramatically and indignantly like you just insulted her. Our doctor said the best thing you can do is just ignore the tantrum... but does laughing at her count?