Monday, December 31, 2018

Paige at 18 months




This is 18 months! 
Silly and on her terms.
(And she was 18 months December 3rd...so I'm almost a month behind! BUT, most of this was written earlier in the month.)

Size: 32.7" (73%) and 24.25 pounds (69%). Wearing size 6 diaper, in 24-month clothes mainly (some 2T) size 5 shoe. She looks so big when I'm holding her and is hard to carry on my hip - I have to use both my arms most of the time!

Eating: I don't know if I'd call her a picky eater, but she isn't always up to trying new foods. Her favs are fruit, chicken sausage, chicken nuggets, pancakes, Mexican and fries. 

Sleep: We are happy to say she is still an amazing sleeper! Her only nap is on average at 12:20pm and lasts until about 3pm on average. We put her down for bed around 7:30pm and usually doesn't take her long to fall asleep - sometimes she rolls around and makes some noise for a little before succumbing to sleep. But once she's asleep, she's down till 7:45am on average!

Milestones/Accomplishments:
- Talking more and more. Repeating more words and saying more on her own. Paige has been more on the quiet side for a while and her speech progression has been really slow. Her pediatrician said a lot of kids have an 18-month word explosion and Paige is proving that to be true. We have seen a difference for sure this month and it brings us such joy to hear her little voice more often. And it has been fun to see the excitement from Ellie when Paige says the proper word for something. 
Some words she has said consistently (but she has, of course, repeated a ton more):
hi
no (one of her favorites) 
uh oh
Dada
Mama
owie
dog 
spots
jacket
cracker
cookie (she likes the 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..' book)
brush
please (sounds like peas)
more
milk
book
Josh (one of our good friends)
Phrases:
don't drop
don't touch
dada's jacket
more please

- Running
- Sleeping with a blanket, starting at 17 months
- 12 teeth (with 2 canine teeth right under the surface)
- Can identify where her head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, ears, chin, fingers, belly, belly button, bottom, and toes are. And can identify most of those on someone else as well.
- Climbing onto the dining chairs by herself
- Feeds herself with spoon and fork (by 16 months)
- Shares toys with other kids/adults

Likes:
- Babies
- Her big sister Ellie...usually...you know sibling love ; )
- Her daddy! When she sees him after it's been a little while (he has a few long work shifts) she gets so excited! 
- Other kids. She really likes going up to them, but if a strange kid tries to hug her, she'll literally push them away. 
- Books. She's constantly pulling them off the shelf and flipping through them. 
- "Color" with crayons, etc. 

Dislikes:
- Diaper changes. She just wants to sit up and do something else more fun.
- Sharing for the most part. You have to have a really good item to trade with. 
- Listening when it comes to things/places she shouldn't get in to or things she shouldn't do. (This girl has tested our patience SO much in this department). 
- As mentioned above - her personal space being invaded by someone (adult or kid).
- Wearing a bib. She usually takes it off halfway through her meal. 

Additional things I want to remember:
When Ellie sings, Paige will start swaying and "sing" with her. Wants a hug from Ellie when they are saying goodnight to each other. At bedtime, after story time, how she'll turn around in our arms, hug our neck and lay her head down; those moments are so precious. Can still be cautious around people she doesn't know well. Don't know if I have ever written this on the blog, but a friend said once, "Paige has judgemental eyes" (funny, but kind of true). Shushes babies/toys and rocks them up and down in her arms. Wants to be on the bathroom stool with Ellie when Ellie is getting her teeth brushed AND tries to spit into the sink like Ellie. Walks around on her tippy toes sometimes. Pulls up shirts to tickle and makes a funny "tickle" sound as she does it. 

There are always things that come to mind after I posted, but these are the main things that have stood out from this sugar and spice girl. She keeps us on our toes for sure and has taught us more about parenting than we ever had to think about with Ellie. We're always praying for wisdom and guidance on how to raise our girls; it's such a hard and wonderful thing to navigate. We are all learning, all the time. It's taught us and shown us more about God's amazing love for us and how He guides us in our mess ups and during times that aren't always easy. 


Friday, December 7, 2018

November photo favorites

^ Paige loves to put our shoes on and adding accessories! 

^ Ellie wants her photo taken with the Target dog 'Bullseye' every time we pass by it. 
(Another photo below.)

^ It's getting a little bit tight with us three girls in this chair, 
but I love when we get to share this time together.

^ I posted a video (on Instagram) of the song Ellie was singing while she walked around this pole. 
It was hilarious...
"Dashing through the snow, it's so much fun on a one horsin' sleigh, 
Hey Hey Hey, who's stolen my sled?!..."


^ What kids see, they do. Both Ellie and Steven drink the milk out of their bowl when they're done with cereal, and now Paige does as well. No coaxing at all.


^ I was able to join Ellie at her school for their Thanksgiving feast. She wanted to say "TURKEY!" when I took this photo. 

^ For the first time ever I decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving and I LOVED it!

^ Ellie will probably be sooo embarrassed by this picture when she's older. I just couldn't resist snapping this and posting it; it's too funny! So, before we left the house Ellie found one of Paige's swim diapers and wanted to wear it as a hat. And then on the drive to the store, she fell asleep. I didn't let her wear into the store, however ; )


We took a short, but sweet, trip to Oregon to visit my side of the family the week of Thanksgiving. We enjoyed our time seeing people and going downtown. 




^ Ellie has been loving crafts and Grammie had some ready for her!

^ Got to meet one of the newest little cousins and it melted my heart having our kids "play together". 


Came across some snow on the way home from Oregon and it was beautiful sitting untouched. 



^ Can never have too many tutus on!

^ Been loving seeing these girls playing more with each other. 

^ Paige enjoys sitting in the big chairs like a big girl, often. 

^ Ellie has been surprising us with how often she gets tired and falls asleep on the way somewhere in the later afternoon. So we've implemented a short nap a couple days a week to see if it helps.