Fifteen Month Update

I don't have any special pictures with a sticker telling my age on my belly this time, but it's been a while since I wrote an update, so I thought I'd tell you what I've been up to lately!

Fifteen months old 11/22/13

I turned 15 months old last week.  Over the last 3 months I've really grown from a baby to a toddler.  I even moved up at day care to the toddler room.  It's called the Bears room, and I absolutely love it!  We make crafts and have group story time and spend lots of time playing outside.  It's great!

Fifteen Month Stats
Weight: 26 lbs 4 oz (90th percentile)
Height: 32 in (90th percentile)
Head circumference: 19.5 in (100th percentile)
Clothes size: 18-24 mos
Diaper size: 4

Trying on Mommy's hat

Trying my first s'more at a bonfire with Mommy and Daddy's friends

Having a ball at bath time!

Fifteen month habits

Eating:  I still love to eat! When it's getting close to meal time, I'll even walk over to my high chair and tell Mommy and Daddy "eat, eat" to make sure they remember to feed me!  I eat 3 meals, plus an afternoon snack around 3.  I've started practicing to use a spoon and a fork by myself, but mostly I just make a big mess!

Favorite foods: macaroni and cheese, bread, pancakes, scrambled eggs, cooked carrots, mandarin oranges

Sleeping: I go to bed at 7:30 and sleep until around 7am (unless it's the weekend and I feel like waking Mommy and Daddy up early around 6!).  I take 1 nap in the afternoon from around 12:30 to 3.  I love to read books before nap time and bed time.

Play/Skills:  I started taking a few steps when I was 13 months old and walking really well at 14 months.  I'm really fast now!  I can also crawl up the stairs and stand up by myself from the middle of the floor without using the furniture.  I can stack 3-4 blocks on top of each other and put a chunky puzzle together with a little help.  I can push myself backwards in my cozy coupe car.  Daddy says I need to learn how to shift out of reverse, but I'm perfectly happy going backwards for now!  

Favorite toys: Odie and Bodhi, a stuffed dog and elephant that my Aunt Brennan and Aunt Hilary gave me, blocks, shape sorters, my animal farm puzzle, books (especially Sandra Boynton and Your Baby Can Read books!), and my cozy coupe 

New words and signs: way too many to count!  Some of my favorites: ball, baby, animal sounds (especially moo, baa, and neigh), please, and no (of course!)

Practicing using a spoon and making a huge mess!

Driving my cozy coupe

Love my Odie and Bodhi

Being a toddler is exhausting!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!

I had so much fun celebrating Halloween with my family this year!  I got to wear my lady bug costume that Mommy made 3 times!  First, I had a party at school the Friday before Halloween.  Most of the Mommies and Daddies came to our classroom after nap and snack time and helped us get dressed in our costumes, then we had a parade outside in the parking lot with the whole school.  I walked most of the way holding Mommy and Daddy's hands.  Then, we went back inside and had treats and played with my class.

Ready for the parade!

I wasn't too sure what to think about everyone in their costumes at first...

Next up was Trunk or Treat at Nana & Papa's church, Grace Covenant, on Sunday.  First we went to church service with Nana & Papa and Aunt Hilary & Uncle Jake, and I got to wear my costume!  Then we went outside in the parking lot, and there were all these cool games set up and food to eat.  I even tried to play some of the games even though they were mostly for little kids!  After playing for a while, all the kids lined up beside all the car trunks that were decorated, and we walked from car to car to get treats for our basket.  I wasn't sure what to do at first, but after seeing the big kids doing it, I figured it out!  I made it halfway through the cars before I started to get too tired.  It was way past my nap time!

Showing off the pumpkin Mommy and Nana decorated for me 

Playing a game

Taking a rest break between games 

Trying some of my treats!

Finally, Halloween day came last Thursday, and I wore my costume one last time to go trick or treating after school!  They call it trick or treating because that's what you're supposed to say when you walk up to the people with the treats, but nobody ever does any tricks…  They just give you a treat to put in your bucket, which is fine with me because I LOVE putting things in containers right now!  Mommy and Daddy picked me up from school a little bit early, and we went to the Corinth square close to our house.  There were lots of other kids there dressed up, and all the shopkeepers were sitting outside handing out candy and other treats.  I walked all the way around the square with Mommy and Daddy and took treats from most of the shops and put them in my basket.  It was so fun!  Then after we were done, we drove out to Nana's house cause she was handing out treats by herself while Papa was out of town.  I had fun playing with pumpkins on her front porch!

Picking out a treat 

Carrying my bucket all by myself!  This was my favorite part!

Look what I found while we were walking!  I love pumpkins!

Trick or treat! 

Having so much fun!

  Video of me trick-or-treating in action

I hope you had as much fun celebrating Halloween as I did!

My First trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Powell's Pumpkin Patch 10/20/13

Last weekend I went to the pumpkin patch with my family for the first time.  Last year when I was a little baby, Mommy and Daddy and I went to Louisburg Cider Mill for Ciderfest and got a pumpkin while we were there, but this year we decided to go out to the pumpkin patch and pick our own pumpkin.  It was so much fun!  Nana and Papa, and Aunt Hilary and Uncle Jake came, too.  I got to ride in the wagon while we were wandering through the patch looking for pumpkins.  We found lots that we liked, and and I had a blast playing with them all while Papa pulled me around in the wagon!  I'm looking forward to keeping this family tradition!

Picking out some mini pumpkins with Aunt Hilary 

There were so many to choose from!

Playing in the wagon

My favorite game was taking all the mini pumpkins out of the basket

Sitting with all the pumpkins we picked out!

Walking in the patch with Daddy

Posing with Nana and Papa (so bright!)

Walking with Aunt Hilary and Uncle Jake 

Trying to pick up the pumpkin we took home

Mommy and Daddy said next weekend we're going to carve our pumpkin!  That's where you cut it open and cut out a face to make a jack-o-lantern.  I'll post pictures so you can see it when we're done!  Happy Halloween!

My First Steps!

For the last couple of weeks I have been working a lot on trying to walk by myself!  At first I could only take 1 or 2 steps from the furniture to Mommy or Daddy, and most of the time I would dive for their arms when I got close because the always catch me!  Then yesterday I started going further, more like 8 or 10 steps all by myself!  I was practicing alllll day at home with Mommy yesterday, and I couldn't wait to show Daddy when he got home from work!  I still fall down sometimes, but I'm getting better and better!  Check out this video from last night:

My Portland Adventure: Part 2, The Wedding

Congratulations, Laura!  We love you!

Three weeks ago, I went to Oregon on a trip with my parents and Aunt Hilary.  You can read all about all the fun stuff we did while we were there in my last post, here, but the real reason that we went was for my Godmother, Laura's wedding.  She married a guy named Jon House, so now her name is Laura House and they live in the House house (hehe).  The wedding was on Saturday afternoon at Jon's grandmother, Dolly's house.  Her house backs right up to the river, and there's a dock and everything.  The wedding was right by the river, and then there was a big tent by the house for the party afterwards.  It was such a beautiful day!  It was sunny and warm, and everything was so green!  I had a blast walking around in the thick grass in my barefeet!  Check out all our awesome pics!

The grass felt so good on my toes!

Laura walking in with her daddy

Wedding time

They did it!

Greeting the bride.  She looked sooo pretty!

Mommy and her 3 oldest girlfriends.
I hope I have awesome friends like them, too, someday!

My Godparents!

Walking in the grass with Mommy

Godparents pic!  It was so great to get to see them both!

With my parents and Godparents

Aunt Hilary got to take turns walking with me, too!
Thanks so much for coming to help take care of me,
Aunt Hilary!  I love you!

My Portland Adventure: Part I, Sightseeing

Two weeks ago, I went on another airplane ride!  We went to Portland for my godmother's wedding!  I'll tell you more about that in my next post.  Aunt Hilary came with us to help take care of me since it was going to be pretty busy for Mommy and Daddy.  Mommy and Aunt Hilary and I left on Wednesday afternoon.  The plane ride was 3 1/2 hours long, but I did great!  I read books, played with toys, played with Aunt Hilary's iPad (so awesome!), and even ate dinner on the plane.  By the time we got there, I was super tired, so we went straight to the hotel, and I went to bed.

Ready to get on the plane!

We made it!

Then the next day, Daddy was there too and we drove to my godfather, Shane's house.  We had breakfast and visited for a little while, and then Daddy stayed with Uncle Shane to get ready to drive to Sunriver, which is where the wedding was and where we stayed all weekend, and Mommy and Aunt Hilary and I went to visit the International Rose Garden in Portland.  There were so many pretty flowers!

Pointing out the pretty pink roses

Posing with Mommy and Aunt Hilary

After visiting the garden, we got in the car and drove down to Sunriver, too.  I slept almost all the way there, and then went to the house with Aunt Hilary and Daddy and Shane to settle while Mommy went to the bachelorette party.  The house we stayed in was so big!  It had a huge playroom with 5 or 6 couches, and pool table, 2 tables to eat at, and a big kitchen.  I had so much fun crawling and cruising all around it!

On Friday, I went with Mommy and Aunt Hilary to get their nails done, and then we went with Mommy's friend Leah to visit this awesome old volcano.  It was like a mountain, only black!  A long time ago, it went off and lava (that's this bright red, really hot stuff) came out of it and went everywhere, so it made all these cool paths.  It was pretty cool stuff!

Mommy had a backpack for me to sit in while we hiked!

On our way up the volcano

You could see some mountains from the volcano, too

Looking at the view with Mommy

Saturday morning, we went for a hike with some of Mommy and Daddy's friends before the wedding, and we saw a beautiful lake and some big mountains.  The biggest mountain we saw is called "South Sister."  There are 3 sister mountains, just like Mommy and her 2 sisters!  South Sister is the closest one to Sunriver, and it's super big and pretty!

Posing by Green Lake before the hike

Our hike went all around the lake.  It was so pretty! 

Enjoying the views with Mommy again

We saw a pretty eagle flying over the lake,
and we even got to see it dive down to catch a fish!
It was so cool!

Saturday afternoon was the wedding, and then Sunday we got up and drove to Sisters, Oregon, a little town in the middle of the 3 sister mountains.  It was a very cute little town, and we ate yummy lunch at a yummy restaurant and walked around some stores before getting back on the road to Portland.  I slept almost all of that car ride, too.  Once we got back to Portland, we decided to take a ride in this thing called a gondola so we could see some pretty views of the city from up high.  It's like a car, but instead of having wheels it glides up and down on a cable in the air.  It was really cool!

Reading in the car

Having lunch in Sisters

Daddy's turn with the backpack!

Riding up in the gondola

Another pretty view at the top!

It was such a pretty day that you could see Mount Hood,
a super big mountain outside Portland

After that, it was time to grab some dinner and head back to the hotel by the airport in time for bed and then catch our flight home the next morning.  It was such a fun vacation!  I had such a good time visiting my godparents and seeing all of the pretty trees and mountains in Oregon.  It's such a beautiful place!  I hope I get to go back again someday!