Thursday, December 30, 2010

Venily can write her name!!!!!!!!!

(and correctly, with D'nealian letters and lowercase "enily", I might add! :) ) Venily has know how to make a "V" for quite a while now (and a few other easy letters), but we were focusing on the letters in her name and she got stuck on the lowercase "e".  Well, a few days ago it clicked in her head and she was drawing e's like crazy!  Now today she just decided to learn the rest of the letters in her name!

(fyi- the thing between the "n" and "i" is from when one of the girls stepped on it, lol)
And look at those tails on her n, i, and l....  YEP, I COULDN'T BE PROUDER!!!!! :)

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

My newest favorite Haven saying!



Did I not say she is the cutest thing EVER?!  She does it with a sideways peace sign too that completely cracks me up!!

Monday, December 27, 2010

15 months!

QUARTERLY UPDATE!!!!  Haven is officially 
1 1/4 years old!  :)
**********
and I'm only a day late for this update!

SIZES- Have to wait until her doctor appt next week for her height and weight but she is currently in the following sizes:

Clothes- some 18m, but more and more 24m.  Her 18m pants especially are usually too short and her belly shows out the bottom of some of her shirts, so I've been putting her in some 24m and 2T things as well.  I desperately need to go through her 24m and 2T clothes!

Shoes- Some of her 5's fit her, but most are too small so I have taken out all of her size 6's now too!

Diapers- size 4, hopefully we will be done with diapers in a few months! :)

Hair length- (still need to measure, will try to remember to do it tomorrow)

* also, people keep telling me that her hair is getting darker, but is definitely still red!

# of teeth- still 12, though it shouldn't be too long before we see a few more!

speech- several hundred words and doing lots of combining words to make sentences!

random bits of info:
*knows almost every animal sound imaginable and all of her body parts!
*can do forward rolls
*walks up and down the stairs while holding onto the railing
*I forward-faced her carseat today.  I didn't want to, but Jason had taken all the car seats out and I had to put them back in and I didn't know how to do it rear-facing.  We will probably end up keeping it forward-facing, but I felt a lot safer with her rear-facing and I thought about it the entire time I was driving! :(
*eats with a fork and spoon a majority of the time now.  She can eat an entire container of yogurt or bowl of cereal without ever using her hands!  (usually she'll start using her hands when there is only a tiny bit left though so that she can get every last bite, lol)

SLEEP- She has to have both a baby and a puppy in order to sleep!  As soon as I lay her down in her crib she searches for them with her hands and whatever I hand her first, she asks for the other immediately, even when it is pitch black in her room, lol, and when she has them both (one in each arm), she snuggles them up and falls asleep! :)

Right now she is going to bed around 7:30- 8:00pm and sleeping until around 6:45am ish.  And she takes one nap around 11:30am for about 2 hours.  If I try to keep her up for lunch, she usually falls asleep during lunch!  Soooo funny, especially since Venily went through the exact same stage when she was that old!

Santa brought her a toddler bed rail so we are going to see how she does with a toddler bed soon (like sometime within the next week or so)!  If she doesn't like it, we will change it back, but if she does I will be happy!  My motto is the sooner you do things the better, because the longer you wait the harder it is!  Plus it will be nice that as soon as she wakes up, she can come get us and not have to wait for us to get her out of bed!  (Venily was in a toddler bed at 14m).

WORDS I DISLIKE:  "cookie", "t.v. show", "candy" (all while pointing to what it is she's saying.... Venily didn't know the meaning of any of these words at this age!!!! :(  She also knows and will say the names of the following tv characters:  Dora, Boots, Backpack, Troll, Isa, Diego, Buddy.  Venily didn't know any except Dora b/c she had some Dora books and Dora toys!  I am sort of sad that I'm not as strict about the "no tv before age 2" thing as I was with Venily, but if Venily is watching something it's hard to not let Haven watch some as well)

I gave Haven a cookie the other day because she kept pointing at them saying "COOKIE!!  COOKIE!" (and it's soooo cute and she HAD eaten all of her dinner) so I broke her off a little piece of one and gave it to her.  She got an angry look on her face and she said "BIG!"  Oh, boy!

♥ WORDS I LOVE RIGHT NOW:

"Santa"  (Obsessed with Santa, haha, as long as she doesn't have to sit on his lap!)

"angel"  (LOVES angels too!)

"jammies"  (LOVES, LOVES, LOVES jammies!  I always tell her to go get her jammies and she goes into her room, opens up the right drawer and brings me her jammies!  She got lots of jammies for Xmas and was so excited every time she'd open one up and would shout "JAMMIES!"  haha)

"Good try!"  (Lol, she always wants to sit on her potty (she hasn't been actually going lately) and she will grunt or say "pssssss" and then say "good try"!) :)  She says it when she tries to do forward rolls too!

"Good trick!" (when she falls or bumps her head or something since we always say that to her)


"green beams" (what she calls green beans, lol)


"sweet dreams!" and "good night" (which sounds more like one word)  (Uhhh, she is just so precious!!!!!)

"hokey pokey"  (haha, we were singing the hokey pokey and she kept saying it.... so fricken CUTE!)

**she is at the stage right now where almost every single thing she says is the cutest thing ever!!!! :)

Other random Haven stories:

Haven took a bunch of stuff out of a box and I told her to put them back b/c it was a huge mess!  Then I was busy doing something else.  She comes up to me, takes my hand, leads me back over where she had put everything back and says "BACK!  BACK!"  (then with a concerned look says) "Mommy, clap!".  So I clapped for her and she got the biggest smile in the universe on her face!

Haven was "helping" me fold laundry and she grabbed 2 of my bras.  She put the straps over her head and ran off to Daddy saying "Bra!  Bra!".

The other day she "called" Santa on her phone and said "Santa? Hi, Santa! ho ho ho" and a little later was telling him "EE naughty!" (She calls Venily "EE" and I have had to call and tell Santa that Venily was naughty a few times, lol, so she was helping me out!)

 

Last week (when she was still rear-facing) I got in the car and put some apple scented hand sanitizer on (the first time I had used that kind in the car) and Haven immediately started saying "apple! apple!".  I was so impressed, lol!  Venily usually messes up the smells of things all the time!

 

My FAVORITE thing about her at this age:

Random hugs, kisses and tickles!  She is the sweetest girl in the UNIVERSE!!!!!  ♥


Daddy's FAVORITE thing about her at this age:

How she shakes her head yes and no for everything.  "Yes" is the best because it is very dramatic and slow! :)   If you ask her if she loves Mommy, Daddy, or Venily she always shakes her head yes!  She is seriously the BEST!  Daddy says that this is his absolute favorite age of "baby" and I think I might have to agree with him.  :)

 

****Xmas update to come.  Hopefully soon!!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Haven Video!

I realized I didn't have a lot of updated videos of Haven talking, so I'm going to try and get some.  Here is one of her reading her book!  She says "out" for the picture of the boy standing in his crib b/c she thinks he wants to get out, lol, it took me a while to figure that out! :)


I am trying to do better at keeping up on her monthly updates too, so hopefully I'll actually have her 15 month update up on time! :)

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Zipper!

I realized that I haven't been updating on here as often as I'd like, so I'm going to try to start doing better!  Last week Venily learned how to zipper her coat all by herself!  I was busy getting Haven ready and Venily kept asking me to help her zipper her coat and I kept saying "Wait a minute hunny, I have to help your sister first".  So, she just did it herself and was like "Look Mommy, I zippered it all by myself!"!  Yay, Venily!  She has been so excited that she told her teacher all about it yesterday and told the librarian, Mrs. Joy, about it today after storytime and even made Mrs. Joy watch as she zipped her coat up by herself!  :)

I love that she's becoming more and more independent.  She can get all her own things on herself, gets in her seat herself and buckles herself up too!  I guess as some things get harder (like her attitude), some things get a lot easier too!

And a Random Venily Conversation that happened today while driving:
"Mrs.  Vivian and Mrs. Joy have the same word in their name (Mrs.)!  Isn't that awesomely amazing, Mommy?"  :)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Haven Follow-Up

Haven had her follow-up appointment for her ear infections today.  Kind of late, but Jason kept bothering me that maybe she still had an ear infection, so I took her in!  Her ears look good though, she is a little congested, but that's it!

And she either weighed 24.1 pounds OR 24 pounds, 10 ounces.  It was 24.10 on the digital scale, but I didn't look close enough to see if it had pounds and ounces on the bottom (I seem to think it does).  Plus I think the nurse said she was 24 and a half pounds.  Oh well, we will find out for sure at her 15 month appointment (the first week in January)!  Jason was like "What does it even matter?"  Lol.  I guess it doesn't, it just matters to me! :)

Also, the doctor said it looks like she is getting her bottom 2 incisor teeth now as well!

Silly girl

Venily cracks me up all the time with silly things she says.

I told Venily that I needed to bring Haven into the doctor and she says "Oh, because she has an ear convitioning?"  (ear infection mixed with air conditioning, lol)

She got some Air Heads candy from Santa and EVERY time she talks about them she calls them "Fruit Pop Heads" or "Popsicle Heads".  She never remembers the right name for them, I laugh every time!

She was playing and pretending she was going to school and said she needed to bring something for "Show and Hotel" (show and tell).  HAHA! 

Jason taught her to say "Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top" when she wants something, lol.  Cuteness is definitely a good skill to have!  And the other day we were watching Wheel of Fortune and the answer to a puzzle was "pretty please with sugar on top".  She thought that was so great so now when she says it she always says "Pretty, pretty please with salt on top".  :)

Thursday, December 9, 2010

14.5 months

Yep, totally didn't even have a "14 month" update! :(  Oh well, nothing has really changed!  She continues to learn tons of new words and is stringing together more and more words to form sentences.  The most impressive sentence that she's made so far was after she came up to me shaking her cup and said "milk all-gone, more please!" and pointed at the refrigerator!


Some of my newest "favorite words" now include:

*"step stool"
*"here ya go" (while handing me things)
*"milk cup"
*"chugga- choo-choo" (said over and over and over again anytime she sees or hears about a train, haha!)
*"MOMMY!!" (even when it's whiny, it's STILL the best!)
*"tickle-tickle" (I get sneak attacks ALL day long where the only warning I get is her little hands in front of me and her little voice saying "tickle, tickle".  She LOVES being tickled!)
*"hug" (I also get about a gazillion hugs all day long!  My favorite is when she goes up to Venily for no reason and says "HUG!" and wraps her arms around her! :)  )
*"make-up" (sooooo girly, she is!  LOVES Mommy and Venily's make-up!  And loves to find things that she pretends are make-up and puts them on us and herself, like when she uses the paintbrush and brushes her cheeks!)
*"snowman" (pronounced 'noman') :)
*"snuggle-snuggle"(SUCH a snuggler!!!)


And some of my least favorite words:


*"hit" or "naughty" (both while hitting... one of the few downsides to having an older sister!)



Oh, her hair is growing in quite nicely now!  She has a lovely "rat-tail" (as Jason calls it) in the back, lol, and the sides are getting long too!  I will have measurements for her 15m update (since that's a quarter of a year update)!


We are also working on forward rolls!  She's doing pretty good!! :)


She is doing well with walking up and down the stairs too while holding onto the rails and not crawling or sliding down on her butt!

We are still at 12 teeth and perfectly happy with that, lol!  I check every so often on her cuspids, but none are coming yet!


We played in the snow the other day and Haven wasn't a huge fan!  She is so much like me it scares me sometimes, lol.
 

And some random videos!




Tuesday, November 30, 2010

I am "Mommy" now!!!!!!! :)

One of my all-time favorite milestones, Haven now calls me "Mommy" instead of "Mama"!!!!  She also calls Jason "Daddy" instead of "Dada", but who cares about that, right?! :)  I am SOOO happy to be "Mommy"!!  The first few "mama"s were nice when she was first saying them, but ever since then, I couldn't wait for her to call me Mommy, it sounds so much more grown-up!  I was the same way with Venily.  And I cringe whenever Venily occasionally calls me "Mom".  Why can't I just be Mommy forever?!

I am super slacking on all other updates.  Venily still needs her 3 year update.  I don't think I ever did a Halloween post.  Haven turned 14 months old a few days ago.  We had Thanksgiving and a trip to the Kalahari.... but my house is a mess and I need to clean it so I can put up Xmas decorations (Venily asks me every single day)... so the rest of my updates will have to wait for another day!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Random...

Haven had a rough night last night!  We fought her fever all day yesterday and could hardly get it below 102 WITH Ibuprofen AND Tylenol.  We had her sleep between us last night and she was fitful all night.  Scary breathing and moaning and all!  One time I picked her up and she said "owwwww, owwwww" and gave me the biggest hug.  I wanted to cry. :(  We had alarms set for almost every hour and gave her tons of medicine (she doesn't wake up when we feed her medicine while she sleeps).  She was doing pretty well all morning today though and woke up from her afternoon nap a COMPLETELY different child!!  I'm so glad the antibiotics finally kicked in!


Venily went to the dentist this morning to get her molars sealed!  She did AMAZING!!!!!!!  She kept telling me she didn't want to go so I was prepared for a disaster when we got there, but she was an angel!  The dentist and assistant were both females and super good with her! :)  The dentist said that she was the youngest patient she had ever had and that she had been so nervous all morning when she saw her age, but she couldn't believe how good she was!  YAY, VENILY!!!


After her appointment we had her preschool's "Family Thanksgiving Feast" where we got to eat a Thanksgiving lunch with her preschool class and their families!  So cute!!!  The kids made cute little turkey centerpieces and Venily was excited that she got to eat some the pumpkin bread that they made in class last week! :)

Monday, November 22, 2010

Haven's First ER Trip!

 

Well, 2nd if you count the time I had to go with her when I was almost 11 weeks pregnant with her!  Oh my gosh, I remember seeing her on the screen for the first time, it was so wonderful....


She has had a low grade fever for several days now.  Actually, she'd have a fever for a day, then be completely fine for a day and I'd think "oh great, she's not sick any more" and then the next day she'd have a fever again.  She's also had a cough and runny nose on and off.  Yesterday her fever got up to 103.4 though (when the highest before that had only been 102), so I knew something had to be wrong.  I gave her Ibuprofen and put her to bed.  5 hours later she woke up and was SUPER hot, so I checked her temp again and it was 104.2 (and this was when the Ibuprofen should have still been working)!  This was the highest temp I've ever seen in either of my girls or even myself.  We called the 24 hour nurse line and they told us to give her Tylenol (since she still had an hour before she could have more Ibuprofen) and bring her into the ER.  ***FYI- If you had to make a bet on who could handle a child "mini-emergency" between Jason and myself, you'd be smart to bet on ME!!!!  My gosh, Jason goes crazy when he think something is wrong with one of the kids!  He can't think rationally whatsoever!  Anyway...***


Luckily my sister was just right down the road and was able to come and stay at the house while Venily slept (it was 11:30pm).  Haven was super happy and laughed the whole way we drove to the hospital even though she was really tired and kind of out of it! :)  She wasn't a fan of any nurse or doctor touching her at all, but I had brought her baby, puppy, blanket, graham crackers, and water with so she was, overall, a very happy girl (especially considering it was the middle of the night and she was sick).  The doctor was soooo nice (I ♥ nice doctors!) and said she had a double ear infection.  He also wanted to get an x-ray of her chest just to make sure she didn't have pneumonia.


If you have never seen a child get a chest xray, it is QUITE the process!!  Only one parent could go in with her (and of course I outrank Jason, lol) and she leads me up to a device that looks like it's used for child torture!  No joking, it looked medieval or something!  It was like a weird wooden children's saucer that encases the child in a clear plastic tube!  She had to stick her legs in, put her arms up, and then her whole body was crammed into the tube as it latched around her.  She actually did really well, some crying of course, but not too bad!  Her xrays checked out good though, so 10 days of Amoxcillian were all she needed... plus a steady supply of alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen!


We didn't get home until 2am and Haven slept in until almost 10am (though Jason and I would sneak in there and give her medicine while she slept, lol- she never woke up!)!!  I got her prescription today and also a supply of Probiotics to take so HOPEFULLY she won't get any diarrhea or diaper rash with the antibiotics!

It is sad when I can tell she isn't feeling well.  She will say "owww, owww" and come over to me and say "Up, PLEASE! UP... PLEASE!!!!" or run over to where her medicine is and say "MED!" and point! :(  Silly girl, she sure loves medicine!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Xmas is going to be easy this year... :)

I have asked Venily several times what she wants for Christmas and she keeps telling me "nothing"!!  And then I'll say, but don't you want some cool new toys?  and she says "I already have lots of toys!" (and points around to all of her toys).  What 3 year old DOESN'T want new toys, loves shots, and loves medicine?!  Lol, something has to be wrong with her!


I did say maybe we could buy a new toy and give it to a child who doesn't have any toys.  She was SUPER excited about that, so that will be really fun to do!  She is unusually interested (for 3 years old) when I tell her how some people have no houses, no food, no tv's, etc.  She is always like "that is SOOOO sad!" and asks a million questions about it.  She picked out a book at the library about 2 little Afghanistan refugees who had to share a pair of sandals they found and it is currently one of her favorite books!

Haven updates- 13.5m

Haven is a talking machine!!  She is getting lots more 2 word phrases and sentences lately and even an occasional 3- word one and is still learning 2-5 new words each day!


Some of her two-word (3 word) phrases: "more bagel... PLEASE!!!" (she ♥ bagels), "bagel break" (when she breaks it in half and wants it put back together, lol), "baby eat" (while she feeds her baby), "baby on" (while bringing me her baby and an article of clothing to put on her baby), "shoes on" (when she wants her shoes on (also "socks on" or OFF), "love you" (which she has temporarily stopped saying :(  ), and any other combo of "more, please, and an item she wants (like milk, cracker, etc)", "no touch" (b/c she hears that one often!), mix it (while pretending to mix her play food), "stop it" (which she also hears, though mostly to her sister, lol), "nice bug" (while trying to pet a lady bug) and she continues to say "thank you" whenever you give her something, and "all done/ all gone"!  Oh, she also says "hereyago" when she gives me things- it took me a while to figure out what the heck she was saying, haha!


She also told me her first re-enactment of events the other day.  Venily was playing and bumped her head on something and Haven watched really concerned... a few minutes later Haven went over to the spot and said to me "bang head, bang head" (while hitting herself in the head) and then she said "owwwww...... bang head!", telling me that Venily banged her head! :)


She is also learning how to say people's names really well!  She loves looking at pictures of her family and saying who they are!


And some of my newest ♥ FAVORITE ♥ words of the moment (since it's always changing)...
* puppy (she will say dog OR puppy now)
* pickle (usually pronounced "ickle")
* broccoli (she has a piece of pretend broccoli that she really likes, lol)


I make her repeat words that I love over and over again b/c they are so darn cute!!!  And she knows that it makes me super happy!! :)


She learned two new body parts (or at least let me know that she already knew them).  If you ask her where her lips and nails are, she will gladly show you!  She also LOVES getting her nails cut now.  I was cutting Venily's nails and almost couldn't b/c Haven wouldn't stop sticking her nails in there, trying to get me to cut HERS instead! :)

She is sleeping so well lately again.  Goes to bed around 7:00/ 7:30pm and doesn't wake up until around 7:00am now!!  And the last 2 days she's taken an awesome 2hr+ nap for me during the day!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Tooth #12!!

I'm officially going to "count" her last molar now (today is exactly one month after she cut her first molar!).  It's almost all the way in but is pretty much all the sides and still some gum in the middle (so gross, haha).  They haven't bothered her in a few days, so I think the worst is over now!!!!  Her top 2 still have a little way to fully come in as well, but they don't bother her like when they initially cut through.  Now we wait for her cuspids which should be a piece of cake compared to her molars!  :)

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Parent Teacher Conference!

I had Venily's preschool parent-teacher conference today!  I don't know why, but I had so much anxiety about it and was disappointed it had to be during the day so Jason couldn't come with (he really wanted to come).  I have never been on the "parent" side of parent-teacher conferences before!  Her teacher had a little evaluation sheet on Venily as well as a few pieces of work that she's done.  She told me how Venily is way beyond her age-level in almost everything!  She had a picture of a drawing that Venily did of herself (which was AMAZING by the way, lol) and said that she is able to draw way beyond what she "should" be drawing at this point.  She was really impressed by her vocabulary and how much she knows (colors, shapes, letters, counting, etc) and is going to specifically work with Venily now on writing her name!!  She says that she's definitely ready to start working on writing letters!  She also said that she is really sweet and is talking in class more and more (something that I am MOST proud of!)!! :)  She participates in class and really enjoys playing with her friends and playing pretend!  And loves talking about her family!


However, she has two areas that she is "at age-level" which includes being able to express her emotions with words (she gets emotional a lot just like her Mommy, haha, her little eyes well-up with tears) and sharing (her teacher said that sometimes if one of her friends wants something she will take it from another child and give it to her friend).  So those are areas that we are going to work on even harder.  Everything her teacher said was spot-on with how she is at home, so I knew just what she was talking about.  It's good to know that she doesn't act too differently.  Oh, also she can cut with scissors but needs to work on cutting straight lines.


She also told me once again that she often forgets that Venily just turned 3 b/c she seems so much older and is so tall!  It was a good conference and I really like knowing a little more about what goes on when I'm not around.  If they had a camera that I could watch, I'd probably spend the whole 3 hours each day watching what she does, lol.  It's so weird being a parent and not knowing!  I can't imagine what it would be like not seeing her for a whole school day!!!!  At her preschool, I get monthly overview calendars, weekly reports of activities they do, and there is more in-depth weekly lesson plans up on her door, but it's just not the same as actually WATCHING what's going on and how Venily does!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Transitioned to one nap!

Haven officially transitioned to one nap a day!!  :(  Much too early in my opinion, but she is a lot happier with the change!  She used to take a morning nap around 9 or 10am, but we are usually out and about at that time, so it was getting hard to make sure she was home and able to take her nap anyway (and then she started MAJORLY fighting it when I was able to put her down) and then she'd take a 2nd nap around 2pm.  Now she is taking one nap around 12:30pm (or shortly after lunch) and falling right to sleep the second I put her down.  I've been keeping her up later at night as well to help her adjust to the time change this weekend too!  The last 2 nights she's made it past 8pm with no problems, so that's great- hopefully it will all go smoothly this Sunday!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Tooth #11!

Officially came through yesterday!  It's the top left 1 year molar (molar #3)!!  Gosh are these molars HORRIBLE!!!  My poor baby has been miserable again for the last couple of days and has even been waking up in the nights the last 2 nights! :(  (which she hasn't done in months!!!)  The bottom left molar is starting to cut through now as well.  There are, I think, 2 little tips poked through, so we are in for another week (at least) of pain and sadness! :(  So glad we are nearing the end of these molars!!!

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Venily's 3 Year Pics!

By Jacki, of course! :)  Thanks again Jacki!!  It was super windy, but I can't believe Venily actually smiled decently AND looked at the camera, lol!  I super-love my BIG GIRL 3 year old!!!













**I still need to work on Venily's 3 year update!!!  Also, I need to write about a new Haven tooth and a post on Halloween....

Friday, October 29, 2010

Venily's 1st Dentist Appt!


Venily had her very first dentist appointment today and did GREAT!!!  I prepped her for like a week beforehand on what would happen, and I really think that helps.  I had Allison with me too (b/c she didn't have school today) and Jason watched Haven.  We had to wait FOREVER in the waiting room and my anxiety was through the roof, haha, but Venily was excited!


She ended up having a guy hygienist AND a guy dentist, but she was still so good!  The hygienist cleaned her teeth and gave her stickers, toys, a toothbrush and toothpaste.  He said it didn't look like she had any cavities.


Then the dentist came in and "counted" her teeth and stuck them all with the pointy thing to check for cavities (the absolute worst part, in my opinion).  He said that her bottom right molar stuck a little and that she had a very small cavity in it! :(  I wanted to cry.  It's so small that she won't even need any anesthesia for it, but I'm still sooooo broken-hearted!  We are OBSESSIVE about Venily brushing her teeth twice a day, EVERY SINGLE DAY!!   She does it herself for a few minutes and then either Jason or I go over her teeth as well.  She also does a fluoride rinse every single night before bed.  She hardly ever drinks juice and has very limited candy/junk food!!  :(  Sometimes you can do everything right though, and genetics will still cause it to happen.  Sorry Venily!!  We are also supposed to start flossing now as well, so we will add that to our rigid routine.


Her filling appointment isn't scheduled until NEXT September 2011!!  The dentist wanted her to have a certain dentist and he only works Saturdays and is booked until then!  But the receptionist has us on a waiting list and said that we will almost definitely be able to get in before then!  Venily has an appointment in a few weeks as well to have her teeth sealed.  And her next cleaning will be in 6 months (in May).

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

13 months old!!!

Haven is 13 months old today!

This last month Haven has gone through a HUGE language explosion!!!  At 12 months she had about 75 words and now she is at well over 100 words!!  Each day now she is saying new words that she has never said before.  This morning alone she said 3 new words before 6:15am, including "Allison" which sounds more like "Al-si-son"!!  I ALSO HAVE A NEW ALL-TIME FAVORITE WORD, LOL!!  Ever since she was a tiny baby (and with Venily too) after her bath and I am drying her in a towel I sing "dry you up, buttercup... dry you up, buttercup!"  And the other day I got her out of her bath and was drying her and she started saying "buttercup!  buttercup!" in a sing-songey voice, with a huge smile on her face!  ♥  My heart almost exploded with pure happiness.  She said it so clearly and perfectly too.  Definitely my FAVORITE word of the moment! :)
The other day she also said her first non-prompted 2 word sentence (that wasn't a phrase) besides "hi/bye Dada/Mama".  She said "MORE MILK!" and has continued to say it several different times when she wants more milk! :)  She also says "MORE CRACK!" while pointing at our cabinets with the crackers in them!  Really hoping she picks up the second syllable to that word soon, haha, though I do laugh every time she says it. :)


She is also becoming quite the polite young lady!  Instead of "puh" for please she says "peas".  :)  And she says "ank-you" for thank-you!! :) and I love when she says it with a little shy smile!!!  Oh Haven, why are you just so DARN cute?!


She has learned a few new animal sounds as well.  She can "quack" for a duck (before if you asked her what a duck says she'd say "DUCK!  DUCK!").  Attempts to whistle for a bird (I LOVE watching her try to whistle!!) and "squeak" for a mouse!  I think that brings her to 22 animal sounds! :)
She is LOVING all things-Halloween right now!!  I put up a lot of decorations in our house and she loves to go around and name them all!  She calls pumpkins "apples" though and I can't get her to stop, haha.  We have little pretend spiders that she likes to bring over to me and throws them on the ground and pretends to be scared of them and wants me to pretend to be scared of them too!  She also loves crescent moons, ghosts (which she calls "boo"s), and bats!  We can't wait for Halloween this weekend!!


I moved her up to size 4 diapers last week b/c I had bought the "new" Walmart brand diapers in a 3 and she had leaked through a few times when waking up in the morning.  I thought maybe a bigger size would help, but I also decided to go back to the Target brand of diapers and she hasn't had any problems since.  I may even go back to a 3 in the Target brand b/c I don't like how big the size 4's are on her!  It was the first box of 4's I ever bought since Venily was never in size 4's!
A new food she has become obsessed with= raisins!  She calls them "REES!" and whenever I give her some she wants more and more and more and more and gets mad when I tell her that they are all gone! :)


Haven is SUCH a Daddy's girl right now!!!  Whenever he's not there, she's always asking "Dada?"  "Dada?" and when he IS around she's glued to his side!  She absolutely LOVES looking at pictures of Dada too and correctly identifies Dada, Mama, Venily, and herself in them.  She has one picture of herself that whenever she sees she says "MEEEEE!" and points at herself! :)
I've noticed lately that Haven really likes things to go in a certain order.  I think it's because we have such well established routines for everything.  She's definitely a "routine-girl".  Like if I buckle her in her high chair and give her her food without putting her bib on her first, she'll look at me and say "BIB!  BIB!" until I put her bib on and then she will eat, haha.  The same thing if I forget to give her a spoon or her milk, she doesn't like to start until everything is just right!  The other day I also was holding her in her room, getting her ready for her nap.  Usually I close the door behind me and then sing her a song and lay her down to sleep.  Well, I forgot to close the door and I started singing to her and she points over at the door and says "DOOR!".  So I close it and she smiles and lays back down on my chest and says "E!" so that I'd sing her the "ABC" song.  Speaking of that, she has 2 songs that she likes to demand that I sing.  The "E" song and the "Down" song (London Bridges Falling Down) and if I start singing a song she doesn't want, she'll keep insisting on the one that SHE wants until I start singing that one!  :)

Haven still only has her 2 molars on her right side, her bottom right is completely through now, all 4 sides.  The swelling for the 2 on her left side has gone down a lot so they are temporarily not bothering her much, though I know that will change again soon! :(

Also, Haven learned a new body part today.  She came up to me, pointed at my elbow and said "elbow".  I don't even remember ever teaching her that one, lol.  So, I asked her where her elbow was and she pointed to hers!  Lol, that puts her at 15 different body parts.  I took a video of her pointing out some of them.


 

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Venily's 3 Year Well-Check!

Venily had her 3 year well-check today!!  She's doing so great!

Pic: Venily and her cousin Bryant, waiting for the doctor to come in!

Her measurements at 3 years:
HEIGHT: 39 inches (85%)
WEIGHT: 32 pounds (62%)


She actually got to use the real scale and wall measurer this time.  I was so surprised at her 2 year check when they still made her sit on the baby scale and lay on the bed to measure her, lol.  I guess they see her as a real little girl now!  Starting at 3 years, she also gets to get her blood pressure taken!  She has a blood pressure thing in her doctor kit, so she was excited about that!  :)


AND VENILY BLEW ME AWAY AT HOW GREAT SHE WAS!!!!!  She talked to the nurse and doctor and wasn't shy at all!  I think sending her to preschool was one of the best decisions ever, I really think it's helping her out a lot with her shyness!  The doctor said that Venily is doing amazing and is way ahead with all of her developmental stuff!  She said that Venily doesn't have to nap anymore, as long as she gets a rest time (she's been going back and forth with taking a nap and not lately).  The doctor looked at her eczema again and said that it's a bad time of year for it.  At it's worst, it's on both of the backs of her thighs and up on her butt checks too.  Right now it's kind of moderate.... a few patches, mostly on the back of one of her legs.  I am supposed to put her prescription on her again 2x a day for a week and moisturize it really good.  And I'm supposed to be giving her a bath every THIRD day (we've been doing every other day)!


Venily knew she was going to need to have a shot and was actually excited about it, lol!  We had been practicing on her and her babies for a few days now!  She took her shot like a champ without a whine or single tear and as soon as it was done she was asking about getting her prize from the treasure chest, lol!!  She even told me that she LOVES shots!!  She amazes me at how tough she is! :)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Happy 3rd Birthday Venily Autumn!!!

Ooops, I was looking through my blogs and I totally forgot to post this last week, it was just saved in my posts! :(


Wednesday, October 13th was Venily's 3rd birthday!!!  She went to preschool where she got to pass out little sticker and tattoo presents to her friends (treats aren't allowed, even though I think I'm the only one that follows rules sometimes, lol).  She also got to wear a birthday crown!!  :)  Her teacher told me that she seems so much older and that she is 3 going on 10! :)  Almost every single time I've picked her up from class so far her teacher has told me that she can't believe that she's not even 3 yet!  But... I suppose now she is.... I wonder what her teacher will tell me now, lol?!  :)  We then went to the library and then the park with Landen and Aunt Jacki (since that's what Venily kept telling me she wanted to do on her birthday, haha).  We ate dinner and she opened her presents from us and then her Aunt Lisa came over and we had cake!  I still can't believe that she's THREE already!!!!

I will write her 3 year old update soon.  She has her 3 year doctor check up on Thursday.  And we will do a video interview as well! :)