My 14 Month Old Girl!

I'm a day late in posting this, but yesterday was AJ's 14 month birthday. It seems that the older she gets, the faster the time flies by us! I mean, she's already 14 months old?!



D and I were talking tonight and I looked at him and said, "Hey Dad, I'm 14!!! months old."



Seriously, the attitude that this little lady has would rival a horomonal adolescent, and it cracks me up most of the time.



So happy 14 months to my little baby big girl! You can stop growing up now!

Happy 13 Months!

I don't know about you all, but I can hardly even believe that AJ is 13 months old today! I mean, seriously, I thought the first year went by fast and we're already a full month into year 2. Slow down the growing up, little girl!

Some highlights from the past month:

• AJ has started being able to function with only one nap a day. We don't skip the morning nap everyday, but sometimes I have errands to run or things to do and we can go do them in the morning and not have to rush home to get back before nap time. Its wonderful!

• The past few days I've noticed her being more social and really playing with her toys. She also likes to pet her dogs!


• She has really started to imitate us in almost everything we do! When we are talking and one or both of us laughs, she will look at us and do a totally fake laugh to be a part of the conversation. Of course when she does this, we both crack up even more!

• She finds herself to be endlessly amusing. She will copy something we do and then just laugh and laugh at how funny she is!

• One negative thing she has started that I'm not happy about (and I think I mentioned this before) is that when she doesn't get her way or I tell her "no" she will just lay down on the floor and either cry or just lay there. I have a feeling that this is a sort of mini-tantrum and I'm not looking forward to the terrible twos!

• She has finally started to relax a little bit on the whole clinging to mommy thing and will play with D or the dogs without me being glued to her side 24/7 (hallelujah!).

• She has officially cut two more molars to bring the tooth total up to 9. She has top and bottom molars on her right side and just the top on the left. Add that to the three teeth on the bottom in the front and the two on the top and you've got 9 teeth! I should mention here that I hit the baby jackpot when it comes to teething. She seriously never even gets crabby when she is cutting a tooth. Sleep stays the same, everything is like normal. I have to feel in her mouth to know when she gets a new tooth!

• AJ is for the most part sleeping through the night (7 pm-7:30 am). When she goes down for her naps she will lay in her crib for a while quietly until she falls asleep. Its an amazing (and welcome) change from the days when she would stand there and scream.
  

• She loves, loves, loves her big, bouncy ball that Nick and Stacey got her for her birthday! When she sees it her eyes light up and she squeals! It is one of the cutest things ever. She also loves to carry around the baby sunscreen for some reason.
  

• She has a few words now, including Daddy, Pup Pup, Mama, and baby. She mainly says Daddy and PupPup, but will say Mama if she feels like it. For the most part though, she is holding entire conversations in her own gibberish baby language, which is hilarious to watch and listen to!
  

So there you have it, folks! My 13 month old is growing up way too fast and before I know it, she will be driving headed off to school!

My...What a BIG Girl I Have!

I don't know what all your thoughts are on co-sleeping and honestly, I don't want to start a debate, but I'm going to put this out there. We co-slept with AJ for quite a while. It was never my intention and really was more out of necessity than anything. Seriously, the girl screamed if she was placed on her back, whether she was swaddled or not. The only way we could get her to sleep was to let her sleep on me, and eventually, next to me.

Notice that in the above paragraph, I said "we co-slept." As of Sunday July 11, 2010, Miss AJ has not slept in our bed one time. She has been exclusively sleeping in her crib, in her bedroom for all naps and at night!

This transition has not been an easy one, but at 18 weeks old (or 4 months) I knew that it certainly wasn't going to get any easier for either of us, the longer we waited. So we jumped into it. My main reason for moving her to her own bed was because she was starting to roll and I didn't want to worry about her rolling off our bed during her naps (obviously at night she's in between us so it isn't a problem). I figured that if she was going to be napping in her crib then she should just sleep there too.

We are still having trouble getting her to settle into sleep, but as soon as she is soundly sleeping she's golden. I think that is more due to her nature than the location, so its something we'll have to keep working on and try to figure out a good routine.

That is all! Just a boring Saturday here for us, although the in-laws are in town (arrived late last night). Pretty much any Saturday here in the middle of nowhere is boring, FYI.