20 Months

ROUGH.  That is the only word I can think of to describe this last month.  While this past month has brought on some new, fun things with P, it has also been not my favorite month.  I'm not sure how much of it is attributed to our recent move (make that second move in a month) or her age, but my guess is that it is a combination of both.  Probably one of the worst new things to happen this month is that Peyton has pretty much refused to sleep in her crib for naps.  Now I know that it sounds silly to say that she has "refused" but by refused I mean that she won't have any part of napping in her crib.  No matter how hard I have tried, she just screams and cries and won't lay down and take a nap.  Even on the two days that she went to Mother's Day Out and was worn out she still would not sleep in her crib.  She will fall asleep the second we get in the car but you better believe that as soon as I bring her back in the house and lay her down she is awake!  What has started happening is that she will get so worn out by the end of the day, she will finally give in and take a nap at 5 or 6pm.  Of course that means that she in turn will then stay up late, thus starting another bad habit.  Also related to this not sleeping issue is the beginning of tantrums.  I swear at times I have thought "This is it.  We have hit the terrible two's."  She has started throwing fits of crying and screaming and nothing pleases her.  She wants her way and that's it.  In fact, at one time I was the one who always bathed her and put her to bed and now she won't let me come anywhere near her to do either of these things.  She wants Matt, and only Matt to bathe her and get her ready for bed.  If I try to do it she will scream and cry and as soon as Matt comes to her rescue she is fine!!  Did I already mention it's been a rough month?!?!

Giving bunny kisses

Now that I have talked about all of the not so fun things that have come about this month, I guess I should mention that there have been some really sweet and fun things that P has started doing.  Probably my most favorite change this month is that she has started to pretend play---she likes to have tea parties and cook in her play kitchen and she is really talking up a storm, repeating a lot of what we say.  Some of her new phrases are "Oh boy," "cooking," "barking"(for when Ellie barks).  She has also started winking when we take her picture.  It's very funny!  All I have to do is tell her "say cheese!!" and she flashes me a smile and winks!  I don't have a clue where she got it from but it is hilarious!  It's becoming a slight problem though because I can't get her to smile anymore without winking so she has one eye closed in all of her pictures haha!

Say "cheese"!

S

Loving on Ellie

Sweet sisters

Sleeping Beauty

Since we moved, Peyton has pretty much refused to take a nap in her crib which makes for a very tired baby (and momma)!  Around 5 this afternoon I went in to the kitchen to make some cookies and it didn't take long before I realized that things sounded awfully quiet in the den.  I peeked around the recliner to check on P and this is what I found: 

First Day of Mother's Day Out

Today Peyton went to Mother's Day Out for the first time. She is supposed to be going two days starting in the fall so I thought that we might give it a test-run and send her one week this summer.  They have a carpool line where you drop your kids off in the morning and pick them up but since this was her first time to go I wanted to take her in so that she wouldn't feel like I just left her.  Well things didn't quite go as I was thinking they would.  We walked in and found her classroom and the teacher was standing behind one of those doors where you can close the bottom half and keep the top half open.  She immediately saw us and reached out for Peyton.  Here I am in complete shock, thinking that I am going to walk my baby into her classroom and explain to her that she is going to stay and play toys and make friends and mommy will be back to get her in a little while, and instead I am handing her over to a strange lady while she is crying out "Mommy, Mommy" and reaching out for me.  SO HARD TO LEAVE HER!

 

 

I ended up calling to ask the Director a question about Peyton's Blue Form and she said that Peyton had stopped crying after I left and that she was playing in the gym and seemed to be having a good time.  As hard as it was leaving her so upset, I was glad to hear that she was playing and having fun.  I also talked to the Director about coming in to pick Peyton up instead of going through the carpool line but she suggested that I try the carpool line that way Peyton would see that they "bring her back to her mommy."  So I took her advice and picked her up in the carpool line..sweet thing looked so tired when I picked her up (she is used to napping at 11:30 and I didn't pick her up until 1).  She loves the gingerbread men cookies at Savage's so we stopped there on the way home so she could have a little treat on such a big day!  

 

19 Months

The pictures for this months post are extra special because they are the first pictures of P in her chair in our new house!  Yay for us!  This last month really seems like a blur.  We packed up our old house, moved to my parents for what was supposed to be 2 weeks but turned into 4 weeks, and then finally moved into our new house.  There have been a lot of adjustments this last month in the Bradford household and Miss P struggled at first but is doing much better now that we are in our own home and she is back in her pink room with her things.

It's hard to even know where to begin!  This little girl is something else!  She has SOOO much personality and is constantly making me smile and laugh (as well as want to pull my hair out at times)!  Right now two of her favorite things are to hear the songs Row Row Row your Boat and Happy Birthday.  I'm not so sure where this came about but she is OBSESSED with these two songs to the point that I will have to sing them over and over and over again to get her to go to sleep at night.  I also have to put them on repeat in the car because she refuses to listen to anything else. If I let the CD go to the next song she will say "no, no" and shake her head.  Where she once loved watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the mornings she now likes to watch Doc Mcstuffins and will actually say "Doc" to let me know that she wants me to turn it on.

Something that she has started doing that I think is hilarious is copying me.  Since we have just recently moved, she has been watching me clean things with a dusting cloth or rag and now takes it upon herself to grab any kind of little towel that is in her reach and start cleaning the floors or the cabinets.  Now if I could just get her to learn how to use the vacuum....

Peyton also loves swinging and would probably be content spending most of her day doing just that.  Unfortunately, we don't have any trees at our new house to hang her swing on so we haven't been able to do much swinging except at my parents' house or the park since we have moved. It's amazing how much she has learned over the past few months. She can now point to most major body parts including nose, ear, mouth, teeth, tongue, hair, head, fingers, hand, toes, knees, belly button, as well as say most of their names.  She is saying new words at an alarmingly fast rate and is beginning to recognize cars, including mommy's, daddy's, and GP's cars. If we are anywhere on the main street in Homewood she will say "cookie" because she knows that Savage's is there and that I will take her in there to get a gingerbread man cookie.  Isn't that crazy!?!?  Sometimes it's so hard to believe how quickly my little baby is growing up but I can honestly say that as she gets older it gets more and more fun!

18 Months

P, as we like to refer to Peyton, is growing and changing right before my eyes. Sticking with what I said about her last month, she is becoming more and more aware of everything around her. One of the newest things she has started doing is putting her hand up to her ear when she ears something and she wants to know what it is...for instance, a bird chirping in the background, someone driving by on a motorcycle, an airplane flying above us. It's amazing to watch her face as she takes everything in. At times, this can be very frustrating though. She knows what she wants but can't always verbalize it to me which results in one frustrated baby and mommy. I sometimes joke and say that I am afraid that we are entering the terrible two's at 18 months old because she has now learned how to throw a full blown tantrum when she doesn't get her way. I have to admit that I am shocked that this has started so early (or at least it seems early to me). Just to give an example of this, we were in a store not long ago and Matt told Peyton "no" because she was trying to mess with something that she shouldn't be messing with, and she just flat out laid down on the floor and started crying. I could not believe what I was seeing. Shocked and embarrassed that this was my child, I said "That's fine. You can throw a tantrum if you want but I am walking away." It didn't take long before she realized she wasn't getting any attention from us so she stopped crying and started crawling across the floor...seriously?!?!

This is what she did when I asked her to show me how she goes "night night"

Still pretending to go "night night"

On a lighter note, as bad as the tantrums are, they are nothing compared to how much fun we are having with her right now. She has so much personality and keeps us entertained all of the time. She is loving her baby doll right now, and enjoys pushing her around in her little stroller. It's so sweet to see her take on a nurturing role at such a young age. Two of her biggest loves right now are playing outside and swinging. We have a huge deck in the back and she loves to go out there and run around. She has also started wanting to go run around in the yard while I sit on the steps at the deck and watch her. As I have said before, she definitely knows what she wants...when we go outside she will pat on the glider as if to say "sit here" until I sit down; or if she wants to play in the yard, she will run over to the stairs and then pat on the step until I walk over there and sit down there. I'm beginning to worry about who is running the show in our household! Peyton continues to love cheese, fruit (especially grapes), raisins, pasta, and meatballs. She has also started to follow after her daddy's footsteps, developing a strong love of m&m's. Although this little girl keeps us on our toes all of the time, we wouldn't have it any other way!

18 Month Stats:

Weight: 24 lbs. 6 oz. (50-75th percentile)

Height: 33 inches ( 90th percentile)

Head Circumference: 18 inches

VCC Easter Egg Hunt

We joined Vestavia Country Club at the end of the summer last year and haven't really participated in many activities up there so when we saw that they were doing an Easter egg hunt this year we decided it would be the perfect time to change that.  Only neither Matt nor I were prepared for the competitiveness that an Easter egg hunt for 1-2 year olds holds.  They had this little area marked off with yellow tape and inside of it were a bunch of Easter eggs.  Everyone was standing outside of the circle waiting for them to say "go" and when they did it was a mad dash for the eggs.  I wasn't sure who was worse, the kids or the parents!  And Peyton was just standing there eating her chocolate chip cookie, oblivious to the craziness surrounding her.  It was as if I blinked and all of the eggs were gone!  Matt and I were so naive to think that we could put Peyton in there and she could pick up eggs and put them in her basket on her own.  She didn't stand a chance next to these other kids!  Poor thing might have gotten 2 eggs in her basket.  Not to mention I hear these parents in the background telling their kids "I want you to get as many eggs as you can okay"...I mean really, these are 1 and 2 year olds!  

So after all of the excitement of the Easter egg hunt we decided to take a little ride on the train.  The plan was for me and P to go for a ride while Matt stayed back but she was not having in part of that.  Matt was ready to forgo the whole train ride all together but once he sat down with her she got okay and we had a nice little ride to the end of the street and back.  Then it was off to the balloon station where this lady made P a pink bunny.  Afterwards, we were all worn out from the excitement of the Easter festivities!

Love how sweet it is watching her hold onto Matt's arm!

Peyton playing peek-a-boo with her bunny balloon

Second attempt at a family picture before we hit melt-down mode

Miller Hill Easter Egg Hunt

Our soon-to-be new neighborhood held an Easter Egg Hunt today for the little kids.  It started at 1 and we had every intention of getting there when it started but P had other plans in mind.  She still like to take a late morning nap, and of course fell asleep not long before it was time for us to leave.  Since she is not the greatest napper, we didn't want to miss the rare opportunity to let her get some shut-eye so we just went a little late.  We got there about 30 minutes after it had started and to our surprise the party was wrapping up.  They had already done the Easter egg hunt and everyone was getting ready to gather there things and head back home.  Our neighbors were so sweet though to set some eggs out for Peyton so that she could have a little Easter egg hunt of her own.  Peyton was too young to participate in any Easter egg hunts last year so this was her first and she wasn't quite sure what to do.  Thankfully one of the cute little girls in the neighborhood was eager to help P out.  It didn't take Peyton long to catch on and oh how she loved hunting her some eggs!  

Once we got back home Peyton wasn't ready for the Easter egg hunt fun to end.  She was playing in her little cozy coupe and she was adamant that the Easter basket be in the car with her despite the fact that it was too big to fit. I don't know what it is about her Easter basket, but she LOVES to play with it.  I think that it has something to do with her being in this phase right now where she likes to carry bags/purses and put them up on her shoulder.  She is definitely all girl!  

Notice the frustration in her face over the basket not fitting in the car...