Whitney is growing like a weed! Everytime she gets up from her nap, I look in her crib and think "She got TALLER while she slept....AGAIN!" Sometimes she looks super long and thin, and then other days she has that bpudgy baby belly and chunky rolls on her legs that remind me she is still our baby. :) She weighs a little less than 25 lbs according to our bathroom scale, wears size 4 diapers (as of this week...last week she was in 3s :( ) and she is wearing mostly 18 months and 24 months clothes, with a few pairs of 12 month shorts still hanging tight.
Whitney will eat anything you put in front of her, and LOTS of it, but she will still not touch pasta in any form. No raviolis, no shells, no ziti, no mac and cheese (gasp!). She will eat fish (salmon, fish sticks), beef (meatballs, hamburgers, steaks), and any kind of chicken, turkey, or ham. She eats almost any vegetable and fruit, with apples being a clear favorite. (But bananas were the fav last month,...so it changes.) She LOOOVES tomatoes. The little cherry ones are popped like candy, and she'll happily eat sliced tomatoes with dinner or as a snack. My parents were amazed when she ate an entire apple in one sitting (sliced/diced). Happily saying "appuulll" the whole time :) She loves her milk and wakes up asking for it each morning. During the day she drinks a lot of water. We arent encouraging juice at all since it has extra sugars she doesnt need, and she doesnt miss it. She's had several sips but still loves her milk and water, so we're happy :)
Whitney is busy, busy, busy. She rarely sits down for long, and when she does, its only because Toy Story or Letter Factory or Word Caper or Super Why has caught her attention. She asks for Nemo every single time we get in the car, but Mommy decided to reture Nemo for a little while, in favor of Word Factory...might as well get something educational out of car rides. The only shows she watches now are Super Why and Sesame Street. Occasionally we will catch a Mickey episode or Word World or Sesame Street, but Im really trying to limit the television. We only let her watch shows with some educational value, but we do opt for Disney movies when Mommy and Daddy cant handle PBS anymore. Toy Story (buzzbuzzbuzz!) and Nemo (neMOH!) are clear winners and always get big smiles and claps :) Everyone is amazed at how long she will sit and truly concentrate on the movies and shows she watches. She laughs at funny parts and gets a scared/nervous face when the music changes or something scary is about to happen (she doesnt love when Nemo's mommy is snatched, or when the Sharks meet up with Dory and Marlin).
We dont just watch TV though! :) It is so hot out right now, that its really hard to enjoy the park or the pool for more than 30 minutes or so. I've tried to get creative with our indoor activities, and am always up for playdates when friends' schedules allow. We've also added My Gym classes to our weekly routine, and we both love it :) Mac joined us for a class last week, and Whitney was sooo happy! She runs and jumps and climbs and bounces and swings and balances and squeals and just is constantly on the go, go, go! The teachers seem to really like all the kids, and although Whitney is usually one of the youngest kids in her class, she puts herself out there and smiles and is so carefree! Eric took her for a class by himself this morning and he said she did great, but started asking for me about 30 minutes into it. I not-so-secretly love that she missed me and wanted me, but we both agree that she NEEDS to learn to spend time with people OTHER than mommy, pronto.
She had her first sleepover at my parents' house last week. It was unscheduled and unplanned and totally on the fly, which is why it worked, I suppose. We have been trying to get Whitney to nap at their house for months without success. She will get sooo tired over there, get in her PJs, get bear-blanket and a bink, and wind down alllllllmost to the point of being asleep, and then she POPS UP! She never gets upset or sad or fussy about it, but she definitely didnt want to sleep anywhere but her own bed. Last week, we went over there for dinner and I laid her in the crib thinking "we'll just give it a shot"..and she laid down, cuddled bear-blanket and waved good-bye to me. Easy as that! We had been at her gym class that morning and I think she is getting more teeth, so she was worn out enough to just crash happily in the crib they bought for her MONTHS ago, in hopes of keeping her overnight. :)
She woke up happy and chatting, and was excited to see Mac at her normal wake-up time. When I went to pick her up, she acted like it was old habit...like she has sleepovers all the time. No biggie. So its nice to know that, if my back decides to go out again or if the flu attacks our hosue again or if, God forbid, Eric and I want to go overnight someplace....Whitney can hang overnight with Mac and Gramps with no complaints :)
Whitney loves to see herself in the mirror and when you ask her "Who is that? Whats your name?" she smiles from ear to ear and points to herself and says "NEEY!" (for WhitNEEEEY!) Its my new fav :)
She is repeating alot of what we say, (be careful!) and she has nicknames for a few long words she cant say yet. For example, Whitney likes when I wear necklaces. She knows I keep them in my closet, so she can frequently be found running to my closet, pointing, and YELLING, "Neck! Neck! Neck!!" She loves the long strand of black beads my Aunt Ger bought me years ago, and walks around trying to stare at it on her own neck while showing it off. :) She also loves my old pink purse. She carries it all over. It can be full of books, little people, or Mickeys, or empty...she doesnt care..she carries it with her arm in the air, smile firmly on her face.
Whitney is LOVING shoes lately. She has a few pairs that she wears religiously, and thankfully she hasnt had any opinions about which pair to wear when I start putting them on, but I know the day is coming when she will want to wear hot pink crocs with her beautiful Chirstmas dress... :) For now, i can say "Whitney, let's go put shoes on!" and she will run to her closet, sit down, kick her legs in excitement, and say "shoes! shoes!" until I get both shoes on her feet. :) She also likes to go into her Daddy's closet and point to all his shoes and laugh. haha
Whitney reallly loves brushing her teeth. She climbs up on her stool and waits for her Elmo toothpaste and ladybug toothbrush, and practically dances until you start brushing for her. :) So cute.
Her favorite books are "I Like Myself", "Little Miss Spider", and "Minine's Rainbow". She really likes these two little books I found at the dollar spot at Target. They are by Crayola and all about colors and numbers. She now recognizes and says the numbers 4, 8, and 9. Im not sure why she picked those numbers to memorize first, but its so cute when we count and she chimes in after "6...7..."...she screams "EIGHT!!" and then "NIGH!!" so cute. She can correctly identify blue and red regularly, but the rest of the colors are a shot in the dark. Some days she knows them, some days she fakes me out. She definitely knows circle, square, rectangle, triangle, diamond, oval, heart, and star and points them out whenever we see them. She loves to find the moon at night, and says "nigh nigh" when she sees it. She has been waving to EVERYTHING the last few days. She saw my earrings tonight and said "rings!" and waved to them really close. haha She saw Eric's belly button in the pool today, so she waved to his belly button. haha She waves to strangers in the store now, rather than getting shy and turning away like she did only a month or two ago.
She still looooooves Minnie ("Ninnieeee!") and Mickey ("Mick!"), but her baby dolls are starting to get more attention lately. She has to stop to give ALLL the babies a sip from their bottle now...not just one. She's generous like that. :) But yet, give the kid some goldfish crackers, and she will. not. share. No way. We are working on it, and some days are much better than others, but SOME days...phew. All I have to do is say "Whitney, let's share those cheerios.." and as soon as she hears "share", she is in tears on the floor. Nice. Just for that, she WILL get a sibling....preferably a SISTER. haha I know its just her age, and I know with practice and encouragment, she will get better at sharing....but it is a struggle right now. We practice sharing with Curious George and sharing with Mickey....we're working on it at home in an effort to cause fewer strains on her new friendships. haha
Whitney says please and thank you in context...and I LOVE it. Okay, so, to be fair...she doesnt say "please"...she says HER version of please...which is "puh, puh, puh". I know. I thought it was adorable at first. Now? I cant get her to repeat "pleeeaaase" or even "peas" because we praised her for "puh, puh,puh" when she was just trying to get the word out. I figure she will learn the whole word the more we say it to her, and she knows to say "puh, puh,puh" when she wants something. Its cute. But "peas" would be better....and "please" would be great. We'll get there. She's only 15 months!
She also says her own little version of "thanks". Eric wont let me post the video because...well....Whitney hears "Thanks!" and "sh*t!" Its a long story, but I knew she wouldnt get "thank you" right away, but I wanted her to get the concept more than the word. So I started saying "say 'thanks!'" when appropriate. She easily and quickly said "sanks!" for a whole day. I was so excited and it was uber cute. But then, the next day, I handed her the sippy cup and said "what do you say?" and she said, clear as day and LOUDLY, "Sh*t!!"
Wha!? So I let it go and corrected her, but she still insists on "sh*t!" Someone said "Everyone needs a good curse story...that's yours!" and I guess thats why Im not as embarassed to share it anymore. haha We'll get back to "sanks" asap, and hopefully a legit "Thank You" is right around the corner.
For now though, Ive stopped trying to get her to say "flip flops"....her attempts were NOT words to be used in public.
I guess I should follow her curse words up with something angelic, so I am proud and happy to say that Whitney now exclaims "A-NEN!" at the end of our prayers each night! Eric and I say prayers with her every night and she is starting to know certain parts of the prayer. At one point we say "Thank you for our family, for Mommy and Daddy and Bailey and Whitney"... and we point to each of us. Whitney now starts pointing to each of us right before we get to that part of the prayer :) And she smiles SOOO big, no matter HOW tired she is, and loudly yells "AAA-NEN!" and then "nigh nigh" My favorite :)
Whitney has been loving the beach! We've been twice in the last month, and she loved it more each time :) We are spending a week at the beach and I CANT WAIT! She doesnt care where the sand goes...ears, mouth, eyes, nose, hair...she just keeps playing :) She loves the sand, but she LOOOVES the water. She wants us to carry her out to the middle of the ocean! She just keeps pointing for us to go further and further. Now, Im not a beach girl. Its growing one me, but I wasnt raised on the beach and we didnt visit the beach often as kids. I am a little too OCD to enjoy sand everywhere. But seeing her have so much fun and realizing that "hey, sand washes off pretty easily", I am getting more and more into the beach scene. I just try to ignore the fact that we go to the beach that is the shark attack capital of the world. And the fact that i indirectly know two family friends who have been bitten by sharks? yeah, I just push that to the back of my mind. Its allllll about the kid and her smile. (yikes)
And some chair pics and family pics for fun. :)
1 comment:
Adorable, Adorable!!!
Post a Comment