My Girl

We haven't been up to much except trying to keep our days full of activities to take advantage of summer.

Today I took the camera outside and snapped a few shots of my girl.

We picked the flower on our way home from getting milkshakes for dinner. We were visiting the upstairs neighbor who has a girl who is Miss M's age.  The little girl pulled Miss M down off the slide by her back so Miss M didn't see it coming and I saw it only seconds too late.  Miss M was very upset by this and it took quite awhile for her to regain her composure.  I was sure that Miss M needed a milkshake to help make her feel better so we took a walk.

  You'd give this face a milkshake for dinner too...wouldn't ya!?!

Miss M's first train ride downtown

We live in a city with public transportation.  I am not a fan of public transportation. When I was pregnant I couldn't ride the bus or train because it made me sick to my stomach.  Since having Miss M I just haven't been courageous enough to take her on the train. Originally, I worried about lack of operating elevators and/or Miss M screaming her lungs out in the middle of our journey.  Now we just have learned to survive without or we pay (a lot) for parking.

Miss M is generally fascinated by the train. She screams (in a happy way) when she sees them.  She isn't scared of their loud and obnoxious noise.

The three of us went downtown this weekend to do a little shopping and to meet Aunt Nessa. Instead of paying for parking we opted for the train.  Miss M did so well.  She wasn't scared of the train or crowds. It was reassuring. Maybe we will make more trips downtown to meet Drew for dinner/lunch.

Chocolate

My girl might not like cupcakes very much but she sure likes chocolate.

Bear's cousin

We went to our favorite wholesale club this weekend.  As predicted, we brought Ted's cousin home with us. Ted's cousin doesn't have an official name yet thus he shall be called Bear for now.

We don't have any great pictures of Miss M and Bear or Bear making himself at home but we'll have some sooner than later.

Miss M was happy to see Bear at the store and therefore he ended up in our cart.

We are suckers.  Oh well.  It could be worse...right?!?!

Art of illusion

I think it's been stated before but I don't like meal time. I think if she would eat the things I made for her I wouldn't mind it as much.  I try to feed her new foods a lot and she typically doesn't eat them.  She moves them around her plate thus making it look like she's eaten her food.

Most kids enjoy hot dogs, mac-n-cheese, tater tots or chicken nuggets.  Miss M doesn't seem to want any of these things. I made her mac-n-cheese the other day and she grabbed a bunch of it in her hands and just squeezed it.  Did she eat it? Nope. She just made a mess of it.

The amount of food she wastes is frustrating.  I realize it's a learning process for her. I know that it takes kids multiple times of trying things to develop a taste for some foods but it's hard to find the desire or energy to continually remake food when you have little confidence of her eating the food.  

She loves snacks. I think she just loves the word snack.

She's also a scavenger.  I usually keep food in the diaper bag because I never know when I am going to be out and she might honestly be hungry or when I might be out and need to bribe her with food to be quiet.  I often find her digging through the diaper bag throwing everything out of it until she finds the snack of her choosing.  I try to have relatively healthy snacks but they aren't nearly the healthy snacks my friends feed their kids. I think the other kids are excited when I come around because I have processed high-fructose food and they are only allowed to eat organic unprocessed food!

I know her food patterns will change a lot over time but until they include eating normal kid foods I will accept that condiments are a food group for her.

Tower

We brought a cooler home from our recent travels.  After unloading the cooler it sat in the kitchen and Miss M found it to be the perfect step stool.  She climbed up on it and destroyed drawers that she hasn't been able to get into before.  She liked being up high and seeing what was going on except the cooler was unstable and it kept falling over which lead to her slamming her head into the cabinets. It was great.

There are these kid towers I have seen before and thought they would solve the problem of Miss M enjoying the scene from above as well as the instability of the cooler.  So far it's working well.  The step is a little high for Miss M to get onto but she is able to get in the tower by herself.  She likes to just play in it thus it serves an additional purpose of a miniature playpen.

Happy Girl...Not so Happy Girl

Miss M is 16 months old.  I don't pay much attention each month to figure out how hold she is (now that she's one) but today I happened to look at the calendar and notice she is 16 months old.

We had a pretty typical day.  We ran errands, came home, took a nap (her not me), went to the gym, went downtown to eat dinner with Andrew, came home, played, and finally bedtime.

I tried to get some pictures of her before she went to bed.

There's the smily Miss M.

Then there is the not so smily Miss M.

I think her mad/annoyed pictures are funny.  She's very curious and observant which apparently leads to her scowling a lot.

Here are a few pictures of her and I that I was able to snap.

The lighting isn't the best here but I like it.

Bear

I have been waiting anxiously to post about Bear. We couldn't say anything about Bear because Bear was a gift for baby Jack.

Miss M loved Bear.

There are lots of pictures because he provided so much joy to our home while he was here. Now he is happily living at baby Jack's house.

I should mention that Bear is a 53 inch plush animal which was for sale at our favorite wholesale club for a whooping $29.99!  What a bargain!

Bear comes home.

Miss M loves Bear (that's her nose scrunch happy face).

Miss M watching TV with Bear.

Miss M is in love.

 Miss M giving Bear love.

Miss M feeding Bear pizza.

Bear joining in on family dinner.

We were a little concerned that Miss M would be saddened when Bear (renamed Ted by his new family) stayed with Jack and didn't come home with us but she hasn't' noticed his absence. 

We are making a trip to our favorite wholesale club this weekend and Bear's cousin might just end up in our cart. I have been in a purging mood lately therefore there's definitely room for a 53" plush bear in our home again.

The pool

We have a pool semi close to our place which we tested out a few weeks ago.  Miss M likes to play in the water.  We have been going to swimming lessons once a week for a half hour to get and keep her used to being in and around the water.

She likes swim lessons until they want her to lay on her back.  I obviously hold her but she's never liked being on her back and this sends her into a fit. It's not pretty.

Hopefully we'll be able to make it to the pool frequently since they have a kids pool also.

Don't let the serious face fool you.