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| 16 months old--- She loves Hello Kitty, or as she says "Cat" |
As usual I am super behind on updating this blog so here is the novel detailing the last 2 months!
High Chair Safety
First of all I would like to start with a little public service announcement with regards to high chair safety. The wooden high chairs you see at restaurants….. the little strap that should go between your child’s legs…. be sure when you put your child in the high chair that the strap actually is between their legs! The week before Christmas Payton and I met my friend Christina at the Sun Flower Bakery for breakfast. When I put Payton into the high chair the little strap ended up being pushed off to the side so that both of her legs were on one side of the strap. She looked comfortable so I didn’t think anything of it. Payton was sitting right next to Christina and I and we were just eating breakfast and talking. Suddenly she slid down in the chair and before I knew what was happening she was hanging from the chair by her neck! She made little gagging sounds and I quickly tried to pull her up back into the chair. But she was stuck and it took Christina’s help to push her up while I pulled. It was really scary and it just made me think what a bad situation it could be if a parent happened to step away for a minute and wasn’t right there to respond to the situation. Anyway, once Payton was out of the high chair she was absolutely fine and we had a good visit with Christina. I just wanted to give the warning that baby/children’s items like high chairs need to be used correctly!
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| Payton and Christina, just fine after the high chair incident |
Christmas
Since we spend Christmas away from home, Charles and I have always had a little tradition of exchanging gifts with each other before leaving town. This year it was even more fun because we had received quite a few other gifts in the mail sent by Charles’ sisters as well as from a couple of close friends. Our presents to each other were new cell phones. Even Payton received a Leapfrog cell phone plus a bunch of toys that she loves and new outfits.
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| Payton with some of the gifts given from her aunts and friends |
On Friday, December 23, 2011, we drove to my parent’s house. As usual Payton barely slept in the car and was tired by the time we arrived. She also was not interested in eating. When we got to my parent’s house, my brother Albert, Erin, and nephew Hank were already there. Payton and Hank enjoyed playing together and before bed we gave the two little ones sink baths with Payton in one side of the sink and Hank in the slightly smaller side of the sink. It was really cute and they had fun placing toys in the other person’s side of the sink.
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| Payton and Hank during their sink bath |
On Christmas Eve, my brother Kyle, his girlfriend Lindsay, my cousin Brian, his wife Libby, and their kids Amelia and Wyatt joined us, my parents, Albert, Erin, and Hank to celebrate the holiday. Brian brought a fried turkey and my mom made a huge Christmas meal for lunch. Payton napped through lunch and when she woke up she ate grilled cheese and pear (she’s still a very picky eater). It was cold outside so we all stayed inside and watched football most of the day. As is tradition in our family, we ate tamales for dinner and then exchanged a few presents. For the second night in a row, Payton kept us up much of the night. She’s not a very good sleeper when we are away from home.
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| Christmas Eve-- checking out the new toys |
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| Cousinly Love |
Christmas morning we woke up and ate delicious breakfast casserole that my mom always makes for Christmas. Then we opened presents. After that we spent the day watching Payton and Hank play with their new toys. Some of the hit toys they received was a helicopter toy that we gave Hank that comes with balls you can place inside of it, shopping carts and vacuum cleaners that my parents gave both Payton and Hank, a Santa Claus book that Kyle gave Payton that when you open the pages it says, “Ho, Ho, Ho”, a kitty cat that Albert & Erin gave Payton that moves around and plays music, and a toy Kyle gave Payton where you use a hammer to hammer down balls into the toy. They received many other presents too that they have enjoyed!
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| Hank and Payton spending time with Lala and Grandfather |
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| Hank, Albert, Payton, and Charles |
The day after Christmas we drove home. It was on that day, during Monday night football that I won my fantasy football league! I’m really proud of myself though I feel I got pretty lucky because the players I initially drafted stayed healthy and performed well throughout the season. I had still lost a few games during the season but then went undefeated during the playoffs, eventually beating Brandon who up until that game had gone undefeated the entire season. So, way to go America’s Team (my team name)!
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| My little nephew Hank and I |
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| Hank and Charles |
The week between Christmas and New Years my friend Margaret, her mom, and her two kids Jonah who is 4 and Jill who is 2 came to visit. The day they were here we had a really fun-filled afternoon. Payton and I met them at The Spot where her kids ate ice cream. From there we went to Seawolf Park. Seawolf Park is this really cool park because it’s built on the tip of Pelican Island (a small island right off of Galveston where A&M Galveston is located). So basically it sticks out into the Galveston ship channel. Since we went there during the week, we got to see lots of boats, both tankers and pleasure boats coming and going. We also were there when the cruise ship departed. I always find it fun to watch all the people on the decks of the cruise ships, waving as they set off on their vacations. From there we went back to The Spot where we met Charles for dinner. After dinner we went to the beach to let Jill and Jonah play in the sand and then we went to Moody Gardens to walk through the Festival of Lights. This was the second time this year that we’ve walked through the Festival of Lights and it’s been fun each time. We really enjoyed seeing Margaret, her mom, and her sweet kids.
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| Happy New Years! |
New Years
The day before New Years Eve my parents came to Galveston. I had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon when they arrived so they took Payton to the park to play and then on a wagon ride from our house to the beach. When I got back from my appointment we all went out to eat at Shrimp N Stuff.
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| Beautiful day to start the new year |
The following morning, New Years Eve, we all drove to Houston to watch the Aggies play Northwestern in a bowl game. The Aggies won and it was fun watching them play in Reliant Stadium. Payton napped on the way home and then when we got home, after nursing, she fell back asleep until 6:00 p.m. She was then up for a couple of hours and fell back asleep for the night around 8. Apparently the football game really wore her out. Charles and I were tired too and for the second year in a row, we watched a little of the New Years stuff on TV but fell asleep before the ball even dropped in New York (which would be 11:00 p.m. our time). So, I guess we’re getting old. To me it is kind of hard to justify staying up half the night when I know Payton is going to wake me up during the night to nurse and then will wake me up in the morning. I live my life now focusing on trying to remain not too entirely sleep deprived!
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| Pushing this wagon in the sand is hard work! |
The first day of 2012 was cool with beautiful blue skies. Charles needed to check on his mom’s beach house on the West End so we brought Payton’s wagon and walked to the beach while we were there. I took some nice pictures of Payton with her wagon (that she loves to push across the beach) and of Charles tossing her into the air.
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| Payton petting the goat in the petting zoo |
The following day (Monday, January 2, 2012) Charles had off of work so we took Payton to the Houston Zoo. It was another nice day and warm enough to be comfortable without a jacket. We stayed at the zoo from about 1:30-3:30 p.m. Payton enjoyed the petting zoo area where they had goats that you could pet. The most exciting thing that happened took place when we were watching the elephants. There were a couple of adult elephants with two baby elephants. For some reason one of the adult elephants got freaked out and started running at the other elephants. Immediately all of the elephants started running, kicking up dirt, trumpeting, and flaring their ears! Everyone was like, “WOAH!!!!” Payton, on the other hand, looked rather unimpressed. It was really something to see although I hope it doesn’t happen too often because I would hate to think that living in the zoo is causing the elephants to live in such a state of constant stress.
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| Picture in front of the elephants before the elephants flipped out |
Warm Weather
This has been the over-all warmest winter I can ever remember. It seems like every single week there are days that I take Payton to the park or the beach and we are both wearing short sleeves. If a cold front comes through it’s usually only cold (temp in 50s) for a day or two before warming back up to the 70s. It’s really been very nice although the warm weather has resulted in quite a few days where we experience a lot of sea fog (which is normally how our early spring days are). There have even been days this January where the temps have been in the 80s and I’ve allowed Payton to get in the Gulf without a wetsuit. And we aren’t the only ones. On days like that there are always people on the beach in their bikinis enjoying the warm winter weather. The water is cold still but doesn’t feel all that bad when the air temperature is warm. Besides getting in the water, Payton enjoys walking up the sand dunes that are against Seawall, chasing birds, examining shells and items on the ground, and watching people walk their dogs.
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| Enjoying the warm "winter weather" at the park |
We have also had a couple days of severe stormy weather. On Monday, January 9 a tornado touched down on Mall of the Mainland (in Texas City) taking the roof off of part of the mall. Our dog Haven is usually outside during the day but during thunderstorms I let him in the house and put up baby gates to keep him and Payton separate. Haven is very good with Payton but he does have a history of unpredictable behavior so we use caution in having him around Payton. Haven is really afraid of thunderstorms so if there is one when Payton is napping, I have to sit on the kitchen floor with him in order to keep him calm and quiet enough not to wake Payton from her nap. It’s pretty annoying but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to allow her to have a good nap.
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| Helping Mama clean the floors |
Seeing Friends
On Saturday, January 14th we drove to Clear Lake City to attend our friends Joel and Crissy’s house warming party. Joel and Crissy are some of the first people who befriended us when we moved to Galveston 8 years ago. (It’s hard to believe we have lived here 8 years now!) With two young kids, they finally decided to leave the Island and move closer to Joel’s job which is in Houston. Thankfully they are still close enough to Galveston that I’m sure we will still see them at the beach this spring. We also saw another friend Mike Reinschmidt at their party. Mike is an awesome surfer and we have learned a lot from watching him surf over the years. He also sold us our favorite board which is a tri-finned, 9 foot board shaped by Bob Martin.
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| Fun on the Strand with friends Mike and Teresa |
The following weekend we met up with friends of ours from Dallas, Teresa and Mike. They are my close friend Lindy’s parents. Teresa and Mike were here on a mini-vacation for the weekend. We met them at our favorite little ice cream/candy shop called La Kings which is located on the Strand. It was good visiting with them and they enjoyed seeing Payton.
15 Month Check-up/ Vaccinations
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| Mickey Mouse Girl |
For Payton’s 15 month appointment I took her to the same doctor’s office in Texas City that we went to three months ago when she was sick. Only this time I made an appointment to see Dr. Hay, the pediatrician that a friend of Charles recommended. When we got there the waiting room was really packed and we had to wait for 45 minutes. That is a very long time when you have a toddler that absolutely won’t sit still and would love nothing more than to run all over the office. Thankfully they have a section of the waiting room designated for healthy children so I just did my best to keep her in that area.
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| Super Kewl Kid! |
Payton finally got called back and we were seen by a nurse who took down her height, weight, and head circumference. She weighed 24.4 pounds (72%), her height was 31 ¼ inches ( 76 %), and her head circumference was 47.5 cm (89%). I said, “Oh she shrunk!” because that’s shorter than she measured at her 12 month appointment. The difference is that in Galveston the nurses always lay her on the chart and then flattened her legs to get a good measurement, whereas this nurse just measured however Payton’s legs happened to land. So…. I don’t think she got a very good measurement because clearly Payton has not shrunk but I’m also not surprised to find out that she hasn’t grown much since her 12 month appointment as I have noticed her growth has really seemed to slow down (which is normal for this age). She started wearing 18 month clothes last May when she was just 8 months old and she can still fit into some of those same clothes (although 24 month clothes usually fit her better). She is still taller than all the other children we know her age (and those a little older) besides her cousin Nate who is probably about the same height.
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| Rock Star! |
After that we saw Dr. Hay who was very nice and seemed pretty knowledgeable. He didn’t do any kind of official milestone assessment like they do in Galveston but he did ask a few questions about things Payton is doing and said that it sounds like she is right on track with all of her milestones and maybe even ahead on some. This is great news since up until a few months ago she was always behind on her milestones. He then looked at his computer and then said, “And her tubes are right in place like they should be”. And I’m thinking, “How does he know that since he didn’t look in her ears?” I’m guessing he was looking at the notes the ENT made the last time she checked Payton but I really don’t know and was a bit confused by that. He didn’t have me remove her clothes and didn’t thoroughly examine her like the pediatricians do at the Galveston clinic. But I wasn’t too concerned about this since I would have mentioned to him if we had been experiencing any issues.
He ended the check-up by looking at Payton’s shot history and then handing me a packet of information that contained an example vaccination scheduled. He told me the nurse would be in shortly to give Payton her vaccinations. While I was waiting I looked at the vaccination schedule and saw that Payton should be getting two vaccinations at this appointment. So I was a little surprised when the nurse walked in with three vaccinations already drawn up into syringes. I asked about them and she told me which vaccinations they were. One of them she said was the DTAP vaccine. I showed her the schedule I had just been given and pointed out that it listed the DTAP as an 18 month vaccination. She said, “Well, it can be given as early as 15 months”. I said, “So you’re going to give her 3 shots today and only 1 next time?” And she said, “Yes”. And I’m thinking, “What kind of sense does that make???” And I felt especially frustrated later when she told me, “Now she may be really sore tonight because that DTAP contains tetnus”. But, she already had them drawn up and I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it since that’s the reason we had issues with our last pediatrician so I allowed her to give Payton the vaccinations, but I left the office pretty ticked off about it. Now don’t get me wrong, I think vaccinations are a wonderful thing that save thousands of lives every year and I am all for having my child vaccinated. But I also think those vaccinations, especially when multiple ones are given at the same time, are really hard on their little bodies. I know that when I personally get vaccinations I almost always get sick with a high fever from them. Thankfully Payton reacts better to them than I do, but I still don’t feel it’s easy on her. So, all I really want out a pediatrician is to let me know (in advance) which vaccinations are going to be given and then to let me, as the parent, decide when those vaccinations will be given (and to opt out of ones like the flu or chicken pox vaccines without being made to feel like a bad parent).
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| Payton and I checking out the birds on gunnery spot located East End of the island |
Nana’s Visit
We didn’t get a chance to see Charles’ mom (“Nana”) for Christmas so she came to visit in mid-January. She owns a beach house on the West End that she has had a renter in for the past 6 years or so. The renter, who regularly didn’t pay his rent, finally moved out but when he did he left the house completely trashed. There were holes in the walls, the baseboards had been removed, and all the furniture like the dining room table and chairs had been left outside and were ruined. Worst of all, he wasn’t supposed to smoke in the house but did anyway so everything is stinks and has to be replaced. So, while here, Bea worked on things for the house during the day and then came over each evening to spend a little time with us and with Payton. We exchanged Christmas presents and one of the things that Nana gave to Payton was the Rock with Elmo doll. Payton loves it! She makes it play music and then dances to the music. She quickly learned who Elmo is when we tell her to go get her Elmo, although when she tries to say Elmo it comes out sounding like “Muh-muh”.
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| Nana and Payton with her "I'm serious" look. |
Bea brought her dog “Pretty Girl” with her when she came to visit. While here Pretty Girl started throwing up and having blooding bowel movements so Bea took her to our vet office. The vet ran a blood test on here and found that her kidneys had completely stopped working. The vet said that even if she hospitalized Pretty Girl that she still would only be expected to live 1-2 more months. Charles went to the vet office and also asked the vet many questions about her prognosis. What they found was that Pretty Girl was very sick, was uncomfortable, and that the recommendation was that she needed to be put to sleep. So the very difficult decision was made and Pretty Girl passed away on January 20, at 11 ½ years of age. Charles buried her that evening beneath the palm trees of Bea’s beach house and we later got a stone ordered that was engraved “Pretty Girl 2000-2012”.
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| RIP Pretty Girl |
Library Story Time
In January the public library in town started their “Spring Story Time” which takes place once a week for about 40 minutes. Payton loves it! They sing songs, have puppet shows, read books, act out books, do crafts, have snacks, etc. But mostly Payton enjoys walking around looking at all the other adults and kids that are there. She isn’t the only one who roams around as there are a few other little ones who do the same. I let her roam as long as she’s not causing any problems. It’s funny because whenever everyone starts clapping for the librarian (like at the end of a puppet show or something), Payton turns to everyone in the room and gets a big smile on her face and starts clapping too. I am pretty certain that she thinks everyone is clapping for her. At our last story time the librarian finished a puppet show, everyone started clapping and then when the clapping stopped Payton was still clapping and then started laughing like crazy. She was standing in the middle of the room so everyone saw her and started laughing right along with her. With having a mama and daddy who don’t like being the center of attention, Payton sure is a ham!
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| Listening to the librarian during story time |
“My baby can read” and “Cheering for a marathon in the rain”
Well first of all, on Thursday, February 2, the groundhog crawled out of his hole and announced “6 more weeks of winter”. Which doesn’t make sense. How we can have 6 more weeks of winter when we haven’t had a winter to begin with? So clearly the groundhog is confused and a sorry excuse for a meteorologist. Besides the warm weather, the other good thing about this winter is we’ve finally gotten some much needed rain. We have been in such a terrible drought for so very long that it’s a relief to finally be getting some rain.
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| Walking to the beach with Grandfather, Lala, and dog "Baby" |
So, the first weekend of February my parents came to visit and it rained most of the time that they were here. Before the rain started we did get the opportunity to walk to the beach when they arrived on Friday. Payton loves to walk there and back on her own now (which although it’s only a couple of blocks, seems kind of far for her little legs). My mom pointed out the “flowers” (weeds) on the way there and now each time we go to the beach Payton wants to stop to look at all the flowers.
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| Walking down the jetty with Grandfather |
That evening we were all sitting in the living room when I told Payton, “Go get the book Where the Wild Things Are” and I pointed to her bedroom. I did not really expect her to be able to do this, even though it is one of her favorite books. But we watched as Payton walked to her bedroom, looked at the books on her bookshelf, grabbed a book, and walked back to us. As she got closer we saw that it was indeed Where the Wild Things Are! So apparently our little book worm can read book titles already! Hehe
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| Library story time |
The next morning (Super Bowl Sunday), the Mardi Gras Marathon took place and our house was on the route of it. We quickly realized there was no one on our street out to cheer for the runners and being runners ourselves, my dad, Charles, and I understand how helpful it can be to have people cheering for you. So we stood out in the rain and blasted Charles’ car stereo as we cheered for the runners as they passed. Since they had to go two laps for the full marathon, they passed us at mile 3 and then again at mile 16. Next year I think we are going to try to organize a little event where more people on our street get out and support the marathon.
That night we watched as two teams, that are both thousands of miles from here and whom we really don’t care about, played each other in the Super Bowl. I guess I was glad that the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots only because I really don’t care for the Patriots. But either way, we weren’t very emotionally invested in the game.
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| Happy 90th birthday, Grandma! |
Grandma’s 90th Birthday Celebration
The second weekend of February we hesitantly skipped out on all the Mardi Gras celebrations in Galveston in order to travel to Dallas to celebrate Charles’ Grandma’s 90th birthday. Due to rain and having to drop Haven off at the kennel in Pearland, the trip took 7 ½ hours. And as usual, Payton only napped a total of about 20 minutes during the entire trip so she arrived in Dallas already overly tired. I tried to get her to nap when we got there but being in a strange place she was NOT interested. That evening she did fall asleep but then woke up at 12:30 a.m. and kept us awake until 4:15 a.m. She finally fell asleep with Charles holding her still in the bed with us but then woke up for good that morning around 7:00 a.m.
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| Showing off her "silly smile" while spending time with Lindy |
We met my friend Lindy for breakfast that morning at Duncan Donuts and despite not having slept, Payton seemed in a decent mood. Later that morning I held Payton in bed beside me and she fell asleep for about an 1 ½ hour nap. I tried again to get her to take an afternoon nap but she wasn’t interested. What all of this amounted to was her being extremely overly tired for Grandma’s birthday party that started at 6:30 p.m. But she was a trooper and hung in there long enough for us to attend at least some of the party which was held at Charles’ aunt and uncle’s house. Grandma didn’t know a party was being thrown for her and was surprised and really seemed to enjoy the party. I’m glad we were able to attend even though it meant missing the first weekend (the weekend that we normally have people over because the parades all take place by our house) of Mardi Gras. Charles' sister Debbie was there from Charlotte, NC and pretty much his entire family on his mom's side was in attendance so it was good seeing everyone. I certainly hope I am lucky enough to be alive and in such good health when I’m 90 years old! Grandma is simply amazing and still does more than many, many people who are half her age!
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| Playing with cousin Nate |
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| "The Falgouts" |
Valentine’s Day
Okay, I know there are people (like my mom) who absolutely love Valentine’s Day but I just can’t help but think it’s a pretty silly holiday. Charles and I have never found a reason to celebrate it. He shows me that he loves me by all the things he does for me every single day, not just on one day when it is expected. BUT, Payton has been seeing all the balloons in Kroger for a month now so I told Charles if he wants to get something then to get her a balloon. He did, as well as getting her a little sock monkey and getting me entirely too much candy. So Payton loved her balloon, I got a stomach ache from eating too much candy, and we ate spaghetti for dinner because it’s red. Happy Valentine’s Day!
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| Making her daddy a Valentine's Day card |
Mardi Gras
We had a lot of fun for the 2nd weekend of Mardi Gras. Friday we went out to eat at Salsa’s and had hoped to go from there to one of the parades but it was raining so we decided against it. Saturday several friends came over for pizza, drinks, and jello. Our friends Amanda and Erick brought their daughter Casey who is almost exactly one year older than Payton (Casey’s was born 10-10-09 and Payton 10-15-10). Casey was so sweet to Payton, holding her hand and playing with her. And it was so cute because Payton followed her everywhere and tried to do whatever Casey did. Casey goes to childcare during the week so I hope we can get the girls together for a weekend play date sometime. After eating we left for the parade and because we knew parking would be an issue, we just took my truck in which we installed Casey’s car seat inside and all the guys sat in the bed of the truck. The parade was great, as usual! It was the Momus parade which is the largest parade each year at Galveston’s Mardi Gras. The rain had cleared off earlier in the day and the weather was really comfortable. Payton and Casey were huge bead magnets. Routinely those on the floats would yell, “For the baby!” or just point at Payton or Casey and throw our way.
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| Payton with her Mardi Gras beads |
The following day the pet parade and children’s parade came down Seawall by our house. Our friends Travis and Kristin along with their kids joined us for it. The weather was perfect, sunny and comfortable. Payton ended up napping through the pet parade, but woke up with plenty of time for the children’s parade. As soon as we walked out to Seawall to attend the parade she starting pointing and saying, “Da!” at every dog she saw, so I’m kind of sorry that she missed the pet parade since I think she would have loved it. Hopefully next year she can attend it. She didn’t pay too much attention to the children’s parade but did enjoy just running around, looking at everyone.
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| Payton at the Children's Parade |
That Tuesday was Fat Tuesday and so that evening we attended the Fat Tuesday parade. The Fat Tuesday parade is always one of my favorites. We always catch the parade first when it’s on Post Office Street then we cut across and catch the parade again when it’s going down the Strand. Again we had perfect weather….. nice and warm! It seems like this parade keeps getting bigger and bigger which is great. As usually, Payton quietly observed everything that was going on with wide eyes. None of the noise and craziness seemed to scare her, which is good. There was this one float that had big torches on it and as it was passing Payton kept pointing at it saying, “Hot, hot”. Well as soon as it passed us they hit the “blow torch button” and a huge, hot flame came shooting out the back of the float. I was looking at all the little 12 year old girls around us who looked shocked and let out blood curdling screams as we could feel the intense heat of the flame. Charles said he was looking at Payton who got a look of shock on her face and then immediate hid her face in her hands. He expected her to start crying but instead she looked out from behind her hands and had a look on her face like, “Woah, I want to see that again!” As we were leaving I kept saying, “That was so much fun!” So now we have to wait a whole year for Mardi Gras to arrive again *sigh*
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| Fat Tuesday-- throw me some beads! |
Things she can do
Well, she can climb like crazy. She is an absolute monkey. We have had to remove Dixie’s doggie steps from the couch because she was too into climbing them and then trying to walk down them which resulted in several falls. I am thankful we don’t have real stairs in our house because I’m positive all she would want to do all day would be to go up and down them!
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| Wearing the Mardi Gras necklace she made at library story time |
Payton also can now give hugs and kisses but usually only does so when she feels like it. I took her to the park yesterday and there was another little girl maybe a year older than Payton and Payton walked right up to her and gave her a kiss. The little girl didn’t know what to think of that so she started walking back to her daddy. As she started walking away, Payton waved and said, “Buh, bye”. Payton then went and watched a little boy named Robbie, who is a month older than she is, go down the slide over and over again. Every time Robbie would go down the slide, Payton would clap for him. She is so sweet to other children!
Payton can now point to most of her body parts when asked. She can blink her eyes, show you her belly button, stick out her tongue, and chomp her teeth all on command. Payton can also follow directions and complete some tasks. When I’m folding the laundry, I hand Payton her clothes and tell her to put them in her drawer and she will take them to her room and put them in her drawer by herself.
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| Payton and I on the Kemah Boardwalk |
Payton can also sometimes find items of hers such as her sippy cup of milk. One day I was looking all around for Payton’s sippy cup and couldn’t find it so I asked her, “Where is your milk?” and she walked over to the pantry, opened the pantry doors, and pointed. I looked and said, “I don’t see your milk, where is it?” So she reached in, moved a box of cereal out of the way and grabbed her sippy cup.
One of Payton’s favorite things to do now is to feed Jason, the cat who lives on our front porch. We keep his food in the kitchen so I give her a cup half full of his food then she walks across the house with it, out the front door, dumps it into his cat dish, and then walks back to the kitchen to put the cup away. Sometimes the food misses the dish and gets dumped on the ground instead but otherwise she does a pretty good job with this chore. It is one of the highlights of her day and she gets excited about it, saying “Cat, cat, cat!” as she points to the cat food!
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| Examining the balloon her Dada got her for Valentine's Day |
The biggest highlight of Payton’s days is when her “Dada” gets home from work. When she sees him she squeals and says, “Dadadada!” in a super high pitched, excited voice. Throughout the day I can’t even mention “Dada” to her otherwise she thinks he is home and gets excited and then I feel bad about it.
Payton’s speech is improving and she seems to learn new words each day. Most still aren’t clear but she’s getting better. The word “Cat” now sounds much more like cat and she even sometimes attempts to say, “Dixie” (our dog) which is so cute to hear. She can also make several different animal noises on command. And she’s learned a few baby signs (ASL signs) that she generally uses appropriately now like “more”, “all done”, “eat”, and “baby”. She says “Uh oh” pretty often, she likes to surprise us by covering her mouth (instead of eyes) and then removing her hand and saying, “Boo” to play peek a boo, and asks for certain items by name like her milk “Muh”, water “Waa-waa”, to be picked up “Uh”, and goldfish “Ish”. She looks through photo albums and will point out and say “Dada”, “Mama”, and “Nana” (Charles’ mom). She can also identify the majority of the people in our immediate family in photo albums but doesn’t say all of their names.
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| Playing the piano |
Payton often hands us a ball and then goes and sits in her toddler chair where we throw it to her. She will catch it and then sometimes throw it back. Payton has also learned to color with markers and really enjoys doing that (which I allow her to do until she tries to put the markers in her mouth and then we call it quits). Other things Payton enjoys doing are going on walks either down our street or too the beach and playing on our little play set which she can now go down the toddler slide by herself.
Her nighttime sleep has remained about the same. She has been waking up once before Charles and I go to bed and I put her back to sleep and then just once in the middle of the night. On average she falls asleep around 7:45 p.m. and wakes up around 7:45-8:00 a.m. She now only takes one nap a day and it’s from about 12:15- 2:15 p.m. This is a new change and I’m still adjusting to having longer mornings and afternoons spent with her. I used to shower during her morning nap but now I generally jump in as soon as I hear her waking up in the morning (I can’t shower before she wakes up because the shower is right next to her room and wakes her up).
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| Wearing her daddy's boots |
She is just a super sweet, increasingly more independent little girl and we love her so very much! The little baby who would never smile or laugh has become a toddler who smiles and laughs all the time!
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| Such a little cutie! |
