A Real Halloween

EG had a blast with Halloween. She was a little confused about why we were going outside after dinner (normally that is quiet playtime with moms inside - only). She caught on quickly and went to our close neighbors for some loot. Then, we returned home to serve the numerous trick or treaters where we learned that EG LOVES to put the candy in other kids' bags. She passed out most of the candy (mom helped a little). She was so overtired by bed that she woke up all night long.....too much excitement before bed!!! Here is the night in pictures.

A day in the life and recent photos

I realize that I have been posting a lot of pictures lately, but not much narrative. So, I thought I would start with a day in life of EG...

The basics of her day are she wakes at 6:00 am, breakfast at 7 am, snack at 9am, lunch at 10:30 am, nap at 11:00 (1.5 hours - 2 hours), snack at 3pm, dinner at 4:30, bath at 6:00, in crib at 6:30ish and either passes out or rolls around for 20 minutes.

We have a nanny (a local grad student) who comes to our house 4.5 hours per day, 4 days a week. This allows M to work part-time this year and gives EG a new playmate. The nanny is awesome and EG adores her. It was an adjustment, but I'd say 3 weeks into the school year everyone was settled in their routines.

The weather has turned cold here fast and forced all of us into lots of layers. Here are the latest of our little girl...









E-

This week in pictures

I am learning to color.

I am wearing all of my summer clothes as much as possible.
Mom bought me a big wheel and I love it. I don't know how to pedal .... yet.
I am still working on getting my hair right.
Mom got stung by a bee.

Things I do...

Find new places to play

Play with my cousin

Try to look like mama

Read books
Play with my hair....yes, I have some hair
Push my baby
Feed my baby

Words

I have uploaded a video of EG repeating her "words". She is consistent in her answers even if they aren't correct. Water is "lala" -- it just is. These aren't all of her words, but a large portion were caught on tape.



We had her 15 month appointment. She is 32 inches tall, 25 pounds, and has a head in 75 percentile. She was great, but a little shy with the doctor. She also got 2 shots and one finger prick.

Here is the interesting part. They give you the Denver Scale to ensure your child is developing on schedule. It measures social skills, self care, gross motor skills, and fine motor skills. We run through them..... proud parents until.....

Does your child say 3 or more words? Of course
Does your child walk backwards? YES
Can your child run across the room without falling? YES
Does your child recognize people besides immediate family members? Of course
Can your child use a spoon without help? Nope

Can your child stack 3 or more blocks/items?

What? Blocks? We are supposed to count blocks? I didn't know that? How was I supposed to know I was suppose to count blocks? What does it mean if she can't stack the blocks? I look at M and say, "Can she do that?" M also has no idea. Neither of us can remember. We are obviously bad parents because we aren't counting the BLOCKS!!!

Then....Sunday comes. We are making dinner. EG does this with no encouragement from us. I sat there talking away and then I realized what she was doing. She was stacking. See below....















So, yes, she can stack three or more items. I swear I wanted to call the doctor and tell her, "I'd like to make correction on the Denver Scale. She can stack 3 or more blocks/items. Does that increase her grade? or our grade?

It's hard to live with two teachers....

We had to take a picture

Before I begin this story, I need people to know that I am not a "buy the kid everything" type of person. I really can't stand all the toys. We have the cheap baby pool for the summer, a sandbox, lots of age-appropriate toys, and we have our fair share of baby stuff around. However, when EG goes to bed everything goes in a tasteful, beautiful, handcrafted by M's Dad, wooden toy box. Sitting in our living room at night, you would not know that we had a kid. One of our neighbors has 6 LARGE plastic objects sitting in their backyard (pool, slide, water table, burley, basketball hoop, and a sandbox) for a their daughter who is the same age as EG and we live right next to a BRAND NEW PARK! Back to the picture...

When we registered for our baby gifts we signed up for two strollers. The traditional Graco with the cup holders, storage below, and car-set attachment. We called it the SUV stroller.

We also registered for the cheap umbrella stroller.

When spring rolled around we needed a Burley to use with our bike and as a stroller in cooler weather. She can be completely protected in the Burley and we can take walks down to 30 degrees.

Then her birthday rolled around and a aunt/uncle gave us the "pink car", which EG fell in love with and still loves. It entertains her for hours.

Finally, after a few days at Ninna's house where there was a little red wagon to push and pull around we knew that one was in our future. This week M came home with a perfect Radio Flyer.

One little, sweet, girl who can walk and run has 5 modes of transport. It is actually hard to choose which one when we take a walk.

Burley: cooler or with the bikes
Umbrella: quick trips to stores or quick visits
SUV: MALL and daily, nice weather walks (this one gets the most use)
Pink car: short walks, kite flying (the kite is in the "trunk"), and great for pushing around the yard
Wagon: not sure yet

So, here they are EG's rides... and she loves them all!

"words"

EG has her own language - it is out job to try and understand it....


ma-ma = Mom or grandma
papa = grandpa
bye-bye = bye bye
nana = banana, Ninna, and it is an all purpose word
lie = light
sssss = Summitt the dog
paa-paa = up or help
pes = please
lala = water
dado = bottle
bebe = blanket
peep peep = birdie
da = thank you

She also spends a lot of time getting cleaned up.