17 Months Old - Such a Fun Stage!

The Little Miss is 17 Months old now!  Where did my little baby go?  I am having an absolute blast with Daisy these days.  She is so much fun!  She loves to explore, play games, be silly, dress up, go out and about, follow me everywhere and she is such a social sweetheart.  I just adore these pictures taken below.  D wanted to wear my hat, my necklace and my socks and she kept them on for quite a while.  Somehow this creative combination of accessories without a shirt on was just sheer awesomeness and I am so glad I remembered to capture it!  Being a mom is hard work no doubt but, the moments like this that give me a huge barrel laugh and a beaming smile are priceless! 

Below: Daisy's Uncle Tony was snapping to try to get her to look at the camera for me and instead she did this....and looked wayyyyy up at his snapping hand.  I'm laughing right now just thinking about it.

*Two nights ago as I was putting Daisy in her high chair and setting my big plate of crock pot roast and veggies on the table to eat for dinner Daisy put her pointer finger on her chin and said, "ummmmmmm".....and then she pointed to my plate of food and said, "no"  I was dying from laughing so hard.  I really wish you could have been there to see and hear it.  Classic!! Where the heck did she learn that?? lol

We try to remember to pray before our meals and now with a kiddo we try even harder to be consistent in this.  Just last week Daisy started saying, "Aaaaayymeeen" after or during our prayers and at church on Sunday when everyone had their heads bowed she somehow understood that they were praying and she chirped out her precious little "aaaaayyymeeeen" in the middle of the prayer.  I melted into mommy Heaven.  I can't think of any word I would rather her learn than a simple, amen of thanks.  Thank you for blessing us so much with your sweet little words Daisy!  Below: Similar to the above shot but, her head is not quite as tilted.  I like to think that she is saying a little prayer in this one:-) "ummm,God.  I would really like a vacuum with lights and noises, a dress up box full of clothes and an art and magnet board for Christmas.  Could you pass that along to my mommy please?"

Daisy can point out her hair, eyes, nose, teeth, mouth, tongue, feet, toes, ears, belly and bottom when asked where they all are.  When we watch cartoons that dance and clap etc. she will imitate everything that she sees them do.  I am just in awe of the sponge that our little girl is.  It is a constant reminder to be more careful about what she sees and hears as I now know she is taking it all in and processing everything and  then repeating what she hears and sees.  Nothing like a little person to keep me in check.  Just the other day when Daddy was having a hard morning and looked sad, Daisy put out her bottom lip and furrowed her brow when she looked at him.  She got that he was sad and it made her sad.  Yup.  We parents have a big responsibility to set a good example for our kiddos if we are willing to be a good example.  Quite eye opening to say the least! 

I will put different toys in cups and bowls and then ask Daisy to find me the lion, phone, block, truck, zebra, blue man, ball etc. and this has been a really fun activity for us to do together.  She knows what so many things are now as a result of us playing this game!  She also loves to stack cups, build with legos, and put her block shapes into her shape box with a lid for each shape.  I can tell that she is thriving off of the small challenges that I present to her.  We have been coloring a bit more lately which I love and as much as I hate to say it Daisy loves watching her shows on PBS.  It appears that Elmo is quickly stealing a place in her heart!

She loves to look at books!  We don't exactly "read" every word as she doesn't have patience for that but, we point out the different things in the pictures and make it fun.  Walks are a favorite pass tine but, not in the stroller anymore.  The bummer is that Daisy likes to try and "run" now and her running is ridiculously unstable and the outcome is an inevitable fall so we have to be careful with her on our concrete for a little while.  She loves exploring people's yards, weeds, plants, pets, lawn objects etc.  It is never a dull moment to walk with Daisy!

She is currently cutting her two year molars!  I thought we were in the clear for a little while but, she is back to running low grade fevers for a couple weeks at a time and drooling up the wazoo.  I felt her back gums and sure enough there is a prick of a tooth coming through.  WHAT THE HECK CHILD!  These 4 molars will ultimately be 20 teeth for this little person.  Craziness.  Below: Doncha just love that Daisy is running away with what she thinks is a flower when in fact it has already fallen off and auntie is trying to give it back to her! hahahah LOVE IT!

D has actually become a sort of steady one nap a day napper.  She naps for almost 2 hours each day now and I am in awe as it only took 17 months for her to take a decent nap! Thank you Jesus!!  I am able to get so much more done now days than I did on her 40 minute naps.  She goes to bed at around 8 and wakes up at about 6:45 on average now which is Heavenly compared to the 5:45 AM wake up she gave me for the longest time.  She even looks forward to her bedtimes.  She says, "nigh nigh." and snuggles into her blanket and then waves bye bye for me to leave her room.  hehehe TOO CUTE!

Now for the boring little stuff that I urge you not to waste precious time reading as this is just for Daisy's memory book:-)

*Wears size 5 diapers, size 18 months clothes but, just barely. She will be in 24 month stuff very soon  Size 4/5 shoes depending on the shoe.

*Takes a nap around 12 and gets up around 1:30 or 2

*loves to dance to music and with me.  Also loves when we sing songs together! Twinkle little star and Jesus Loves me are two of her faves for me to sing to her.  She will even hold her toy star up in the air and start chatting out the tune to twinkle little star.  I just love it!   I sing her Jesus loves me every night by her crib before I put her to sleep.  I still remember my momma singing to me and I hope to always sing to my kiddos at night.

*Still isn't the greatest eater but, we are making a little progress.  She likes olives...pretty much the only vegetable I can get her to eat besides steamed broccoli.  She loves all fruit more or less and will eat a little bit of whatever I am eating usually but, only if I feed her.  She gets extremely picky when I put the food on her tray to pick up and eat herself.  Definitely poses a problem. Eggs are a fave as are chicken nuggets, strawberries, her diluted juice sippy cup and cheese.  She doesn't get very excited about her milk sippy cup 3 times a day and it takes her a couple hours to drink it all.  

*does not like bugs and will go to great lengths to avoid them if she sees one!

*Has not cried the past 3 times we took her to church nursery.  I have literally felt like I have been on a cloud of joy each time.  Nothing but peace for this momma as I walk off to enjoy my church service!

*says hi and bye to everyone when we are in public and waves constantly.  She is such a friendly little butterfly. 

*I've noticed that she seldom ever bites me now and she has never bit another child..yet.   I am thankful that this seems to be winding down on it's own without any major issues.

*Still loves her pacifier and I am not in any hurry to take it away.  I really don't care about the "right time" to stop doing something.  I just stop when it feels like it is okay to move on.  She also LOVES her satin edged blankie and she will only use one particular type of blanket...not a cheap blanket either might I add! lol

*enjoys skyping with family for a few minutes here and there but, mostly wants to rip the keys off my keyboard at this point.

*likes watching Sesame street, Mother Goose Club, Wiggles, Backyardigans, Barney (Uggg), Veggie Tales and Sid the Science Kid.  Basically she is drawn to anything that has a lot of music in it. 

*Likes taking her evening bath though they are much faster now. She pretty much gets in, plays for 10 minutes and is ready to get out.  She DOES NOT however; like water in her face especially when we are rinsing out her hair.  She hates that part even though we try so hard to make it "fun."

*LOVES animals.  She gets so excited about any and every dog bark she hears and points at every cat she sees going by.  I can't wait to take her to the zoo again!

*Gives kisses ALL the time to me and Joey now.  She is seriously so sweet.  She knows what a hug is too and gives us the sweetest hugs.  She is a very lovey little gal.  When I pick her up from her naps she often tries to wrap her arms and legs around me as tightly as she can and she squeezes really tight.  It is DARLING!

*Doesn't cry that much.  She does whine periodically but, she is a great baby.  With a little attention here and there she does amazingly well.  I think the times that she isn't doing as well are often the days that I am not taking as much time to play with her as I should be.  A little TLC goes a long way with our kiddo.

*we like to go to the mall just so she can run around inside during the week.  She loves seeing the sights and the people

*the pool bores her because she doesn't like being held and she doesn't like being confined to a floaty...she wants me to let her go which as you can imagine isn't a good idea so I look forward to when she can swim freely without my assistance as the pool has become a bit of a drag this Summer

*The amount of things that Daisy can understand now is just astounding.  I cannot even begin to write it all down as I feel like she is understanding virtually everything I say to her even though she cannot respond.  It is incredible to communicate with her and know that she gets what I am saying (in simple words of course).  

*She loves brushing her teeth!

*Still loves getting into our stuff so we do keep all of our doors shut in the house during the day. She especially loves going into my closet and pulling my shoes off of the shoe wrack and then putting them back however she chooses creating the biggest mess you've ever seen.  I think she is a shoe gal like her momma!  When we go into Payless shoes the first thing she tries to do is take her shoes off and then reaches for a box of shoes! lol

* Doesn't like to sit still for long in her car seat or anywhere for that matter but, every now and then she will sit in her red chair (thanks aunt Kathy!) and watch a show for like 10 minutes without moving.  It's pretty amazing!  My little American Couch potato!! hehe

* Takes her time to warm up to guys but, sometimes they are able to win her over.  She is pretty comfortable with all women and even gives out a lot of kisses to strangers...hmmmmm...lol

*She is a doll through and through.  I just can't get over how sweet and sensitive our little girl is.  As I said before I am loving this stage of fun with her.  I am a little sad at how fast everything is going but, at least I can say I am doing my best to soak it all up!  

Daisy, sweet little girl, we simply adore you to pieces!!