Learning to self feed

It is important to teach Paige how to feed herself. And not just the finger foods she has mastered well. It is time to start teaching her how to use a fork and spoon. So every dinner we feed her something more on the liquid side (yogurt, cottage cheese) and let her go at it with her spoon. We do it at dinner because as you can imagine it can get a lot messy and it is good to have bath time not far away. She is getting more food in her mouth every day.

Riding Her Tricycle

OK- So she can't actually ride her tricycle, and the helmet is a little big. But her cousin Alyssa gave her this bike when we went to visit a couple of weeks and she loves to try to ride it. Plus she loves wearing the helmet. Sometimes she will actually try to take it on a walk with us. Then it usually gets turned into a purse. But safety first, right?

Brushing Her Own Teeth.

Paige had decided that she needs to brush her own teeth. No one else can do it. She won't let us near her mouth and there is a lot of screaming if we try. But she loves to brush her own teeth. She would do it all day if we would let her. Here are some cute pictures.

Paige Walking Clo-e

We took Paige for a walk last Monday and she insisted on walking out 65+ pound pitbull. It was so cute I had to run back to the house and get my video camera. This is a small sample of the cuteness.

Our little kitty cat

We have Clo-E, out pitbull so we haven't felt the need to get a cat. But my mom took Paige to library time where it was kitty day and she learned how to Meow. It is the cutest Meow so I tried to catch it on video. This was the best we could get.

First Hair Cut

Today was a very important day. We are both tired of her hair always being in her face, and she does not always keep the ponytails in (more often than not- she takes out the hairtie within seconds). So we decided it was time for her first haircut. I called up the place this morning and they are very busy. But they had a spot at 9:45. After rushing out of the house and picking up my sister Mikaila, we made it just in time. However, Paige took a small nap on the way. So when we walked in she was just waking up. When I put her into the car chair, she was not very happy. She cried for the first few minutes. But then she did great. They kept her hair long which is what I wanted, but I have a feeling it will still get into her face some. The did give her bangs which will help. They put her hair into a ponytail, added a ribbon and snapped a picture. They printed out the picture and put it on a special piece of paper with her name and the date. They clipped some of her hair on to so we will have something to remember this day by. Here are some pics.

She was not a happy camper at first.
I tried to comfor her but it took a little while.

I was able to step back and she started smiling.

She didn't even try to push the hairdresser away.

Mikaila and Paige after.

Update- What Paige can do at 15 months

I believe that our daughter is very smart. She knows lots of things and is learning every day. She has a vocabulary of over 20 words. She runs around. She climbs up on things. She loves to go down slides head first. She likes to say "Hand" and take you places. She also says "Up" and tries to pick you up to go somewhere. She loves to play in daddy's old car, and she loves taking walks in her car. She is trying to use a fork and spoon, but still gets most everything somewhere else. She eats weird things when Justin feeds them to her (Raw mushrooms, radishes, whatever else he eats) but won't eat many of those things in her high chair.

Camera Dump

I have not been taking as many pictures as I did when she was first born. Even more so, I have not been posting them. I just uploaded a bunch of pics to my computer. Here are some of my favorites from the last couple of months.

Yes that is my bra. And yes she did this on her own.

In her new Green outfit.

Pig Tails- Not great at putting them in and they don't stay long- but aren't they cute?

Having fun in her ballpit

Working on the Old Car

Most of you know about the car Justin was able to get from his Grandma. He loves spending time in this car. He is a great dad and often takes Paige outside so I can get something done inside (Cooking Dinner, Paying bills, etc). Most of that time outside is spent walking or at the park. But a growing amount of time is spent in this car. She walkes by it and says "car" and tries to get in. Here are some pics that I took when I walked into the garage and saw this cute Daddy & Daughter moment.

15 Month Check-up

We took Paige for her 15 month check-up today. She weighs 23lbs and is 30.5 inches tall. 50% in both categories. But that was not surprising. The Dr told us she has two molars which we did not know were there. So she now has 9 teeth total! Hard to believe. She says more than 15 words now which puts her way ahead of the game! I knew she was smart but it is nice when the Dr confirms it. Everything went will. She had two Vaccines today and while she did cry (But she also cried when they weighed her and looked at her) she calmed down quickly and is her normal adventurous self this afternoon. Just thought I would give a quick update.

Our Valentine's Day Gift from Paige.

You can read below for the whole story- But I thought I would add this pic I got from Kayla's Cell.

Justin & I have never been big on celebrating Valentine's Day. I think that the day is overrated and I would rather not just pick one day to celebrate the love I have for my husband. I have always been nontraditional in the fact that I am not a big fan of flowers, jewelry, or chocolate gifts. I want a gift that is from the heart and it does not need to cost much at all. And I would prefer to receive that gift on any other day. It could have started back in 7th grade when a mean person sent me a Candy Gram as my secret admirer with a notes to meet them in front of the gym at 3pm. Of course they did not show, breaking my heart and starting my dislike for today. Or it could have really sunk in when Justin bought me a Bass Tube (A speaker to make the Bass in my car sound louder) for Valentines day. I know I just said that I don't like traditional gifts, but that is not something I needed or wanted (In fact it is in his truck now), so it kind of ruined the gift giving on this holiday and we just decided not to exchange real gifts now. On a side note, he has improved his overall gift giving skills over the years. Partially from listening well, and partially from my very blunt hints.

OK- now that I have ranted about my feelings about Valentine's day, let me tell you about this Valentine's day. Kayla is hanging out with us today, while my dad takes my mom away for a special day. We had a great lunch all together at Sweet Tomatoes. We came home, and while I was doing bills Kayla was playing with Paige in the living room. Justin came in and was playing for a few minutes too when he noticed that the Kaleidoscope she had been playing with was going with her everywhere. It was making climbing up her slide, etc harder. He told her that she could put it down, but then he realized it was stuck on her thumb.

After we had a flash back to the story of Chelsie getting the coffee pot top stuck on her finger, he took her into the kitchen. He soaped and oiled her up. But he could not get it off. We were not sure how to cut it off so we piled into the car. We drove to the firehouse (Where my mom had taken Chelsie) but no-one answered. So we headed over to Valley Care Hospital to their emergency room. When we got there, the lady who checked us in smiled a little when she saw what was happening. After I gave them our whole life story and our insurance information, we sat in the waiting room. There was a little boy there who was waiting with his mom to have her grandmother transferred to another hospital by ambulance. He loved to play with her. Everyone was so amazed by the fact that it was actually stuck on her finger.

They got us in fairly quickly. The doctor looked at it and said it was a first in his 39 years. He had another guy come in with a cutting tool and they took out pieces of the toy until they cut it almost down to her finger. It finally came off. Paige was a trooper. She screamed the whole time but did not pull her hand away too often. It took a while to calm her down, but then she just enjoyed playing on the hospital bed (going through the bars to the floor and back up) until they checked us out.

Needless to say- the toy will not be used again. We will be throwing it away now. I did not get any pictures with it on her finger (Kayla has one on her cell, but can't email it to me) but I do have a couple of pics of what the toy looks like now.

Hello

Just because I have not posted in a little while, I thought I would write a quick hello. Things are going ok here. Things have been a little stressfull with Justin barely working, but on the plus side he has had lots of bonding time with Paige. Paige is feeling better, but now I have a sore throat and Justin may have a little cold. The CD Player we use to help Paige sleep isn't really working anymore, so we are examining our options. A friend at work mentioned she had a cd/radio/alarm clock that I could use that may work for a while. But I do love the green CD player we currently have (Which another friend from work gave to us and saved our lives since she started sleeping better when we used it). For tonight, I have the radio tuned onto a christian radio station.

Despite some frustrating situations in our lives, we are doing good overall. We are really trusting that God has a hand in our lives and he has not failed to provide. I was able to get my cable company to reduce my bill subtancially for 6 months so that will help for now. Hopefully in 6 months Justin will have more work. We have a couple of jobs pending, so for now we just wait. As always- if you know anyone who needs tile work please send them our way.

The little engine that coughed

Paige has been coughing since Saturday and we thought she had just a little cold. On Monday she had a stuffy nose and the cough was getting worse. Plus it had woken her up every hour or so on Sunday night. And while she went back to sleep within a minute or two each time, it made for a long night. So, after talking to the advice nurse we had an appt to go to the Dr in the late afternoon. Let me tell you how much Paige loves to have Dr's look at her.. (She takes after her Aunt Chelsie). Doctors appointments are always quite the adventure, and it is helpful to have both of us parents there.

The Dr determined that she had a mild case of croup. She prescribed a steriod which he had to crush up and put in some applesauce or juice/milk for 1-2 nights to reduce the swelling. Last night she did not get the full dose since we put it in the milk and she refused to drink it all. Today her cough was not really worse, but not a whole lot better. Besides waking up at 4AM and not going back to sleep, the day went OK Justin says. But that could be because she slept more from about 5:30-7AM on my chest on the couch. I was late to work, but that was OK since I had to get some bloodwork done (fasting) so it all turned out good. Now hopefully my bloodwork will be good. They are testing me for diabetes since I have some ongoing fungal infections (I know this is probably TMI). What a fun family we are this week.

Paige Dancing

Random Pics

Here are a few pics from the last week that I thought I would share. Paige loves to help me vacuum.
She takes afer daddy.

I think we are turning over a new leaf

For the last year, our attendance at church has been way down. Prior to having a baby, Justin & I went to church most Sundays, but also were involved in several other ways. We used to attend (And I was on the worship team) the young adults group. Justin also volunteered with the Junior High. And I used to teach the 2 year old class every other month. But then, this wonderful miracle entered our life. And we didn't go to church for at least 6 weeks to avoid exposing this precious package to germs. We were able to go for a few weeks as she did well in the nursery at first. But around 4 months old she took a turn. She would scream and scream and scream until they had to page us.

Now our church has a great parent viewing room. But Paige has never been very quiet. So one of us would always end up walking her around the church because we felt like she was disturbing the other parents in the viewing room (Now she walks up to all of them and says HI so it is very distracting). We kept trying the nursery but within 20 minutes we were walking around again. So most weekends, we decided not to go because it was tiring. And we missed the encouragement and knowledge we get out of the weekend services.

Last week we went to our normal church, and had no problems in the nursery. We were able to enjoy the whole sermon. I thought it had to be a fluke. Today, we went to a different church with my sister. And again- no problems in the nursery. I am still a little skeptical, but I hope we will be able to start going to church again. I am not sure how soon we will be jumping back into different ministries as we are still trying to decide if we are staying at our current church or if God is taking us to a new place. But for now- I get to enjoy church again and I am thankfull for that.

Daddy Day Care

Those of you who know me well, know that the last couple of months have been challenging to say the least. There have been days where I did not even want to get out of bed because I am so frustrated by everything and everyone (Ok not EVERYONE) around me. But I was reminded at church that one way to having a fun adventure in life again is to LOVE. And I realized, that I had not been doing a lot of Loving lately. So that is something I am trying to do more of.

In the meantime, I thought I would focus more on a sweeter moment last week. Justin has not worked a whole lot lately, so he has kind of been doing 'Daddy Day Care". I came home from work the the below pictures. It is kind of heartwarming.

And we have Snow when it was 75 degrees outside.

If you know Justin and me, then you know we are almost opposites in many ways. But one thing we have in common is our imagination (All though Justin doesn't realize he has such a big one). But being different, we use it in very different ways. Me, I have crazy dreams, I get lost in a book or a TV show. I sometimes drift off in the daytime and find myself in some far off land. But Justin, he likes to bring his imagination to life. I think about how fun it would be to do something in my unrealistic dream world, but the thought of making that happen does not usually cross my mind. I am way to much of a "Realist" to think that those crazy ideas could come true.

So Justin was snowboarding on Monday (Thank-you mom for getting him a pass. If I had to listen to him talk about how much he wants to go, but he didn't go last year and we can't afford to go this year, I would have gone crazy). He had a great time, but I think he felt bad that Paige and I could not come with him and he did not know when she would be able to see snow. So he packed his truck bed as full as he could with snow and headed home. Surprisingly there was a decent amount of snow left when he got home. He piled it up in our front yard. And it survived through the night.

When the sun came up, he put her in her snow suit (Don't ask me why I bought it) and headed out. She had a blast. And surprisingly there was still snow when I got home despite the beautifully warm weather we had today. Enjoy the pictures.

Learning how to eat

Paige has been able to feed herself finger food for quite some time now. Lately, she has not wanted us to feed her things on a spoon. So cottage cheese, yogurt or anything thick but spoon fed has to be fed by her. As you can imagine- this can be quite a messy affair. But it is all a learning process.

A girl and her purse

Every day Paige amazes me by doing something I least expect. Yesterday, we were playing in the living room. We keep most of her toys in a large box outside of the gates and usually just pull out a couple at a time. She spotted something at the top of the box, walked over to the gate and was able to pull it down. It was a plastic bag that the fabric Elmo's Christmas book came in. It has a little strap and had a few blocks in it. She started walking around the living room with it on her shoulder and in her hands just like a purse. Then she climbed the slide with it and had to slide down a few times with her new purse. This little bag must have entertained her for at least 30 minutes. If you know my daughter (and probably most 1 year olds) that is quite a feat. Enjoy the cute pictures I snapped.