January 13, 2017

thea - seventeen months

Thank goodness Thea's hair is taking forever to come in.  It is allowing me to still pretend she's a baby, despite the fact that she just keeps growing up!!

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She is mostly wearing 12-18 month clothes, but really the 18-24 month outfits probably fit her better.  Depending on the brand, she is in a size 4 or 5 shoe, and wearing a size 5 diaper.  I seriously don't have a clue at all what she weighs or how tall she is, I would just lean towards the upper percentiles.  She is passing up some of the baby friends we hang out with!

I feel like Thea has been continuously teething since she was eight months old or something.  Teeth number 13 and 14 are working their way in on top, and I have a feeling the ones on bottom aren't far behind.  I'm sure by the time those are all the way in she'll start getting more molars or something.  Right now she is doing pretty good, but when those canine teeth were about to push through the gums poor girl was a mess.  She'd point to her mouth and say 'ow.'  So sad!

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As far as our kids go, Thea has turned into the best sleeper.  Seeing as she was terrible for so long, it's about dang time.  But really, she goes to bed at 8pm, and wakes up anywhere between 6 and 7:30am.  She usually naps for at least 2 hours a day, but often more like 2.5 or 3.  Generally she doesn't put up a fight about going to sleep at all.  I tell her to lay down with her zebra and her baby, cover her with her blanket, and that's that.  Thank goodness as we are back to fighting sleep battles with the three-year-old.  Oy.  But it's great.  The baby she sleeps with is a Bitty Baby that Grammy got her for Christmas.  She often wants it swaddled and snuggles right up to and says "I wuv you baby."  Just melt my heart why don't ya.  We also got her a new blanket for Christmas.  It is amazingly soft and I want to steal it.  She naturally wants nothing to do with it and will only accept the blanket Chris's aunt made for her.  Maybe I'll steal her new one after all.

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Thea's vocabulary grows more and more by the day.  She's got your typical mommy, daddy, mammy (grammy), papa, etc.  She can now pretty much say Ryann, and calls Elsie 'El-eee'.  Gosh what else, they all don't sound exactly right, but she says drink, water, milk, waffle, apple, cheese, sweet treat, please, help, thank you, sorry, dance, bounce house, jump, puppy, baby, Elsa... and a whole lot more.  For the most part I feel like I can have a conversation with her and she can communicate her needs fairly well.  If I can't figure out what she is saying and ask her to show me, she usually can make it happen.  Other often uttered phrases are "NO EL-EEE!" and "NO MINE!!!"  She is a third kid through and through, quickly learning to defend her territory!

But the absolute best thing she says right now is 'wuv you'.  And more often than not they are starting to be unsolicited.  "Mama!" "What Thea?" "I wuv you!"  It is the absolute sweetest.  She is by far our most cuddly kiddo.  She loves to snuggle and give hugs and kisses and pats my back, and gets away with everything because she is so damn cute and sweet.  And then she slaps me in the face but that isn't the point.  Ha.  Between her cuddles and her giant dimples and the 'I wuv yous,' it is so hard to tell her no.

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No worries though, I do.  Especially when little miss pickiest eater in the world refuses to eat her dinner and then starts demanding a sweet treat.  She has started leaving the table in tears because she doesn't want to eat, therefore she doesn't get a sweet.  Sorry kiddo, you can't live off of cheese and donuts, as much fun as that would be.  Foods that are usually acceptable are mac n cheese (but only Annie's bunny mac n cheese), deli ham, cheese, blueberries, apples, pears, strawberries, cantaloupe, goldfish, veggie straws, cereal, and anything sugary.  She LOVES donuts.  So much.  Occasionally she'll eat chicken nuggets, and the other night she ate some chicken my mom made after she dipped it in ketchup.  She then proceeded to dip her mango in ketchup but whatever.  She ate it.

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Thea is an insane climber.  I have no doubt that the older sisters have something to do with it.  She watches them and then immediately tries to follow.  Thank goodness almost all our furniture is bolted to the wall.  She has nearly made it up in to the bunk bed before I caught her.  I regularly catch her on the kitchen table, and she has almost mastered getting from the stools onto the counter.  It isn't like I leave her unattended for more than 30 seconds at a time either.  She's quick!  The one thing she hasn't tried to climb (knock on wood) is her crib.  I dread the day she realizes she can climb out.  Thus far she hasn't figured out how to turn a door knob, but I don't think that is far behind either.  She can reach them now.

Even though she has never watched the whole Frozen movie, Thea is OBSESSED with the song 'Let it Go', and geeks out whenever she sees the Frozen characters.  She pretty much sings 'Let it Go' all day long.  She makes her toys sing it.  She wants us to sing it.  She constantly wants to watch it on our phones.  Obsessed.

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Baby dolls remain her favorite toy.  We have so many now and she loves them all.  We have to burp them and cuddle them and sing to them.  She gives them lots of hugs and kisses and drags them all over the house.  Other favorite toys include a Little People castle, Shape Mags, and Elsie's calico critters house.  She enjoys the bounce house and watching Paw Patrol, and giving me heart attacks on the regular by trying to walk down the steps like a big girl.  She recently started trying to drink out of a regular cup, and I'm pretty impressed by her skills.  I'm sure other kiddos can handle it at an earlier age, I just keep lids on for my own sanity.  But she has to be like her big sisters and loves when I give her a big girl cup.  Books are very much hit or miss, mostly miss, but she occasionally will sit and let me read some.  She always brings me really long books and then gets pissed two pages in.  We still need flaps and textures to keep her interest.

Overall Thea is just so dang fun right now.  And terribly exhausting.  And such a trouble maker.  But lots and lots of fun.

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Love you sweet girl!

January 8, 2017

thea - sixteen months

Bahahaha per the usual I started writing this and then NEVER finished it.  So I'm just going to post what I had plus pictures and move on to the 17 month post before the child is 18 months old.  Thea I LOVE YOU.

16 and a half months that is.

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Thea has most definitely turned into a full blown toddler the last couple of months.  She is running all over the place, talking up a storm, climbing everything and getting in to EVERYTHING.  She is a tiny tornado leaving a path of destruction every where she goes.  Yay!  Ha.  Really she is so much fun, but absolutely exhausting at the same time.  And she just screams if I try to leave her in the pack n' play or the crib for an extended period of time to try and get something done.  You know, like pee without my shower door being broken off the hinges.

The biggest change to our day to day is that we are no longer nursing!  Just before Thea's 16 month birthday, she stopped falling asleep while nursing.  I really was left with no choice but to put her down awake after that.  The first night I nursed her, laid her down, and she cried for maybe 20 minutes or so?  The next night it was only 10.  Then 5.  Then maybe a whimper.  So a couple nights later I bit the bullet and didn't nurse her at all, just laid her in her crib.  I expected at least a little bit of a fight, but NOTHING.  Not a single tear was shed.  I was absolutely amazed.  I thought naptime would be a different story, but nope.  She went down for her nap like a champ and hasn't fought either since.  She gets excited to cuddle with zebra (her lovey) and a blanket knit by Christopher's aunt.  She tells me 'nigh nigh' and blows me a kiss as I walk out the door.

WHO THE HECK IS THIS KID?!?!  Don't get me wrong, I am so thrilled it wasn't a battle or traumatizing for either of us.  But the amount of sleep battles we've fought over the last 15 months, I just can't believe how easily the switch flipped.  It does, however, make me grateful I didn't force the issue earlier.  I could tell she was different than Ryann and Elsie, she just did not take well to the sleep training at an earlier age.  And now Chris can lay her down for nap or bed no problem.  Freedom!  We haven't really capitalized on that yet as far as date nights go, but hopefully soon.

And that's as far as I got.  Lol.

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Thea I do know the amount of words you were saying had increased greatly, and then you are hilarious and cute and oh so ornery.  Love you to pieces girl.