thea - twenty four months

Two.  She's TWO!  I can't believe you're already two Miss Thea.  Of course I can't remember life without you, and I certainly wouldn't want to go back to life without you.  You bring the family so much joy.  But man, how can you already be two-years-old?

I just... this kid is so damn cute.  I'm sure her older sisters were equally adorable, but Thea just gets to me in the best ways.  She is still my best cuddler, kisses my booboos, lovingly plays with my hair, and is just all around awesome.  Yes, she has her moments.  Often trying to get clothes on her is like trying to wrestle an alligator.  And her favorite past time is running into the pantry to steal food.  Should you come between her and her quest, watch out.  Definitely need to come up with a better pantry locking mechanism.  She has just plain ripped the knob cover straight off the door.

Despite Thea's absurdly picky eating habits, the girl is still growing like crazy.  She measured in at 35.5 inches (93rd percentile) and weighed 29lbs5oz (81st percentile).  Seriously, her doctor asked if she loved eating (well yes) because she is growing so well.  How she continues to get taller without getting wider is beyond me, the carb and chocolate fanatic.  Last night she hurled herself at my feet and cried "I just want choc-wit!" I fell ya girl, I really do.  This morning she was playing in her closet and wanted to try on all the shoes in one of the bins.  They are fall shoes, size six, which I was expecting her to wear in the next two months, but not a single freaking pair would squeeze on her chubby little feet.  She hasn't worn ANY of them! I know she is in opposite seasons as Ryann and Elsie, but I can't believe she just missed all of those. I need to pull out the 7's to see if we're going to have to invest in some new ones.  Which sounds ridiculous when you're on your third child of the same sex.  She is solidly in size 2 clothing, but size 3 pajamas certainly don't seem big.  I have a feeling we'll bust out of the 2's before I'm ready.

Thea has absolutely ZERO interest in potty training.  She still freaks out any time we attempt to sit her on the toilet. (Ok I swear I just have to start typing the crap in a post and then she has to prove me wrong before I post. I thought I'd finish this post last night, but didn't. Today she has willing sat on the toilet twice, even though she hasn't done anything.)  I ask her regularly if she wants to be a big girl and wear undies like her sisters and she pretty much just says nope.  One day she looked at me and said "I not a baby IN-eee MOWRE!" So I responded, "Not a baby? So you're going to be a big girl and wear underwear and sit on the potty seat?!?!?"  She pondered for a moment, "Ee-uh a baby.  I wear diapers."  Alrighty then.  She also excitedly took a nap on a toddler bed at my Aunt and Uncle's house over the 4th of July.  Went right to sleep and napped something like three hours.  I asked her if she wanted a bed like that at home.  "No, I sweep in my cwib."

In the sleep department things haven't changed much.  Thea is incredibly easy to put to bed which is great, and something I never could have imagined a year ago when I was still nursing her to sleep.  We read two books, since three very short songs, and into her crib she goes.  She almost never wakes up in the middle of the night.  There was one night last week that she was crying (in her sleep I'm pretty sure), and Chris and I just looked at each other like what on Earth do we do with that?  I haven't had to tend to her in the middle of the night since I don't even know when.  And she is still content to just play in her crib for an undetermined amount of time when she wakes up in the morning or from nap.  There was one day when she was singing and babbling to herself, and after about 15 minutes I finally realized she was standing up yelling "Mommy I need you!"  Whoops.  She had a super saggy wet diaper and wanted it off.  Lol.  She generally sleeps from 8pm until 5:45-6:15am, and naps from 1-4pm ish.  I've tried cutting her nap a bit shorter, but it hasn't seemed to make a huge difference in when she wakes up in the morning.  Sometimes she'll sleep until 7:30am and there is no correlation.  So we'll just roll with it.

Though her speech can still be incredibly hard to understand, she is stringing together pretty mature sentences.  I've counted 7-8 words in a row, and really she can hold a conversation, you just have to be patient.  The words do not come out in a fluid manner, her phrases are very staccato in delivery.  And really sometimes I just don't have a freaking clue what she is saying.  For the most part she doesn't get upset about it though.  If it is something she can show me, she will tell me such, and direct me to whatever it is she is wanting, or trying to tell me about.  Or if it wasn't important, eventually she just gives up and moves on.  Sorry kid!  Some of my favorite phrases as of late are, "Come on, let's do it!"  and "I no want to do dat!", mostly because I can appreciate the fact that she can verbalize her likes and dislikes.  She still throws incredible fits but she CAN use her words, especially if she is reminded to do so.  And I still have a soft spot for her "Why you do dat?"  I tend to use it with everyone in the family now, if they do something they shouldn't have.  And a cute little conversation we had the other day...

Thea:  "Where Dada go?"
Me:  "Daddy had to go to work."
Thea:  "I wuv Daddy."
Me:  "Daddy loves you too girlie."
Thea:  "Daddy wuv mama too!"

She occasionally tries to sing the alphabet, but just repeats a few letters over and over again.  She can count to 13, but almost always skips 5 and 10.  I think part of it is out of spite now, we correct her so often that I'm pretty sure she does it on purpose just to get a reaction.  Her listening ears at dance class have improved.  She is still often the ring leader of the not following directions club, but I can tell she gets enjoyment out of the songs and movements we do every week, and mostly just loses focus when we have to stand in a line and do things one at at time.  Then she is hanging off the ballet bars like a monkey.  I'm not sure we'll go every week throughout the school year, but thankfully her class would be during the same time that Elsie is in class, so it is something we can easily do frequently.

Yellow and purple are still her preferred colors.  She is obsessed with the Disney princesses.  We got her several little figurines that we found in the check-out aisles at Walmart for her birthday, and she carries around a ziploc bag with them on the regular.  Actually one day she woke up from nap in tears and when I asked her why she was crying she said "I want my pwincesses!"  Haha.  Elsa and Anna remain the favorites, and we are now the proud owners of several Elsa dolls.  Thanks friends, she is loving it.  The day after Thea's birthday, my parents took the girls to the Toy Store because there were going to be some princess actresses there.  My mom said Thea absolutely lost her mind freaking out when she spotted Anna.  Her excitement over things is just the best.  Ariel is her next favorite, and then Belle.  Everyone else is just icing on the cake.

She says Elsie is her best buddy, but she really loves both her sisters and always wants to know what they are doing.  Of course she is learning to fight back more and more when they take her toys, and has ripped out several chunks of Elsie's hair (karma).  But she loves to hug tackle them to the ground and wrestle them and just play with them all the time.  She gets sad when they go places and we're home by ourselves.  "Where Ryann and El-ee go? I want dem come home and pway wit me."

Thea girl, despite our rough start and what seemed like months of endless screaming, I wouldn't change these last two years for anything.  I love you so much and I'm so grateful that God chose me to be your mommy.  I LOVE YOU.

bow | bracelets | shirt

thea - twenty three months

 Here we are.  Less than a month from two.  And Thea's current personality definitely shows it.  HA!

Miss Thea can definitely be a sour patch kid sometimes.  She is THE absolute sweetest little girl.  I get so many hugs and kisses and I love yous, and she can still be a great cuddler.  But my word if that child doesn't get her way be prepared to feel her wrath.  She is stubborn and headstrong and knows what she wants.  And can throw a tantrum like the best of them!

She is fully in size 2T clothing, which the exception of a few 18-24 month items that I still liked and couldn't quite convince myself to put away yet.  She is wearing size 5 diapers and between a 5-6 shoe.  Still no 2 year molars, though her hands are shoved in her mouth all the time.  I'm sure there really is no connection there but I'll just keep pretending.  Thea is great at going to sleep for nap and bed, and I can't remember the last time she has woken up in the night, but her definition of morning and my definition of morning are sometimes not the same.  She has regularly been up in her crib around 5:30am (just like her early bird sisters, weird), but she rarely ever gets up set/calls out to us or anything.  She just plays with her baby dolls and stuffed animals until someone comes in to get her.  I'm sure the early morning wake ups have nothing to do with the fact that she can easily nap three hours a day.  I have to wake her up at least 3 times a week, if not more.

It is funny that Thea stays in her crib so happily, because that girl can definitely climb out.  I'm not sure what to do with that.  The other day I put her in her crib for a time out as a last ditch effort to try and get her to cooperate with something, and she just immediately swung her legs over the top and climbed down like it was no big deal and she does it all the time.  She is such a dang good little climber.  We have some book ledges in the playroom, and she climbed to the top one, and then without her feet touching the shelves, came back down cliff hanger style, just walking her hands to the next shelf.  I was baffled.  I tried to hide some stuff she wasn't supposed to have on top of the 8 cube ikea shelf, and she just scaled the damn thing.

Thea also believes she can jump off of anything.  It still baffles me, as Ryann seemed basically incapable of jumping until after she was three years old.  Whereas Thea has been getting air for who knows how long, and has no fear when it comes to taking a flying leap off a random piece of furniture.  I want to try and curb the habit, but I also get tired of pulling her off of stuff nine million times a day.  So I guess we're going the natural life lessons route, and hoping that if she totally bites it that maybe she'll reconsider the next time.  But she probably won't.

Thea's vocabulary is HUGE (enunciation can still be rough) and sometimes her conversations and phrases are just so damn funny.

Discussing going out on the boat for fireworks...
Me (to Christopher):  "Maybe you should just stay here and put Thea to bed and I'll go out on the boat with the big girls."
Chris:  "Yeah, not a bad plan."
Thea:  "I want go on da boat.  BYE! I weaving you!"

Thea:  upset at lunch time "Want squeeze pouch!"
Me:  "You want a squeeze pouch?"
Thea:  sobbing "Yeah!"
Me:  "I'm putting one on your plate for lunch, ok?"
Thea:  still sniffling "Otay."
Me:  "And some apple AND some chicken nuggets!  Deal?"
Thea:  sobbing again "No deal!"

Meal times with her pretty much suck.  She likes squeeze pouches and blueberries reliably.  And sweets.  Definitely sweets.  Everything else, well your guess is as good as mine.  I mean I can almost guarantee she won't eat grilled meat or any vegetable.  For some reason she also dislikes mango (what is wrong with you child?!?!?!)  But these days even mac 'n cheese is hit or miss.  I truly, truly thought I couldn't get a child pickier than Ryann.  I was wrong.  So I guess we'll just feed her a steady diet of squeeze pouches and hope for the best.

I pulled little miss I only do what I want from gymnastics after three classes.  Stubborn Sally did not want to do anything that was requested of her, and I couldn't deal.  One of the coaches tried to give me the 'eventually they get better at following directions' speech, but yeah, no thanks.  We'll try again in a few months.  Dance is also kind of an absolute disaster, but slightly less so, and I preferred it over gymnastics, so we'll keep that up for now.  It's only mildly (horribly) embarrassing chasing her all over the room trying to convince her to participate when pretty much everyone else is sitting and doing what they're supposed to and managing to wait in line and take turns, etc.  Come on Thea, give your mama a break!  She's lucky that she is dang cute in a leotard and I enjoy seeing my friends.  :)

Yellow still seems to be Thea's favorite color, followed by purple, I think.  She is in love with all the Disney princesses, and thinks Belle's yellow dress is so pretty.  She recently told me she wanted to have an 'Elsa, Anna, No-man' birthday party, unfortunately I've already been planning an ice cream one!  Mermaids also rank high on her love list, my little girly girl.  And babies, real and fake, still make her little heart happy.  She hugs and kisses all the babies she sees on instagram with me.

Love you sweet girl!!

thea - twenty two months

Going to try and keep this pretty short and sweet since the kid is just about 23 months old anyway!  Also Miss Thea was not at all into pictures the day I took them.  So whatever.  Can't believe I'm so close to being done with her monthly updates!

Thea is starting to seem so much older.  She understands almost everything we say or ask of her, she still refuses help most of the time ("Ee-uh do it! No help!"), and she finally has some legit hair going on!  She tries to count to eleven, but usually skips a couple of numbers in there.  She does pretty good with colors (yellow is still her favorite), and can recognize a circle and a triangle.  A lot of people have been saying she speaks really well for her age, and while I'll argue that it is still tough to understand her, her vocabulary is huge and she isn't afraid to use it.  A recent exchange between the two of us:

Thea:  "What is dat noise mommy?"
Me:  "It's the washing machine."
Thea:  "Oh.  O-tay.  I go check it out.  What's happening.  Tum on Mommy!"

And recently when she is ticked at me, or unhappy with something I won't let her do, she says "Why you do dat Mommy?"  I can't help but laugh.

She is quite the spit fire, rather determined, and a girl who knows what she wants.  But when she wants to be a lover, oh man, her cuddles can't be beat.  She has wonderful manners (for the most part), almost always using please and thank you.  She says excuse me, an tells me bless you when I sneeze.  And throws out a sorry and a little kiss if she bumps into someone.  Thea also kisses any scratches or bruises she notices on me.  It is adorable (except when she was trying to kiss this blisters on my feet, lol).  She has better listening ears when I call her puppy or Moana.  She wants to be like the big kids, unless I tell her something is for babies.  Then she says "Ee-uh da baby!"

We started gymnastics and dance this month.  Both are parent tot classes, and in both she doesn't really give a damn want she is supposed to be doing.  She is just there to be crazy and have a good time.  Ha.  I definitely get in my workout trying to get her to stay on task.  But at the end of class she is so proud of her stamp and can't want to show it to her sisters.

She is no longer the sleep champion in our house.  She had a good run for a month, sleeping until 7 or 7:30am every day.  Now we're lucky if she sleeps until 6am.  In her defense the so called black out shades in her room don't really block the light.  But often she is up before the sun.  With no rhyme or reason that I can figure out.  She still takes a 2-3 hour nap daily, so it's possible that she is napping too much?  Maybe?  I have no idea.  She's a picky eater 100%.  She loves Moana, and Frozen.  She seems to have a thing for mermaids, and still loves baby dolls.  And real babies too.

Thea girl, I love you so much.  You make me smile every day, and I can't get enough of just watching you play.  You're growing up way too fast, but it sure is a treasure to witness.

thea - twenty one months

In three short months this girl will be two.  I really can't believe it.  The still somewhat minimal amounts of hair really keep her looking like a baby.  But that hair is definitely growing, doesn't look like she is too far behind where Ryann was...

bow from here | bracelets from here

Thea is definitely growing, and I think she is decently tall, but I could be making that up.  I just noticed that she could really reach the railings without any trouble while we were walking down the stairs.  Which is good since she has ZERO interest in letting me help her.  I get a lot of "Put me down!" and "No help mama!"  Such a sweetheart! Ha.  Really she is a huge sweetheart.  We went to a (pointless) follow up from the surgery on her head on April 14th, and she weighed in at 27 pounds.  I've still got her in mostly 18-24 month clothes because I haven't wanted to deal with switching them out.  But the pants are getting a little short and her belly hangs out of some of her shirts.  So 2T probably isn't a bad idea.  Size 5 diapers and size 6 shoes.  All her teeth are in except the two year molars, and despite the fact that she screamed through her entire dentist appointment, they said all the teeth were looking great.

This girl is a climbing machine.  I was pretty sure a year ago that she was going to be my climber, and I was 100% right.  If left alone she can figure out how to climb ANYTHING.  The only things she hasn't done that I am expecting her to, is to climb on the kitchen counters, and climb out of her crib.  Really I am absolutely surprised that neither has happened.  Scratch that, she climbed on the counter the day after I typed that out!  The other day I forgot the ladder to the bunk beds was down (we usually keep it on the top bunk BECAUSE THEA), I ran to my room to grab something.  As I came back past Elsie's room, there is Thea, sitting on the top bunk, goofy little wave "Oh hi Mommy! I climb Ryann bed!"  Heart attack.  Sheesh.  I really don't know how she hasn't fallen off of something high or gotten seriously injured.  Knocking on all the wood over here.  It's bound to happen though.

To go along with her climbing skills, Thea is excellent at jumping.  Gross motor skills are definitely her thing.  She can get a decent amount of air when jumping on the ground, is great in the bounce house, and is certainly not afraid to jump off of things as well.

Thea still remains our absolute pickiest eater.  It is going to drive me mad.  The only things she consistently eats are peanut butter & jelly and mac 'n cheese, blueberries, cantaloupe, grapes, cheese, crackers, and sweets.  And waffles, pancakes, muffins and cereal.  Can't forget those.  And cheese quesadillas.  When I start typing it out, it seems like more than I expected, HOWEVER, no vegetables at all will go down.  She doesn't like pineapple and protein is pretty much a no go too.  She'll occasionally eat chicken nuggets.  And she is obsessed with squeeze pouches still.  Donuts might be her absolute favorite food.  Pretty sure.

She is starting to pick up more and more phrases.  I mean, I still can't understand her probably a third of the time, but she talks A LOT.  Current favorite phrases are "Mama what is dat?", "Mama where going?", "Thea do it!", "Get off me!", and "STOP IT."  The last two most often said when I'm trying to help her down the stairs, or really help her do anything.  She wants to do everything herself.  The best though, are her "Ohhhhh tank you!"  She is great at using her manners, please and thank you, and naturally that wins the heart of everyone out in public. 

Thea has also gotten pretty good at tattling on her sisters.  "El-ee hit me!  Hit Thea arm!"  Of course that is driving Elsie nuts because now she can't just play dumb and act like she didn't do anything.  Not that Thea is one to get pushed around.  No way.  She mimics Ryann and Elsie all the time, often following their every move.  But if they try to get her to do something she isn't interested in, she tells them off or ignores them.  And when given the choice between fight or flight, that girl is going to fight.  When I start coming towards her like I'm going to tickle her, she just charges me instead of running away.  It is so funny.

Her color recognition has gotten quite a bit better, yellow and purple are the ones she identifies correctly almost every time.  She seems to really like the color yellow, and if given a choice of items will pick out a yellow one if there is one.  She is also obsessed with some yellow rainboots, but all the girls have loved those.  Blue and green get confused and red and orange, can't say I blame her.  She can also apparently count to eleven, but she doesn't do it on her own.  If I ask her to count something she just repeats  '1 2 3 1 2 3' over and over again.  But if I get her past 4 or 5 she will say the next numbers up to 11.  She tries to sing the ABCs, but really gets maybe a few letters correct here and there, just sort of hums the tune instead.

Thea's personality tends to range from the absolute most adorable sweetest baby in the world, to something akin to a feral cat.  Pretty predictable.  Not.  She gets nuts when you try to tell her she can't do something she wants to do, like climbing on things or playing on stuff outside.  Also if you take away an electronic or turn off a TV.  But really, for the most part, she is just so freaking sweet and cute and I can't get enough of her.  I absolutely love watching her play.  She gives me all sorts of hugs and kisses and sings to her baby dolls and has to hug the baby dolls in Target and hugs all the pictures of babies she sees.  She got to hold my friend's baby when they came over and now she'd prefer to hold all the babies.  She is just so much fun.

Thea girl, I love your crazy little self so much.  Can't believe you're so close to two!        

thea - twenty months

I was late taking her pictures, it was a gloomy day, and Thea had absolutely ZERO interest in being cute for me.  So you get what you get.  If all else fails her life is pretty well captured on instagram and in our chatbooks.  So there's that.

This child is going to freaking turn two in less than four months.  I can't believe it.  She is still my baby!  And she is even starting to grow some actual hair so pretty soon I bet she'll look older too.  Time is such a jerk.

Slowly but surely 18-24 month clothing is starting to seem a little on the small side.  I need to get out all the 2T bins so the smaller 2Ts have a chance to be worn!  Size 5 diapers, size 5-6 shoes, all her teeth except her two year molars, and still the sleep champion in our house.  Thea slept for 12 hours straight last night.  Say what?!?!?  I know many children do that on the regular, but no my children.  For the most part she has been sleeping about 7:45pm to 6:30 pm.  In the grand scheme of sleep shenanigans, I'll take it.  She also naps from 12:45 to between 3 and 4pm daily.  I can wake her up early from nap without too much flack later on that evening, but I try not to.  The more she sleeps the less she is trust falling off of various pieces of furniture.

Really Thea's ability to clearly say words hasn't increased, but the amount of words she says goes up every week.  She has started speaking in mostly two to three word sentences, and everything once in a while has strung together four words.  I keep forgetting to write down what her little sentence was though.  She repeats me all the time.  I try to narrate what were doing as much as possible without sounding like a complete idiot, and she repeats at least the last word of every sentence.  Let's me know I'm not constantly talking to myself.  Lol.  One of my favorite phrases Thea has used the last month is "I a mermaid!"  I got her a mermaid swimsuit for the summer and we tried it on.  Now she is obsessed with mermaids and if anything seems remotely mermaid-ish she says "I a mermaid!"  If I thought she'd actually enjoy a pool party we'd definitely be having a mermaid birthday party this year.

Instead of mermaids, I think we might go a food themed route.  Food truly is the way to this girls heart, so a party centered around one of her favorites (donuts or ice cream) seems like a good plan.  Thea continues to be incredibly picky, and has zero interest in trying new foods.  I shouldn't, but I've pretty much given up on offering her vegetables.  She gets so mad.  So squeeze pouches are where it's at.  Donuts and M&Ms are definitely her two favorite foods.  Mac n cheese and cheese quesadillas come in at a close second.  She likes a decent variety of fruits, but doesn't love it near as much as the other girls seemed to at that age.  Carbs make her happy, meat is lame.  I try to remind myself that I was a SUPER picky eater as a kid, not all hope is lost forever.  But it drives me crazy that Chris and I eat a pretty wide variety of healthy foods and Thea (and Ryann) is disgusted with them.

Thea is now counting to three.  If I ask her to count something she says "One, two, three, two, one, two... yay!" So proud of herself.  :)  Maybe by next month we'll be up to five.  She may or may not know some shapes.  The other day I was drawing various shapes (circle, square, oval, rectangle, triangle, heart, star) on a piece of paper, then I asked her to point to specific ones.  9 times out of 10 she got it right.  I don't really know how, I haven't done much with shapes around her.  I've been trying to nail down colors, but most of the time she just throws out random ones when I ask.  Although she is still pretty good about picking out yellow things.  Maybe yellow is her favorite color?

For a long time Thea has loved baby dolls, but has had little interest in real babies.  In the last two weeks though, every time she sees a real baby out and about she gets super excited and wants to see them.  Some of my sorority sisters were over this weekend and Thea couldn't get enough of "Baby Dune (June)."  At one point June was looking at an object and Thea said "Baby Dune dat Ellow (yellow)." It was absolutely adorable.  She is also currently very into classifying things as a mommy and a baby.  If there is a big flower and a little flower on a picture, it is a mommy and a baby, a big animal and a little animal, a big car and a little car.  Whatever it is, the bigger one is the mommy, the littler one is the baby.  She did decide two snowmen on her plate were a daddy and a baby, so gender classifications are starting to enter her understanding.

Thea thinks taking her shirt off in the middle of a meal is hilarious.  She enjoys copying her sisters all the time, but won't be persuaded by them to do anything she doesn't want to do.  Tutus are still the accessory of choice, with her bracelets a close second.  Shoes are also an exciting item, but her favorites are her Freshly Picked moccasins.  One of her new favorite books is Princess of the Potty, but if you ask her if she wants to sit on the real potty it is solid hell no.  We've stuck her on it a couple of times, but she usually freaks out.  She almost never wants my help with anything, little miss independent.  Diaper and clothing changes are still basically an act of war and I avoid them as much as possible.  She knows lots of the songs from Moana and loves to watch the movie, but the Frozen characters still hold a big place in her heart.

Shes a snuggly little spitfire, a character for sure.  Sweet and stubborn and I wouldn't change a thing.  I love you Thea!

thea - nineteen months

Little Miss Thea, another month older!

headband | pink bracelets | gold bracelet

This post is about Thea, I love her dearly and she is clearly getting smarter all the time.  She understands so much, but just for a moment consider going back and reading Ryann's 19 month post.  Goodness that kid was/is smart!  I never really understood why people were so impressed with Ryann, always asking me how I taught her, etc, because at the time she was all I knew.  Now that I've followed it up with two normal (but equally amazing of course!) kiddos I totally get it.  And for the record, that was all Ryann.  She was just freak of nature smart all on her own.  :)

Back to Thea!  I'm assuming she has grown since last month, but nothing has changed as far as shoe and clothing sizes are concerned.  And I didn't weigh or measure her.  But still, she is probably growing.  18-24month and 2T clothing, size 5 or 6 shoes, size 5 diapers.  Her final bottom canine tooth is working its way in.  Man these last teeth have been pretty rough.  At least that is our best guess for her regular whining and overall pathetic attitude.  Don't get me wrong, she is still hilarious and a ton of fun, but so whiny.  She also throws the biggest fits when she doesn't get her way.  Which most of the time is her getting pulled off of something she climbed on top of.  Little daredevil.  Thankfully her sleep hasn't been affected.

Thea is still a super picky eater.  Unless it's sugar, there are no guarantees.  The things she eats most often are Annie's Mac n Cheese, peanut butter and jelly, hot ham and cheese, deli meat, blueberries, grapes, apples and pears.  She also likes cheese quesadillas, pizza and popcorn shrimp.  And squeeze pouches.  The kid would live off of squeeze pouches and m&ms, which she calls num nums, if I let her.  She loves m&ms so much.  The other day I was offering her all sorts of sweet treats... "Would you like a cookie?" "No. Num nums!" "Maybe some marshmallows?" "No. Num nums!" "Perhaps ice cream?" "No. NUM NUMS." Like come on mom, get it through your head, m&ms woman!

Her vocabulary continues to grow and grow.  She certainly understands more than she can say.  And really I think she believes she is saying a ton of words.  But her articulation isn't all that great.  The other day her and Elsie were in the playroom and she was definitely asking and telling Elsie all sorts of things.  But the only real word I could catch was 'El-eee' (Elsie).  Haha.  There is a lot of whining until I figure out what she is trying to tell me.  And really she often just starts with the whining, but if I remind her to ask nicely she turns off the whine and asks with a please.  Thea is also really great at saying thank you and sorry when it is appropriate.

Lately I hear a lot of "Thea do!" That kid is stubborn and wants to do EVERYTHING by herself.  I'm not allowed to carry her down the stairs or help her get dressed or open food packages or put on shoes or anything without her at least attempting it on her own. Which as most moms of toddlers know, makes everything move oh so quickly.  But I'll give her credit, she is getting much better at getting dressed by herself.  I hate when she won't even hold my hand going down the stairs, because the punk feels the need to try and walk down them like the big girls most of the time.  Ryann and Elsie are pretty good about scooting down on their bums with her though, just so she'll do it too.

Can you smile at mama? Oh uh, that's nice... :)

She may not know the alphabet or how to count to 20, but Thea definitely has body parts down.  The only major one she gets confused on sometimes is knee.  She is also great with animals and animal sounds.  We probably sound like crazy people going through most stores, because any animal she sees she has to make the sound.  You'd be surprised how many different places have lots of animals.  Even the grocery store has things like cows and chickens and stuff on the packaging.  She still thinks almost anything with a word on it (such as a contigo bottle or the shopping cart where it says thank you) says 'Thea Lorraine'.  She constantly points at her water bottle and says "Eee-uh Or-Raine!"  It's cute.

Thea still keeps enjoying books more and more.  We read two or three before nap and bedtime, and then several more here and there throughout the day.  This month she has loved The Wonderful Things You Will Be, Night Night Little Pookie (when she wants us to read that one she says 'Oh Pooooo-pee!' it is so cute), Dinosaurs Love Underpants, Plant a Kiss and Llama Llama I Love You.  She also requests The Little Mermaid from Les Petits Fairytales all the time.  I really don't know why.  It was a book I bought just because I thought it was cute (I would never judge a book by it's cover, NEVER :), but she picks it a lot.  It surprises me just because the words in it aren't all that engaging, prince and palace and rescue.  Unless you make them more interesting they aren't real relate-able for a toddler.  But whatever.  It is cute.

Sometimes I feel guilty admitting it, but Thea is pretty dang good about sitting in front of the TV for a show or a movie.  I try not to let it happen all the time, but I do appreciate the fact that I can turn the TV on if I need to try and keep her from performing dangerous stunts on the furniture while I'm getting something done.  Her favorites are Paw Patrol, Mickey Mouse, Finding Dory, and of course, Moana.  The girls have watched at least a portion of that movie every night since the digital version was released.  It really is one of the better kids movies I've seen, I don't mind watching it!  For once there isn't a character that I can't stand.  No one I don't feel the kids can learn from.  And the music!  I love the songs and don't mind playing them over and over.  Thea LOVES How Far I'll Go.  Dare I say it has replaced Let it Go as her obsession?  She still loves her some Frozen, but Moana has moved into first place.  She is so cute singing and dancing to the song.

Thea's least favorite things are getting her diaper changed, and getting in the car seat.  I try to be sweet and kind and use positive reinforcement.  I try to bribe her.  Sometimes I threaten her (in a toddler friendly way).  And sometimes I just have to use brute force.  Seriously Thea, it is ridiculous.  As in I have to hold her down with my leg to get her diaper changed or pin her down in the car seat to get her strapped in.  You'd think I was beating her with the way she screams (I'm not, for the record).  I'm so incredibly over it.  I know we went through the whole car seat drama with Elsie at this age, because this is about when we turned her around thinking it would help (it didn't).  But with the law now being at age two, we've still got at least another five months.  She often also fights me on getting dressed, to the point where I walk into the garage and close the door, telling her I'm leaving without her because her clothes aren't on.  It usually works, but I wish she would just get over herself and put her dang clothes on!  I look forward to warmer weather when we don't have to wrestle with jackets.  Oh she has also become a punk about staying in the stroller or shopping carts.  She can hoodini her way right out of the buckles.  Makes shopping a heck of a lot less fun!

We've had yet another month with baby dolls still being the preferred toy.  She regularly sleeps with her Bitty Baby and 'purple baby' (maybe eventually they'll get real names?).  Sometimes she sneaks more babies ("mo babies!") in with her, but she has to have the other two.  What I find interesting, is that she absolutely LOVES baby dolls, and is obsessed with pictures and videos of babies, but shows little to no interest when she sees a real baby in person.  I'm curious if that will change or not.  Either way I love how much she loves her baby dolls.  I need to find some more awesome baby doll accessories to get her along the way.  Other things Thea enjoys are stickers, playdoh, being outside, climbing as high as she can get, jumping off of things and wearing tutus :).

Oh my littlest miss, I love you so!

thea - eighteen months

Hold me.  We're getting closer to two faster than I can handle!  I tried to convince Elsie she wasn't allowed to turn four, but she went and did it anyway.  Maybe I can keep Thea from having any more birthdays.  Someone has to stay little for me!

Proud of myself, I actually have Thea's measurements.  At her well check she weighed 25 pounds 3 ounces (82nd percentile) and was 32 inches tall (56th percentile).  I felt like her length would have been higher up in the percentiles, she seems tall and I also don't see her as a chubby girl at all.  But whatever.  I think her head was somewhere around the 50th percentile too.  She is wearing 18-24 month as well as some 2T clothing.  Mostly size five shoes, a few sixes in there.  And size five diapers.

Her upper canines are pretty much all the way in, and the bottom gums have started swelling.  Thea has also been shoving her hands way back in her mouth, I don't know if that means the two year molars are moving around at all, or she is just doing it for the heck of it.  But between teething and never ending nasty colds, I feel like the poor girl has been a hot mess for a while.  The bottom of her nose is either cracked and bleeding, covered in boogers, or covered in aquaphor to try and keep it from cracking and bleeding.  I also slipped and used some regular baby wash on her (Shea Organic) thinking since she was older maybe her skin could handle it.  Yeah nope.  She has little eczema spots all over her back and arms. They aren't too bad, but it is clearly from the soap.

Piggy wants more marshmallows.  Lol.

Thea is still the sleep champ in our house.  Not because she sleeps a ton or anything, but she definitely sleeps the most.  And is the easiest to put to bed by a long shot.  She goes to bed between 7:30-8pm, and wakes up anywhere between 5:30-7:30am.  And you really can never predict what you're going to get.  If she had a really short nap then you can maybe guess she'll sleep in the next morning, but not always.  Nap time is between 12:30-1pm, depending on what were doing and when she got up for the day.  She usually sleeps 2-3 hours.  We've added a second baby to the needed crib items.  Going to try and keep the collection from growing for a little bit.  It isn't like they are tiny dolls, not the easiest to drag that crap places!  But watching her snuggle up with the baby dolls still makes me smile.

finally getting some hair!

Lately Thea will repeat almost anything we say.  Some words sound perfectly clear, some words I don't have the slightest clue what she is trying to say.  But for the most part I can figure out what she talking about.  She has been adding more and more phrases.  If I say something like, "Who likes cheese?" she'll respond with "I do!"  It's pretty cute.  She has also learned her name, and occasionally talks in the third person.  Such as "Ee-uh tolor (color)" or "Ee-uh dan (dance)."  The blanket we got her for Christmas has 'Thea Lorraine' embroidered on it, and hearing her try to say the whole thing is adorable.  It comes out something like "Ee-uh oh-waine."  I love it.  Also over the last month she has been very into giving ownership to items.  Distinguishing between people's drinks and plates and clothes and such.  We've picked up that she refers to Elsie as "El-ee", but Ryann as sissy.  Even though she can say Ryann pretty clearly.  I thought that was interesting.

A lot of times I still breeze over stuff, or have a conversation as if Thea isn't listening.  But she usually is and she is pretty dang smart.  She is figuring things out left and right, learning how stuff around the house works, following my conversations and engaging when I didn't think she'd understand.  It is so amazing to watch little brains work and learn.  Thea now can name lots of her body parts and can rattle off dozens of animal sounds.  She regularly crawls around the house pretending to be a dog or a cat.  Thank you very much, sisters, for that one.

Yes, not only is Thea parroting words and phrases, but she is copying her sisters' every move.  One morning I was pouring bowls of cereal for both Ryann and Elsie.  I gave Thea a bowl too.  Then I added milk to the big girls' bowls.  Thea began saying "Ee-uh mil! Ee-uh mil!"  I ignored her for a bit, knowing that if I put milk in her bowl I'd probably be cleaning milk and cereal off the floor in a matter of minutes.  But she looked pretty pitiful, and you know, the third child gets away with everything, so I caved.  I barley put any in there, but to my surprise she managed to eat the whole bowl without spilling and then asked for more.  I guess shame on me for not wanting to give her the opportunity?  Oy.  I'm just tired of constantly cleaning milk off the floor.  The 360 sippy cups are great until they slam into our hardwood floor and explode everywhere.  Does anyone else have that problem?

Thea has more or less mastered shape sorters and understands puzzles.  She loves to put on a tutu and then requests to dance, while putting her hands on her bum and bouncing up and down.  Actually she also feels the need to dance if I put her in a dress in the morning.  Fisher Price Little People still keep her pretty well entertained.  She loves to go in the bounce house, but only lasts a little bit before she bolts back out of the basement.  And she love love LOVES to be outside.  We've had a few warm days sprinkled in here and there and she gets so excited to play in the yard.  She really enjoys going down the slide but it is kind of terrifying.  I have to watch her on the ladder to make sure she doesn't fall off, then run to the other side and catch her because our slide is so dang fast.  For the most part she waits for me, but sometimes I'm cutting it close on getting to the end before her!

And baby dolls.  Man she still loves her baby dolls.  She is so sweet with them most of the time.  The other day I caught her 'reading' to her baby, and having her feel the different sensory spots throughout the book.  It was adorable.  On that note, Thea is enjoying being read to more and more.  I think her favorite books are Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Little Thea.  The latter I got as a Christmas gift for her last year.  It is a personalized book from i See Me and I highly recommend them.  The book is wonderful quality and I'd attribute half of Thea learning her name from reading that book.  She likes to point to her name on each page when I'm reading.  For Valentine's day I picked up Love is a Tutu, and Thea pointed to the word tutu and said "Ee-uh!" I guess she recognized the similar length and the T.  Or something like that, but I thought it was cool.

She still geeks out over Frozen characters.  Still a crazy climber and constantly scaring the crap out of me.  Loves to wear her June + Penny bracelets.  Still hates getting her diaper changed or being offered new foods.  Is still definitely a mama's girl, though she is becoming more and more receptive to other people.  Not necessarily willingly going to other people, but not freaking out when everyone looks at her.  Except for our friend Chris.  She avoids eye contact with him most of the time, haha.

 

Speaking of being with other people, I left Thea in the church nursery for the first time this month.  The first week I was paged 15 minutes into the service because they couldn't get her calmed down. As soon as I opened the door I could hear her screaming down the hall. Poor girl.  When I got back to my seat she grabbed onto me, held on to Chris's hand, and promptly passed out.  Those 15 minutes wore her the heck out.  I expected the second week to go much the same, but to my surprise she lasted the whole service.  When I picked her up one of the girls was holding her.  They said she cried on and off, but overall did ok.  It'll be two weeks before we can get back to church again, hopefully she still does well.

Really I think 18 months might be one of my favorite ages.  Of course there are things I enjoy about every age, but Thea just makes me smile so much.  I enjoy just sitting and watching her play and explore, and absolutely love all the affection she shows me.

Stay sweet baby girl, I love you!

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!!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Love you sweet girl!