August of Fun and 18 month update

Wow! August has been a busy, yet mostly fun-filled month for our family.  We went on a family trip to Kentucky to visit my family.  It was a lot of fun, though not exactly as expected due to my Grandaddy’s health problems.  Praise the Lord, he is doing better, but while we were there he was very weak and couldn’t really get out of bed after battling some GI issues.  So we spent a lot of great home time with family and it was just great to see them.  I did lots of help cooking to give my mom and grandma a break.  And we did lots of eating…maybe too much.  There was an Amish bakery on the way to visit my parents’ lake house that had whoopee pies, sweet rolls, and more that were just amazing!  Alethea was the star of the show as usually and she provided lots of comic relief and overall good times for everyone.  And thankfully, she was a great traveler for the 10hr drive there and back!

She loved Granpeg and Grandaddy's wagon

Playing the piano with Kaylee

Stealing blueberries from Granpeggy's breakfast and then helping herself to the rest, lol

Trying on Uncle Cody's shoes

bathtime at Grandpeg's

filing away Mamaw's mail in the dogs cages

Building with Uncle Camden

Alethea's first time canoeing

playing with the "people of the world" on Grandaddy's bed

One wonderful highlight of the KY trip was that Ben and I had a chance to cash in on his anniversary present.  I had given him an overnight without Alethea, our first one, and we had the perfect babysitters to take care of her for us.  While she hung out with my parents, brother, and grandparents, we went out on a fun filled date followed by a night at a bed and breakfast.  It was definitely some much needed us time.  We started out the date (which was all a surprise to Ben) at a burger place called Bluegrass Burgers that was a top your own burger place that served grass-fed meat.  Ben got a bison burger with lots of toppings and I got a portobello mushroom “burger” with sautéed onions and avocado.  Yum!  After that, we went to the IMAX theater to see The Dark Knight Rises.  It was an awesome movie and we really enjoyed seeing it in IMAX too.  Then we checked in at our bed and breakfast and made plans for what we would do for the evening.  We ended up at Doc Crows in downtown Louisville, where Ben got a giant burger (and ate all of it), and I got some ribs and hush puppies.  Then we did one of our favorite things (normally done in downtown Charleston), but we walked around the city and along the river.  It was beautiful, but just nothing compared to the beauty of Charleston.  After that we capped off the night with some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory since we don’t have one near us.  I got a red velvet cheesecake and he got a pineapple upside-down cake cheesecake and they were both AMAZING! (especially mine)  This was definitely a big highlight of our month and we enjoyed every second of us time. J

Ben finished up his crazy accelerated 6 week grad course at the end of the month as well as lightening a load at work since he is on teaching break.  So we have enjoyed seeing a lot more of him lately.  It’s nice to have the break from busy-ness before we head into a VERY busy fall.  I have spent most of the month going on adventures with Alethea, reading, cooking, and planning/packing for our trips.  We are heading to Disney next month!

Now it’s time for the Alethea update.  She turned 18 months this month.  I can’t believe she is already a year and a half old and she has been walking for ½ of her life now.  Crazy!  We had her 18 month well baby check up and the doctor said she is doing great.  I always laugh whenever we go to the doctor because everyone is always surprised at her age.  She is super tall, yet has very little hair so it is always hard to tell just how old she is, but inevitably they always think it’s crazy she is only 18 months.  She weighed in at 26lbs and just shy of 34.5inches tall (99^th + percentile).  So she is still growing like a weed which I guess is no surprise since everyone says her Mommy and Daddy are tall too. J

I feel like if I blink, she will be driving for real!

This month we haven’t seen as much growth in her verbal language skills as I had hoped.  I am still hearing the broken record sound of “uuuuhhhh” that is used for practically everything along with finger pointing and the occasional sign.  It definitely gets frustrating for Ben and I when we hear it over and over, but it also seems to frustrate her when we don’t know what she is saying and she just gets louder (eeeeek!).  She is building up more of a vocabulary, but she just doesn’t seem interested in using it on a regular basis.  She seems to practice new words a lot for a while and then they only pop up occasionally after that.  It’s almost as if she gets more with them or something (but I guess that theory isn’t likely since she doesn’t get bored with her sound, lol).  She also doesn’t really care to mimic so we can’t even really teach her words that way.  For now we have just been verbalizing words that she can use instead of her sounds and we are hoping she picks up eventually. 

example of her favorite sound "uhhhhh!"

She did start saying “bah, bah” for bye this month which is super cute because she sounds like a little southern bell.  We can usually count on “hi” and “bah, bah” on a regular basis.  She has also started saying “hah dow dows” for hi doggies which is super cute and “hah da da” for hi daddy.  And I think we may be getting close to wear she actually says anything close to Mommy.  On a few occasions when she is trying to get my attention she has said “ma! ma!” but it doesn’t happen regularly enough for me to be sure.  One of my favorites is also that she says “HUH!” to tell the doggies to hush when they bark, just like her mommy.  My favorite is when we are out running and we hear a train go by she says “doo doo doo” for choo choo train.  So cute!

"Hi Da-da"

She also definitely comprehends a ton so I am not worried about her learning language that much.  Every night when I ask her to go get her pillow, she goes to get the nursing pillow at bedtime.  And when it’s time to change her diaper and I ask her to lie down so I can change her diaper, she goes to the floor (only the hardwood or tile, not carpet, lol) and lies down with her feet up so I can change it.  And when it’s bath time and we say, do you want to take a bath, she goes running to the bathroom trying to open the door and then when we open it she picks up her potty seat to go potty (though she never actually does we still try so we can get her used to it).  I could go on about how much she is absorbing and learning, but these are just a few faves.

pre-bath painting with her best buddy Molly

A few food firsts this month were trying raw bell peppers and peanut butter.  She is sometimes a fan of bell peppers, just depends on the day.  I finally broke down and tried peanut butter because I was getting tired of not being able to share one of my favorite things.  So far she has done great with it, thankfully.  She has enjoyed a PBnJ sandwich which she wasn’t so sure about this format at first, but did seem to enjoy it in the end, and she absolutely loves PBnJ smoothies (just like her Mommy and Daddy).  She is still a great eater.  I am always amazed with how much food she can put away; I think she must have a hollow leg.  She has still won’t really do many veggies, but she thankfully will eat the purees.  Her utensil skills are gradually getting better and she especially loves when she gets to use a “big people” fork like Mommy and Daddy.

PBnJ Smootie face

She doesn’t seem to really care much for television, even cartoons (oh well), but if we do happen to have the TV on when she is around she is glued to it any time a real life animal starts making noise or when music comes on.  This is especially evident with Glee because she pays it no attention until they break into song and then she is glued and starts dancing. She loves Glee just like her Mommy. J  We also got her a baby stroller of her own and she absolutely loves using it and mothering her babies.  She loves to take them for walks; so sweet!  She is also continuing to be more and more agile.  Her frequency and success of jumping has gone way up this month.  She actually catches real air about 90% of the time and she is so proud of herself.  I love our morning runs and she is always a willing participant as long as she gets to snuggle a baby along the way.  And the last bit of cuteness is her desire to be Mommy’s little helper.  She is always pushing a chair or a stool up to help me in the kitchen and she is quite the successful helper with laundry too.

All smiles after a morning run

BUSTED!

pushing baby

In the washer, lol

On Daddy's car

Helping Daddy fix the headlight

            As always, I could continue to go on and on about how much we love our sweet little girl and all the things she does that we find amazing, but I this is a good synopsis of it all.  She is such a blessing!

One last dose of cuteness!