September and 19 month update

I feel like September absolutely flew by.  Maybe since it was so filled with fun, we didn’t realize all the time was passing.  Alethea reached the milestone of 19 months too.  I measured her at home and she is just shy of 35inches tall and 26lbs 9.6oz.  Each month when I think she might be slowing down with her growth, she seems to grow even more.  She is so tall and already growing out of many of her 24 months and 2T clothes (especially if they are height dependant).  I don’t even know what size clothes to tell family to get her for Christmas!

Getting so big she already has her own car, lol (yay for trash day finds!)

This month, as I wrote about before, we went to Disney World with Alethea and she loved it.  It was a wonderful family trip.  And my parents stuck around for a few days after the trip which was very nice, but not long enough.  One adorable thing from that time though was when Alethea sat mesmerized by Bonanza with her Papaw, lol.  We think it must have been the horses!  Then the next weekend we went to the Columbia Zoo to help celebrate Alethea’s BFFs birthday.  They had so much fun seeing all the animals and we really enjoyed the time we spent with her family too. J  We also took another fun trip to Columbia with Ben when he had to attend a grad school class.  Alethea and I went to the park while he had class and then we enjoyed some Red Robin afterward (the one in Columbia is the closest).  Then the last weekend of the month we had our church picnic which was so much fun.  Alethea didn’t take a nap the whole time and ran around like a champ, but as soon as we got in the car, she was out. So I guess with all those busy weekends it’s no wonder the month flew by.

Watching Bonanza with Papaw, lol!

At the zoo with her BFF, Molly

She loved getting her Chick fil A hat when we went while Daddy was in class

Then we went for a walk in the park and baby came too

so proud of herself

Trying to give Mommy a heart attack!

Silly girl as we climbed the stairs

This month for Ben and I has been a bit of the same old thing.  Ben got a bit of a break from teaching and school the beginning of the month, but since then he has been going full speed ahead.  Unfortunately that means that sometimes it feels like we never get to see him, except on the weekends.  But we are blessed with the opportunity for him to get his MBA and this is just a season of life that will pass, THANKFULLY!  As for me, I have been spending a ton of time just me and Alethea running around town and trying to stay busy so we both don’t go stir crazy at home. I have been running 4 or 5 times a month and that has really helped me to maintain my sanity I feel like.  I am so thankful that she no longer nurses in the morning because that has really freed me to exercise so much more than ever since she came along.  I have also been enjoying our new CSA (community shared agriculture) bag that comes with all kinds of neat new veggies and I have been cooking up new goodies. J

Yummy CSA goodies

Chocolate PB baked oatmeal, YUM!

Alethea is changing so much every day!  I love seeing her excitement for learning and getting into new things, even if sometimes her curiosity or frustration drives me a bit batty at times.   She has learned so many animal sounds, though she is very selective when she chooses to repeat them.  She always quacks at the duck statue in our neighbor’s yard, barks when our dogs or other dogs outside bark, and growls every time she sees a lion or a bear.  This made for great times at the Animal Kingdom and the zoo, lol.  Animals are definitely an early love of hers and it is so sweet to see her excitement over them and each new sound she picks up.

She has also finally began to mimic words that I say, not all the time, but at least she does it at all.  She has learned the words moon, tree, shoe, and a few others this way.  She has also finally learned MOMMY, well “ma-ma” and so now she points to Mommy and says “ma-ma” to Daddy and says “da-da” and then she points to herself and for now I say Alethea, but hopefully soon she will pick up on that one too. J  She also picked up “mi-mi” for Mickey or Minnie from our Disney trip.

Feeding "mi-mi"

I am also amazed by a skill we discovered this month where she is able to find matches (I think that is what you would call it).  She has a Disney princess “I-Spy” type book and if we point to the character in the key, she will point to the matching character on the page.  She does this for almost all the items in the book, as long as she is in the mood to, lol.  This is one of her favorite books for sure, but she simply loves books.  She is still an active kiddo but she has seemed to take more of an interest in sitting and reading.  It’s honestly her activity of choice and would sit and read in my lap for hours probably if I would let her.  She just keeps bringing book after book to me (or Daddy) and wants to read it.  We have even found her sitting in her book corner in her room flipping through the pages of books herself.  So, sweet!

In her reading corner

She got Mamaw to come read to her too. :-)

I think the reduced seeing of Daddy has had a bit of an impact on her behavior, though she just seems to be a bit whineier lately in general.  That has become her new favorite way of communicating.  I am glad she has mostly changed from her previous annoying noise, but this one isn’t much better, lol!  But I think I chalk it up to missing her Daddy many times, especially when he is home, but has to study, or watch class in the office.  I know it breaks his heart just as much as it breaks hers and he does his best to spend the time with her that he can, thankfully.  Another contributor to the whining I think is due to teething.  She had a rash on her neck so for most of the month she didn’t have her teething necklace on and I think she is working on her canine teeth coming in.  Although, once I put the necklace back on she still is pretty good with the whine, lol.

One funny thing she has developed this month is a fake laugh.  Many times it just seems to come out of nowhere, but other times it is in response to those around her laughing.  For example, we were getting ready for a group photo at our church picnic and right before the photo she randomly just let out a big fake laugh.  What a ham!  She has also taken a liking to her own version of singing, especially in the car.  I think we are going to have a musical kid our hands with the dancing and now singing, but at least she comes by it honest with her Mommy’s love of all things music. J

She absolutely loves to be outside. We have gone to the park many times and to a few playgrounds near our neighborhood and she always has a blast.  She also absolutely loves to go for walks, so we have been doing a lot of those.  Sometimes she takes her stroller to push with her baby in it, which she stops to take care of periodically as we walk around the block.  But most of the time she just simply needs to have something to carry with her, even if it is just her cup and she is good to walk for quite some time.  Fun traditions on the walk also include being lifted up to slap the stop signs, knocking on all the street sign posts, riding the fire hydrants, and going “boom-boom-boom” as she stops on all the drains and man holes. This has grown to be a fun time for Alethea and I during the day and a special treat when Daddy gets to go at night or on the weekends.

not the most flattering of me, but you can see how much she loves her car!

This month we also had some fun times with sensory play and water.  We made it out in the pool when Daddy had time off earlier in the month.  Then we had fun with colored ice blocks another day...and I learned that I need to use a bit less food coloring, lol.  And last we broke up the beans and she is a huge fan of that.  After the first time at the kitchen table, we realized that it makes much less of a mess in the floor.  Lots of good times!

getting Daddy with the hose 

colored ice blocks everywhere!

Look Ma!

very focused :-)

One final note about her eating.  She is still nursing at bedtime, but I think we are going to start weaning that toward the end of next month.  I am a tad bittersweet with it, but yet I feel it is time and I know she will be just fine.  Though she still seems to be growing like a weed, her growing has slowed down and as a result, so has her appetite.  Plus we have been adding in a smoothie every morning to make sure she gets the milk she needs since she won’t just drink the darn stuff, lol!  So I think that is affecting her bfast and lunch appetite some. She still doesn’t really care for vegetables and anytime they are on her plate she tries to hand them to me and says “uhn-uh”, but I usually just try to get her to keep them on her plate with the hope of her eating them (which she almost never does).  At the end of the month, she decided she no longer liked the purees either so we may be done with veggie purees too which is fine, I just hope she actually eats veggies on her own soon, lol.  She still loves most any kind of fruit though with many being out of season our variety isn’t that great.  She also loves pizza (only fresh), cheese (most of the time), homemade chicken nuggets, ravioli, rotini, cheese eggs, grilled cheese, cottage cheese (only from mommy’s plate), baked oatmeal muffins, homemade granola, and probably a few other things.  But honestly her variety of food seems pretty lame to me, but we just keep trying to expand it by putting little bits of new foods on her plate each meal in hopes of her trying it. J

This has truly been another blessed month and we are so thankful for our sweet little family of three.  The Lord has really blessed us and I have been reminded so much more lately about His perfect timing and even though we had to wait what felt like so long to have Alethea, she has been worth every minute of that time!  God is good and he knows best (even though I don’t always think so at the time)!