Finally a January Update and 23 months!

            Wow, I have waited way too long to write this, but I figure I better go ahead and write about January before I forget all the details, lol.  January has been a busy month full of traveling, potty training, grad school, work, and surgery.  We have been going non-stop in some senses it seems.

            We had my family in town for the first few days of the new year, but they headed home to continue caring for my grandparents.  We had about a week or so to adjust to our new home after they left and then it was travel time for us.  We headed up to NY from January 12^th to the 21^st.  Since we were unable to travel for Thanksgiving due to expenses, we opted to make a post-holiday trip to NY instead. J

doing push-ups with Daddy

            Our trip to NY was busy but full of fun.  We spent the weekends with Ben’s mom and most of the week with his dad.  Alethea had a lot of fun with all the attention she received.  She really enjoyed seeing her Grandma and Boppa, and her Grandpa as well as G.G.  It was fun to see her have so much fun showing off all of her skills and getting to know Ben’s side of the family better.  One of Alethea’s favorite parts was playing with her buddy EmmaLee.  They had such a blast together despite a 6yr age difference. J We also got to meet up with several friends Ben has known since HS and college and it was a lot of fun catching up with them.  Alethea did awesome with all the traveling, but we were all definitely worn out by the end.  Alethea even fell asleep in the airport which pretty much never happens unless she is in her bed, lol.

Tuckered out sleeping in the airport...

that's what a 4am wake-up call and plane delays will do to a 22 month old

Helping take the outer paper of the T.P.

I know it's sideways, but I love this picture of Alethea and G.G.

Playing with Grandpa

 

EmmaLee!

Ben's mom's side of the family

            This month was quite the eventful month for Ben specifically.  He ended up with nose surgery on the 25^th of January in hopes of correcting his deviated septum and opening up his air passages so he could breathe better.  The end result is hoped to ultimately help him to deal with his allergy symptoms better. It was a pretty rough surgery for him, but will hopefully be worth it.  He also has allergy tests done and discovered that he is allergic to pretty much everything: all trees, all grass, all mold, all dust mites, dogs, cats, and more.  So we have been doing what we can to de-allergize the house, lol.

Snuggles with Daddy to help him feel better and a bit of imitating him, lol

            I have been staying busy with Alethea and my normal cooking and running.  I was even able to maintain my running while we were in NY, which I wasn’t sure would actually happen.  Running in the snow is definitely not my fave, but at least I wasn’t even hot during my runs.  Pregnancy has been treating me pretty well thankfully.  I get tired more quickly, but pretty much life as normal still.

Doesn't look like much yet, but it was definitely cold running in the snow along the lake

            And finally, it’s time for the update on Alethea.  Just when I think she is slowing down her growth some, she gets a bit taller.  Her 23 month stats are 36.25inches tall and 27lbs 9.6oz according to at home measurements.  I can’t believe my baby is over 3ft tall!  Her hair is even seeming to get thicker (not really much longer), and though it has taken almost 7 months, she is finally showing signs of her feet growing again and her shoes getting too small. J

Love this pic of her going "nah-naht" on the stairs

            As a posted separately the end of January marked a big milestone for our family.  No more diaper laundry and underwear 24/7 for Alethea.  She had been peeing on the potty sporadically prior and pooped for the first time on January 6^th, but we officially kicked off potty training on January 26^th.  She has done awesome and I am so glad we made the decision to proceed.  No chance of two in diapers for me come June, yay!

Big girl undies!

            I feel like she is changing so much every day.  She is growing into a little lady and, even if she still looks like my baby with little hair, she doesn’t talk like it at all.  We have been hearing so many combined words and even 3 word sentences this month.  Her language just keeps growing and it is so much fun (though lots of broken record moments) to watch her interest in communicating with words grow.  We can almost carry on conversations sometimes and she loves to respond to questions even when we are pretty sure she has no idea what she is saying “yes”, “no”, or “uh-huh” to, lol.

           She is developing into quite the repeater.  She loves to repeat the ABC’s with me (a great car activity).  My favorite letter she says is W which sounds like “dub-you”.  I also love her heightened interest in her colors.  Red and yellow are her favorite colors to identify, but she is getting awesome at red, yellow, pink, blue, and sometimes green.  Colors are a hard one, but she seems to be picking up on it on her own (definitely no official teaching from us).  She also loves to repeat the words of songs that she hears on the radio in the car.  This ends up being pretty hilarious because she really on repeats the words she recognizes and it is so funny to see which ones she chooses at times.  She also has taken quite the liking to singing and dancing/playing the air guitar while I sing to her at nap/bedtime.  Love it!  It’s looking like early on I have already influenced her with my love of music.  So excited to see how that grows over time. J

Potty training Mickey and Minnie, lol

            We have really been working on eating this month and she has done great with trying things.  She doesn’t always like them, but we at least seem to be getting more tasting happening these days.  In the past, she would just leave stuff sitting on the plate untouched or smeared.  Our new method with her is giving her the same thing as us for dinner every night and she gets usually only one item (sometimes two) that we know for sure she likes.  I am hoping this will encourage her to broaden her tastes over time and be more interested in veggies…eventually. 

Pasta face! 

 

One thing she tried at dinner one night was apples and peanut butter.  It was a more eclectic meal and I was trying to encourage protein so I offered peanut butter to dip her apples in.  She gobbled all the peanut butter up and then kept asking for more spoonfuls of peanut butter.  She is a girl after my own heart with peanut butter now, though she doesn’t care for it on sandwiches yet.

Alethea and I had a bit of a scary moment this month when I was making our eggs for breakfast.  She usually loves to watch me and always narrates with “hot…egg” which I make them.  But this particular day she randomly decided to slap the burner after I had turned it off and moved the skillet away.  Thankfully it had been off for a few minutes, but she still burnt stripes into her hand.  Totally shocked me, but let’s just say she doesn’t get to watch so closely anymore.  So thankful it was just a minor burn and, after lots of morning cuddles watching Mickey, she was back to normal in the afternoon.

Hand all bandaged up

Back to normal in the evening

Despite her stripes

What a great and full month as our little family of three (and a half)!