winter retreat

bundled up and ready to go...

why must you torture me so?

why would anyone pay full price for a snowsuit for someone my age?

why is mommy smiling? get me inside!!!!

em's snow tunnel

maddie & hannah agree- playing inside is much more fun!

pj pals

juliana liked this toy

uncle brett and the girls

crazy morning hair (and CUTE smile)

these photos were taken last friday morning.

cousins, everywhere!!!!

On Thursday night, Aunt Becca, Uncle Brett & cousin Juliana came to stay at our house. Mommy and Daddy went out to eat and to the symphony for their Valentine's Date. I was possessive of my Cinderella chair, but don't let that fool you- I was glad to have 'cuz there. Friday morning, it was nice to have a PJ Pal to stare at as I ate breakfast, too.

Papa T. was driving nearby so he stopped and treated us to Mexican for lunch. Gramma T. was very jealous that he got to see me.

Friday afternoon, I had to sit in my carseat for an awfully long time while we drove to see my older cousins in Indianapolis. Mommy sat next to me at least half of the trip, and that helped pacify me. I did not want to sleep.

I love the stairs at my cousins' house. They are so much fun to climb, and there are spindles to hold onto and a landing halfway up so it's not so steep. I love chasing my cousins and the cat everywhere. My cousins and I run in circles through the family room, foyer, dining room and kitchen, and they are trying to teach me how to play "pato, pato, ganza" (duck, duck, goose). Mommy made me wear my red snowsuit and boots again. It's hard to move in that thing. But I tolerated it, sort of. That snow stuff is cold and wet and I don't like it one bit. I was so relieved when Mommy brought me inside and took of those movement-restricting things. I am glad GranWendy found them for me... otherwise I would have been REALLY cold and REALLY wet in that DEEP white stuff. There's almost 20 inches on the ground. Mommy and cousin Em made a tunnel in one of the snow piles, while I played inside with Aunt Cheryl and Mad. A nice neighbor used the snowblower to clear their driveway again today.

Mommy will post pictures when we get home from our winter adventure!

pics and potty time

earlier this week...

"it's okay, baby!"

feeding baby

burping baby

bathing beauty

bath-time fun

and, tonight...

during story-time before bed, i pulled my "baby's potty" book off the shelf...
and carried it to my potty.

while daddy read to me, i stepped in my potty...

and then i put the book on the potty...
while i pooped in my diaper.

word of the day

vacuum (sounds more like baa-oom)
hannah bear has decided the baa-oom is one of her best friends. when we went downstairs for bedtime stories, she saw the vacuum in the utility room and went in to pat and kiss it goodnight. that led to a delay in bedtime. when i asked her if she wanted to help us vacuum, she nodded her head yes. at least the living room, hall and her bedroom are clean!

POTW

there are 3 teeth in here, you just can't see them..

"doin' the baby-bop hop"
(note the big water cup in front of me... i stole it from mommy)

i climbed up here all by myself.
later, i stood up, too, but mommy snatched me down.

checking out the latest publix coupons

tooth count is rising

... Hannah now has 3 teeth broken through, and it looks like a couple more on the way... she should have all her baby teeth by the time she gets to middle school!

jakers!

hannah's 2nd cousin jake was born yesterday, a month early. he is in icu for a few days to monitor his breathing. he's a cutie!

2/4/07, 10:45 a.m.
5lb 15 oz.

you know it's past bedtime...

when your 15 month old marches over to the large circular dog bed/cushion in your friends' living room and lays down. lexi, the friendly black lab, was either upstairs or outside.

i have a new cousin!

mommy's cousin ronnie and her husband mark are in china. they are adopting a daughter, who is named allie! i hate that we'll live so far apart, because we'll be so close in age. mommy and daddy need to take me to long island to visit my relatives there (and to the cape, sapelo, cali... you get the point).

soon, mommy's cousin kevin's wife will have a little boy named jake. that means i'll have someone to play with if we ever visit new mexico, too!

15 month check-up

the doctors and nurses can't believe how big i am now! nurse karen said it feels like she was just carrying me around the office when i was tiny..

weight: 23 lbs.
height: 29 1/2"

i'm around the 50th percentile, whatever that means.

mommy wrapped her arms around me and daddy held my legs down while they gave me shots. (one in each leg at the same time... clever, huh?) that made me angry. i didn't like having my ears, mouth, or heartbeat checked, either. haven't you people ever heard of personal space?

i got to see aunt kelly and cousin catey. catey went to work with her mommy because she didnm't have to go to school today. she had a friend up there, and they seemed quite at home up in the break room.

snow day....

getting ready to go outside

checking out the white stuff...

sharing smiles with daddy

you want me to touch that stuff?
(for the record, the mittens wouldn't stay on)

i was more curious about sunday,
the jack-russell, than she was about me.

mommy says it's a shame that this may be the only time i wear my snowpants and boots.

look what i've been up to...

indoor fun...

wild thing

hip-hop Hannah

a night gown with pants underneath= diaper removal prevention

almost nakey time
(i won the wrestling match with mommy when she tried to dress me)

enjoying the sunshine last week ...trying to figure out this "step" thing

don't worry, mom... i can handle the ball and the pin wheel

word of the day

"nap"

this morning, baby bear ran the other way saying "nap" when i asked her if she was sleepy. this afternoon, i asked her again if she needed a nap. she walked toward her room, saying "nap".

flashback

If you go to Dotson Studios website and browse around, you will find a picture that was taken just over 1 year ago. Actually, a couple of them. One is of our bright-eyed little girl looking up, the other is of the two of us. It's hard to believe that a year has passed since then... until I look at her and see how she is more and more like a little girl and less like a baby every day...

15 months old today!!!

our baby girl is growing so quickly! she scarfed down both her share and daddy's share of spinach at dinner. she's learning to run when mommy tells her it's naptime or time to change a diaper. she knows where the cereal cabinet is and which kind is her favorite. her babbles are beginning to sound like words... just this week, i think i've heard "yellow", "again", "open" and "bounce". She nods her head vigorously to say "yes" or "no". she catches her toss the taggie ball, and can throw it or give it, whichever she feels like doing at the time. today, she preferred plain toast over toast with great-gramma's homemade jelly. the taste for spinach comes from mommy; for plain bread, from daddy. she loves "talking" on the phone, including holding her toy phone up to her ear (as well as the real phones, of course.) sometimes, she tugs at her diaper when it is too full.

Photos from last weekend

while Mommy was getting things ready for our trip to Memphis,
my curiosity got the best of me... and i ended up in the hamper!

not too big to nap on Papa

Mrs. Mary & Mr. Hickman watched me while Mommy & Daddy went to a wedding.
they said I was a perfect baby, even though I only napped for 15 minutes.

it wasn't a fluke!

Hannah did a very good job eating applesauce with a spoon without mommy's help today.

mommy's temper tantrum song

(to the tune of "my God is so BIG ")

my baby's so big, so mad, and so cranky
there's nothing that mommy can do (2x)

she cries and she screams and blows boogers at me
and squirms during changing time, too

my baby's so big, so mad and so cranky
there's nothing that mommy can do


the version i came up with in the midst of yesterday's tantrum was a little better, but this will do for now...

using a fork and the potty (warning, slightly gross)

Hannah successfully stabbed carrots and potatoes from tonight's leftover pot roast and got them to her mouth.

After dinner and before bathtime, we decided to set her on the potty just to start getting her used to it. (Some moms on a message board I'm on said they had better luck when they started early than with the kids they waited... I'm not about to go hih pressure or let her run around without a diaper so she can feel her pee or anything, but I figure introducing her slowly can't hurt.) The poop that was on already her bottom but we did not smell for some reasonproceeded to fall into the toilet, as if she had just gone. She was more concerned with getting in the bathtub than sitting on the potty, but we showed her the poop, flushed it, and congratulated her as though she had really accomplished something big. She was just glad to get into the bathtub after her bottom was wiped clean.

too cute....

I'm on the laptop with my feet propped on the ottoman. Sesame Street is on. Baby Bear has been playing very well, and just dragged her big fuzzy blanket over to her blue cinderella toddler-sized arm chair. She sat down and tucked it around herself for about 10 seconds. then she stood back up and found a book to flip through.... Now she's transfixed on Rosita's Spanish lesson... rosita is teaching Baby Bear how to say "buenas noches!"

to climb or not to climb

a couple of seconds ago, I heard Hannah bear whining about something. I peeked over the couch and saw her grunting and pushing at the piano bench (aka our baby gate at the bottom of the stairs) with all her might, to no avail. She hasn't realized she can probably crawl under it and onto the first step if she tries, and I'm not about to show her. "Do you want to go up?" I asked her. "grunt." I pushed the bench aside, she grabbed her toy alphabet school bus, and began the 15-step climb. She abandoned her toy around the 4th step, much to my relief. At one point, she paused and reached for me to pick her up and carry her. I told her that she could make it herself, as she has many times before, and she began the climb once again.

Now we're upstairs, Dragon Tales on TV, and Baby Bear is wandering around the bonus room to her heart's content. Oops, spoke to soon. Now she wants Mommy to hold her.

frugal mommy

a few weeks ago, i saw 4-packs of playtex insulated sippy cups for about $10 at costco... they were marked down to $5 today!!! patience paid off!

here comes trouble....

no fear

i've got everything under control in here, mom!

i can crack this safe, just give me another chance...

finding a seat

getting' ready for the big pool...

see that cabinet next to the fridge? mommy doesn't keep it locked.
at least i closed the door behind me!!!

i dream of going back to chuck-e-cheese

mesmerized with uncle nate

hey, stu, what's over there?

don't worry, chuck, you're in good hands

inside the "playhouse"

"ready for the funny farm...."

"what do you mean, i can't walk down the slide?"

"purple princess in her tower"

"monarch's playin' some serious hockey"

...these photos were taken while we were at Gramma and Papa T.'s (aka Tech Mom & Dad). I'm a little behind on the picture posting.

O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E

anybody who knows my daddy, knows that the only sauce he finds suitable for chicken tenders is BBQ. well, as mommy opened the fridge, i was just standing there "asking" her if i could help out. she gave me a bottle of BBQ sauce, asked me to give it to daddy, and i carried it over to the table all by myself and handed it to him. daddy was so proud of how well i obeyed her!

i love pop cans!

this is a good and a bad post... i forgot to mention that hannah had her 1st and 2nd bloody boo boo's in 2 weeks. she tried to grab my root beer from me and cut her finger. (the first was a paper cut). she didn't seem to mind the fact that she was getting blood everywhere as much as she minded getting the band-aid on her finger.

the good... she helped me put daddy's fresh stash of diet dew into the drawer in the fridge. she loves playing with pop cans, so i let her help me put them away.

i can use a spoon!

sort of...

i had applesauce for my evening snack, and after mommy helped me a couple of times, i finished off about 1/2 a cup all by myself!!!!! though it's not the first time i've put a spoon in my mouth, it's pretty much the first time most of the food made it to my tummy.

mommy says one of these days she'll post more pictures... maybe.... if i'm good... or bad... we'll see...

The Sickie Family

Hannah-bear has shared whatever bug she fought last weekend with both of her parents. So now Daddy and I are coughing and using kleenex like crazy. She crashed at 7 p.m., even after sleeping from 2:30-4:30, so I have a feeling I'll be up sometime in the middle of the night.... But she wouldn't be comforted, and she scooted across the bonus room floor toward the stairs, crying as if to say "get me out of here!"

She quieted down as soon as her Daddy laid her in the crib. Sweet dreams, little one.

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

hannah-bear walked, holding my hand, on the sidewalk today. when we got to our next door neighbor's grass, she wanted to play on the "carpet". funny thing was she didn't seem to want to play on our yard. not that i would have let her, with the muddy spots.