New Words:

Boat

Chair

Flower

We've been taking temperatures a lot around here lately. So much that Noelle turns her head and leans against my chest for me to put the thermometer into her ear. She also tries to do it herself.

18 month check up = 97 percentile for height. 79 percentile for weight. 100 percentile for intelligence. ;)

My Muse

Noelle got her little mits on a necklace I made and was trying to photograph. She put it on herself and then wanted to get in the pool.
My baby is 4 days shy of 18 months. I just thought her little legs looked so long and grown up in these shorts, I had to snap a picture.

Talker

So were driving down the road today when Noelle points to the biug yellow school bus crossing infront of us and says "BUS". Plain as day, out of the blue. Apparently she said "go sleep" repeatedly with friend the other day. I would say she is officially a talker these days. Here's a list of what she can say even if her versions aren't perfect:

hi

hello

bye

hat

no

mama

dada

coach = joosh or chew

water = wa-wa

poppy = pah-pah

fish = shw-shw-shw or ish
yaya = yaya or ahya

nana

hot

papaw

baby

bus

dog = dah

egg

bath

ball

elmo

yellow

purple

bubble

bottle

diaper = die-pah

light

boo

taco = dah-doh

poo poo

owww

shoe

cheese = cheee

banana = nana

apple

clock = toc

thank you = da-doo

uh-oh

ahh, ahhh, ahhhh, choo

home - ho

book

shoot = at least it's not sh#$

ho, ho, ho (for santa clause)

choo choo (for train)

pool

brush

She has had a repertiore of animals sounds for a while now including:

snake

elephant

sheep

bear

lion

tiger

owl

cat

dog

monkey

fish

pig

cow

horse

bird

alligator

mouse

bee

I'm pretty proud of my 18 month old!!!

Stevie

Last night I was dressing Noelle in her pajamas or at least trying to when she showed me her impression of Stevie Wonder. She was running around in her diaper after she escaped my clutches when I started singing "When you wish upon a star". She stopped and listened and then started to dance. Nothing unusual about this; she rocks or sways left to right to the music. But this time she had her head tilted back, eyes squinted and mouth shaped like an 'O'. Maybe she temporarily went blind, maybe she likes Stevie, or maybe she's just my funny bunny.

Friends and Hats

Bring on Senor Sun!

We went to a post-Easter egg hunt at a park. Noelle decided that she would rather use the toy dump truck as a wagon. Her new friend, Yorgos, wasn't wuite sure what to do.

Poolman

Cock-a-doodle-hair-do!

I've got the CUTEST poolman I've ever seen...poolwoman that is.

Catch Up

Hello world!! We are back online. New camera, new software, new laptop....hopefully we're back in business. I will try to catch us up to speed.

These pictures begin in mid-March. I had surgery on my left hand on the 15th and my mom was here to help for a couple of weeks. Thank God! We had a great time with her here and didn't want her to leave. I think Noelle finally understands that Ya-ya doesn't solely exist in the telephone which is where she usually hears her voice. Noelle, Ya-ya and I were in the backyard sharpening our egg hunting skills for the upcoming hunts we were to attend. Noelle took right to it. Now that we have practiced many times and attended 2 official hunts, she is quite the pro. Here's how it goes:

See egg,

gasp or squeal and point (in unison),

run to said egg,

pick up that egg,

toss it to the side only to spot another and repeat.

Glas-mas 2009

Lex-mas 2009

Christmas

Hello blog...long time no see. So it's been a while. In attempt to get caught up I am just going to post the highlights from Christmas and leave it at that. We spent the holidays in Kentucky and had a great time. It was challenging to get there because we got on the road at the beginning of what turned out to be a blizzard. Note to self...never, ever, ever again underestimate the debilitating power of snow!!! Long story short, we left Friday the 18th and didn't arrive in Lexington until Sunday the 20th in desperate need of showers. At one point we were stuck in the car with dog and baby in the same spot on the interstate for 13 hours. Anyway, we finally made it without any help from Santa.

Thanksgiving 2009

Recent Pics

Best Buds

Read to Take the Plunge
Some Light Reading Before Bath Time
Ho, Ho, Ho

My First Turkey

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving 2009

Reindeer Paws

PaPaw

We were sitting at a stop light today next to a red pick-up truck with one of those big covers over the bed. Noelle kept saying, "Hi...hi...hi...hi..." louder and louder each time. I couldn't figure out why. I was telling her that they couldn't hear her and saying hi back to her so she didn't feel completely ignored. Then it dawned on me when she said, plain as day, "PaPaw". I believe she was saying hi to what she deduced must be PaPaw in his big red truck.

Noelle's favorite thing to do for the past couple of weeks has been to place anything into a container or any sort and take it back out again. She places it in the container, steps back and looks for a couple of seconds, and goes back to retrieve it---over and over again. It has sort of envolved into doing the in and out trick a couple of times and then delivering the object to someone and receiving a 'thank you'. This has already proven very helpful when emptying the dishwasher and she hands you one little fork or spoon at a time.

Our camera is currently not uploading at all thus no new pictures.

Dairy Queen

Noelle takes the headband off my head and has learned how to put it on herself.

-Noelle continues to amaze me. A couple of days ago I ask her if she wanted to go color. I could have sworn she answered, "uh-huh," but I wasn't looking at her so I thought, nah, surely not. Then I asked her again and she walked right to the coloring crayon box and touched it with her hand. She has gone from stabbing at the paper with the crayon to actually making continuos lines back and forth.

-We were reading and I showed her a XYLO-phone. She put her fisted hand to her ear as though talking on the TELE-phone.

-She thinks Poppy land Gram live in the computer with a second home inside my phone and says one of their names everytime I open them.

-She likes to name the men in her life. Dada (over and over again), Poppy and Papaw.

-She walks very well on her own now and I think I forgot to mention her dance moves. The child is going to have some seriously developed leg muscles. She bounces to music but her bounces are full on squats. She also twists and shakes her head back and forth.

-She is the friendliest little thing I have ever seen. We make friends everywhere we go. Anyone who frequents Target knows about the dollar bins in the front of the store they use to squeeze one more buck from your pockets. They currently have toy versions of Dairy Queen's frozen treats. Noelle saw a package of one soft serve cone and another dipped in chocolate. She wanted them and I gave them to play with thru the store. She was licking the package top to bottom so I decided we could spare a buck and opened them for her. I didn't think she knew what they were; I just thought she was licking the package because she mouths everything still. On the evening of her birthday we had goone to McDonalds and each got a plain cone of soft serve and sat on the floor to eat it. She loved it. Anyway, she held one in each hand and proceeded to act like she was eating the ice cream. Everyone who passed our cart was offered a lick of the tasty treat. It was pretty funny and I couldn't believe she knew what to do with the ice cream.