A few cute pictures

Some pictures to share:

Painting


Currently, she loves to put socks on her hands - even better if she's just pulled them off her feet!


She also loves going for rides in the laundry basket with all her books piled in with her.


Eating with a spoon is much less messy than it used to be - not that you can tell from this picture! (Her fork skills are pretty good too.)


Using her rocking chair.

Ov ooo

I know I need to put pictures up and I am a total blog slacker, but still, I had to share this.

This morning, Aidan was hugging my leg and I was hugging her back and said, "I love you." Aidan said back, "Ov ooo."

Pretty cool, huh?

She's doing a lot of mimicking sounds/words lately. It is so darn cute. And Christianne has been working with her on animal sounds. She knows lion, dog, sheep, and cat. You should hear her roar. Too cute.

Back to work, but I had to share.

I'm a big girl now!

Aidan has decided that she is now a big girl and I wanted to share some recent examples of her big girl endeavors.

• She is occasionally using 2-3 word phrases such as "I go now" and "I want that."
• She is developing definite opinions about articles of clothing she wants to wear and voicing those opinions strongly.
• Yesterday, she climbed up into a chair at the table, reached for a napkin, put it in her lap, and ate her cheese sitting at the table (with one attempt to run off with a handful of cheese).
• She is eating with a fork and prefers her food in a bowl rather than on her tray.
• She can climb into the car and into her carseat by herself.
• She is beginning to pretend using objects in novel ways (e.g.,pretending the remote is a phone).

I'm sure there are some other things, but those are the highlights. Oh, and she's learning to put things away after she gets them out (with direction from me, but she knows where things go) and likes to help put laundry in the dryer and take it out again. It is amazing to see her just take off developmentally. She really is her own person! And (most of the time) quite delightful!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! Christmas cards will be late this year, as is everything in our lives. However, here are a few cute pictures of our little girl to make up for it until you get the cute picture card in the mail. She is doing well, except for getting splinters in her fingers at the park today that I had to try to dig out (unsuccessfully) with a needle tonight. I hope they don't get infected. But she's ready for santa to show up! Our love to you all.

15 month stats

Here are Aidan's 15 month stats (from memory):

Height: 31 3/4 inches (85-90%-tile)

Weight: 23.15 pounds (70%-tile)

Head: 18 inches around (48%-tile)

She got a clean bill of health from the doctor, had two shots, and a finger stick blood draw to check her iron levels and make sure she's not anemic any more. She screamed and cried through most of the appointment, which the doctor said was totally developmentally appropriate. He said by 2 years, it usually stops. Hooray! Developmentally, she's way ahead of her expected milestones, particularly in the areas of gross and fine motor skills. He said being so far ahead was the sign of a talented and gifted child. Christianne said, "I bet you tell all the parents that." Dr. Denison said, "No, I don't." However she turns out, she's perfect to us, but it is nice to have the doctor confirm our thoughts that Aidan's awfully smart.

Last night, Aidan asked to be picked up while we were in the kitchen. She pointed to the sweet potato on the counter and said "Uhh...Iwan" (translation: "Hey! I want!" I tried to put her down so I could cook the sweet potato, since eating it raw seems like a bad idea. She wouldn't let me put her down, so I explained to her that I understood that she wanted the sweet potato and that I had to cook it so she could eat it and in order to do that, I had to put her down because I couldn't hold her and cook the potato at the same time. I then asked her if I could put her down so I could cook her potato. She nodded her head and released her legs from the death-grip she had on my hip and I cooked her sweet potato and she ate a ton of it.

Scary, no?

The reasoning trick did not work for enticing her to wear her warmer coat this morning, she insisted on her favorite one, but I'm hopeful I might be able to reason with her again in the near future.

That's it for now. More pictures later!

Aidan's creative side and more

Here are some more pictures of our little girl. She has been exploring her artistic side with fingerpaints and play dough (homemade, no less!) as well as her scientific side at the Museum of Science and Nature. She's also been exploring her wild side by running through the house naked. And her nurturing side by obsessively feeding the outdoor kitties at least 4 times a day. It is very cute: she puts food in their bowl and then crouches down to look for the kitties under the cars. She also needs to go outside for some bubble blowing action on a regular basis. So much so, she can now say "bubbles!" And she's all about climbing into chairs and reading her books. She's babbling up a storm and learning to copy the rhythm of our words if not the actual letter sounds. She has her 18 month check-up in about a week and a half, but when she stood on the scale the other day, she weighed in at 24.8 pounds. Such a big girl!

A few cute pictures

Just a few pictures to share because they are cute.