Um, yeah…  I’m a total slacker blogging mom.  Sierra’s changed so much in the last two months, it’s almost like she’s a completely different person from the kid she was in June.  I had lots of video clips that I meant to post, but they’re all kind of out of date at this point.  Rather than detail what Sierra was like at 18 months, I’ll mostly try to recap some of what’s been going on since June 6th.

Let’s start with her 18 month well check and stats – at her appointment, she was 21 lbs, 5 oz (10th percentile) and 31 inches (25th percentile).  That’s TINY for a child of mine.  Even yesterday, she only weighed in at 22.2 lb on our bathroom scale.  How’d that 8 lb, 7 oz baby turn into such a peanut?  Though she doesn’t always eat a huge amount in any one sitting, she definitely has a good appetite – like when she starts shrieking that she wants lunch at 10 am.  The doctor pronounced her healthy and fabulous, and again commented that her verbal skills are quite advanced.  She got two shots, in her arms rather than in her legs at my request, since in the past the shots haven’t bothered her as much when given in the arms.  She didn’t even notice the first one – she was way too distracted by getting a bandaid (“Sticker!!!”) – and she cried for maybe 5 seconds after the next one, stopping as soon as she got another Band-Aid (“TWO stickers!!!”).

Shortly after Sierra turned 18 months old, she started really combining words, and now she gives us everything from single words to short phrases (“Baby fall down”) to complete sentences (“Mommy, where did Daddy go?” or “I have a dolly.  Look, Mom!”). The first completely spontaneous sentence that I noticed her saying was “Mommy, I like peppers!”  She also sings whole songs, often at hilariously loud volumes.  Some of her favorites are:

• The Alphabet Song
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• Where is Thumbkin?
• Happy Birthday
• Rain, Rain, Go Away
• The theme song from the show “Weeds” (not that we let her watch that!)

Her articulation has improved greatly, though Lex and I can certainly understand her better than someone who doesn’t know her would.  Much like her big sister, she is pretty shy around people she doesn’t know too well and will clam up.  She’s learning how to count – currently she’s got “One, two, three, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen” down pat – and she can identify several shapes.  Though she can’t consistently identify colors yet, she can match them like a pro, especially with her Melissa and Doug fish puzzle.  Puzzles are a big thing for her, actually.  She adores them!  She also greatly enjoys the Biscuit books, Dora and Diego (and has a few Spanish phrases in her everyday vocabulary, courtesy of those two), and all baby dolls.

Sierra’s love for Anya has grown to near idol worship.  As soon as she hears Anya make any noise in the morning, she begins shouting, “Anya wake up!  Play in Anya room!”  She always wants to share with her big sister, too.  She has these two baby dolls that she likes to take with her when we go out, but she has to take both of them and not just one, because she needs “ONE FOR ANYA!”  She’s always going over to give her hugs and kisses, especially if Anya gets upset or hurts herself.  They play together very nicely for the most part, too, and anything Anya does, Sierra wants to do, too.

What else?  Let’s see.  We are continuing to work on potty training.  Sierra loves to pee both on the toilet and in her diaper equally, but she knows what she’s supposed to do, and will gladly tell anyone else who goes to the toilet that they are a big girl.  She had been resistant to pooping on the toilet for several weeks after having had some success, but in the last few days she’s been doing a much better job – and she loves getting hand stamps and stickers as a reward.  As for sleeping, Sierra is doing beautifully.  After a short bedtime routine, she goes in the crib awake and often puts herself to sleep by singing or talking herself.  Our only big complaint is that we wish she would sleep later .  We can deal with the 6 am wake up call, but when it gets closer to 5 am, it’s rough.  Sierra is still a little imp – climbing on whatever she can, standing on stools and shouting “One, two, three, jump!” (but she doesn’t jump, thankfully), sneaking up to the landing on the stairs and taunting me with, “Mommy… Up so high!” – but she’s also a total sweetheart, showering us with unprompted hugs, kisses, I love yous, pleases, thank yous, and excuse mes all the time.  I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again anyway:  I think we’ll keep her.

Share on Facebook

Ummm, yeah, so I’ve been embarrassingly bad about keeping this blog up-to-date over the last few months.  I swear, I have really good, interesting, not at all made up reasons, like my recent abduction by aliens and when my brief attempt to live an Amish lifestyle.  Okay, okay, can we just say I’ve been so busy enjoying life with the girls that I haven’t been taking the time to write about it?  And will you accept my humble apologies for neglecting you, dear blog?

So many things have happened since I became a lazy blogger, where to begin?  Well (in no particular order), Sierra turned 18 months in June, but that deserves its own post, which I really hope to deliver tomorrow night.  We went on a wonderful trip with my family to the Bahamas in May – Sierra’s first time not in utero.  The girls had a fantastic time at the pool and a mediocre time at the beach; neither was a huge fan of the water there.  Sierra still tells me that she’s going to “the Hamas” if I ask her where she’s going.  Anya finished her first full year of preschool in June and is now greatly enjoying the summer program (and don’t you dare suggest she is going to school, or she will indignantly inform you that’s it’s camp, NOT SCHOOL).  Sierra finally got to try out a class at Gymboree while Anya is at camp this summer, and she could not love it more.  I had my appendix out on April 30th, which kind of ruined my 30th birthday on May 1st, but such is life.  Anya has been having swim lessons with two of her friends.  We found someone who would come to the house to do a small group lesson in our pool.  I don’t think she’ll be swimming by the end of the summer, but she’s way more comfortable with going under the water and getting her face wet, and that’s a huge improvement for her.  We’ve been having tons of fun going to Sesame Place this summer, and had an extra special time going with Lex’s sister, her husband, and their two youngest boys when they came to visit a few weeks ago.  In the same weekend, Lex and I went to a friend’s wedding, leaving the girls without both of us (but with my parents) overnight for the first time ever.  The only time we had both ever been away from Anya was when Sierra was born, and I had never been away from Sierra overnight before this.  I was nervous, but everything went fine.  The only disappointment was that we stayed in a hotel room, completely free of early-rising children, and I only managed to sleep in until 7:45 am.  My body even tried to wake me at 4:30 am and 6:45 am.  Traitor!

There’s been more, of course – so many amazing and funny things happen on a day-to-day basis here – and I’m going to try to do a better job, really!

Share on Facebook

Check out this giveaway for a SodaStream start up kit from Intheknowmom.net:

http://intheknowmom.net/?p=6194

Hey, I won the Ergo, so you never know!

Share on Facebook

Well…..last Sunday, we found out that I am

My tentative due date is March 5, 2011. So far, the only big symptom I’ve been having is fatigue, especially around 2:30 in the afternoon. My first appointment is in a few weeks. We’re very excited, and also kind of terrified of being outnumbered.

Share on Facebook

Check out this awesome contest to win a free organic Ergo carrier:

http://intheknowmom.net/?p=5531

UPDATE (6/5/2010): – I WON!!!!

Share on Facebook

This morning, Sierra discovered that she could combine words or phrases with other words all on her own! She’s been saying “Hi, ____” and “Bye-bye, ______” for a while now, but there were a whole bunch of new ones today, including:

• Anya wash your hands (“wash your hands” is a phrase she often uses)
• Read it strawberry (“read it” is another often used phrase and “strawberry” referred to a book, which she promptly handed to me, with a picture of a strawberry on the spine)

Now I’m kicking myself for waiting until 10:45 pm to write this post because there were a bunch of others and I can’t remember what any of them were.

Share on Facebook

Anya told me on the way to school that she would leave her sunglasses in the car when we got there so they wouldn’t get lost. Agreeing with her, I said, “No, you can’t take sunglasses into school with you.” She then got a little upset and said, “Why do sometimes people tell me ‘no’ when I am right?” After I explained what I meant, she was quickly mollified, and she LOVED when I told her she was very observant – “Just like the man said to Fancy Nancy!”

At Sierra’s baby class, we went outside to play instead of going to the gym. Sierra was climbing on one of the play structures and was about to walk onto the little suspension-style bridge that connected the stairs to the slide. I asked her if she wanted help since it was a little slippery, and she retorted, “No! I’ll do it!” Talk about Miss Independent…

Share on Facebook

Sierra is doing so many new things these days; I’m afraid if I wait until her 18 month birthday update, I’ll forget about them, so here they are, in no particular order:

~Sierra is really talking up a storm and a half, saying tons of short phrases, including:

• Here it is
• I like it
• I don’t know
• Here you go
• Come with me
• I love you
• Read it
• Hear it
• That’s okay
• Fall down
• I did it
• Carry/hold me (sometimes she says “Carry you”)
• Excuse me (after a fart or burp)
• Achoo, bless you (after a sneeze)
• Other side (when nursing)
• Put it away

Also, she’s started combining “Hi” with various names all on her own!  I love when I walk into a room and she greets me with, “Hi, Mommy!”  She made me laugh last Wednesday morning, despite the painfully early hour, because she was looking at a lift-the-flap book in our bed and said to a picture of a dog, “Hi, doggy!”

~Sierra loves to sing and knows the key words to many of her favorite songs.  My current favorite is “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” – she gets the tune perfectly but only sings “Baa baa baa baa” for all of the words.  She refuses to sing it if I try to catch her on video (I’ll ask her and she’ll squeal, “NO!”), but I’m still working on it.

~Following in her sister’s footsteps, Sierra loves books, loves to be read to, and loves to “read” herself.  She has many books that she asks for by name (or by shoving them in my face and shouting “Read it!” while backing herself into my lap).  It’s cute when she sits by herself and calls out the key words.

She does understand that letters and words are related to reading.  When she picks up something with words on it, she’ll point to the words and say, “Eee eeee eeee eeee” as if she’s reading.  More recently she’s decided that everything says “hi” or “baby” – but doesn’t it look impressive in this video?

~Sierra likes to count, too.  She gets the difference between having one and two of something, and now if I say to her, “One, two…” she’ll supply the “three.”

~We’re continuing with very laid back potty training, just following her lead.  Sierra very frequently forces me to get out of bed in the morning because she insists that she has to go to the bathroom, and indeed she does.  She’ll ask sometimes throughout the day, too.  Last week there was one day she went from 9 am until nap time without using her diaper!  She is not particularly interested in pooping on the toilet yet, but no rush.

~Miss Independent goes up and down the stairs completely by herself, albeit slowly at times.  She gets distracted by things like the flowers on the carpet runner or what Anya is doing.

~Sierra can be such a girly girl.  She just LOVES babies and princesses.  The babies can be real, dolls, in books, it doesn’t matter.  They all make her happy.  As for princesses, she has a sweatshirt with Ariel, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty on it that she adores, and she thinks it’s so much fun to wear Anya’s princess dress up clothes.  She’ll shriek, “Pincess, pincess!” while handing me one of the shirts or skirts and she’ll insist, “Wear it!” until I put it on her.  Then she looks in the mirror and tells me, “Pretty.”

~When she’s not being a princess or a mommy-in-training, Sierra wants nothing more than to go outside.  She walks over to the door and begs, “Outside!  Outside! OUTSIDE!” or will get her shoes and try to put them on.  We go on walks/birdie hunts (“Hi birdie!!!”) or play on the swing set.  She loves to “sfing” and this weekend learned how to climb up the ladder to the big slide.  I’m in trouble now!

Share on Facebook

Sierra turned 15 months old on March 6th (That’s 1 and 1/4 years!) and since we are just a few days away from her 16 month birthday, I figured it was time to stop procrastinating and actually write this post. She had her well check on the 9th – 20 lbs, 4 oz and 30 1/2 inches – kind of a peanut! She’s healthy in all respects. The doctor once again commented on both her advanced verbal skills and her rather strong will. The rest of her stats? Size 4 diapers, size 3 shoes, in between 9-12 months and 12-18 months clothes, and 14 teeth.

This child has a lot to say and is rarely quiet at home. When we’re out and about or in a big group, though, she takes a long time to warm up. Her articulation has gotten much better, but you still need to know her to understand her well. She has a huge vocabulary, including many names and a lot of short phrases. Some of my favorites: I don’t know; Hi, birdies; wash your hands; come with me; hahaha, funny; and I love you. She loves music and tries to sing several songs, including “ABC” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider” – and she actually gets a few words and an approximation of the tune. “Two” is a frequent request of hers. She must have two of everything, at least according to her.

Sierra walks very well and climbs on whatever she can. She drags a stool over to Anya’s bed so she can get up there, scootches off, and then climbs up again. I am constantly pulling her off of stools and grabbing her off the stairs. She loves the little rocking chair in Anya’s room!

On the whole, Sierra’s sleep is pretty good, at least compared to how it had been just a few months ago. She can be put down awake, even for most naps, and will go to sleep on her own. The past few days she’s been getting up in the middle of the night, but before that she had been sleeping until between 5 and 5:30 am, coming into our room to nurse, and then going back to sleep with us until Anya wakes up and clomps into our room. Oh, and she’s found a “lovey” at last. Sierra has to sleep with her Spot doll. We have gotten a back up, just in case.

Weirdly enough, aside from just now forming an attachment to a doll, she has taken a recent interest in pacifiers and baby food. The former she wanted to hold in her mouth for several days, but she wasn’t sucking or chewing on them, just clenching them between her teeth. I think they helped ease some of her teething discomfort. She likes the idea of them, still, but is usually done after a few moments. The latter she will now happily eat, but only if given a spoon of her own so she can feed herself while I help. She’s pretty good at it, actually.

Sierra eats quite well much of the time now. She still loves proteins more than anything, but has become quite fond of bananas, broccoli, and of course, peas. At the time of her 15 months appointment, she wasn’t drinking much milk regularly, but she’s improving. She still nurses twice a day.

Wipes are still among Sierra’s favorite play things, but baby dolls are her current obsession. She carries them everywhere, walks them around in strollers, tells me “poop” and wants to change their diapers, feeds them, etc. She has one doll which is actually a My Little Pony unicorn that Anya got for her birthday, and frequently she insists that we take it with us if we’re leaving the house. If I mention getting her shoes, she’ll start to walk towards the garage, and then run back to the playroom with an almost frantic, “Baby! Baby!” Also high up on Sierra’s list of favorites are stickers and books. She’s constantly bringing a book over to me, declaring, “Read it! Sit!” while forcefully climbing into my lap. There are several she prefers and asks for by name.

Babies, wipes, and books are great, but Anya is Sierra’s favorite person in the world. In the morning, Sierra usually asks for Anya first thing, and you can frequently hear her calling, “Anya, Anya!” throughout the day. She often cries when I drop Anya off at school. Sierra loves to copy everything Anya does, and unprompted walks over to her big sister to give her kisses (Sierra is actually really big on giving kisses and saying, “I love you,” and I love it). They giggle, hold hands, and can be so sweet together, at least when they aren’t arguing over a toy, but they generally get along very well and I hope it lasts.

So, here’s a video that is already pretty dated since it’s been a month or more since I filmed these clips, but she’s still cute, so enjoy:

Share on Facebook