15 Months

Miss Catherine is 15 months old! Her 15 month check up went well (besides the three dreaded shots). She's right on target developmentally and is still our tall and thin little girl. 


At 15 months, C...

• weighs 24 lbs (50th percentile)
• is 32.5" long (95th percentile)

• Says dada, mama, dog, ball, duck, no, and mmm (moo)
• Says "weeee" whenever she spins, slides, or plays with a toy with wheels
• Is in love with Elmo and her fuzzy chair

• Dances to music (especially the Elmo's World song)
• Eats most everything, depending on the day, but will (almost) always eat bananas, Babybel cheese, avocado, chicken, brown rice, Cheerios, yogurt, and goldfish crackers. 
• Drinks so. much. milk.
• Is sleeping from 8:00pm-6:30am (most nights) and taking two naps a day
• Has 10 teeth
• Is happiest when outside
• Loves to play ball

• Still loves her fuzzy blanket

• Loves to read (or to be read to), but picks the same two books before bed each night: Goodnight Moon and The Going to Bed Book.
• She also loves The Cow Loves Cookies, Baby Farm Animals, and Love You, Forever.
• Will usually fall asleep to me singing You Are My Sunshine
• Loves to go for rides in her wagon, on Big Daddy's walker, in her toy basket, and on her magic carpet (beach towel), but still hates the car.

• LOVES her Daddy
• Runs everywhere and is into everything
• Loves coloring (and sorting the crayons into stacks)
• Loves to stack and organize things into categories
• Loves Banks

• Loves all animals, but is really into farm animals lately

• Is my funny, silly, curious little girl who is growing up so much every single day.

I've Got the Musik in Me

The first day of Kindermusik was as nerve-racking as the first day of seventh grade. I found myself worrying about wearing the right outfit and dressing C in the right clothes. Would I like the other moms? More importantly, would they like me? I hadn't been doing this mom thing very long and I wanted new mommy friends so badly, I feared my desperation was palpable. I just wanted to be cool - except, you know, in mom form.

I nervously carried my six month old daughter in my arms as I walked through a giant baptist church, praying I wouldn't get lost within its halls. I entered a classroom and found a blanket spread on the floor and plastic egg shaped shakers in the middle. The teacher, Mrs. Jill, greeted me enthusiastically. She wore no shoes. What had I signed us up for?

I was early (a fluke that would never once be repeated) and I sat on the floor, legs crossed, shoes removed, with C perched in my lap, waiting for the other moms to arrive. She seemed as nervous as I was.

The other moms began to pour into the room, babies in tow. They all knew each other already. I was the new kid. (Seriously, it was seventh grade awkwardness all over again). But, they all greeted me and were genuinely nice. I secretly surveyed the group for my potential new mommy BFF. 

Everyone removed their shoes, took a place around the perimeter of the blanket, and gave their child an egg shaker. The children ranged from six months to sixteen months, C being one of the youngest. I helped C hold a shaker in her tiny little hand and gently bounced her up and down in my lap as we sang a "hello" song. The song greets each child by name and I watched C light up as this new circle of strangers addressed her. Maybe this was a good idea after all.

Mrs. Jill reminded us that in Kindermusik, we leave our dignity at the door. I wasn't sure what this entailed. Then, shortly after this announcement, we were singing and square dancing around the room, babies on hips, weaving in and out of one another in a do si do. It was ridiculous. It was silly. It was loud. And Catherine loved it. 

The rest of the class was filled with ringing bells, beating on drums, and even a few minutes of quiet time. I was amazed at how much stimulation (and physical exertion) was squeezed into the 45 minute class. We ended the class the same as we began, addressing each child by name. I had been pleasantly surprised by how much fun the class had been for both of us. But, I still needed to make friends. I was desperate to bond with other mothers. So, I started to join in the conversation as we all changed diapers, put shoes back on, and gathered our things.

Still painfully apprehensive about revealing C's hemangioma to new people, I adjusted her headband with a nervous frequency; but, once it revealed itself, and I regurgitated my usual spiel, I was met with nothing but positive and uplifting responses. Not a single person asked me what was wrong or if I had hit her head on something. No one even reacted much at all. It was at that moment that I realized we had found a new home. I may not have made an instant MBFF my very first class, but I had met a room full of genuine, accepting, and equally exhausted women, all carrying their own load of motherhood baggage. 

We eagerly came back the next week...and the week after that... and the week after that... until it became the one constant each week. It was the one activity we didn't dare miss. I watched C grow up in this class. She started only barely sitting up on her own and we ended this past semester with her running around the room. She began with no friends and finished the year with a room full of friendly faces. I watched her learn to clap and to go and to stop. I watched her beat on a drum and shake a bell for the first time. I watched her light up with pure joy from the moment we stepped into the room and they sang her name. And, yes, I even picked up a few friends along the way. We sadly break for summer, but we will eagerly return in the fall to a new class, with some familiar faces and some new.

This time, we'll go without reservation, kick off our shoes, and gladly check our dignity at the door.

Bubbles

Time spent with a toddler will quickly remind you of the finer things in life...

Like blowing bubbles.

Chicken Soup with Rice

In May I think it truly best
to be a robin lightly dressed
concocting soup inside my nest
Mix it once, mix it twice,
mix that Chicken soup with rice.
-Maurice Sendak

A Day in the Life

Today was a good day. It was filled with a morning of coloring and a make believe tea party, lunch and an escalator ride with Daddy, a carousel ride followed by MORE escalator rides, another dance recital, a bubble bath and a bed time story filled with snuggles and giggles. Strike that. It was a great day.

On Housekeeping

Played on the kitchen floor with C this morning.

Realized how dirty my kitchen was from that level.

Spent her morning nap time scrubbing my floors, baseboards, and chair legs.

Tiny Dancer

I grew up dancing, but my "career" ended as soon as I graduated high school. I always loved it, but I lacked the passion and am cursed with the knees of a grandma.

My little sister, however, has always been a driven dancer. Instead of continuing with the studio in which we had grown up in Montgomery, my parents started driving her at least twice a week to Birmingham to dance with a top studio. She basically started over. She relearned how to turn, how to leap, the basics of technique. But, what she really discovered was a passion for the art of dance in an environment of challenging teachers who groomed her into the dancer she was meant to be.

Fast forward ten years later and she is sharing her passion with students every day. She made a career of doing what she loves. How many people actually get to do that?

I've always been proud of her. How could I not be? But, tonight, I watched her studio's dance recital and was able to see all of her hard work poured onto the stage. I loved watching the excitement on her students' faces. I loved watching her choreography come alive. I loved watching her solo, the first one I'd seen in a couple years. But, I really loved sharing the experience with my daughter for the very first time. 

I already planned to put C in dance classes as soon as possible. I knew she would love taking class from Aunt Mallory. I put her in a pink tutu on a weekly basis. But, tonight, I watched her light up as she watched live dance performances for the first time. She literally danced in my lap. She clapped her hands. She swayed back and forth. She bounced up and down. And sometimes, she just sat in awe of all that was before her. I couldn't be happier to share a family love of dance with the next generation; and I couldn't ask for a better role model for my tiny dancer than her Aunt Mallory. She'll be on that stage before we know it!

A Mother's Mommy

You know how sometimes, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror at a certain angle or you start dancing in the car to your favorite new song or you catch yourself saying things like, "nothing good happens after midnight" and you think, I am officially my mother. 


Luckily, I can't think of a better person to see in my reflection. 


I may look like my dad, but there is no doubt that I am my mother's daughter. We are so very similar from the way we make to do lists with things already done on them (just so we can cross them off) to the way we cry uncontrollably during a Publix Mother's Day commercial. 


The simple similarities make me stand back and laugh a little at times, realizing that the older I get, the more and more I act just like her. Whether it's spending 10 minutes making a bow for a present or rearranging the living room by myself at 11:00 pm because I just had a feeling it could look better. But it is the greater moments that I have experienced these past fourteen months, that make me realize that everything I am as a mother, I learned from her. 


Whether she realizes it or not, all those years she was lovingly raising me from lullabies and bubble baths to dance recitals and boyfriends, she was teaching me how to be a mom. I often find myself singing the same songs she sung to me as a child and reading the same books with the same inflections. As I read I'll Love You Forever to C before bed, I am five years old again in a room decorated in stenciled sheep, leaning on Mom's shoulder. When I sing My Favorite Things at bath time, I am six years old, in a pink and blue tiled bathroom, having my long curly hair rinsed clean with a plastic cup as I tell Mom all about my day. When I serve my family dinner and sit down to join them, I feel the same warmth and fullness that was felt at our family dinner table over something as simple and delicious as Chicken Divan.


It's easy to overlook the subtleties and the mundane of each passing day, to let them pass by without paying them a bit of attention. But, it is the mundane moments that will shape my daughter into the mother she will hopefully become one day. Something as seemingly insignificant as our car conversations and sing-a-longs will one day be something she shares with her children. The way I brush her hair and snuggle her in my lap as we read a book before bed, will be the way she does it.


How do I know these things? Because I learned them all from my mommy.


It is nearly impossible to thank someone for a lesson as great as motherhood; but today, on my second Mother's Day, I am thankful for the woman who taught me everything I know and who is an even better grandmother than she is a mother. Thank you for always being there to sing, to love, and to listen. These were the greatest gifts you could ever give me.


Happy Mother's Day!

Sick Day

The past two mornings, I have started my day covered in C's vomit (after reflexively catching it in my hand --- what is with that involuntary mom refelx?!) Hello, stomach virus.

In 14 months, this is the first case of the stomach virus to hit our house. I would be completely okay if it stayed away for a while. It has been so sad. She loves milk, but has thrown it back up every single time I've given it to her. She ate absolutely nothing yesterday besides a popsicle.

Today, I got her to eat a little JELLO, a few Cheerios, and to drink a lot of juice/water mixed with pedialyte. But, she hasn't thrown up again since this morning! 

I am hoping so much that tomorrow morning doesn't mirror the past two.

We stayed in town instead of going to the lake house to celebrate Mother's Day weekend with my family. I hated so much to change plans, but I just couldn't put a sick baby in a rear facing carseat for two hours.

So we spent our day watching Sesame Street on Netflix, coloring, reading books, and snuggling. I hate so much that I have a sick baby girl, but I have enjoyed getting to spend some time getting sweet snuggles. 

Here's to tomorrow...

The View From Here

Sometimes I find it difficult to recognize the view before me. I watch her every day. We play games. We go on outings and adventures. We learn together. My view is the same every day. Everywhere I look, she is there.

But sometimes, like today, I don't recognize what I see. Sometimes, I look at my baby and she is trying to put socks and shoes on her feet because she knows that is where they go. She is sorting her toys into categories... correctly. She is pretend drinking from pretend tea cups. She is placing a bow on her head and putting the top on her sippy cup. She is putting dirty clothes into the hamper and trash into the trash can. She is brushing her hair and her teeth after her bath.

When did she learn all of these things?

It's funny, really, to think of such simple tasks in the eyes of a child. With each new task she learns, she lights up with excitement. Her eyes widen and she flashes her seven toothed smile because she has never been prouder.

I hope she knows, neither have I.

Preach It

Baby's 2nd Easter

I realize I missed the boat on this post being in any way timely, but I had to share some snapshots of my precious girl on Easter Sunday.

Last year, she was a teeny tiny 2 month old. We attempted church, but I spent most of it rocking her in the lobby.

Oh, the changes a year will bring.

This year, we opted to skip church all together. Maybe next year. Instead, we spent a relaxing weekend at the lake house with family and watched C hunt for plastic Easter eggs for the very first time. She was adorable.

She was greeted on Easter morning by a new Elmo (wearing bunny ears), some books, and some Beanie Baby bunnies. But, her favorite part was the pink Easter grass.

Then, we "hunted" Easter eggs. Instead of candy, we filled her eggs with some of her favorite treats - Cheerios, goldfish, and Babybel cheese! There were two special eggs that had new finger puppets in them. It really is so much fun to watch her experience things for the first time. She spent the rest of the day opening and closing eggs, putting them into her basket and taking them back out, and carrying her basket all over the place. So much fun! Thanks to my Dad, the whole day was well documented.

Happy Easter :)

14 Months Old!

I'm a bit behind these days, mostly because we stay busy running around and playing all day long. C turned 14 months old on the 23rd. Not that I feel the need to elaborately celebrate each month birthday, but we needed an activity. These days, we are antsy if we can't play outside and it was unseasonably cool (that one day) as well as crazy windy.

So we went shoe shopping with Aunt Mallory (where C threw multiple shoes into a nearby trashcan) and then got ice cream. Not a bad day at all!

Check out her sassy new bangs!

It amazes me each month how much she changes. She really is a tiny little person now, personality, moodiness, and all. She has opinions. She understands directions. She chooses to ignore the word "no." 

She walks runs all over the place. She is independent. She takes my hand when she wants to and pushes it away when she doesn't. 

She dances to music. She makes music with bells, shakers, and drums. She bangs on tupperware and pots and pans. 


She loves to chase me and to sneak up to Daddy and Banks. (If you say the word "sneaky," she tip toes and giggles).


She still loves her fuzzy blanket more than anything. We left it at my parents' house last weekend and they had to overnight it to us. It was a big deal.


She is a pretty good eater most of the time, but chooses to survive solely on milk, cheese, goldfish crackers, and Cheerios some days, and that's okay too.


She loves Beanie Babies. She puts them into her Easter basket or a bag or a box, carries them around, and takes them back out. It's a good thing we saved all of ours! Unfortunately, we completely devalued them by removing the original tags. There goes her college fund...


She loves a ball. She throws it. She kicks it. She sits with it in her chair. Any ball will do, but her favorite is a little soccer ball she got for her birthday.

She knows no boundaries. She will attempt to climb over any barricade, puts her leg through the baby gate, jumps out of her chair. She also falls a lot. These go hand in hand.


Banks is her best friend (and depending on what she is eating, she is his). She sits on his bed, lounges on him, pets him with play silverware, feeds him some of everything she is eating, and chases him around all day gently placing things on his back (wash cloths, socks, toys). 

She loves Kindermusik. She lights up in class and repeats what she learns all week long. Her favorite thing to do is ride around the room on a beach towel, singing songs while I pull.  We will miss it so much this summer.


She talks constantly, though not much is English. She says "doggie," "daddy," "momma" (working on "mommy"), "uh oh," and "weeeeee." She says "weeeee" all day long, especially when she's having fun. Instead of "vroom," she says "weeeee" when playing with cars or anything with wheels. She says it with arms raised as I pull her in the wagon. It is, by far, my favorite sound in the world.


She is everything I hoped for and so much more. I wake up to her smile each morning and rock her to sleep with giggles each night. I am thankful every day I get to be her mom.


Fourteen months old and growing, and I've got a ringside seat. I am utterly in love with this sweet, kind, funny little girl.