Eden Recap: months 13-16 of life; months 6-9 home

Time for another catch-up post all about Eden!  

Physical/Medical
You’re a long and lean 19 ½ pounds and 31 ½ inches tall.  You have definitely sprouted some long legs that any woman would LOVE to have!  You have a total of 7 teeth now (you added 1 to the bottom) and you are cutting 2 more on the top. Your top 2 front teeth are growing in at different speeds, so we say that you’re the only kid who is cute enough to pull off the snaggletooth look. Heehee!

Temperament

You are such a happy little girl!  You love people, but you also love playing independently.  You are very smart—you love books and you have a very long attention span when you’re working on something like a puzzle or a game. 

Development

During this stage, you really became interested in pushing buttons, flipping switches, opening and closing doors, and putting things inside other things (like trash cans!).  You’ve become quite the helper!  It’s fun to watch you learn on/off and open/close…but we have to watch out for things disappearing into the trash!  

Like a lot of kiddos, you’ve also become very interested in electronics!  Touch-screen phones / tablets are definitely your favorite, but you also love remote controls.  Turns out you know exactly what you’re doing with those things, too!  Crazy!

You started walking in full effect at Thanksgiving (during your 14^th month).  Like most babies, you resembled a wobbly newborn foal when you first started, but once you found your balance, you were off and moving!  

You love going up the stairs, but haven’t quite mastered going down, so we still keep the baby gates up.  You can easily navigate smaller steps (out the door, off the deck, etc.) and it’s fun to see your independence and drive!  You’re a total trooper, so when you fall down you just get right back up and keep going.  The only exception to that (i.e., when you cry) is if you truly hurt yourself—which isn’t very often. 

Stepping up…

Stepping down…

Taking off…

Communication

You are quite the chatterbox these days!  We are just dying to know what you’re talking about, but we enjoy having conversations with you nonetheless.  Some of your most common words/phrases are “mama,” “daddy” (pronounced “dah-dee” with emphasis on the “dee”), “uh-oh” (pronounced breathy like “huh-hoh”), and “go go go” (usually said at the TV during a football game or to the dogs when they are in your way).  Your other chatter is in a language we can’t interpret yet (heehee!).  It’s so stinkin’ cute to hear you talk, though!

You sign a few things to us regarding food.  You ask “please” (by rubbing your tummy—close enough!) when you want a snack, you tell us you’re “all done” (both hands waving in the air) when you’re finished with a meal, and we’re still working on “thank you” (it looks a lot like blowing a kiss, so you get kind of confused by it). 

You wave to people a lot (hi and bye).  You know the motion for “touchdown!”  You give people “fives” if they ask.  You still love to make sounds with your mouth…clicking with your tongue, motorboat with your lips, etc.  And you still love to clap your hands!

Food

You are quite the snacker!  Just like your mama, you need a morning snack and an afternoon snack.  Favorite snacks include goldfish, fig newtons, pretzels, animal crackers, cheese, and mini-marshmallows.  Although you’re not picky, some of your favorite foods include cheese ravioli or tortellini, edamame (soybeans), waffle fries (from Chick-fil-A), and any kind of fruit (blackberries and mandarin oranges are your current favorite fruits).

You drink everything from a straw now.  You drink whole milk in the morning, water throughout the day (mommy’s water bottle is a favorite for that!), then diluted orange juice (or what we call H2Orange) at dinner.  Daddy makes smoothies frequently (just fruit and juice) and you LOVE those! 

Sharing your snacks with the dogs…caught in the act!

Sleep

You sleep about 12 hours at night, with a 2-3 hour nap right after lunch every day.  You go down very easily—one of us will just hold you with your head on our shoulder and hum/sing for about 30 seconds, then we lay you on your tummy in your crib and quickly close the door to your room.  You take about 5-10 minutes (sometimes a bit longer) to get settled, but then you fall asleep.  It’s fun for us to watch you “get settled” via the video monitor.  You’ll gather all of your blankets (and sometimes your little pillow) and bury your head in them with your little booty up in the air, you’ll toss and turn until your “nest” is just right, then you fall asleep.  You usually fall asleep on your side on top of all of your blankets, so we’ll cover you up before we go to bed.

Current “Loves”

You are quite an adrenaline junkie!  You LOVE spinning, jumping, swinging, climbing, and anything going fast.  It’s fun to watch and listen to you squeal with delight!  It makes your mama kind of nervous, but daddy loves it!  

Climbing on the table at Debra’s house…

You LOVE upbeat music on tv or movies (Sid the Science Kid, Veggie Tales Princess and the Pop Star, I’ve Got a Dream from Tangled, etc.).  You stand in the middle of the living room and dance, twirl, clap, and sing to the music.  Very cute!

You absolutely LOVE being outside!  Thankfully we live in a climate where you can spend plenty of time in the great outdoors.  It is definitely part of your daily routine to play in the yard—you explore, play with the dogs, walk around with your arms up and chatting about who-knows-what.  It is seriously too cute!

You LOVE your stuffed animals and your baby doll.  It’s so sweet for us to watch you give them hugs and kisses without our prodding.  Hopefully you’ve picked that up from being in such a loving family.

Tucking Pooh in...

Giving Pooh a hug...

You LOVE for your Daddy to “get” you.  You will go into another room and call for him.  When he comes to “get” you, you will squeal and dive into a pillow (or one of the dog beds on the floor) and wait for him to tickle you.

You LOVE all things Elmo.  Because of generous family members, you now have an Elmo chair, Elmo slippers, and an Elmo remote control.  If we pass by the Elmo toys at Target, you just have to stop and play with them (luckily you don’t throw a fit when we don’t purchase them!).

You still LOVE to play inside the dog kennels.  You take a toy or a snack into one of the kennels and pull the door closed.  Too funny!

With your baby doll…

With a snack (banana)…

You’ve only been sick a couple of times, but you LOVE taking medicine from a medicine dropper.  It certainly makes it easy for us to administer the medication, but it’s kind of quirky that you love the dropper so much!

You LOVE books!  You will bring us a book, turn around to sit in our lap, and wait for the story to begin!  You have certain go-to books: The Little Red Hen (you love the repetition and rhyming in it), The Jolly Barnyard (you love seeing all of the animals and waiting for us to make the animal noises), The Baby Animal Sounds book (you love to push the button that corresponds with the animal on the page).

You LOVE the movie Tangled.  You get very involved in the movie and will dance and sing along with the songs, clap when good things happen, etc.  It’s a bit of an obsession, really. J

You still LOVE your pacifier. We now only make it available to you during nap time, night time, or car seat time, and you don’t seem to mind that it’s not always there.  Maybe that means it won’t be too hard to wean you from it completely one day…

You absolutely LOVE your grandparents!  You get to see Grandma every Thursday evening while mommy and daddy go to small group.  And you get to see Grandpa most every week as well.  Nina lives further away, but you love talking to her on the phone and seeing her when she comes to visit. 

Some Firsts

You had some “firsts” during this time of your life…

First Halloween:

First Thanksgiving:

First Christmas as a Huss:

First family wedding (your Uncle Josh married Aunt Katy):

First Texans home game (and playing on the field after the game):

We love you, sweet girl (our “little bird” or “little lovie”)!  You bring so much JOY to our lives!