30 months!

So again, time has flown right by me and turned my baby into a 2 1/2 year old! I’ve been meaning to write this post for about a month now. So most of the things that I remember are kinda old news, but I still want to write them down so I can remember later.

Presley says some of the funniest things. If a stranger says Hi to her, she will say “I’m being shy right now” and then bury her head. And she’ll say “Mommy, you ok?” if she hears a loud noise around where I am…like if I’m doing the dishes in the kitchen and she’s playing in the living room. “Be cool” is her saying be careful, but it’s so funny to hear “be cool, Mommy, be cool!” She knows that P is her letter and can recognize it in any word and can almost write it. She can draw a smiley face and can count to 10, but always skips the number 4! And she knows that she’s a girl and can differentiate between girls and boys….like Daddy’s a boy, Mommy’s a girl, that sort of thing.

This one is an old picture, but I just couldn’t resist putting it up! It’s so funny!

On TV, Max & Ruby (Maa Ruey) is one of her favorites…that show is so boring, ugh I can hardly watch it! Peppa Pig is her very favorite right now. (remember her Halloween costume?) She rarely asks for Yo Gabba Gabba anymore. Which is ok, because we were burnt out on that show! She’s starting to get into The Backyardigans and Blue’s Clues. She also LOVES Elmo’s World, not Sesame Street, just the Elmo’s World part! Hopefully Santa can find her some Elmo’s World DVDs!!

Presley loves to draw and color. And she’s really starting to get into imaginative play. It’s a fun age! She loves to throw/catch a ball, play with her dollhouse, and play with baby dolls. She also loves to play with our phones and the ipad. She calls it a heating pad! Ha!

She weighs 26 pounds now. We know that from her having her first ear infection last month and us going to the doctor. She wears 2t in pants, 2t-3t in shirts, and a 7 in shoes. The 7’s are still kinda big, but with socks, they work. Presley is still in a size 4 diaper. It’s because she wears the Target brand and they run a little big.

This was a metal bug that Jeremiah’s dad made. It’s pretty cool, but Presley was a little unsure of it!

Well, hopefully I can update again before she turns 3…who knows, that happens in only 6 short months! Aahhhh!

a walkin’ punkin’

We went on our first walk with Presley out of a stroller a few weekends ago. We have this great walking trail right by our house that leads to a creek one way and to a park the other way. I don’t know why we don’t use it more often!

Anyway, Presley wanted us to carry her at first. She said that the cars would come run her over and she would have a boo boo. Poor thing, I guess the trail resembles a road because it’s paved! After a lot of promising that we wouldn’t let a car run her over, she decided she could walk. She was pretty brave looking out over the rail at the water.

 

Then of course, she couldn’t walk home because her shoes were hurting her feet. Presley had decided earlier that she wasn’t going to wear socks with these new shoes. She won both times….not having to wear the socks and not having to walk home! ;)

more phone pics

Here are some more pictures from my phone. Some of them are a few weeks old...oh well, better late than never I guess!

Presley has been so into "drawin" as she calls it! She loves to color with crayons, markers or chalk. She likes for you to draw choo-choo trains and happy/sad faces. If you draw a smiley face, she'll say "he sad" for you to erase the smile and make it a frown. Then she'll say "he happy now" for you to put the smile back on it. It's cute but it gets a little exhausting after a while!

This was on the way home from church. She was getting fussy, so I climbed into the backseat and played paparazzi! :) She looks like such a little diva here.

One night at my parents' house, Presley decided to get all decked out in a nurse's scrub top, a pink hat and a sequined pink purse! She has been getting into dress up stuff lately. I foresee Christmas presents of the like.

P helping her daddy play the bass and Kole twirling a drum. They made a great little trio! :)

mid-month sayings

I think if I wait any longer to write these things down, I will forget them! So at 22 1/2 months Presley is doing the following~

Presley is saying "I'd soddy" when she does something wrong. It's really sweet. However now she thinks that gives her freedom to hit someone then say I'm sorry. Ummm....it definitely doesn't work that way! Sometimes she'll just randomly say "I'd soddy Mommy" when we are playing with toys. Hmmm, maybe she just thinks it's another word? Oh well, it's a start.

Presley also says "thank Mommy" or "thank Daddy" for thank you.

She says "awwee" for cute things. When I put her hair up, she wants to look at it in the mirror and then says "awwee!" and smiles. It is so adorable! She also says it when looking at babies or hugging some of her stuffed animals.

Yo Gabba Gabba is her favorite TV show and they always have a band come on and sing a song. When the band is done, they say 'listening to music is awesome!' Presley says "ausome" with them. And she randomly say "ausome" at different times of the day! Ha ha!

Presley says "skew me" for excuse me. Again she'll just barrel over you and then look back and say it. This age is a work in progress! :)

Oh no! It has begun!

WHY? WHY? WHY?

That's pretty much all I have heard this morning! Every time I say something to Presley, it's the response I get. I honestly was not prepared to hear this dreaded question this early....she's not even 2 yet! For the past few days she has said it off and on, but this morning, the Why has been full blown!

I don't think I'm ready for her to grow up!

22 months!

Presley is 22 months old! I can hardly believe it! Just in the past 2 weeks it seems like she is more grown up than ever. She can completely tell you what she is thinking about in full sentences. It's crazy, I tell you!

Her favorite things right now are blowing bubbles in her milk, looking at a picture after I've taken one on my camera (she says "I see" immediately afterward and won't stop until I let her see it), being thrown up in the air, 'flying' on our feet, and taking showers. The shower thing kinda surprised me. She just recently started liked it, I guess it's just getting older and used to water being in her face. But it is much easier than giving her a bath and she still gets to play with her toys so it's a win-win for everyone!

Presley puckers up for a kiss now! It's incredibly adorable! =) I don't know where she picked this up from because Jeremiah and I certainly don't go around kissing each other like this. But regardless, when you ask for a kiss and you see those lips headed for you, you kinda melt!

She still loves reading books. Her favorites right now are I Already Know I Love You and I Love You, Stinky Face. The first one has a baby on a couple of pages and she loves that. She is quite obsessed with babies at the moment. I'm sure it's because she is more aware of them now. It's funny because she even calls toddlers her own age and preschool aged kids...babies! & If Presley sees any picture of a moon in a book or on TV, she starts signing "I see the moon and the moon sees me". Actually she does it when she sees the real moon too. It's pretty cute!

We've started introducing nice manners. Before you get all "she's not even 2 yet, give me a break" on me, let me explain. We are not sticklers for this yet. But there will come a day when Presley needs to be courteous and it is a lot easier if you've just done it from the beginning, believe me. I've been around my nephews and niece from their beginnings and I've seen the way my mom has raised them with this motto and they are all so well mannered. It's such a refreshing change! Of course they aren't perfect, no one is, but for the most part, they say nice things back to you. {GREAT job Mama!} We've always said thank you back to Presley when she gives us something. But now we are incorporating please, and sir and ma'am. She has picked up on the please quite well and says "peas" sometimes without us telling her too. And she says sir or ma'am after we say it to her and it's so sweet!

Presley can now climb on the coffee table, couch and dinning room chairs by herself! Yay! Mommy will be headed for a heart attack in no time!

And finally she calls every bug or even anything that resembles a bug, a bee. She'll say "shooo bee" and wave her hands around. Or she'll say "blah bee" if she sees a dead bug.

The cereal pictures are included because today was the first day Presley ate real cereal. And by that I mean in a bowl with actual milk in it! And the whale outfit is a recent purchase from Carter's and was just too cute to not include! :)

sharing a snack

Presley was eating some goldfish yesterday and decided to share them with one of her toys! She calls all of the Mickey Mouse characters "mimi"!

Sunday pictures

Presley loves to put on chapstick! It's hilarious that she pokes out her little lips in the perfect shape to put some on. She finds it so entertaining to go through my makeup drawer and pull out brushes and paint her face with them! I think we are in trouble if this is any indication of the future! Ha ha! :)

She looks kinda sad in this picture, but her dress is just so cute in it, I couldn't resist posting. We all know how I LOVE birds and owls, especially on clothing! :)

20 months!

Presley just keeps growing like a little weed! I can't believe that just 20 short months ago we brought her home from the hospital as a little bundle of sweetness! And now, we can't contain her! She is in constant motion...I wish I had a fourth of the energy that is in that little body! Presley is very headstrong and it gets her into trouble most days! Poor thing she gets it honestly! I just hope she learns how to redirect it for her good!
Presley is still in 18-24 month clothes and in a size 5 shoe. Most people comment how petite she is. But I think she's been growing through a growth spurt for the last week or so. She has been eating everything in sight! She'll eat all of her food, sometimes even second helpings, then a short time later, she will want a snack. It's like I'm raising a boy! ;)
My favorite new Presley words are: all bebber (all better), yaya (light-I have no idea about this one!), boo (fruit- again why that?), wow, whoa, aw man (this one is hilarious because she says it in perfect context!). Presley is now saying 2 word phrases now. The other night she said "more shiken" when she wanted more chicken. Yay! I'm excited for this new communication!
And probably one of the most precious things Presley does right now is pray. We always pray before we eat and she'll bow her head with her hands together and then at the end she will say "amen". But now she does it on her own. She will bow her head and mumble and then lift her head and say "amen"! =) PRECIOUS, I tell you!

Oh, I almost forgot....teeth! Presley has 10 teeth now. You may be thinking, big deal! But it has taken us forever to get a mouth full!

19 months!

Presley at 19 months. Where do I even begin? It seems like this month she has grown leaps and bounds and definitely had a language explosion! I am desperately hoping that with this better communication comes a better behaved toddler! Ha ha! I can hear all of you laughing at me as I type this. Just let me dream please!

Ok, on to the THE PRESLEY LIST...
~in addition to main body parts, she can now find eyebrows, eyelashes, knee, elbow, chin, & neck
~this girl sings all. the. time. what's even cuter is that she'll go in the middle of the floor and sway in circles and sing! it just melts my heart! :)
~can wink now! although it mainly consists of scrunching up her nose and closing her eyes a little bit, it's still cute!
~if we have a drink with a straw, that's what Presley has to have too. she still drinks out of a sippy cup but only if no straw is in sight!
~if you are playing with her, say tickling her and she wants you to stop, she starts shaking her head and says "all done"
~Presley says a ton of new things since last month, but these are a few of my favorites. "owaa' for owl, "jush" for juice, "thao" for thank you (don't ask why this changed...she used to say it more clearly), "baaw" for bow, & "paba" for pasta.

Most days Presley is a good eater and some days it's like she doesn't eat anything! 99% of the time she refuses veggies. & when I say refuse I mean 'does anything necessary to not swallow them'. Like spitting them out at me if I try to hid them in applesauce. Hey, it used to work! Well, I still refuse to be outsmarted by a toddler! HA! So I bought some fruity V8 juice and started giving that at snack time instead of just apple juice. Score 1 for mommy! Because she totally sucks it down! (I can't claim the V8 idea as mine, Karri thought of it!) I'm sure that most nutritionists would frown upon giving your kid a sugary drink as a substitute for vegetables, but you know what? These toddler years are tough, and you do what you gotta do!

Everything else is pretty much still the same...sleeping, napping, clothing size, etc. I'm starting to toy around with the idea of moving Presley into a big girl bed. I'm just not sure I can handle her being un-caged just yet! & the age-old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind! =)

18 months!

How is my BABY one and a half years old? Ahhh! I can't believe that I will be planning her second birthday party soon. Speaking of that, I probably really do need to start thinking of ideas because it will be here before I can turn around good!


So here is what Presley has been up to lately~
- says "ump" and raises her hands when she wants you to pick her up.
- can point to a ladybug, butterfly, fish, and sea horse when you ask her to find them in her animal book
- brushes her hair out of her face when she needs to see! it is hilarious to watch! I tell her that she wouldn't have to do that if she would just leave her clips or bows in her hair! ;)
- has seven teeth now! 4 on top and 3 on the bottom...more have to be coming in because she holds her mouth and cries out daily. It's really sad! :(
- LOVES the book I'm as Quick as a Cricket....seriously it gets read about 10 times a day now
- can say mama, dada, nana, pawpaw, meemaw, pappaw, & mammaw to the appropriate people. funny how the last 4 all sound similar! that's probably why she can say them all! HA!
- says "moorrah" and signs it when she wants more food.

Presley has become quite the little jokester! She has started this thing when in her highchair, she'll hid her napkin behind her head and raise her hands up like asking "where did it go?". Then she'll pull it out and say "ta da"!!! Ha ha! It's so cute! We videoed it the other day and I need to put it on here so y'all can see it first hand!

We celebrated Presley's month day today by giving her a PB&J sandwich for the first time! It was actually her first time ever having peanut butter! I thought she would just love it and devour it. But she only ate 1/2 of the sandwich. She normally eats all of a sandwich. Oh well, maybe it will be an acquired taste for her.

Presley.....Daddy & I love you so much! You are the light of our lives. We honestly can't remember our life before you! :) Even with all of your toddler tantrums, you are still the sweetest, most wonderful little thing.

ETA: at her 18 month checkup Presley weighed 22 pounds 4 ounces & was 32 1/4 inches long.

little farm girl

Presley seriously loves this book! She will bring it to you over and over again. & she's obviously been paying attention to what we are saying because she doesn't even need the book to know the animal sounds anymore. You can just ask her what the animals say and she'll deliver! =)

the sweetest sound

lots of littles

This is pretty much a catch up post. I just get sick of labeling them "updates" all the time. Not too much has been happening lately, but there are a few new things that Presley is doing.

~Recently Presley has started helping me undress herself. When I am undressing her for a bath, she picks at her clothes until I take them off and then literally steps out of the clothes, one foot at a time! Yesterday morning after breakfast she was playing in the floor and I sat down with a fresh diaper and her clothes. I told her to come here and let's get dressed. She marched her little self right over and plopped down and then laid back, ready for me to do my job! I was pretty impressed!

~Presley can now blow kisses for real. She was just putting her mouth up to her palm and holding it there. Well, now she can let go and she makes the little "muah" noise with it! So cute!

~She is saying bath now and just gibbering more overall. When I get her up in the mornings and from naps, she takes out her pappy and puts it on the crib rail and says bye bye and waves to it. Ha ha!

~She also stomps her feet really fast into the ground. Not when she's mad, but excited. It's pretty funny to watch. It looks like she dancing to that song "she's a manic, manic I know. and she's dancing like she's never danced before". :)

~Presley loves looking up at the light and pointing to it when you ask her about it. She can also flip the switch on and off now. That's fun, let me tell you. To have to let her do it every time you walk past one. (Sense the sarcasm here?)

~NEW TOOTH! I can't believe I forgot about this one. This is definitely a big update! I can't tell if it's a canine or incisor but, it's on the top left. & she has a top right one that should be coming in any day now. Then she'll have vampire fangs! Too bad it's not Halloween right now!

We finally have Presley's one year checkup tomorrow morning with Dr. P. So I'll post her weight, height, etc when we get back from the appointment. She also has to get shots :( Ugh, it's gonna be AWFUL! It was one thing when she was little bitty and could get over it as soon as I picked her up. But now, she is totally aware of what's going on. I can just see her sweet face looking up at me, not knowing what's about to hit her. Oh I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about it.

these are the days

Gone are lazy days where all I did was nurse and hold and cuddle my baby. These are now the days that are full of trying to entertain a toddler, keep her from climbing the walls, trying to coax her into eating healthy meals, etc. Oh, if only I had known to truly revel in those moments of bliss instead of wishing she was bigger and able to do more things. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Presley at this age, I just wish I would have known then that she would be grown up soon enough and to ENJOY my baby at every stage. Oh well, there's always (hopefully) the next time to do things another way!

Presley just amazes me everyday. I can't believe that she knows how to do some of the things that she does! I have been trying to video her doing her new tricks so everyone can see them versus me just talking about them. But that is as hard as getting her to look at the camera for me and smile. [and you can probably tell from these pictures that that's pretty hard! ha!] Presley can give you a "high five" now, and find your ear, nose and eyes when you ask her to. My baby is growing up! :(

amen

Presley has started saying "ame" [which is amen] when we say it after a prayer. totally precious...totally melts my heart!

Growing like a weed

I realize that I still have another week to go before Presley is 13 months old. But I had to write this post now, because I will forget all of the awesome things she is doing now. Just in the past week it seems, Presley has grown in leaps and bounds. I feel like tomorrow I'll be taking her for her driving test :(

- waves. I'm not talking the fist crunching thing, actually waving her hand from side to side. It melts my heart!

- says bye and hi. Not bye-bye, which was really ba ba (like the sheep noise). She graduated to full on saying byyyyeeeee and hiiiiiiiiiii. Literally that drawn out too! ;)

- "dances" to ANY kind of music. Dancing in this sense means swaying her body and humming. It doesn't matter if the music is a soft lullaby coming from her music box, this girl's gotta bust a move!

- when you say "I'm gonna get you" she runs TOWARD you, not away from you. It's the most adorable thing ever! She just laughs and laughs when she's coming toward you!

- blow kisses. She will kiss (which is an open, wet mouth) her palm over and over and we are trying to teach her to let go of it now.

& these last two things are just random things that she has done once, but they were cute so I'll post them for me to remember later!

- I walked over to the trash bag we had and threw something away. I told her this is where we put the trash. Later that afternoon, she picked up a toy and waltzed right over to the trash and threw it in there. Ha!

- I was holding Presley on my hip walking through the house and she randomly started saying yay and wanted to clap, but she could only get to one hand. So, she just started clapping on her chest with her one hand!

Oh goodness. I almost forgot!

Presley hasn't had a morning bottle in 2 days! I just got her up and gave her a sippy cup with milk and fed her breakfast right then. Normally we would have a bottle first thing and wait a little bit for breakfast.

And then tonight was the first night without a bottle. We changed our bedtime routine a little too, so I hope that isn't too much change for her. We did a bath, brushed teeth, offered water sippy cup, said prayers, rocked a little and then went into the crib. She did ok with it tonight, but I think she was just exhausted because she only took 1 nap today. I guess we'll see how it goes the rest of the week.

And here is the picture that I promised of Presley and her new shoes!

Oh, I remembered what else Presley can do now.....clap! We discovered this trick on the day of her party. Someone started clapping and saying "yea Presley" about her walking I think. And little Miss Priss just put her hands together and started clapping away! I was geared up to get mad at Jeremiah and ask him when she started this, and why hadn't he told me yet. But he didn't know that she could do it either! Ha ha! So, it was pretty funny that we found out in this way! :) It's also funny how she claps. She holds one hand still and brings the other to it. Instead of putting both hands together in the middle!

I'm still thinking that there is something that I'm forgetting to post about. oh well. next time I guess.

BIG updates

drum roll please.................................Presley can walk! As in, by herself!

She had taken some steps at my parents' house right before her birthday. And now she is a pro! She will still crawl sometimes but prefers to walk everywhere. She has mastered going over various surfaces, can walk while holding something, and can turn around all while maintaining her balance! She is an impressive little thing! She went from just taking a few steps to all of this in a week's time.

Presley's first words, other than Mama and Dada, were ball and thank you. She can't say them perfectly but you get the idea of what she's talking about. I totally get saying ball. Most babies say and understand what this is. But thank you? It's so funny! I guess she says it because we have always said thank you to her when we hand her something or do something for her. Demonstration is the best teacher. We say to her what we want her to say back to us. And it has worked!

So, I thought there were more updates.....guess not. Or maybe it's because I'm too exhausted to think about anything else! Anyway that's all for now!

shoes, among other things

Aren't these shoes just adorable? Miss Presley got them yesterday when we went to Target. She said she needed some cute summer sandals to make her feel better! And Mommy just can't say no to any accessory! Presley was so funny trying them on. She kept flexing her toes and moving her ankles around....I guess they felt weird on her feet!

Presley is feeling a little bit better, I think. She is still tossing and turning and waking up a bit at night. But overall, she's less fussy during the day and eating better! I am really glad that this didn't last as long as it could have.

And lastly, Presley has started doing the cutest thing at bath time. She stands up at the edge of the tub while I run the water. When I turn the water off, I guess she knows it's time to get in. She starts picking at her clothes, pulling them up. It's like she is trying to pull them off! And then when her clothes are off, she starts pulling at her diaper! Ha ha! I'm sure that she really knows what she's doing. It's just hard to remember sometimes that my baby is growing up and is smart enough to know what's going on around her. ;)