Future Xgamer

Last night Vera announced that she was going skateboarding and she needed a helmet. Her daddy, of course, complied and brought her helmet in from the garage, adjusted the straps to fit and put it on her head. She promptly stepped on to her skateboard with grace, smiled, and yacked with excitement. 22 months going on 12.

Almost 22 Months!

Vera Lou will be 22 months next week!  It's amazing how quickly that has happened! 

She is talking (constantly) in full sentences now.  She repeats us like crazy, and it is almost making us crazy!  But there are lots of cute and innocent things that come out of her mouth too.  I always wonder where she would've seen/heard certain things, but she is certainly a little sponge absorbing (and remembering!) everything around her.  For example, the other day we were reading a pirate book and she told me that the ship on one of the pages was the Jolly Roger.  What 22 month old knows this?  Just tonight, Adam went up to Vera, shook her hand and said, "Hi Vera, I'm dad. Nice to meet you!" Her response, "Your name is Adam." haha

She has been really into singing songs lately.  When she sings, she usually shouts at the top of her voice the words to the song.  Her favorite song is ABCs.  She can also sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat (so funny because she always puts too many "merrilies" in), Itsy Bitsy Spider (which she calls Itsy Itsy Spider), Five Little Monkeys (complete with finger pointing at the end), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Rock A Bye Baby (she sings rock a bye Tater Bug), and she can also sing parts of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Doc McStuffins theme songs.  She's a little shakey on Old McDonald Had a Farm, but she can do it with some help.  She LOVES to play Ring Around the Rosey too.  Last week I think we played every night!  Patty taught her most of these songs, but we do lots of singing in the car and at home too. 

Vera's still not the best at using her silverware to eat.  She'll do it if we make her, but she'd rather eat with her hands.  As you can see, she's still pretty good at making a mess!  She still loves Mac & Cheese and hot dogs.  Other favorites are blueberries, rice, peas, popcorn, and of course fruit snacks.  She still won't eat grapes, yogurt, applesauce, or cheese.  To me, those are easy kid favorites.  We also have trouble getting her to eat meat.  She will eat hot dogs, cold meat, and sometimes chicken.  Any other beef or pork is out of the question. 

She's sat on the potty a few times with success.  I made her a sticker chart and each time she goes on the potty she gets a sticker.  She has 2 stickers and she's very proud of them!  She sometimes asks for more stickers, but I don't think she understands yet how to earn them.  Just today she told me she needed a dry "dopper."  Another sign that she's ready for the potty.  I think Patty sits them on the potty at least once per day to get used to it.  I bought her some Minnie panties.  Vera calls them underpants. 

Coloring is still a favorite too.  She's getting a lot better at scribbling.  Her crayons (see earlier post) are in sad shape, with only 3 of the original 8 that haven't been broken.  But, we still use them...several times per week.  She often bosses us, telling us to color and what color to use.  Her table and chairs from Uncle Brian has seen lots of use with tea parties and coloring.  When we color, we always practice spelling her name.  She knows that V-E-R-A spells her name.  She can say it, and she tries to write it.

Vera knows all of her colors very well.  It's hard to trick her with them anymore.  She also knows all of her shapes, and she can recognize them in her environment.  Today at the doctor's office she recognized the ceiling tiles and told me they were squares.  Patty can take all the credit for this.  She is the best!

Vera & Her Daddy

Vera has her daddy wrapped around her finger.  She can get him to do just about anything.

They were yelling from the bedroom for me.  I walked back there to find this.  Adam said that Vera asked him to get in her bed, so he climbed in and she loved it. 

When it was 60 degrees a few weekends ago, Vera went outside to play.  Her dad was taking down Christmas lights, but Vera distracted him and they ended up building a snowman (that melted that afternoon). 

 

 

 

First (Real) Hair Cut

Last night I took Vera to Atelier where I get my hair cut.  Grandma has trimmed her bangs a few times for us, but she really needed her ends evened up and some of the new hair trimmed.

I made an appointment a while ago for the both of us, but I almost didn't take her for the appointment.  She has a miserable cold right now.  Her nose has run non-stop and she's super-congested.  Poor kid!  (Insert lack of sleep for everyone here!) She stayed home with her dad yesterday and went to the doc.  Today she's hanging out with her grandma.  (Thank you!)

But, when I got home yesterday, she seemed to be in a decent mood.  I said I wasn't bringing her if she felt lousy.  Then I said I was.  Then I wasn't.  I went back and forth the whole way to my mom's house.  When I got there, I decided to just take her along.  The haircut was only going to take less than 5 minutes.  Grandma came along to help with Vera while I got my hair cut.

So Vera went first.  She sat up in the big chair and started to giggle when she saw herself in the big mirror.  I told her they were going to put a big bib on her.  She thought that was funny.  To everyone's surprise, she did very well.  She sat still and didn't cry.  When Georgia tried to dust off the hair with the hair dryer, she started to panic...so we just dusted her off with our hands.

We got to keep a little lock of hair from her first real hair cut.  It isn't much, but it is a little memento.

Something To Eat (and drink)

On Friday evening, we went to Fricker's to eat.  We didn't know kids eat free until we got there, but it was a nice plus for our Friday! :)   Adam ordered a beer and I had a strawberry daiquiri.  Vera had chocolate milk and she was really excited about that.  While we were eating, Vera told Adam to drink his orange juice.  And then I asked her what I was drinking.  She paused for a second and then said, "Ice cream!"  I just love her innocence.

Vera was really good at the restaurant.  She learned to dip her fries in ranch dressing, which resulted in her mostly eating the ranch off the fry, and then re-dipping.  The good news is that Patty taught her how to lick her fingers, so we didn't have too big of a mess!

Christmas Break

Christmas break comes to an end tomorrow morning.  Tear!  I can't believe how fast it's gone!  I know I've been so fortunate to be off so long, but it seems like we've been really busy the entire break!  We enjoyed lots of family time and plenty of time playing with new toys at home.  I was also able to accomplish a few things over break.  I took down the Christmas tree today.  It always makes me sad to do that just because it's the reality that Christmas is really over.  I really enjoy my tree and all of the other lights and decorations in the evenings.  But, it's ok to see my house get back to normal too.  Here's some of the photos from my time off...

 

One afternoon while we were playing, we had to take baby's clothes off to change her diaper.  Then, Vera ran off and said baby needed to take a bath.  Here she is laying in the sink.

We barely got Vera's new table in the door, and she was ready to have a tea party.

 

Watched some TV on the Mickey couch inside the princess house.

Movie Star Vera

She went outside to play briefly.  She has boots, gloves and a coat but no snow pants.  Mom is working on that.

For New Years Eve, we went to a hotel in Troy with some friends and everyone brought their kids.  Vera was absolutely thrilled to go swimming.  As we backed out the garage to leave for the hotel, she said, "C'mon mom & dad.  Let's go swimming!"  She ran ahead of the whole group on our way to the pool.  She just couldn't wait!  Vera loved every second of the pool and had no fear at all.

We practiced sitting on the potty.  No luck yet with that, but I guess we have to start somewhere.  She really likes to sit on the potty.  Good sign.

We've done our share of coloring too.  The new little table and chairs is going to be perfect for that!

Over break, we've had major struggles with sleeping at night.  Vera wakes up several times throughout the night and wants nothing but to be held or sleep in our bed.   We tried to tough it out.  The week of Christmas I had only one night of uninterrupted sleep.  It started to wear on me, especially because I'm not used to it.  So we decided to take the front off of Vera's crib.  So then it's like a toddler bed.  That didn't go well either.  A few times we found her sleeping on her bedroom floor.  We didn't hear her "fall out" or get up, so who knows how that happened.  Most of the time though, she would fall asleep, and then after about 3 hours, she'd get up, walk around and eventually find us in our room.  Last night was a real struggle; she would sleep in her bed as long as I slept on the floor next to her.  When I was sure she was sound asleep and tried to sneak out, sure enough she would pop up.  I rocked her and had her asleep and then after about 15 minutes in her bed, she was up again.  I even did the firm Peg Otte "lay down" voice a few times.  The worst part was that I took NyQuil before I went to bed because I'm fighting a cold.  I was like a zombie at 2am when I was up.  I was literally falling asleep kneeling beside Vera's bed.  Maybe Vera needs NyQuil!  After about 1.5 hours of this, I gave up and she ended up sleeping in our bed.  When that happens, we get no sleep because she flops around like a fish out of water while she sleeps.  I did sleep a little thanks to NyQuil.  So tonight, I told Adam to put the bed back together.  Jail is back.  At least we can let her cry and not have to worry about her trying to get up.  We're also going to put a night light in her room tonight to see if that helps.  I'm thinking about trying Tylenol too to see if maybe that will help her relax and stay sleep. 

I think the reason for the sleep trouble is a combo of things.  We're out of our routine, we're all fighting colds, and she's been overly tired some evenings.  I also wonder if she's starting to dream and then she gets scared.  I gave her a warmer blanket thinking she might get cold and then wake up.  I don't know.  I'll try anything.  I hope tonight is better, especially because everyone has to be up early for a full day tomorrow. 

Before we took the front off.  It's back to a crib now.  Sigh!

Pearson Christmas

Last weekend, we finished our Christmas parties with a get-together with Adam's family.  It was crazy as usual, but a good time. 

Vera and Bailey were excited and wild, which is pretty typical for when we get together.  Vera received lots of nice gifts.  From Uncle Brian, an awesome table and chairs that is sure to get many, many years of use.  Brian also got her a four wheeler riding toy that makes noises.  She's just the right size for it. 

Mindy, Sanchez and Bailey got Vera a purse with a cell phone, glasses, camera, and credit cards.  It's really cute. 

From grandma and grandpa, some really cool wooden food, a basketball hoop so we can play full-court now :), a book, and a stocking of goodies. 

 

Bailey got a keyboard from grandma and grandpa.  Vera liked it almost more than Bailey.