Do you ever see an humorous photo of a child and just know that it is destined to be a centerpiece of their future high school graduation party?

A few weeks ago I took one such photo of Alethea:

Don’t you love it?!?!

Maybe Alethea doesn’t know Sesame Street as well as I thought she did.  Today she was looking at the Sponge Bob towel that was laying on the floor with clothes drying on it.  She pointed at Patrick (the starfish) and said “Emo!”  I tried telling her that it was Patrick, but she was very insistent that it was Elmo.  Oh well.

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I went to Sherwin Williams and bought paint for Alethea’s big girl room.  Instead of going with any of the pre-mixed options, I took my multitude of paint samples and whipped up my own color.  It only took me 8 or so tries and several hours to finally get the “perfect” gray.  Not too light, not too dark, not too blue, not too tan.  I think it’s all for the best, but the rule follower in me feels weird using an “unofficial” color.

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The baby has been moving around a lot more lately.  It seems to me that her movements are a bit less forceful than Alethea’s were at about the same age, but maybe that’s just me hoping not to have two very assertive children who are only 20 months apart.

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I know everyone says Alethea looks like Peter, and she does.  But the other day my sister-in-law Julie over at TheAnticsoftheThree22nds posted pictures of her youngest three at around 5-6 months.  I still think that the person Alethea looks most like is her cousin Roman.

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I’m super excited about our Labor Day Block Party this weekend.  We are hosting it at our house.  I told Peter that I was going to do red, white and blue for the paper goods and decorations.  He said that Labor Day isn’t a red, white and blue kind of holiday.  What color is it then?

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I’m trying to score a cheap dresser and nightstand off craigslist for Alethea’s room.  Only problem is I think I need a really narrow dresser.  The wall seemed long enough for bunk beds and a dresser, but when I actually measured it out I ended up with about 27 inches for the dresser.  I really want to keep my room arrangement how I have it planned out though, so I think I’ll keep hunting for a narrow-but-tall dresser.

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Today is Alethea’s sixteen month birthday.  Happy Birthday Baby!

This month has been a continuation of her growing independence.  One of her favorite new skills is going down stairs without help.  I’m really amazed that she can do this (and never let her do it unsupervised) but she can put one hand on the wall for balance and walk down the stairs in our house without any assistance from me.  She hasn’t yet mastered going up the stairs on her feet, but she’s working on that one too.

Of course she continues to babble constantly, but more and more I’m hearing her mix actual words in to what she is saying, which makes me think it won’t be long until I’ll have to start forming real responses to her continual stream of conversation.  New words this month include ‘key’ (blankie) and ‘eemo’ (Elmo).  I was sort of surprised when she said that last one in correct context.  We watch Sesame Street exactly once a week when I clip her fingernails (it’s the best way to get her to hold still).  I suppose it just goes to show what an impression TV can make on a small child.

Another new development this month is that when I am done teaching on lesson nights, she insists on coming into my studio, sitting on the piano bench (by herself) and making music.  She shoos me away from the piano if I try to play it too, but she also doesn’t like it when I don’t pay enough attention to her.  After many nights of this routine I have come to the conclusion that she feels she ought to have my undivided attention as she plays, just like my piano students do.  I’ve tried showing her a few things and she does think it is funny when I tell her ‘these are the high sounds’ in a squeaky voice and then ‘these are the low sounds’ in my very deepest voice.  The cutest part of it all is when she gets really into it and starts singing along with herself.  “Doo-dee-doo, dee-doo” she’ll sing as she explores the keyboard.  As long as she has an audience, she’ll play the piano for 20 or 30 minutes until I finally tell her that her lesson is over and it’s time to go to bed.  I guess that means that she’s either musically gifted or that she really likes being the center of attention.  We’ll be in trouble if it’s both.

Her favorite things to do (besides playing the piano) are going outside, swinging, playing with cars and balls, reading books, climbing stairs and chairs, getting things out of the kitchen cupboards, taking baths and biting the noses of her stuffed animals (yeah, I don’t get it either).  She most definitely does not ever like having her diaper changed or getting dressed.  Meals and naps are hit or miss depending on her mood.  Her favorite words to say are ball, car, cup and grandma. Her favorite animal continues to be puppies.

We’ll, I think that’s about all the newness for this month.  Thanks again for stopping by!

By Alethea

This summer I gave my bunny lots of hugs…

And I played with my toys…

I went to a water park while I was visiting my Great Grandparents in Iowa…

I wore my new life jacket when I went sailing on Grandpa John’s boat…

I had a strawberry ice cream cone that was all my own…

I went swinging in the backyard with Daddy…

And I cried when I had to get off…

And just in case you don’t think I’m really writing this post, I’ll prove it to you…

I’m really good at getting into things now.  Uh-oh, I hear mommy coming down the stairs, don’t tell her about this, okay?

Here are a couple of the best pics from Alethea’s Target Photo Studio session:

Yesterday was Alethea’s fifteen month birthday.  Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

It’s hard to imagine that only a year ago she was only 3 months old and waking up 6-8 times a night and couldn’t hardly move anywhere.  Now she’s an amazingly good sleeper (under normal conditions) and is into absolutely everything!  What a difference a year makes…

We went to the doctor today for Alethea’s check-up.  Her current stats are height - 30.75 inches, weight - 22.0 lbs, and head circumference - 46.75 cm.  That means she is in the 50th percentile for height, 30th for weight and 70th for head circumference.  She is still our little Bobble Head Baby!

The thing that I found surprising is that she has actually lost weight since her 12 month check-up.  Her pediatrician isn’t too worried at this point since she also managed to grow over an inch, but we are supposed to encourage Alethea to eat a few more carbs at meal times.   One thing her doctor asked me was whether Alethea is a picky eater and I told her that while Alethea does go through phases, she’s generally quite open to trying different foods.  The main problem at meal times is that Alethea just has too much to say and gets distracted so easily that we constantly have to remind her of why she is in her highchair.  If we don’t, an hour will easily pass and Alethea will still be sitting there talking away about who knows what.

Besides growing an inch, Alethea’s other recent accomplishments include learning how to climb up on the kitchen chairs to take stuff off the table, which is okay generally, but one of the first times she did it I ended up chasing her down the hallway as she ran away from me carrying a butter knife.  That was fun.  She also said her first two words together, which were “go, car”.  She is, after all, my social butterfly…

Speaking of being a social butterfly, this girl could charm the socks off of the grumpiest old man you know.  I tell you, we go out in public and she smiles at everyone.  People seem really drawn to her, which is sort of odd to me, just because I certainly don’t have one of those magnetic personalities.  But she does.  Oh and did I mention her waving repeatedly to a woman driving a car in the parking lot?  She waved and waved until the woman finally waved back.  It was really amusing to watch her determined effort to get the woman’s attention.

The flip side of her outgoing and assertive personality is that she often becomes so determined to have her own way that she will scream at Peter or me (and even on occasion Grandma) if she doesn’t get what she wants.  We are still trying the “don’t ever give in and ignore whenever possible” tactic, but so far, it doesn’t seem to be helping.  I don’t think I really realized until now just how embarrassed I would be when my child acted up in public and how helpless I feel when she is too young for corporeal punishment, too young for time outs, and too young to be reasoned with.  What is a mother to do?

It doesn’t help that so often she makes me laugh in the middle of discipline, like yesterday when she was being super whiny, so I said sternly, “Do you need to go to your room?”  She solemnly nodded her head yes.  Or just tonight she was chewing on a book, and I told her, “Out of your mouth.”  She just chewed harder, so I took the book away.  She screamed at me and picked up another book, looked right at me, and put that one in her mouth.  So I took that book away too.  She screamed again and since there were no other books in sight, she glared at me and proceed to chomp down hard on the couch cushion.  Sigh.

I don’t mean to make her sound like a contrary little girl.  We spend a lot of time laughing and smiling through the day.  Alethea currently loves: being tickled, reading books to herself out loud, playing with her Little People farm animals, cars, balls, nuks, dogs, flowers, and chicken nuggets.  She also adores her grandmothers and will ask for them several times a day (”ma-ma-ma?”)

Well, this is getting quite long, so I’d better wrap up and head for bed.  Thanks to all of you still checking in for updates.  I’ll try to get some more recent cute pics of Alethea up soon.

Now that I’ve lured you in with an adorable picture of Alethea wearing her hat (which she put on all by herself!) I can remind you that there are only two days left to vote for our nursery, so please click here to vote!

We had a relaxing, if not terribly interesting 4th of July.  After going to church in the morning, it was nap time for me and Alethea while Peter watched the Twins game.  Then we played in the yard for a while, had dinner and Alethea went to bed.  We decided not to keep her up for fireworks, since she was likely to be scared of them anyway.  Later, Peter and I tried to have a fire in the backyard, but we gave up after the mosquitoes drove us inside.  Like I said, relaxing, though not that interesting.

I did get a kick out of seeing Alethea dressed up in her 4th of July outfit though:

Alethea had fun taking off the outfit and running around in her Splash and Play mat:

And Peter and I both cracked up over the mat’s warning label:

“No Diving”… Is that really necessary on a toy that has 1 inch of water at its deepest point?  Apparently someone in the Fisher Price legal department thought so.

I think Alethea is board with hanging out with me.  This morning when she came downstairs, she ran all over the house calling “Da-yee?” (Daddy)  Then at breakfast she kept pointing at the front door saying “Ma-ma-ma?” (Grandma)

Sorry kid.  It’s just us today.

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They say that babies babble using sounds from their own language.  Therefore the babble of a French baby sounds French and different from the Spanish babble of the Spanish child.

I don’t think it’s true though.

I’m pretty sure that most of the time Alethea babbles in Japanese.

Both Alethea and Peter got new wheels recently:

Both cars were previously owned.  Both were purchased off of Craigslist.  And both have new drivers who are excited to be behind the wheel.

The irony of it all though is that Alethea’s car was over 100 times cheaper than Peter’s AND it will retain its resale value better.

Sometimes being an adult really bites.