15 Months!

I definitely got into another blogging funk. I keep forgetting to blog everything that we have going on, but I do at least want to document my little Adelle's growth. Here it goes…

15 Month Stats:

Height: 32 ¼ inches (94%)

Weight: 23 lbs. 9.5 oz. (64%)

HC: 18 inches (46%)

We took her to Hawaii a few weeks ago and she loved it. In just over a year she's traveled to:

Salt Lake City, UT (2x)

Yellowstone National Park (check off Idaho, Montana and Wyoming in this trip)

St. George, UT (2x)

Washington, DC (check off Arlington, VA too)

Scottsdale, AZ

Oahu, HI

We've just about got the airport/plane ride with a toddler thing down. I think my first time on a plane was when I was in middle school! Maybe that's the difference between the oldest and the middle child. Lucky girl :)

We got some cute pictures in Hawaii that pretty much show her personality these days. As most toddlers, she's non-stop go go go and usually finding everything she's not supposed to get into. I love this picture because she looks like she's doing the Thriller dance! She is quite the dancer these days and twirls until she is so dizzy that she falls over!

With the spiky hair and blue rash guard, she looks like a boy in this pic. But, so much like her dad!

She doesn't mind getting her hands durty. She loved the sand even with a diaper full of it, she was happy.

Everything still goes straight to her mouth. When will the phase be over!? I have to force myself not to think about how many gross things have been in her mouth and all the germs she's ingested.

This girl is an eater! She is ALWAYS hungry! Most days she and I eat the same amount, and that's saying something because I'm a pretty good eater!

More pinepple…this time with ice cream and Japanese people giving her heaps of attention. She ate it right up (the attention and the ice cream) and was happy to pose for several pictures. I felt kinda weird about strangers taking pictures of my baby, but whatever. What would be the worst thing that could happen?

This was just a week or so ago when out of the blue Adelle dragged me over to the fridge. Usually she likes to look inside and play with the light for a minute until I make her close it. This time she grabbed this container full of green peas, sat down on the kitchen floor, and tried to open it up. I sat down with her and made a shaker toy out of it hoping she'd realize how lame of a toy it was and move on. Nope. She didn't go for it. I caved and opened the container and she sat there and ate the entire thing! There were a lot of peas in there! This is one of those moments where I know I taught her the wrong lesson, but I couldn't help it! It was so cute and so funny to watch!

Loves her corn on the cobb

I barely have to put her down for naps anymore because most of the time we're running around and she falls asleep on our way home. She transfers to her crib just fine if it hasn't been too long. She's been taking one nap/day consistently for a few weeks now and I love the new schedule. Such a sweet face!

We had a great time in St. George with her cousins, Samantha and Eleanor. This trip reminded me a little of a line in the Dr. Seuss book, "Hop of Pop". There's a page where it says, "He is chasing me. Jim is chasing him." Most of the trip Addie was chasing Ella and Samantha was chasing Addie. Tears were shed, but overall I think the girls had fun together.

Our day is not complete without a trip to the park. She still loves to swing and will go down the slides all by herself now.

She's still such a climber! This girl has no fear and will try to climb on anything and everything!

Her latest thing is sitting. She loves to find little places to sit. She'll see something that's elevated off the ground, turn around, back her little bum up, and take a seat. Some common places are step stools, laundry baskets, curbs, bushes, water fountains, even my feet when I'm not looking!

For a while there, I thought she was becoming a daddy's girl. I know it's bound to happen, but I'm not ready for that yet. Good thing she's changed her mind...

We all know who she chooses at this point :)

Tri For Fun - July

Anyone heard of this? It's called the Tri For Fun and that's just what it is. It's a sprint triathlon held once every month of the summer. It's not timed and no awards are given for the June, July and August races. Everyone is at a different skill level and come out just for the fun of it. We always plan to do all 4 races, but usually chicken out mostly because we're cheap and these races aren't :) This year Ty and his cuz, Daniel, did the July race. Here are the finishers! Don't they look great after such an intense workout!?

Dada's little cheerleader - well, kinda. Poor Adelle was snatched right out of her bed and rushed over to the race only to get there right as they finished. This is her "where am I and when can I get some breakfast?" face.

This is how low-key this race is. Here is what Ty and Daniel used as a transition station because the main section was too crowded. I love it.

Tyler, Kim (ty's sis) and I are doing the Tri For Fun this month (August) and the Tri For Real (this one is a real, timed race) next month. Last time I swam in this murky lake water I panicked the entire way. It makes me feel so claustrophobic or something! Having said that, does anyone in the area want to join us?

The fruits of our labors...

I have loved my little patio gardening this summer. I usually do tomatoes, but it was so fun to add strawberries and all kinds of herbs to the mix this year. I've been so proud of my plants, I had to document them and show them off :) Aren't they pretty!?

Adelle's 2 favorite things to swipe these days: tomatoes/strawberries right off the plant and mommy's cell phone. She doesn't care if it's ripe or not. Forget washing it. It's going straight for her mouth if she sees it!

As much as I want to stop her from eating all of our yummy home-grown tomatoes, I cant do it. Look at that face!

Adelle's 12 month update

Here are Adelle's stats at 12 months:

Weight: 21 lbs. 14.5 oz. (64%)

Length: 30.5 inches (89%)

Head Circumference: 17 ¾ inches (50%)

Here's what she's up to…

She is a total fearless climber! She is already getting close to escaping from her crib. She can climb up and down the top cushions on the couch (not just where you sit, but the next level up.) She has made several attempts to climb our very unstable book shelves. It freaks me out so she doesn't get far. This girl is all over the place!

We've been loving our summer days at the pool! She is not afraid of the water in the least bit. I think my legs aren't this see-through white anymore. Sorry to scare you :)

She is constantly dunking her face in the water at the pool and in the tub. She comes up coughing, but thinks it's the best thing.

Shockingly, she still likes to be put in her Baby Bjorn. We take her on walks and hike the ridge with her in there. She is a very social girl and waves to everyone. It makes her day if we see a dog or two while we're out.

Still loves her smoothies, but hates her high chair. She's almost mastered using a spoon and fork (I get impatient with her and she gets impatient with sitting still, so she only gets about half way through and I take over.) She's also drinking cows milk and learning to like it. Still nursing morning and night, but I'm getting there.

LOVES her humidifier! Buttons are her favorite thing right now, and this has a big one! Anything with a button keeps her entertained for hours (phone, flip camera, iPad, remote, etc.) Too bad non of these are actually her toys! I didn't get a picture of it, but she knows how to unlock my phone/iPad! It's amazing how tech-savvy this generation will be!

She will sit and read her books all on her own. I love it when she brings me one to read to her. So cute!

Anyone who's been around Adelle knows this is her signature move. I like to think she'll be a yoga instructor someday :)

She is becoming more beautiful every day. She's got a lot more hair, but still not enough to be called a boy on occasion. She's got Daddy's gorgeous eyes and maybe Grammy's strawberry blonde hair. We'll see!

She loves her Daddy and blows him kisses when he leaves in the morning. She's not afraid to give tight squeezes, wet kisses and head butts. If I could have 10 kids just like her, I'd do it! She makes us so happy and is such a blessing in our lives!

Words she can say:

Mamma

Dadda/Daddy

Ball

Hi/Hey

Bye-bye

Thank you

Doggy

Uh-oh

(Bye-bye, thank you, and uh-oh all sound almost the same. We're working on differentiating :))

Words she can sign:

All done

More

Birthday festivities

My family makes a big deal about birthdays and holidays. I love it! My mom and dad did everything they could to make me feel so special on my birthday. Of coarse, I cant help but do the same for Adelle even if she wont remember these first few years.

Selfishly, we started our her birthday by taking her to Denica's. This is our favorite restaurant. Hands down. The workers there know Adelle because we go there for cookies almost every weekend. She had a good time playing with the train set and toys they provide. I even let her have some pancakes and cookie samples.

She came home to a fun surprise, a play kitchen! A good friend found this for me at a garage sale practically new and filled with accessories. I've been so excited to give it to her!

She turned all the knobs, opened all the drawers and cupboards, put dishes in and out of the sink, pretended to stir in all of the bowls, and had her own tea party with the tea set. I think if this was all I had planned for her birthday, she would be content playing with it for hours.

I was lucky enough to have my mom come to celebrate with us and help me get everything ready for the party. We spent most of her time here frosting cookies and cupcakes, talking and laughing in the kitchen. My mom and I are best friends so the time flew and we had such a good time together! Of coarse, I didn't take the time to get a great picture of all of our hard work, but I at least got this one. It was really windy outside so we had to keep Adelle's smash cake covered so nothing would mess it up. We made a bizillion sugar cookies decorated as watermelon wedges. We just kept going and in the end realized we way over did it! Lots of leftovers!

These jello jigglers were a big hit, and were super easy to make. Well, I keep saying that but my mom did all of the work! She might have carpal tunnel from hallowing out the limes, but other than that it was easy :)

Watermelon of coarse…did I mention that was the theme?

Watermelon salsa. Yum.

We had the party at the fountain park. Adelle was walking, but not confident enough to walk around with everything going on. I was bummed she wouldn't play in the fountains on her own.

Addie loves her aunt Kimmy

The smash cake. I took a cake decorating class in college so I could make fabulous cakes for my kids. Apparently, it didn't pay off. I worked for a good 30 minutes to get the perfect watermelon-pink frosting color. 10 minutes out in the sun and it turned into this. Weird. At least it still resembles a slice of watermelon, right?

I was a stickler and didn't let Adelle eat sugar (besides the natural stuff) until her big day. I thought she would go crazy for it!

Kinda good...

Not good enough…water fountains are much more appealing!

Grammy and Adelle

Me and my girl

Ty had a good time playing on the playground with the kiddos.

Afterwards we all crashed and took a 2 hour nap! Adelle woke up with more toys from Grammy and more cake.

She made a little more progress, but still wasn't a big fan. She probably would have been happier if I let her dig in to a big bowl of watermelon! This girl knows what's good for her :)

Such a fun day!