Journeys of the Dixon Family...: 16 Month Update....Making up for Lost Time.

16 Months Old…

Well, I have planned on writing a 13 month….14 month….and 15 month update on Miss AB’s life, and may have even started one or 2, so this month, it’s ON!!

February 9^th, 2011, 16 months old! 23lbs, 31 inches, and still in the 50-50-50^th percentile across the board! Dr. Hudson calls you *perfect* but we will just say you’re perfect for us. I don’t want your head to swell too big and throw off that 50^th percentile thing! LOL!!

*TALKING: Well, we have just entered into a whole new phase or milestone for Miss Annabelle, we are in the 2 word phrase zone. She has say “double words” like Bye Bye, Nite Nite, Shoo Shoo, and such, but now we are hearing “Hi/bye bye Momma,” “Hi/bye bye Dadda,” “Hi/bye bye DeDe,” “Shoo Shoo Hiney,” “Nite Nite Momma/Dadda” “Luv You,” she has said “thank you” for a while, and a few other things I’m not sure of right now.

*VOCAB: She is pretty much repeating whatever we say and that is fun! We don’t listen to music in the car, we say VOCABULARY WORDS! HA! You HAVE to start with “Can you say Momma….” And then go from there. She really thinks she’s something special when she says “Hiney” over and over…maybe it’s because we cackle b/c it’s so funny! She also constantly amazes me at the word objects she knows and can recognize, like the difference in an elephant and a giraffe, and a horse and pig, and so on. We have flash cards and she is good at identifying which is which when I hold 2 up and ask where the ______is.

*SIGNING: She signs lots of things and now we are trying to break her of it. It seems like she doesn’t think she can say the words she knows how to sign, though I know she could. But she signs, More, Please, Sorry, All Done, Play, Eat, Milk, Thirsty, Hungry, Pacifier, Dog, I think that’s it.

*TIME OUT: She is pretty much BROKE of the dog food playing mess!! We have had to Time Out the FIRE out of her for it, and she has always done that so so well, amazingly, staying there for at least a minute and talking afterwards, saying “sorry” and hugging it out. She now looks at the dog food, points to it and says “NO NO!” Too funny! You have to see it in person.

*POTTY PREPPING: Annabelle has officially Pooped AND Pee Pee’d in the potty now! We haven’t planned on potty training this early, but we decided, eh, let’s give it a shot! 1^st time on it…POOP! (she will make her little poopy grunt noise when we mock her b/c we laugh, so that helped encourage it on..) Then we sat on it one or 2 other times, and then we got pee pee! It was so exciting!! I never thought I’d be so excited about potty time!! So we are just “potty prepping” at this point, but getting her excited about it and going full force in another month or so.

*SLEEP: Just gonna say it…best sleeper ever! She’s just the bomb!! It’s never a battle, never! Praise the Lord for sleep training and Babywise and the Baby Whisperer, etc. Not just night time but nap time. We are in that 2 to 1 nap transition. I noticed with 2 long naps (~2 hours each) that she was starting to wake up earlier, around 6:30. If there is 1 nap, it’s usually going to be a solid 2.5 hour nap. We are trying to get her to wait until after lunch, around 11:30 and go down and then she sleeps the 2.5 hrs, and then is down between 7:30-8pm and up at 7/7:15. But what is SOOO cute, is that when we say “Nap”or “Nite Nite” that she grabs her blankie and heads to the stairs and says “nite nite…nite nite.” Like, I’m ready, Let’s do this!! And regarding paci….we’ve kicked it! We kicked it about 3 months ago, but she got sick and we went backwards…but again, it’s out of the picture with EMERGENCY use only…and for babysitters if necessary!

*TOYS: Toys, we do the notecards, and see and find books. AB loves her books! LOVES THEM! And her puzzles, baby doll (that she kisses and hugs) and stroller, and the Leap Frog Dog, Violet that talks to Annabelle and tells her things we programmed into her (thank you Uncie Ryan!). She LOVES her big daddy slide upstairs and musical instruments and mini basketball goal. I’m excited b/c we have ordered her (from ebay) an Olivia doll and the Weebles Castle like the King’s that she just loved at their house.

*SONGS & SHOWS: Other then the pea’s “Boom Boom Boom” AB loves Twinkle Twinkle and does all the hand movements, same with Patty Cake, which she’s had since she was a few months old, only now she can actually ‘mark it with a B.’ She likes Itsy Bitsy Spider, and LIVES for the ABC’s and the Family hand-me-down “Shoo Shoo Hiney” song. She is still a DRONE when it comes to Baby Einstein, we try not to do it too much, but she usually gets about 15-20 minutes in the morning while I throw on makeup and fix some hair. She also loves Olivia and Sesame Street. She has always liked the intro music and such, but quickly lost interest. She now likes the show, gets excited when you say Olivia or if she meets an “Olivia” and just giggles and waves at Elmo. That red thing had captured her heart.

*MOBILITY: Walking has been great, but now, we’re running. I mean, RUNNING. Fewer and fewer “face plants” occur and now we have to keep on our toes! OF course there is nothing like having to chase your child when she has your something or other and things she’s found a new game!

*HYGIENE: Well, she fights like mad when you go to wipe her nose, but she’s lightening up. Asking her to do it for herself, and being quick and then “all done” helps suppress the drama. She loves bath time and we have fun in mommy’s big jacozzi. She puts all of her toys up and is so trusting to lay back and just relax in the water! That’s like what I always learned with buying a dog, make sure they lay on their backs in your arms, it shows submission and trust. Am I the only person that finds parallels in child raising and training dogs? J Also with tooth brushing, she LOVES it. She reminds me. We will be heading upstairs to her room, and she makes a pit stop in the bathroom, opens the drawer and bam…toothbrush. She brushes them too, all 16 of them! Not just sucking off the training toothpaste. She knows a lot of her body parts; nose, eyes, ears, hair, BOW, hiney, toes, feet, socks, hands, tongue, mouth, boobies, button- “butt” and she loves pointing at yours!

*HUMOR: Let it be known, that this kid, is stinkin hilarious! She does whatever it takes to get you to smile. If it’s the incessant “Momma…Momma…Momma…Momma” until you look around and she giggles, or the silly noises and sloshing back and forth in her car seat until you look and she cackles, she is always coming up with something. Running through the house, literally around the living room, kitchen, and back and again, while mumbling “ahhh…ahhh..ahhhh..ahhh….” she is just full of energy, giggles, smiles, and it melts our hearts.

*FASHION: She loves her bows. It’s not just me…she tries to get one before she goes to bed! But you know, the first thing she does when she doesn’t get her way….she goes for what hurts momma’s heart the most…the hair! Those beautiful, brown, ringlets! She reaches for the bow and band, and her little hand shakes until it is out of her hair and chucked onto the ground. But then picks it up, places it on her head and says “Bow” and signs please. LOL! She learned recently that if you pinch it, the teeth open and she can wedge it into her own hair! Regarding attire, we love us some Baby Nay, Isobella and Chloe, Baby LuLu, Lil Sis Designs (our can’t wait to get to it Spring outfit!) and then our homemade Mighty Ruffle pants and monogrammed or appliqué outfits, and pretty much anything target is fun! We have some incredible Strausburg, Feltman Brothers, Petite Ami, Kelly’s Kids, and other adorable things for Sunday’s this summer that we can’t wait to get to. YAY for consignment season…because we need spring and summer and we have a HEAP of close to consign that never got worn…….imagine that! Our pre-baby wardrobe is getting skinny and I’m ready for It to bulk up. It’s nice not having to buy things all the time for a growing baby but just pull out your special finds in an appropriately marked storage tub!

*ODDITIES: She loves to grab and suck on wipes (clean only, come on!), loves throwing her sippy cup on the ground or shaking it on her to see if it will come out. When she’s mad, she likes to 1^st, pull out her bow and hairband, 2^nd choice is to head butt or hit you if you’re close enough, and 3^rd choice, is just to bang her head on the closest thing around…you….the wall, the stairs, the floor…whateves! It’s awesome! And she still keeps strangers at arm’s length….she prefers mommy or daddy and will flirt like crazy and be bashful around men, and then freak out if you get too close too quickly….CLEARLY a trait she learned from her father. LOL.

This kid never ceases to surprise us!! There I started singing Twinkle Twinkle to her the other night, something I don't normally sing, and bam, she pulls out the hand movements to it! She is learning things at school so it seems! We are so blessed and we are loving the journey of this little bundle of energy as she molds into a beautiful combination of her father and I. She is funny, smart, a little standoffish and guarded, but loving and full of smiles, unless she is trying to prove a point....like "I don't HAVE to say please before I get my milk..." I am not EVEN going there again!!