Fun Age!

Jocelyn has reached SUCH a fun age! Seriously, 15.5 months old is awesome. I would love to keep her at this age for months and months.

We have Jocelyn sleep trained again. Mostly. Tonight she's a bit cranky, and is crying a tiny bit. But only a tiny bit. On Friday we took her off the bottle for good. She was only on her night time bottle for the past month or so, so on Friday we decided it was time for her to give it up. And you know what? It was no problem! I really expected a fight. And a big fight at that! I thought we'd have to transition to a bottle of water instead of milk just for suction. But now? Nothing! She has her bath, then once she's in her PJ's we give her milk and and a cookie, then we brush her teeth. After that, Mike reads her two stories (How Do I Love You? and Goodnight Moon). Then she cuddles with me while I sing her a few songs and rock her in the rocking chair. Once she gives two or three good yawns, I put her down in her crib. Then it's usually 10 minutes of light crying and some talking and then she's quiet. If she fusses a whole lot, we check on her to make sure she didn't poop or something (which happens more frequently than we would like).

But on tot he cuteness. I don't even know where to start right now... Jocelyn has so many cute new games. She is great about just sitting on our laps while we are sitting on the floor. She just parks her butt down. She often brings us the books she wants us to read to her. But sometimes she also piles all kinds of crap onto us - sneakers, Pooh bear, her globe, etc. - and then climbs onto us. If we try to put something down, she climbs down, hands it back to us, and then climbs back on. It's really funny.

Tonight she was feeding us dinner. We usually let her just feed herself, but sometimes she is skeptical so we have to break off the pieces and feed them to her. Today she took a bite of some chicken and then held it out to me. She fed it right into my mouth! It was SO freakin' cute! She did the same with Grandma. It was really sweet. Of course, in that process, she dropped some on the floor. And when I bent down to pick it up (so Dakota couldn't get to it) she threw her water cup at my head. So that was pretty funny.

Then tonight we took a walk up to the local ice cream shop and each of the grown ups got an ice cream cone. We did not get Jocelyn her own, but she is may be old enough soon to be able to handle her own kids cup. She literally grabbed the hand I was holding my cone in and pulled my cone to her mouth. It was SO ADORABLE! She probably ate 1/4 to 1/3 of my pumpkin pie ice cream. She also tasted Mike's cookie dough and Grandma's chocolate ice cream / orange sorbet mix. And as we sat there, she would point to the ones she wanted other bites of.

I am sure I have mentioned it, but Jocelyn loves Loves LOVES her Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal. It's as big as she is, but it doesn't stop her from walking around with him. Since her last illness (she had about two weeks ago) she does not like to be apart from him. We have to convince her to leave him inside when we go out for walks, or that he is too big to fit in her crib so he has to sleep in the recliner.

Well, today Mike and I took advantage of nap time and drove out to Babies R Us (Grandma was kind enough to sit with the sleeping baby). We looked around for bedding themes for Pecan, but also bought Jocelyn a whole bunch of stuff that she needs - two pair of pajamas, some new sippy cups and some sneakers (since it's starting to get colder / wetter out, which she is afraid to try on). We also bought her some fun stuff - some really cheap Halloween T shirts, Winnie the Pooh slippers (which, again, she won't try on), a Pumpkin bucket for collecting her Halloween candy, and a new book. I thought she would LOVE the slippers, and she does... but not to wear. She wants to carry them around.

While Jocelyn has been running for a while, she seems to have fully mastered the skill. She can run without falling / tripping now, and she loves it. She ran some 8 laps around the house last night - she went from living room to sun room to breakfast nook to kitchen and back to the living room. Over and over again. And she grinned the entire time. And while she has enjoyed being chased by her grandma for a while now, she's super into it now. She loves to have grandma hide out and scare her. It's super cute.

Speaking of scary things being fun... our house is now decorated for Halloween. We have a witch and caged mummy hanging outside, some pumpkins, and some window decals in our dining room - a skeleton and a vampire. Jocelyn loves them. She points to them all the time and is so interested. We hang out in the living room and she points back and forth from one to the other. When we go outside she gestures to the witch and the mummy. And now that we have those, she loves her Halloween book. We read it over and over and over again.

I can't wait to take her Trick-or-Treating. I don't think we'll get very far - only a few houses in the neighborhood. But I think she will love it! She is going as Winnie the Pooh (of course). She didn't pick it out - she didn't pick anything out. She wasn't too interested in any of the costumes, so we picked one for her. Hopefully she enjoys wearing it. If not, then we'll put her into her skeleton shirt and call it a day.

There are just so many cure things, I can't possibly write them all down. But Jocelyn is seriously the funniest person I know. Of course, we need to be more careful around her. Jocelyn HATES having dirty hands. It used to be that she would hold her hands out to have them wiped. But now she wipes them on her shirt, pants, couch, our clothes... whatever. Probably because she sees us wiping our hands on our pants. And Grandma recently stubbed her toe and said "Oh Sh*t!" without thinking about it, and guess what Jocelyn said. Luckily she hasn't repeated it since!

She says lots of things. She can say "All Gone" when she is done with her food, she can also say pen, banana (bana), and she tried to say ridiculous. She also is practicing her "S" sound a lot, and knows how to say 'shh' while holding her finger up to her mouth. It's super adorable.

That's all I have to say for now... I know, I said a whole heck of a lot!

Chatter Box!

Jocelyn talks so much now, it's so awesome! She has a few new actual words. She can now also say 'pen', 'moon', 'shh' (finger at her lips and all) and 'chgachgachga' (like a train). I think she also tried to say 'chicken.' It's just so cool to watch her learn stuff.

She loves to 'read.' She has always loved to flip through her books, but now she reads the words out loud. Sure, it's in baby talk, but she inflects as though she is telling a story. It is adorable. She also seems to get emotionally involved with her stories - I think she gets sad at one of her stories where a baby is crying.

In addition to the words she can say, and words she tries to say, Jocelyn understand so many words it's unbelievable. She knows snack and hungry - when you offer her a snack she runs to her snack cabinet. And when you offer her a meal - she knows the words breakfast, lunch and dinner - she tries to climb into her high chair. She also knows outside, poopie, pee pee, diaper, burp (which she tries to say sometimes, which is cute), Winnie / Pooh Bear, lamb, milk, mommy's room, bathroom, kitchen, Jocelyn's room, lamb, blanket... so many words. It's so amazing.

Speaking of climbing onto / into things... Jocelyn is really trying to climb up onto the couch. It's super cute. She works so hard at her physical tasks. She has also been really into the climbing at Gymboree (and everything else) lately. It's great - usually she doesn't do the prescribed activities during free play, but lately she has been trying them. And she just owns 'air log' time :-P. We do need to take her to the park more often, though, because she does need more climbing practice.

It's so amazing to watch this gorgeous baby girl turn into a child. She just does so much, and learns so much, and it is so cool.

23W2D - Fat bottom girls make the rockin' world go round... but not the birthing world :-P

Okay, it's sort of an exaggeration. But I got scolded at my last doctor's appointment because, well, I gained 27 lbs. in 22 weeks of pregnancy. Yeah... that's TOO many! The doctor offered to refer me to a dietician. I politely declined. I mean, hello, I know the rules. I know more about health and nutrition than most people I know. But knowledge does not always translate to appropriate actions.

With pregnancy I get *hungry*. Of course, when pregnant with Jocelyn I ate really well, even though I ate a lot. With Pecan I have been eating crap. I know it. So I am not upset that my doctor said I am getting too fat. Because I am. Her heart is in the right place. Too much weight gain makes for a really big baby, and a really big baby is harder to deliver vaginally. And since I want to deliver vaginally, well... you get the idea. So it's less crap and more fruit for Mama!

But I feel good, though. Pecan moves great. He is growing at the right pace. His heart rate is always right where it needs to be. He is growing so perfectly.