Whoops!

Forgot about the blog. Again. 

Our new little princess, Kinley is here. And almost 3 months old now. I was reading back on how Makenna was up to 3 months and I think Kinley fits everything I wrote perfectly. They were almost the same baby. Same temperament. Same issues. Nearly the same looks. But of course as Kinley grows she is developing her own little personality. And I love it. She is a total sweet heart. Loves to cuddle (something her big sis wasnt a fan of at this age) and she loves to talk to us. If you catch her eyes she will give you the biggest smile and turn her head shyly while smiling (look out boys). Here favorite noise to make sounds very much like a "hi". And the way she looks at Makenna just makes my heart melt. She even laughed twice at Makenna the other day. I cant wait till the laughs are more controlled, she will get a kick out of her silly big sister. We (Actually I) really lucked out with her being awesome during the night. Since day one de has been good and in the last month she seemed to develop a set schedule and demands bedtime between 7 and 8 then will sleep through the night, the last month has been till 4:30 or 5:30 but the past few days it has been till 6:30 AM. In her own bed. Woah. BUT as a second time mom, I know that could change any day and we could be thrown into the crazy mess of bad sleep schedules. But for now, I'm enjoying watching my angel sleep for 9 hour stretches. Daytime sleep is a whole nothing story though. She doesn't nap well at all. I can't get her to nap for more that 20-30 minutes most days. I'm not stressing about it though. Maybe it will change. Maybe not. She has also been discovering her hands. Which is fun to watch. I love to see these girls learning. 

In other news, it has been a big month for Makenna. She is fully potty trained now...YAYYYYYY! It has been a little over a week with very few accidents. We are so proud! She also knows her full abcs and can count to 10, sometimes she attempts to go further. She is growing up so fast. I can't believe in a few months she will be THREE! Seriously, time needs to slow down. 

20 weeks!

I have been meaning to jump back into the blog thing! It's been a whir So here is a pregnancy update!

how far along?
20 weeks.

how big is the the baby?
14 oz. according to today's anatomy scan. In the 96%!

total weight gain:
6 lbs

sleep:
Now that Makenna is pretty consistent about SSTN I sleep awesome. Sometimes a little uncomfortable and I often wake up to catch myself sleeping on my back but after a little adjusting and getting myself situated I'm quickly back to sleep.

best moment of the week:
Getting to feel little one move more and more. And our anatomy scan!

food cravings:
No intense cravings but I am loving spinach and Swiss cheese (preferably together). My new go to lunch is a spinach flavored wrap with fresh spinach, chicken, shredded Swiss and a little ranch. Mmmmmmm. Or today we had spinach, chicken and cheese (swiss and american) quesadillas. Amazing.

food aversions:
Not big on sweets like I was with Kenna. They are ok and I don't mind them but i prefer fruits and "real food" over sweets.

Symptoms:
Sore boobs, growing belly, kicking baby :)

gender sex:
GIRL!!

most looking forward to:
Makenna and Waylon being able to feel the kicks!

what I miss right now:
Oye. Being pain free. I have either a hernia or a round ligament varicosity. Either way, it's not fun. It's normally uncomfortable and a decent bulge but if I am on my feet to long or do too much physical activity it gets about golf ball sized and feels similar to the pain right after my csection. I get by though!

next appointment:
Sept 14


Bonus. A picture of the baby bump and the proud big sister!

20 months and counting!

Where to begin? Again it has been way to long since my last post. This time I'm gonna be honest with myself (and you) and I'm not going to claim I will get better with posting because obviously its not gonna happen.

 Makenna is almost 21 months now. 21 months. Seriously?! Where did that time go? I am with her pretty much 24/7 and I feel like it is flying by way to fast. Sometimes I feel like I have a 2-3 year old, not a one year old. She is a major talker. She will attempt to say anything we ask her to, and almost nails it the first try. She is getting better each day with her phrases. Sometimes she says stuff that I didnt even know she knew. Its amazing what their little brains pick up. Here are a few of our mini convos...

Makenna: "Mommmmmm!?" pause "Mommmmmmyyyyy?"
Me: "What punkin?"
Makenna: "Are you?" (where are you)
Me: "In the kitchen...where are you?" (she is often in the play room, the next room over...I of course know where she is :o)
Makenna: "I coming"

Or when she first saw the new paint in her play room. Let me set the scene...we are walking down the steps in the morning and she looks up and sees a bright blue wall in front of her.

Makenna: "oh noooo. Happen?"
Me: " its ok, Mommy painted last night, do you like it?" at this point we are at the bottom of the steps, she can see the whole room.
Makenna "woahhhhhh. I yike it"

I know there are a ton more mini convos that go on during the day. I am just having a brain fart.

20 month Makenna in a nut shell?

• Loves to take showers, prefers them over baths. She stands under the water, rinses her hair, washes her body with soap. And she is a MAJOR water hog.
• Just learned (today) how to go down the slide on her butt instead of on her belly, feet first. 
• Loves Bubble Guppies (Guppies), Mickey Mouse Club House (she knows all the characters including the wonderful Alpo (Pluto), Team Umizoomi, Little Einsteins (Rocket)  Jake and the Neverland Pirates (Jake). Any time one of these show ends she says "ohhh noooo. Wha Appened? All gone!" 
• Loves drama. Yes, already. She fakes injuries. I (obviously) am not a fan of this one. Whenever she is upset she will say "oww boo boo" and grab her hand while crying. Dog licks her... "oww boo boo". The worst though was when I was in Target with her, she refused to sit in the cart so I let her walk around with me and kept telling her to stay with Mommy. Usually she is good with it. Usually she gets a nap though, this day, she didnt. She takes off wandering so I nicely tell her if she doesnt stay with me, Ill have to carry her. She yells NO and takes off. I still keep my calm and go pick her up and calmly explain that she cant just take off. Cue the drama! Im pretty sure she could win a Grammy with the performance she put on. She screams, throws her body around and yells "Nooo Mommy!". I just push past it and bee line to the check out hoping she gets over it (she usually does pretty quickly) but of course, that day wasnt usual She starts screaming "OWWW OWWW OWWW BOO BOO!" over and over. Keep in mind, Im not hurting her at all. I wasn't holding her too tight or anything. So here I am standing in like being "that parent" with the screaming kid and even worse looking like I am the awful parent who is hurting there kid. If looks and glares could kill, I woulda been dead that day. Needless to say, this is a problem we are dealing with. She has thankfully gotten a little better.
  
  On the good side of being dramatic...yesterday we were in the car and she was pretending to tickle herself and laughing (not real laughing, pretend laughing) saying "hahaha at tickles hahahaha at tickles" (translate: that tickles)

• She has learned to say I love you. It comes out as "I yove youuuu"

And I am running out of time. Its just about bedtime and she is outside playing with Daddy, I have to go try to convince both of them its time to come in. Not an easy task.

Until next time!

Makenna and the See-bra

I really need to get better with the posting stuff.

New happenings?

Makenna has been dressing herself up a ton. Socks on the arms, legwarmers on her arms or over her pants, various shoes and hats on (she is playing with her snow hat on as I type this). Its so cute, my little fashion girl. And much cuter than the way I would catch her dressing up a few months ago- bra's as necklaces or underwear hats.

She is also putting more and more words together. She plays and talks to her toys now, which usually consists of her entire population of Little People (she has a zoo, a zoo train, a safari truck, some of the Noah's Arc animals, a SUV, a bus and an airplane). She will lay them down on something (usually the entertainment center) and say "seepy? all-white, night night". For those of you who do not speak toddler, that translates into "sleepy? Alright, night night".

The word of the day today seems to be "cute" but she says it more like "cuuuue-te". I was shopping for new running/walking shoes today and I held up a pair and asked her if she liked them, she said "cuuute". Haha No idea where she got that from, we tell her babies or animals are cute but never clothes. Could I have a little fashion-savvy toddler on my hands?

Other common phrases are "what happened?" with both hands in the air...usually there is an "ut oh" in there too. Or "ut oh, dropped it" when she drops something.

One of the latest heart melting moments was the other morning when I brought her into bed with us and she looks at Waylon sleeping and says "hi, my Daddy.. Shhh, seeping"

Also a word she just picked up in the last few days that I cant get enough of is zebra or "See-bra" as she likes to call them. Its so cute, and that see-bra is one of her current must have toys. He comes everywhere. Im so excited to take her to the Bronx Zoo this year. She will love seeing all the see-bras and raff's (giraffes). Im thinking the DC zoo is a must for this summer too because she seems to really like pandas.

I'm sure I have said it before, maybe many times. But I absolutely love this stage. Watching her learn so much each day and be so excited about little things (like finding out we had blueberries and strawberries in the fridge) is so much fun. I love how independent she is, how she doesn't need to cling to me at all or for more than a minute when we are in new situations. She will stand there quietly, taking everything in until she is comfortable to unleash the silly Makenna. Not that there is anything wrong with being clingy or shy! I was just a VERY shy child (still kinda shy) and I feel like I may have missed out on a lot because I was so quiet and shy and tend to sit on the sidelines instead of up in the action. So I just hope my kids are a little bit more outgoing than I was, but if not- that's okay too. So far though, she is at the perfect point of being cautious but still outgoing.

Until next time...

Wow. It has been a while. I'm sure a ton has happened in the last few months.

The holidays were great. It is so much more fun when you have a little one. Especially since this year she kinda got it. She was excited every time she saw a Santa. We would be driving down the street and she would say "HooooHoooo!". Sure enough I would look out the window and see a Santa in someones yard. She loved the tree and the lights also. Every morning she would walk up to the tree and say "on? peas?" for me to turn the lights on.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday festivities was going to the holiday parade in the next town over (which is only about a mile from our house so we walked over). She LOVED all the firetrucks, kids and lights. I will admit I actually got a bit emotional watching her reaction and seriously had to fight back some tears. Her eyes just lit up and she was so amazed each time. I have no clue how I will ever take her to Disney World if a silly town parade makes me a sap.

Another one of my faves was when our town came around in the firetruck with Santa to hand out candy canes. She LOVED it. She was so excited watching them go around the neighborhood. All she kept saying was "Ho Ho!". Then, when the truck stopped in front of our house those big amazed eyes lit up again (I was battling holding back the emotions again!). And she nicely thanked the fireman when he handed her the candy cane and waved "bye bye". So cute. The one thing I was super bummed about was that my husband wasn't home to witness that one.

She loved the gift opening on Christmas morning. We started at our house, of course. She didnt show too much reaction to what the gifts were, except for her Elmo slippers. When she opened the box she said "Elmo!". Everything else she would unwrap and put to the side and say "more?" for another gift. Once we got to my parents house though- the game was on. She knew EXACTLY which gifts were hers (wrapped in Mickey and Spongebob). And quickly caught on that the Spongebob paper was toys and Mickey was clothes so she bee lined for her "BumBob" gifts...even climbing over everyone else's gifts to get to them. Too funny. She made out like a bandit too.

Then New Years weekend we went to Delaware to spend some time with the Potts side of the family. Always a good time. Makenna has a BLAST playing with all her cousins. She goes from not having many kids to play with around here to having 4 big cousins (7, 5 and 2 two year olds) and 1 little cousin (6 months) there. 

Aside from the holidays, one of the biggest thing to happen in the Potts household is Makenna is now fully weaned and sleeping through the night (since a few weeks before Christmas)! We still have occasional nights were she wakes up in the middle of the night but I think thats due to her teething with her canines. Poor kid. I just wish all these teeth would come in. I do miss the night time bonding and cuddles, Im not gonna lie. But I knew it was time for both of us.

Some more milestones in the life of Makenna?

She is talking a ton. Putting a lot of phrases together like "tan tu, Mommy" [Thank you, Mommy], "sit Eiko...down Eiko...no Eiko" [Neiko], She picks the main words in sentences we say to repeat. Example if I say, "No, No don't touch that's hot." She will say "hot" and nod her head. Sometimes I feel like there is an echo in the house :o) Also, "I see youuuuu" is a common phrase and she has been saying "coming" a lot. I guess I say "Im coming" to her frequently because now when she wants to to come with her somewhere she will hold out her hand (for you to take/follow) and say "coming Mommy". She does use it in the correct context too though.

She loves to sing and dance. And this little girl has rhythm- clearly she didnt get it from her Mother or Father. At the toddler Rhyme Time that we go to at the library, they sing a "Hello" song with the kids names in the verse (ie "Hello Makenna, Makenna is my friend, Hello Makenna and here we go again" repeating for the next kid in the circle). Makenna is a huge fan of this song. We sing it in the car all the time but we change the verses for our friends and families names. Now she sings the hello song by herself- well, she makes a darn good attempt. I will catch her in her car seat singing "Helwo Eiko...Helwo Mommy...helwo". She also likes when I sing the verses and she tells me whose name to use. I will sing the verse and ask her "now who?" and she will say "daddy" or "nana" etc.

She is doing awesome at eating on her own with a spoon or fork. She has always been a good eater- and always fed herself since we did Baby Led Weaning. But now she is becoming a master. Today we were out at Ikea and she sat in a chair (big girl chair, she hates high chairs- she wants to be one of the big people) and ate a half of a yogurt with a spoon and didn't spill a drop on herself. I was impressed!

She loves to be silly, loving (when its on her terms), loves to learn. As always loves when she has the attention of the room and will make sure everyone is watching (unless its people she doesn't know- then she needs about a half hour or so to warm up before she steals the show). She loves to make us laugh and totally knows when she is being funny...or bad...or smart.

Every stage of her life I say to myself "this is the best" until I get to the next stage and think the same thing. I know I am a little bias since I am her mother but she really is an amazing little girl. I'm so incredibly proud to call her ours. <3

Lefty or Righty? Or maybe both!

Lately Makenna has been throwing us for a loop. Ever since she was little she favored doing things with her right hand. So naturally we assumed she was a righty. Assume nothing. Now she is doing things with her left hand. Or both. Like eating- she eats on her own with a spoon or fork now (has for a few months) and more often than not she is using her left hand. In the beginning I corrected her and put it in her right hand but now Im not so sure. So I let it go and if that's easier and feels natural for her then maybe she is a lefty. My Mom caught her kicking a ball with her left foot the other day too. Silly girl. She always keeps us on our toes, never being predictable.

A few things I forgot about in the last post-

Her Bubba

She picked up on me sometimes calling Neiko, Bubba. Ive always done it but don't do it too often so I was kinda shocked when I heard her call her "Bubba" for the first time a few weeks ago. Sometimes is for him to come to her, sometimes its for him to "Go-way". Sometimes she sings a Bubba Song. I guess at 15 months Bubba is much easier to say than Neiko. But in the last few days she has been practicing saying Neiko, randomly. It usually comes out as "ek-KO" but thats close enough!

Last night she was sharing her cheerios with Neiko (she had enough and was concerned he didnt) and we taught her to tell him to "sit" first. She thought it was the best thing ever. And was even more funny when Daddy showed her all the other tricks we could make him do.

Shoes

She knows how to put her shoes on. She has velcro sneakers that she LOVES to put on herself and wear around the house. More often than not they are on the wrong feet but she has it down. She will even close the velcro. This has come in handy when she takes them off in the car, which she has done since she was about 6 months old. She hated shoes or socks on in the car. BUT this is usually what happens in the car, EVERY time she gets put in her seat (even if we are going to a store a block away)

-the shoes and socks come off

-the shoes go back on.

-I park the car, open the door on he side to see the shoes on, socks missing and the velcro out of the loop of her shoes

-She looks at me and says "Elp?" (aka help)

-I say "I thought I told you to leave the shoes on silly, where are your socks?"

-She says "ocks" and points to the seat or floor, or hands me a sock if she has it handy.

Everytime. No exageration.

 I decided I am going to create a new post every month (on the 29th) called "What I like". Since this blog is mostly for her and something to look back on, it will be fun to see what he current favorite or must haves were at the time. Hopefully I stick to it though! 

Latest happenings?

Yesterday she learned to lock doors... bad part of that was I was on the other side of the door when she figured it out. The door to our basement steps has a knob that's reverse (the lock is on the kitchen side instead of the basement side of the door) and we have a child saftey thingie on the doorknob. Well, I ran down the basement to get a shirt out of the dryer real quick. Literally takes less than a minute. Our basement steps are SUPER steep so I don't really like taking her down them if I don't have to. Well she didn't like being left (she LOVES to visit our snakes and ferret down there). So there she yelled at me. I heard the knob jiggle and figured she was spinning the lock thingie to try to get the door open. I run up the steps to realize, I'm locked in the basement by my 16 month old. Nice. Luckily our basement has a door (picture something out of Alice and Wonderland- this "door" is only about 4 feet tall) leading outside. So I was able to go outside and come back in through the backdoor (which luckily I didn't lock this time cause I usually do).
Lessons learned?
1. Turn the knob around and dont let your kids have access to locking you in the basement
2. Always have your phone on you
3. Dont piss off Makenna.

We have been going to the library once a week for Under 2 yr old "Rhyme Time" (this past Thursday was the 2nd time). They sing songs, dance, read a book, do interactive things.  Its really cute. Makenna is so shy around people she doesn't know or in big groups (wonder where she gets that from ;o). So most of the time she just sits on my lap and watches the teacher and the other kids. Majority of the stuff she knows what to do (like jump, clap, stomp, animal noises, etc) but she is too shy to do any of it. This past time she did clap a little though so hopefully each time she will build up some confidence. We dont know too many kids her age in our area so I really like her to learn how to interact and see how other kids interact. She is nice to the other kids, she just doesn't get how to interact and play with them yet. At the end of the session they let the kids free play and she always tries to share the balls and toys with the other kids and babies though so I guess that's a start!



The first set of molars- I hate them! This poor little girl. I feel awful. A month ago they were swollen and she had a slight fever over these darn teeth. Then things calmed down. She wasn't cranky, started sleeping more normal (well, "Makenna normal"), started self weaning and she even started putting herself back to sleep when she woke up. Then BAM the darn teeth pain comes back full force and she is back to waking up constantly, wanting to nurse more at night, avoiding naps and being a total crank-ster during the day (which cause also be from the lack of sleep). Not fun. I can feel them spiking through though so hopefully they pop in soon so she doesn't have this crazy pain...and so I have some sanity.

~These are a few of her favorite things~

- Telling Neiko to "Go Way". He does get in her face a TON but Im trying to teach her its not nice to say "go away"...esp since she has said to to people a few times, and today we caught her singing "la ah la da la...go way" in the car today.

- Elmo. And she is spot on for saying his name.


- Babies. She loves singing about them, talking to them...pretend crying like them (which sounds very similar to her "cat" noise). She loves it. He cousin Miranda was here a few days ago (I think she is 5 months?) and Makenna kept talking to her and when she cried Makenna would bring her bottle and say "baby...baby". She will make a great big sister someday <3

-Apples. Grapes have been a staple in our house but lately they have been replaces with apples. I think part of it is she just loves saying "apple". She really says it clear too.

 - Playing dress up. She loves picking up random pieces of clothing and "trying them on". Whether it be a pair of our shoes, a pants turned hat, shirt turned dress or bra turned necklace (true story) its fashionable. And she will often leave the room, and come back in and if you aren't paying attention she will get all excited to show off and say "Hello!" and giggle like crazy when you see her new fashion statement.

Here are some super blurry pics...

And some not so blurry but super cute pics from the park when her cousins Andre and Miranda came.

NOTE: The matching shirts were a TOTAL coincidence. Before we left the house for the park we both had to change the girls and did so separately, (not realizing we picked identical clothes)...and went with it anyway. They are too cute.

A little girl and her NEW best friend

Makenna has a new love. Of course Neiko (our dog) has not been replaced as the bff...he just isn't as easy to carry every where as Mickey Mouse. She has always liked when he walks out in the beginning of Disney Jrs Mickey Mouse Clubhouse...she would smile so big and giggle. My Mom and I found a Mickey Mouse at Target in the clearance section... $10! Win! She immediately wanted him out of the box and was kissing and hugging him. And has rarely put him down since. He goes EVERYWHERE with us. To the store, to the park, down the slide, to bed, even if we are only going down the basement to flip the laundry. He is always right there by her side...



Its so cute. The funny part of it though is he is almost as big as her.



It totally threw me off guard when she became so attached to him. She has never had an attachment to anything (except me). But this is love. And since she cant say "Mickey" she calls him "E". And if he isn't there, she is asking me for her "E".

She really just has a new love of stuffed animals. Which is awesome cause we have PLENTY since my ridiculous self couldn't part with my childhood stuffed animals so I saved them. Yanno, in case the world ran out of stuffed animals and my kids needed them. Sometimes I catch her trying to carry Five Plus stuffed animals at a time including Mickey, Two Giraffe (Raff as she calls them), a Monkey (aka an Eek Eek), a duck (her Uck). She doesn't like to leave anyone out of her little parties. Those five seem to be the more special ones lately. The VIP list.

She also loves putting them on her random walkers and ride on toys and pushes them or takes them for a ride. Santa is already planning on a nice baby stroller under the tree this year. Or maybe he should bring a wagon that way E, Eek Eek, Uck and the Raffs can all travel together!

A little girl and her best friend

I know I have said it time and time again but seriously, Neiko (our monster sized chihuahua) and Makenna are as BFF as they come. They LOVE playing together and definitely look out for each other. Example.

Today I was giving Neiko a bath in the tub. He hates baths. Although he doesn't fully freak out, you can definitely tell they stress him out. He was badly in need of one though. Anyway. I have Neiko in the tub...Makenna was behind me. All the sudden she takes off running and disappears out of the bathroom. So I call for her and don't hear anything. A second later she comes running in the bathroom. I'm still leaning over the tub, scrubbing the dog and I see her little hand pushing past me to get to Neiko. And in it? A piece of dog food. And in the other hand? A handful of dog food. She stood there and hand fed him one piece at a time, calming him down while I finished his bath. So cute. She is already so thoughtful and would do anything for her Neiko. Check out some pics of the bffs in action...







In other happenings, she is talking a ton now. She tries to say almost any word we ask her to. Some really clear ones are bye, hi, see ya later (which comes out as one word), Help, Up, Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Apple, Shoes, Car, Baby, Please, Thank you and Juice. Of course my favorite out of the bunch is Mommy. The way she says it and her little cute voice just makes me melt every time. I definitely have to get it on film. In the last week she has picked up almost every animal noise I have taught her including Tiger, Lion, Cat, Dog, Frog, Sheep, Monkey, Bird, Cow, Snake. And when you ask her what a bunny does she says "hop hop", what a lizard does she flicks her tongue in and out and what Neiko does- she pants like a dog. haha She really is so silly. She LOVES pretending to be a dog...crawling around on all 4s and coming over for us to pet her and tell her how she is such a cute dog. She also loves to dance...and sing. She has the cutest song that she made up herself. Not of words, its more a "dob-ie dob" kinda sound but its by far my favorite song ever. And of course the baby song where she sings "bayyyyyyyyy beeeeeee bayyyyyyy beeeee". Galloping is also a current favorite activity. She is just so active and fun. I really can't imagine her having a better personality. She is pretty shy around other people though (wonder where she got that from), sometimes I wish she would break out of her shell and let the real Makenna shine though.

As for the sleep issues, we are still working on them. She has gotten a lot better in the past few weeks though. In time!

Baby Shower Fun!

Currently I am planning a baby shower for my awesome cousin, Kathryn, who lives in Florida. Since she lives so far, we are having the gifts sent directly to her in FL but she is flying up this weekend for the Baby Shower. All the guests were asked to print pictures of the items they bought to put in a card or box for her to open so it still has the awwww cute-effect even though the gifts wont physically be there. We are having a small wishing well for her to open a few things though. I'm super excited. I have been working on the DIY details for a about 2 months now and becoming more obsessed with them each day. Her friends and family have done a great job helping out also and I cant wait to see the details all come together.

Here is a sneak peek- Kathryn, you better hit that little X and ska-daddle!






Invites

Dont mind the scratch, this was an extra.


The inside of the invite (obvs the info was changed)




Cupcake Toppers


Centerpieces (3 pieces)

Flower Vase


Picture Frame (there are 2 different styles)


Small Monkey Tin with Candies



Hershey Candy Bar Favors



Food Labels


Water Bottles







I also have a banner in the making. Ill most likely be posting pics from the day of the shower. Can't wait!

Silly Monster

I cant express how much I love this silly monster. She just has me cracking up all day. She LOVES to be silly and definitely knows when she is. She even laughs at herself most of the time also! She is SO smart too. We have never "baby talked" to her. Not even when she was an infant. I don't really believe in or like the whole baby talk thing. We don't want to teach her words that you make sound 'babyish' like "doggie" or "up-y". I kinda think its silly to teach them babyish words THEN teach them the real words. Why not just teach them the real words to begin with? I don't know, that's just my opinion- every Mom has their thing, right?

Anyway!

A few days ago, I was sitting at the computer...Neiko (our monster chihuahua) came and laid on my lap. Makenna decided this was not acceptable and SHE wanted to get in my lap. She came over and started pushing his bottom and said "go". Then of course it turned into a game for the two of them and they started playing. But she just amazes me with how fast she picks up stuff. We were just teaching her "go" the day before and to have her use it out of the blue and in the correct situation is awesome.

Also the other day, we were at the park and they have this steering wheel thing and she was standing at it and I asked her if she wanted to "drive". She turned to me and said "keys?". For me to give her the keys because DUH Mom, you cant drive without keys! Here is a pic...



And the silly little monkey climbed this big guy at the park all by herself. OF COURSE I was right behind her, spotting her, but she didn't need my help at all.



Another tale of sillyness- the other night I was rocking her to sleep (yep, the sleeping plan is still in effect!) and she was flopping this way and that way in my lap to get comfy. She ended up sitting in my lap with her back against my chest. I had my hands on her lap and she grabs both of my hands, puts them on her head and says "hat?". haha So silly. I couldn't help but laugh and of course she laughed too.

I have a feeling we will have a lifetime of laughs with this little Monster :o)

Leaps and Bounds!

That's right! We are making leaps and bounds over here in the Potts household. I'm beyond excited.

I think I have mentioned in the past Makenna's sleeping issues. Something that has been VERY hard for me to fix. Ive read books, Ive followed advice and nothing. My little monster* is just very very strong willed and stubborn. We have finally made a break through though. HOORAY! We finally moved back upstairs to our separate rooms. After the playroom reno- a few things have stopped us from quickly going back up there but the biggest was probably my fear. I was so afraid that she wouldn't handle being in her own room (even though our rooms are only separated by a doorway). She loves her room during the day but that still didn't have me convinced that it would make night time any easier. I thought for sure she would go back to waking up every hour (like last time) instead of every 3-4 hours. I was wrong. She seems to really like sleeping in her room. She still wakes up every 3-4 hours BUT she no longer needs to nurse to fall asleep initially. Which sounds like such an easy task to conquer...but if you ever had to conquer it, you would know- its not. At all. Now that she understands me a lot more I am able to tell her that the milk is "all gone". Some nights she fights me a little (like tonight) but other nights she is completely fine with it and lays her head on my chest for me to rock/sing her to sleep. Love. Putting her to bed is SO much more enjoyable now. Not that I hated nursing her to sleep, I didn't . I love bonding with her. I would just really stress on how or if ever she would learn to wean. I definitely didn't want to be forceful about it but I started to think she would just want to nurse forever (insert Grown Ups joke here). Although our sleeping issues are far from being fixed, they are at least on the road. It may be a long road, it may be a short road...but at least we are on the road and not lost out in the dark woods!

In other happenings- she is talking and communicating a lot more. She shakes her head "yes" to answer questions. And 99% of the time its really when she means yes. If not she will say "no". As much as I dreaded her learning the word no- I love the way she says it. Its so cute. She almost sings it. She uses her sign language a lot also. I am SO happy we did that with her. She gets really frustrated when she cant figure out how to tell me something so the fact that most of the time she can, is awesome. Her latest thing is to go around saying "Appy" meaning happy. She will just walk around the house saying "Appy, Appy, Appy". :o) If you ask her if she is happy she will smile and say "Appy". Also when you ask her how old she is she holds up her pointer finger, for 1. So cute. We are still working on colors. She is good with her animal noises and loves loves her some monkeys.

In the last week, she has started to get interested in the tv. I have never forced her to watch tv or even wanted it but instead of having her listen to crap tv all day, I leave kids shows on- usually Nick JR or Disney channel. That way she is at least catching bits of kid friendly learning material if she does listen in. Her favorite show seems to be Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She likes Jack and the Neverland Pirates also...and Sponge Bob. All shows I approve of. I'm not a fan of the weird/creepy shows where people jump around in costumes and talk like babies. Yo Gabba Gabba- Im looking at YOU!

We found some great outdoor toys on Craigs List. Makenna loves them, sometimes its a fight to get her inside. Im glad she finally has something to do out there though! Once we get our fence up this fall, we are set!


*A monster may be a bad thing to you but to me, its my perfect little girl with tons of sassyness and spunk. If you know Makenna, the cutsey girl names just aren't her. She is my monster and I love my monster more that anything.

Silly Dilly

Yipes it’s been a long time! Makenna is getting ready to start college. Juuuust kidding. Some days I feel like its not long before that time is here though. She is growing so fast and learning to talk even faster.

Her first word was “ball” about 2 months ago…aside from the dada gibberish. She would pick up the balls from her ball pit and walk around the house holding it in the air saying “baw baw baw”. So cute. But I guess now that she has moved onto bigger and better words, she doesnt want to say it anymore. It seems like in the past 2 weeks she has been learning faster and now says (on a regular basis) “hi”, “juice” (which sounds like “Zeus”), “shoes” (which sounds like “Sues”), “Dad/Daddy”, “Mom/ Mommy”, “Woah”, “yeah”. And there is something she said all the time, that I cant figure out what she is trying to say but it sounds like a 3 letter word for butt. haha. Also randomly she will repeat other words like Grandpa (Bampa), Nana, Riley, Mike, Michael (I know most people wont believe my 13 month old said Michael but she did, she repeated it right after my brother in law called his son, Michael. I have witnesses!). Every day its something new. Yesterday was “yes”. Usually she shakes her head yes but today she repeated it right back to me. My little jabbermouth :) .

She can also point out her eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, belly, hair and also the same on me. She also signs a lot more now. She signs for “eat”, “milk” “all done” and yesterday she started “more”. The part that amazes me is that I will go a while without practicing more signs then all of the sudden she will just do them- like “more”, I hadn’t shown her that one in weeks and she just did it out of no where when I asked her if she wanted more. She understands so much of what we say also. If you ask her if she wants to take Neiko outside she says a “yeah!” and goes right for her shoes or his leash… then waits at the back door. She just loves to learn and interact with people. We are trying to work on colors right now since she picks up on everything so fast. I hope she is always this interested in learning!   

She definitely takes after her father with the extreme stubbornness and silliness (is that a word? O well, it is now). And she is a little trouble maker! She loves to challenge us, and totally thinks its funny when she gets in trouble. Its so funny watching her giggle…and so hard to fight back the urge to laugh back. And she climbs like a little monkey- just like her Daddy. However she is just like me when it comes to being scared of random things- Like the sound of her Daddy’s truck roaring down the driveway, she was afraid of Elmo at her birthday party (totally something Im afraid of too!).

At every stage of her life I think “this is the fun part” but it just keeps getting more fun. I love how she can communicate and interact. I love watching her little personality grow. I really don’t know what we did all those years without her!

Hooray Summer!

 

Well, Makenna's crawling days are over. She is now walking full time! She is getting big so fast! Before we know it she will be talking like crazy. We have been doing animal noises (and faces). She does this really cute/silly face where she scrunches up her nose and sniffs in and out...and usually has her eyes closed. If you ask her "What does a bunny do?" that's the face you will get! Also, if you ask her what a snake says she hisses. haha. I think its so funny she picked up that noise first, I barely taught her that one. I have been trying to teach her other animals like a dog, cat, lion, frog, etc. She usually just laughs at me though.

Within the last week she has pointed out my facial features while she is nursing. She has "nose" and "eyes" down. We are working on mouth...she loves shoving her fingers in my mouth. Goof.

Speaking of mouths! Her front teef-ers are coming in. One popped through, we are just waiting for the other to. And I seriously cant wait for that- she has been SO cranky. It did result in breaking my cheap self down and getting a Sophie Giraffe for her though. She loves her Sophie though so it was totally worth the money.

Alright, enough talk. Time for some pics!

Pool Fun!

- Taken by her Uncle Mike

    

 

 

Backyard Fun!

-I finally decided to play with the Manual Mode on the camera!

     

 

One Year Pictures!

- taken by her Uncle Mike