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

 

 

On the Go!

Makenna is offically walking! Hooray! She took her first major steps of May 26th- She is SO proud of herself too. And of course we are super proud of her! Check it out... (dont mind the painting clothes!)

Also, the playroom is coming along nicely! We have made a few changes along the way. The Lime Green that I chose (a few posts back) ended up being a little too bright. I swear it didnt look "lime green" in the sample but it sure was lime green on the wall! We ended re-painting it with Olympic Paint's Asparagus check it out...

Lime Green (the before color for the stairs/ upstairs hallway)

Asparagus (the current color of the stairs/ upstairs hallway)

Just a shade darker but it makes a world of difference.

Also we are not going with the bright blue are carpet for the playroom. We decided it would be too much in that room so we are going to match the carpet thats on the stairs. It will look much better IMO. The carpet should be install this weekend though- YAY!

A big BOO though- I hesitated on ordering the bean bag chairs from Walmart and they are ALL out of stock! Grrr. I am really hoping they restock them. I actually stalk the Walmart site one to many times a day to see if they are available.

Anyway- Im so excited to have it all done. We have almost all the trim up, the railing and most of the spindles up...I even put up the wall decal tree. :o) Im waiting till it is finished for the big reveal though!

In other news, I am really excited- this weekend we are doing a local 3 mile walk for Breast Cancer called Paint the Porch Pink with a few friends. Its a cause thats really near and dear to me since a few wonderful women in my family have been survivors of breast cancer. And my wonderful Nana passed away from it when I was 3. Im excited to help support these - and the other amazing women out there who have battled with it!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!