Quick note

Ok, I'm always begging for comments on here but I just changed the setting so that you don't have to have a Blogger or gmail account to comment. So, anybody can leave some Doodle love! Of course, I just ask that everyone is nice and leaves their real name if they leave a comment. Ok, that's all. Carry on with your day, especially Ashley who is at this moment in labor with my newest little cousin, Colton! Can't wait for Doods to have a cousin nearby that is close in age! Ok, so they'll be able to play better in a couple of years, but still, it's closer than Carrie and her new little brother or sister all the way in Pennsylvania!

Spaghetti Dinner

Friday night, Doodle and I had spaghetti for dinner. I gave Doodle her plate fixed the way I always fix spaghetti for her. A little sauce, the noodles cut up into about one inch pieces, and lots of cheese. She was content with that until I sat down to eat my spaghetti. My long, curled up strands of spaghetti that had to be twirled around a fork and slurped up. Suddenly, she was no longer content to eat off her plate anymore. Or with her little toddler fork. My plate, my food, and my fork all became hers. So I figured the best thing I could do was document it for all to see. She was really cute trying to figure out who to eat the noodles as they kept sliding off the fork and hanging out of her mouth. I was just glad that I don't like a lot of sauce on my pasta or she would have been a ginormous mess! (And according to my spell check "ginormous" is indeed a word and spelled correctly. Who would have known??) On to the pictures with a couple of bonus pictures at the end just because I can!




Her initial technique was to feed herself with her right hand while holding the fork as a prop in the left.



Then she tried the fork out. So far, so good, she got a piece of spaghetti on it!





Oops, still need some help to get the whole piece into the mouth. Notice the piece stuck to her chest. I'm sure the got fed to the dogs eventually!



Ah, there's a good mouthful! The fork has now moved to the other hand to be used as a prop.




She decided to eat some of the sausage off her own plate but couldn't quite give up my plate. See how she's protectively placed her hand on it. She's just waiting for me to try to take it away.




Here you can see the fork I got to use while she eats with my fork. I could have gotten another adult sized fork but I figure since she still can't wash dishes and I'd end up having to clean it (or put it in the dishwasher really, but it's still an extra step), I'd just make do with the little Take and Toss fork.



Such concentration!!




Here I managed to get my fork back because she wanted help. Of course, her technique at eating off a fork that Momma is holding isn't quite the same as when she holds it herself.




This is the best "after" shot I could get. As I said earlier, I'm glad I don't like a lot of sauce on my pasta. She was just a little orange around the mouth, chin, cheeks, and nose. None in the hair, thankfully, because she HATES having her hair washed. Actually, it's the rinsing she hates by why split hairs. (Hahaha, I'm so punny!)







This has nothing to do with our dinner but I thought it was funny. Doods helped me load a case of bottled water into the fridge. See them all on the bottom shelf behind her?? Well, apparently, it wore her out so she had to take a rest right there in the refrigerator.



And this one for two reasons. One: see how tall she is! She can open doors with lever handles.(Don't worry, Granma and Granpa, we always keep the front door locked so she can't open it.) Pretty soon we're going to have to put door knob covers on all doors out of the house. Two: see how smart she is!! She has the key to our van and she's trying to unlock the door with it. I guess watching us unlock the door at our apartment for those seven months had a bit of an impact on her because we only use the garage door opener now.

Doctors Visits

Last week, Doodle had her 18 month check up. Dr. Lockhart said that she is growing very well and was very pleased with her development. Doods kept her laughing with her crazy antics. She climbed into her stroller and leaped into my lap repeatedly while I was trying to talk to the doctor. She also kicked the doctor out of the room by closing the door behind her and yelling, "BYE BYE!" Again. She did it last time too. Good thing Dr. Lockhart is a good sport about it and just laughs! Doodle handled the entire visit very well until it came time to get her shots. I really can't blame her for not liking that part because I don't like it either. :o(

Official Stats:

Height - 32 1/2 inches, about 75-80th percentile (Dr. Lockhart thinks she's probably gearing up for a growth spurt since her height hasn't gone up too much since her 15 month visit. Her chart for her height looks like stair steps because she levels off and then hits a spurt and then levels off again. Since she's leveled off this time, she'll probably hit a spurt again. We don't go back again until she's two, though, so it might not show up so much as a spurt on the chart by then. She's still tall for her age, though, and if you double her height, it's three inches taller than me!)

Weight - 29 lbs, 12 1/4 oz, off the chart so 100th percentile (This is where she's been since she was about three months old, if not earlier. Dr. Lockhart has no concerns at all about her weight. She's just a big kid. Funnily enough, though, in the elevator leaving this appointment, a woman asked, "How old is she? Six months?" I really had to restrain myself to not laugh at that. She's off the charts for an eighteen month old and this lady was asking if she was a year younger than that?? Apparently she doesn't spend ANY time around babies!)

That was last Wednesday. Today we took her in again because she's been so cranky and clingy and out of sorts this week that I was convinced she had to have an ear infection. She's been rubbing at her ears a bit and my ears hurt so I thought maybe I'd picked something up and given it to her. Well, Dr. Lockhart was out of the office today so we saw the other doctor in the office, Dr. Hernandez. He was very nice, very gentle, and very knowledgeable. (I just love this doctor's office! If you know anyone having a baby who needs a pediatrician, Osler Pediatrics in great!) He asked us a ton of questions and examined Doods and couldn't find anything specific to pin her behavior on. He said she might just have a simple virus that was making her feel blah but since she couldn't tell us what was wrong, he couldn't really go past that. He did look at her ears and said they looked perfect and he could tell that she's never had an ear infection. It was really funny when he asked if she'd had one before and Andy and I said no. He literally did a double take and looked at us like we maybe we misunderstood the question. I quickly told him that she's not in day care and he seemed a lot less confused. "Oh, that explains it!" We've really lucked out in that sense because Doods has never really been sick. We've taken her in a few times thinking she might be ill but it never really amounts to anything. Still, I'd rather we bring her in and they tell us that there is nothing wrong with her than for us to say there's nothing wrong only to find out later that something is wrong.

And because every post is better with pictures, here's a collage of all of Doodle's birthday portraits!

Christmas in August??

Ok, so I'm way out of season but I just scanned this picture today. It got wet sometime in one of our two moves since it was taken so the original is in kind of poor shape. I just couldn't resist posting it here because she's changed so much in just 8 months. Look at that chubby face and those fat little feet! She's just too cute. She was terrified of Santa, as you can see. I think that makes it even more priceless than if she was happy, though.

Daddy's Girl

Just a short little video today showing Doodle's reaction when she saw Andy walking out of work the other day.




How could you not be happy after a reaction like that? I get the same kind of thing when I walk into the house from work but she's running towards me as she does it. It makes my day! It's like being a rock star in your own house. If only she would stay that excited to see us as she gets into her teen years...

I'll post some more tomorrow and I'll give you all the details from her 18 month check up today. I'm still trying to figure out how she got to be a year and a half old!

Imagination at work

Doodle's starting to exhibit signs of great imagination lately. It's fun to watch her learn to put some concepts together, like treating her baby doll like a real baby. She loves to feed her baby its bottle and rock her before putting her "night nights". She also likes to share her food with her dolls. The funniest yet has been watching her try to feed French fries to her Littlest Pet Shop toy that came in her Happy Meal. It's the equivalent of trying to feed Doodle a ten foot long four by four! Luckily, her toys are good sports about the force feedings.

Last week, while we were at Ikea, I handed Doodle a stuffed dog to see if she liked it. She started petting it and saying, "Niiiie. Niiiie. Niiiie." It took me a second to figure out she was saying, "Nice" like she was petting a real dog. We have worked hard to make sure she treats the dogs and cat nicely so that they aren't scared of her and don't try to hurt her. Last night, while I was sitting on the edge of the tub watching her play in the bath, she started petting my arm and saying, "Niiie, niiiiiiie, niiiiiiiiie!" It was too cute for words!

After her bath, I took her out to the living room to get a dry diaper on. We were playing for a while and Andy was laying on the couch. Well, he ended up falling asleep and snoring. Doods stops what she's doing and puts her finger to her lips and says, "SSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Then she walks over to Andy, smacks him on the arm, and gets in his face and does the same thing when he opens his eyes. I told him that she didn't want him snoring anymore. It didn't work. He fell back to sleep and started snoring again. Well, this time, Doods took the opportunity while I was hiding from her under a blanket to hit Andy in the face with a book. He decided that it was time to get up and go to bed. I guess that method was a little more effective than shushing him!


Edited to add: Earlier today Andy called me into the living room. He told Doods to keep playing and not pay attention to me because he wanted me to see what she was doing. She was trying to put her shorts on her baby doll. It was so adorable! She's also tried to put her shoes on her doll before, too. She did manage to put one of her own shoes on earlier today. Pretty impressive for a not quite eighteen month old!

Not much going on

Not much going on with us this week. We've been hanging out at the house. Uncle Alex came to visit us for a couple days and hung around the house with us. Doodle was very clingy Monday and Tuesday. As in, every time I started to put her down she started screaming, crying big ole tears, and threw herself on the ground. It made for a fun time trying to cook dinner Monday night. No wonder the casserole I made is barely edible. But, she seems to be in a better mood today. Of course, that could be because she's taken over a bag of cheddar cheese rice cakes as her own. This is the second bag I've bought this week. She loves them! She hasn't been great at eating actual food the past couple of days so I'm just happy that she's eating anything at all.

Over the past two weeks or so, Doodle has developed some new skills. One is throwing things. She's got quite an arm on her for someone so small. Just ask Uncle Alex! She beaned him in the kneecap with a block last night and I didn't think he was going to be able to walk for an hour afterward. She also likes to throw anything she's decided she's finished with, such as her dinner, her drink, or her toys. It's a hard habit to break because she's quite fast and takes you by surprise with her throwing. The other skill she's developing is throwing...tantrums. She's started kicking her legs and screaming when she doesn't get her way. What's her favorite thing to scream you ask? "NO, Momma!" Every time she does it, though, all I can think of is that she's using two words together like they asked us about at her 15 month check up. That was the only skill she didn't hit on the checklist but her doctor pointed out that it is expected anywhere from 15 months to something like 22 months. I'm just happy that next week when we go for her 18 month check up we can say that we've reached that milestone, too.

Lastly, Doodle wanted me to say, "Happy birthday to Aunt Katie!" Love ya, leetle seester!

Weekend in Orlando

This weekend we took a trip to Orlando. We went to SeaWorld and hung out with some of Andy's best friends. Doodle had a lot of fun (and so did Andy and I)! Here are some pictures of what we did:



At SeaWorld, we tried to escape the heat and the crowds by going to the underwater viewing area for the dolphins. It's very peaceful in there when there aren't five thousand tourists shouting over the calm music being piped in. Unfortunately, there were five thousand tourists shouting over the calm music being piped in! Doodle enjoyed watching the water though and a few dolphins swam by so we could see them. (Not for this picture, though!)




After the dolphins, we went to see the manatees. Such peaceful, giant creatures. This area wasn't quite as crowded so we actually got to see the animals. Aren't this mother and baby just the cutest? (I know, cute is a relative term! They may not be fuzzy and furry cute but they are still cute!)




After the manatees, we headed across the park to cool off in the water fountains in the kids' area. Andy took the first turn. Doodle wasn't really feeling the crowds and the water but Andy felt much cooler afterwards! Here they are heading out. The picture is a little fuzzy but I dare anyone to say she looks like me after seeing this picture. I swear that my DNA is not in that child at all sometimes when I look at them together!




After Andy's turn, I took Doodle into the water. We found a little fountain to play with in the middle of the insanity. Doods liked putting her foot over it. So did a couple of other kids who kept standing on it and not letting anyone else play. I had to keep reminding them to share, which only helped with the ones who spoke English. :-/





Doods and I bravely stood in line (for about 10 minutes) to ride the Jazzy Jellies ride. Ok, so it was a short line and it was for a kiddie ride, but it's hard to keep a one year old interested in something like that. She kept trying to push the operator's buttons while we waited at the gate. Here I'm trying to show her what the ride does and get her excited to go up in the air and spin around. I'm saying, "WOOOOOOOOWWW!" She was saying it too but she didn't really know why!





This is us trying to get off the ride. Doods loved it! She didn't want to get off and she was trying to spin the car around some more here. While we were up in the air, she just kept saying, "WWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" (Interesting side note, the kid getting out of the car behind us in the picture ended up falling out. Now I see why I heard his mom tell his dad, "I told you to HELP him out!")




Later that night we met up with some of Andy's best friends for dinner. Doodle had fun hanging out with her "uncles". Afterward, we went back to the hotel room and Andy's friend Sammy and his family came to hang out. This is Sammy's little boy, Samuel, playing with a cabinet. He is Doodle's new boyfriend. They had a lot of fun playing together and kissing. Open mouth, slobbery kisses. Samuel will be one at the end of August. Doodle outweighs him by about ten pounds and is several inches taller than he is. It's like comparing an ant to a grizzly bear! But, he's gotten so much bigger than when he was born last year almost two months early. I have to find the picture of them from the first time we met little Samuel. Talk about Doodle looking ginormous!





Sunday we went to visit Andy's grandmother in Kissimmee. This three generations of Andy's family. I think Doodle weighs almost as much at Grandma Blohm! But, Grandma was so happy to see Doodle and let her play with all of the stuffed animals in the living room.




Andy even thought to take a picture of me with Doodle. Usually I'm the one behind the camera. :o)



Here we are again. For all of you who have told me to kiss/hug/squeeze the baby, here's proof that I do! :o)