Park fun!

 

Lillian  can go up the stairs and go down the slide by herself.  She had a daddy day last weekend and he let her do this on her own.  We have gone to a big park, the one I had her birthday at and big kids were really surprised she could do it on her own; some would follow her around wanting to show her how to do it.  She is such a loving affectionate baby that she loves kids and chased a little girl maybe about 7 years old, she even gave her a hug. 

Potty Training

I know what you are thinking, she is too young to start potty training; however, there are many countries that have babies potty trained by their first birthday!  I started a little over a month ago but it was much more casual, hit and miss and only seemed to be her first poop of the day.  She knows the sign for "potty" and when she has pooped I can ask if she did and she will give me the sign.  When I first started we went poop in the potty for an entire week.  We have a seat that goes on the toilet upstairs and a potty chair downstairs.  I originally got both (well I already had the potty chair and was using it as a booster seat for quite a while)  because I didn't want to have her go on the chair and then us be out and not go because she had to sit on a big toilet.  So, we have 1 travel one that folds up but fits on the toilet and fits into my diaper bag in it's own bag, 1 that goes on the toilet, and 1 potty chair.  We successfully went upstairs but not down and she'd eventually run from me if I asked her if she had to go potty and she'd sign it meaning "yes".  I think it was because she likes sitting on the big potty better.  Anyway, since she started running and the holidays and traveling were coming up I decided to not push her.

Now that we are back at home and not going any where for a while I decided to try it again.  I have already bought her underwear but we are going to wait to use them.   She has been wearing disposable diapers since we moved since I didn't feel settled enough to deal with the cloth but it is making the transition to potty training easier.  During the day she is wearing a cloth diaper cover, with no pad in it.  Sure we have to change them more often but the lining prevents it from leaking through her pants if caught early enough.  I have snapped them closed but loose so we can slip them on just like underwear.  Once she has shown she is having less accidents we will move on to underwear.

She is clearly capable of going and now we are just going to start conditioning her or "training" her where to go.... yes it may take longer than a week but it is no different than teaching her to walk, eat with a spoon or the other skills she has developed so far.

Farm Animals

Lillian is really picking things up very quickly lately.  Every night, part of her bedtime routine is to read a story.  I have her books placed in bins on the floor with the covers of the books facing out.  (Research says young children read more when they can see the covers of books)  I let her pick the book every night, she brings it over to me and we read it in the rocking chair.  She has always loved books but lately she picks the same book every night; again this is a common thing among kids since they like routine and predictability.  She likes one called "Down on the Farm" and it goes through various farm animals and I make the noises for each page.  From the first night we read that book she started making the animal noises, even only after hearing it once or twice.  It amazes me how smart she is and how quick she picks things up.  She even knows what the book looks like because I have hidden it so we could read a different story and she picked one of jungle animals but the same style of book as the farm one.  We read it but she kept wanting to turn the page before I was done reading it and she'd make a noise (the same noise she makes when she wants to know what something is)  as if saying "wait that's not what I remember,  where's the page with the dog (because she kept saying "woof, woof").  After I read the jungle one she got down and found where I hid the farm one and brought it to me!  So of course we read that one too. 

For Christmas her Great Aunt Traci got her a farm puzzle that makes animal sounds when you put the pieces back in the appropriate spot.  She has quickly learned the animals and can say almost all of them and she imitates the sounds they make.  I took video of us playing with it this morning and it is shown below, she is a little cut off on it since I had to set it on the desk and she kept moving.  I was quite amazed how much she recognizes the animals.  In the top corner of the puzzle where the sound comes out there is a picture of a cow in a barn with a rooster on the top and chickens on the ground.  I have never pointed out that picture before and this morning she  pointed to the cow and said, "cow".  She is just too smart!

Mommy's shoes

Lillian has recently been putting on our shoes (when they are left out, they are usually in the closet). My shoes work better than Greg's and man does she get mad when you take them away!

Visit to Grandma and Grandpa's

Early in Jan. Lillian and I made a trip to Cali to visit both sets of grandparents for a late Christmas.  While at Grandma and Grandpa Sims' house grandma pulled out some old toys her children played with. 

Video updates

I was browsing through my videos and realized there were some that were never posted.


Here Lillian finally figured out how her ducks work.  I made these for her birthday

This one was taken early in December and Lillian is eating a banana.  She really likes to hold it herself. 

The last one is from November.  We went to a Mexican restaurant and I gave Lillian some chips to munch on while we waited for our dinner.  She saw Greg and I dipping our chips in salsa and insisted on doing it as well.  This is the video of her doing it.  She really enjoys it and now will dip french fries.  Days that I can't get her to eat too much protein I'll give her chicken strips and something to dip them in.

Snow

We finally got some snow! It wasn't the best kind, more crunchy ice on top of powder snow but enough for Lillian to play in.  She finally got to test out her snow outfit too.  She really wanted to walk in the snow by herself and would get mad when we'd hold her hand so she wouldn't slip.  Lillian wasn't too into really playing in it.  I pushed down all the snow off the slide so she could go down it but she just wanted to eat the powder snow that was under the ice.   Here is a video of her enjoying the snow: