And Butterpea Makes 3

Mallory said a new word!  :)  Duck.  Duck.  Duuuuuuck.  Dudududuck.  I guess anything you love enough to play with it in the toilet is bound to be one of your first words. ;)
 Her other words:
Dada.  Or from Mally- DAAAAADAAAAAAA.  DADADADA.  Da Da Daaaaaaaa.  Picture this at high volume. 
Mama.  Uh, hasn’t said this in months.  Lots of months. Hmph.
Ball.  Only said this a few times when talking about Christmas tree balls.  Doesn’t say it now that the tree is gone.
No.  Now she only shakes her head.  And she doesn’t do that as much as she did a few weeks ago.  I guess the novelty wore off. 

In other news, she got another new tooth.  She hates for you to look in her mouth, so who knows how long it was in there.  Not more than a few days though.  It’s a top tooth, oddly.  So now she has 2 bottom and 3 top. 

Walking.  Hmmm…what to say about walking.  We are all still convinced that she CAN do it, but she just isn’t doing it.  She pushes around all of her push toys, but will not let go for anything!  She loves to hold your fingers and walk, but gets mad if you are too close to her.  Which is difficult since, well, your fingers are kind of attached to your body!  I thought surely last week she would do it, but no.  So maybe this is the week.  This is the average age for walking so we aren’t worried.  But darn those Swedes letting little Felicia walk already!  They are always beating us! 

Repeat after me.  Duckies do not belong in the toilet.  :)  After Mally’s bath tonight I got her into her jammies and was putting away dinner while she played.  Silence is never a good thing with a baby around.  When I went looking for her, I found her in the bathroom, playing with her pink rubber duckie in the toilet.  She had been pretty upset at getting out of the tub. ;)  So, off with the jammies and scrub a dub dub.  Again.  :)  Must remember to close the door and put down the toilet lid!

was her two front teeth.  But no.  :)  Mally got her 2 top front teeth last week.  When I told a friend I thought she was teething, my friend said, “Oh, maybe it’s her molars.”  Uh, right.  :)  We are now officially up to 4 teeth.  And the tops are just little specks right now.  But cute.

In other news, we are done breastfeeding as of yesterday.  I wanted to wean her slowly, but that had just been making her mad.  So we went cold-turkey.  And Matthew got up with her yesterday and today so that she wouldn’t see me and automatically want feeding.  It worked pretty well.  I have had a little discomfort, but not too bad.  I am definitely retaining milk at the moment because my weight is up slightly.  I am dieting and it’s been going well.  Of course, it’s the two steps forward from the two steps back that I had taken since losing the baby weight.  But I know I will get back down to my pre-baby weight and beyond.  Again.  I feel back on track now.  It’s about time. 

My child has discovered the tv.  Well, she could turn it on and off and change the volume/channels for months now, but didn’t actually have any interest in watching it.  Until now.  We videotaped her this weekend watching Veggie Tales.  She was so cute talking to the characters, dancing, and laughing.  :)  So much for my no-tv-till-2 stance.  Whatever, at least it’s educational or something. 

Mr. K tried to take Mallory out in the bike trailer yesterday, much to her dismay.  She screamed until she was hysterical.  It’s the helmet.  She was fine in the store, but bringing it home and expecting her to wear it is completely different apparently.  So it was a no-go. 

We went to her first birthday party Saturday…well, the first one she was invited to.  It was Logan’s 2nd b-day and they had her party at Little Gym.  Mallory had a blast.  She would have definitely liked it more 6 months from now though.  I went with the thought that if we liked it I would sign her up for their classes, but seeing the 18-month old to 2-year olds have such an obviously different experience made me decide to wait until summer.  We are still wait-listed for the MDO I want her in, by the way. 

After the Little Gym we went to Josh and Heather’s house (which is HUGE) for pizza and presents.  Mallory LOVED LOVED LOVED their stairs.  They were so much fun.  For her.  Not for me.  Up the stairs.  Down the stairs.  Up the stairs.  Down the stairs.  Good grief.  My in-laws better get their banister fixed before we go to Jackson next!

Today Miss Priss went in to the bathtub several times and tried to climb in it.  She’s way too short, thankfully.  :)  But I did relent and give her a bath.  This is an ongoing joke with a friend who says I never bathe my kid.  Of course, she is a complete opposite of me, bathing hers twice a day if she has her way.  ;)  Only now that Mallory is really feeding herself, refusing most help with it, crawling around in Lord knows what, have I really started bathing her often.  It’s bad for their skin.  Or so I am told.  I just got an email last week from BabyCenter saying it is now okay to bathe my child every day.  So there. 

Mally has been super cranky this afternoon.  She is not a crybaby and she has been super whiny and crying all afternoon.  A bath made her happy, but going to bed did not.  :)  In the tub I asked her what the Ducky says.  She said, “Oof Oof!”  She has been doing this when asked what Chloe/the doggy says for a week or longer, but the duck was new and so cute.  She’s also started bringing books to whomever will read them to her.  After my own heart! 

We are trying to let her use a spoon and fork.  They are plastic, of course, but look out! Food everywhere.  And she sometimes holds both hands back and flat out refuses to take a utensil.  Forget it, Lady!  And did I mention we went to whole milk?  Now she is refusing night bottles…which is weird.  Maybe she’s ready to do only sippy cups?  I thought that transition was supposed to be hard, but she has her own notions about what is for “babies” and what is for “big girls.”  Apparently bottles are out.   

Miss Priss officially has a new big girl carseat.  It’s the Britax Marathon and it’s awesome.  She LOVES it.  She was so mad when we took her out of it to attach it properly at the store.  :) 

We had her one-year appt. on Monday and it went well.  Amazingly, she’s in the 75-78th %tile in height, weight, and head circumference.  I say “amazingly” because some of you probably remember when she was down to the 7th %tile in the summer…and when she was short and chubby in the fall.  So now she is just really proportional.  She is almost exclusively in 18 month clothes. 

What’s she doing these days?  Well, she loves to shake her head “No!” for everything, even if she means yes.  She realizes it’s funny and we laugh, which just makes her do it more.  She actually says “no” fairly often now.  She had her first real tantrum the week after Christmas when we were leaving the park and she was definitely saying NO! to that.  She never ever says “Mama” anymore which drives me bonkers.  She likes to say doy doy doydle and gulugulug.  Dr. W says maybe “Doy Doy” means “Mama.”  Funny guy.  She has said “Iwuwoo” a few times when giving kisses.  Which is crazy!  If you can’t say “Mama” then you shouldn’t say “I love you!”  But I’ll take it.  :)  She does some kind of barking sound if you ask what Chloe says.  She claps for patty cake, but still doesn’t really get it that you should clap with your hands OPEN…and gets really annoyed with you if you try to show her how to do it. 

Activity wise, Mally is crawling all over the place.  She still does the one legged crawl.  She pulls up on everything and has started pushing around anything on wheels.  She could stand on her own and walk, but she’s a chicken.  She likes to have someone to hold on to.  She has started really following other kids around if there are kids here or at the church I work at on Wednesdays.  She does not want to be left out for a second!

Her favorites for the moment- The shepherd is still here. (Lauren, I am so glad you didn’t use that name!! I have to check the spelling every time to type it!)  The baby dolls are a hit.  She gets really upset if one of the girls I babysit is playing with one of her babies.  She loves the Mega blocks my MIL got her.  MIL says they are payback for years of stepping on legos.  Hmph.  I don’t remember ever having any!  :)  She loves the FP Little People and plays with them every day.  She loves the monkey toys and well, ok, she just loves all her toys.  :)  The kitchen is great, but all the kids put the plastic food in their mouth still and Mally and Lang had to have some real bananas at our playdate the other day when the plastic ones just wouldn’t do the trick.  As for favorite foods, she is eating anything and everything.  She loves yogurt melts by GG.  My dad calls them Magic Pills.  Crying?  Try yogurt melts.  Works like a charm.  What she doesn’t like is baby food.  It’s so last month. 

A few notes about her birthday since I don’t think I posted since then.  I did Hello Kitty.  Made both cakes (one for her real b-day and one for the party day).  No, they were not scary like the Bon Appetit cake.  If you don’t know that story, well, that’s probably good for me.  She got tons of toys for her birthday.  She got Miffy, a doll, a cute-as-can-be pillowcase with her name on it, a doll/blanket combo from Mamaw, a shapesorter/drum combo (Chloe stole a drumstick, but it’s still doing fine.), an art easel, a cake plate with hat, a birthday name plate, and who knows what else!  I have to make an effort to be sure she actually has the opportunity to play with everything.  Crazy. 

Ok, I feel better now.  I really need to write in the last part of her baby book, but I can’t seem to make myself do it.  Somehow it seems like it will make it a little too real that she’s growing up if the baby book is finished.  :(  Might try to suck it up and do that tomorrow anyway.