coffeyhouse: 13/14 months

Life has been quite lively around the Coffey house since this girl's birthday- thus the complete lack of posting! Going to do this one and then another with Halloween/pumpkin patch-themed happenings. :) The above picture illustrates a general theme since her birthday- she still continues to be a very easy baby... or toddler compared to most but we have had our challenges! Welcoming toddlerhood! :)

Age: 13/14 months (turned 14 months on Oct. 17th)

Height: ?

Weight: ?

Milestones:

Walking! She started taking steps around 13ish months to Chris or I. She can walk decent length distances now if encouraged to (and is very proud of herself for doing so) but doesn't initiate it herself often at all. She prefers to walk on her knees. Love her unconventialism (if that's even a word- now it is!)
Signing- we've been doing some baby sign language with her since she started solids and she's started signing back! She will sign please, all done, eat, and milk.
Molars are in! Yikes- those things looked pretty gnarly as they made her way into this poor child's mouth. She has an upper and lower molar on her left side- the bottom right looks like it's gearing up to come through. Poor thing. :(

Sleep:

Nighttime: Still a dream, knock on wood. Goes to bed at 8 and gets up between 8 and 8:15 now (has gotten later!)
Naps: Oh my, here goes my anxiety. Over the past couple of months she has stopped taking either the AM or PM depending on the day and would just play. To remedy this, I would wake her after an hour in the AM (her 9 am nap) to help "protect" her PM nap- because 10 am until bedtime was wayyy too long for her. That worked for a week- she would go down at 2 no problem for another hour-hour and a half. Well, when that stopped I felt at a complete loss. So to spare you all the mentally exhausting details... we're transitioning to ONE nap. Yikes. She goes down at 1 and could really go down earlier. She struggles making it til 1 and gets quite lovely starting around 11:30- whiny, cries over everything, easily set off- so she's been a joy at our Wednesday play group that goes from 11-12:30. Glad we haven't been voted off the island. So stay tuned for updates in nap world. She'll currently go down with no issue at 1 and sleep anywhere from an hour to an hour and 50 minutes, to the minute.

Eating:

Awesome eater- no complaints here. Still isn't a big meat eater and will eat around it. Does love ground beef/turkey, though. Loves her carbs and crackers.... recently has gotten into cottage cheese. She will eat a pretty decent sized breakfast.. smaller lunch... and big dinner. So lucky that she will just eat what we eat.

These are a few of her Favorite Things:

Opening and closing things
Exploring- has really just started to venture around the house to check things out. Recently has discovered her pet bunny, Oliver- and loves visiting him and trying to hand him toys through his cage.
Scout- LOVES this dog. Will say "Scu" for Scout.

Animals- laughs and loves to pet them

At Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead

Reading- this kid can read and look through books for hours. But she does have her preferences- pick the WRONG book and forget it. She will get all her books off the shelf and go through them one by one for 30 minutes or so.

Stickers- bought some Halloween stickers and paper for her and she's LOVED putting the stickers on the paper. Hoping she's an artsy craft girl like her mama but we'll see.
Swinging/being outside
Being silly- this girl has gone from a child who rarely smiled or laughed to EVERYTHING is funny. She's mostly this way at our house and goes back to serious mode in public/new places.

These are a few of her Not-So-Favorite-Things:

Riding in the car- the car is no longer a happy place for this child, or for anyone who has the (dis)pleasure of riding with her. We get a couple good minutes of peace until the eruption. She has toys/books etc. back there but nothing seems to help. Hoping this is a phase but unfortunately bad traveling is pretty strong in her genes... and not from her dad...
Being told no or to leave something alone- you give her 'the look' and she melts in tears. Poor thing. She's actually a pretty good listener but doesn't like being in trouble. Hoping this continues...
Being left at our church nursery- have not had a successful Sunday yet. Stay tuned....

Best of Times:

Gosh, too many things to name! With her morning opening up with no AM nap we can go do all sorts of fun things in the morning. We just started that last week so haven't had much time to do things yet- have checked out a couple different library storytimes that she enjoys.
Fall! Have loved the fall so far, minus the hot temperatures that have just recently gone away
Dressing her up for Halloween/fall events- she's a pretty cute ghost (see next post!) :)
Peyton is very sweet- loves falling onto you and giving kisses
First Halloween party with our play group yesterday
Lake trip with my family to Lake Lotawana (my mom's cousin's house)- such a fun time with my parents, Scott, and his girlfriend, Moriah
She is just getting more and more fun. We love it.
Fell asleep on me after the OP Fall Fest in Sept- she was super tired. This NEVER happens so had to take a picture- made my day.

Fun trip with the family to Manhattan! Peyton got to meet some people she hadn't yet so that was fun.

Worst of Times:

With the nap transition/molars coming in... she's just been fussier and that's been a change. She'll go from happy to bawling in a split second... an has whined a lot. Again... praying that this is a phase because mama no like....
That's about it- she's been healthy and nothing else bad to report, thank goodness!

Other Coffey House Updates:

Chris is teaching another Baker class for the MBA program that started this week
My friend Sarah and I did our first craft fair in Shawnee in September- huge success and so much fun (and so much WORK...!!) but worth it! We had the perfectly beautiful day and was fun to share our creations with the community.
I planned/executed my 10 year high school reunion that was held on Oct. 3rd in Westport- big success but thrilled to have it overwith! Have some money left over that we'll donate to my high school- meeting with my old principal to discuss the donation in a week or so.