14 months and a photo catch-up

Greta turned 14 months old yesterday. We spent the afternoon in Maple Grove Arbor Lakes with our friend Johanna and Greta's future husband, Harry. I'm bummed that I didn't take a picture of them together because Harry was looking quite handsome yesterday.

Greta in her new dress from grandma and grandpa.

She didn't like the feel of the grass on her bare legs.

A little recap of what Greta's up to at 14 months:
- She pulls up on everything and is cruising around furniture. She hasn't stood on her own for more than a second and is very cautious. I think it will be another month or so before she takes her first step.
- Her favorite toys right now are her music table and she always has a baby or small stuffed animal tucked under her left arm wrapped in a blanket or washcloth. Chad and I were just laughing tonight because we don't know where she picked up wrapping babies or animals in a blanket since she doesn't sleep with a blanket. She will sit so quietly trying to get her little square of a blanket just right and then lay her baby down on it and wrap the baby and then tuck them under her arm. She's even invented a crawl so she can get around with her baby. She will scoot with her left foot forward. It's kind of a kneel/crawl scoot. I've yet to capture it on video.
- Ever since Greta turned one year old she's been sleeping at night a lot better. She will go to bed at 7:30pm and sleep until 8:30am and usually only gets up one time in the middle of the night to eat. Last night she went to bed closer to 8pm, got up at 5:30am to eat, and slept until 9am. That's my girl!
- Greta has been an awesome napper since about 4 months. She usually takes 2 naps per day. The first one is about 1.5 hours after she gets up and the second nap is usually around 2pm. Her morning nap seems to be the most important and if we are out and don't get home until 3pm or later she is pretty flexible with her afternoon nap and takes it when I put her down. The morning nap is 1-1.5 hours and the afternoon nap is 1.5-2 hours long. Some days (like today) she was a little crabby so I put her down for a 3rd nap at 4:30pm and she woke up at 5:45pm with a completely different attitude. It's nice that she is staying up a little later at night (thanks to the daylight savings time change) so Chad gets to see Greta more at night.
- Eating has still been a bit of a struggle. Greta was in the 5th percentile for weight at her 12 month visit so our pediatrician wanted us to make sure she was still getting a good amount of milk along with trying to get her to eat more solids. She drinks about 5 bottles per day and gets about 25 oz of milk total. I'm still pumping twice a day and getting about 12 oz/day total so we supplement with a toddler formula for the other 13+oz. We've tried whole milk a few times and are going to try and incorporate it more over the next month. Greta won't drink the whole milk/formula unless it's mixed with half breastmilk. We ran out of our freezer stash of breastmilk when Greta was about 11 months so luckily I've been able to keep up with what she needs and supplement with the rest. For solid foods, Greta loves the organic food pouches from Happy Baby, Plum, or Ella's Kitchen. She's not a fan of feeding herself finger food (unless it's puffs). We continue to try different things and she's gotten a lot better in the last month. I bought some tofu yesterday and we're going to try adding that to some food for added protein.
- Greta loves music and will often try to sing along with me to some of her favorite songs- Twinkle, Twinkle, Ba Ba Black Sheep, ABCs, Itsy Bitsy (she'll try to do the hand signs), and Don't be Tardy for the Party (this is a dance favorite of hers). We play her McPhail Sing Play Learn Cd often and she loves to sing and dance to it. It's a great distraction for car rides too!

Busy practicing walking.

Checking herself out in the mirror.

Playing peek-a-boo with her dress.

Greta loves getting together with her friends. She will often squeal when she sees her friends. We had a playdate last week with Greta's friends- Elle and Ava.

Greta giving fishlips for the camera.

They play so well together!

Last Sunday, I hosted a baby shower for my friend, Kristi, who is due in July with a little boy.

Mommy's girl!

She sure keeps us busy but we are enjoying every day with our sweet baby girl!

saturday

On Saturday morning we woke up to snow on the ground. Ugh. We had plans to go to an easter egg hunt in the afternoon but the weather put a damper on that. We started the day with our baby class. Greta had fun playing with her friend, Evan.

Taking time to smell the roses...

Notice her baby wrapped in a scarf in tow.

On Saturday evening we were invited to our friend's house to meet their new 3 week old baby. The served us a delicious dinner and we had fun visiting.

Chad's a natural now.

He makes it look so easy:)

Little Missy had to check out what daddy was doing.

She thought she better bring her baby too.

The new parents! Shayana, Dave, and Baby Saul.

We kept Greta out a little late on Saturday night. She usually goes to bed at 7:30pm and we left Dave and Shayana's house around 8:30pm on Saturday night and had about a 35 minute drive home. Poor baby lost it on the way home and was so overtired. Suprisingly, she slept through the night though. It was a fun day!

ladies who lunch

Greta and I met my friends, Lisa and Stephanie, and Stephanie's daughter, Madeline, out for lunch today at Olive Garden. Madeline is 8 months old. Madeline and Greta were such good little girls at lunch and just let their mommies chat and catch up while they played quietly at the table. We all used to see eachother weekly at our baby class but it doesn't work with our schedules anymore so it was fun to catch up.

When I look back over the past year and think of all the wonderful moms I've meet through our baby classes or different groups I've joined and I just have to pinch myself. I've been so blessed to add so many wonderful friends to my life. I hope when I get old we all end up in a retirement home together and can just sit in our rocking chairs and gab. That would be the life!

chatterbox

I took this video of Greta today having this lengthy conversation with herself. The video didn't turn out very good because I took it on my Blackberry but if you turn up the volume you can hear her conversation. I love how she's moving her hands around while she talks. Too funny. She had her back to me and when she turned around and saw me taping her she got a little nervous. She was talking for a good 2 minutes like this before I got anything on tape. Any translators?

zippity-ZOO-dah

Zippity-yay! My oh my what a wonderful day! We went to the zoo again on Monday and had a great time! The weather was beautiful and the zoo wasn't very busy. I went with my friend Rachel and her daughter, Elle. We went after the girls' morning naps so we may have missed the morning rush at the zoo. The girls did great at the zoo but were a little out of sorts on the drive down and back. I think they get frustrated because they are right beside eachother but are stuck in their carseats. One would start to squack and then the other would follow, then tears, then a little reprieve, and then they'd start again. Silly girls.

Greta at the Family Farm

Checking out the roosters

Greta is really interested in animal sounds. She loves it when we growl, meow, oink, bark, etc at her and she will usually have a giggle fit. She tries to growl or meow at us and it's so adorable.

The girls checking out the cows.

Something must have caught their attention.

On our way back from the Family Farm, we stopped to check out the bears and the two male bears were standing up and fighting and then would wrestle to the ground. It was really neat to watch!

One of the bears splashing  in the water.

Checking out the fish.

Greta continues to be really talkative and is constantly mimicking us. I think her favorite word to say now is "hi" and she will say "hi" to me on the cellphone if she's home with Chad and I call to check on her. She has also started pushing her little walker around more this week. Sometimes she will walk beside it and push it. She gets really excited and you can tell she's really proud of herself. She's still really cautious and careful when she is standing so I think it will be awhile before we have a walker on our hands.

fun with friends

Fun at the MN zoo!

Greta and Ava

We had a great week but what made it even better was the wonderful weather! On Wednesday, Greta and I went to the zoo with my friend Christin and her daughter Ava. We met some other moms there from our mom group and had an awesome time. We bought a membership to the MN Zoo so we'll be taking lots of trips there this summer.

Checking out the wolverine.

Mountain Lion captured from northern MN.

Farm Babies opened this month!

Such good little travelers!

Tuckered out from a fun day at the zoo!

We went on a walk with Rachel and her daughter, Elle. We made a pit stop at the park and the girls had fun on the swings!

Rachel and Elle

Greta and mommy

Playtime!

They were playing so close together and it was so sweet.

On Thursday night, we went to a new baby class through ECFE. Greta quickly found the baby doll and took it with her everywhere.

Playing in the ball pit with daddy (and the baby).

We went out for dinner at Chili's. Greta had fun drawing with crayons.

She sticks her tongue out when she is focused:)

On Saturday, we went to Harper's house for her 1st birthday party!

Harper and Greta

Harper, Greta and Kieran

Kieran had fun trying to tackle Greta. I think she liked the attention from him and enjoyed trying to "get away".

Helping Harper open her gifts.

Playing with Kieran

She found Harper's baby. She was pretending to feed the baby out of the cup.

Books are fun too!

We sang "happy birthday" to Harper and then had to get home for our overdue afternoon nap.

On a sad note, our dear friend, Eleanor, passed away peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday night. We met her in 2003 through MN Bichon Rescue when she was looking to place her senior bichon, Bijou. Our friendship began as simple correspondence to update her on how Bijou was doing but quickly became a wonderful friendship. I loved spending time with Eleanor and enjoyed our wonderful talks. She had such amazing stories from her childhood in a boarding school to her travels in India and other countries as a nurse during the war. She had the kindest heart and I will miss her so much. One thing that gives me peace is knowing she had Bijou to greet her as she passsed and I'm sure they are enjoying their reunion. Rest in peace sweet Eleanor.

A picture from the last time I saw Eleanor. As you can see Greta wasn't too happy. I wish I would have captured a better picture of Greta and Eleanor.