One week binky free!!!

The last time I used my binky was last Thursday night! I've done great without it :) The first night was a little rough, the next two were great, then I regressed a little for a few nights, but I think we're ok now. I tell mom "night night" then dive in my crib, roll over, hug my kitty (the stuffed one, not the real one...) and go to sleep :) It's a good thing I have TWO stuffed kitties (thank you Grandma and Grandpa Coble!) I haven't even been waking at 3am anymore - mom is SUPER thrilled about that. I would always put myself back to sleep, but only after she was already awake, so this is much better for all of us.

I'm talking SO much now. This morning, I copied mom when she said "A B C." And also "one two." I didn't quite get to "three," but we'll get there soon enough. When we come downstairs in the morning, mom always has to make me wait to eat until she gets her coffee. I try to say "coffee," but it really still sounds like "cracker," ha ha. I think I understand when mom asks me a question, too. When I was getting dressed this morning, mom asked me where we were going. I said "school!" And when she asked who we were going to see, I said "Lala," (i.e. Alana), my best friend from school. Then we named all of my friends and teachers. Aunt Laurie, you'll be proud - my teachers name is Laurie too and I can say it now!!! I'm glad tomorrow is Friday!

Happy Belated New Year!

My apologies for not updating for an entire month! I was pretty busy with Christmas, New Years, and getting back in the swing of things. I'm now 16 months old and am more and more fun every day (or so mom tells me).

I guess I should back up a little... I had a wonderful second Christmas with a lot of my family! Grammy and Grampy Clements came up from Florida and Aunt Laurie, Uncle Dan and Cousins Courtney and Kaylee came to visit from New York. Grandma and Grandpa Coble and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Coble even came to visit! I got my first real taste of Santa and I have to say I think I like him :) When I woke up on Christmas morning, there was this awesome kitchen, dishes and a bunch of food waiting for me! When you put a pot on the stove burner, it even sounds like the food is cooking :) I've had a blast putting the food in the refrigerator, in the stove, in the drawers, and even trying to eat it. Mom and dad didn't get too many photos because they were too busy playing with me!



I got into a pretty bad habit of snacking over the break. I was totally addicted to graham crackers. I even knew where mom hid them and would point to the counter and continuously whine "cracker," "cracker," "cracker" until she relented.



We had a blast at Deep Creek for New Years - there was SO much snow and it was really cold, so we didn't do much other than sit around the fire and read books. I had a bin of toys that I could get in, so that was fun. I had a lot of fun with Kona and often tried to give her bone to her. Mom and Molly told me that I shouldn't take the bone back away from Kona, though. The decor in the house was very odd - lots of wood paneling and even wall paper on top of the paneling. But they had this endtable that was perfect for me to climb in and play my new xylophone! It was nice to see Penn State win the bowl game, too - daddy was a little worried near the end!



I *love* putting my hats on in the morning before school!







I also love my boots - some days even before I get dressed, I take my boots to mom to put them on me.



More proof that I'm just a happy kiddo :)



I think I have daddy wrapped around my cute little finger...



And my favorite "thing" of all time...KITTY!



Everything is going well with me. I've been in the toddler room at school for a few months now and that's going pretty well. I nap like a champ now on most days, but have been waking up between 2 and 3 every morning. We've cut all dairy out of my diet and I'm doing much better now. But mom and dad keep saying they're glad they own stock in Whole Foods since that's the only place to buy half of my food now.

I say a lot of words and repeat pretty much anything. I ask for a bath before bedtime and head upstairs when I'm ready. Among some others that I can't think of at the moment, I can say school, milk, more, cracker, ball, car, dog, baby, hat, and can say my friends names from school - Cooper, Alana, Casey, and even my teacher Cynthia! I haven't used my pacifier during the day since last weekend and gave it up at bedtime last night! It wasn't as bad as I though it would be, but we'll see how the rest of the weekend goes.

Better go...lots of playing to do before lunch time :)

I'm 15 Months Old!

And growing like a weed :) 20lbs 12oz and 31 inches. My doctor says I'm "perfect," and of course mom and dad agree. I may have a milk protein allergy, though, so I have to switch to soy milk and no cheese or yogurt until we figure it out :( And then I got 3 shots which have made me cranky all day. We also discovered that Infants Motrin does not agree with me - I had a crazy reaction to it and was WIRED all night on Saturday. Never again at bedtime - mom was up with me over 15 times before I finally fell asleep for the night and even that was after going to bed 3 hours later than normal.

Here are some photos from the past month. I discovered that I like ketchup :) Note the shaggy hair...


Mom and dad finally took me to get my hair cut!!! I hated every minute and screamed through the whole thing. I didn't even want the graham crackers daddy was offering me.


Less shaggy hair :) But kitty stole my toybox and I wasn't too happy about it!


I got to enjoy the snowstorm for a little while on Saturday. We could only find one of my mittens, so mom and dad made me wear socks on my hands - how silly???








Sledding in the driveway!


Here's the deck when I went to bed on Saturday night! Check out the table - there's at least 2 feet of snow.


Here's the front of the house before any plows came through.


And the tree!


I'm looking forward to seeing everyone for Christmas! Grammy and Grampy Clements will be here Thursday, Laurie, Dan, Courtney and Kaylee will be here Saturday, and Grandma and Grandpa Coble and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa will be here on Sunday! I see lots of packages with my name on them under the tree and can't wait to open things!

Hope everyone is doing well and I'll see you soon!

Winter Wonderland!

I woke up yesterday morning to almost a FOOT of snow! It hadn't stopped by the time I went to bed last night and we have over 2 feet by now :) Even though I'm not feeling too well, mom and dad let me go out for a little while in it. I wasn't sure what to think at first, but ended up having fun :) The photos of me in the snow are on the other camera, so we'll try to get those posted later.

This photo is from about noon yesterday. The snow was piled up against the front door!


This was the view out on the deck.


Lots has happened in the past month, but mom and dad have been too busy with work and getting ready for the holidays that they just haven't sat down with me to update the blog! They tell me that I will get a visit from Santa next week - I don't know quite what to think of that either, but I think he'll be good to me since I've been a good girl this year. There is a big tree in the living room that has lots of pretty lights and ornaments that I would *love* to play with. Mom and dad tell me I can't play with them, but I do like to point and say "tree."

Will write more later - I want to go play for a while before lunch time!

WE ARE...

PENN STATE!!! I had much more fun at the Penn State football game today than I did at the last one. Perhaps it was because it wasn't raining today or perhaps it was because the game didn't start after my bedtime - regardless, the outcome was just as miserable!

Mom got me up super early yesterday, fed me breakfast, then strapped me in the car. Even though I *really* dislike being tied down for any length of time, it worked out ok - I slept the first half of the trip, then mom sat in the back with me and read books to me and played with me to keep me occupied. Traffic wasn't bad at all and we made it to the parking lot in just over 3 hours. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a tailgate. With a blanket on the ground, I was able to crawl around a little and made mom and dad take turns walking around with me. I ate a huge turkey and cheese sandwich for lunch :)



After lunch we met up with one of dad's colleagues - the one who was kind enough to get the tickets for us! They had a great tailgate and we walked around a lot there before walking in to the game. I took a quick nap on the way in to the game, but woke up promptly when we got to our seats. There were over 110,000 people there and it was LOUD! This was the 300th game played at Beaver Stadium! Mom and dad also told me that they were there for Joe Pa's 300th game as well when they were in school. Here is the view from our seats.





Mom and dad pointed out Joe Pa to me.



It wasn't a great game, so we left about half way through the 4th quarter. I got changed into my jammies and we got out of the parking lot in about 10 minutes, so it wasn't too bad.

Poor Razzy had to go to the vet last week and has been isolated since Tuesday in a room by herself :( She started limping, but we don't know what happened to her. The vet (Dr. Katz, ha ha) gave her 3 days worth of pain medication - apparently the only pain medication that won't kill a cat and told us to have her "rest" for a week. So she's in the guest room just chilling on the bed. If she's not better by Monday, we have to have her sedated and x-rayed, so we're all hoping it's better by then.

I learned how to say "bye bye" and say it all the time now while waving. That's about all that's new from here. Happy Football day everyone!

Happy Halloween!

I enjoyed my costume much more this year than I did last year :) While I didn't go trick or treating, I got to participate in the Halloween Festival at school. They had a petting zoo, pumpkin patch and a costume parade. I had a blast and even got to take my pumpkin home!

The cow tried to lick me!



I got to pet the goat.



I stood in the "pumpkin patch" for a while, but didn't want to actually pick up a pumpkin.



Later, I got to wear my lion costume and go for a buggy ride around the playground. All the other kids from my room fell asleep, but I powered through.



I love to climb on EVERYTHING these days - couches, stairs, tables, buggy's...



Mom and dad took me to a real pumpkin patch yesterday and I had a really great time. We'll post those pictures shortly, but I told them next year I want to spend more time there - they had a big slide that looked like fun, a pumpkin cannon (dad wanted to try that one), a rubber ducky derby and much more. We were only there long enough to go on the hayride and walk through the pumpkin fields. It was a nice day, though and we all had fun. We stopped and got some pear cider on the way out and I LOVED it. I think it gave me a sugar high, though, because I was up almost 3 hours past my bedtime last night!!!

I'm learning new things all the time and mom and dad can't keep up with me anymore :) I can now feed myself with a fork! I kept grabbing at mom and dad's fork, so they gave me my own to hold and wouldn't you know, I figured out how to stab the food and put it in my mouth. I now eat an entire meal with a fork by myself. I also say kitty very well now, but a lot of other things are still "b." At least I say "mom" now. I walk all over the place now. My new thing is to grab mom or dad's finger and make them walk around with me - I don't *really* need to hold on, but I like to have the company. I have at least 12 teeth now - I won't let mom open my mouth to count exactly how many, but there are definitely at least 5 on the bottom and 7 on the top. That's probably why I've been so cranky lately.

What else? Mom, dad, Jay and Steve all ran the Wolftrap 5K a few weeks ago. It was mom's first 5K and she finished without walking which was her goal. Steve was kind enough to slow down and stick with her, so that kept her going, despite the nasty and unanticipated hills. Dad far exceeded his goal in terms of time - I'm so proud of him! I cheered for all of the runners and got my picture taken with the "Wolfman." The next day, we watched Molly run the Marine Corps Marathon. I was a bit cranky, but I clapped for her every time we saw her (that I wasn't sleeping, at least). She did a great job and we were able to see her 3 times along the way.

Mom made Aunt Terry's macaroni and cheese today and I loved it as much as I did at my birthday party - thanks for the recipe Ter!

I'm sure there's more, but that's all the energy I have for the evening. Take care!

Proof that I can walk :)

Assuming mom taught me how to upload the video correctly (just kidding - assuming she actually figured out how to upload it), here's a short clip of me walking to the kitty (also affectionately known as "b"). Everything is "b" lately.



Mom thinks I need a haircut soon - what do you think? She says it looks like I have a mullet, but I don't know what that is :(

Mom and dad (and Uncle Jay and Uncle Steve) are running a 5K on Saturday, so I get to play with Aunt Molly while they run - huzzah! Then on Sunday, we get to go watch Molly run in the Marine Corps Marathon. Go Molly!!!