Growing Up: Hattie at 14 Months

Literally, feels like she grew up over night.
She feels like SUCH a big girl to me! 

So amazing and fascinating.

Weight: 20 pounds, 2 ounces (40th percentile - FINALLY hit 20 pounds! WOO!)

Height: 31.5 inches (90th percentile)

Has 12 teeth.

Still not walking, but I'm not worried about her development...

She climbs on *everything*

and into *everything*. Tee hee. ;-)

She's in gymnastics now and loves it. :-)

Favorite thing to do: READ! Hands down, reading.

She asks to read SO much during the day;

I decided to count how many times she asks.

The grand total? SIXTY-ONE times in one day!

And yes, I read to her 61 times. LOL. ;-)

They're all sorts of different books too.

Picture books, rhyming books, story books, flashcards.

Anything ranging from 5 pages, to 35 pages.

Favorite book: Each Peach Pear Plum

(we probably read this 10-20 times per day)

She LOVES the computer. Probably all babies do. LOL. ;-)
If I forget to pull my chair away from it, here is what happens:


And I say, "Hattie... are you supposed to be up there?"
And she looks at me like, "Oooooh... busted."

Favorite stuffed animal: Ginger the Giraffe
(a gift from my mom when when we took Hattie to the
Como Park Zoo in St. Paul, MN)
She sleeps with it EVERY night/nap since we got it. :-)

Still LOVES taking baths. 

For the past month or so,

she's been "swimming" in the bath... 

freestyle and breaststroke in just that four inches of water.

Makes me laugh every time. :-)

Has the most amazing attention span.

She can probably read books for a good 30-60 minutes at a time.

She can watch Toy Story/Toy Story 2 straight through, in one sitting.

(My cardinal rule is "no TV," *but* we were both sick for several days,

so I put my rule aside. This was a special circumstance.

She still asks to watch it all the time. LOL. :-p )

Wish she didn't love the iPhone so much... ;-)

Says:

Mama

Dad/Dada/Daddy

Hi

Bye

Yes

No

Uh-oh

This

Those

That

Out

Baby

Books ("bups!")

Ball

Dog

Doll (pretty much sounds just like "dog")

Bird

"O"s (faux Cheerios cereal)

Tickle, Tickle, Tickle (cutest thing EVER. Need to post video.)

Loves hanging with her daddy. :-)

Signs:

Hello/Goodbye

Milk

More

Please

All done

Thank you

Baby (SO cute!)

Bath

Giraffe

Monkey

Dog

Airplane

Car

Outside (people think she's waving when she signs this,

but her wave is very distinct and different than the sign for "outside.")

Shoes

Night-night/Bedtime

Book
Tree

Potty

Speaking of potty, Hattie is pretty much completely

potty-trained for nights and naps. 

I say "pretty much" because maybe once a week, 

or once every other week, her diaper will be wet 

by the time I get her to the potty.

Some days, she just wants to lie and cuddle with me

instead of heading to the potty, but I'm pretty sure

this only happened on days she was sick or teething. :-/

But 90% of the time, as soon as she wakes up, she crawls out of bed

and heads (crawls... ;-) LOL) to the potty on her own. (I just follow.)

She still asks to go potty while we're out, in the car,

and while she's playing. However, while she's playing,

she probably only asks to go, every other time, sometimes less. LOL. ;-)

Dolls are just more important than the potty sometimes,

which is just fine with me. :-)

I don't push her. :-)

Such a doll face.

Speaking of dolls, they're pretty much the only toys 

that she wants to play with right now. 

She loves pushing them in her stroller

and grocery cart... both birthday gifts. :-)

She also loves balls, her shape sorter,

and her stacking bowls. She also loves purses 

and playing "dress-up," which is SO cute!

When she wants to be held or wants to give a hug,
she holds out her hands like we do.
SO cute. :-)

Is starting to help pick out her clothes and shoes,

and helping me get her dressed. Also adorable. Hee hee. ;-)

Still such a great eater and will eat *anything* I put in front of her.
Favorites are blueberry pancakes, pasta, cucumbers and all fruit.
I can't even figure out which fruit she likes best...
she shakes with delight when she sees all fruit. LOL. :-p



We did just find out she's allergic to tomatoes. :-(
Seriously broke out in a rash within seconds. Poor thing.
So that's tomatoes, nuts, and dairy. *sigh*
I'm hoping she outgrows the nuts, at least. :-p

Well, that's A LOT of info for 14 months,
but I wanted to make sure that I documented everything. :-)

Writing One Line a Day.

So... in 2010, I decided I would write a sentence or two 

(what I did, what I ate, where I went, a thought or two... whatever i wanted to write... as long as it was *something*) 

EVERY day in this blog here. 

Um.... Yeah, as you can see, I only did that 76 times out of the year. Oops. :-p 

I found my problem. If it's online, I won't do it. 

It didn't matter if it was a blog, Facebook or Twitter. I just like paper better.

So at the beginning of 2011, I decided I'd find myself a journal that provided me space to write a sentence or two per day. And I promised myself to give it a try... even though I knew 2011 would be tough... being pregnant and having a baby.

But all the more important that I document that year. ;-)

And I found the One Line a Day 5-Year Memory Book.

 Well, actually, the Mom's One Line a Day was on sale ($11) when I went searching, 

so that's the one I went with. I figured... "Hey, I'm becoming a Mom in 2011! Why not?" ;-) 

(Even the fact that it's pink didn't deter me! ;-) )

There were some other ideas out there. Like this one from Ashley Ann:

But in the end, I wanted something small, something bound,

and something I could keep by my bed (on my nightstand) or by my computer.

And guess what? 

IT WORKED!

I'm happy to announce that I have an entry for EVERY.SINGLE.DAY of 2011. :-D

Now... don't get me wrong... I didn't *actually* journal every single day.

If I missed a few days, I didn't sweat it. :-p Some weeks, I'd wait till the weekend to record the week,

but I still made sure to put a sentence or two for each day... even if I had to go back and do it.

If I couldn't remember, and I needed ideas...

Sometimes I'd go check photos I took, check Facebook statuses, check the calendar, etc.

It didn't have to be exact, and if I didn't remember something that happened,

I just recorded a feeling I was having that week.

For example:

On September 21st, I wrote,

"Hattie always wakes up smiling and cooing and giggling.

I love it so much!

I can't get enough of her.

And she's just SOOOOO adorable! :-) "

See? 

Not necessarily what happened that day, but just something that was on my mind that week. :-)

So I wanted to have a good record for 2011, and I'm glad I actually made the effort.

I'm SOOOO glad I did because it was an important year,

and I love looking back. 

When you're pregnant or have a new baby, things get fuzzy.

When you have little ones, the days mesh together. 

They fly by.

It needed to be done. :-)

Kinsey has a cool idea on her blog too! This is her day-planner, 

but you could totally use the block-style calendar to write in 

a thought or two or what you did that day. :-)

What do you think? 

Are you going to give it a try?

Do Project Life?

Project 365 with notes?

I'd love to hear how you plan to document 2012!