And the fun continues...

Payton is really keeping us busy and we're having a blast. She's saying so much now, talking up a storm. She's also loving football season. We took her to her first "friday night lights" game at Xavier a few weeks back and she cheered and danced and sometimes actually seems to be paying attention! Yesterday we were watching it on TV and when someone caught the ball she yelled "good catch!". Choate games are on her list of favorites. She cheers on Daddy as if he was on the field playing. We're also noticing how smart she's becoming! She was counting pumpkins the other day at school when Brian went to pick her up and she said "1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!" - we lose the 4 every time but still think that's pretty good! Her colors have also seemed to click recently - she does a great job identifying the majority of them - her favorite at the moment is "owange", we think that's b/c it's pumpkin season and she's a bit obsessed with "punkins!" She's also getting pretty good at knowing her left from her right. when we ask which one is her left foot, right hand,etc. she's at about a 90 percent success rate, not bad for 21 months! Her humor is also developing at a rapid speed. Every night we enjoy playing around with her and letting her entertain us with her dancing, singing, jumping,etc. She can sing the majority of her favorite songs and is extremely proud of herself when she's done. Each song ends with an exuberant "yaaay!!!". In the car the other day on our way to school she yelled from the back seat "moo it peopoe, goin to cool!" - I guess i better watch what I say while driving! Payton is definitely still a fan of food. These days she's in to "punkin munkins" - keeping right along with the Fall theme.

As for her habits, for my own records, she wakes up and has milk while getting dressed, tries to go on the potty (we're on and off with that), we hang out and she eats a small breakfast, usually dry cheerios - she doesn't have much of an appetite in the morning surprisingly, then we either go to the library for story hour, gymnastics, or music class. After that it's off to school for lunch, a nap and some play time until Daddy picks her up after football practice. Then we head to the dining hall for dinner, which she loves. She eats pretty well there, it helps that there's a variety of stuff to choose from, although we try to pick a few things and have her just eat those b/c we don't want her to get used to choosing something else if she decides she doesn't like what's on her plate. After a fun walk, or run home as she likes it to be, we hang out with Champ and get ready for bed after milk and maybe a story or two. she's been sleeping great, a solid 12-12 1/2 hours and a 2 hour nap. We're all ready for bed time at the end of the day!

Payton

Thought I'd write about what Payton is up to these days since she does something everyday that makes me say "ugh, i should write this down so i don't forget!". So here I am, writing it down! She's talking so much more now, 3 or 4 word sentences and using funny phrases in all the right contexts. The other day she took a picture with my phone, looked at it and said "ooh, that's a good one". She had us cracking up. It's funny to hear things she says b/c it makes us realize the phrases we use over and over again...apparently we say "oh c'mooon!" pretty often b/c it's one of her favorite phrases. She's paying attention to everything, even when we don't realize it! I had an empty coffee mate bottle on the counter and she saw it and asked "a mommy coffee?" - I remember saying the word coffee to her maybe twice and not recently...how she knew i put that in my coffee, i have no idea - clearly she was watching me do it but for her to put all of that together was so cool to see! She loves babies and dolls now-stuffed animals too. She can often be found taking her puppy shopping in her shopping cart or taking out the diapers and the changing pad to change her dolls diaper. And when someone/something is taking a nap....they will be getting a "bankette" (blanket) b/c God forbid you take a nap without one! And if you try to say "no thank you" she looks at you with sad eyes and whines a little until you say sure. Don't worry, we don't let her get away with that for everything! We are just having the best time hanging out with her! Going to the park, the library, playing in the back yard, etc. She's definitely a little person now and a part of me is kind of sad that she's not a baby anymore. Here's a list of things she says that are too cute for me to forget:

"ba"-banana; that was how she used to say it, now it's more like "byana"
"yotion" - lotion
"gampy" -grampy
"gammy" -grammy
"gampa" - grandpa
"wulk" or "wulkie"- milk (not sure why, she can say other M words just fine!)
"puppy" with a french accent
"encore" - the french word for "again"
"mo" - more

there are a ton more but i need to write them down as she says them so i don't forget, that's the point of this blog right?? i wish i could just put this kid in a bottle and keep her like this forever!!!!

IVF

So we're at the starting line for another IVF process and I wanted to write about it b/c I can't remember everything from the last time and I'd really like to keep track of all of it this time around. My cycle began today so I called and made my appt for my baseline ultrasound and blood work for tomorrow morning in Farmington. It's a little trickier this time b/c we have Payton to worry about so Brian had to get someone to cover his class to stay home with her so we don't have to wake her up, and then he'll bring her to a friends until I get back. Tomorrow night I'll start follistim which is given by self injection. It has to be done at the same time every night so that is a bit stressful. But it should be ok. After tomorrow, I have to go on friday for more bloodwork, then sunday for another US and more blood work. In about 14 days i could be pregnant. Crazy, it goes so fast. I'm not sure how i'm feeling about it all...I'm excited to have more kids don't get me wrong, I just hope we're ready! I have a strong feeling it's not going to be as stressful b/c I have Payton to distract me, and I know whatever happens, we have a beautiful, healthy daughter and we would be happy with that if that's how it's supposed to be. Ready, set, go!

Payton's first "hokey pokey"

Apparently Brian's Grampa O used to call ice cream cones "hokey pokey's" when they were little, so the other day Payton had her first one. She wasn't psyched about it at first but when it warmed up a bit she was alllll about it. We got some great video footage! She was sitting on her chair eating away, and trying to get what was at the bottom of the cone with her tongue, hilarious. She ended up falling, ice cream up in the air, and ending up with it all over her face and in her hair, but she got right up and said "encore!" so we handed it back to her and she continued to eat her "cream" as she called it. Here are some pics of the little adventure...

Just a few pics...

A little person

Oh my gosh, this kid keeps getting cuter and cuter! She is becoming such a little person now, it's so sad to see her getting so big, but great at the same time! We're really enjoying all of her adorable little antics. She's talking so much more these days, everything we say, she repeats. Our parents are psyched to hear her call them "memere", "gampy", "gammy", and "gampa". Not only can she say the words, but she knows exactly which one she's talking to. I'm sure that's not totally abnormal for her age but it still amazes us! The weather these days is less than desirable and I feel so bad for Payton having to be locked up inside. She absolutely hates coming in from being outside, so much so, that she throws a giant fit. She likes doing that lately...freaking out and yelling "no!". The girl knows what she wants that's for sure. We're getting a little better at calming her down by explaining what's going on, or by total distraction. Usually one of the two methods will work! We're definitely struggling with how much to discipline at this age, how much can she really understand? But I guess if we just start implementing rules now then maybe it will be easier for her to understand later...?? who knows. trial and error i suppose. She's also into feeding herself a lot more now, she always a "foke" or a "poon" - i was a little nervous about how she would say fork but we're in the clear for now ;). The other day she went to the fridge and said "yogo!" (she also calls applesauce "yogo" - i guess everything she eats out of a small container is yogurt to her - when i tell her it's applesauce she says "sauce!" but then calls it "yogo" 30 seconds later haha) anyhow, she made quite the mess with her yogo - it's funny b/c before having a child i thought the messes would aggravate me but instead, i run to get the camera before even thinking about cleaning it up! it's too funny to get mad about, and inevitable of course.
On another note, we're moving into a new place on July 1st. It's a sophomore boys dorm which should be pretty different from freshman girls but hopefully in a good way. We have totally grown out of our place now. Now we have to climb horrible metal stairs to our apt (not fun when you do it 8 times a day), and we don't have any storage so our strollers are in the trunk of my explorer which is kind of a pain. the new place is on the first floor, bedrooms on the second (finally!) and a small fenced in yard which is really going to be great. It's not the place we would have liked but it's going to be better than where we are...oh and did I mention laundry IN the actually apt?! bonus!

Payton moment - I walked out into the living room the other day to see payton sitting in front of champ who was laying on his bed, sweeping my blush brush across his face as if she were putting make up on him...i couldn't take a picture fast enough but i really wish i had captured that moment, it was too funny!

So many new things...

Payton is doing so many new things since I last wrote! She has started developing her little sense of humor which makes us laugh non stop. On the other hand, she's also developing a little bit of a temper. Although she definitely doesn't like being told "no" which results in a number of tantrums - I think that the other part of it is that she just gets pissed that she can't tell us what she wants. But that's getting better too...she's repeating EVERYTHING! Soon enough she'll be speaking in sentences and I'll be making up other excuses for why she's throwing tantrums ;). We had a bit of a rough week last week when she was consistently waking up at 5 am on the dot. Not to wake up for the day though - we're still not sure why. We're going on two nights in a row of back to sleeping straight through so we'll take it! We were going in to check on her the first few nights then realized she doesn't ever really NEED anything. So one night we let her cry herself back to sleep (which never gets easier) and she went back to sleep for another 5 HOURS!!! So clearly she wasn't ready to get up at 5. I'm nervous she's been battling allergies or a sore throat or something and we've just been letting her cry. But she seems ok other than that so hopefully it's nothing! The other day Payton and I went to the store to buy....A POTTY! Can't believe we're already in the very early phases of that process. Time is going too fast. We bought an Elmo one since that's the only character that catches her attention. She tells us when she has to poop or when she's pooping so we figured, hey, if she knows it's coming, may as well see what she does with the potty. Sure enough, the first night she peed! i know it was just a fluke but it was still pretty cool and she seemed to be fairly proud of herself :) She's talking sooo much now. She's a little parrot. One of my favorite things she says is "ah-KAY" for "ok". If i say: we're doing this, then this, i don't even have to ask "ok?" she just says "ah-KAY!". It amazes me that she knows when to say it and it's so damn cute to hear it. She's finally starting to say memere, grampy, grammy, and grandpa which is awesome. Her new obsession is taking champ for a walk. She points to where champs collar hangs and says "Ka" then grabs his leash and tries to put it on, says "walk" and points outside. Another obsession BUBBLES. If she sees a bottle, we're stuck. But that's ok, I love hanging out with her outside while she sits on her step and watches the bubbles. I wrote this in two different sittings so my thoughts are a bit jumbled but I wanted to get some stuff down before I forget them! I'll be writing again soon b/c she does something new and worthy of writing about every day :)

Sleep training - again

Since Payton had that nasty cold a couple weeks ago, her sleeping has not been the greatest. She got used to us coming in when she cried - but that she's healthy, that had to stop! She would only wake up once and would go right back to sleep after snuggling for a bit but she was clearly not in any pain and i think the disruption in sleep was contributing to her crankiness in the morning - it was definitely contributing to mine! So we decided to let her cry...the first night, it took about 45 minutes, then the second night it only took 30 minutes at most...i'm happy to report that last night she went to bed at 830 and didn't make a peep until 900 this morning! Hopefully that wasn't just a fluke. We'll be glad to have our sweet, funny babe back and say goodbye to the monster she was becoming! Although, i'm guessing that has a little something to do with her age - so I'm sure we haven't seen the last of that little monster. She has some new "tricks" lately, one of our faves is when we sing a song that goes "it's freezing, it's freezing, I hope I don't start sneezing - achoo!" - I was singing it the other day and when I got to the "achoo" part, Payton said "ohh-two!". I almost peed my pants...who knew she was actually listening to us when we sing?!?! they're always listening, and learning - so fun! Payton moment(s) - Brian picks P up from school most of the time, and when they're walking to the house from the car Brian always locks his doors and the horn beeps. The other day he forgot to do it so P pointed to the car and said "beep beep!" - how she remembers these things blows my mind.

A new day

Ahhh. That's what my first thought was this morning when I woke, after sleeping 8 hours straight, uninterrupted. After a rough couple of weeks, with Payton not sleeping well b/c she had a cold, then trying to get her back onto a schedule during her recovery, last night was the first night in what seemed like forever, that she slept without waking up at least once. For the last week at least, she would wake up once, we'd go in and cuddle with her, she'd fall asleep on one of us, and then she'd be good for the rest of the night. We were planning on breaking that habit last night, but maybe she sensed it b/c she didn't wake up once. It was getting pretty tough to be exhausted and then deal with her morning tantrums. I could definitely tell the difference in both of us this morning, she wasn't as cranky, and when she was, I was ready to deal with it calmly. I'm hoping this is the start of her being the awesome sleeper she was before she got that horrible cold.

Since Payton does so many things lately that make us laugh, i've decided to add a "Payton moment" to the end of my posts. This mornings moment was when I was washing dishes and heard "mom, mommy, mom!" I turned around and she was standing at the recycling bin making her fish face and pointing to the empty goldfish carton in the bin. I love that she knew to do the fish face if she wanted fish - makes sense i guess!!

Determined...

Ok, so after talking to my BFF's sister Emily, it's now clear to me that I really need to keep up with this blog. She made me realize if for nothing else, I should do it so that I have it to look back on - not only for other people to read. So Em, I thank you!

Well here's what's going on in our crazy lives these days. Payton is growing up so fast, walking/running everywhere, repeating everything we say, and definitely developing her own little personality. It's blowing our minds how much she is talking - when we asked her if she wanted to take a bath tonight she said "bath"; it sounds like a simple word but when she said it Brian and I both looked at each other with shocked looks on our faces because we realized that she is now going to start repeating EVERYTHING. Better watch what we say! She began daycare last week, after a few rough drop offs things are finally getting easier. She doesn't scream when I drop her off anymore which helps me a lot. I've finally stopped calling half way through the day to check on her. She brought home her first "art project" the other day, a felt collage - very cute. That reminds me, i need to get a frame. We're surprised at how well she's napping there, at least an hour and a half nap every day, and she eats EVERYTHING. Even the veggies she won't eat at home...works for me! Some of her fave foods are bananas, toast, pb&j, and eggs. Her stuffed animal "snuggle pup" has played an important role in helping her adjust to school. I guess it is important for a baby to have that special item!

This weekend went by way too fast but it was good - we actually went out on friday night for a bit, sans baby, that was nice. Although, we left after she went to bed so we didn't miss out on any quality Payton time. Last night friends of ours hosted a playdate/bbq with some of the young babes on campus. It was great to see all of these little guys that were born the same year, now running around and playing together. Payton is pretty lucky to have so many playmates, and so are we! Today was a good family day, after church we went to visit my Memere in the nursing home. It was a great visit, it's great to see Mem's face light up when she sees Payton. i got some great pics :) Then Brian's parents, sister, and shan came over for our first "cookout" of the year; I say "cookout" b/c it was more of a cook-in since it was freaking freezing outside. Payton was in a great mood after her THREE HOUR NAP. But then we had the audacity to change her stinky diaper and that threw her off a bit. It's so strange how that happens - she could be in a great mood then we changed her diaper and she's angry and cranky for the next hour or so. Such a bummer. I'm not sure I'd be happier sitting in my own poop, but somehow, she is. She's really been throwing tantrums like crazy lately. towards the end of last week, i was exhausted by the time i dropped her off at school at 1130 b/c i was constantly battling with her. She wants to be held, but i have to get her ready, me ready, and her lunch ready - she doesn't understand this yet so she flips out. I've just been making sure she's in a safe area, and letting her scream her little heart out. Not much else i can do - i have to get that stuff done so hopefully she'll figure it out fast b/c it's not fun to listen to her be that upset. Anyway, I got side tracked a bit - i started talking about tantrums b/c tonight, for some reason, she wouldn't sit in her high chair unless we put on her winter coat. WHAT?! She's never done anything like this before - it was pretty weird. After Brian put it on her, she was totally fine. She sat in her high chair and ate her dinner...with her coat on. She kept it on up until bath time. This was a battle that wasn't worth fighting - i gave brian some slack for giving in to her but he's right, it wasn't hurting anything - we're really going to have to start picking our battles I suppose!!