Carlie at 15 months

 

Carlie just turned 15 months last week and she is now in full-on toddler mode!  She loves to walk, run, crawl, climb, and generally just get into anything and everything that she can!  Carlie is a very happy girl (unless she doesn't get her way - yikes!) who still loves to eat and sleep like a champ!   She usually goes to bed around 8pm & at times doesn't get up until 10 the next morning!  She'll take a shorter nap in the afternoon if she has slept in that morning, but when she gets up early (or is forced to get up early!), she'll often sleep for 2 or more hours for her nap!

 

Right now, Carlie's been up to:

• Talking up a storm about anything and everything (in her own language)
• Mimicking animal sounds & Haddy singing songs (she loves to sing 'dee-dee-dee-dee' when Haddy sings the ABCs)
• Cleaning and organizing - she loves putting shoes away, especially
• Books - Carlie loves to pick out a book and plop herself down on your lap, but she'll usually just turn the book back to her favorite page over and over before you realize that there's no use in trying to finish the book!
• Attempting to eat her food with a fork (and sometimes a spoon) - she knows what to do and gets lucky about half the time!
• Climbing stairs & playground equipment - she loves the big-girl swings, too
• Putting EVERYTHING into her mouth!
• Eating anything and everything, especially broccoli & mango!
• the Old MacDonald Poke-A-Dot book

 

So far this summer, Carlie's gone camping (her first camping trip to Parker Dam), to the Cape May Zoo, to the beach house (where she went on her first surrey ride), to a farm, to a family picnic & to the Frenchville Picnic (where she went on her first hay ride!).  She also met some of Mommy's friends from high school (and their kids) at a playground!

 

Carlie now weighs about 22 pounds, 13 ounces (50th percentile) is about 29.5" tall (25th percentile) & her head is about 18.5 inches (70th percentile).  She has 12 teeth (all 8 in the front & her first four molars all around!).  She is wearing mostly 18 month clothing now, but still fits into some 12 month items now, depending on what they are.  Carlie wears size 3 diapers & is easing her way into size 3 shoes.  She still uses her paci when she sleeps & plays with her hair while she's falling asleep.  She does a great job of finding things to do & will play independently very well.

Carlie's first trip to the Penn State Creamery

Words & phrases Carlie says now:

• Mama
• Dada
• Hadda
• All Done
• Ta-Da!
• Uh-oh!
• Animal noises: cat, dog, bird, duck, snake, elephant, pig, cow

She also signs:

• More
• Please
• Milk
• Thank You/You're Welcome
• All Done

Hadley at 2.75

 

It almost seems impossible that my next entry for Hadley will be for her THIRD birthday!  She continues to amaze us each day with the things that she knows and understands!  It's really remarkable to watch her learn, overcome obstacles, & play the big sister role.  We still struggle with getting her to play independently, but she has grown leaps and bounds in this area just in the past few weeks, so we're hopeful that she will continue improving in this area more and more!

Here's what Haddy's up to these days:

• She graduated from the high chair to a booster seat at the table
• We enrolled her in dance class for the fall (mostly because there were no 2-yr-old preschool programs in the area)
• Haddy can sing the ABCs (she finally added in the L yesterday!) and count to 13 (she counts on after this, but as is the case with many kids, gets a bit mixed up on the tricky teens!)
• She loves the VeggieTales characters and will sing the songs over and over again (particularly "Oh Where is my Hairbrush?", "The BellyButton Song", and the theme song.
• She loves playing with her cousins (she got to see ALL of them for the family beach pictures)
• Haddy would love to give up naps, but still needs them & generally doesn't put up much fuss about going down for them.  We will skip them from time to time if we have lots going on, though
• She knows all of her upper and lower-case letters & almost all of their sounds
• Haddy loves the computer & is learning to use the mouse & keyboard a couple of times a week
• She still has no interest in the potty, but did tell us that she would "use the potty on Tuesday" Haha
• Hadley loves to swim and play in the water.  She will jump in by herself (wearing her Puddle Jumper) & doesn't need help to paddle herself around
• She really wants to learn to ride a bike, but it seems that she's still just a bit too short
• She still loves the color purple & now calls Daddy's favorite color orange (instead of orn-jin, as it was previously known) 
• Haddy has taken an interest in coloring and drawing
• She knows how to write an H and a T - we're working on her "a" next, so she can start learning to write her name 

So far this summer, Haddy's gone camping (her first camping trip to Parker Dam & her first fishing experience where she mostly wanted to just pick blueberries off the bank), to the Cape May Zoo, to the beach house (where she went mini-golfing & on a boat for the first times, & also went on a surrey ride), to a farm, to a family picnic & to the Frenchville Picnic.  She also met some of Mommy's friends from high school (and their kids) at a playground & she went to see her first movie on a date with Daddy!

 

 

 

Hadley is now over 3 feet tall & weighs about 28 pounds.  She wears mostly 2T-3T clothing, however she still does have a few 24m skirts & shirts thrown into the mix.  She is still in size 4 diapers, however I hope we can proudly tell you that she's in "big girl underpants" by the next update!  Haddy is a great breakfast and lunch eater (she loves any kind of "salad" sandwich - egg salad, tuna salad, etc.), but definitely continues to fight us at dinner time, especially over her vegetables.

 

Haddy's first trip to the Penn State Creamery

Haddy's fish (Nemo) that she won at the Frenchville Picnic & keeps at MumMum & Pops' house (please don't tell her that Pops had to buy a replacement Nemo already!)

Haddy's first boating experience