Memorable Moments from Today

I caught Libby coloring on the walls. As soon as I said, "Libby!" she nearly jumped out of her skin and started running down the hall. I think that's a clear sign she knew what she was doing was wrong. And that is why I only have washable crayons in the house.

Libby pulled the D off my keyboard. Which is making this very hard to type.

The nurturing spirit she is, Libby has taken to feeding snacks to her baby doll. Today, she took it a step further to include 2 dimensional characters and offered a pacifier to a boy in her favorite book, I Took the Moon for a Walk.

As I was putting Libby to bed and she had fallen asleep in my arms, I heard her laugh in her sleep. It was awesome.

Cauliflower vs. Candy

For lunch on Saturday, Libby and I ate steamed cauliflower with crumbled baked kale chips dusted on top. (Can you tell we're trying to get our cruciferous vegetables in?) When she was finished, she reached up for Jared to get her out of the high chair and promptly lunged for the Smarties (leftover from Halloween) on the counter. Jared, slightly disgusted by the lunch Libby and I were eating, said "how can she go from eating cauliflower to Smarties?" "Easy," I said, "she's a product of me and you." 

And that pretty explains the difference in mine and Jared's eating habits.

Christmas and other celebrations

We had a nice, quiet Christmas at home this year. It was casual and small (we bought food storage in place of Christmas presents, so there wasn't much to open), but just right for our family.

Our best attempt at a family Christmas photo

Seeing her new doll from Aunt Rachel for the first time

Apparently excited to go to church on Christmas Day

Finally, a sunny day in Illinois! I love Christmas!

After such a laid back week, we were sort of itching to go do something, so we took a last-minute trip to Wisconsin Dells, WI, which claims to be the waterpark capital of the country. We stayed at a resort with its own indoor waterpark and indoor theme park. They also have a huge outdoor waterpark and a few big roller coasters. We'll have to make it back in the summer to check those out. The indoor activities were fun, but mostly geared toward kids. There were some things Libby loved (jungle gym/fortress thing with tons of foam balls), some she didn't love (bumper cars and go karts), and a couple Jared and I liked (tube slides and body slides).

The ball pit/jungle gym fortress in Wisconsin Dells

On the trolley ride

First time in bumper cars...and not liking it so much

*P.S. - Blogger refuses to post my vertical pictures vertically. Even though they're rotated correctly on my computer AND in the Picasa album associated with my blog. It's driving me crazy. Anyone know the secret to fix this?

16 months

Libby has been the queen of imitation this past month and it rocks my world. She is also growing in her ability to climb nearly anything. We've found her perched precariously on top of the kitchen table more than once this past month. She still loves the computer and if we leave the chair too close to the desk, she will certainly climb up and start pulling keys off the laptop. Her favorites are Ctrl and the Windows key. It's a gamble whether those keys work now or not. She also irreparably pulled the Enter key off Jared's laptop, which is...a problem.

She tries so hard to imitate our sounds and words and she is learning quickly. In addition to her previously learned words (mom, dad, dog, ball, hi, and bye-bye) she can now say "all gone." She regularly signs "more" and "finished" (which we also use for "all gone"), and can sign "please," "thank you," "bath, "candy," and "book" with prompting. She can make superb noises with her tongue and is a champion spit bubble maker. We're so proud.

Helping Jared set up her  new crib

  

Playing with a baby doll at her playgroup

Modeling after her bath

Snow

We woke up to snow this morning. Libby was too little to remember snow from last year, so it was fun to see her experience it for the first time. She was super excited to put her snow boots on and started taking giant steps while we were still in the house. Good to know walking in deep snow will come naturally to her!

She was either mesmerized or confused by the snow at first and just stood still in the driveway for a solid few minutes while taking it all in.

Eventually, she started stomping her feet and running into neighbors' yards and having a grand ol' time. 

Aren't baby snow boots adorable?

15 months

Things I'd like to remember about Libby at 15 months: 

• She loves pickles. Anytime the fridge is open, she grabs the pickle jar and begs for one. She sucks on them like popsicles, and while she eats most of it, she usually leaves a little pickle stub in some surprising location around the house.
• Her ability to imitate me and Jared is a constant source of joy. I love seeing her try on my shoes, slather soap (or just water) all over her body in the shower, dry her hands on the kitchen towel, sweep the floor, and talk on the phone (even when no one is on the other end).
• She is obsessed with pens - specifically ones that have a click top. While she does enjoy drawing on paper (and sometimes her body), she is mostly content to hold on to the pen. But! The ink tip has to be visible. Try and click the pen to retract it (to prevent stray marks), and she will protest by screaming and thrashing about.  
• She understands so much. If I tell her its time to brush her teeth, she goes to the bathroom and waits by the sink. When it's bathtime, she goes to the tub and tries to climb in. If I tell her to put her shoes on, she collects whatever shoes she can reach and brings them to me. Or, she goes to her bedroom, holds onto the wall for balance, and lifts her foot in the air and waits for me to put a shoe on it. When it's time to go bye-bye, she goes to her closet and points to her jacket. And, if she's feeling cooperative, she'll even lie down on the changing pad when I tell her we're going to change her diaper. 

• For my own reference, I'll add that her eating habits have picked up since she hit the year mark, and her weight is now comfortably back on the growth chart at 20 lbs (10th pecentile), up from her 12 months weight of 17 lbs (< 3rd percentile). Her current length is 31.25 inches (75th percentile), right on target following her 12 months length of 29.75 inches (75th percentile).

Thrifted Dresser: Before and after

I mentioned way back in September that I found a dresser at the thrift store to replace Libby's damaged, dangerous, falling apart dressers. Thank goodness she hasn't hurt herself on the broken dressers in the extraordinarily long time it's taken me to finish the new one. 

Before:

 After:

I realize the "after" pictures are blown out, but they represent the true color best and I was too impatient to wait for better light.

Here's a rundown of what I did:

• Removed the existing hardware and drawer pulls. The top 3 drawers had dingy metal pulls which I chose not to reuse. The bottom 6 drawers had an overhanging piece of wood with a lip underneath that functioned as the pull. (See below.) Once removed, I sawed them into smaller pieces and used them later on. 

• Repaired broken drawer with gorilla wood glue. See top right drawer in "before" picture.
• Sanded. And sanded. And sanded. For about 20 hours. Maybe more.
• Jimmy rigged a way for the drawers to align properly. After I took off the overhanging wood pieces on the bottom 6 drawers, I realized that they now sunk in about 3/4" deeper than the top 3 drawers. I basically just screwed small pieces of wood to the frame of the dresser in less-than-scientific locations. It works. 
• Installed homemade safety stops so the drawers wouldn't fall out. Wanna know how?

DIY Safety Stops

The idea is to use a small piece of sturdy wood (here's one place where I reused the old drawer pulls) and screw it to the back of the drawer, tight enough that it stays put, but loose enough you can still turn the wood piece by hand. 

Turned horizontally, you can insert and remove the drawer as needed. Turned vertically, the wood piece sticks up over the back edge of the drawer, eventually being blocked by the frame of the dresser. You can slide the drawer in and out, but it won't fall out!