Monkey updates

Lots to jot down before the mind loses it. First, the Monkey got a new Trucks book and she loves it (of course.) Dirt, airplanes, trucks. That's my girl. In the book, she can match up the trucks to their mate. Dump truck goes with the dump truck. Fire truck goes with the fire truck, etc. etc. She has successfully showed Mommy the 4 trucks on one page and their mates. "Monkey, where is the dump truck." She points. "Now show Mommy the other dump truck." She looks at the adjacent page and points out the matching one. Mucho impressed, Monkey.

And since the World Cup is going on, this next update is perfect timing. The Monkey showed off some pretty sweet soccer skills today. I tried so hard to get it on video but sadly it didn't work out because she saw me. I'll do my best to describe it. This was totally not prompted by me kicking the ball around first either. She found a ball and kicked it just a little, walked up behind it, kicked it just a little again, walked up behind it, kicked it just a little.....etc....etc.....etc. She did this across the room and back to me. Unreal. Mike will kick a ball around here so maybe this is where she got it from but I don't know. It completely wowed me for the cool factor but then also the fact that she completely found her own activity in her box of toys and created a little game for herself. Eloise entertains herself - score 1.

Also, we believe the Monkey can now add horse to her animal calls. She's got dog down. Is working like the dickins' on getting cat and now will "neigh neigh" when we ask her what a horse sounds like. This is new and still needs some practice but she's getting there.  What will be next? Probably cow. We're mooing all the time around here. It's a part of Operation Cow's Milk:)

The Monkey is pointing to her belly and nearly her nose (requires lots of prompting and a few "Peeeeee - eeeeew" skunk plugs to get her to touch her nose) when asked. Belly button is coming in as a close third in the body parts game but also requires some more work. The Dr. said at her 1 year appt to not expect body part recognition until 18 months and I told her that is likely going to be moved to 12 months for all kids thanks to Sandra Boynton's Belly Button Book (a household fav - thanks McKinley!) This has quickly become a baby shower fav so I know kids all across America will be "Bee-bo" fans before they know it!

Nap update - change is in the air at the Vail household and one certain Monkey is leading the charge. This past weekend she took 2+ hour naps. Really??? I kid not in this category.  You know me better than that. Do I sense a "normal" napper coming in my near future?? I hope so!  Today she gave us a few 1 hour long naps (and same yesterday) and so she's not set a 2+ hour nap trend yet but at least she's heading in the right direction. And I'm not going to lie, having her sleep for 2+ hours a shot this past weekend totally freaked me out. I honestly didn't know what to do with myself (besides want to grab a mirror and dash in there to see if she was still breathing. yes, I checked the baby monitor what seemed like 17,000 times.) A normal napper she is not and so after 12 months of no schedule, short naps, jotting down nap numbers like 34 minutes over and over and over again, and an extremely unpredictable baby, dare I say I might be joining the ranks of moms who have babies that actually sleep well during the day??? I can't say it yet. But maybe soon!

And for pictures, I was greeted this morning but another super cute outfit on the Monkey courtesy of the Baby Whisperer. She's too good. See when the Baby Whisperer arrives in the morning, the Monkey is still in her PJs. After her morning nap she changes her into her outfit for the day (or outfit for her first meal depending on how that goes:) Anyway, after she left, the Monkey and I went outside to play with her water table figures - she loves those things as you can tell - and so I could grab a few quick pics. Pair anything with some cowgirl boots and I'm totally in love.

Also, I've been meaning to get this into the blog for awhile. We've always used stuffed animals to try and teach Eloise "gentle" and also to try and get her to be good around pets. Not that the stuffed animal can replace the real thing (Azriel would agree) but it actually has been helpful. So in the process of teaching Eloise to be "gentle" she would take a stuffed animal to the ground and give it a nice big hug if we said "Ahhhhhhhhh......"  Yes, I know.....slamming a stuffed animal to the ground and giving it a rather forceful hug isn't the best display of being gentle but it's so darn cute to watch that we've just gone with it. So now, pretty much on queue, if anyone of us says, "Ahhhhhhh......." and her stuffed frog, dog or whatever is within reach, she bears down and gives it her best Eloise hug. I think a few kisses might be thrown there as well. Pics to show the Monkey's cute act of kindness...