One more Friday update

I knew I forgot something....the Monkey is way into bugs right now. She's expanded her dirt, mulch, sticks, rocks fav list and added in bugs. I'm not sure if this started on it's own or if it was prompted by some books we have out from the library but in tandem, she's obsessed with the bugs in the books and now loves finding bugs outside. She just spent all morning (sparked my memory and thus this post) giggling at ants in the driveway.  And from the oversized, gross, antenna and leg filled pics in the book, what's her favorite.....I'll say, it's not the cute little lady bug.  It's the massively out of scale mosquito plunging it's sucker right into someone's arm. Gross!

Happy Friday!

Friday's update on a Thursday

I'm all over it this week, huh??  Don't get too excited. Today's update will be my last post for a few days. My mom and I are heading to Florida tomorrow through Monday to meet cute as a nugget little Chloe!!! The car is packed, my bag is nearly packed (as soon as the dryer is done, I'm done.) and we're ready to go. I even bought a cooler for the ride to have some cold beverages in the car. I feel like a pro!  The Monkey will be having a daddy weekend and I've given Mike the full run-down on a "day in the life."  He's excited to spend good quality time with his little girl.  The last I heard, they have quite an agenda chock full of outings and activities. The camera is coming with me but hopefully he'll capture some of their fun on his iPhone.

For this week's updates - I don't know if I ever mentioned on here (mentioned in on FB but not sure if I said something on here. I get all of these communication vehicles confused:)....the Vail household has been officially bottle free for 1 week. I gave Eloise her last bottle for night time last week and then that was it. I'd finally weaned her off of all daytime bottles over the course of a week or so, then the "before bed time" was the last one, which was totally easy and not a big deal at all. Honestly, I could have gotten rid of all of the bottles around 12 months but I was clearly more addicted to them than Eloise was. Anyway, at 13 and 1/2 months, the Vail house was completely bottle free. Yippee!

This week the Monkey used a fork for the first time and fed herself. She always wants to play with her silverware but rarely is successful at getting food on there and then actually to the mouth but this week she did all of the above. I was stunned, really.  I handed over her fork, she poked it into some eggs and put it right into her mouth. Awesome!  Then she repeated it quite a few times where I thought, huh....she's got this one. She can't do it successfully with all foods. She needs something easy like eggs where no matter how you stab, you'll likely get it on there. And then they don't slip off on the way to her mouth so eggs was the perfect place to start.  We'll keep practicing with lots of other foods and then also start working on a spoon.

I have not purchased Eloise's new Tretorns yet but I bring this up because I have thrown the towel in on buying her cheap shoes from Target. They were awesome while they lasted and exactly what she needed at the time but now that she's basically running, she needs good shoes with good soles.  She's also a little hot box and her feet sweat to boot so I need to get her new sandals with leather insoles to keep her from slipping around (the cute Target sandals were great until her feet started to sweat and then she would slide forward until her toes were on the ground. not pretty.) and also, I need those sandles to buckle vs. velcro.  Velcro's not working for this little one. She tugs until she gets it free and then yanks her shoes off no matter where we are. Not convenient.  So real sandals it is. I've already scouted out some cute ones. Also, she needs a good pair of sneakers to play in and just all out run around in. She's at that age. I took her to Tootsies Too like I talked about last week but they didn't have her size in Tretorns. The visit was not a total loss though because I had her officially measured and she's a 4 1/2 with regular width feet. Not too narrow or too wide.  Good to know. So any shoes I buy her will be 5's and medium width. Perfect.  Stay tuned on all purcases. I'll likely wrap this up next week.

Last for this week, Eloise is full on with her waving. She used to be hit or miss but now when we say "wave good bye" or "say buh-bye" she waves like a champ. She even waves to cars, trucks, airplanes, runners and dogs that go by. Too funny. Also in this hand category, she's all about some high-five-ing. To the point where she was ducking down below the ottoman the other day, I said, "High fives, Monkey." and she came flying up off the ground with her hand up in the air. I laughed out loud over that one. That's my girl! Lol!

I feel like I'm forgetting an update but for now, I'll leave this post at what I have above. For pics today, the Monkey is way into her popcorn popper from Andrea, Doug and Brody.  What's funny is she rarely pushes it. Rather, she prefers dragging it behind her. She does laps around here dragging it and laughing as she goes. The other day we brought it outside and she ran right past me, popcorn popper blasting behind her, right down the front path, straight into the yard and into the neighbor's and, of course, would have kept right on going if I'd let her.

Mike Tally #3

One more for the Mike Tally that I just thought of....

3) She pounds down drinks.  Sippy cups aren't for sipping around here. Instead they might has well be called "gulp it down" cups. Each morning our ritual is to come down stairs, find the "kitty cat" and feed him breakfast and then while getting our breakfast ready, I give her a sippy cup of milk.  She then immediately plops herself down wherever she's playing and stops at nothing to polish off the cup.  Nothing else matters at that moment other than to suck down the sippy cup in record speed.  How is this similar to Mike?  Here's your forewarning, don't ever let him "take a sip" of your drink. You'll regret it:)

The Mike Tally

I started to discover a new list forming in the Vail household and I've decided to call it the "Mike Tally". The list so far has been made up of all sorts of things Eloise was doing or not doing, including things not all that pleasant, that Mike similarly did or didn't do as a child.  i.e. the Mike Tally. 

Example - I came home from a playdate and said, "Eloise was a complete maniac at the ice cream shop and was totally not interested in ice cream. All the other kids were sitting nicely on their mommy's laps gobbling up ice cream and Eloise was charging up and down the aisles like a wind up toy."  What does Mike say?  "I never eat ice cream and I'm sure that's where she got it from. I bet her teeth are too sensitive like mine." (which is actually what I think is going on because she won't eat anything that is too cold including milk or veggies straight from the fridge.).  There we have it - Mike Tally #1. Shall we start the list??

1) She won't eat ice cream (or anything cold).

2) She will go running (literally) into any body of water without one ounce of fear.  The Mike Legend here was told through his parents who refused to buy a house on or near the lake we grew up by for fear Mike would seriously run right into it and hurt himself.  Mike Tally #2.

So far the list is shallow but I have a sinking suspicion that it'll be growing as Eloise gets into more, her personality comes out, and she starts to get her wits about her. But you'll notice of those that are now officially on the Mike Tally list, none of these are all that great. One is more serious than the other, of course. And so far the trend appears to be innate traits - like those that just come with the complete package - i.e., not that easy to change. If there was an "Allison Tally" the list might include 1) Laughs at burps.  Yes, she and I both laugh at burps and yes, I'm sure I'll regret this someday. But this was something taught . I have a chance at "un-teaching" that one.  Running full speed into a pool because she's a water baby with no fear??  It's in the blood.  Sensitive teeth?  Again, in the blood. 

So as we get to know the Monkey more, I'll be noticing her Mike-isms and jotting them down here under the "Mike Tally" label. Stay tuned as the Monkey becomes stubborn, cynical, and has a particular hankering for beer. Ahhhhhhhhh, just kidding. But, if she's anything like her daddy, those too could be added to her Mike Tally:)

Pics for today....the Monkey has accumlated quite a few pair of sunglasses and the irony is, she refuses to wear them.  So during a recent "circus side show" meal time, I decided to whip them all out and let her try them on for size.  Here are the results.

Raleigh weekend

The Proctor munchkins are to die for!  I'll spare you my typical babble and get right to the goods. Here are some pics of those babes!

This is what Corinna calls the "Twin Stack". Hilarious. And she can whip this off one-handed. Very impressive. She was made to be the mom of twins. Amazing. Truly AMAZING!

 

Then we got a chance to put on our swimsuits and get right up into the new Proctor pool. How awesome is this??? It's literally been over 100 degrees for days - I should say weeks - in NC so this hilarious $70 contraption did just the trick.  John even put chairs in there for everyone to sit!

Here are the babies while we enjoyed a dip in the pool.

Get the Monkey around water and she's in heaven.

And now, some more pics of those precious little babies!

The Monkey getting in on the goodies...

And when we got back to CLT, she finally got wise to the pony tail I put in her hair (soooo many hours prior and she didn't notice or fuss!!) and she yanked it out. Check out this hilarity!

It's like she's posing. She's so funny!

RFYL 4 miler

Today's "Run for Your Life 4-Miler" was awesome. It was a tough course - tons of hills including a serious 1st mile that was basically up hill the entire way - but we made it and also, we met my goal to get under 30 minutes. I honestly didn't know how realistic this was but I had 30 minutes in my head and the last I looked at the clock, it said 29:47 as I was heading into the finish line. Our final clocked/chip time was 29:58. That's a 7:30 min/mile pace and that's what I was hoping for. Yay!  The Monkey was awesome per usual. She really gets a kick out of seeing all of the action going on around her.  One funny moment - we were on the last 1/2 mile which was a nice down hill. She's in there hollering "Da da da da da da da" and someone next to me says, "I think she really wants her Daddy."  At that point in the race, so did I:)  That course was not kidding around. Start with a 1 mile up hill and then hills scattered throughout and then bascially a 1 mile downhill for the finish.  Crazy!  But combined this makes my 29:58 even cooler. What a great way to start the day!  Now off to Raleigh to see those Proctor munchkins!

Have a great weekend!

Friday's update

"Uh, oh."  Yes, that's the Monkey's new phrase courtesy of Gramma Judy.  Actually anything Gramma Judy does, the Monkey imitates as exampled on our walk back from the Elizabeth Creamery where the two were going toe to toe on the copy cat game. I'm not sure who won. I think it must have been a tie. Cough, cough, cough.  Follow by a little cough, cough, cough coming from some mystery Monkey inside the jogging stroller.  To a hee, hee, hee again, followed by a little hee, hee, hee from the jogging stroller. It was very cute.

A few weeks ago Gramma Judy started saying "Uh, oh" and so of course, after a few days of warm up, the Monkey's a full-fledge "Uh oh-er".  For the last few days this phrase has been used non-stop but never in the right context. Today she was starting to show a little promise when she'd fall and say, "Uh oh."  Get herself up and drop something and say "Uh oh". I think she gets it a little bit at least.  Then the ultimate was when she took a 50 minute afternoon nap today and as soon as she woked up, I heard her on the monitor go, "Uh oh."   I agreed with her.  "Uh oh" is right on that short nap (although, of course, better than she used to be) since it was 2:30pm and we had 4 1/2 hours until she went to bed. 4 1/2 hours is a long time to stretch this Monkey.  But we had another Elizabeth Creamery playdate (Yes, it was open this time and that place is delish.  48 different kinds of ice cream and get this, it's all handmade. And they even make their very own sugar cones. Yum!  I had "turtle" and it was so good. The Monkey had a little and was instead far more interested in running around the place like a maniac. All the other playdate kids sat on their parents laps and gobbled up ice cream. My child - running around like a crazy person. Hilarious.)

So what else is the Monkey doing lately? She's nearly running. That scares me. Likely when she gets her new Tretorns she will be actually running and then she'll be uncatchable. As shown during today's ice cream outing, she's non-stop. She just goes and goes and goes and is constantly going.  Yes, I'm expecting 2 1/2 hour naps soon:) When we went to the running store this week to sign up for the race, she was "running" around the store and another patron said...."she'll be running before you know it!"  Sigh. I know, I know. ;)

Tomorrow the Monkey and I are running in our 3rd race. When we went to sign up I mentioned that they I always check the "Baby Jogger" box but they haven't counted me as one yet. She said she'd look into it. I also asked if the Baby Joggers were going to be able to start the race 2 minutes early (as described on their web site and I've never seen done before) and she said yes. Huge score if this really happens because tomorrow's race is expecting over 1,000. Yikes. I try to avoid these bigger races but with the early start for the Baby Joggers I thought, what the heck. We're doing it. The race starts at 7:28am (real race starts at 7:30am), it's 4 miles and it's supposed to be 80 degrees already. This heat wave is no joke.

After we get back, we're heading to Raleigh to get our mits on those Proctor babes. I can't wait!! And I'm bringing my camera so I hope to catch them in all sorts of cuteness.  It'll be fun to see the Monkey around the babies too.  Of course we'll be working on "gentle" and what not. Speaking of, she now charges at people when she's out and about. She's not trying to rough-house but she does lack a certain sense of herself.  Does that make sense?  I'm sure it's something she'll figure out but for now she hardly ever looks where she's going and she has this false belief that she can literally go through people vs. around them. (we're working on all of the above). Anyway, my new way to help her better understand her physical presence is to ask her to wave to people vs. running right into them. So far it's working. I tell her to watch where she's going and rather than go full steam ahead right into them, to wave.  She's getting quite a lot of waving practice with this new exercise and so far it's actually working. Lol. So now she waves all of the time.  This may be kind of bizarre but it's better than her taking a toddler to the ground and worse yet, taking herself down as well, and creating one big toddler tangle on the floor. I've also used this when she's been really grabby. I gave it a test run today at the ice cream shop when she tried to de-shoe a 10 month old in a jog stroller. It first started with her hands and then she started pulling them off with her teeth. Yes, you read that right.  So thankfully I was right there and I told her to wave to her new friend "Leo" and to leave his shoes alone. She waved and stopped the shoe snatching. I'm telling you, she's non-stop. This little girl is NON-STOP. And I remember someone telling me how lucky I was to be having a girl. Girls are so relaxed and quiet. They are gentle and sweet. They sit on their mom's lap and snuggle. They like to play by themselves, yada yada yada. Ummmm......what can I say?

My last comment for this Friday's update is the Monkey's hair. It's out of control as you've seen in all previously posted pics. And the sad part is, she won't keep a clip in her hair. Or a hat, for that matter. Even after Mike and I show her repeatedly how cool it is to wear hats. It's a no go. I have successfully tricked her a few times with some sort of "hold back her bangs" contraption but as soon as she figures out it's in there, she yanks it out and yes, you guessed it - she eats it.  So clearly this requires a lot of supervision. But the bummer is, she really needs something to hold her hair back or else she's going to need her bangs cut pronto. It's like when you see those dogs and you feel so bad for them because their hair is always in their eyes.  And you catch people saying...."oh, that poor dog can't see anything because all of that hair." That's my daughter. I'm continuing to try anything and everything I can think of because I'd rather not cut bangs on her.  And so today's pics will show some of the temporary winners.  All you see here lasted for maybe 30 minutes at which point she'd discover what I've done and yank them out.

Chloe

Friday's update will come later today but I just couldn't resist hopping on here and posting this darling pic of my neice, Chloe. Come on already! If this doesn't say, "Happy summer and enjoy your weekend!", I don't know what does. She's so cute!