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Sprinkler Girl Answers the Phone


The Barrette That Won't Stay In


Greedy Gussy Gets A Bite

Check Up

Tori had her 1 year check-up yesterday. All is well, except for an ear infection. Apparently she and her brother are going to have them any time they get colds or their sinus' get backed up until they are 5. Hopefully we'll be able to keep them out of tubes for their ears, but I'm not betting on it.

She is 20 lbs and I forgot how tall, but she is still in the 50% range in height and weight. She also got her MMR shot and is scheduled for her chicken pox and prevnar shot next month. She didn't cry long, but you could tell it hurt. Tori also met a 14 month old boy that was shorter and lighter than her, but could run like the dickens. She seemed enamored with him as she kept following him around while we were waiting our turn. She's going to have many heart breaks if all the boys ignore her like this one did.

After we got home, she took a 2 hour nap, which she rarely does anymore. Guess all the excitement wiped her out. She was up a little later than usual, but she slept through the night for us. She was a bit groggy getting up this morning and took a quick nap on the way to the sitters. She still seemed a bit out of it, but was ready to go once we got there. It was like yesterday never happened.

Tooth and Wet

Another one poked through, this time on the bottom. Her nose has been running all week, so we thought she might have a cold and then we found the tooth. Its probably a combination of both since her brother has a cold too. Either that or its sympathy teething!

She had a couple of rough nights, but slept through the night last night. Either her new tooth stopped bothering her or it was because she was exhausted from playing in the sprinkler yesterday.

We got the sprinkler out in the yard and let the kids play in it. Ollie didn't want to get wet, so he went inside and got his bath! Tori seemed to enjoy it and kept getting hit by the sprinkler every time it came around. She was soaked by the time she was done. She also tried to play with the sprinkler itself, but wasn't too successful. She did get in the spray from the side of the sprinkler and just stood there while it soaked her. The girl loves the sprinkler. After she was done in the sprinkler, she was taken inside for her bath and some warming up.


Water...Water!

Sleepless Again

Two rough nights for the sleepless baby. She got up every hour for several hours on Wednesday night. Last night she got up at midnight and moaned all night, but cried very little. She didn't want to be fed, she didn't want to sleep in our laps, she wouldn't sleep on our shoulder. She just kept waking.

When we went in there to get her she was stuffy. Her brother also seems to have a cold, so we are guessing she has one too and just can't sleep. It could also be her teeth, but we won't know until they come through. The good thing is that once she got up this morning and had a bottle, she was her jovial self. I hope she gets a decent nap today and comes home in the same mood.

All Hail the Queen

Tonight we are getting haircuts. We'll see if some of the pink fuzzy stuff on top comes off with the clippers.

Tori is active as ever. Her 'squirmy worm' name applies. She never stops moving. The only time she sits still is when she is going to sleep. That is also the only time we can cut her finger nails. She won't let us hold her hand long enough to clip off 1 nail. Instead, we have to plan clipping her nails. Otherwise, they don't get done. We won't chase her around the house in vain.

She crawls probably half the time and walks half the time. She seems to be getting faster at walking and will probably walking exclusively soon. She also can't stop moving her mouth. She is a jabber box. At times it sounds like she is saying words, but so far she hasn't really said anything. She is progressing rapidly now and if we look away, we might miss a development only to be surprised by it later.

Cake Eating 101

To eat cake properly, you start by doing this

And you end up like this:

and this:


You can see the rest of the cake massacre here, along with all her other current photos.

It Was My Birthday!

Tori demolished her cake. It was all over her face, her arms, the floor, walls and in the cat's food bowls. There wasn't much left except for the piece of cardboard that held the cake. It was then time for her bath. It was a short one because all the cake goo came off in the water. Her water didn't look like she should be sitting in it after she was cleaned.

She ended up getting a couple of dollies, clothes, musical (annoy the parents) play toy, crown and tea set. The crown looks pretty funny on her. Amazingly she didn't mind it at first. Once she caught on, off it came as soon as she realized it was there.

She did her usual playing and got in a couple good naps, despite waking during the night. It looks like she might have another tooth through on the bottom. It is too hard to tell for sure with her. She never lets you peek in her mouth. The only way to tell is to stick your finger in there and feel for it, but you are likely to get it bit off!

She has started making walking her preferred mode of getting somewhere. She tries to walk first then crawls. It won't be long and she'll be after her brother faster than he wants her to be.

Happy Birthday

Exactly 1 year ago today, yes her birthday is the 17th, but it was a Friday, Tori was born. In that time she has gone from looking like this


to this


She's changed so much it is hard to imagine that she was that small at one point. She's grown and changed so much in so little of a time. She not stopping any time soon. She now walks, slowly, but still falls and crawls for speed. She tries to keep up with her brother, who sometimes likes her and others, not so much. According to Ollie, "she's so cute" and he's right she is cute.

She recognizes and reaches for us, often playing the pass Tori game between Tresa and I. She's a daredevil and likes to try new things. She's a loving, hugging and now kissing baby. She loves to play with toys and her family. She doesn't mind going places, just the getting strapped into her chair that she dislikes. She feeds herself mostly and is on whole milk out of a sippee. Not much bottle feeding. Overall, she a great kid.

She does have a few things that need to be changed. She still doesn't sleep through the night. She has a temper and screams when she's unhappy. She doesn't like it when you leave the room and will scream then too. I'm sure there are other things, but they don't really matter. All the matters is that she's our little girl and we wouldn't trade her for the world. Happy Birthday Tori.

I'm Making Waffles

Breakfast for Tori are usually pretty simple and quick for Tori. We put her in her chair and she either has cereal or she has waffles!



This allows us to get our stuff ready to go for the day. She'll happily play and eat or just play with her food until it is time to go. Not long ago, we introduced her to Eggo waffles and she seems to love them as much as the cereal. They aren't very messy as long as their isn't any syrup on them. Occasionally, food will be flung off her high-chair, but most of the time, she chomps away and doesn't do much other than eat, drink and smile at us.




So far the only thing she's rejected is baby food and that only happened after she got a taste for real food. We never even made it to the imitation meat. She doesn't have enough teeth to eat real meat, but takes chunks out of hot dogs and bologna. For the most part, she'll eat anything we put in front of her. We've been lucky to have non-picky eaters. I hope they continue to be non-picky eaters.

Swimming

What is Going on Here?


Mmm Snacks


This isn't so Bad


Ok, I'll Relent

Day 2

This Again?


Bucket


Splash


I Won't Tip Over

Walk the Line

On your mark, get set, Walk! The daredevil in Tori has regained a foothole in her psyche. The daredevil now tries to walk every where.


She starts out holding onto something like this. Lets go and toddles as far as she can go. She doesn't take the fast approach and pauses to regain her balance after each step. Doing it this way results in her making it to her destination without falling. She can cross good distances (15 feet) toddling. When she wants to get some where fast, she reverts to crawling. She wasn't interested in walking until recently, then all she wanted to do was walk in between objects. She'll be walking full time pretty soon.

Now if we could only stop the screaming for no reason phenomenon that has erupted lately. There is also that pesky not sleeping through the night as well. Someday, someday.

Once

She only awoke once last night. It may have been because she was cold. She got a bottle anyways and was back asleep in bed in 30 minutes. The heavy blanket was put on her for the rest of the night and she didn't wake again until after 6. Her brother came in the room while we were getting dressed. He heard her through the monitor and ran to her room to see her. It was a couple of minutes before we got there, but they were having a great time together playing with each other through the bars. Ollie got in the crib with her and told us how much he liked and that "she is so cute". Its nice to know he likes her at least a little bit. Ollie will even let Tori play with his toys, when he wants too.





Then there is that climbing thing! She has had more interest in the stairs since I posted about it last. Its something new to play with now.

This morning there wasn't any crying over separation at the sitters. We went into the house and she put her head on my shoulder for awhile. Once she was done, she wanted down. I stayed for a few minutes longer and she never cried. She just watched her brother play around. I'm sure today was just a fluke, but it was a little progress.

What Groans, Wakes and Walks?

That would be Tori that does those things. She doesn't exactly sleep through the night while teething, so she groans and moans in her sleep. I think we've had 1 week of her sleeping through the night since her birth and her birthday is coming in about 10 days. She'll moan or groan and eventually start crying when she can't put herself back to sleep. When she's teething there are the bad nights, where she has to sleep on you for most of the night, like 2 nights ago. Then there are the nights when she gets up twice during the night and actually goes back to bed. We aren't sure what we'll do when she has all her teeth. It looks like she is nearing 6 on the top, but still only 2 on the bottom. Guess the bottom has a bit of catching up to do.




As for walking, she is getting there. She can stand by herself and will crouch and stand back up as a game. She's been able to take up to 3 shuffle steps at the most, but isn't very consistent with it. She wants to move fast and can crawl faster than she can walk right now. It is the option of choice when she wants to get some where. The stairs are of minor interest to her at the moment. That's not too bad for us anyways. She can climb them, she just gets distracted easily and wants to go back down once she's done. After all there are 13 of them! That's a lot of work for those little legs. She'll get interested someday and then we'll have to put up the gate to the stairs again.

Spaghetti and Chocolate

Guess what you get when you give a 1 year old spaghetti and chocolate.

A BIG MESS!

That was not fun to clean up! I think it was the day I took the entire chair outside and hosed it off. The squirrels got a great treat that day.

Cool Baby, Rough Weekend

Separation anxiety has set in full force with Tori. So has a temper. She doesn't like it when Tresa or I leave the room. Even to go downstairs. She cries hard until we come back. She also expresses her displeasure of anything by crying loud and hard. This occurred often this weekend as we would set her on the ground to play when we had to do something. She didn't like it and she let us know it.

This morning she started crying on the way into the sitters house. Before we even got to the door, she started crying. She knew what was coming and didn't like it one bit. After the waterfalls started, I left quickly so as not to prolong the crying. She'll get over it eventually. Unfortunately, it'll be here for awhile.

We are almost done with formula for Tori. As soon as we run out of it, she'll be on milk fulltime. Now if only she slept through the night full time. Toilets have become her favorite play toy. She'll lift the lid and splash in them until she is caught. This also results in a lot of smashed fingers and arms since she has never gotten the lid all the way up.

Tori also got her birthday present already. She doesn't even know what is happening on the 17th, so she got her new toy early. It is a counting, singing, piano with a drum and sound effect maker. It was the only thing she was interested in at the toy store. I think she liked the dancing dog on it the most. Its hard to believe that she is almost 1 and will be walking soon.

Separation and Walking

Separation anxiety has set in for Tori. When her Mama gets out of the car to go to work, Tori cries. When I drop her off at the sitters, she cries. It had happened a few times in the past, but it really revved up this past weekend when her grandparents were in town. Especially when Grandpa Steve was alone in the room with her. We'd both leave the room to do something and she'd cry her eyes out. She wouldn't stop crying until we would return to the room. I'm glad that doesn't happen at the sitters!

Tori has taken a couple of steps in a row. Last night she took two short steps between the couch and chair, before grasping me. She's starting to get the idea that walking is fun. She just needs a bit more encouragement. It won't be too much longer and she'll be running after her big brother. I'm sure he won't enjoy that!