Back From The Dead

You followers of mine are probably pretty close to un-following me by this point. You probably think to yourself "man, this girl posts pics of her kid once in a blue moon and thats about it - why the crap am I still following this dead blog??" I would probably equate your following to something like the Playboy situation (I do have a point here...) While everyone tries to claim they only read it for the substance of the writing, we all know its only because of the pictures that you stick around....

So what's been happening in Martin-ville you ask? Let's see here.... I guess the biggest thing and one of the many reasons I've been MIA is that sweet Maggie Claire is transitioning to one nap a day now. She was previously taking two - one mid-morning and one in the afternoon. Since she moves to a new "big girl" room at daycare after the holidays where they only take one nap, we figured the long break would be a great time to undergo the transition. I'm happy to report that things are going very smoothly so far (I'm sure I'll be kicking myself in a few days for saying that). We are pushing back her morning nap every day by 20-25 minute increments and when it got to the 10:30 mark we took away the afternoon nap completely and just made her bedtime earlier. (On a side note, I just have to say that kids are strange. I mean STRANGE. We usually put MC to bed at 7, however due to her still early single nap, we put her to bed at 6:00 last night. I was pretty sure she would be up at 5 am or something, however she slept later that she ever has! The child didn't wake up until 7:45 (she usually gets up between 6:45 and 7:00). Insane. Why would she sleep more when we put her to bed earlier? Craziness. I'm definately not complaining though - power to her, mommy got some major shut eye.) So anyway, now that MC is only taking one nap, I pretty much get zero time to myself anymore. Hence the absense from blog world...

In addition to the nap schedule, other things are going well for little one too. She is drinking from the sippy like a champ now (which is great news for mommy... I had pretty much convinced myself she was going to become completely dehydrated and just shrivel up like a little raisin or something) and eating fairly well. I would like to run this by you though - what does/did your child eat at 13 months? MC has shown to be a very picky eater and I'm running out of ideas. Her diet includes the following: lima beans, peas, mac and cheese, ravioli, fruit, crackers, bread, and mashed potatoes. Thats it. In addition to picturing my child as a raisin, I also imagine going to her crib to wake her and finding a large lima bean in her place. She seriously eats/loves them that much.

MC is also talking up a storm. I mean besides baby babble. She can now say: mama, dada, bye-bye, hi, cow, ball, pea, bear, baby, and sometimes dog. She's stingy with that one. She is also doing the baby sign for "more" (although she also uses it to mean she wants to eat. Which I don't really mind since at least she has a way of letting me know what she wants) She will go stand in front of the cabinet that has her food it in and tap her little hands together letting me know she wants the food in there.

I suppose I should also comment on the fabulous holiday we had. It was MC's second Christmas (although she was one 1 month old for her first and basically had no idea what was going on) and, unlike last year, Adam was home this time. If you've been following for a while you may remember that Adam was in Iraq from July to March of this year so he missed Christmas with us. Needless to say it was fantastic having him home. Felt MUCH more like Christmas. We also were able to have his parents and brother, and my parents to our house this year. If you have children you are aware that driving 3 hours to one family and 2 hours to another family is quite a challenge with the insane amount of baby crap you are required to tote along.

Thinking the holiday couldn't get any better, we opened the blinds Christmas morning to this...

yup, snow on Christmas day. It was fabulous. Not enough to go play in as it melted by lunchtime, but still a nice thing to look at while opening gifts :) MC also enjoyed trying to catch the flakes...
I suppose that's a long enough post for now. However, I do need to catch everyone up on the new job situation. Here's a big hint - I just passed my real estate state test ;) haha. Now for your viewing delight - the fabulous Maggie Claire ;)

Opening gifts Christmas day

YAY for presents!!!

Mashed potato hair haha

Cheeeessseeee!

Sweet baby girl...