13 months

Hartley Caroline!

You are thirteen months old!

• We say this every month, but you continue to get more and more personality! You are quite the little flirt. Anytime we're out and about, you have to wave at people and talk to them. This makes me have to talk to them, too...
• You are a little monkey, you have to copy everything we do! We've had our share of nose-blowing this month and you quickly started copying us! You cover your nose/mouth with your hands and make some kind of noise with your mouth. I pretended to be asleep one time and started snoring- you tried it, too!
• Your favorite song is "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and you'll do the hand motions. You still love to dance. :)
• We've been watching Sesame Street in the mornings and you enjoy it when Elmo comes on. Why do babies love Elmo?!?
• You making a kissing noise and also blow kisses. It's really sweet. :)
• Anything that rocks, you like to rock it. You push the glider and rocking horse in your bedroom. You also try to rock your babies. And kiss them.
• You pretty much kiss anything- books, the dogs (especially Sassy), pictures of dogs, anything in a book (especially bears and babies). You also "love" on these friends.

• As far as new words, you haven't added much. We're working on "night night" and you make a pretty good effort. A few weeks ago, I was saying that we were gonna go eat dinner with Grandaddy. I'm pretty sure you tried to say his name. It's funny how you say Momma and Daddy. You call Daddy "dada!" always with a happy tone. But as for "mama".. it's always whiny and sad.
• Walking, get on it. You will take a few steps every now and then. The most has been 5! You are such a quick crawler and that gets you where you want to go- apparently that works for you.
• You want to climb onto everything! Most of the time it's not even possible for you to get anywhere, but you try and try. Each night you try and climb into the bathtub. You also attempt to get up on our bed, your crib, the couch. You're really good at getting down, though.
• As far as a schedule, you've stayed the same. Wake up between 8-8:30. Take 2 naps a day. One around 10:30 (about 1.5-2 hours). The afternoon one around 3pm (again 1.5-2 hours). You go to bed around 8:15. You are a really good baby. :)
• Your hair is long enough to put into pigtails! This disguises that mullet of yours. And you look pretty darn cute.

• We've been playing outside a lot lately. We go for walks around the block in the wagon, swing in the hammock, and sit in the front yard. Daddy is getting your swing up, so we can use that soon! Today we went to Sonic and let you play on the playground. Then we waited for 2pm so we could get half price drinks! :)
• You eat any and all kinds of food. Your favorites include toast with grape jelly and grapes. We're so glad you're a good eater! New things you've tried include chicken nuggets, ham, and bacon.
• You love to be tickled!

You make Momma and Daddy very exhausted at the end of the day. You continue to be a handful and are always on the move! But we love watching you grow and learn everyday. You are amazing!

How on earth did we get the sweetest, funniest, and cutest baby?!?!

what's eating gilbert grape?

Hartley loves grapes.

So it doesn't surprise me she sneaked behind me and stole them from the fridge.

She was very silly today! We went to Wal-mart and she insisted on wearing my sunglasses inside. And then waved at everyone!

lots of stuff

I hate making a post and not having a create title. So, with the title being.. that.. I'm just letting you know there's too much to talk about- blahblahblah. Let's dive in.

I suffered for almost 1.5 weeks with sinus junk. I'm tired of medicine. Sick mommas are no fun.

I went to Augusta for "crisis" pregnancy center training over the weekend. I left Hartley for over 24 hours. This was a first- she did great! I'm excited/nervous about the new ministry I'm jumping into, but it's going to be good!

Hartley isn't walking yet. Still. She will take 3-4 steps at a time. Every few days... So, we've got a loooong way to go! I think she needs to hang out with Hudson. :)

Her hair is at a good length to pull up into pigtails! I'm excited that her mullet doesn't show as much this way.

She's been playing peekaboo a lot these days. We're pretty sure she attempts to say "peekaboo" but it comes out as "buuh" or something like that. We have taught her to say "booo" and do a thumbs down (kinda). This was prompted from watching American Idol before bedtime.

The weather has been so nice the past week.. or two! We've been [taking caution before saying this] "riding in the wagon." The dogs get so excited when they hear the word "ride" so we have to be careful to phrase it without that word.

We don't have any new words lately. Hartley upgraded to the real bathtub. She's been trying to climb in the tub and anything else climbable. But she won't walk. Go figure.

And she's interested in coloring. She doesn't scribble as much as she "dots" the paper. I like coloring, so I'm looking forward to many hours of doodling. :)

Um I think that's about it. Oh- we were selected to participate in the Nielsen tv ratings. So we've been filling out everything we watch, when, who watches what, and when the tv is even on and nobody is watching. But! We've got $30 for doing this for a week!! My dad always said "nothing in life is free." He is so wrong.

valentines drama

It's been quite a week around here.

Monday morning (Valentine's Day), Marshall's mom had her gallbladder removed. It was almost noon and I was about to grab a quick shower, when Mrs. Jean called. I'm so glad I had my phone in my hand. She was upset and said that she couldn't get in touch with Marshall- that their house was on fire.

She didn't give me any information, just that she needed Marshall to call them. Of course I think the worst- that after her surgery, she and my father-in-law pull into their driveway and see the house in flames.

Fortunately that wasn't the case. They had come home (safely). They had a fire going and Mr. Autrey ran to town to get Mrs. Jean's prescription. When he returned, he noticed smoke billowing out of their chimney.

They were able to control the flames with their hoses. Firemen/medics/everyone in Brooklet arrived shortly after.

I scooped  up Hartley early from her morning nap (later I told Mrs. Jean that today was not the day to be a Nap Nazi) and hurried over to their house. There were so many people there. I took Mrs. Jean home with me to rest.. remember- gallbladder surgery??

Later that afternoon, we went back to her house to assess the damage. Surprisingly, the majority was water damage.

I really shocked to walk into their house and not smell a bit of smoke nor see any soot.

The fireplace looked normal. Marshall had cleaned it out when he arrived.

A lot of damage occurred in the attic and with the insulation. But a fire/water damage crew arrived shortly after everything and started cleaning away. Insurance = amazing.

They just had a metal roof put on in the last year (or two?) and that probably kept the fire contained.

Rebecca had already planned to have a dinner prepared for Mrs. Jean that night. It got moved to our house with the usual crew of 6 adults and 3 kids. So much for our low-key Valentine's dinner. :)

In the midst of all this, Hartley and I are still under the weather. Mainly me. We're hoping I recover by Friday. I will be leaving my Hartley for an overnight trip. The first. And hopefully last. :)

happy valentines day!

We are completely miserable around here (especially us girls). Hartley's nose has been running (as you can see in the videos), she's got the yucky cough, and a little temperature. She actually took a 2 hour nap on my chest yesterday morning- which is extremely rare. I also think she's getting another took in. This tooth will fill in the gap and she won't have a crooked smile anymore.

Marshall and I were able to have an enjoyable Valentine's dinner Saturday night while Hartley stayed with her cousins. We watched Rebecca's kids Friday night while they went out, and then they watched Hartley for us!

Last night we got free babysitting again at the in-laws church! Their church was having a Valentine's Banquet and Hartley got to play with her cousins and only ate grapes for dinner. She's beginning the picky eater phase..

We don't really celebrate Valentine's Day, besides going somewhere nice to eat (usually not on VDay). I might make something for dinner, if I can get over this sinus crud. Blah.

I made a Bunny Clip. Didn't have any googly eyes,  and thought this looked more realistic. I have since bought googly eyes...

Some interesting things Hartley has been doing...

She took TWO steps by herself Saturday. This was right after Marshall got home from work. I'm glad she waited for him. I thought she was about to take a step this morning, but Elmo came on and she started dancing.

Hartley has started putting things in their places. It's like with the stacking rings. She's been observing! She found a sock this morning and placed it on top of her foot. I moved Cheerios to a corner on her tray (so she wouldn't throw them) and she found a loose one and put it in the pile. It's little things that she's figuring out! So I think we're gonna start working on picking up her toys. :)

Even though she's sick, I enjoy the sweet cuddle time I get. She usually doesn't stay still for 2 seconds, so it's nice for her to rest her head on us.

Happy Valentine's Day. blahblahblah.

**I apologize for the sketch videos. Don't judge me.**

peekaboo video

For my non-Facebookers...

We can't get over how silly she is! Hartley started doing this yesterday on her own. I was sitting on the couch and she started popping up and giggling.

12.5 months

I thought I'd go ahead and update with all the new things Hartley is doing before her 13 month post.. because so much is happening!

She blows kisses now. I would show her how occasionally and her cousins do it, too. But it wasn't something that I would go out of my way to work on.. she just picked it up! Rather quickly, too.

She can stack her stacking rings. It takes a few tries.. and sometimes she gets impatient and just throws the rings.

We have a sofa pillow that used to have buttons on it. Hartley has pulled them off one by one over the course of 3 months. Yesterday she pulled the last and fourth button off. And then she attempted to put the button back in it's place! She now plays with the buttons (they're BIG. 1.5" squares. don't worry.)

Right now, she's playing with my cell phone. Her new trick is "answering" it. She puts it to her ear and jibber-jabbers.

She's showing more interest in walking. Some days she has to hold 2 hands, some days she's fine holding one of our hands. She took one step by herself a few weeks ago as she was reaching for her push toy.

Her fifth tooth is still not in. She's been really fussy/clingy this week. It might be a wonder week.

Oh- and today she will be completely on whole milk!