Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. My sister and her family flew down to California and joined us for the first time in almost 10 years! That is definitely one of the difficult things about her living in a different state. We rarely see her at the holidays anymore, but we were so thankful they were able to come this year. My brother and his girlfriend also flew in, so all of them plus my grandma made my mom's house quite full. We drove out there nearly every day during their visit. Courtney and Maddie are getting closer to being able to really play together. I'm hoping that in the next year or so I will get to hear them chatting or singing along together. We took lots and lots of pictures of the kids and also quite a few group shots since it is so rare that we all get together. We all had a lot to be thankful for this year, but I was especially thankfully to have my family all together.

It's so hard to take pictures of kids this age (my kid was the most difficult)

One of our holiday traditions is designing unique rolls. Good job this year, folks!

We took the kids to a nearby playground a couple of times. Courtney loved the swing and it was the first time she wore shoes! Yeah I know some people think it is weird, but I felt like she didn't need any until she could walk well enough to be able to use them.

Firsts

The past couple months Courtney has had a handful of firsts. Two days before her first birthday she took 2 steps. Of course she did this almost immediately after I left the room, but thankfully Christopher was there to see it which was nice since I get to see most of her firsts first. For the next month or so she just took 2 and 3 steps at a time. Then right around when she turned 13 months, she started getting braver and within a week was walking across the room. I love her little toddle. It's so cute! She likes to scale along the wall and will still use the bins for balance some times, but she continues to get more and more comfortable with walking.

Courtney has also started talking some. She has said mama and dad for months now, but still doesn't call us them very regularly. She does say 'daz' for dance and then will wiggle when she says it. She also recently learned 'car' (and even pointed it out in her book) and will say 'cool' (last night she said it when we were reading her bible verses. She apparently thinks 2 Timothy 3:16 is coooool). I have a feeling that the talking will be like the walking was and that one day she will just start saying all sorts of words. In the meantime I enjoy listening to her chat away to herself using all sorts of inflections and sounds I don't understand.

Unfortunately there were also some less exciting firsts. Shortly after Courtney turned a year old we finally left her in the church nursery. We've been asked from a few people why it took us so long. It was for a few reasons. We had been attending a very large church and just didn't feel comfortable leaving her with people we'd never met and it just felt like she was too young for a while. We also kept hearing people say their baby would get sick after being in the nursery and I wasn't ready to subject her to that. She also is just a sensitive girl. She pretty much has been from the time she was born. She knows who she likes and doesn't like and is only really comfortable with a pretty limited number of people (most of whom are family). We began attending a different church this summer and while it is still a big church, thankfully the nursery area doesn't have too many other kids in it. We've left Courtney there maybe 4 times now and they've only called me to come help her once so far. However, both times I have taken her there when I've gone to MOPS, they've had to call me, but in all fairness almost two and a half hours is a long time for her to be away from me. I still feel so bad every time she cries when I leave. People keep telling me it will get better and I am sure it will, but in the mean time it breaks my heart that she has such a tough time.

Maybe related to that and maybe not, Courtney also got her first cold about two weeks ago. I actually thought it was great that it took over a year for her to have any illness (yay breastfeeding ;) ). It really wasn't even a bad cold. It was mostly just her nose running a lot and her having trouble sleeping because of it. Unfortunately I caught it too so I was trying to take care of getting myself better as well as her. We're both better now and are thankful for good health. I forget how much I take that for granted most of the time.

Taking a stroll

I took these when she was sick. She still had a pretty good attitude.

She knows she's cute!

As Courtney is getting older, it is becoming more and more clear that she understands far more than we give her credit for. She isn't talking much yet. However, there are a few things she does that I think are super cute and she knows I think so. She has an area in our living room that is between a speaker and a little trunk. She is the only one of us small enough to fit into that cozy space, so she likes to go back there. I keep telling her it is cute and so now when she goes over there she looks at me for my reaction and smiles. Another thing she does is come over to me when I am sitting on the couch and leans her head on it. The most recent thing she has started is if kneel down and I open my arms wide she will run over to me and let me hug her for 2 seconds before she has to be on the move again. So sweet!

Sitting in her spot

 Looking for a reaction

 

 Laying her head on the couch

Runs up and gives us a quick cuddle

Buzzy Bee

When I was on vacation at about 5 years old, I recall being allowed to pick out one souvenir from our trip. We had gone to various beautiful places in Colorado including Durango and Silverton. It was a great trip that included horseback riding and mining for gold. It's still one of my favorite vacation memories to this day. One stop we made on this trip was to a store called Honeyville. It was there I discovered my must have souvenir. His name was buzzy bee. He was a stuffed bee that chirped when shaken up and down. He still lives at my mom's house and I still like that that was what I picked. Now, 26 years later, I got to dress up my sweet little daughter as a bee for halloween. Buzzy bee's got nothing on you, Miss Courtney.

 Happy Bee

 Serious Bee

 

Flying Bee

 

 Silly Bee

 Drone Bee

 Sweet Bee

 Sleepy Bee

 Hospitality Bee

One year old!

So this should have been posted about a month ago, but um time somehow continues to get away from me! Courtney had her first birthday on September 11th. It was a very low key gathering at our house with just us and all 4 of her grandparents. Christopher's parents came out from Florida to be there for it. I think it is just what Courtney would have told me she wanted if she was talking. She doesn't like large gatherings of people and likes being around the people she knows best (sounds like her mama ;) ). We did two days of celebrations for her. Day 1 was swimming at our pool and day 2 was opening presents and cake at home.

I made a pumpkin pie and Christopher and I decorated it together. Of course we didn't give Courtney any of it as she is still mainly just eating purees (she has a hard time with new textures and tastes so we are taking it pretty slow). Plus her dad doesn't want her to have any refined sugar, which is actually a good thing. We are training to train her to have a palate for healthy food from the get go :).

It is hard to believe my baby is over a year old. This last year has been the most difficult and challenging year of my life but it has also brought unexplainable joys. There is just nothing like having a baby. It completely changes your world. She is such a delight and I just feel so fortunate and blessed to be her mother.

 She had just gone in the pool for the first time the week before. She loved it!

After church on her birthday

We bought a cake decorator and got a little carried away

 

See she doesn't care she didn't have any. Wasn't even excited about it.

A few of her favorite things

She isn't old enough to watch Sound of Music and doesn't yet understand about raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens, but she does have her favorite things. Here are a few...

Turning lights off and on

Smiling and hamming it up for the camera

Jewelry...any and every kind...take note, boys-you're in trouble

Pulling hair...I find this one very unfortunate and have my hair pulled back 90% of the time

This one shows her teeth (she has 8 now) and she loves to bite everything except food...strange I know

 

 Loves playing the puppy game in which I run around in circles with a stuffed dog and she tries to chase after us

Naptime

For some reason Courtney has never been one to want to nap. I guess we don't really learn to value our sleep enough until we are old and have too many responsibilities and can't get as much as we might like. I thought I had hit the baby jackpot when I got Courtney. For the first couple of months she slept more than most babies her age. She would go for 4 hour stretches in the first few weeks. Then was sleeping up to around 7 hours a stretch by month 3. I am not sure when exactly it all went downhill, but downhill it went starting at about 4 months. We tried sleep training. I read numerous books. All really to not much avail. Now she is down to waking up usually once per night, which I can live with but unfortunately the better sleeping at night has pretty much ruined her ability to nap. Even when I know she is so tired she will sit and play, talk, complain, etc. When I finally go in to get her (sometimes after over an hour of entertaining herself and/or complaining) she is happy as a clam. I guess I will just try to be happy that I have a pretty content kid even if she doesn't sleep like she should.

Who? Me?

Now this takes skill...

 I don't think I look tired