My First Homemade Decoration

Vivian made her first Christmas tree decoration today. She painted a Christmas tree and decorated it with rhinestones. It came out so perfect!

Potty!

After bath tonight Vivian did her usual naked run. She made her loop around the living room but then she ran back into the bathroom. What was this? She climbed on top of the toilet (luckily the lid was down) and started peeing! What!?! Did my baby just pee-pee in the potty? Unfortunately I can't show you her happy face on the potty because she's fresh out of the bath and stark naked. Time to get a little potty seat for the big potty.

Music

As most people do, we have been playing lots of Christmas music. Vivian loves it! She started to point to the computer or iPad when she wanted to hear it. Being the smart mommy that I am, a couple of days ago I thought I would show her the sign for music. She picked up on it right away. This morning she immediately asked for music before I could get her out of her bed. She wouldn't let up until I put it on. At least she knows what she wants.

15 Months

Vivian is now 15 months! She is full of milestones. Here's the breakdown...

~ We've been practicing throwing. We use playtime with Dyno to help us. I showed Vivian how to count to three and then throw Dyno's ball. She caught on rather quickly. Although she is not correctly saying 'one, two, three, throw', you can tell that's what she is trying to say by the rhythm and the inflection of the vowel sounds.

~ We live on the second floor of an apartment and we also have a couple of steps inside so Vivian gets lots of practice going up and down. She recently got brave enough to go down the couple inside with no hands. I, on the other hand, am not comfortable with her doing it on the big flight outside.

~ With her new found lack of fear of heights she has also figured out how to climb onto the desk when I am working at it. She just can't stay away.

~ We got Vivian a bunch of chunky puzzles for her birthday and she loves them. She is really quite good at matching the shapes and animals to their correct spot.

~ Without a doubt we have a reader on our hands. She loves to read and to be read to.It's the one activity she can focus on for long periods of time (15 minutes).

~ With all the puzzle practice and books we read she has learned a new array of words. She is able to recognize animals, shapes, colors and every day items. Every once in a while she take a shot at trying to say one or make the sound of an animal. She likes to pretend to be an elephant.

~ Derrick and Vivian have discovered Sesame Street songs on YouTube. The ones that feature real musicians and the characters. This is one of their favorites.
 

~ This is probably the cutest milestone. Vivian has learned how to blow her nose. It took a lot of modeling of fake blowing my nose and a lot of wasted tissues.

~ Words of the month are cheese, leaves, please, up, help and eggs. She actually says 'up please' but it sounds like 'pu pee'. Once she got the hang of the long e sound she quickly began to mimic other long e words like, cheese, leaves, trees. 'Help' usually sounds like 'up' and 'eggs' sounds like 'kgs'. No obvious words yet. If you just walked in on a conversation you would probably not know what she was saying. But nonetheless, she is practicing very hard.

~ Thanks to bath time she now knows where her belly is. Thanks to her poking at our face she knows where all of her facial features are. Thanks to putting her shoes and socks on to go outside she knows where her feet are.

~ Big milestone alert. Vivian has mastered, though not always very gracefully, feeding herself with a fork.

So like I said, she has been a busy girl learning how the World works around her and how she fits into the World. I am so thankful I get to be home with her to have these experiences with her.

Yes, More Bubbles

We try not to say "No" when talking to Vivian, rather we redirect her. We also use a lot of positive reinforcement, which I guess includes the word "Yes". We now have a yes baby. When Vivian recognizes that we are asking her a question, no matter what it is, she says "yes". She also started using a new sign. Well, I say new but we've been showing her the sign every meal since she was 6 months and she finally has used it herself to communicate. Of course, just like the other signs and words, she does it all the time. She is learning when it's appropriate to use the sign and right now she apparently wants more of everything. So the two combined is pretty cute and she gets excited or proud of herself that she is communicating her wants and needs.



We've also been practicing blowing bubbles in the bath and pool. We awkwardly lean our heads into the bath to model how to blow bubbles and she watches with delight. She has now picked up on how to blow bubbles. Unfortunately, after she blows the bubbles and closes her mouth, she takes a big gulp of water. Luckily, she isn't put off by choking on the water and goes back for seconds. I will work on a video but it's an awkward angle. You may just have to take my word for it.

Climbing

Be prepared, we've reached the climbing phase. Climbing the stairs. Climbing onto Mommy and Daddy's bed. Climbing onto the little rocking chair. Climbing over Dyno. But the funnest is climbing into the grocery cart.

"I'm not supposed to push the grocery cart. Mommy always puts me in it with the groceries."

First Drawing

Vivian loves her colors both the markers and colored pencils. She loves to take them out of the box one by one and unfortunately likes to put them in her mouth, which is why she doesn't have crayons. I have been encouraging her to hold them in her hand and showing her that when she uses them on the paper there is an effect. Teaching her that she is actually producing something when she colors. I tried for about a week and she wouldn't even hold the markers in her hand without attempting to eat them. So we took a break and I let her do some more independent exploration of them. We came back to them a few days later and tried again. Mind you, I'm not sitting down with her and forcing her to hold the marker. Rather, while she is playing, if she hands me one to share I take the cap off, model how to hold and use it, place it in her hand and draw her focus to the paper. It took several more days until she finally began to make marks on the paper and then she went to town. Coloring back and forth and making dots.

This is her first master piece.

And her second a couple of days later.

I'll Take Water - Straight Up with NO Straw!

That's right. Vivian drank from her cup today without a straw! She guzzled the entire cup getting only a little on her toward the end. What a coordinated smarty!

Walking on Sunshine: 10 months

Our beautiful Vivian is 10 months old!!!

Vivian got shoes for her 10 month birthday because she is now walking without hesitation, only a month after taking her first couple steps. :-)

"What are these pretty things on my feet?"

"I hope they don't get in my way or slow me down!"

"So far so good."

"I like them! I think I'll keep them!"

Baby STEPS

Yesterday Vivian took a step a few times and then took 2 steps twice. It all happened unexpectedly and quickly that I didn't get a chance to catch it. So today my goal was to record her 'walking'. Well to my surprise she decided to take three steps today! She'll be ready to dance with Nonno Pete in about a week!

Look, No Hands!

When I put Vivian on the floor I usually put her down on her feet rather than sitting her down. She always falls to the floor on her bottom. Well this morning after breakfast she surprised me by continuing to stand. She didn't last a very long time so I had to have her do it again so I could get a picture. Even though I was prepared the second time around I barely had enough time to catch her (that's why her head is chopped off in the picture).
I was super excited and had her practice a lot. I managed to get another picture.
What a busy week of milestones. Climbing the stairs, teeth, standing up. Maybe that's why she won't nap, she's too busy growing. Must be all the good food that's helping her grow and get strong! Yummy!

Say CHEESE! ☺

While Vivian was taking her bath she was playing with her foam letters as usual, in her mouth, except she was being a bit more aggressive. She was chomping down hard and trying to pull them out. Not sure why, but I decided to feel her gums. They had been bumpy like little hills and valleys for a week or so. I stuck my finger in and felt a little prick. I didn't believe what I felt so I did it again. Sure enough, a little tooth was poking through. After feeling it I figured that she wasn't trying to pull the foam letters out, she was actually trying to see if her fancy first tooth could hold the foam letter in place. Of course I made a big deal about it and she soon caught on. She started telling me about her tooth and all the things she plans on eating with it while showing it to me by opening wide with her lower lip down. I soon realized that that's probably why she did not sleep well at all last night, getting up every hour or two hours. And why she had been extra clingy the last couple of days. Good thing we've been practicing brushing our teeth. I must admit though, I'm a little bummed that she's not going to look like a baby anymore, instead like a little lady. ☺

Step by Step

Vivian must have had the stairs on her mind for a while now. She was happily playing with her toys in the living room today when she spotted the stairs and dashed over. She had a determined look in her eye, almost to say, "I got this. Stairs are for babies. They don't scare me." She put one knee up on the first step and away she went, step by step, all the way to the top. No hesitation. Guess it's time to invest in a baby gate.

This is probably the fourth or fifth time I made her climb the steps...

Boot, SCOOT, Boogy!

Vivian has gone from 'crawling' with one hand then rolling to 'crawling' with one hand and one foot then falling on her face to 'crawling' like a robot where every move is very deliberate and well thought out to CRAWLING! Now she is from one side of the room to another in a matter of seconds and she gets in things that an adult would not be interested in. All eyes on Vivian to keep her out of trouble. Way to go honey!

Sitting Pretty

Vivian decided to change her schedule on us the past few days. I guess she was working really hard on her newest accomplishment - sitting up by herself! Along with boycotting her naps, this evening we did our regular bedtime routine and after she ate and fell asleep I laid her down in her crib. No more than 5 minutes later she was awake. Not crying but rather playing with her feet, rolling around and trying to scoot from one side to the other. She was happy so we let her be. Not too long had past, maybe 10 minutes, and she was starting to get fussy. So, we went in and picked her up. She greeted us with a big smile. She was definitely not going to sleep. We took her into our room and just hung out on the bed. Derrick had her on his legs and she was just sitting there. He made me nervous because he wasn't holding her and I was worried she would topple over like she does every other time. Nope, she was just chillin', sitting on her daddy's legs. So we put her on the bed by herself and sure enough, she was sitting like a little lady. She was sporting that same smile she had when she rolled over for the first time - so proud of herself! Way to go Vivian!

It's cute how in the video she's looking at us like, "What's the big deal?"

Vivian's On A ROLL!

Vivian's been working really hard the past couple of weeks on rolling over. She started off practicing rolling to her right side from her back. She would get about three-quarters of the way and then plop back onto her back. This was going on for about a week and half. Then three days ago she decided to give it a try on her left side. It's funny, her strategy was completely different from how she was trying on the right. She positioned her legs and moved her hips in a different way. I was guiding her over every once a while to show her what it feels like. Well, today she was successful all by herself. Unfortunately I didn't get to see it happen. Isn't that the way it usually goes? But I did see her proud face once she made it over. Check it out!!!!

I love how her little hands are placed so perfectly cute under her chest! :-)