Peyton 15 Months!

This month kind of snuck up on me with the holidays!

Weight- Man I really need to do this! Plus it will make me feel really good to get on the scale with you, and then give you away and watch as I instantly lose a bunch of weight :)

Hair- Not much new in this department... Still growing! You've got quite a bit of curl at the back on the bottom, and we actually have to sweep it out of your eyes it's so long. It's so fine and silky though that I haven't tried to do anything with it in terms of styling, plus you move WAY too much to fuss with it. I did however love the comment Emily made, that I could tease it and use gel in order to get hair accessories to work :)

Clothes- Upgraded to the 18 month jammies for the most part, the others were getting too short. You got some way cute clothes for Christmas that we can throw in your wardrobe now.

Teeth- I really wish you'd let me dig around in there a bit more.. I know you have gotten more this month, I would guess we're up to about ten, mostly on top, though I saw a bottom molar today. You don't seem too bothered with teething right now. You've woken a few times in the night, but gotten yourself back to sleep, so I shall once again count myself lucky!

New Skills- SO many!
You officially walk more than you crawl, that's so cool!
You are learning words at an alarming rate, even if you don't have them wholy down, or you're just parroting us, it's still a great improvement. Highlight words include Hi, Bye, Night Night, Maia (Julie's dog), Juice and Socks. I am continually amazed at how quickly you're picking words up, you babble all the time!
 Just in the last few days you started this 'fake fall' thing. You're standing there, and then sort of crumple onto your butt. We all laugh, you do it again.
You also in the last few weeeks have started this thing where you hand daddy or I a stuffed animal or a puppet, then you crumple onto the floor and wait to be smothered in kisses by the animal.
We're teaching you Peek a Boo. You cover your mouth though, and when we say Peek a Boo, you pull your hands off your mouth. You will cover our eyes though with your hands, and when we say peek a boo you take your hands off our face. freakin' adorable even if a bit misguided :)
You are working on blowing kisses. So far, you'll kiss your hand with a big MUAH sound OR you'll blow on your hand, but you won't do one followed by the other.
We've been playing a game with you for ages now where we cover your face with a blanket, say Where's Peyton and you pull the blankie off with a big smile. We can also cover ourselves up and say Where's Mommy/Daddy and you'll pull the blankie off of us. Well this month, you play the game on your own now. You will just be chillin' and you'll cover yourself with a blankie and wait... when we say Where's Peyton, you will uncover with a big smile. It's so much fun to see your personality come through in play!

Foods- Still a food champ! I really enjoyed having Grandma Holm around, because everytime we'd eat, she'd say "Oh does Peyton like _____" "Oh my, Peyton is such a good eater, she just seems to love _______" It was so great to watch as you impressed her with your eating prowess! You will pretty much try anything. You have some picky meals where you won't eat much at all or are just being stubborn and those times you just play or throw your food on the floor. Those are quick meals. I think you're just good at self-regulating and if you're not hungry, you don't eat!

Favorite moments- Well walking still is pretty awesome! Christmas was really fun (see related post). It has also been great to watch you interact with others. We had a houseful of people for a good 6 days and for the most part, you just chilled. I loved watching you interact with your cousin Ryan inparticular. He played with you, he played music on the guitar for you, and he even entertained you in the car (heaven send since we know how much you 'love' the car). You even let him pick you up and you gave him kisses before we went home on Christmas night. It has also been a joy to watch you spend time with your grandma and grandpa. Since the Holm side stay here when they're in town, you tend to see them for large chunks of time and this has really allowed you to bond. You even raise your arms to be held by them, and you even cried when they left one night to go out to their van. It is so wonderful to see you even at 15 months creating that special relationship. I'm starting to see it with the Caldwell  grandparents a bit also, but you have to warm up to them each time still since you see them for shorter visits.
Least Favorite moment- Not too many complaints this month... I am starting to notice a bit of 'tude in you... Like the other day.,.. I was letting you play with my phone in Toddler Lock (an app that locks all features of the phone, but lets the child use the touch screeen to 'draw'). Well then you got upset and started tossing it. I took it away and put it in my pocket... major meltdown crying, tears, throwing other toys... I let you cry about it for a minute or two, you calmed down, and we played with other toys...

Also, there was one day, that I just kept hurting you... I stepped on your leg, because I thought you were in one place, and as I was walking, I sneezed so I didn't see you had moved and sat down directly in my path. I bumped your head on a wall while turning a corner, I scratched your side with my watch as I was putting you down, and I let you bump your head on the edge of a chair when you were sitting with me... It was sad but also almost comical that all these tiny bumps happened with me in like an 8 hour span...
Anything else?
   I think I'm tapped... You had a great month!!

Here are a few pictures, excluding Christmas stuff (since technically that happened after your 15 month mark anyway :)

 

 

 

In case you didn't see one like this in the Christmas post... This is one way we spend our time... putting multiple layers of socks on Peyton (her willingly letting us) and watching her roam around that way. New fave for her is looking out the front windows. This became impossible as Christmas came nearer since there were mountains of presents in the way!

Chris found these nesting boxes in the garage in our hand me down toy stash (thanks Nikki). They're awesome! The sides are transparent and when you nest them they make a scene like a cow and a barn and the sun and a farmhouse or you can make silly scenes like putting the cow in the ocean :) Amyway as you can see here, cousin Zane had stacked them up and I was impressed at how Peyton took each off one by one and put them on the couch.

Whew, that was hard work mom! I need a rest!

Peyton got this alligator from the Wright family for her birthday. Now that she can walk, she LOVEs pulling it along. The alligator's body is made of individual pieces of wood and as you roll it, they move and clank together. A great classic wooden toy!

Takin' my pet alligator into the family!

This toy came from my FAR away relatives :) Aunt Dinah, Uncle Bill and cousin Seven. Each peg hold a gear and when you put them all on, you can spin one to spin all since they're interlocking gears. Notice Peyton is putting the yellow back on the yellow, good girl!

Loving my new kitchen mom and dad! Thanks for this super cool gift, now we need to have my friends over to play!

Christmas 2012

It's true, Christmas came in December again this year! My heart is happy to have spent such great time with family during this season. Peyton did awesome with all the out of the ordinary festivities, although I will admit.. we REALLY try to keep her on a fairly good schedule.

We had family in town from Thursday afternoon through the next Thursday morning. We filled our house to near bursting and it was great. I really do love entertaining. Chris's sister and her whole clan were here, which includes her husband, three teenagers, and a dog :) Chris's parents were of course in town as well.

Our festivities included more Christmas shopping, lots of wrapping, game playing, and cooking!Chris and I also took Julie and Landon to Cinetopia for the first time. We saw the Hobbit in the living room theater skybox at van mall. Now this was our first experience at the van mall cinetopia living room mall. I like that the seats are still super cozy, the ottomans are individual, and you're super high up. What I didn't like so much was that you only had two rows for seating (what if I like to sit up close?) and the 'regular' theater is actually in there as well. It's just lower down and accessible from the first floor. The reason I don't like that feature is because I have come to enjoy moving experiences with the 21+ crowd (like no giggly teenyboppers) That's my only complaint though.

Well, other than that... we enjoyed a smorgasbord of food. I made Zuppa Toscana on the first full day. I made it in our canning pot because I made so much! It was definitely the largest meal I had ever made and it was so worth it. We ate on that soup for days! And there were ten of us! We also cooked a turkey that was yummy and on Christmas eve we all made appetizers and had those for dinner, including crab cakes, stuffed mushrooms, meatballs, veggies, and mini piggies in a blanket.

Christmas day brought with it a lot of fun, great gifts, nice visits, and a ten minute power nap for Peyton :) Highlight gifts for the family include: a kitchen for Peyton, a new Dyson animal vacuum for us, pots and pans for Julie and Landon, a new laptop for Ryan, lots o' clothes for Ashley, and lots of remote controlled toys for Zane. Chris picked out a great new shirt for me. His new pool cue arrived in time for Christmas so we wrapped that too! We got some great date stuff too, and I got a few Dutch Bros. coffee cards also! We definitely did well. It worked out great that Peyton slept while we all opend our gifts and right as we were finishing, she got up, so she got to open all her gifts with all eyes on her! She caught right on to opening gifts.

Final highlight... Day after Christmas light sale! Chris and I got up at 6am today to go scavenge the Christmas leftovers to prepare for next year. We scored big time! Your decor dollars go SOOO much further after Christmas, and this year I discovered something great. It's like Christmas comes early when you pull out the decorations because all this stuff will be brand new next year. We are adding to our light collection and as we always enjoy.. at a savings of at least 50%,

Here are some pictures of the grand events!

 We have a button to turn on the lights, we taught Peyton how to use it, just for fun :) She totally enjoyed it!

 

 Alright.. this is her ornament from last year (since this is her second Christmas) but I was trying out the camera and this one turned out nice.

 

 Peyton loves to play with socks so while I was folding the laundry we put mismatched socks on her, she was super excited!

 

 Peyton's pretty Christmas dress from Aunt Megan. We went to see Santa at Chuck's produce this year. It was FREE, there was no wait, and we got one nice picture out of it. Peyton isn't even crying!) Sorry that one's not on here, I don't have a digital copy.

 

 After the Santa visit, obviously there had to be a mommy photo shoot! I have like a hundre shots, I tried to spare you :)

 

 Peyton rocking a Santa diaper (no I wouldn't dare waste my money on these... we got them free LAST year when we bought something, and we had to guess what size she'd wear this year because they didn't have them small enough for her then). Still during the photo shoot.

 

Peyton did really well leaving the presents alone, even after I confused her by letting her touch them during the photo shoot.

 

 Krumkake time (Norwegian Christmas cookies) Denny passing on traditions by having Ryan do the batter. This is a whole family involved kind of deal. Look as Peyton and Aunt Julie oversee, and Denny coaches Ryan through the perfect pour!

 Ryan grabbing the thin cookies while they're screamin' hot and flexible, passing them off to the rollers...

 

Chris the roller posing with his cooling KrumKake. You can roll them in a cylinder or a cone as Chris is here. We love this Christmas Eve tradition.

 

 Peyton biting into her first Krumkake. Aunt Julie even put some whipped cream in/on it for her as you can do. You can also just eat them as a rolled cookie.

 Christmas eve spread! Yummy!!

 

 Excitement builds in the Holm household as we all eagerly await Christmas morn' to arrive!

Lot's o' stockings to get filled! It made me smile everytime I saw ALL those stockings waiting to be filled! (On a side note, do you know how dang expensive stocking holders are?! We bought our four reindeer ones a few years ago on clearance after Christmas. I went on a hunt on Wednesday night before Christmas looking for 7 so we could hang all properly... I couldn't find one for under $9 a piece IF I found them at all.. and most were UGLY! I love family, but I'm not forking out $100 on hooks that don't even hold a filled sock!)

Wowsers that is a lot of gifts! Those were all to be opened by the immediate family staying in the house on Christmas morning. If you haven't noticed it by the pictures yet, we keep two trees because Chris and I couldn't decide between the tree in the front window (my choice) or the tree by the fireplace (Chris choice), so we have both! In the previous shot was the fireplace tree and that was for gifts that were for people not at the house Christmas morning, like my family. This worked out so well because our front room is much more spacious!

Peyton's first unwrapping... Jammies on Christmas eve, it will be her tradition, one gift, and she'll always know it's jams! She was intrigued by the paper at first, pausing to look at each bit she pulled off)

Gettin' the hang of this... tear, grab, tear... repeat..

Oooh monkey jammies in two piece and green ones in fuzzy footies!

Okay all done, back in the box you go!

Morning present time! Ryan opening his new computer! My nephew Ryan is taking college courses as a high school junior and he needed a computer to keep up on his coursework. He was content with that during all the rest of the unwrapping!

 

Ashley got Julie a light up pillow! She's in love!!

Puppy in a stocking. Maia is tiny and always cold so Ashley put her in the stocking! (Just so we're clear... no one got a dog for Christmas... Maia came with the Schilperoort clan!)

Mean aunt Jennifer super wrapped a gift for the kids... Here Ryan is trying to solve the puzzle...

Zane attempts brute strength... to no avail...

Ashley too tries tearing.... They all eventually got into it... Lots of hard work and calories burned for their McDonald's gift cards :) I learned that lesson from my dad to do kookie things to gifts just for fun sometimes!

Daddy got a new toolbox and there were 10lbs of gummy bears, yes you read that right, in the box! Way cool!!

Peyton's favorite stocking stuffer... a big girl toothbrush. We had previously just used a rubbery thing that fit over my finger... I am glad we got this one, and I'm glad she likes it because OUCH, her biting while I'm brushing was really starting to hurt!!

Super cute overalls from Grandma and Grandpa Holm

Mama and Peyton playing with her fake food for her new kitchen in her new covered wagon from Aunt Julie and Uncle Landon.

New gourmet kitchen!! Daddy, Uncle Landon and Aunt Julie worked hard to put it together. Peyton was so excited she couldn't wait for daddy to finish applying the stickers!!

Moving on to Grandma and Grandpa Holm's house. Peyton is laying on the floor waiting to be attached by Velveteen Rabbit that she just got from Aunt Megan and Uncle Richard. Funny story... Peyton will frequently hand you a stuffed animal and then flop over on the floor waiting to be 'attacked' by the animal with kisses. It's hilarious!

I'm starting to get worn out mom... This present business is tiring!

Peyton and her Strawberry Shortcake shopping cart from Aunt Megan and Uncle Richard. We are leary of these right now... Peyton tends to pull on things still and she tips it over.. we may have to park it for awhile until she gets better balanced. She loves to take things out and put them in it though. She also got a rockin' set of pots and pans from Grandma and Grandpa Caldwell  that sizzle and boil. Let's just say she has a well stocked kitchen!

What Christmas is complete without a bow on the baby's head?! It even matches her outfit :)

We managed to get a family shot at my house (now that I think of it, I wish we'd done the same here at home with our clan). Peyton looks good in this one... Well everyone does (except me) I was trying not to drop the wiggly Peyton. Alas I shall sacrifice my good pic for the one with Peyton at least looking at the camera :)

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all! The Holm's have once again been blessed and I am forever grateful to have so many loved ones near during the holiday season!

Heavy Hearted Holidays

I was saddened when I heard about the shooting at Clackamas Town Center on 12/11/12. I was sitting in the truck about to go into the pharmacy and Daria and Mitch came on to give an 'update' on the shooting. It's one of those things, where you'll remember where you were. I followed the news on my phone much of that evening and into the next day. I was thankful to hear that while tragic, only two lives were lost. When I heard that 10,000 people were at the mall that day, and that the shooter was near the food court (always packed), I realize it could have been much worse. I am sad at the fact that we lost those lives. I am angry that I was apprehensive when I needed to stop at my own local mall and I was nervous to walk in. I am angry that I am looking at people very suspiciously when we're out in public.

That made me sad...

The events of Friday 12/14/12 broke my heart... It just so happens that at school in my class we were working in an assignment involving current news. Students were supposed to use news sources to find 'stories of resilience.' Thank goodness when Friday rolled around, the assignment was in the sharing phase, NOT the research phase. Nonetheless, one of my students first pulled up a news site mid morning and made mention of some school shooting. I didn't really think anything of it until I had my lunch break. All of lunch I was absolutely captivated by the news that some boy had gone in and shot at an elementary school.

I called Chris and told him that I kind of wanted to never leave home or go live under a rock. At this time, I didn't have too many of the details, and neither did any news people. I just knew that it was bad and that many children had died.

Over the course of the weekend, I have continued to keep tabs on the developing events, but I do this with a heavy heart. I am sickened to think that all of those children were just 6-7. I am honored to think of the work that educators in the school did to keep further harm from occurring. I am terrified that I could be in a situation like this some day. I simply can't fathom myself being in this role, and I can only hope that if the situation arose, I would have the bravery that those men and women did. Everytime I think of those innocent children, and their forever altered families, I get really sad. That's not even a strong enough word. That community didn't deserve this.. hell no community deserves this. No good time for this to occur, but seriously, a week and a half before Christmas. This community will forever have a tarnished holiday season, and I know it has been stamped into my heart...

I tried to talk to my classes a teeny tiny bit about the events just because I knew it would be blowing up their social media and it would definitely be talked about this weekend. Right after lunch I talked to one group, but I kind of ended the conversation myself because I seriously almost started crying in front of them. The next class, I was a bit more controlled, but we didn't have much time to converse about it. But my fourth period, who I happen to spend a great deal of time with, wow, we had a really great conversation! I told them a few of the broadstroking details. I told them that their families would decide how in-depth they would go with details. It just so happens that we are knee-deep in a project called Resilience Cafe. It is ALL ABOUT sharing stories of resilience. I started my conversation by telling them about how they are able to watch stories of resilience happening right now in our community and across the nation. The mall opened back up on Friday, people had to show resilience to go shopping there again. The community of Newton, will one day have to return to school and work. That will take resilience. I was telling them that some people have been leary of this project (why do we have to go learn someone's tragic story anyway, what's the importance in that). Well THIS is exactly why we're learning about resilience. We have to figure out how to come out the other side of this stronger, and live our life despite the fear and sheer terror that these events invoke. One of my students said "Mrs. Holm, I finally get it, we have to learn about resilience because when these bad things happen in the world, we have to learn how to pick ourselves back up and move on". Yes, yes we do.

While I am struggling to show resilience, while I am broken-hearted that we lost 20 beautifully innocent children, I am proud that I will continue my work, protect and teach my students, and love my family!

If you endured through my ramblings, thanks, I just had to find my platform to speak my own mind.

Peyton 14 Months!

Weight- I have to fill this in later, when I throw you on the scale, I'm just not sure...
Hair- Your hair is still coming in strong, I am continually amazed when I look at pictures how much more hair you've actually gotten.
Clothes- Still in the 12 month clothes, but you'll be in the the 18 month jammies soon.
Teeth- You had a ton of work this month in this department. You have at least seven teeth now. Your top front teeth are in, and you've got some molars on the top.
New Skills- You're officially a walker! This blog is a bit late, but you were taking really great steps on your 14 month date! It's one of the most adorable things ever to watch you walk.
Foods- Well we did get you some forks (Ikea has great prices on forks). You are doing wonderfully feeding yourself. You still eat anything we feed you and that's great!
   A funny thing... pretty much without fail, whenever you see food, or what you think is food, you say 'yumm' or 'mmmmhhh' You even do it when we open the fridge. It's pretty stinkin' cute!
Favorite moments- Walking is pretty amazing so thats definitely a favorite! We also went to Thanksgiving with some of Chris's family and it was fun to watch Peyton play with her second cousins. (I think that's how they're classified).
   It's also really great to watch you 'drive' your toys around. You have three toys that are like your little vehicles. One is the giraffe, rarely do you ride it as intended. Instead you drive it backward using it's face and ears to steer. You have a little walker toy that you'll drive as well. And finally, there is the rocking horse. Again, rarely do you sit and rock on it. Instead you drive it around the house. You even make the 'bbbrrrrr' sound like a driving car. Man onomatopoeia is hard!
Least Favorite moment- You got your first icky cold ever! this month. It was over the Thanksgiving holiday. Thank goodness I had five days off because you were up many nights. You were so congested that you'd wake up because you couldn't breath well. We gave you some cold medicine, vapor rub stuff for babies, a humidifier, and teething gel since you're still cutting more teeth! It was gross that you were draining so much stuff but I am glad I was home to take care of you. One thing I didn't realize is that most cold medicines are made for kids 4 and up or 6 and up. It was incredibly difficult to find something for you. I ended up getting a medicine for 2 and up and gave you a half dose.
  As I mentioned in the teeth portion, you got a bunch of those this month also which made you pretty uncomfortable as well. It's really difficult as I am finding out to know what exactly is wrong when a baby isn't feeling well... alas, I am thankful for language :)
    Here's a kind of funny least favorite... daddy and I have noticed that when we travel in the car and we're about to open the door to get you out, you prepare yourself and as soon as we open the door, you fling whatever you happen to have out the door. This has been toys, shoes, water cups, you name it. It's rather frustrating in the icky weather to have to find whatever you chuck!
Anything else? Did I mention you're walking? :) We enjoyed our Thanksgiving holiday with grandma and grandpa Holm in town.
    So we got a new camera... technically after your 14 month date so these pics are from after Nov. 20th but I didn't really have many from the last month (I know shocking!) I do have a few on my phone from the library that are pretty cute, maybe I will get those on here at some point...

 One of the first pics with the camera, notice red nose, poor gal! Blowin' bubbles with slobber

 Big girl feeding herself with her Ikea fork :) (yummy leftover enchilada and Spanish rice from Thanksgiving dinner)

 That's right, you're walking!!

 I'm so good, and so cute!

 Mommy Peyton Playtime, another new favorite thing to do is clap! (especially if there's music)

 Hangin' with the pumpkins before we finally tossed them!

 We went to a Christmas tree lighting downtown with some friends. We wanted to be sure Peyton would stay warm as it was obviously outside and quite chilly! This photoshoot was about how long the hat and gloves wer on for! SOOO CUTE though!

 What's up with my hands! How do I get these off?

 At said tree lighting! (thanks Sally for the invite :)

 Daddy Peyton Playtime!

 We're VERY into kissing right now, with the MUAH sound too, it's way too cute for words. For quite a long time you'd only kiss inanimate objects like stuffed animals, then you moved onto Boo, and finally mommy and daddy are getting kisses, hooray for that (makes me wonder why this is... just like she'll hug stuffed animals right now, but not mommy and daddy yet)

 

 'driving' the horse around- very determined!

 So many talents, good deep squat while holding your snack cup in your mouth upside down! There was like a series of these pics on the camera, I wonder how long you did this... (daddy took the pics)

 Another favorite pasttime- emptying the towel drawer, you're getting quite good at chucking things behind you. Notice you 'drove' your toy here then played (ignore the broken drawer up top, Chris uh accidentally tae kwon doe'd it...)

 Left, Right, Hold steady, balance, use arms to counterbalance... I've got this... These are the things I imagine going on in her head, so proud though!

 Bath Baby!

  yummy are there anymore cheerios in my seat that I can eat?! She dug around in her seat and played for a good 25 minutes!