Peyton at 16 Months

Weight- 23.2 pounds according to daddy and putting you on the scale, way to go dad!

Hair- Still just growing, you definitely have a lot more now, still very fine. I wonder if you'll get thick tresses like me.. Right now you're rockin' some great bedhead if you sleep on it funny, but other than that, it usually brushes nicely.

Clothes- The 12 month jams are officially too small. You handed some to daddy the other night, since the laundry was downstairs, and after saying 'night-night' daddy obliged and put you in them. When I was feeding you a bottle, I noticed that you could barely straighten your legs, yeah you're done with those... You seem to have a TON of 18 month jams which is kind of funny, why the surplus this size? I busted out your 18 month shirts/onsies also. The other shirts in particular are allowing your tummy to stick out. This is probably the first time that you've ever jumped ahead in the size scale. Although the 18 month pants look excessively long... how does that work for matching outfits I wonder?

Teeth- I tried to dig around in there this weekend, and I think I got 12, but you're breaking the surface on a few more front ones too. You also have your first dentist appointment at the end of this month. For all my friends.. apparently you are supposed to start taking children to the dentist when they get their first teeth or at one year.. oops, oh well. It's mostly a lap visit and info for us anyway...

New Skills- Last month I seemed to have a ton, this month...
You are quickly progressing from walking to running, you have greatly increased your balance as well.
You are working on walking up the stairs. You do it while holding our hands, but on the bottom stairs where there is a good railing, you are doing it yourself. You are very independent.
You love to crawl in and out of things, like laundry baskets, boxes, and empty tubs.
You play in the kitchen and 'sizzle' food in your pans.
You have begun to ride on your giraffe in the forward fashion, though you still push it most of the time.
You have taken interest in your shopping carts, but mostly you pull them.
Your vocabulary continues to grow in leaps and bounds. Of note this month is "please"- we got tired of your whining at us for stuff, so we taught you please. (when we also have 'cheese' around these words sound exactly alike!)
Random side note... where do kids even LEARN to whine when they don't get something they want? It's not like I go around whining when I don't get something (mostly) so where do they pick this skill up?

Foods- VERY into fruit this month, as are mommy and daddy. You will eat it all day long. You have become more picky at other things, but you're pretty good about letting us know you don't want it, rather than having to throw it on the floor...

Favorite moments- Your growing sense of independence and personality are SOO much fun! I love being able to interact with your more and more each day. You understand so much. I love our walks outside as you explore all new things, though it's been super cold so we try not to be out for long.
You have started this thing where you'll grab our finger and take us where you want us to go, whether it's to the kitchen (you're hungry) or to the closet for shoes, coat, etc (want to go outside) or just a different room in the house, pretty stinkin' cute.

Least Favorite moment- that 'tude from last month still rears it's ugly head when you don't get something you want, but I'm sure it's just you trying to assert your 'authority' or control or something, regardless, you'll learn :)
Daddy and I both don't appreciate the whining when you don't get something that you want, but we're trying to teach you to use your words and adjust.
You have a bit of separation anxiety when it comes to you and I. For instance, you and daddy stayed in the car while I ran in to get us two smoothies from Jamba Juice. You went HYSTERICAL! Crying, tears, the whole bit.. You could literally see me from your seat, but you thought I was leaving or something. This happened after you and daddy left after seeing me for lunch one day also. It's rough on everyone involved!

Anything else?
   I miss you! Since I'm doing school twice a week and a host of other projects for work, I haven't seen you as much as  I'd like (which is all the time!) That's tough!
Pics to be loaded if I find time next weekend...

Peyton's First Year!

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First Year Book Finished!

Well, it looks like the link will work, but I don't want to jinx it by adding text to that post...
I was able to finish my baby's book! I did cave and allow it to be forty pages, but I got a good deal with Groupon, Shutterfly, and Gift Certificate help! :)

2012 in Review

Another great year in the books for the Holm family! Chris and I were just re-capping last night and I decided to do a bit of blogging as well as we say see-ya to 2012 and welcome in 2013. Here's something odd though... Chris and I usually make quite a list of things we'd like to accomplish in the next year, not necessarily resolutions (though those are in there) but really more of a plan for what we'd like to get done. Funny thing... we either didn't do this at the start of 2012 or can't find the list! Tells you how much we revisited them....

Anywho... here are some highlights of 2012

Peyton started 2012 as a baby who was working on rolling over, drinking excusively milk, wearing tiny baby clothes and just making cooing noises. Peyton is leaving 2012 as a full-blown walker, eating just about anything she can get her little mitts on, and building a vocabulary that includes every member of our house, many toys, some clothes, and a few food items (if not fully by name, at least by recognition).

Chris and I both got new jobs in 2012, though both with the same company that we worked for previously. I moved on from Sarah J and 5th grade, up to the big show of middle school. I love my job at iTech and it has been such a wonderful experience to open a new school. It's a ton of work, sometimes stressful, and definitely a huge learning curve, but I can honestly say I still enjoy going to work each day, I laugh with and at middle schoolers on a daily basis, and I have expanded my friend group! Chris wins the rockstar award of having worked 7 days a week for just shy of two years. Finally in December he started a new job with the Columbian. Instead of doing home delivery, he now drives a box truck that takes the papers out to drop sites for the home delivery guys (and gals). This new job is still overnight, but it is 5 days per week, he'll get benefits and time off after 90 days, woohoo!! I am most excited about the time off thing. It will be nice to be able to leave town sometime.... Chris is most excited that his nights off line up well with his pool league (although we'll see if he keeps that up in 2013, more to come on that)

Extracurriculars.... Well we are defiintely in a little family groove right now. We appreciate our time together watching Peyton play, teaching her new skills, and going on little adventures. We didn't do anything too impressive in 2012 that was just for fun, we were too busy working :)
I did get to go to California twice for my new job at iTech, that was nice, although I missed my family. We did venture over to Yakima in August to buy a new (to us) car. The Camry wasn't doing too well, so we gave her the heave-ho and welcomed a 2010 Dodge Avenger RT into our family. Definitely the fanciest car I have ever owned! Leather interior, heated seats, spoiler on the back, oh yeah it's nice! We got it for a great price given the goodies included. Yes we did take out a loan on it, but well... what can you do?

We still have our dinner club group with friends and man I appreciate having such a wonderful group of people to call friends. We have been a bit more sporadic with our once weekly dinner regimen. I suppose that's to be expected when we've all got babies these days (or are expecting them). It's nice to have kids at similar ages though and we run the span! The kids are starting to play together and be a bit less dependent on parental entertainment. That's always nice. I enjoy that we all have things to contribute to conversation and actually having the DC less frequently allows us a greater variety of things to talk about. It's still hard for Chris and Peyton as they're both used to going to bed pretty early. I so enjoy watching these friendships evolve as we move though life together.

Other news of 2012...
We are currently toying with the idea of speeding up my Admin program at WSU-V. If I continue on my current trajectory, I will be done in May of 2015. If I speed it up, May of 2014... It will mean a lot more work in 2013, which equals less time with the fam, but I get to be done a whole year sooner.. is it worth it? I'll have to keep you posted.

Baby watch 2013... not in the plans my friends... just to put inquiring minds to rest. According to our DC rotation, people are jumping into round two and I'm up next in the rotation... count me out folks, this gal isn't planning on a baby anytime soon. Maybe we'll join you for round three?... :)

And that's a wrap!