where are you sleep?

Since the day my sweet princess was born she has slept well. As a nursing newborn she never ate every two hours. I always got 3-4 hour stretches, even at night between feedings. Shortly after bringing her home she began sleeping for 5-6 hours.. then the teething began. Bless her sweet heart. She never cut just one tooth at a time. It was either 2 at a time and sometimes 4! When the teething began it was like she went in reverse with her sleeping habits. She began waking multiple times throughout the night and since she really hasn't stopped teething since she began we are still struggling with sleeping at night. We began a night time routine when Allie was a newborn. She eats supper, takes a bath, nurses, we pray and sing Jesus Loves Me and then I rock her to sleep. Lately my sweet girl has not been sleeping well at all, even waking up at 3am WIDE AWAKE and will stay up until her nap time at 10! So something has to give because my Hubby and I are exhausted. We are very much against any form of the cry it out method. Allie is a very sensitive little lady and once upset can actually make herself sick. Self soothing really doesn't exist in our house and I am okay with that. I am a stay at home mommy and there is no reason for her to cry because she is awake, scared, hungry or just needing comfort.

I never put Allie on a schedule. I let her, even as a small infant, determine when she slept, ate and played. Because I let her do that she has put herself on a daily schedule. By watching her sleepy cues we have established that 10am and 2pm are nap times. I like that she was able to make these decisions and that I had the opportunity to be there for her all day. However we are going to begin something new tonight. 

At 5:30 we are going to eat supper. Around 6:00 we will sit in a dimly lit living room and let her watch a tv show in Disney. We will then take a candle lit bath, with lavender scented candles and quiet playing. We will get her dressed, brush her teeth, brush her hair and then go to her room. We will continue the rest of her night time routine. I am praying that this will ease her into a good, restful nights sleep. 

berry mangos

There is a new frozen yogurt shop really close to our house. They have no sugar added options, which is nice with the diet we are on. Nick has gone and picked us up yogurt after Allie goes to sleep at night for a late snack, but we've been trying to taker her for a week or so now. My parents came over to see Allie before my dad left for Minnesota for work.

They hung out here for a while and Nick mentioned going to Berry Mangos and my parents wanted to go to. So we took Allie. It's a really small, cute shop. We decided we would cheat a little, since we never have been as a family. I put some Snickers and mini Reece's on my no sugar added vanilla... Nick took FULL advantage of the cheat and loaded his up. I must say I was a little jealous I didn't take a little more advantage! Ha!


We got Allie country vanilla and decided to let her have some sprinkles. To say she liked it would be an understatement! She said, "mmmmm!" after every bite. When she gets really excited she straightens her arms and legs and kind of shakes she gets so excited. It's the most adorable thing!

lazy day

It's been a while, no scratch that, it's been way too long since I just blogged. So much has been happening lately, and although I have been taking pictures I have been sad that I haven't taken the time to blog about it. So I am hoping to sit down at least every other night and write about the things that my sweet girl is doing.

Today was a typical lazy day at our house. I finished up some laundry and Allie played, but to get to our lazy day I need to explain our not so lazy night. Allie had a good day yesterday (I say that like she has bad days, which she doesn't) and went to bed around 8. However we took a walk after supper, before bath time. This is not something we typically do, but the weather was so nice we wanted to take advantage of it. I think this was our mistake. As my Hubby pointed out over lunch today, Allie is used to taking a walk in the mornings, so when we laid her down we think she took it as it was nap time. She slept until midnight and woke up only to not want to go back to sleep! She was wide awake. Nick is the best, I mean the BEST Hubby in the whole world. He stayed up with her so I could sleep. He brought her into the bedroom at 3 to nurse and then took her to try and rock her. He said when he brought her to me she was laughing! He then rocked her until she finally fell asleep for the "night" at 5. She woke up at 7:45! She was such a sweetheart today (as always), but wasn't whiny or anything. I was shocked. She napped really well though. So here's to hoping for a good night's sleep!

I made her Earth's Best waffles and put some Cheerios on her tray along with her milk for breakfast. I sat in front of her, like I always do and was eating my sugar free oat bran pumpkin muffins. My adorable little girl abandoned her breakfast and reached and whined looking at mine and looking at me like, "I want some!" That little stinker ate one of my muffins! The whole muffin! I need to make her some with her organic yogurt and regular sugar. 

Allie had so many firsts today. She was in her playroom and playing with her blocks. I have been stacking all four of them for a while and she would knock them down, but today she pulled them out of her bin and stacked them, one on top of the other, all by herself! She looked at us like we were crazy for clapping and getting so excited, but I was so excited for her. 

For supper I made Christen's sloppy joes minus the bun. Since we are on the Dukan diet and can't have bread, but the meat itself was good and a nice change. Allie had it for the first time and liked it. She also attempted to scoop the food with a spoon. She gets the concept of stabbing things with a fork and I know it will just take time, but it was cute watching her try to stab things with the spoon. 

After she ate supper I let her try the Nutella pops we made the other day. She loved it! She was so funny, I kept trying to let her hold it and all she would do was stick her finger into it. She would not grab it at all. 

We had a nice, relaxing day and I felt as though I got a lot accomplished and we are ready for the weekend! 

16 months

Allie! Where has the time gone? You are 16 months old and growing, changing & expressing your amazing personality more & more every day! Here's what you're up to this month:

You wear a size three diapers.
You wear 18 months clothes & some 24 months pajamas.
As of your 15 month appointment, which was about 6 days before you turned 16 months you weighed 24 pounds 10 ounces and were 31 inches long.
You wear a size 6 shoe.
You are still a little picky when it comes to food.
You love Cheerios, Cascadian Farms cinnamon crunch, Earth's Best french toast sticks and raisin toast for breakfast.
You love your milk in the mornings but LOVE your Friday morning juice. You have tried organic apple juice and organic grape juice. We just bought organic cranberry pomegranate and I can't wait to see what you think about it! I will mix either some apple or grape with it to cut down the bite cranberry has.
Lunch is a bit trickier because you don't want a lot of things right now. We have tried peanut butter and jelly. You ate it the first time and haven't been interested in it since. You will eat string cheese, but only if I hand you the whole stick! You love Plum Organics Jammy Sammy, so you eat that with some munchies.
You liked blueberries, but lately won't eat them!
You love grilled chicken, especially grilled nuggets from Chick-fil-A.
You're favorite vegetable at the moment are peas! You love them. You are so adorable when you eat them too. You pick them up with your first finger and thumb one at a time and you eat them so fast! You stuff as many as you can in your mouth and then chew.
You love bath time. You get so excited when we have a lavender bath and it makes bubbles in the water.
You still need and want your paci most of the day, especially when you are tired and sleeping.
You have the best and sweetest personality, but you can still fake cry easily whenever you feel the need. 
You also still fake cough occasionally. You're a mess!
When you are eating, if the dogs are out, they stand around you hoping you drop food. And if they are there you throw them things. I just think you are being sweet and sharing because you look over the side of your tray and see if there is a dog there, pick up something and drop it for them, watching as they all pounce and gobble it up. 
When you are finished eating and don't want any more of what is on your tray you will take it one by one and drop it on the floor. 
Your hair is so very long and without a clip or bow in, it hangs over your face and you can't see. You are so cute because you try to brush it out of your face with your sweet little hand. You have always been good with bows and clips in your hair, maybe because you have had one in since the day you were born, but you still hold so very still when I go to put it in your hair. Did I mention you're the best??
When you are eating if food gets on your lips or around your mouth you will wipe it off with your hands.
You absolutely love to play peek-a-boo! You like to stand behind Daddy and I and wait for us to turn our heads around to "find" you and say, "boo!" You crack up laughing and wait for us to do it again.
You also love to play with your hands over your eyes or you will pull the towel up over your face after bath as we say, "where's Allie?" "there she is!" You think it is the best game. You LOVE to be scared. The louder and more off guard we can catch you when we say, "boo" the louder you laugh!
You play in your playroom most of the day with me and you go from toy to toy playing. You can manipulate all of them correctly and you know how each of them work. Aunt Cathy and Uncle Tony got you a little rocking chair last Christmas and we recently put it back in your playroom. You LOVE to sit in it and line your animals from Noah's Ark on the arm of the chair. You are a bit of a perfectionist and get so mad that you throw your head back and scream when you rock forward and they fall. That is your favorite thing to do in your playroom other than look out of the window. You will come over, reach your hand for mine and pull me to the window wanting me to pull the blinds up so you have a clear view. You also still love for me to hold you as you stand on your shelf to see your fish oh oh. 
You are so cute because you will pick things up and bring them to me and Daddy as if to say, "fix it". Especially if you are playing an app on our phones and you exit out of it or it comes to a place where you can't touch the screen to make it go to the next slide. It's adorable, you bring it to us and stand and wait patiently as we fix it. 
We recently got a different gate that blocks off your playroom from the kitchen. You can reach your little arms through it and if Daddy leaves the garage door cracked you will grab it with your fingers and swing it open.
You are still a Mommy's girl and need me, but you will let Daddy rock you to sleep in the middle of the night and you LOVE to call him, especially when we face time with him. All I have to do is pick up my phone and ask you if you want to call Daddy and you get the biggest grin on your face. You stare at the phone waiting for Daddy to answer.
Anytime you see yourself in the mirror or when you are face timing with Daddy you stick your tongue out! It's so cute and you do it every single time!
You love to brush your teeth and we have recently (I should have been doing it all along) started brushing your teeth after breakfast too. You love the song we sing and willingly open your mouth while I brush.
You love to be chased, especially by Daddy as you run through the house. You will run to your room and shut the door giggling and then open it up to see him only to shut it quickly again. Daddy's reaction gets you all giggly as he acts like you are hitting him with the door.
You do not like to be restrained or feel confined. We took you to the doctor for your 15 month appointment and you cried through a good portion of it. You haven't liked having your head measured since your very first well check up. This time you cried and cried. Oh goodness, then she took your temperature (in your ear). It was the first time you have had your temperature taken and you did not like it! You screamed and tried and tried to pull away from her. She ended up scratching the inside of your ear. Then Dr. Smith came in and wanted to listen to your lungs and heart. I held you and he held your arm and put the stethoscope on your chest and you were trying with all of your might to pry his fingers off of your arm. You were crying and looking at me so pitifully. Broke my heart. It was your nap time, but you didn't like being weighed or measured. You wanted Mommy and only Mommy to hold you and you did not want to be messed with.
After bath time and after we brush your teeth we walk through the bedroom and tell the dogs night night and you have to push the button and touch the screen on the alarm panel before we go to your room.
You have a pretty set schedule. You wake up anywhere between 5 and 8. You nurse and then about 30 minutes later you eat breakfast. Around 10 you go down for a nap. You typically sleep for an hour and you eat Yo Baby Yogurt when you get up for your morning snack. Around 12 you eat lunch. You then go down for your second nap between 1 and 2 depending on how you slept the night before. You then are up between 2 and 3. You nurse when you wake up and sometimes eat an additional snack before supper. We eat around 5:30 and then you are ready for bath, nursing and night night.
You haven't been sleeping very well at night. I know you are cutting teeth and I am praying they come through soon so we all can get a good night's sleep. 
You are such a happy, go with the flow baby. You love to go shopping, especially if where we are shopping has a buggy you can ride in. You are a snacky shopper! You have to have something to eat and you are happy. You love to eat Happy Baby melts.
You love just about anything that Earth's Best, Plum Organics, Annie's or Happy Baby makes. I love that there are so many organic options for you not just as a baby, but as you grow. 

15 months!

My sweet, sweet Allie you are 15 months old. I cannot believe how fast the time is going. Daddy and I talk all the time about how we love to watch you embark upon each new stage. We love to watch you continue to explore and discover the world around you. Here's what you are up to this month!

You are wearing size three diapers, although I think we will be switching to size four soon.

You wear 18 months clothes, but your pajamas are mostly 24 months.

You wear somewhere between a 4.5 and 6 in shoes, depending on where we get them. We did go to Stride Rite and had your feet measured and they said you were a 6 wide.

You have 14 teeth and you are trying to cut two more!

Your fingernails still grow like crazy. I have to clip them at least once a week to keep you from scratching us and yourself. You will sit in my lap, hold the remote and watch tv while I cut them.

You typically wake up between 5-7 and once you wake up you are up for the day. We have put your pack n play in our room in front of our bed so when we get ready you have a safe place to play. In the mornings if it is really early we will turn on Toy Story or Toy Story 3 and let you sit there and watch while Daddy and I sleep for a few minutes. Those two movies are your absolute favorites and you could watch them over and over.

In the mornings you will nurse and then about 30 minutes later you will eat breakfast. You love Life cereal and frosted mini wheats. You love to eat Earth's Best French toast sticks and you love raisin toast too. You drink 2% organic milk in the mornings. You still love your Cheerios too.

This summer we have been going on walks with Mrs. Rhiannon & Logan. We pack up your breakfast and you eat it as we walk. You love it! You are so happy and content in your stroller as long as you have something to eat and the walk isn't too long.

When we get back you play with Daddy while Mommy showers. You love your Daddy so very much. He can make you laugh this adorable deep belly laugh. I love it!

You will then take a nap around 10 or 10:30. You have been napping so very well lately. You take two one hour naps. We put black out shades in your room, put you in your sleep sack and recite you a story while rocking you to sleep. You typically take your second nap around 2:00-2:30.

When you wake up from your naps you don't cry. You stand in your crib, throw your paci (or sassy, as we call it) and say you're version of "uh-oh". You smile really big when we come to get you. After your morning nap you eat Yo Baby yogurt for snack. You love the blueberry, banana, banana pumpkin and sweet potato apple. 

You love to play in your playroom. Your favorite toys right now are your ball pit, Noah's Ark, books and your shape sorting cube. You love for us to flip the cube over and place the four shapes on the bottom and then you knock them off. You think this is the greatest game! You still LOVE books, and the teacher in me loves this! Your favorite books right now are "Inside Noah's Ark", "When I Grow Up", "Baby Animals" and "My First Book of Puppies". You like to read them over and over again. You still love your "Ten Perfect Puppies" book, but you do not like to actually read it, you simply love turning the pages at a rapid pace.

You have been a little more picky lately when it comes to what you like and don't like to eat. Daddy and I joke that you could be a carnivore. You LOVE meat! You love grilled chicken, especially the grilled nuggets from Chick-fil-A, you also like steak and roast. Lately you won't even try seafood. You also LOVE when Mommy makes turkey Polska Kielbasa. I make it with zucchini and squash... you will eat a ton of the meat and won't touch the vegetables. We are still working on finding vegetables that you like and will eat. I know that as your mommy all I can do is continue to offer them and one day (hopefully soon) I will find something, hopefully lots of things, that you like. You will eat broccoli every now and then and you do love a good carrot. Other than that you get your vegetables from organic foods where the veggies are kind of hidden. 

You LOVE pears. They have to be your favorite raw, not in yogurt fruit. You tried watermelon for the first time the other day and really liked it. You will occasionally eat blueberries, grapes and apples. I think that you are just going through one of the many stages you will go through where you are just extra picky. 

Although you love your play room, you LOVE to walk around the house. You love to open cabinets, doors, the refrigerator, the dishwasher and close them again. Generally you don't pull anything out of these places. You will pull out the exercise band and drag it around and you love to open your closet doors, grab a pair of shoes and carry them around the house. 

You have just recently figured out how to play peek-a-boo and be sneaky about it. You will hide and slowly move the object you are blocking your eyes with down so we can see you. You love to go into your bedroom, close the door (crack it) and open it again as we say, "boo!". You will do this over and over. You have discovered that if you push doors harder they will actually close, you will reach up on your tip toes trying to turn the handle. I know it won't be long before you figure out how! 

You still love our dogs so much and I think your favorite is Chesney. One day soon I hope she reciprocates the love you have for her. Right now she is just not a fan. But you love to pet her and touch her. If the dogs get in your way when you are walking you bust out laughing. You think is is so funny that they are in your way. You love to close the door in their face and then bust out laughing when you open it again to see that they are there waiting on you. When you are in your pack-n-play and the dogs are on the bed you will reach and pet them. You are so very sweet and gentle with them and they will lay there and let you pet them.

You have the sweetest personality. It is so very easy to make you smile. You are such a happy little baby. However recently you have begun to have small tantrums. Especially when it is time to take a nap or when it is time to get out of the tub. You will raise your arms, making it almost impossible to pick you up, throw your head back, arch your back and scream. Your legs also buckle, so you become like a rag doll. It breaks my heart to see you get so upset. I just try to reassure you that it's going to be okay and that I love you. 

You have recently started to panic when we go to pull a shirt over your head to dress you. As I am pulling it on (which I am very quick and good at when you don't fight it!) you will grab the shirt in an attempt to pull it off. You will then throw yourself to the floor. It scares me, because I am so afraid you are going to hurt yourself. I play peek-a-boo through the neck hole trying to play with you and I say, "1-2-3!" but sometimes you just freak out. I remember you doing this as an infant too, and then you grew out of it, so I know you will grow out of it this time too.

You have a wonderful, bubbly personality, but you are one strong willed, "I know what I want" kind of girl. I know that this is a part of your personality that God has given you for a reason and I know that it will be put to great use one day. I love to see your determination to figure something out and solve it all on your own. You love to watch and figure out how things work. I can show you one or two times how a new toy works and you are mastering the skills it takes to manipulate it within minutes. (I know every mom thinks this about their baby, but I think you are so smart!)

You are babbling and talking like crazy. You love to have conversations with us and you love it when we have dramatic responses and when we talk back and look you in the eye as you talk to us. There are a few words that you will say or have said. You're funny though, once you've said a word you may or may not repeat it.  It's like you think, "yeah, been there done that. There's no need to say it again" and a lot of times you won't! But here is a list of words you say or have said:

Momma

Dada

Bye-Bye

Bubble

Bunny

Uh-Oh

Hey

Weee

Night Night

I love to watch you wave bye bye, whether you are waving to Grammie, or the dogs or saying and waving bye bye to the water as we turn it off in the tub you wave with both hands. It is the sweetest thing!

You love Toy Story and Toy Story 3. Daddy has put his Buzz Lightyear in your room and you love to play with him. You will pick him up, bring him to me or Daddy and take your sweet little finger and push his buttons to make him talk. You love it when he talks.

When you want to read a book you will bring it to us, kind of throw it in our lap, turn around, walk backwards and plop down in our lap. I love it. 

You are a climber, but only with the baby gate we have up between your playroom and the kitchen. You will climb almost to the top of it. It scares me so much! We just ordered another gate that matches the one that's between the playroom and the foyer. I will be excited when it gets here. 

You have this new game you play where you will sit down on the floor and then just fall backwards. You like to do it in your ball pit, but sometimes you will do it on the floor. 

You love to facetime with Daddy. You have always enjoyed this, but you love to talk to him.

Every time you see yourself, whether it's in the mirror as we are putting you in your car seat or when we are waiting for Daddy to answer the facetime call you will stick out your tongue! It is the cutest thing. 

You love music! Any kind of music. I like background noise when we are at the house and instead of having the tv on Disney, which only makes you want to stand at the couch and watch, we put it on the Christian music station. Every time you hear music you will dance. Daddy heard a song on the radio called "Wind" by Zac Brown Band. It is a very fast, uptempo song and you LOVE it! Daddy will find it on You Tube and play the video and you will stomp your feet. You love it!

You have what we call your "happy dance". When you really like something you will stomp your feet and you get the biggest smile on your face. It's adorable!

You have the cutest way of showing excitement. It's funny trying to explain to people that you aren't mad or scared, that this is what you do when you really like something. You have done this since you were little. You will straighten your arms and legs really tight and make like a grunting, "mmmmm" sound. You do it when you see dogs when we are out or at someone's house and you do it when you are eating something and it is good. It's like you are saying, "oh my gosh! This is so good and I just can't contain myself!" I love it!

You have a fascination with bubbles. You love to play with your bubble machine, but are just as content when mommy blows bubbles for you.

Your favorite thing in the car to have is still your paci pod. You like to have one in your mouth, one in each hand and one on your clip. 

When I am rocking you to sleep you will cuddle into me the whole time now. You don't like laying out on your back stretched out until you are fast asleep and I lay you down in your crib. While I am rocking you you will grab my face and pull it to yours. You love to have my cheek on yours as you fall asleep. Talk about love! 

You give the BEST hugs! You will wrap your arms around us and squeeze. It's the best.

You love to be chased. Whether it is in your playroom and Daddy and I say, "I'm gonna get you!" and grab you or whether I am holding you and Daddy chases us and then we chase him. You crack up!

You still love to be outside. It doesn't matter where. You love to walk and walk and walk.

You really enjoy the park now. You love the slides and are completely fearless! You don't like the baby slides, you like the big kid slides and you don't need Mommy to go with you, you like to go by yourself! You are coming around to swings, but they still aren't your favorite. You are happiest when you are holding my hand and walking around. 

I love that you still depend on me and need me. I know there will come a day when you will be the independent little girl I pray you will become, but for now I am enjoying you needing me so much.

We still haven't left you in the nursery at church. You cry and begin to panic if Daddy puts you in the car while I return the buggy to the holder in the parking lot. You, me and Grammie went and picked up G-Da from work the other day and went to lunch. On the way back to Delta G-Da sat in the back with you and Grammie sat up front with me. You were fine until about 5 minutes into the car ride. You got very upset. You didn't want your paci or to hold my wallet (which you love), I was singing "Jesus Loves Me" (which always calms you down) and rubbing your face and holding your hand all while driving and you were screaming, beginning to get to the gasping for air upset state and finally we arrived at Delta. I got out and sat next to you and calmed you down, however when I went to get back in the front to drive you got upset again. I think you thought I was going to leave you. It completely broke my heart! I took out my iPad, turned on Toy Story 3 and put it on the seat of your car seat by your feet. You were able to calm down and we were able to drive home. You have always been a Mommy's girl and I love that and to an extent you have always had separation anxiety, but this was so hard for me, because I couldn't make you understand that I wasn't going to leave you. Daddy and I have decided that we will leave you in the nursery when we can explain to you that we are going to hear a Bible story and we will come back to pick you up and you understand we aren't leaving you and not coming back. I never want you to feel as though we are abandoning you.

You are a very sensitive baby. If I get loud telling the dogs no or to stop something you will cry. If you think I am mad or aggravated with something you are doing you will cry. It breaks my heart, because I am not ever mad at you or aggravated with you, just aggravated at your actions. I pray daily God will give me more and more patience. I even asked Daddy if they sold it at the Christian bookstore because I could use a lot. You have taught me so much about being patient and I am so thankful for that. I pray God continues to use you to help me. 

Your cue for being sleepy has been the same since you were very little, you rub your nose. I know if I see that it's time to get you in your sleep sack or get you out of the tub and rock you.

You love Minnie Mouse and love the Minnie's BowToons shorts that they play on Disney. You love the intro song to the show. You have a little Minnie Mouse and if I sing the song you will search until you find her and will pick her up and bring her to me! You also will bring her to me if you want to hear the song. 

You love to put things on or around your feet, whether you're in the tub or in your playroom and try and balance them. It is so cute!

You are our sweet little one and once again we have come up with new nick names for you. I have always called you little lady, but recently I call you lady bug. You are still puddin', puddin' pop, boogie, boogs, lovie, Allie-poo, love button, angel cakes and cakers. We love you so much I guess one name just isn't enough!

Well sweet girl you are talking, which means nap time is over, so I'm gonna go scoop you up and give you smooches. I love you my sweet Allianna!