Mama's Little Helper

Wearing daddy's sock

Most Mondays Payton and I stay home and get things done around the house until we have to pick up Lexi from school. One of the things she just loves to "help" with is laundry, she will just light up at the sight of a basket of dirty or clean clothing. I try to keep her out of the dirty stuff, but she just has so much fun. She is really funny about putting things over her head. She is constantly picking things up and putting them over her head, this particular Monday it was mom's (clean) underwear!

Another funny thing about Payton is she LOVES toilets. Not sure where this comes from, but we have to make sure bathroom doors are always closed. It's not the water, she doesn't know there is water in it (yet!), she just loves to pull up and play at the toilet. The only thing I can figure is she sees us go into the bathroom and used the toilet so in her little 11 month old brain, the bathroom and toilet must be the place to be. Usually we just teach her to stay away from things we don't want her playing with, but since we hope to potty train her at some point we don't want to make the toilet a bad thing.

As I have mentioned before, Ryleigh is never far away when we are home with Payton (or without her!), he's always been that way. I was getting some work done on Monday and Payton was happily playing in the family room when she brought Ryleigh her sunglasses. I put them on him just for fun and snapped a few quick pictures.

Kristen and Savannah Visit

My cousin Kristen and her beautiful baby girl Savannah came to visit this past week. Kristen's husband Dustin is in the military and is in Afghanistan right now so Kristen is living the single mama life. We had fun visiting with them this week and Payton was very intrigued by Savannah. We were sad to see them go tonight, but I am sure she was ready to get home. Savannah is such a sweet laid back baby and I have the ultimate respect for Kristen flying solo right now. Raising a child with two parents is hard enough, I can't imagine doing it on my own. Hurry home Dustin!!!

World's best Aunt!!! :)

Croup

This is how we spent all of Friday night and most of Saturday. Kole started things off with a nasty cold two weekends ago that he so kindly passed through the family. I came down with it last weekend and Payton got a touch of it early this past week. We thought she escaped with only a little stuffy nose, but no such luck! Friday she was coughing a little bit, but seemed ok so we went about our day. Well Friday night we were up all night with a poor little girl who was coughing, wheezing and crying. My family dealt with our fair share of croup when we were little so I recognized the barking noises Payton made when she coughed. We tried a few steam showers in the bathroom, but it didn't really help. We were dressed and ready to take her to Children's urgent care when I decided to check in with my mom before we left since she took care of many a croup ridden baby. Even though she sounded like an asthmatic, we decided it wasn't urgent enough to warrant a middle of the night ER trip and just kept a close eye on her (and held her mostly) the rest of the night. Our doctor has hours from 8-10 on Saturday mornings so we called at 8 and took her in. He confirmed that she had croup and gave us an oral steroid to give her to open up her airways. After a couple of doses of steroids, good naps yesterday (for Payton and mom and dad) and a an even better nights sleep she is back to herself today with just a little runny nose.

We almost made it to 1 year before getting sick/needing to go to the doctor so I'd say we've been really lucky and were definitely due...

Early Birthday Present

We decided there were two things we wanted to get Payton for her first birthday. A first-stage outdoor playset and a college savings plan. We wanted one with a slide and an area to play in, but when we started looking at playsets we experienced a little sticker shock. So after a few weeks of stalking craigslist and learning the particular item we were hunting for sells like hotcakes, we spotted this one soon after it had been posted and made our move! It's in great condition, the previous owners only had it set up indoors. Payton seems to like it (almost as much as Dad!) Happy almost birthday baby girl!

Trying out the picnic table

Learning how to use the door

Climbing up to the slide

It has a ring toss, ball through and secret entrance too!

The slide is her favorite

 We do a lot of this right now, she'll stand for long periods of time and take a few steps, but not quite ready to take off...

Now on to the college savings plan we probably should have started when we were in college...

Babysitting

Tonight we had a "little" company. Ashtyn and Eli came to play so Jenn and Matt could have kid-free, peaceful date night. We had a great time, slightly chaotic, but in a good way! They are such sweet kids. Eli sometimes struggles when left behind, but he did pretty good. We had a little stretch of unhappiness, but big sis Ashtyn was right by his side comforting him. A little change of scenery (and into pajamas) did the trick and he snuggled with Kole until he and Payton were ready for bed.

Ashtyn played and played and played! She shared all of her special toys with Payton, which was very sweet and she and I played a little Bunco. Kole managed to make an awesome dinner of fish with an amazing red pepper sauce, sweet potatoes and veggies and we managed to eat between soothing crying babies. I'm sure it was quite a sight, Eli would cry so I would pick him up and calm him down, then Payton would cry because I was holding Eli, then Eli would cry because Payton was crying, and around and around we went! Luckily it was only about a half an hour and then all was well. We finished out the night with some big-kid movie time and popcorn with Ashtyn. It's so wonderful to have such great friends nearby that we can trade kiddos with. Sometimes I still can't believe it when I look at Ashtyn and think that I met her mom in preschool!!

Hope you had a nice Friday night!!

Payton trying to convince Eli to escape with her

Deciding Eli was on his own she made her move

Much more interested in the movie Cars then the pretty girl trying to get him to run away with her. Are you sure he's your son Matt!? :)

Rolling the dice...



Counting her points...



Writing down her score...

Thanks for sharing your kids with us for the night, hope you had fun!!

Love ya!

11 Months

I am way behind on Payton's 11 month post, but I did manage to get some pictures last weekend! This month was much easier than last month. While she is still very opinionated and strong-willed she is learning to keep it in check and we have found it works best if we just ignore the behavior. She likes to be with us so getting ignored seems to register with her that she needs to try something different. One thing that's been a little interesting this month is she has started whining quite a bit. I think it's a result of knowing what she wants and doesn't want, but not being able to communicate it yet. She seems to reserve this behavior for mom and dad though so she is definitely feeling it out. I hope it's a short stage because it tries my patience from time to time. Generally she is still happy and pretty easy. I can't believe the next monthly post will be a 1 year post!

Payton @ 11 Months

Measurements: We will find out at her 1 year appt. but she is in 12-18 month clothing and size 4 shoe.

Sleep: She had a about a week where it seemed she might be transitioning to one nap, but it was short-lived. She still gets up too early (around 6am!) to make it on one nap. She sleeps about 10-11 hours at night and takes two 1-1 1/2 hour naps. She occasionally wakes up crying during the night, but is easily soothed and goes back to sleep.

Food: We have retired most of the baby food. She still eats jars of fruit with her cereal in the morning since she doesn't seem to mind being fed by us for that meal. She occasionally has jar vegetables too since it's still the easiest way to work them in. Still haven't found anything she won't eat and she continues to get better at feeding herself from her tray and chewing solid food. She is drinking water from a sippy cup!! She'll have about 12-16 oz a day. We cut out one of her daily bottles so now she has 3, one in the morning (this will be the hardest to get rid of) which is the only time she really wants one, one between naps and the last before bed. The last two are hit or miss. My hope is to have her totally off bottles by her birthday.

New Tricks: starts clapping and "patting" when you sing pat-a-cake, dances to music, covers her ears when you say "ear muffs", crawls down the stairs (backwards) with ease, stands and plays for long periods of time without holding on, will take 2-3 steps (walking is in our near future!), brushes her teeth, Speaks jibberish in full sentences and will have conversation wiht anyone who will listen, I'm sure I'm missing a few...

Happy 11 months baby girl, we love you!!