SIIIIIIIIIDE

This is a long one guys - hold on!

So I've been meaning to do a comprehensive update on the Finley. We purposely stopped doing the monthly updates at 12 months because I know whatever I do for Finley sets a precedent for the rest of my children. So lest I sign up for a lifetime of disappointing my children I knew it had to end somewhere. So other than the first 12 months I thought I would do bi-annual updates from thereafter. That was more of an explanation than any of you cared to received so read on if you are still interested to see what the little chicken has been up to lately. I realize I should have done this when she turned 18 months, but you know how it goes.

- Everyday Finley asks "pay? siiiiiide?" Which means she wants to go play outside. Sometimes she'll wake up from her nap and start putting on her shoes and socks to give me the cue that it's go time. We try to go on at least a walk everyday. But I really have to gear myself up because no matter how long we are outside, 2 minutes or 2 hours, she throws a fit when it's time to go back inside. I love that she loves to be outside - but the last few days it's been so cold we've literally bundled her to within an inch of her life until she looks like the little brother from A Christmas Story. She doesn't care. Being siiiide is all that matters. Add that to the list of reasons why I'm a little grateful we aren't moving to Rochester Minnesota. 

- She has found a love for shoes. Putting them on and off herself, putting shoes on and off other people, collecting shoes, wearing one, wearing two, carrying them around the house, saying "SHOOOOS!" anytime she sees them... basically anything with shoes.

- Along with saying "shoes," she also says the following: doh-doh ("here you go"), gah-gow ("thank you" and sometimes "here you go"), may-men ("amen"), Sansa ("Santa"), nose, eye, tee ("teeth"), sow (sorry), baby, let go, grampa, grama, snah ("snack"), a bite?, sippa ("sippy cup"), bye, stop, mamma, daddy, halp ("help")

- When she wants to eat or drink something in her sight she opens her mouth as wide as possible and goes "AHHH, AHHH, AHHH," over and over until you figure out exactly what has caught her fancy. Luckily she's slowly starting to ask for "a bite?"

- She likes giving kisses (but only when she's in the mood) and gives them liberally to all her babies and stuffed animals

- She has learned to fold her arms during prayers and say amen at the end.

- She likes to tickle and makes this cute little "ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka," noise as she's doing it. She'll even try to tickle her stuffed animals and babies.

- She is still a fantastic eater and doesn't seem to be too picky, except when it comes to fluids. She still won't drink any kind of juice or milk. She just loves her water too much. Which isn't a bad thing but most kids this age get about half their calories from milk so I feel like I have to work extra hard to give her snacks between meals. She's already only in the 10th percentile for weight, I don't want the pediatrician thinking I starve my child!

- One of my favorite things is that she understands when I ask her to clean up. I have a little clean up song that I sing and she usually goes right to work loading all her million toys scattered around the room back into their baskets. It's nice to finally have her occasionally working with me instead of against me.

- She has started really mimicking our speech. Yesterday Brad and I were in another room from Finley and he said "crap," and from the other room we heard Finley say, "crap!" about five times. I guess the time has come.

- She loves her babies and has started wrapping them up in her blankets and carrying them around the house. Which is a good sign because we were worried that she wouldn't learn the soft gentle loving skill in time for the new baby. We were around her 3 month old cousin over the holidays and she was generally very sweet to her. I hope it lasts!

- She has become very possessive of her toys if there are other children around. Don't mess with her stuff!

- She prefers to be go sans clothes and has also figured out how to take her diaper off. So I don't let her run around naked very often anymore. But my efforts are often thwarted because she's pretty good at getting her own clothes off.

- "Cah-coh" or coloring is one of her favorite things, but she seems to enjoy eating the crayons as much as drawing a picture. Oh well. Coloring is basically the only thing that gets her to sit through church and any other event that requires a 20 month old to sit still so there are at least 3 crayons in all of my bags/purses.

- She still loves to dance and shake her groove thang. And the ladies at church that watch her in the nursery say she loves to try and sing along during the singing time.

- She loves playing a game we call "Superintendent." Which consists of us closing the doors to all the rooms in our hallway, we give her a spare set of keys, and she spends forever pretending to unlock all the doors. Best game ever. She'll seriously be entertained for 45 minutes trying to fit our car keys into all the door locks. I get a lot of cleaning done during Superintendent.

- We talk about and pray for Baby Sister everyday. And she likes to periodically say "hiiii!" and wave to my belly and sometimes give my belly kisses. I'm not sure if she's really understands or if she just got such a positive reaction the first time she did it that she likes to do it over and over. Either way I'll take it - it's so cute.

Baby Dos update - kicking and moving like a maniac. She won't let me eat cooked vegtables or pork chops. Loving cheese, blueberries, and LOTS of water. And the nasea officially ended two weeks ago at 21 weeks (with Finley it ended at about 19 weeks). For those doctors that keep telling you it ends at 12 weeks, stop lying!