sixteen months old

And just like that, we missed our first monthly blog post :(  Fifteen months, you were a good one, but we'll have to combine you with the sixteen months post.  We have a lot of good excuses for the lack of blogging, but I'll get there in a minute.

At sixteen months you:

• Have over thirty words in your vocabulary.  I've stopped keeping track because you have so many, but some of my favorites are "eyebrows" ("bye-bros"), "puppy" ("buh-buh"), and "balloon" ("brooooon").  It's so amazing that you learn new words every day!

• Know all of the baby signs that I taught you.  I have to say, the whole baby signs thing wasn't very helpful for us.  If you're with your kid all day, you know what they want.  But then again, it is pretty cute.  And makes you think that your kid is a genius.  Which she is...obviously...
• Run!  You were officially moved up to the "off and running" room at church!
• Are weaned!  Phew.  It was time.  A few factors contributed to me finally having the energy to go through with it including biting, terrible sleep habits, and our neighbors moving out which allowed her to cry a bit at night without disturbing anyone.  Anyway, we're on day six of no milk and doing pretty dang well!

You love:

• Belly buttons.  You love being shirtless and playing with our own and try to lift up our shirts to see ours.  This can be embarrassing when we're out in public...
• Saying "no."  You walk over to things that you know you're not supposed to touch and say "no, no, no" while shaking your finger at them.
• Food!  Finally!  We're talking three big meals a day with snacks in between.  Some of your favorite foods are oatmeal, eggs, strawberries, blueberries, mango, and chickpeas.  Oh...and of course cheerios and honey bunnies :)
• Baby dolls.  We have got to buy you one.  As soon as you see one, you say "bebe, bebe" and are desperate to hold it.

You hate:

• We're having a lot of trouble getting you to drink milk.  I know that you don't need it, but I'm a little stressed out about making sure you get enough calcium, fat, and vitamin D through other sources.  We're doing lots of yogurt and cheese, but milk would be nice.  We've tried chocolate milk, almond milk, breast milk in a cup, heating up the milk, bottles, nothing works!  Suggestions appreciated :)

Highlights of the Month(s):

• A trip to Santa Cruz!  Always a joy to visit family and friends.  Unfortunately, Kennedy came down with a nasty bug as soon as we got there, so we weren't able to visit any of our friends with kids :(

• Celebrating St. Patricks Day with the Hulse clan.  Kennedy loved corned beef.  Cabbage?  Not so much.

Wearing the green dress that Nana Vanda hand knit for her.

• Uncle Jimmy came to see us for his spring break!  MorMor and Gramps drove down and stayed with us while he was here.

• A baby shower celebrating my dear friend, Abby's baby Graham!  We can't wait to meet him.

Pictures taken from Abby's husband, Ryan.

• Our friends Peter and Whitney welcomed Natalie Kay in to the world.  We are so excited for them to start this new chapter of their life!
• Lots of play dates, story times, and music classes.  We're living the good life for sure.

Bunnies at the park with Nico!

Shout out to Grandpa Carl for my Stride Rites.  Now that K is a walker, I see what all the fuss is about.

First ball pit!

• My friend, Suzanne, organized an Easter Egg hunt!  Kennedy had a great time finding eggs...er...stealing eggs out of other kids baskets and eating the goldfish inside...

Isn't Kennedy's Easter dress to die for?  Thanks MorMor and Gramps!

• Uncle Owen moved in with us!  It's temporary, but we are enjoying his company, and Kennedy is loving having her uncle around all the time.
• Another bit of exciting news we need to share is that Kennedy is getting tubes in her ears on Tuesday!  We are a little anxious about the procedure, but thrilled that she will not be in pain anymore.  We discovered that Kennedy has minor hearing loss due to the fluid behind her ear drum that never dries up after ear infections, so we are excited to have that taken care of.  We're hoping that once she can hear better she'll be less noisy but I doubt it :)

Another day, another doctor's office.