Keeping Up with the Buckners: 20 Months

Is it just me or does "20 months" look strange? It makes me a little sad that Hailey is almost to the age where you don't count in 'months' anymore! Soon she will be 2, then "just turned two", then 2 and a half, and then "almost 3"! I can't handle it. But anyway...

The biggest change I have seen in Hailey Girl this month is her vocabulary. Her words are becoming clearer, she is starting to form short sentences, she does really well repeating the things we ask her to say, and every day it seems like she is saying a few new words. And a lot of the new words aren't things I've ever "taught" her, just words that we say around the house that she must have picked up on her own! Those are words/phrases like "look!", "watch!", "hewwo!" (hello), and most recently, "good gerrr!" (good girl) and "hee go" (here you go).

Here are a few of her special words and the translations :)

"Chair?!" - this means "I'm hungry and ready to eat!" Promptly followed by her trying to climb into her highchair. It looks a little something like this:

"Pie!?" - this means "Itsy Bitsy Spider" - and she either wants you to read her the book, play the song, watch the YouTube clip, or wants you to sing her the song! And do the motions, of course.
"Bus!?" - same as above, but for Wheels on the Bus
"Moo?!" - same as above, but for Old MacDonald.
"Dog!?" - "I want to watch Clifford" - these words are traditionally accompanied by her handing you the remote.
"Mah-yee!?" - Same as above, but for Barney.
"Cuh-wer" - "I want to color". This girl loves to color! She probably asks me to color 2-3 times a day. Future artist on our hands!

"Where go!?" - the meaning is obvious - its just really really really cute when she says it in this sweet, high pitched voice:

(Here is the link in case the above video doesn't work)

Many times she wanders around the house saying bits of pieces of nursery rhymes and doing motions to herself. My favorites are "Pie-cay, Pie-cay, Pie-cay, Rooooll it" (Patty Cake), "Row, Row, Row, Row, Row, Boat", and "Head.... Show-wuh.... knee..... toe!"

We are also making progress in other regions of her vocabulary that we've been working on for a while, such as she can now say "milk" and understands that it is different than "wawa", and she can finally correctly name a cat, pig, goat, monkey, bear and mouse. She calls herself either "Hay Hay" or "Hay Hee" and she can name both of her cousins in person and by looking at their pictures - "Kee Kee" and "Cah-yee" (Keaton and Collin/"Colly").

FOOD:
She is still a super picky eater, so for the moment I've stopped trying new foods because they always just get pushed aside or "raspberried" out of her mouth. Our current go-to meals are:

Breakfast - Oatmeal mixed with applesauce, cinnamon, and cut up bananas -OR- jelly or honey on whole wheat bread with either yogurt or fresh fruit (or both depending on how hungry she is). Current fave fruits are apples, blueberries, bananas, kiwi, oranges, and pears. On Sunday mornings I usually make whole wheat waffles or pancakes and thankfully she will eat those.

Snack - homemade graham crackers

Lunch - PBJ, yogurt, and fruit..... at least 4-5 days a week. She refuses all meat and cheese. Sometimes I spice it up with some homemade cheese crackers, triscuits, or a fruit/spinach smoothie.

Snack - Frozen smoothie pop or fruit. Honestly the amount of fresh fruit this girl has in one day is pretty astounding. Within any given day she has 3 or 4 whole pieces of fresh cut-up fruit.

Dinner - The only "dinner foods" she will eat are applesauce, black beans, buttered noodles, green beans, and pasta with red sauce. Sometimes she will eat rice. Sometimes. And on a rare occasion she will eat diced sweet potatoes with butter and cinnamon. Fresh green beans ("mee means") are still the only vegetable she will knowingly eat, and she still rejects any and all forms of meat (except for the one time I put teeny tiny pieces of chicken in her applesauce and she ate it... I got really, really excited about that one!)

Beverages - Water & Milk only, but that is because I haven't offered her anything else. Juice isn't necessary in my opinion. Did I mention she loves milk? LOVES it. Like 4-5-cups-a-day-hanging-on-the-fridge-whining-for-it-loves-it.

Regarding her food issues, I just keep saying to myself "I hope she outgrows this.... I hope she outgrows this...". I know she is at the age where she should be eating the same dinner as Rian and I, but if I truly enforced that, she would never eat any dinner. So, for the time being I just make what I know she will eat.

Oh, one exception to the whole "refusing to try new foods" thing... she had little to no hesitation when Great Grandma Mary gave her some brownie and ice cream. Go figure.

PLAYTIME & LEARNING:

Hailey still loves books and loves to draw and color. She even holds her writing utensils correctly and I surely didn't teach her that. She holds her forks and spoons correctly, too. Crazy!

A close-up of what our drawings look like these days:

She loves looking for new books at the library! (These are my favorite pictures from this month, btw)

She is still a little busy bee buzzing around the house from one thing to the next. She loves her Little People, her play kitchen and play food, pushing her babies around, stacking blocks, and any other creative activity I can come up with! Like straws in an old puffs container... painting with pasta....magnets on a cookie sheet... and our first experience with play-doh! We even tried paint stamping with a potato!

Potato painting!

Stacking Blocks:

(Video LINK)

One day I made her a little fort to watch her shows in. It was a little small, but she didn't seem to mind. Next time... bigger.... and space for mommy, too :)

Hailey and I played "beauty shop" the other day and it was totally her idea! She was whining to get up onto the changing table and I didn't know why, so I put her up there and she motioned towards the drawer that we keep her small hair bows in. So I gave them to her and one by one she tried putting them in her hair, and then my hair, and so on. It was really sweet. However once she got started she did NOT want to stop! We probably did this for 30-40 mins.

PLACES WE WENT:

Library Story Time:

We have gone to "story time" at a library a few times this month. A librarian reads to the kids (0-2 yrs) and sings little songs in between the books. It lasts about 20-30 minutes and afterwards the kids can stay and play. But let's be honest.... Hailey was "that kid" running around the room while the librarian was reading... and I was "that mom" chasing after her and taking the other kids' snacks out of her hands! I'm hoping the more and more we go, she will start to get that she is supposed to be paying attention........

When she wasn't running around, she was sitting in the middle of the circle faced away from the reader...

A brief moment of paying attention, except this time she was practically sitting on top the reader's lap. Sigh.

Play time!

Suson Park:

On a warm day in late January, we spent some time at Suson Park. Hailey is becoming quite the park pro!

Grandma & Grandpa Garcia's House:

We love going over there playing with their toys, dancing to music, enjoying family dinner, and playing the piano. To see your child play with your old toys in the house you grew up in is such a special thing. I wish she would be able to remember these moments, because they really warm my heart :)

(Here is the link)

Monkey Joe's:

I'd always been curious as to what exactly this place was... so I was excited when Lindsay suggested we take the babes there one day. We made the mistake of going on a day when schools were closed (so the place was PACKED), but our kids still had fun. Hailey was very unsure at first, giving me this pouty face:

"NO MORE!?! OUT!?"

But eventually she settled in and ended up having a great time. We'll definitely have to go back.

VIDEO!

(LINK)

FRIENDS & FAMILY:

Little Kenzie Klemme is still Hailey's BFF. They see each other probably 2-3 days a week! And even though they've been hanging out frequently since Kenz was 4 months and Hailey was 7 months, I think that they are just now realizing that the other one is there. Kenz likes to pat Hailey's back and Hailey likes to feed Kenzie her snacks. Just adorable!

Check out these little monkeys doing couch gymnastics:

LINK!

One Saturday afternoon, Grandma Marge ("Mimi") met us out for lunch in St. Charles. We went to Trailhead Brewery for lunch and then to a little bar for some drinks. Don't worry anyone, it was a non-smoking establishment, and we were the only people in the bar! Hailey was entertaining the employees by dancing to the music and chattering away.

"Are they still talking??"

Snuggles for Mimi!

While Rian was out of town for work training in Iowa, my mom came over a few nights to keep me company. I love how animated my mom is when she reads Hailey stories. It's the exact same way I remember her reading to me when I was little :)