Big Girl

Helping Mom with the mopping.....
Scarlett always gestures for me to let her outside on the front landing. Even when it's freezing, she loves to shiver and dance around for a minute on the cold cement. For some reason, she thinks it's delightful.

Enjoying the playground on the first semi-warm day in what feels like years...(maybe a little dramatic).

Rockin' out with Dad's Skull Candy headphones.....just her size.
She's quite accomplished at feeding herself with spoon and fork these days. Just enjoying a yogurt with Daddy.
Having fun at Kangaroo Zoo with her friend Taylor Williams.

Scarlett is growing up fast. Currently she's having a language explosion and is using words more and more often to communicate in place of gesturing. I'm finding it much easier to decipher what it is she wants. She is starting to combine words such as "Uh-oh Binkie, " when she drops her pacifier (yes, she is still using one and is fiercely attached to it, don't judge:) ) Or, "Buh-bye Daddy," etc. She's learning lots of animal sounds, body parts, etc. I'm constantly labeling things for her because I like to hear how it comes out of her mouth. Sometimes we get creative things like, "Su-Su," which she uses consistently for "cereal."

Micah and I are loving the toddler stage and find it exciting to see what she is going to learn each day. We adore this little girl and think it is so fun to teach her new skills and help her explore the world around her.

Daddy's Girl

Scarlett has always been partial to her daddy, but lately, as she's battled the flu, fever and a nasty cold, she's on a complete mommy-strike for some reason. Because Micah recently finished finals and has a little down time until his internship begins, Scarlett is just beside herself with the extra Daddy-time.

• When I go to take her from Micah for whatever reason, I literally have to pry her from him as she wraps her little arms around his neck and clings to him for dear life.
• Whenever we arrive home from an errand and walk through the front door, Scarlett immediately begins scavenging the house for her Daddy while calling out, "Dada, Dada," with the same inflexion as "Where are you?" She runs to his office door and knocks. If he isn't there, she quickly moves to the bedroom where he frequently studies. If she can't find him, she turns to look at me, with a confused and crestfallen little face.
• Scarlett wants to do everything her Dad does. She wants to watch him shave, sit on his lap and eat exactly what he is eating, play the guitar like him, get sips of his soda pop, sit on his lap and type on the laptop just like him, etc. She follows him around all day like a little puppy, telling him "Hi!", pointing at things she wants him to see, and imitating his every move.
• She cries when he leaves the room, puts her down, tries to hand her to me, etc. The other day I tried to take her from his arms and she started swatting at me with her little hands.
• She is fine with me during the day, likes me to hold her, smiles, laughs and plays with me. Until.....her dad arrives home and she won't have anything to do with Mom......Poor Mom:(

Scarlett rocking out to Usher - 15 months

Scarlett Turns 1!

Family Christmas photo shoot

Scarlett turned 1 year on New Year's Eve. We had family over for a red and zebra themed party. I couldn't resist making a red velvet zebra cake, even though 1st birthdays are more traditionally princess, animal or cartoon themed. Scarlett thoroughly enjoyed digging into the cake and savoring the cream cheese frosting. She loved all of her gifts, especially a little pink stroller that she uses to happily push her dolly around the house.

The past month or so, Scarlett has started to do a lot of new, fun things. We are seeing a lot more of her personality and she seems much more like a little girl than a baby. Here are a few highlights from the past few months......

• 9 months - Our baby decided crawling was less efficient and started walking! After a week or two of falling a lot and sea legs, she now keeps us busy running around the house.
• Scarlett has become quite the copycat lately. She loves to take sips from her bottle or sippy cup and follow it up with a very exaggerated and refreshing, "ahhh." She saw us do this a few times and adopted it as her own. She loves to mimic everyday actions like talking on the phone, picking up a brush and brushing her hair, scrubbing the floor with a rag like mom, etc. She loves to "pop her hands" to Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree, and mimic patty-cake.
• Although she doesn't have many words yet, besides "yea" and "wow," I'm amazed at how much she can understand while being able to speak so little. She can respond appropriately to, "share your dolly with daddy, where's the light, block, etc." It always surprises me when she follows commands so readily because I mistakenly assume her understanding is limited like her speech.
• Her favorite thing as of late, is to waltz with Daddy to the Sleeping Beauty Theme Song. Whenever Micah stops waltzing, Scarlett picks up his hand, places hers in the correct position and starts "singing" to get him to keep going. She loves her dad and runs to meet him at the door when he returns from school.
• She enjoys games of chase and being thrown onto a mound of bed pillows. She will often approach us and put her head down on the floor with bottom in the air to get help with a summersault.
• The last few weeks she loves to point at everything she finds interesting. I use the term interesting liberally because she seems to point to everything from blank walls to pinatas in the store. Sometimes she runs around the house with both pointer fingers stretched out so she's prepared in case she runs into something notable along the way.
• She's surprisingly accurate at "singing" the melody of the songs we sing to her. She has mastered the "wee-ooh, wee-ooh," part of "In the Jungle."
• Scarlett loves music and dancing and will stop immediately in her tracks when a song comes on to shake her little hips, bob her head, and bounce up and down to the beat.
• She has a great appetite and devours almost all foods. Surprisingly though, she is not overly fond of sweet fruits and prefers peas, beans, carrots, butternut squash, etc. She is a huge fan of her morning, "baby omelet."
• We love that Scarlett feels she has to be a part of everything Mom and Dad are doing. If we leave the room, she always follows to see if we are doing anything exciting. If we use the computer she drops what she is doing to climb up on our laps and participate. If Micah and I hug, she comes over and wraps her little arms around both of us. She circles the kitchen table like a vulture hoping for scraps of food from our plates and protests until we pick her up and share our meal. We love that she likes to "share," and brings and shows us toys and holds out smashed blueberries or black beans for us to eat also.
• Currently her favorite toy is her little doll. When we ask, "Where's dolly?" She quickly scans the room, locates dolly and rushes over to snatch her up. She seems to know how to take care of dolly and gives her hugs, kisses and replaces her pacifier when needed.
• Although the first few months of life she existed as a chubby, round-faced baby, she is now tall and slender for her age. It remained a mystery for most of her first year, but we can now officially pronounce her big eyes, brown.

Trip to the Zoo

Grandma McBride recently proposed a trip to Hogle zoo. Scarlett seems to love animals so we jumped at the chance. She especially enjoyed the monkeys who came up to the glass to say hi.....

Feeding Fiascos......Please Help!

Flashing me a look of defiance/indifference to sweet pea puree


I am petitioning you - the blogosphere - for input on this very important issue. I introduced Scarlett to solids at 6 months. We began with rice cereal, then moved to sweet potatoes. She caught on very quickly to the mechanics of eating (i.e. opening her mouth, swallowing, leaning toward the spoon). However, she is such a busy baby that she won't take more than a bite or two before she lunges for other objects on the table, gets completely distracted by other people in the room, wipes the food all over her face, refuses to open her mouth, etc. The last few days she is especially uninterested in eating. I have found some success when I let her grab the spoon and feed herself. Maybe it's because the flavor of the week is peas? Here are my additional concerns....

• When I do manage to give her even small amounts of food, she becomes extremely constipated and goes ten days before painfully going to the bathroom.

• When I try to "unconstipate" her with a few ounces of fruit juice, she refuses to drink it. Apparently she is one of 10 children in the United States that doesn't like fruit juice.

I need input on the following questions...

1. Scarlett receives breastmilk exclusively. Is it absolutely essential for her to have solids? Can i just give her an iron supplement and forget about solids for the next month or two?
2. How did you get your baby to enjoy solids? Any tricks?

Thanks!

Trip to Wal-Mart.........In Style

My latest craft....a glamorous hot pink and leopard shopping cart cover!

Scarlett taking in the spectacular sights of the dairy section.


As you can probably guess from the title of my post, we don't get out much here in South Carolina. However, Wal-Mart in the deep south almost rivals Las Vegas as a people-watching destination. Although I've been to Wal-Mart thousands of times, Scarlett delights in the experience because she can see so many new faces and activity.