SHARING A FEW 12 MONTH PICTURES

These are a few of Nevaeh's 1 year professional pictures!  Mommy will get the picture disc soon....I found these on the photographer's website and took a snapshot of them.  (Not bad for a picture of a picture :-)

12.5 MONTHS- STACKING BLOCKS

Nevaeh is learning how to stack blocks.  For about a month now, I've been modeling a tower for her and encouraging her to add a block to it.....But the typical response was to knock it down and laugh....Or take one block off at a time and throw it behind her and laugh each time.  Today, she surprised me and built this tower.....PROGRESS!  Notice how dirty her hair is???? (Yes, I thought a bow would hide the crusty, sticky hair!) Well little miss Nevaeh decided it was funny to spread her mashed potatoes and turkey/gravy in her hair rather than in her mouth at dinner time!  Of course it didn't help when some members of the family (who will remain nameless) thought it was cute and laughed at her!  Geesh.....I am not fond of this self-feeding stage.....YUCK!  I don't think Aunt Caitlin is either....I tried to wipe it out of her hair and wait a few hours until bath time....But when Aunt Caitlin came home, she took one look at her and took her straight to the tub!

After looking at these pictures again....I realized that she built the tower with her right hand.....hmmm!  Maybe switching hands is normal at this age.  I honestly can't remember back when Mommy was little!

12.5 MONTHS-COLORING WITH LEFT HAND

We went out to eat yesterday and Nevaeh tried to color on the kiddie placemat after watching Jordyn.  Notice she is using her left hand.  Sometimes she tried her right hand.  Then there was a moment when she tried coloring with both hands.  But each time, she would switch back to her left hand for quite some time.  I am pretty sure she is going to be left handed.  I remember she even sucked her thumb on her left hand during the ultrasounds. 

Notice the two teeth in the second picture?  These are the only two teeth that she has and she is 12.5 months old!  I think I feel several more ready to pop through on top and bottom ....When she lets me probe her mouth and gums.....Which isn't often!  I bet she cuts them all at once.....That may be a good thing......or maybe not.........She really has a hard time cutting teeth.  Or should I say a hard time trying to cut teeth.....whiny, clingy, feverish and.....NO new teeth :-(

12.5 MONTHS-HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!

Today is Courtney's 23rd birthday!  Yesterday, I did my traditional "Happy last day of 22 to you" song and today I called and sang the birthday song!  Great Grandma Richards tried to teach Nevaeh how to sing the Birthday song....She had some success in teaching her...After Grandma sang, then Nevaeh would "sing" HAP    Maybe next year we will get her to sing the whole song to Mommy!

Lately, Nevaeh has been pointing to things she wants and then points to herself.  For example when we are eating something , she will point to it and then point back to herself.  She will do this several times until we "listen" to her.

She will shake her head NO to food that we try to feed her, but put it on the tray for her to pick up or give her the spoon, and she will feed it to herself.  She is very independent!  She also loves to drink from a straw out of a big person's cup!......Today, I was getting ready to take her out of the highchair and she said "up"!

Today, Great Grandma Richards said she walked about 5 steps across the room before she realized she was walking....when she realized what she was doing, down on her knees she went!

12 MONTHS- LOVE THIS SMILE!

I LOVE THIS SMILE!

12 MONTHS- PLAYING AT THE MALL!

Nevaeh loves to play in the kiddie section at the Mall!  See her new shoes?  They are stiffer than her prewalkers....She seems to stand for longer periods of time with more balance now.  She even takes a few steps and stops to play (while standing) then takes a few more steps.  Aunt Caitlin said she did this clear across her bedroom yesterday.  Caitlin thinks her new shoes have something to do with this (not so sure, but who knows.... could just be a coincidence)

12 MONTHS- UPSIDE DOWN V and DONALD DUCK ???

Yesterday I posted that Nevaeh has been trying to stand from a sitting position without holding onto anything or anyone (looks like an upside down V while she is trying).....Well....today she was successful!  YAY!!!!

Nevaeh's Great Grandpa Richards can talk like Donald Duck.  He did this to Nevaeh yesterday and she was captivated........Today when I sat down to "talk" with Nevaeh, she tried to talk like Donald Duck to me!  LOL   Now that takes some figuring out.....pretty smart huh???

ONE YEAR OLD- CLIMBING STAIRS

Here's a video of Nevaeh climbing the stairs....up and down she goes....she would do it all day if I let her!  It is cute to watch her lately....She is now trying to stand up on her own from a sitting position to a standing position without holding onto stuff.  She gets herself into an upside down v shape with her head and hands on the floor trying to push herself up into a standing position.  At times it looks like she is trying to stand on her head! LOL  One of these times I will catch her in  action and take a picture to share!

AUNT CAITLIN AND UNCLE JOEY'S WEDDING DAY!

Aunt Caitlin and Uncle Joe decided to get married on 3/13/11 before his National Guard unit deploys to Afghanistan.  After training and before deployment, we all hope to celebrate their marriage in a BIG wedding ceremony planned for August 20, 2011.  Nevaeh will be the flower girl and Jordyn will be the ring bearer.  Maddie and Alexis will  pass out birdseed to all of the guests to throw at the newlyweds!

1ST BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!

 Mommy and Daddy had a Minni Mouse theme birthday party for you!

 You loved opening your gifts at first....then boredom set in and Mommy opened the rest.  :-)

 Grandma Dason loving on her grandbaby!

Nevaeh loves Grandpa Dason and Chael!

12 MONTHS- FEEDING SELF WITH SPOON

Nevaeh has been trying to feed herself with a spoon for about a month, and now she has better control!  Well this is one way to get her to eat!

Here's a video of her feeding herself with her left hand.  (Just like Mommy!)

HAPPY 1ST. BIRTHDAY!

(Walking caught on SKYPE!!!!)

 A small celebration before the big party on Saturday!

Dear Nevaeh,

Today marks a year after your beautiful birth!  Sooooo hard to believe that a whole year has passed us by soooooo quickly.  You are no longer a baby! You've grown into a beautiful, smart little toddler who is into EVERYTHING! But we wouldn't want it any other way!  This Saturday, Mommy and Daddy are celebrating your birthday.  I'll post those pictures and then print you a blog book of your first year of life as a keepsake to save with your birth book that I made for you!  One day I hope you will be sharing this blog book with your children and grandchildren.  I want them to know me through you!....And I hope one day you will do the same type of memory book for your children and grandchildren!

 The doctor weighed you in at 19 1/2 lbs.(23rd%),  and 29 inches long (40th%).  You are tiny like your Mommy was, but not necessarily petite.   You wear a size 3 diaper and size 4 shoe.  Most of your clothes are between a 9 month and 12 month size depending on the style!  According to the doctor, we are suppose to take away your bottle, but I am NOT crazy about the idea.  This is the only way that we know you are getting enough nourishment.  You have a cereal bottle in the morning and at night and eat table food for lunch and dinner.....Often we find the food on the floor and not in your mouth!  You have mastered the sippy cup, but love to fling it on the floor!  Often we will see you shake your head NO to food, blow raspberries and spit the food out and now you are even holding your hands over your mouth when you are done eating!  Toooo funny!

You are still a champion sleeper!  Sometimes you let us rock you to sleep with your binkie and blankie, and often you will let us lay you down in the crib or on the floor with your binkie and blankie to go to sleep on your own!  You still sleep between 10-11 hours at night, with two naps during the day.  You wake around 8:00 in the morning,  naps at around 11:00 & 4:00 and bedtime around 9:00pm.

You still only have two bottom teeth.  Not sure when the others will make their appearance.....hopefully soon because you are miserable sometimes and we are guessing it is due to teething.  You repeat many words that we say and this past month, you put two words together and said "Nevaeh bite"......but you only said this once.  Often we hear you babble up a storm with such expression.  Speaking of expression you love to "read" books and babble away.  You point to the pictures and words as we read books to you!  You still watch the "Your Baby can Read" video every morning as part of the morning routine and sometimes you repeat those words as you watch! Sooooo cute!  You also point to all of your body parts when asked and you point them out on your dolly who you call "Sissy".  You walk holding onto things and love walking on your knees (just like your Mommy did....in fact Mommy walked on her knees until she was 14 months and refused to walk on her feet....I wonder what you will do?)  Lately you have been holding onto my finger with one hand and walking on your own, and 2 days before your first birthday, you took 5 steps on your own while holding your dolly!

Your personality is sweet and easy most of the time.  However, you do have a stubborn streak and at times I think you are in the terrible twos already!  Boy when you don't want to do something, the whole world knows!  Your face even turns red!  Hopefully this is just a phase.....If not, we may have to start "time out" soon!  LOL!   Even with the temper tantrums, you are soooo very loved by many!

I love you sooooo much and look forward to many more years of this grandparent bliss!

Love, Grandma Dason

11m29d- HAPPY LAST DAY OF BABYHOOD!

Today is Nevaeh's last day of babyhood and tomorrow she will be a toddler!  I have this tradition where I sing to the birthday person on the last day of the year before their birthday.  "Happy last day of babyhood to you.   Happy last day of babyhood to you.  Happy last day of babyhood to dear Nevaeh.  Happy last day of babyhood to you!".....then on her birthday tomorrow, I'll call and sing the real birthday song!  I know....kinda silly, but a tradition!

11m26d- GUESS WHO TOOK 5 STEPS TODAY!?

Great Grandma Richards and Mommy called me (just after I left their house----go figure) with the news that Nevaeh took her first few steps on her own.  She was holding her dolly and she WALKED a whole 5 steps by herself.  Mommy said she did this twice, but we haven't caught it on camera yet!  YAY!!!

11m24d- FIRST REAL HAIR CUT!

 You are probably wondering why we would cut her beautiful hair.....well because she refuses to keep hair ties and clips in her hair now and prefers to eat them!  Without her hair pulled up.....It looks something like this!.....Drove us nuts trying to keep it out of her eyes.  Maybe when she gets older, we can let her bangs grow out, but not now.  Here we are at the hair salon!

She did pretty good and didn't cry!

All done and looking beautiful!  We can still pull it up on top in a cute bow.....at least it isn't in her eyes anymore.  We also had the back trimmed up.  The lady said that it would grow better if the ends were trimmed.  I think trimming the back was more devastating to me than trimming the bangs.  Some of her curls are much shorter!

I think her hair looks thicker now and not sooooo stringy!  She is such a cutie pie!  Here she is loving on her dolly!

11m23d-PLAYING

She loves to "walk" on her knees!  Just like her Mommy did way back when!

FEBRUARY 2011 WEATHER (DOUBLE POST TODAY!)

Our weather has been seriously STRANGE this winter.  Earlier I posted about our ice storm.  Last Friday, we got 6 inches of snow....2 days later the temperature reached near 60 degrees, melted the snow along with a severe thunderstorm dumping two inches of rain on us in a few hours time span!  We woke up to tornado sirens (a neighboring county had a tornado touch down) and Courtney saw this out her front door!  YIKES!  The above pictures are of one of our county school districts with classrooms full of water!  Many homes are damaged by the high water levels.  I even saw a car floating down the street in the middle of town!  Pretty sad!  Luckily, Courtney and Mike's place was only surrounded by water and not under water. They live about 10 minutes from our house.....Our place was fine.....thank you God for a sump pump that worked!    Please pray for our neighboring families who were not so lucky!

PROUD MOMMY

Nevaeh,
Today, Mommy started the process of her new job with the HR department.  She is official with their badge and her title as a COTA.  I am sooooo proud of her!  One day, when you look back at this blog/book, you will realize why.....Mommy went to school every day while she was pregnant with you....even when she was sick.....To top that off, she didn't miss a beat and went back to class 6 days after a c-section with you!  She was and is a very determined person to give you a wonderful life! She is a good role model for you......not to mention a GREAT Mommy!
Love, Grandma Dason