fun.

fin's at an age where we can start doing crafts and such which i'm pumped about. she actually shows some interest in coloring or "daw" (draw) as she says. she spends a lot of the time taking the crayons out and putting them back in the box. although when we "daw" at the library she sits for awhile actually coloring. anyways, i've been trying to do a fun craft with her at least once a week. pinterest as a ton of great ideas for toddler crafts and most of them use things we already have around the house.

the first thing we made was a stained glass butterfly.

it was super easy and used cardstock, contact paper and construction paper. i had fin color the butterfly a little bit then she put the colorful pieces down. at first she placed them nicely then after a few she dumped the whole bucket of them. i love seeing it on our window.

then we made a necklace out of toilet paper rolls and ribbon.

i tried markers with her for this and it wasn't terrible! messy, sure, but she really likes using them. she also spend a lot of time putting crayons through the rolls. i had fin help me put them on the ribbon and voila!

and for fun last night i made bathtub paint.

super easy, all things we had in the house and it washed right off of her! at first fin wasn't too sure what to do with it and then it would drip on her and she'd say "uh-oh uh-oh." she got the hang of it though.

genius.

you know how every mom thinks their child is a genius? well, i'm no different. :) our sweet, smart girl knows her colors pretty consistently and even some letter! i made a differeny bucket for every color and was going to pull a new color out to practice every few days, but once we really started focusing on colors (just naming them as we went throughout the day) she got it. so now i just ask what color bucket she wants and we play with that one. if you ask her what color something is she'll most likely said "red" or "yenow," but if you don't ask her she'll tell you the right color. for instance a couple weeks ago when i changed my shirt she kept saying "pink pink" and i couldn't figure out why until i realized that my shirt was pink. then when i was changing her diaper she said "bak" and sure enough her diaper was black. she notices different color cars so yesterday in the parking lot she pointed out the red cars to me. also, if you ask her to get a certain color crayon she'll most likely give you the right color. now she helps with diaper laundry and towels giving me the colors i ask for. genius.

plus, a couple weeks ago i got her some alphabet flashcards. i've been going over the alphabet with her in some of her ABC books so i figured we could use these too if she wanted to. and she looooves them. she asks for them ("tapoo") and asks for more when we're done. she's pretty good at A,B,C,D,F,M,O, and P. M is her favorite and picks it out in other places too. i told you she was a genius. :)

15 months.

the past few months fin has been learning all sorts of new things. at 15 months she

*knows where to find her belly button, belly, nose, eyes, head, hair, ears, toes, teeth, mouth
*talks nonstop. some of her newest words are daw (draw), elmo, bi bir (big bird), abby, eree (ernie), memew (tomato and potato), tutoo (turtle), puppy, doggy, kitty, tatoo (towel), bise (bath), dace (grace), dew (drew), minnie, mi-ee (mickey), daddy, toot, poop, bup (burp), head
*loves to play with her baby. takes her for rides in the stroller, feeds her and loves on her
*is obsessed with elmo and most other characters on sesame street
*takes one nap a day. 12-1/2. it's hit or miss.
* sleeps 7:30-7
*is getting to be not such a picky eater again. looooves tomatoes, raspberries, peas, cheese
*is starting to use "please" appropriately. this makes it harder to tell her no.
*still loves to read. loves books about animals and likes to find bears in them.
*knows several animal sounds. moo, quack, sssss, meow, raaar,
*tries to "count" things on a page. basically points to everything and says "two two two"
*loves her water abby, takes a bath with her and gives her a bath. washes abby's hair and cleans her with a wash cloth
*drinks only whole milk and water
*tells us when she toots, burps or poops. she's such a lady

chattier.

holy smokes this girl loves to talk. it's like she doesn't even think about it, she just repeats it and it's in her skill set. some of her newest words:
bear
honey
ravioli is said strangely, but we definitely know what she's talking about
daddy
up
down (dow)
off/on (ow)
inside/outside (side)
elmo
abby (abdow, although she's saying abby more often now)
reas (ree)
ride has turned more into ride as opposed to ise
chick
sit
beans
cheese

personality.

this little girl gets cuter and cuter every day. who knew that was even possible?? she's such a little person now. her personality comes out in everything she does. now she pretends to feed her bear and baby, either putting food up to their mouths or her big plastic fork. she also likes to cover up her stuffed animals and tell them nigh-nigh.

another one of her favorites to carry around my lunch bag and put things in it. now we know to look in that bag if we're missing something. like i found my phone in there amongst many other things. she'll grab a bad and say "bye-bye!" or grab my keys ("keys keys keys") and head for the door.

fin also likes to take her stuffed animals for rides on her little truck.

she now calls herself "nene." it's awesome. sometimes when she does something she's not supposed to she'll say "oh nene." she'll say it all exasperated like i would. so while i'd like to be mad she's nibbling on the coffee table, i have to laugh...for now. it's also funny when she throws food and says "oh geez." she's getting to the point where she copies just about everything i say. clearly i say "oh geez" quite a bit. she's gonna turn me in!

eat.

erin likes to make fun of my first time mom-ness every once and a while. i think she forgets she too was like this with grace and is a little more lax the second time around.  one of her favorite things to pick on me about is how i feed fin. i'm not SUPER strict with what i feed her, but i do try to only feed her food that actually benefits her, not just fills her up. however, b and i don't really eat like this so some nights fin eats something different than us. for instance, the other night we were going to be having meat lovers pizza (look, i hadn't been to the store in a while). i'm not totally opposed to fin having pizza, she's definitely had it before, but that night i gave her falafel balls and green beans. so after she had her chickpea balls and steamed green beans (which she loves, by the way), we pigged out on pizza....that definitely had bacon on it. sometimes i'm too tired to care and she'll eat whatever we're having. i just figure i might as well keep feeding her the good stuff while she still likes it. i'm afraid once she tries the "bad" stuff she wont go back to the healthy stuff. the only time she's really had sweets was on her birthday and ever since then we can't eat cupcakes in front of her b/c she definitely knows what they are now. i don't give her juice b/c well, she likes milk and water. i make her crackers (i like to know what's in them, but of course she's had store bought ones), she eats quinoa mac and cheese AND regular mac and cheese, she eats organic and non-organic fruits and veggies and she's only had whipped cream once b/c grandpa was trying to win her over. so it's not that much work to feed her well, i'm not crazy control freak about it and she doesn't know any different. :)

chatty.

our girl is quite the chatty cathy. she tries to repeat just about everything she hears. i'm trying to remember everything she says, so here goes:

hi
bye (sometimes bu-bye)
ball
bubble (bu-bu)
mama
dada
llama (mama)
ride (ise) it's a strange word she says for ride, but we definitely know what she means
peas
please (peas)
eyes
more (mu)
baby
lamby (meme)
finley (nene)
minnie
ruby (be)
box (bo)
hot
bow
blow (bow)
bar
water (wawa)
snack (na)
nigh night (night night)
teeth (tee, says the same for toothbrush)
mine (luckily she doesn't know what it means really)
banana (nana)
milk (milk)

geez. when i put it in a list like that it looks like a ton! she is a determined little booger when it comes to talking. she'll stare at my mouth and try to say it herself. there are some other things she says quite a bit that we can't quite figure out the meaning of. it's so fun hearing her little voice and actually understanding (a little) what she's trying to tell us! no we need to get them all on video.