Merry Christmas!!

Yep...that pretty much sums it up! Hope you are all having a lovely holiday season!

Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas

Because I am a slow blogger, I decided I would combine all three holidays into one post. Well I take that back, I am sure there will be multiple Christmas posts, but we can consider this part 1.

HALLOWEEN

For Halloween Sloan was a cute little bumble bee and Lee was the bee keeper (what was I you ask? I was a party pooper...I hate Halloween). We only visited one house and mostly it was for "effect" to say we did it. But since Sloan doesn't eat candy we decided one house was more than enough.

Despite the fact that I am the Halloween Grinch, we did do some fun things.





We went to the Pumpkin Patch and picked out pumpkins.







We carved the pumpkin.



We went to a Halloween party.





And we went trick or treating.







My cute little Bumble Bee.

THANKSGIVING

It is really hard for me to be away from my family for Thaknsgiving. But we did have a really great time with Lee's family. We ate lots of yummy food and I even did a little bit of the cooking (shocking I know!).






Christmas-Part 1

After Thanksgiving we helped Grandma Sally decorate her Christmas tree. Since Lee and I have always lived away from family, we always spend the holidays somewhere else. Because of this, in our 71/2 years of marriage, we have never had our own Christmas tree (sad I know!). But this year, we wanted to start the special tradition of decorating our Christmas tree. Since we are living with Lee's parents right now, we had to make do with decorating their tree. We bought Sloan her own ornament and let her put it anywhere on the tree she wanted (well with my help, she is still a little young to totally grasp the concept). We had a really great time decorating the tree and Sloan thinks all the sparkly lights are pretty awesome. It was great kick off to my favorite season of the year! Now the fun of trying to keep a one year old from touching the shiny, sparkly, tempting tree begins :).

Walking

Sloan has been walking for a couple of weeks now, but as usual I slack. I am pretty convinced that much like me, Sloan needs to be the best at whatever she does. I think she waited so long to walk because she wanted to be really good at it first. She really had the ability to do it over a month ago, but just didn't want to. One day she just decided out of the blue that she was going to do it and she has been really good at it ever since.

Sloan is also signing a ton and talking a lot too. She says mom, dad, dog, dee (odie), frog, socks, shoes, choo choo, plane, bird and her new word of the night is ho ho ho (we thought we would teach her that one for Christmas but she caught on much quicker than I anticipated). She is really good at listening and repeating. Guess it's time to start watching what we say.

Sidenote:
I have tried to upload some really cute video of Sloan walking for like a week (which has made this post even later than it originally started out being). So one day, when I become slightly less technically stunted, hopefully I will figure it out and be able to post it.

A Year In The Life

This is the little video I did for Sloan to celebrate her first year of life. I played it during her birthday party, but wanted to post it here for everyone else's viewing pleasure. It is 15 min long, so I anticipate no one will watch it. But I wanted to throw it on here because it is really cute and a lot of work went into it. If you have an extra 15 minutes...enjoy :)!

She's One!

My baby turned one! Well actually it has been about two weeks now, what can I say, I am slow. I can't believe it has been a year. I feel like Sloan was just born a day ago. Every day Sloan becomes more and more of a little person and less and less of a baby. She has such a personality all her own. I love every moment I get to spend with her.

Sloan's birthday was September 15th. We had a small family party with Lee and I on the 15th. We opened presents and enjoyed birthday time with just the three of us. Here are pics from our family party.



Sloan and mom on Sloan's big day.



Sloan got a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse train. She loves it and rides it and pushes it all day. When she turns a nob the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song comes on and Sloan dances to it. It is so cute.

Then on Saturday we had a party for family and friends. Most of our family and all of our friends came to celebrate. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who made the journey to celebrate our exciting day.



Sloan getting ready for the big party.



Opening her presents and loving all things cuddly.



So anyone that knows Sloan knows she is obsessed with two things. 1. Signing Time and 2. Her stuffed Brown Bear. Anyone that knows me knows I DON'T cook in an way shape or form. I decided to do what good mother do and bake a cake for Sloan's birthday. I made this Brown Bear cake because Sloan loves her Brown Bear. Personally I think it turned out pretty good!

So here is the cake story. It is customary to strip your child down to her diaper and let her dive into her birthday cake. I personally don't like messes, so I wasn't keen on this idea, However as a good mom I decided I needed to do as all "good moms" do and let Sloan go to town on her cake. I stripped her down and placed her in her highchair. Sloan stared at the cake, slowly put her hand in her cake, immediately removed it, looked at the mess on her hand, started to cry and threw her hand out to me to wipe it off. She didn't want anything to do with getting messy. While everyone at the party was thinking how sad it was that I wouldn't have messy cake face pictures for posterity, I was secretly proud of my little girl. Why you ask? I know that Sloan couldn't possibly get this trait from anyone but me. What can I say, my child hates to be dirty. A girl after my own heart! So while most people were disappointed, I was secretly beaming with pride at my clean child!



This is Sloan crying about her mess (notice the one tiny hand print on the bear's nose).

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl. In one short year you have shown us the meaning of true and unconditional love, you have made us laugh harder than we have ever laughed, and shown us that life is truly about so much more than we could have ever imagined before we were blessed with your life! Happy Birthday!!

Here are some fun stats for Sloan at age one.

Weight: 22lbs 7 oz-75th Percentile
Height: 30.25 inches-80th Percentile
Head: 18 inches-50th Percentile (looks like she may have inherited my freakishly small head...sorry baby)

Sloan has really left baby phase and turned into a little toddler. She has a total personality and at times even a little "tude." She is very aware of what is going on and is suddenly a sponge when it comes to learning. She lifts up her feet one at a time for me when I am putting on her socks and imitates things we do. She knows that she can cry and get what she wants (although I am trying to not give in to that one). She is a great eater. She transitioned seamlessly to cow's milk. The world still stops when Signing Time is on, and she has officially and consistently started to sign her first two signs (video to come). She also really likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins. She still doesn't sleep in very much (dang you three hour time change), but does sleep until about 6:15am now instead of 5am. She does the funniest things and makes me belly laugh at least twice a day. Overall Sloan is full of life, love and happiness. When I think back over the year I can't believe how blessed we are to have this little girl in our lives. Sloan, thank you for making me a mom and allowing me to experience what love really is. We love you more than you will ever know. Happy birthday baby girl!

What Happens While Moms at Work?

I found this picture when I was downloading everything off the camera. So this is what dad and Sloan do all day while I am gone.

The Many Sleeping Positions of Sloan

Sloan is pretty funny when she sleeps. Here are some pics of the various ways my daughter sleeps.



"The Boy I'm Really Tired"



"The Bum in the Air" (This is her position of choice most often)



"The Bear Cuddle"



"The Blanket Snuggle"

and finally



"The Get Me Outta Here"

The other day Grandma went to get Sloan from her nap and this is what she found...



If you can't tell that is ring of crib paint on her lips from her gnawing away at her crib. Apparently her crib is yummy!

Summer Fun

We have had a lot of fun this summer. It has been really nice to be in the land of the swimming pool (and let's face it, when it is 114 degrees outside really your only option is to be in a swimming pool!). Here are some pictures of the summer thus far.

4th of July



Lee's brothers amazing and fun pool. There is a little shallow area with spontaneous fountains perfect for Sloan to crawl and play in. There is a huge twisty tube water slide that goes through a waterfall hill. There are multi level diving rocks and a diving board. Seriously it's like resort quality!



The Fam





I love Sloan's rolly, squeezy, chubby thighs and the way that she is looking at me.



Seriously the girl LOVES the water!!!



More Pool Fun





I know this picture is blurry, but I love Sloan's expression...so sweet.



Suddenly so somber, she must be getting tired!



I can finally put Sloan's hair in a little piggy tail. I have seriously been waiting for this day for so long. Although she was born with a thick head of black hair, it all fell out (tear). It is finally long enough to do something with it...I mean barely, but still so cute!

9 Months Old

Sloan is 9 months old (well two weeks ago...what can I say, it has been a little crazy around here). I can't believe she is nine months. The ironic thing is the nine months I was pregnant crept by at snail pace, but the first nine months of Sloan's life flew! I sure wish pregnancy would go that way, maybe then I would be more excited to be pregnant again. Below are some cute pics and stats for Sloan at nine months.

20.2 pounds - 75% percentile
29 inches - 90% percentile
Head 18 inches - 75% percentile

Favorite Things:

Sloan's most favorite thing in the world is watching signing time. I mean it doesn't matter what is going on or how happy or sad she is, the second she hears "It's signing time with Alex and Leah" the world literally stops. Sloan is really busy all the time, but she will watch 30 min of signing time cuddled in your arms without making a movement. I don't use Signing Time as a babysitting tool, I use it as a cuddling tool. I try not to watch them with her too much, but man I just love the snuggle time!

Sloan is has become an expert crawler and she can get from one side of the room to another in not time. We have definitely waved good bye to the easy days of one room entertainment.

Although she will pull herself up in her crib, she doesn't try to pull herself up on anything else. She is REALLY cautious with everything and doesn't want to do anything unless she knows it is safe. Hopefully that will continue throughout her teenage years!

Sloan loves to drink cold water. Not sure what it is, but she is obsessed with it.

She is a good eater, but doesn't love baby food. She loves table food though, and I think she may turn into a piece of watermelon. She can't get enough of it.

Sloan is such a girl. She loves anything girly! She will watch me get ready in the morning like she wants to retain every detail so she can do it herself one day. Grandma Sally gave her a big necklace the other day and she put it right around her neck like she has always known just what to do with one.

She waves me good by every morning when I leave and loves to give high fives.

She is still the biggest ham I have ever met and loves to get her picture taken. The second she sees the camera come out she totally poses and turns on her smiles.

In the last few weeks Sloan has really started to show her personality. She is very strong willed and won't give up until she gets whatever she is after. She is a little dramatic but so sweet all the time. She isn't afraid to voice when she wants something. She jabbers all day long and loves to sing and hear her own voice. She laughs at herself in the mirror and loves to give herself mirror kisses. Mostly Sloan is so sweet and loving and she makes never fails to make me belly laugh at least two times a day. I love you so much Sloan and I can't wait to see what you're doing in 9 more months.



Putting on Grandma's necklace.



This is how we watch Signing Time.



This is what Sloan does the second a camera comes out.



I love you so much sweet girl!!!