Serenity is 17 months old today! It's going to be a quick post so I can go back to my elf job, but here are the pictures I took of her for the update, and some of our recent stories!
11/18/09
Serenity is just so sweet. I am so so lucky to have her. She is so funny and loving. She is so generous with snuggles and hugs. Right now she says “huggle” a lot, and leans in for hugs. Sometimes when we’re reading bedtime books she switches back and forth between our laps to get the maximum number of hugs. And even though most nights she ends up in our bed, neither Eric nor I mind because it’s so sweet to get her morning smiles and snuggles. I am addicted to hugs and snuggles so I feel particularly lucky to have such an affectionate baby. She loves to give kisses too =) It’s really cute to see her giving hugs and kisses to other things too. She will say hug, with her sweet smile, and lean in and squeeze her teddy bear, or George the monkey, or whatever she happens to be particularly happy with. Sometimes it’s a book, or a picture. Once she even kissed Tinkerbell on the television. I asked her what she was doing and she said “hugs” with her arms wrapped around the tv.
She has a real sense of humor now too. She still proclaims things to be funny, but now she giggles a lot. She has a joke of her own too. She’ll say “bonk a head” and bonk herself on the head with her hand. And she giggles and says “funny!”
Her favorite game still involves her letters. Right now, she loves to sit with the magnadoodle and watch Mama or Daddy write letters. And recently we started writing the numbers too. I’ll just ask, what letter do you want Mama to write? And she’ll pick one. Often A and B, but today was about W and X =)
Current cute sayings: “Delicious!” Serenity LOVES her tinkerbell tea set. She gives Mama and Daddy (and anybody else around, including Vanaema and Farfar on Skype) drinks from the cups and says “mmmm Delicious.” She also says “Yummy Tummy.” Lately she’s started saying “Hum” I know she’s copying me, I say Hmmm, when I’m pondering something. So I’ll ask her a question, like, “can you find your milk?” and she’ll say “hum… hum…” and go look for it.
11/30
After everyone went home after Thanksgiving weekend I couldn't wait another minute to put up the Christmas Decorations. While Serenity took a nap I dove into the closet for our Christmas things. ( She took an incredible three hour nap! By the end I was camped outside of her room waiting for her to wake so I could show her everything!) I only bought a few new ornaments so far because I was waiting to see how far what I already owned went. Everything looks so nice in the house! I did order an advent calendar from Pottery Barn because I really want to start new Christmas traditions for Serenity. Speaking of which, I need to get busy and fill it tonight, December really snuck up on me!
The best part of Christmas decorating came when Serenity woke up. With festive music playing and Daddy on the camera, I carried Serenity (in her Christmas dress) down the stairs to see everything! She was so excited!! She was literally bouncing in my arms at everything I showed her. I know she was excited because she actually said "exciting!!!" She also ooohed and aaahed over the tree, saying "shiny ornaments." She has a book about Biscuits Christmas that she loves reading, so she immediately recognized the Christmas tree. When I put her down by the tree, she was bouncing on her toes trying to jump and hop around. She took off several ornaments (which is why I invested in a bunch of non-breakable felt ornaments.) She especially loves the snowflakes. There's also a jingle bell ornament on the tree which she shook and said "jingle bells." Jingle Bells is her first Christmas song that she loves. She asked me to sing it six times in a row on our last car trip!
12/7/09
Just a few quick thoughts to record. Serenity will sit through an entire super why book! It’s really written for more like three year olds, there are about 30 pages with at least a few sentences on each page. It’s basically a transcript of an episode, so it takes 20 minutes to read. But she has sat through the whole thing several times! (Sometimes we do just read a little and then run around, but hey, she’s still enjoying it!) It’s really adorable too whenever one of her books says “take a bow” she actually does this little head bob/ bow.
She has become extremely agreeable. She says ok! in a happy little voice to almost anything we say. For example: Serenity: “craisin! craisin! craisin (more like cazin)” Me: “Serenity, would you like a craisin?” Serenity: “OK!” And here’s another conversation we have a lot. Serenity: “Hold you Mama!” Me: Serenity, Mama can’t hold you while we’re driving, Mama will hold you when we get home.” Serenity: “ok!” She seems pretty accepting of it. Although sometimes she just keeps repeating ok until you agree with whatever she’s asking for. =) Another cute phrase she’s developed is “oh thankyou!” She’ll say this when she is giving you something, like her paci. She obviously is coaching us to say thank you, and copying me at the same time. She will just use it for thank you sometimes too. She definitely knows what the magic word is as well. And sometimes uses it voluntarily, although not every time by any stretch of the imagination.
Her favorite toys are still all letter related. She brings us the etch-a-sketch and asks us to write letters for her. She will sit and say E! S! R! And we write one letter after another. It’s such fun! Sometimes we’re trying to do numbers now too, although that’s hard as it goes, L 2 3 4 S 6 7… =)
