Fun with yogurt

So today I decided to be brave and let Camila feed herself yogurt. A treat for her, but a mess to clean up. She had a lot of fun, but it's a good thing it's bath night! :)

Just a few other things to update. Camila is surprising me with her ability to understand commands. I'll ask her to throw away a kleenex, and she'll walk over and toss it into the garbage. Or I'll ask her what she did with her sock, and she'll wander back into her room to find it and bring it to me. She's understanding eyes, ears, mouth, and belly, but only when she's truly in the mood to answer my questions (as usual)! :) She's certainly growing up and is becoming a toddler with a mind (and attitude) of her own. But what's great about this stage is how much she interacts with us. She loves saying "hi" the first time she sees us, and will do anything to get us to play with her. FUn girl!

A lazy, cold weekend

Just a few pictures from this weekend. We didn't do much, although Fabricio and I went to a movie on Sat while my parents watched Camila. Yes, I made him go to Bride Wars. It was a tough week at work, and I needed a good, mindless chick flick.

Camila loves to walk every where she can, and is getting quite fast. Playing chase is one of her favorite games now. :)

And my favorite update -- her sleeping is much better! I wasn't sure if last weekend was a fluke, but she slept until 7:45 both Sat and Sun, and has taken a least a 2 hour nap each day. We survived!

15 month check-up

Just wanted to post that Camila had her 15 month appt today, and she's 24lb 2 oz (70%tile), 30 1/2 inches long (50%tile). She did pretty well with her 3 shots. Cried like crazy during/right after, but within 3 minutes she was fine. :) We've also made some major improvements in her sleeping! Since just before Christmas she had been waking up shouting/crying every morning at 6:30am (sometimes 6:00am) and wouldn't go back to sleep. So, our days just started early.... Her naps were also a mess - sometimes only one 45 minute nap, and she'd wake up shouting/crying. For whatever reason, it just all came together this weekend and she slept until 7:45 every day! (Including today, as I had the day off). She took a 2 hour nap on Sat, 3 1/2 hours on Sun, and two naps totalling 2 1/2 hours today (I had to split her nap into two as her appt was right after lunch.) So, I'm hoping this continues, and praying that horrible 4 week stretch was a combo of teething/switching to 1 nap/craziness of the holidays. Fingers crossed! Fabricio and I feel so much more rested after this weekend - we actually got to sleep in for the first time in a long time! :) No pictures though - hopefully later in the week.

Look who's walking!

Look who decided to start walking this weekend!

This last week we noticed she was getting much braver, but getting no more than 1 independent step before falling. By Friday night, we noticed she'd take a few stumbling steps from one piece of furniture to another. By Sunday morning it was 3-5 steps, and by Sunday night she was toddling around the living room! She's so proud of herself (probably because mom & dad are cheering and clapping for her. :)

Tonight she was trying to go a little faster, so that means a few more tumbles. What's great is that she laughs each time she falls, like it's some big game. At this pace she'll probably be running by Thursday. ;)

Random pictures & a lengthy update

We've had a busy few weeks since Fabricio came home, and it's amazing, because a switch has seem to come on in Camila. She's doing so many new things in just these past couple of weeks.

She's trying to do sommersaults (without much success.) I keep telling her she should learn to walk on her own first! But on that note, she's cruising around the furniture and walls every chance she gets. She's falling more b/c she's taking bigger risks, but she's very cautious so I expect it will still be a while before she walks independently. We have caught her standing and dancing without holding onto anything, but the second she realizes it she plops down. She loves running behind her walk-behind toy, and she can spend forever using the toy to walk from Fabricio to me and back again.

She understands that pictures of her are just that - pictures of her. We'll ask her "who's that?" and she'll point to herself. She'll also kiss pictures of herself. And speaking of kisses, she'll give us a kiss if we tell her to. Oh, and she loves waving at people. She even waved at Fabricio's parents when we were video talking with them the other night.

She likes to scribble with crayons - but I have to sit by her and hold the paper otherwise I'm not sure where the drawing would end up! She knows where socks and shoes go, even if she's never seen that particular pair before. She'll pick up one of the shoes, and lift her foot, trying to put the shoe on. Particularly funny with a size 8 adult shoe.

Her language is expanding too. She understands "let's go upstairs" and "let's go change your diaper" as she goes over to the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. Although she doesn't say "dog", she does bark every time she sees a dog, or a cat for that matter. Anything furry gets a bark. ;) She also says "uppa" (Spanish for pick me up), thank you (ta ta), what's that, that, ok (oh tay), and uh oh. Oh, and she knows where her nose it. If you ask her, she'll "honk" her nose. Ours too...

She also loves imitating us - she'll use a mixing bowl and spoon whenever I'm baking, she likes to drink out of our glasses, and imitate Fabricio when they play together.

Oh, and she just learned how to drink out of a straw. Of course, that means lots of playing whenever we go out to eat.

But...

She's on a food strike. She used to eat pretty much anything we'd give her, but now that she eats basically all table food she's refusing certain things. For example, she refused to eat mixed veggies for 2 weeks - which was something she used to love to feed herself. She also refuses turkey, potatoes, chicken, mac 'n cheese, & pineapple. Oddly, she likes raw veggies, especially if we include a little cottage cheese dip. Oh, and if we put cheese on it, she'll eat it. We did fondue for New Years' Eve, and she actually ate what we gave her....

She's also is sleeping/napping horribly. She wakes up crying every morning by 6:30 at the latest, and only takes one nap in the morning - for just 1 hour 15 minutes! She used to sleep until closer to 7:00, take a 2 hour nap in the morning, and a 1 hr nap in the afternoon. We tried everything, but she just won't sleep more. Fortunately, she seems to sleep better at daycare, as she was back to a closer routine today (except for waking up crying at 6:00!) Maybe daycare can help her over this sleep deprivation cycle... :)

Here are just a few random pictures of Camila....

Here she is playing with the bow from a gift I received. I think Camila enjoyed the gift as much as I did!

Just having fun playing with her music table. And setting up her books to read later... :)

Sledding!

A couple of weekends ago we took Camila sledding for the first time. She didn't know what to think of it, but Fabricio and I enjoyed ourselves. We took her down a little hill next to the main hill at Hyland Park Reserve in Bloomington. Of course, we just "had" to go down the big hill on our own, you know, just to try it out. :)