All About Finley

Today Finley turns 17 months!  Life continues to be so joyous with our baby girl.  I have lost count of how many times Devin and I have looked at each other and said "I just love her...  her personality, her smile, her laugh, her pointing, her hugs, her kisses, her walks, her dances, her EVERYTHING!"  I am a FIRM believer that as a parent we are to be our child's biggest supporter, but never did I think that job could be as easy as it is with Finley.  I love her so completely!

Finley weighs 21 pounds 8 ounces and is still around 30 inches long.  She's now in the 10-25 percentile in both length and weight.

She is very into the trash can these days.  Ugh!  She just loves throwing things away... including toys and DVDs.  She's also really into bathrooms and toilets.  I try to tell her that these things are "Ecka" (Gross), but she completely disagrees.

She is very good at following directions and we are finding that her vocabulary is actually much larger than we knew!  Almost every day, we find that she is able to accomplish a new task exactly as we asked her to do.

She has decided she likes the bouncy chair again.  We got it out for Emory to play in and Finley likes to try to sit in it and make it sing!  She especially likes it when it is on vibrate.

She continues to be incredibly curious and this is a trait that we love.  She is always poking her little head around corners to get better looks at things and is forever discovering something in a cabinet, under the couch, in a drawer, or behind a curtain.

She still isn't a big T.V. watcher, but that's probably because it is never really an option in our house.  I'm kind of a freak about not letting her watch much T.V. at this age because I read it interferes with their sleep and vocabulary development... I'm sure this is more when they watch T.V. alllllll day long, but since she's never watched T.V., she just isn't that into it.  She does enjoy turning it on and off though!

She is very into animals and I can't wait to take her to the zoo again soon.  She is always playing with Jenny and Pete these days and I am no longer afraid to just let her play with them.  Pete can be kind of rough sometimes, but she has figured him out and it's fun to see them "bat" at each other.  She also likes to "bark" at the dogs outside.  It's pretty cute!

After playing with her grocery cart so much at home, she now thinks she should be able to push the cart when we are out shopping... and it isn't satisfactory for her to push it down low, she wants to push it from the top.  I'm thinking shopping isn't going to be very easy over the next few months.

She has learned the word "Baby" and can say "What that?" now.  And I swear she said "Adam" the other night when we were at Dillon and Amy's.  She still isn't saying just a ton of words, but her comprehension is definitely growing.

Her walking has really taken off the last few weeks.  She never crawls anymore and is practically running these days.  We are continually amazed at how far she can walk without ever wanting to be picked up.

She continues to LOVE Daddy, but is really becoming a bit more of a Momma's girl as well.  She still definitely prefers me if she is hungry or tired.

She is going through a shy phase.  She thinks everyone is a babysitter which is funny since we do not actually leave her very often and she doesn't fuss when we leave her for church/BSF/ MOPS.  She definitely clings to us though when someone comes over to our house or we go to someone else's house.

Look at these sweet curls!!!!  Her hair continues to grow!  I don't think there's any doubt that it's going to be curly!

She is still wearing some 6-12 month clothes, but is mainly in 12-18 months.  Now that she's walking, it seems easier to put her in whatever is handy...  It doesn't matter nearly as much if it is too big since I don't have to worry about her trying to crawl while things are falling off.  She's also still wearing size 3 diaper and in size 3 shoe.

She loves playing with pots and pans while I cook and I have these bread tubes that she particularly likes to play with.  She's fairly good at entertaining herself while I'm in the kitchen... She recently found our recycle bin in the laundry room and usually finds something in there she wants to play with...  kind of goes back to the trash can... she's into really "fun" stuff right now! =)

I finally took a picture of her brushing her teeth!  She continues to love it and throws a fit if I'm brushing my teeth and I don't let her brush hers.  It's too cute and I'm hoping to continue her love of dental hygiene!  Don't you love her outfit?  We were coming downstairs to find pants! =)

She continues to be love music and dances all the time!  I've been trying to get a really good video of her dance moves! =)  She loves her teapot and is very particular about pushing the button twice to get to her favorite song and then she dances along.  She also found a toy hidden in my closet yesterday that sings the ABC song and she was soooooooooo excited!!!!  She looked at me like "Momma, it knows MY song!"  It was so stinking cute!

She is getting a lot bolder in the bathtub and now loves to splash really hard, lie down, and even put a bit of her face in.  I'm thinking this summer is going to be a lot of fun in the swimming pool!

She continues to be a good eater (and is getting better at using a spoon!) though she also still tends to lack a lot of variety in her diet.  Devin and I are really wanting to work on this, but know that Devin himself was really picky and that when she refuses typical kid food (chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, spaghetti-o's, etc.) that we may have a difficult road ahead of us.  We are wanting to really promote a healthy, balanced diet and currently, she doesn't eat meat or vegetables! =)

She is definitely very independent these days and throws complete fits when she isn't able to do things herself.  I can see her becoming very frustrated at times because she is so close to being independent in different areas and isn't quite there yet.  However, as fussy and frustrated as she can be one minute, she can be exceedingly happy the next.

Along with being independent, she has reverted back to playing well by herself.  The last few months she has been pretty needy time-wise, but the last two weeks, she has really been great at playing by herself and has been pretty happy just roaming from her room to our room while Devin and I work on the bathroom remodeling projects, etc.

She has also reverted back to an amazing sleep schedule!  She's been sleeping in until 8:30 or 9 and still taking two naps.  I think this has something to do with playing harder and probably explains her even happier disposition these days!

She loves pleasing us and we make a huge deal out of her obeying us, understanding us, or doing something new for the first time.  She loves clapping for herself and just beams when she sees how happy we are.  I love this time in her life and hope that I can really dedicate myself to always praising her and training her in the way she should go!

She loves cups with straws and is obsessed with my water bottles and is an expert at drinking out of them.

Books!  She is always bringing us books these days and has a few favorite ones.  Her first favorite is "Wake Up, Little Ones".  It allows her to "pet" each animals fur and she loves that!  She also loves this Sesame Street "B" book and can point to the ball on each page!  I am still super impressed that she can do that!

She is still teething, but seems to be finishing it up which is great and probably also explains her better mood these days!  It still shocks me a bit when she opens her mouth and I see all of those TEETH!  We let her have her binky a lot more when she is teething... otherwise it is only for bed and outings!

Stairs... ugh!  She is still obsessed with them and is still trying to walk down them instead of going down them safely.  We had to put a baby gate up at the top of our stairs and as much as I hate baby gates, it is soooo nice to have it up there!  She can now wander around with us upstairs and is enjoying a bit more freedom!

She still tends to show more of Devin's personality than mine.  Even though she throws little tantrums here and there, they are short-lived.  She definitely gets over things easily and quickly which is more of a Devin-trait than mine! =)

I haven't posted a profile picture in awhile and I am absolutely in love with her sweet little face!  She is so precious!

She still loves loving on babies, both real and stuffed.  She is quite sweet with them and there is little doubt that when the time comes, she will be a great big sister and eventually one day be an amazing mother!

I think she is going to be quite the fashionista when she gets a little older.... she found one of my necklaces while I was cleaning out my closet and immediately put it around her neck.... this along with the lipstick incident makes me think she is going to be a girly girl, but we will see!  I just want her to be her!

She is enjoying the nicer weather.  She really enjoys being outdoors!

She has recently started just talking in her crib once she wakes up.  She is no longer crying for us to come get her.... she just starts playing.  I love it!

She refuses to keep her shoes on or her bows in while in the car.  She almost always "plays" with them while we are driving down the road.

 

Booster time!  She is now eating in a booster seat!  I wasn't planning to make the switch from highchair yet, but she had really started fussing about being in the highchair and when I did a little research I found that switching them to a booster usually solved the problem and it definitely has for us!  I love that I once again have a place where I can strap her in and feel safe about her being there.  She had started to really wiggle out of her highchair and would wiggle enough that she could usually loosen the strap.  SCARY!

She knows where her mouth is!  I just recently discovered this.  I think it's because she is always hearing "Not in your mouth!" when she starts to suck on a toy.

And as always, she is the most wonderful, beautiful toddler ever and I love her more than I can stand!