Adventures of the Roberts Family: Kherington lately, 16 months

A much needed reminder

Just reading a book with Mr. Bear

I know I'm biased, but she is beautiful!

Kherington has continued to be such a busy little bee this month. Laughing and learning each and every day. She is an incredible blessing and one that we have held much closer this week and said extra prayers of thanks with our loss. She is a ray of sunshine through this time of darkness.

Love her more every day!

Our biggest accomplishment this month: we no longer use a bottle!!!!! We have not had a bottle since the morning of June 29th! We went over to Uncle Brad and Aunt Sarah's the evening on June 29th to celebrate Aunt Sarah's birthday. Mama didn't plan very well and didn't pack a bottle or jammies for bedtime. You would think we would be used to being prepared with packing, but I guess not. Aunt Sarah offered to dig out a bottle for us, but I saw it as a great opportunity to break our routine and create a new one. Cousin Madie was kind enough to let us borrow some PJ's after the girls took a bath together {a very cute first}. K drank some milk from a sippy cup that we brought and played with some toys while Madie watched Bubble Guppies, which is her nightly routine. Sarah set up the pack-n-play in Madie's room so we could hear them both on the monitor. K did not like that one bit. She screamed {and I mean screamed} for a good while before giving up and going to sleep.

How freakin' cute are these two?

Love them!

Cousin hug {not sure why K is hunched down}

The next morning we only offered K a sippy, which again she was not happy with. It took about a week and a half before we didn't scream in the morning and at night with the sippy. Daddy saved the day when he figured out a sippy cup that we had in the cupboards was K's favorite. It amazes me that she drinks from this, as you have to bite and suck to get anything out of it and even I have a hard time with it.

Now that these are not for drinking ....

They make fun toys! Who knows why? :)

Bedtime is still a little rough, with our new routine. We are still doing a bath about every other night with a "sponge" bath on the other nights. We get our jammies on and we read several bed time stories and drink some milk, although she drinks most of her evening milk with dinner. Reading is too distracting to drink milk too! Her favorite book right now is "Goodnight Gorilla" and a must to read first! Jared and I figured out she still likes to be rocked for a few minutes and we usually sing "Hush Little Baby" or I hum "Amazing Grace." This lessens the screaming compared to if immediately after reading we lay her down. This is the ultimate goal, but I think we made a huge leap this month! Way to go baby girl. Mama and Daddy {as always} are SO very proud of you!!

First time undressing herself in the middle of the night

Such a rough life

Our saving grace sippy cup. Thanks Nuby!

Kherington is obsessed with our trash can. Why? Who knows. I think it is because every time she touches it we tell her it is a no touch item and that makes her instantly attracted to it. She is one smart cookie though. A couple of weekends ago, she had gotten in trouble several times for touching the trash can, or rolling the lid back. She toddled over to the entertainment cabinet that we have in our living room. It serves no purpose, but we had it in the old house and have just not found a place for it yet. We have a baby lock around the knobs, although it is pointless because K quickly mastered how to twist it off and get into the cabinet. It is also pretty useless as there is nothing really in the cabinet that she can harm. It just houses some of Jared's old Wii and X Box games. Anyways, Kherington got the child lock off and opened the cabinet door. She then proceeded to pick at the felt square that dampens the sound of the door closing. She managed to get a small piece of felt torn off. Then stood up and walked her little self over to the trash can, rolled the lid back, placed the felt inside, rolled the lid back down, and then turned with a shit-eating grin on her face. What a little {but smart} stinker!

This is now our time out chair.
Looks like horrible punishment right?

Kherington is learning where her body parts are. She has mastered her belly and her nose. She loves to "honk honk" Mama and Daddy's nose. She laughs when we "honk" her nose back. We continue to work on our other body parts. We sing, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" a lot.

Where's your belly?

We've learned some new words this month. We learned the word buckle. She has been saying it for awhile now, but silly ol' Mom and Dad didn't understand. Probably because when she says it, it sounds like, "bucka, bucka, bucka, bucka, bucka." We always joked she was talking to the chickens. When Jared was out of town last week I sat her in her high chair to eat and she proceeded with her 5 buckles tune. I didn't think anything of it until she grabbed the buckle for the high chair strap and tried to hand it to me while saying it again. The light bulb went off for Mama. She is saying buckle! She did it the next morning when I put her in her car seat to go to school as well. We've also been saying ball and trying to say bird and bear. Seems to be the "b" words this month. Thankfully, yet surprising in some ways, it wasn't the "b" word! Kherington has also been practicing "up" when she wants to be picked up. We also shake our head yes, especially when asked "again?"

We have also been practicing our sign language. We are really using "please." Sometimes she signs for please with no other sign or words though. That makes it tough. Yes, baby you are being polite, but what is it that you want? So cute!

BFF's: K and Mara hugging *heart melting*

Jared and I were pleasantly surprised this month as we were asked if it would be okay to nominate Kherington to move up to the 2-3 year old room at school. This really caught me off guard when Ms. Brenna proposed it to me. She said they evaluated Kherington with the First Steps evaluation and she is doing everything she is supposed to in the 1-2 year old room except for mimicking animal sounds. Which in her defense, she has the most important one down: moo! She said this wasn't a big deal as she would continue to work on this in the next room. Generally, Goddard does not like them to move until they are at least half way to the next room, so in the case, 18 months for the 2-3 year old room. They are talking about moving K in August, which would be one month early for her. I am thrilled to hear that others see and get to experience how smart our little girl is, especially since she is apparently a little shy in the big group at school, but I am also a little nervous. Two to three year old kids seem so old! Is she really ready for that? I told Ms. Brenna that we were fine with the move as long as they thought it would not screw her up socially, because we agreed we thought developmentally she was ready as well! Not sure this Mama can handle two moves in one year!

Mara pushing K at school

Health wise we have had an eventful month. The day after K's 15 month birthday Mama woke up with an eye that was slightly matted shut. By noon, my eye was red, swollen, itchy, and painful. I proceeded to go to the eye doctor and was diagnosed with viral conjunctivitis - aka Pink Eye! Thanks Mara! I felt like a puny kitten that I used to treat at the vet clinic. But pink eye is serious. That night my right eye was almost swollen shut and hurt so bad. Thankfully the antibiotic drops cleared it up in my right eye and my left as it spread the next day to it. And the saving grace was Kherington steered clear as she was on antibiotics for her double ear infection! Thank you Lord!!

Kherington developed a rash in the crease of her right elbow. We thought it was a heat rash, as it would appear during daycare and disappear {mostly} overnight. This went on for about a week, but then started spreading up into her armpit, then down her right side. Then while visiting my parents Kherington woke up on Saturday really whiny, then vomited her breakfast. During bath time I noticed the rash was starting down her left side. So I called the doctor, who was extremely {insert sarcasm} helpful. They said they would like to see her within 72 hours. We took her to the Sunday office hours when we got back to Fishers, and the doctor diagnosed her with a contact allergy and gave her some Hydro-cortisone cream. We still have not figured out what caused it as we hadn't introduced any new foods and had not changed laundry detergent for her. But luckily the rash has gone away!

Daddy is so much fun!

Again Daddy!

Kherington also has been having a lot of blowouts. And by a lot I mean typically at least two at daycare! How can one little person poop so much? I think it is teeth related because we have not had any fevers or any other signs of illness. And those incisors still have not broke through, although they are so, so close! This has led to a lot of diaper rash issues. We've been trying to build in some extra diaper free time, but it is hard to keep her entertained in the bathrooms very long!

Beautiful naked baby

Don't mind us neighbors ...
Had to get some air on that booty!

We had our ears re-checked on Thursday, July 18th. The plan was if they had fluid still we would proceed with getting a referral to an ENT for tubes. If they were clear we would get caught up on our vaccines that we missed last month. We landed in the middle. We still had fluid behind the left ear, so we are heading to the ENT for tubes, and we got our MMR and Chicken Pox vaccines. I am coming to terms with the whole tubes situation. We have had five ear infections in 2013. This cannot be good for K's ears. Although, I hate the thought of surgery and anesthesia, I think it is for the best. We have a consultation on the 23rd with Dr. Beach. Dr. Beach comes recommended from our pediatrician's office and our neighbor. Kelsey had Dr. Beach for her tubes and they were recommended from a friend whose son is deaf and Dr. Beach did his cochlear implants. So I would venture to say this man knows ears! Please say some prayers we are making the right decision for our little girl!

Kherington weighs 21 lbs, 8 oz and is 30 in tall {at least I think, it was like measuring a alligator during a death roll to get a measurement}. She is wearing anywhere from 9-18 month clothes, just depends. We switched to size 4 diapers for daytime. It was a predicament, as we could still get the tabs to touch around K's belly, but around her upper legs, it seemed like it was getting a little tight, so we just went ahead and switched. We are still in size 4 Baby Dry's at night. Her feet finally seem to be growing, as she is filling out her size 4 shoes a little better, although we are still wearing size 2 water shoes for splash day at school.

Such concentration

There is no denying Kherington is a Mama's girl, at least for now. She is very partial to me. This leads usually to some tears and screaming at drop off at school. This breaks Mama's heart each and every time. And although sometimes it is cumbersome, to try and get ready in the mornings with a clingy toddler hanging onto my legs if not attached to my hip, I am loving every minute of it. She will only be little for a little while. She is probably not going to want to have anything to do with me before I know it, so I am going to enjoy her loving on me as much as possible for the time being.

K loves her Nana too!

Kherington has mastered the whole walking thing! She is almost running. Watch out world!! She got her Daddy's habits though of stomping. There is never a question when we are downstairs on the hardwood, where that little girl is, as she sounds like a small elephant! During the past week she has loved "running" down to the stairs as Mama or Daddy chase after her {maybe a little exaggeratedly} saying "I'm going to get you!" Kherington normally reaches the first step or gets up two steps to the first landing while belly laughing as you scoop her up and run back to the living room, just to do it all over again! She sure knows how to build some extra exercise in for her parents! My waistline thanks you K!

Running at school

Helping Daddy mow the lawn

Absolutely in love with this picture!

This just makes me laugh. She loves her shoes on!

I promise we do not abuse our child.
She just loves the dog crate!

I guarantee we are going to find her
napping in there one day.

As usual, our little girl continues to love to eat! She is becoming pickier though. She seems to have one day where she will eat everything in sight and the next day she will be very finicky and eat what seems to be very little. She still loves her fruit and veggies. It is nice as she is becoming increasingly aware of what she wants and what she doesn't want. Although it is frustrating initially, it is nice once you fix something that she wants, she will eat it!

Not her Mama's girl - notice the salad!

First time having some corn on the cob!

Sitting so lady like in the wagon eating raisins

First time having cereal with milk on it!

We love the pantry!

Just a girl with her dolls .... and her cinnamon roll!

Our hair continues to grow and become crazier and crazier, mostly in the back and on the sides. It is almost getting long enough in the front to have to start pinning it back. Bring on the cute barrettes! The back still has curls but they have a mind of their own.

K and Mara {notice K's crazy hair}

Kherington is a developing into such a girly girl! She is very concerned when she gets anything on her hands and insists immediately on having this wiped off. She is quickly learning {with the insistence from Mama and Daddy, because we just do not have that much time} how to wipe her own hands with a paper towel. We need a dirt intervention asap! Get this girl to the farm!

Whining about the sticky bubbles

This month we have made a smelly transition. Our sweet little girl, no longer smells like a baby. *tear* She smells like a sweaty toddler. I miss that sweet irresistible baby smell. Just another sign that our baby is growing up!

Helping daddy with mechanic skills

Love these eyes!

Kherington has learned the expression "where did it go?" with the arm/hand motion to go along with it. It is very cute!

Kherington still is our little water baby. She has really enjoyed our kiddie pool. We have not ventured back to the community pool this month. We've just been busy and it seems when we have had time it has been cool or raining. But now that it is 90+ degrees, I'm sure that would be nice. Maybe soon! Kherington also has discovered drinking water, whether it be in the pool or the bath tub. Very cute, but not sure how sanitary that is.

First time busting out the baby pool on the patio

Trying to get the butterfly off the back of the support

This was the majority of our time .... in and out, in and out

K and Madie on 4th of July

Nana has cool toys!

Our cute puddle jumper from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Brad
Can't wait to test this out; until then we'll just wear it in the house!

Figuring it all out

Mr. Mike had to help. What a big kid!

We have discovered cartoons this month as well. We put K's car DVD player, a Christmas present from Nana, in to head south to visit my parents a few weekends ago. Kherington was very intrigued, but as usual took a nap shortly after moving. Ever since, she will watch cartoons on the TV if we have them on. We typically turn them on in the morning while she eats breakfast. This helps to cut down the time it takes for Mama to get ready.

Zoned out after a long day!

Seriously? Is this my child? Watching cartoons!

We got to meet Papaw's chickens finally. When we were over for Father's day, it was a little chilly out so we didn't get to meet them, only see them from a far. K was very intrigued with all 12 of them. She is such an animal lover. I wonder where she gets that from? :)

Checking out Papaw's chickens

Up close!

We got to see a lot of family and friends this month, especially because of 4th of July. We also finally got to meet Benjamin Receveur, my best friend Amanda's {from growing up}, little boy. Talk about an adorable little guy. I could have eaten him up. He was such an incredibly happy little guy the whole evening. Hopefully he didn't learn any toddler tantrums from K while we visited!

Kherington and Ms. Kris

Not so sure about Benjamin, or maybe it was the giant gorilla

These two are so cute!

We had our first experience at the Hamilton County Fair this month as well. I am sure we will spend many more hours and days there in the future with our little animal lover and Daddy's experience in 4H. Minus thinking we lost our envelopes of cash {thankful it was in the truck} we had a great time taking in the fair. We saw the pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, llamas, and cows! As well as having dinner. It was a nice evening, although hot and humid, spent with family! We had a little bit of a dirt intervention as well. Kherington between the sweat, dirt and even some sheep poo, did great with getting dirty. Maybe she's not such a girly girl after all!