.:Remi - Twelve Months - 1 Year:.

It's official! We have another toddler! Although there is no 'toddling' going on around these parts quite yet!

This past year feels like a blur, but at the same time, I find myself in disbelief that it's only been a year. I can't really remember very well our family without Remi a part of it!

To celebrate turning one, Remi came down with a lovely cold on the day of her party. I was worried this was going to throw her way off for the festivities, but she was a champ and stayed super happy all day long.

As I said before, there is no 'toddling' happening over here. Remi is turning into quite the speed crawler, though. I love watching her get excited and go so fast. She also loves to pull up to anything and everything! Now that she's got that figured out, she is always standing. I think she is loving the new freedom that she gets from being able to explore more things. We try to get her to walk, holding our hands, but she just locks her knees and does a very Frankenstein-esque walk. She is starting to figure out how to cruise a little bit, so I think once she gets more proficient in that, she'll be more comfortable trying to walk with our help. I'd just like her to be walking by the summer so I don't have to deal with messy crawling knees all summer long! We'll see what happens!

Remi and Reece are just turning into the best of buddies. Remi happily follows Reece around the house, and they play with toys together. It really is so sweet, and I just hope they are always friends. They crack me up in the car a lot of the time; one of them will start giggling, which gets the other one going, and then it's all over from there! They try to out-do each other with how loud they can be, and it's just hilarious.

Remi is an absolute super star when it comes to eating! This gal will eat just about anything you put in front of her. She really enjoys her food and feeding herself. She just eats whatever we are eating, and it's the best! Remi is also now taking a sippy cup! She just decided one day that she was going to do it, and now she does. I am so grateful that being persistent with it paid off, I was getting a little worried. She has started to love apple juice. I don't want her to only want juice, so I try to water it down pretty well. I don't mind her drinking juice, but I've got to get her drinking more milk! We've been giving her some whole milk since we've been down to just nursing in the morning and the evening. She will drink a little bit, but doesn't drink a lot at one time. I think that will probably change once we start dropping those last two nursing feedings. I'll be dropping the morning one this week, and then hopefully the evening one next week. I'm sure she'll transition over easily!

Remi still only has eight teeth. Her two eye teeth have been right close to the surface for over a month now, but still haven't broken through. Her hands have been in her mouth constantly lately, and drool is abundant these days, so I'm pretty sure either those are going to finally come in, or maybe she's working on some molars or something.

Remi still doesn't say anything resembling a word. She squeals and sighs a lot, and the closest thing to a word is saying, "Mmmmmm" when she's eating something yummy. She doesn't even really do consonant sounds. I'm not sure if I should be worried or not, but I'll bring it up at her one year checkup. She has learned the sign for "all done" and is starting to understand the sign for "more". It's so cute when she does "all done" - she just raises her hands up in the hair and flicks her wrists down. I love it!

Remi is also down to one nap a day on most day. She was taking awesome morning naps, but then really struggling to take a good afternoon nap. So I decided to try out having her on one nap, and so far, it's gone pretty well! I love having my mornings free again!

Remi is just such a joy and blessing in our family. She has such a sweet spirit, and I love her fiery red hair. She loves to make cheeseball faces at us, and I don't think it will ever get old! I'm so grateful we were blessed with this beautiful babe!

At one year old, Remi likes:

- eating: mandarin oranges, bread, raisins, yogurt melts, strawberries, green beans

- smiling

- laughing

- being cheesey!

- brushing her teeth

- standing and pulling up to things

- crawling

- squealing

- peek-a-boo

- apple juice

- having back/neck tickled

- being sung to

- light up seahorse

- balls

- pulling down dish towels and dvd's

- throwing things on wood floor to hear sounds

- throwing/dropping things

- Reece!

- looking at herself in the mirror

- balloons

- clapping

At one year, Remi does not like:

- diaper changes (they are like having a wrestling match!)

- getting face/nose wiped

- being left alone

Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!

.:Potty Training:.

Not much to report around here lately. This is basically what we've been putting our energies towards.

Don't you love her shoes?

She did awesome the first week, and I was thinking there was no way it could be that easy.

And I was right.

She totally regressed the second week, and she and I had some rough days together (including some very bad mommy moments).

This week has gone better. I know it will just take time and more patience; she'll get it eventually, and we are definitely not going back to diapers at this point! We picked out some fun new panties (Jessie and Nemo!) and she loves getting her rewards. It's just a matter of her recognizing the urge in time to get there. She'll get it!

.:K-Town:.

The girls and I got to take a little trip up to my parents last month, and it was just what I needed! I was a little bit nervous about flying with the girls alone, but with the help of some treats and a dvd player (and some kind-hearted strangers!) they were champs!

This is the girls the day we left, opening up their Valentine's Day goodies from Josh and I since we would be gone on Valentine's Day.

Our flight got in at about 8:30 that evening, and then we went through the drive through to grab some dinner for us. With some unforseen difficulties on the road, we didn't make it home until about midnite that nite! I was scared the girls would still be up at their usual time the next morning, but they surprised me and Reece slept in until 9:00 and Remi slept in until 11:00! We spent that next day just running errands. This sucker was my attempt to keep Remi awake until we got back home for her nap! I think she liked it.

We were there for Valentine's Day, and the girls were spoiled with some fun gifts from Gramzee and Grandpa Paul. They enjoyed opening them up and partaking of the goodness!

Later that evening, we did what you are supposed to do on Valentine's Day - frost sugar cookies! Alli and Nic were there as well, and we enjoyed making ourselves sick.

Cookie frosting is very serious business.

A lot our time was just spend hanging out at my parent's house, reading books (ask my parents, Reece made them read Grouchy Ladybug approximately 100 times!), playing with toys, and watching movies.

Reece loved laying in Gramzee and Grandpa's bed with her kitty and nite nite, watching movies.

Both of the girls were HUGE fans of the dog! Chaska was so calm and so good with letting both of them pet her and love on her. At one point, Remi was sitting by Chaska petting (i.e. hitting) her, and Chaska had one of Remi's feet in her mouth, gently chewing on it. It was cute!

One of the rare times Remi let anyone other than me or Gramzee near her. (She is such a mama's girl, but to be fair, she was sick most of the time we were there!)

Gramzee made all the ladies of the family little dresses. Reece didn't want to take hers off once it was done!

We put a movie on while we were fixing dinner, and this is how I found Reece watching. So reverent!

One day while we were there, Remi decided that using hands to put food in her mouth was just too much extra work, and took to just getting food off the table with her mouth.

She was pretty proud of herself!

Where do you get to just eat whipped cream straight from the can? Gramzee's house!

Reece also became a huge fan of Grandpa's ipad while we were there. She loved drawing on it and reading books.

Modeling Grandpa's boots.

Poor Remi was sick most of the time we were there, so she was kind of beasty. Luckily she has Gramzee and Aunt Alli to snuggle with when Mommy was pretty much done with her!

My mom and I were able to get out and do some fun things by ourselves, too! We had a baby sitter come up and watch the girls while we went to exercise a couple of days. We also had her come up so that we could head down to the quilt store - Taterpatch Quilts. It was pure heaven going to the fabric store, kidless, and with my mom! It made for some fun afternoons of sewing during nap times!

It was also my mom's birthday while we were there, so we feasted seafood multiple times - Reece has now sampled lobster, crab, and shrimp! Lucky girl! We made it out to the movies a couple of times as well - once with the guys for my mom's birthday, and another evening out with just the girls.

It was just a wonderful week, and so nice to take a break from real life and get to spend some time with my parents, Alli, and Nic. We only wish Daddy could have come!

Here are the girls in the airport on our way home.

And, since my husband is so wonderful, I came home to these babies.

What a guy!

Thanks for a fantastic 10 days Mom and Dad!

.:Tickle Tickle:.

Reece and Remi are just turning into two little buddies. They pal around the house together, and are just starting to enjoy playing together. Reece is so good with Remi, and loves to make her laugh.

Here's a little video for your enjoyment. I love Remi's belly laugh! (Don't mind the shirtless baby, we had just had dinner and she is so messy!)

.:Remi - Eleven Months:.

Eleven months? Seriously?!?!

I don't even know how it's possible that Remi is eleven months old now - so close to being one!

This past month has been a bit rough for Remi. This poor child has basically been sick for the past four months, and it's so sad! It also turns her into even more of a mama's girl than she already is, so it's been a little tough on all of us! I've also been working on dropping a nursing feeding because I'd really like to be done nursing by the time she turns one! She still refuses a bottle, and just chews on a sippy, but I guess she'll figure it out eventually!

But when she's not sick, she is just the happiest, sweetest baby in the whole world! I love seeing her toothy smile directed at me! She loves to play peek-a-boo; that can almost always illicit a smile and giggle from her!

Remi is a crawling fool! She loves to follow Reece around the house. Sometimes they go into their bedroom and shut the doors, and I love hearing the giggles that come through the cracks! I just know they are going to be the best buddies. Reece is always trying to drag Remi around by grabbing on her arm. Remi loves to 'stand' on her knees, but hasn't quite figured out how to pull herself up to her feet yet. She will often be on her knees and then put one foot up, but still doesn't quite have the balance or strength to do the other one. She's getting there! It is so fun having her mobile, and I think she is a lot happier having the freedom to explore on her own.

Remi is still doing well being on all table food. I have to be a little careful with her dairy intake; this poor child is constipated the majority of the time! I'm nervous for when we go to milk! (Any tips out there besides making her drink juice? Neither of my girls are huge on juice, and combined with the fact that Remi only likes to drink from me, it's not the best solution for us!) I haven't fed her any baby food in forever, and she doesn't really care for anyone to feed her; she likes to feed herself! It is so nice just being able to feed her whatever we're having. I think she's grown, so hopefully we won't have an issue with weight at her one year checkup!

The Remster is now rocking eight teeth! There are two more that are close to the surface, but have been for awhile, so we'll see if they break through anytime soon. She loves getting her teeth brushed, and she also loves using me as a teether. Ouch! Yet another reason to get this nursing thing over with! She's a toothy little beast, and it's so rewarding when she bares those teeth in amusement at something you've done!

It is just crazy to me that this sweet babe is going to be one in less than a month! This year has flown by, and I just feel so blessed to have these beautiful children! I've started gathering some ideas for her birthday party, and I'm starting to get pretty excited for it!

At eleven months, Remi likes:

- nursing

- smiling

- laughing

- peek-a-boo

- eating

- crawling

- pulling up to her knees

- food: mandarin oranges, avocado, yogurt melts, bread

- having back/neck tickled

- light up seahorse

- snuggling

- squealing

- Reece!

- being sung to

- Baby Einstein

- suckers and popsicles

At eleven months, Remi does not like:

- being alone for too long

- being constipated :(

- bottles

- formula

Happy Eleven Months Rem Rem!