Baby Mama

Mikayla loves baby dolls, perhaps a little too much. She has about 5 or 6 of them and needs to carry them ALL everywhere she goes. She takes very good care of them. Sometimes I walk into a room and see them lined up on the couch, or sharing a pillow. When Chris was relaxing in a chair this weekend, she put ALL of them in his lap and then crawled up there too.

Mikayla also brings her babies to dinner, although it is quite challenging to balance them on her tray while she's eating, but she tries never the less.

Corn on the Cob!

Mikayla likes to eat what we eat...and that includes CORN ON THE COB! 

She doesn't need it cut up, that's for babies!

Here is a short video of some corn eating action:

FIFTEEN MONTHS!

Mikayla is fifteen months old and guess what that means...her 15 month growth stats!
Remember how last month I told you how she grew so much that she is now in the 60-70th percentile? Well, the truth is, she was so squirmy during that measurement that it could have been 2-3 inches off. I was actually afraid it might look like she 'shrunk' the next time she got measured. So when we went in for her 15 month appointment, I was praying that we would able to get a more accurate measurement for once.
Guess what, my prayers were answered! Mikayla fell asleep on the way to the appointment and WOULD NOT WAKE UP. So we were able to get the most accurate measurement of her height ever! It was pretty hilarious. We made sure her head was perfectly lined up, we stretched her legs out straight (all while she was dead asleep) and the verdict is...SHE GREW!

Here are her new stats after just a month:

LENGTH: 31.5 inches - 75th percentile!

WEIGHT: 22.1lbs - 25-50th percentile

HEAD: They didn't write it down, but I'm pretty sure it's still big

Other notable changes this month are:

- She got TWO more teeth (only semi-painful for us)

- She said LOTS more words: Baby, Shoes, Cheese, Keys, Seaweed (obviously) and last month she finally learned 'Mama' Yay! Now she says mama all the time! I love it!

- She dances with PARTNERS: she steps on our feet to dance or she dances with her baby dolls and stuffed animals.

- She SWIMS: Okay maybe she doesn't swim on her own yet, but she kicks and moves her arms on command. My mom's been giving her lessons every day, so I'm sure it's just a matter of days before she's doing the butterfly.

- She THROWS: My parents have an apple tree, so she gets to throw the rotten apples down their hill every day. Now when she sees a picture of an apple she makes a throwing motion with sound effects and everything.

- She learned the sign for CAT: Her aunt Stephanie will be very pleased about that one.

- Oh yeah, one more thing, she learned to get on and off the bed AND chairs...this poses (pun intended) a problem for my monthly pictures. My monthly pictures will now look like this:

In all seriousness, I will still take at least one picture of her each month (who are we kidding I will take at least a hundred), but the chair's gotta go.

FOURTEEN Months Old!

Mikayla is fourteen months old! (It sounds so OLD doesn't it?)

Well not only is she old, she is also BIG! We just went in for her doctor's appointment.
It was supposed to be her 12 month appointment, but doctor vacation + 2 month backlog of appointments = 14 month appointment!

So now I finally have Mikayla's new stats that I've literally been waiting months for...and the results are:

LENGTH: 30.5 inches (60-70th percentile) She's growing!!

WEIGHT: 21.5 lbs (35th percentile) She's walking...and losing some of that cute baby fat

HEAD: 46.75 cm (75th percentile) She's still got a huge noggin'!!


Here's a picture of our beautiful 14 month old ballerina:

My toes are sore from all that dancing!

A silly ballerina!

THIRTEEN Months Old!

I know you were wondering whether I would keep taking monthly pictures of Mikayla past a year.
Well I was wondering too, but I think the answer is YES. She keeps doing new things, so I might as well document them with a picture.

At thirteen months old, Mikayla has many new or improved skills:

- GROWING TEETH - three new ones on the top this month! That brings the grand total to FOUR

- DANCING - Scottish dancing to be specific. She's got the first part of highcuts down. Next stop pas de basques!

- SIGN LANGUAGE - She's all of a sudden really taking to sign language, which is forcing us to learn it. We pretty much just have to show her once and she gets it. This month she learned: duck, bird, more, all done, and drink.

- KISSING - She's improved her kissing skill set from just slobbery open mouth kisses to blowing kissed and even closed mouth kisses on the cheek! (See video below) She likes to blow kisses all around her bedroom before she goes to sleep. It's pretty adorable.

- BOSSING US AROUND - She wants things and now she has the means to tell us what. She brings us clothes she wants to put on, she shows us when she wants to take a ride in the stroller, she shows us when she wants snacks from her snack drawer, she lets us know when she wants to read a book...or 10. She also lets us know what she does not want to do - like go to sleep. She will give us the 'all done' sign quite frequently at bed time.

So with that, here are Mikayla's thirteen month pictures. I must say, it's been a lot harder to keep her on the chair lately, but at least I got a few shots in:

I'm 13 Months Old!

Is that right? I can't be thirteen months old already!
One, two...oh wait, I don't know how to count, guess I'll have to trust you

Here's looking at you Piggy, guess we're both pretty old now.

She's Scottish!

When my sisters and I were younger, we used to do Scottish Highland Dancing as a hobby. We went to the Scottish Games and competed with other dancers from around the state. Good times!

When Mikayla Was born, our dance teacher from way back then, got Mikayla a special kilt so that Mikayla could take part in our Scottish traditions right away.

Well, I'm pleased to announce Mikayla has officially been indoctrinated into the Scottish culture by way of the Santa Cruz Scottish Festival. She wore her kilt, she watched caber tossing and learned to dance. There is no denying it; Mikayla is now Scottish!

A Scottish Lass at last!

Learning to dance with the experts

A natural a Scottish Dancing!

Point those toesies!

Running through the Scottish prairie...err, fairground

Ooooh! Caber tossing is so interesting!

Stolen by a Gypsy, happens all the time.

Daddy, can we go again?

Mikayla Graduates from Berkeley!

A few weeks ago, Mikayla went to Berkeley to participate in an experiment at the Berkeley Early Learning Lab. I'd seen the Lab's work in a movie called 'The Baby Human.' It was awesome; babies driving cars, walking off cliffs, you name it. I couldn't wait to get Mikayla involved. So here are some pictures from Mikayla's experiment as well as a video of the entire thing. After Mikayla was done, she received her B.A. from Berkeley. At this rate, she'll have her PhD by the time she's two (I always knew she was smart for her age).

I'm a guinea pig!

Hmmm... where does this ball go?

Yes, in the square hole! 

Where'd it go?

I'm taking this one home.

Here's the video of the whole thing. My favorite part is when Mikayla smells the flowers painted on the wall:

Graduation at last!!

Labyrinth Baby - Dance Magic Mikayla!

I've always been a huge fan of the movie 'Labyrinth.' In particular, I love baby Toby in the 'Magic Dance' song. I dress Mikayla like 'the Labyrinth baby' pretty much whenever I can.

Luckily Mikayla seems to be a fan of the song too, in fact she loves it so much, she choreographed her own version of the hit:

Dance Magic - by Mikayla

Seaweed MONSTER!

She looks so sweet, but Mikayla is actually quite a monster - a SEAWEED monster! 

Watch her devour this innocent, unsuspecting seaweed. (Nibbler's a seaweed monster too)

MORE SEAWEED!

TWELVE Months Old - She's ONE!!

Don't worry, I didn't forget to take pictures of Mikayla in her chair at ONE year old! I can't believe she is already a year old. With an entire year under her belt, Mikayla has acquired quite a few skills. Some of the new ones include: stacking rings on a peg, making quacking motions with her hand when we say 'duck' and obviously helping out with the chores.

She also has a rather large vocabulary:
THAT, DADA, BEAR, DOG, NIBBLER, SNAKE, FISH, and SOCKS
Not MAMA though, I guess I don't talk about myself in the third person enough...I've gotta get on that!

I'm ONE?

OH YEAH! I'm ONE!!

Now that Mikayla's so big, she can finally do useful chores like cleaning up daddy's shoes!

 

Ah, the memories...

Mikayla's First Chore!

According to the book 'The Wonder Weeks' Mikayla's brain just developed the ability to learn 'Programs' which are a sequence of tasks strung together to achieve a goal. In other words, she now has the ability to do CHORES!

Amazingly, Mikayla has already volunteered for her first chore: Feeding The Dog!

Here is a video of her at work:

(Nibbler thinks Mikayla is doing a great job)

Happy Birthday to Mikayla!

Mikayla is officially ONE! She is a toddler now, and she's toddling all over the place!
We had a big birthday party to celebrate and unfortunately it was so busy I didn't get many pictures. Luckily there were a few good ones to share:

Before the chaos: Notice the giant knitted cupcake? (It's kind of hard to miss) I had it commissioned on Etsy.
Gotta love Etsy!

What is THIS?

I don't know what it is...but I LIKE it!

Yuck. Cupcakes taste like burning.

The chaos!

Cinderella!

Last December Mikayla went to her friends Mabel and Winter's birthday party and got to pose as Cinderella (while Mabel posed as Rapunzel). It was adorable!

This week, for Mikayla's birthday, Mabel and Winter sent her the best gift ever; her very own Cinderella outfit (and this time it's not made out of cardboard)! To top it off, they sent a very cute card to remind her how good she looks as Cinderella:

Cutest card I've ever seen

In retrospect, I should have put a blue headband on her...oh well, I'm sure there will be many more opportunities with this outfit:

Mikayla's glass slippers are still a little big, so sometimes they fall off her feet.
Hmmm...maybe a prince will find them for her.

Waiting for her prince...Dr Frankie dog

Princesses are fun! Thanks Winter and Mabel!!

Avila Valley Barn

One of the great attractions near Avila Beach is the Avila Valley Barn. It has lots of fun animals AND flowers! Mikayla's two favorite things!

He loves me, he loves me not...

He loves me!

Here, see for yourself.

Horses are scary!