Happy Fourth Birthday, Kota Bear!

Our beautiful niece, Dakota turned four years old on the 27th, so we helped throw her party. Papa and Gaga Thies provided the entertainment in the form of a waterslide, slip and slide and a bounce house (yes, all are in their possession, are they good grandparents or what?!?). It turned out to be a beautiful day and I think everyone had a good time. Oh, and we just replaced Dish with Uverse and I found one pro to it (I'm still not sold). I could load pix to Flickr.com and go to the "online pictures" channel and it automatically finds your pix and plays them on the TV. So, I made a slideshow of pix since she was a baby and had it going during the party. I was pretty excited about that.

One more "oh", we were left with the bounce house, so we may have to have a bouncing play date soon!

Makin' Music

Peyton got a xylophone and some moroccas for her b-day from her Brandt cousins and they are some of her favorite toys, especially the xylophone. She plays it at least once a day. She loves it when I help play and we sing "la la la" together. I wonder how long she is going to like listening to me sing?!?

15 Months!

Peyton had her 15 month checkup today. It was definitely a different experience since this was the first appointment that she was walking confidently. She made laps around the waiting room entertaining everyone. It took a couple of minutes of me freaking out before I realized she wasn't going to hurt anything.

I kept hearing that kids start maintaining their weight now but not our Peyton. Even with all her running around she still managed to put on a couple pounds. I told Doc that she can put down some food but she said as long as we're giving her healthy food (no juice or junk for her!) she is fine. She likes hearing kids having this issue versus the ones who won't eat anything at this age. Peyton was happy to hear that!

I feel like every appointment is a brag session but I can't help it if I'm a proud mama. Our princess is definitely not a baby anymore. She seems to be picking up new words every day and we really have to watch out what we say and what is on the radio (like our rap CDs!) since she is starting to repeat everything. I did feel a little bad at the doctor when she asked me if Peyton immitated me doing household chores. I redirected by saying she can follow easy directions (bring the bag into the kitchen, pick up the book, etc.) but didn't want to admit that the reason she didn't imitate me doing chores was that she rarely saw me doing them. :-) Hey, I only get a few hours of awake time a day with her, why waste them doing chores!

Only two more appointments and then we start going yearly instead of every three months! I actually am not sure if I'm happy or sad about that.

Stats:
Weight: 27 lbs 7 oz (95%)
Height: 31.5 inches (75-90%)
Head 45.3 cm (25-50%)

I love my chairs!

Peyton loves to sit on little ledges, such as our fireplace hearth, so we got her a couple little chairs. Here's a few pix of her enjoying her chairs, as well as her other pastime of checking out papers.

My happy place

We were goofing around one day and put P in some buckets. She LOVED it! We gave her some pool toys and she played in there for so long we eventually brought her inside still in the buckets (it gets hot in the garage!). So, now if we need to keep her in one place for a while we know what to do!

Happy Fourth of July!

So, I'm obviously back-dating these posts and can't believe it has been almost a month since the 4th. We got to spend the 3rd at the annual Radecracker. This is where we first saw Peyton play in a playhouse. She loved it so much we went on Craig's List the next morning and found one that was just posted for $25!!! I'm just now realizing we haven't taken any pix of her in her very own house. Anyway, we had fun at Mel & Tony's but for some reason she wouldn't go to sleep over there so we had to leave a little earlier than we would have liked.

On the 4th, we went to friends Kyle & Rachel's. Peyton had a great time flirting with the boys (Drew, Blake and Evan) and playing with Leah. She went to sleep a little after 7, so we got to relax and actually talk to people.