14 months!

Analisa is 14 months ... omg!

Well, we're finally starting to realize she's rolling into the toddler years. I realize she might not be official yet (the definition of "toddler" varies, depending on who you ask/where you look), but personality-wise, she's definitely showing signs! She lovvvves to say NO (even when she doesn't mean it, but she's pretty spot-on with her useage, for the most part). She wants to be held, then bucks to get down when she's up. And sometimes I think she's just here to test our limits -- with bedtime, meals, refusing to ride in the cart at the grocery store, etc.

We don't even tell HER no all that often, so I'm not sure how she became so obsessed with the word. We're all about that redirect!

But like, whatever, little girl. I will act UNFAZED by all of it. You don't scare me and I refuse to let you know when you're driving me cray! ;)

What else? We're still holding strong at five teeth! Although I sense she'll be cutting at least one more soon, if not more, based on all the drool she's been kicking up, and all the chewing on her fingers.

Lovey.

Sleep is still going well. I'd write about it, but I don't want to jinx it. So that's all I'll say for now.  : )

Even when it takes her a few minutes to wind down for the night or a nap, I'll just hear her one room over going, "oh oh oh bai dai dai dai doe doe doe ee-ee ah-ah oh no!" Just singing to herself with a cheery little voice. Whenever she's in her crib jabbering away, we figure whatever. She's happy. She'll fall asleep eventually. And she does! I don't even want to tell you how many hours she gets. We are well rested lately, I'll just say that.

It's been so nice to crutch on our baby monitor! We were barely using it before, just based on the fact that we never felt far enough away, when we were still in the apartment. But we have a real need for it at the new house, so shoutout to Candace and Natalie for getting us the awesome monitor we registered for. Lovvvvve that thing. It's pretty fun to be a fly on the wall in Anzy's room, spying on that little gal.

She looks like such a little prisoner when we get her in the mornings. Either her arms will be slung over the sides of her crib, and she's just leaning there like a straight gangsta, or she's sitting up with her legs slid through the bars. The look on her face is like, "'bout time, deadbeats."

Excuse our clutter.

Anyway, speaking of the new house ... we love the house! Not sure if I mentioned last time, but there are a FEW more projects than I had originally envisioned. The place was definitely move-in ready, but like, for example, there were no curtains or blinds or anything. Is this standard? So now, I'm having to figure out window treatments for the entire house. Which is daunting, because I suck at decorating, we don't really have any themes or colors or anything in any of the rooms, and it's kind of an expensive process. But like, champagne problems, I realize. We'll figure it out.

I went to Target with my mom last week, and I've been clicking around on Wayfair too, measuring, trying to handle shit. We'll survive! Anyone with good sites or stores for this sort of thing ... lmk! I honestly care about makeup and baby clothes and not much else. I'm in over my head on this one. I just went to Home Goods for the first time the other day, and it was so fun in there! But overwhelming at the same time. How do I commit to ANY of this? For someone who's been renting her whole life, I'm not used to the idea of like, a space to call my own. Or nesting. I don't even think we ever hung our pics on the walls in Rocklin.  :/

We did however, buy a really nice sectional for our front room. So, everyone come visit once that's in place!

What else? Back to the Anz?

I've definitely felt our relationship changing, just slightly, with the seasons. She's just so grown up lately -- do I say that every time?

I can't even explain all the ways, unless you've been around her.

I know how to make her laugh almost without fail. I feel like we have inside jokes, and our communication is more on point than ever before. I swear, she understands me. I mean, that's not even a crazy thing to say -- based on everything I'm reading, she's starting to GET more and more. Things are clicking. We can watch a show together, and she'll just chill on my lap (well, depending on her mood, of course). And then other mornings she can't sit still, she's just so busy! She loves to give herself little assignments. Like at my parents', she moves all these stacking cups near the tub from one spot to another, one by one. And then she does a big SIGH at the end of each trek. It's the funniest. Hard day at work, little one!

She does stuff like that around our house, too. Lots of repetition and learning. Like "let's take every single diaper out of the Honest Company box. Now let's load them all back in." Let's draw. Let's explore behind the couch and move all my toys back here. Let's "help" mama with the laundry. <---which is no help at all. She loves to transport my piles across the living room, strewing clothes in her wake. It's just so cute. I'm probably NOT great at discipline (not that you necessarily DISCIPLINE a 14-month-old), but like, when she's intentionally naughty or ridiculous, I can't help but giggle.

THIS FACE.

We try not to give her too much TV, but she's starting to dig a few shows. She and James watch cartoons together some mornings and it's kind of their thing. I figure she has enough variety in her life -- whatever. I won't sweat it.

I love discussing kids shows with James. From the always-irresponsible Tommy and Tallulah (you guys, seriously WHEN are you going to learn to get back promptly for Chime Time?) to Nanny Plum (of Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom) -- "did you see the one where she got her magician's license taken away? She kept turning things into frogs, and then on her final exam, she had to turn something into a frog!" ... oh and James is always like, "THIS IS DONALD TRUMP'S AMERICA NOW, I DON'T WANT ANYMORE BRITISH CRAP, CUT THE PEPPA PIG BULLSHIT, AND DEFINITELY NO MORE DORA OR DIEGO."

Ummmm he's kidding.  : )   We ain't cray.

And then the other morning, J was like, "We missed the first Nella the Princess Knight?! WTF, we've been waiting MONTHS for this shit!" <---- partially true

We also love the Wonderpets song. That gets stuck in your head too, right? I swear, I'm working in my office at 7p, writing about murders, and I'm like, "we're not too BIG and we're not too TOUGH but when we work together, we've got the right stuff!"

Ughhhhhh.

Staying busy.

Anz is just the sweetest, cutest, happiest bug. It's been kind of fun to have an empty front room in our house -- you can usually find us chasing each other around in there or playing in all that wide open space. No joke, the other day, Analisa was chasing me, and she finally caught up, and just squeezed my leg super tight, and my heart just about melted. What a baby nugget she is.

She'll just roam around the house going, "mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!"

She's also killing it with "hi!" "nigh nigh!" and a few more small words : ) She repeats after you like no one's business, and is very proud of herself. We might be experiencing SOME regression/clinginess, but it's little stuff just here and there. Those behaviors are few and far between. And I never mind. You just wanna come be my baby? I'm all yours.

But yeah, back to the front room -- once the couch arrives, we'll just need a buffet-type thing to set stuff, a big rug and we'll probably move some end tables in from the garage. Slowly but surely, we're getting there! Ana and I will have to find a new space to chase each other.

Analisa's also been into ... feeding me back (haha, like, from her high chair. I feed her and she gives me bites, too. She thinks it's hilar).

And she's been saying "woof woof woof!" when she sees a doggy. (Sounds like, "wub wub wub!")

You can ask her, "what sound does a cow make?" And she goes "MOE!" <--- not a typo

Candace came to my parents' on a Tuesday or two ago, and Ana was in rare form. Babbling and babbling, seriously NONSTOP, and like, she really had something to say. She was using her hands for emphasis, and being very expressive overall. Arching her back, shrugging her shoulders, really getting into it! She was walking back and forth and back and forth, just staying a busy little bee while explaining to us her very important story. She cracks me up. Every day is just something new. She's learning people, her body, her surroundings, what happens when she tries to stick her hair clip in an outlet, etc.

And then I was sick maybe just a week ago ... so lately, Ana really likes holding a tissue up to her face and "blowing her nose" like mommy. She holds the Kleenex up to her face and then makes a loud noise with her mouth. Even Emily noticed it the other day; we were laughing and laughing.

Look at all this hair from my serious girl! Check my IG -- vids are way easier to capture these days than pics.

I had a little scare this week: I took a tumble down my parents' staircase (top to bottom, pretty much head first) with Ana in my arms. Luckily, Ana came out of the ordeal completely untouched. Thank you GOD. I whimpered the whole car ride back home, "I could have really hurt her. I could have really hurt her!" and now I have total PTSD going down any flight of stairs. I feel SO SO SO grateful that nothing happened to her. I could have never forgiven myself if she were hurt. I got pretty banged up, I'm not gonna lie. My back took a pretty serious beating. I swear, I like, swiveled as we were going down so that I'd take the brunt of the impact and I wouldn't land on her or anything. I have no idea how I managed that. It was one of those out-of-body mama moments where I basically lifted an oven off her, so to speak. It was crazy. I think I was saying "NO NO NO" on the way down, and it was a pretty loud crash. Both my parents came running and their dog was barking ... ugh. My back looks like I was hanging out with OJ, no joke. I don't really have a great explanation for any of it, other than I wanted to drive us home after RO Tuesday, it was midnight, and I was hoping Ana didn't wake up during the transfer. So I grabbed her from the Pack n Play in her sleep, had every light in the house OFF, was wearing high heels and missed a stair. Never again.

But like, speaking of shoes and switching over to a lighter topic, Ana probably needs some. Her first pair! We've held off her whole life -- I mean, infants don't need shoes. What a waste.

But she does now! With all the walking around she wants to do, in places like Target, I feel like it's time. The socks are too slippery. She's a good enough walker where I don't think shoes will derail her, or throw off her progress. She's practically running at this point. But yeah, every time we've even TRIED to get her foot in a shoe, she's screamed bloody murder. We're taking you to Stride Rite this weekend, little one. Whether you like it or not!

You guys should have seen her at Target when my mom and I were window-treatment shopping. I'd set her down (I basically had to -- she calls the shots around here now), and she would just TAKE OFF. Happy-babbling down the aisles, following people awkwardly, grabbing things off shelves -- the whole nine. I was exhausted after an hour or so. I was like, "mom, just stick stuff in the cart. We'll keep the receipt, return the things that don't work out, whatever. I need to call it a day!"

What 99% of my camera roll looks like right now. #gimmedatphone

Girlfriend's got a slight case of FOMO -- she just wants to see what's up with everyone. Strangers, Grandma Leese, my friends ... when it's time to go down and she can hear James and me one room over, she'll basically be all, "hey, I'm over here too! Whatcha guys up to? My nap can be over if we're doing something fun!"

GAH I'm getting long-winded, babbly and jumping from topic to topic (per usual), so I should probably wrap it up now. I will just say, thank you to everyone who came out of the woodwork in the past month or so to share stories about your own constipated babies. I seriously HATE that any parent has to go through this, but it's made me feel better to know we're not the only ones. We're still actively dumping Miralax into any and all sippie cups. (Which is pretty effective, to tell you the truth!) I was getting kind of down on myself, like, whyyyy is this happening to us? And it sounds like a lot of babies have a similar problem.  :(   Which leaves me feeling relieved, and yet sad for tiny ones everywhere dealing with it.

Now that we've got our poop talk included in here somewhere, I'll say ... see you next time!

Bye friends!