Photos & Books

I took some great photos this past weekend. Summer was the perfect model, she even did some cute little poses for me. I am excited she enjoys the camera, think of all the possibilities.... but this photo from the weekend might be my favorite:

This photo was fun, Summer enjoyed sitting in the basket with her babies. She loves her babies, kisses them daily. I guess she learned it from us, we always love on her babies and give her babies kisses. Do you think if I start loving on her books and kissing them she might be more careful with the pages? Don't get me wrong, she hasn't torn that many pages, maybe 4-5, but I have taped most of them back together. Her books are mostly hard board books but we have a few real page books. I don't care if she destroys them as long as she develops a love for books, which she already has. Tonight I came home from work and after dinner - like most nights - we went up into her room to play. Our play consists of reading several books. Not because I want to - because this is what she wants to do. She loves looking at books and sitting in one of her chairs, speaking some strange language pretending to read. She also enjoys when I read to her, most of the time. Tonight she was in a great mood and we read several short books.

This is a short week, only three days (woohoo) then we can celebrate Thanksgiving. This year is more special because Summer will be able to eat most of the food, if not all of it. We had sauerkraut with dinner tonight and to my surprise Summer actually ate it! The first bite was a bit like shock, but she kept putting it in her mouth so I went with it.

We plan on putting up our Christmas Tree on Thursday and take some holiday photos. We have to do it soon so I can upload pictures and get them printed, shipped, stamped and mailed out. Kris is in charge of the arrangement this year, he has some good ideas, so hopefully we end up with a really neat photo on our cards.

Updates

Summer's vocabulary is really starting to expand. One day she said nothing we could understand and it seemed like overnight she was making real words and small sentences. Some new things she says that I can think of are:

Want a bow?
I like it
Run
Oh Really
Pa Pa (for Grampa)
Tooth (for tooth brush)

It is so amazing they way they just start talking one day.

Cliff bought Summer several DVD's of kids singing. Last night Summer was in the bath and I started singing "If your happy and you know it"

Summer was clapping on cue, and when I would sing "then your face will surely show it" she would put her fingers on her cheeks, she was stomping on cue (as best she could sitting in a tub) and then I would say "shout amen" and she says amen - so cute! I tried to get it on video but of course by then she was not in the mood.

Summer can also count and say her ABC's !!!! Ok not really, but she can count to 2, if I start counting I will say 1 and she will say 2. We are working on 3. If I sing the ABC's and get to the letter A she will say the B and C in the sequence and when I get to W she will say X next - she just picked up on X somehow.

Photos and Shopping

This weekend was filled with shopping and photos. I ordered a new Shutterfly photo book last book, the book I said I would not order until a year passed, and yet after three months I could not hold back. At least I only ordered a 20 page book instead of the 50 page ones. On Saturday Summer and I took a trip to KMart for a rug. Several really cute outfits later, and several really good pictures later - well nothing but haha we took a lot of pictures in that cute outfit. I still have the tutu that I bought that we didn't wear yet so we have pictures coming still.
We had a good weekend, we started out at dance class, I really don't know what to think about dance. Summer is learning a lot but she is so much younger than the other kids - well both of them. There is only two other kids, and Summer is about 8 months younger but she is learning so much and I think she enjoys it. I keep thinking we will quit going, and then we go and she does something else. I guess I wish the class was bigger, I want to expose her to a bunch of kids, but she is still so young I just may continue until she turns 18 months and has more options. After dance we went to buy books, I think I found about 7 for Summer and 1 for myself, then we went across the street and saw Grandpa. Then we went home and Summer fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep for about an hour and upon waking we went to KMart and the park, the park .. the park with all the fun small beedy gravel. This girl loves rocks, loves putting her hands in the gravel, loves throwing the gravel in the air, loves throwing the gravel on me, and this park trip always ends up with a bath, which was the case on Saturday, but Summer had a good time. By the evening she had only had one nap and was exhausted, she barely made it to 8:00. On Sunday we took all the photos, fall photos were the plan. In order to get a good background for my photos I had to go around the house and carry 24 pavers to the back near the door. Today my booty hurts. I stacked pavers, added the fall leaves and snapped several photos. Then we changed outfits and did some pictures in the dance outfit. Oh ya we had a sucker and took photos of that. It was a good weekend, we did normal things, shopping and took photos, just like most weekend.

Fall Back

Before the birth of my daughter I looked forward to falling Back. Gaining an hour and sleeping in and going to bed later was something to look forward too in the Fall. Now I much prefer springing forward, loosing an hour sleep and going to bed earlier. Not that Summer had any problems falling back with the rest of us, its just that I don't want to get home an hour later, even if that means I get an extra hour in the evening because it is dark earlier and this just makes me cranky and annoyed. I guess I will get used to the time change in another week but I could do without time change. Besides doing nothing but complaining this week, I should mention a few new milestones and tell you how much I love my little girl. Summer will now tell you NO with a word or three (No No No) or a shake of the head. She doesn't always mean No, sometimes she will say or motion No but really means just a second, like let me chew this bite before you try to shovel another bite into my mouth No. It could also mean the real No too of course. Summers vocabulary is expanding beyond Mom Dad Bye and No, she is also saying more complex words, such as Apple, Bounce, Bye Bye and Elmo. She is just starting to enter the period of repeating words, I remember when Buster was a baby and he would repeat whatever I said, such a great age! Physically she has started running and jumping. She loves to run from daddy when he tries to catch and tickle her. In dance class we bounce like a bunny and Summer has learned how to jump up - sorta. She does not actually go air born, more like up going up on her tippy toes or she does this little skipping action. It is really cute and when we clap at her progress she smiles and tries even harder. As amazing as she is she is already 15 months so you would think the newness would have worn away, but every day I see that face and it still amazes me, she is still so beautiful and pretty, and I tell her several times a day. "Summer you are so beautiful" or something like that. I also cannot stop telling her I love her, several times a day, "I love you" or "mommy loves Summer". It seems so many parents I meet with older children have lost some of the beauty and love that I still have, I hope I never lose it but if I do at least I have this blog as memory to how wonderful, beautiful and amazing she is. One day she is going to grow up and do something to make me mad and I might forget for a moment but hopefully it doesn't happen for a really long time.