Too Busy at 14 Months!

My baby girl has blossomed into such a sweet toddler.  She has become such a busy girl.  She loves to spend her time playing and eating, she has developed quite the appetite.  She can eat an entire kids meal at Chick-Fil-A by herself.  She has also added may more words to her vocabulary such as, book, bath, brush, thank you, please, car, moo, quack, duck, roarrrrr,  a monkey sound, and many more.  She has continued to learn more signs as well.  She can sign car, thank you, bath and brush.  She is so smart, she gets it from her Mommy.  :)  She is now also weighing in at 20.8 lbs.  Which means she finally got to tun around in her car seat, yeah!!!  She loves facing forwards and it makes car rides much easier.  She also has REALLY gotten into watching television, especially her movie "God Makes Music."  It causes her to go into a trance and not move a muscle. 

                     

We had a very busy 14th month.  We started off by going to Ty Locklears birthday party.  Shelby had fun getting to see Sofie and all the other kiddos.  We also went and spent a week at Nana's, thinking Daddy would be working in League city, but unfortunately his scheduled changed.  We still stayed at Nana's house where he later joined us in the week to go to Schiltterbahn in Galveston.  Shelb's also got to meet my old friend Erin and her husband John who have been living in China for the last 2 years.  We met up with Erin at Incredible Pizza along with some of the other McLoxley girls and Jeff as well as Garrett and Drew.  Shelby had too much fun getting to ride some of the rides there.  We then went back home the next week with Daddy because I had to start work, unfortunately.    Thank goodness though, Shelby and  will be spending every other day together since I have dropped back to half time.  We also got to spend some time as a family and the three of us loaded up in the car and drove to Galveston to visit Moody Gardens and the beach.  Shelby and Chad had never been to Moody Gardens so we got to enjoy the Titanic exhibit as well as the Aquarium Pyramid.  She loved seeing all the different animals and fish as well as getting to pet a Sea Urchin and a Star fish.  Then after lunch we went down to the Sea Wall and she got to play in the sand and in the waves.  Her favorite thing was chasing the seagulls up and down the beach.                                                                                                                  

Growing too fast at 13 months!

Well as you can see I have scaled back to monthly updates instead of weekly, she is still growing like a weed though.  She seems to have really grown up a lot this past month, at least to me.  She has begun to drink whole milk and is loving the table food more than ever.  Her favorite veggie is peas and her favorite fruit is still mandarin oranges.  We went in for her one year check up she was currently weighing 19 pounds and 4 ounces and was 29 1/2 inches long.  She was in the 90th percentile for her height and the 25th percentile for her weight.  She is tall and skinny just like Chad and I were as kids.  The doctor actually told me I needed to start feeding her more snacks, but she is so busy she just burns all her calories.  She is never crawling anymore, she walks everywhere now.  The funny thing is that when she walks she has to hold her right arm straight up in the air to balance.  Shelby is also talking much more these days.  Her current vocabulary consists of Mama, Dada, Nana, Mimi, Pawapaw, Popa, no no no, sit, hat, puppy, eat, oooohhhhh, uh oh, Ish (for Ishy), hi, bye bye, and bath.  She is quite the talker to say the least.  If you ask her these days if she wants to take a bath she runs into her bathroom and even tries to climb into the tub, she loves the water, swimming too.  Shelby has also picked up a lot recently on her signing, she now signs eat, finished, puppy, more, cup and her favorite, hat.  As a family we also got to celebrate Shelby's 2nd Fourth of July.  She really had a blast at the parade waving to everyone that went by with both hands saying "Hi!" the entire time.  Her arms had to have gotten tired.  We later then went to Bryan and Paola's and ate dinner and shot of fireworks that did not even scare her. 

We also had an exciting month in that Shelby is no longer the baby in

 the extended Gorman family.  Uncle Bryan and Aunt Paola welcomed baby Grant Allen Gorman yesterday, July 25.  He was 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long born at 2:56p.m.  He has so much dark straight hair and cheeks you just want to pinch.  Congrats to Bryan and Paola on

 your son and finally the Gorman family is getting a little more testosterone back in it.  I am sure Shelby will love to have him around to play with as much as she does the rest.

1 Year at 52 weeks!

Well the day has come and gone and my baby is one.  I only cried three times over it, yes I am crazy.  She has had so much fun

turning one.  This past week along with getting ready for her party we started Mommy and Me Swim Lessons.  Shelby loves the water and really enjoys all the songs and jumping around she gets to do , but not a huge fan of being dunked.  Shelby celebrated her birthday with about 35 guests this past Saturday at our home. She had a lot of fun eating cake, opening presents, doing the piniata, and playing in the water sprinklers, on the swingset and in the fun jump. Nana made an awesome cake as well that everyone enjoyed. 

Shelby also started walking this past Sunday.  I was so excited I was wanting her to walk before her first birthday and she did.  She is doing better and better everyday and is even letting go of her toys and walking from one to the other.  She also is talking much more these days.  She says hi, bye, hat, yeah, sit, no no no, uh-oh, Mama, Dada, Nana, Pawpaw and Popa.  She says a few other things, but we have not figured out what she is saying.

We also went to the Zoo yesterday where Shelby had a lot of fun.  She like the Lion that was laying against the glass and the petting zoo where she got to pet some goats.  She also enjoyed the tunnel that ran through a fish aquarium that she got to crawl through with her cousins.

Shelby's Big Adventure at 51 Weeks

We were still in Nebraska until Saturday of this past week. We had a lot of fun and celebrated Gran Gran's birthday, went to the Lincoln Children's Museum and went storm chasing unwillingly.  The storm that hit and killed 4 boys

 at the poor Boy Scout camp in Iowa was the same storm we encountered.  We happen to be eating with Aunt Kelli, the boys, Nana, and 3 of Nana's friends at Cracker Barrell when the storm hit and we were told we would most likely be going to the freezer if something were to come about.  When the sirens went off they were too busy talking over their liabilities, so Kelli and I frantically threw the kids in the car and tried to go Gran Gran's neighbors because they had a basement.  Kelli couldn't see where she was going because it began to rain so far so we got lost in the neighborhood with sirens blaring.  I was freaking out, but Kelli found her way and Mom and her friends did as well.  Everything turned out fine and everyone got a few laughs at my expense.  Shelby really enjoyed the Children's Museum, more than the Houston one.  She also got to go to the famous Valentino's for the first time.  She really enjoyed her whole trip and also began eating a lot more table food than before, I think Garrett may have been an inspiration.  One of her new favorites is mandarin oranges.

Shelby wearing Gran Gran's birthday gift from Mrs. Theresa.

Shelby driving the truck at the museum with 

Garrett holding on in the back.

Shelby and Garrett's first trip to Valentino's.

Shelby also celebrated her first Father's Day with her Daddy this past week.  We celebrated by going to church that morning, and afterwards attended the car show and barbeque that the church was putting on for the Dad's.  

Shelby with a Shelby.

Shelby on Father's Day in front of the church baptism fountain.  

Shelby enjoying her early birthday present.

The BIG 5-0!

I cannot believe how close to being a year old Shelby is.  It seems like just yesterday she joined our family.  Well thank goodness this was my last week of school.  I am so glad it is over and next year I will not be working full time only every other day so that I get to spend time with my baby girl.  I am so excited.  Shelby even got to go to school with me on Friday for our workday.  She was spoiled rotten by everyone.  She is continuing to eat more and more table food like a champ.  She is also still loving to walk but only while holding onto your hand.  She has taken one or two steps, but it was while she was diving for Chad or my arms.  We also left for our trip to Nebraska this past Saturday.  We went with Aunt Kelli, Cousins Drew and Garrett, as well as Nana.  It was quite the adventure.  It only took us 20 hours to get there, but the kids were really good and Shelby finally got to meet her Uncle Scott and Aunt Janine.  She also got to visit the Lincoln Zoo where she had a butterfly land on her head.  

Too Cool at 49 Weeks

Summer is getting close and Shelbs is getting ready.  This week has been really crazy as I am packing my classroom to move and getting ready for our big adventure to Nebraska.  Shelby got to go to her first annual Reddell family party. She enjoyed swimming with her cousins for a few hours and got to eat fried catfish and hush puppies for the first time.  She was too cute.  She is also getting better at walking while holding onto your hand, it is just a matter of time before she takes off. I also took Shelby's pictures for her 1st birthday invitations, they turned out too cute.  My poor baby girl also got another ear infection this past week, and since she was not feeling good I took a day off and stayed home with her.  She discovered the tissues that day and thought she need every single one in the box to wipe her nose.  It was funny.