Libby has recently become very interested in acting like a big girl. She climbs up into any chair or on the couch to read. She's been able to play alone for a little while too. It's nice that she can entertain herself for a bit. She's also been talking non-stop for at least a week. She just names everything around her and sometimes will rattle off a bunch of words that we may or may not understand fully. We'll be sitting in the living room watching TV and we'll hear: shoe, kitty, Earl, Bubba, fish, horse, cow, moo, baa, sheep, chair,.... It's very cute. Sometimes she gets a little more persistent that we notice and will continue with the same word until we say, "Yes, Libby, that is a shoe."

TLA

Christmas 2007

Libby had a wonderful Christmas this year. She got so many presents that we don't know where to put them. She still doesn't really understand the whole concept of Christmas and is even afraid of Santa Claus but she still enjoyed herself.


I really liked this picture because as you will see below there is a similar picture of me around Libby's age sitting on the very same steps.


When my mom took the picture of Libby and I on the steps the other day this was not the picture of me that I had in mind. I can think of another picture in which I am walking down the stairs instead of sitting but this was the only one I could find at my house. Mom and Dad must have the other one. I was about a year old in this picture - a little younger than Libby.


Libby wooed us with her musical talent. She loved the attention at the piano.


Here is Libby on her new rocking horse or "see" as she calls it. She loves it.


Playing with a new puzzle.


Libby loves this teapot and is such a girly-girl. It came with a ring and bracelets that she likes to put on and admire while drinking her pretend tea.


I think this was her favorite Christmas present. She won't let anyone else play with her new baby or push the stroller. I think she made 1000 laps around my parents house with the baby and stroller before we left.


I had a sit and spin like this and LOVED it. Libby is still figuring out how to use it but is very interested in the idea.

TLA

Merry Christmas

Libby made this at day care. The body is her foot and the wings are her hands.

I big

We took away Libby's pacifiers this week. She no longer has them at any time of day or night. I was feeling very guilty about the whole thing because her little eyes light up whenever she sees them but we knew the next time we would have a lot of time off of work to sacrifice our sleep would not be until June. So this Christmas is the time to take care of the paci situation.

Thursday night we told her that she's a big girl and big girls don't use pacis. She looked around a little bit for one but then said, "I big." She slept through the night without any problems and again the next night without problems. So far so good. She had her teddy bear and that seems to be enough for her. I think she just understands that she's getting too big for a pacifier. It makes me feel less guilty that she's doing okay without one.

TLA

BOON!

Libby LOVES balloons or as she calls them "boon". We went out to eat at Applebee's the other night and some kids behind us had balloons. Libby was so focused on the balloons that she wouldn't eat. She kept pointing to them and screaming "boon" at the top of her lungs. We finally asked the server to bring her a balloon of her own and she was the happiest child EVER. She carried it around the rest of that night and the next day. I would like to apologize in advance for the "Blair Witch" effect of the video.

This is so funny

Here is my family as dancing elves.

Brand New Blog Reader

We have a new blog reader who is very dedicated. She informed me this morning that she read our ENTIRE blog last night. Welcome to Ms. Kim Godbey as a "We Work For Libby" reader. I think she may end up being as dedicated as many of you.

TLA

Animal Sounds

Libby has mastered many of her animal sounds. I got some on video. Please excuse the bit of banana hanging from her chin. :)



Here is a translation of some of her sounds.

moo = moo
k k = oink oink
ow = meow
woo woo woo = woof woof woof
agh = growl

And you might have noticed that she also thinks Daddy and Mommy growl too. We play a little game with that. She says that all the people she knows growl and then will laugh and giggle. She thinks it's really funny to play "Scary ____".

TLA

Talking a lot!

Libby is starting to try to initiate conversations. It goes something like this:

Libby: Hi
Us: Hi Libby
Libby: Hi
Us: Hi
Libby: Hello (said with an Australian accent)
Us: Hello Libby
This can go on for several minutes.

And that's the end of it. We keep trying to tell her that she needs to add more meat to her conversations to keep people interested. But still very very cute.

TLA

M-I-Z-Z-O-U

Mizzou is currently the number 1 football team in the country (in case you've missed it). Libby is happy and cheering for them to win the National Championship game.




Libby playing dress up over Thanksgiving weekend.


Playing peek-a-boo while we're out to eat.

TLA

Happy Thanksgiving

Libby made this last week at daycare. We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Little Miss Personality

Libby really is full of personality. She is so charismatic - people love her everywhere we go. I've decided that her bit of a temper is part of this charming little girl's personality and I wouldn't trade that for anything! I'd much rather her have a meltdown here or there with a great personality then be calm with no spark whatsoever.

Having said all of that, she definitely marches to her own drum. Last night we were putting her to bed and the little cutie walked over to Daddy so sweetly like she was going to sit with him and then slapped him on the forehead. We were both so surprised that all we could do was laugh. She also has very strong opinions about what things are called. She calls me Mimi and will not be told any different. She is the same was with bananas - she calls them apples and is quite sure of herself when you tell her that it's not quite right.

TLA

Libby at Daycare

I'm pretty much just going to post some pictures of Libby at Daycare. They're mostly from September but we just got them in digital format this week. All of these pictures are from the same day in early September.

I love this picture because even though Libby is actually sitting on a concrete patio, it looks like a beach to me. It was a wet day and Libby loves to play in water so they took off her shorts and she plopped down and sat in her diaper to play with the water on the ground.

You can't really tell from the picture but she's yet again playing with water. You can see how happy it makes her!

Libby also LOVES this car. There are actually 2 cars to play with but she only likes the green one. The green one has doors on both sides that open (as you can see) while the orange one only has 1 door and that irritates my opinionated little girl!

As you can see, Libby has lots of fun at daycare!

TLA

All Girls Love Shoes

We all love shoes. Even if they're Daddy's size 13's!

Mean Girls

It has recently come to our attention that Libby is Regina George. For those of you who've seen Mean Girls you know who I'm talking about. I'm not proud to admit that, but it's true. For the longest time, there have been three girls at daycare - Libby, Lexi, and Sophia. Sophia is the oldest by 9 months. Lexi and Libby are almost exactly the same age - Libby being older by 3 days. Libby is also the physically smallest child there except for the 3 month old baby, but she is the ring leader, or so I'm told. Whenever Libby goes to play with something, the other girls will follow her. Libby even lead a jail break out of the basement the other day because she has figured out how to open the baby gate, although I'm not positive that she ACTUALLY opened it herself - she may have had another kid to the dirty work. Recently, Lexi has started blaming stuff on Sophia - I think because she knows that if she blames Libby that she will be out of the "club". For example, the sitters will ask Lexi is she's poopy and she will point to Sophia and say, "Phia." Or if Lexi has gotten into a snack she will again point and say "Phia." Libby has also started instigating chat time at nap time. What do we do about this little girl!?

TLA

New favorite phrase

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Libby's new favorite phrase is "I did it!" Except it comes out more like "Idit!" She gets really excited when she can do something on her own and squeals this. It's so very cute.

TLA

Yea! New camera!

Libby's language has really started to explode this past 2 weeks. She will answer yes/no questions, make animal sounds, and really just talk up a storm and we can actually understand her a good majority of the time.

We bought a new camera earlier in the week so here are a few new pictures. It's so hard to get good pictures of Libby these days because she doesn't want to sit still long enough to look cute.

Here's the little climber! She's very good at climbing things. One day when I dropped her off at daycare, I was talking to another child there and turned around to find her walking across the dining room table! She had climbed the chair and then onto the table! Notice that she also has my cell phone - I have visions of her in about 12-15 years with phones....

These are Libby's boy pj's that we thought were really cute but more importantly, very much on sale!

This is a new bedtime ritual - she wants both of these hats on before bedtime. She will walk over with a hat in her hands trying to put it on. If she can't get it on she will hand me the hat. I will ask her, "Libby do you want this hat on?" and she will answer "YES!" Very very cute!

TLA

Box Tops

If your kids don't use box tops for their school (or if you don't have kids!), please send your box tops my way. My school uses them to buy playground equipment - balls, jump ropes, bats, etc. You'd be amazed how quickly those things wear out and need to be replaced when they're used by over 300 children every day. You can find them on boxes of cereal, cake mix, Ziploc bags, Kleenex boxes, etc. Since 2002 we've earned $4,677 from box tops! That's amazing considering many of the box tops are only worth 10 cents.

TLA

No more pictures

It's official, our camera is dead. It can't hold a charge for more than 2 pictures even with brand new batteries. So, until we buy a new one we won't have any pictures to post. Hopefully, it won't take us long to find one we like. Our sitter has some really cute pictures of Libby that she is supposed to email to me and if she does that then I will post those!

Speaking of our sitter, EVERYONE there has come down with bronchitis or walking pneumonia. Libby had a cough a few weeks ago that seemed bad at night but didn't slow her down any during the day. I never took her to the doctor because she seemed to shake it herself. But I do have bronchitis now. I have been feeling okay and then not-okay all week and today I finally went home from work early. I really hate to do that because my school district does not pay for maternity leave and if we ever have another baby I want to have some sick days saved up to use instead. But I really just couldn't work, I felt so bad. Mike's going out of town again in about 2 weeks, hopefully, I won't get sick then too!

TLA

Anxiety while Daddy's away

Mike was out of town for 2 nights and you would have thought that Libby didn't think she would ever see him again. She had major anxiety - she wouldn't sleep in her own bed, she didn't want me to leave her in a room alone, and she wanted lots and lots of cuddling.

Last night I knew he was going to be home a little after her bedtime, so I told her that he would be home only if she slept in her own bed and that when he got home he would come in and say "goodnight" to her. Wouldn't you know that it worked! I was worried that she'd have to sleep with me again but she went to bed without a fuss and didn't wake up until the morning - except to say goodnight to Dad.

On a side note, I seem to get sick every time Mike leaves town. And not just a little sniffle - one time Libby gave me Hand, Foot, and Mouth and this time I found out that walking pneumonia has been going around the daycare after I'd been hacking for a few days. It's so fun to be a single parent while feeling miserable!

TLA

Mlmo

Libby has been learning so much lately. She knows many animal sounds and has developed a recent obsession with Elmo although she calls him "Mlmo". She is also very serious about Mlmo. The other night we were out to eat and she had an Elmo bib on. She was eating and laughing then very suddenly would point to her bib and say "Mlmo" a few times and then back to having fun.

We've been so busy lately but here are some recent pictures most are from last weekend when we went to St. Louis to celebrate my birthday and also my brother's birthday.


Libby is laughing at my brother's cat, Turbo.


Libby loves to swing and I thought this picture was just so cute!


Grandma is showing Libby a scarecrow decoration. Later she wanted it to pick her up.


Libby really wants to be like Mommy. She got my shoe on and walked around the house with it for a little bit one night. She also likes to carry bags around like Mommy does. She will pick up any bag, even a plastic one from the grocery, and carry it like a purse.

Sense of humor is very important

Libby has really developed her own sense of humor. She's also not very modest because she knows she's very funny. She will just start to laugh in the car when nothing that we can determine has happened. Her other favorite thing to do is to stick out her tongue and make a "pfllt" noise. Then she just laughs and laughs and laughs. It's hard not to laugh with her even though it's a very gross thing for her to do because she gets spit all over her face and shirt. It's quite cute to be able to see her make herself laugh instead of us having to make her laugh. She's just getting so grown up!
TLA

I Slide!

This is an all-multimedia Libby blog today, enjoy!















MK

We took Libby to an MU Volleyball game last week. We used to go all the time last year, but we're not sure we're going to be able to go much this year. She was just too curious and wanted to wander around too much. But here's a picture of her sitting like a big girl in the chair.


Grandma and Grandpa bought Libby this table and chairs set. She LOVES it. As soon as she saw it, she sat in a chair and just knew it was for her. She has eaten at it and colored at it.


TLA

Dancing Machine

We are going to Disney in March and here is our Mr. Potato Head representation of a tourist.

Libby has taken to blowing kisses this weekend. She will initiate them and just thinks they are fun.


We have a little girl who LOVES to dance. She doesn't really like to do it for the camera though, but there are 2 shots on here that aren't half bad. She just can't help herself when she hears music she likes.


TLA

Yea for puddles and other random updates

For now, our technical difficulties seem to be solved. I'm not sure what exactly happened but our computer recognized the camera today.

Libby is really a water baby. She gravitates towards any water she can find and will play in it. She loves pools, the bathtub, puddles, pretty much anything she can splash in. Here's some pictures of her playing in puddles.





Sometimes I catch a glimpse of the future when I watch Libby play. The other day she picked up her toy phone and was walking around saying "Hello... yeah.... yeah.... okay.... yeah...." I see her at about 13 doing the same thing.

She also has a ton more words now but it takes a while to decode what she is saying. On Friday when I dropped her off at daycare, the sitter asked me "What does 'key' mean? Libby says is all the time." I think "key" is Mickey Mouse because she says it when we watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and maybe she wants to watch it during the day. She then asked me at pickup time what "chi" meant because Lib had been saying that all day long on Friday. Her 8-year-old daughter figured out that it meant "fishy" because she said it while they were looking at pictures of fish. Libby was so excited that someone understood her!


We found Libby's toys lined up like this the other morning when we woke her up. She's very much into organizing her things and they all have to be just right before she'll stop working on it. I do not think this was a coincidence that they were all facing the same direction. I think maybe she wanted to watch a parade!


"Daddy's hat is cool!"


"I'm ready for school!"

TLA

Technical difficulties

Yesterday we went to visit my family for the day and also stopped by to see some friends of mine from High School. Too bad Libby didn't really want to socialize. She was friendly and fun at Mom and Dad's house but was not in a good mood at my friend's house. I'm sorry to all my friends that you had to see her acting like that! I hope next time we see you that she'll be on better behavior.

We're having technical difficulties with our camera. Our computer has stopped recognizing it when we plug it in to upload pictures. The camera is pretty much shot now anyway. It will hardly hold a charge and now this. Looks like it's time for a new one. I have a birthday coming up if anyone wants to get me one (hint hint). So for now, we won't be uploading any new pictures of Libby.

TLA

Messy Night and more

Tonight was Messy Night for kids under 3 at a park in town. They had finger painting, bubbles, a sprinkler, picture making, shaving cream painting, sand play, and much more that we didn't get to or even see. We took Libby thinking that she'd really like it but she was too tired to enjoy herself much. I wanted to get a picture of her standing in the middle of the sprinkler but she fell and started to cry before I could get the camera ready.


Libby didn't want to play with the shaving cream at the table. She'd rather grab a handful and take it with her.


"Bubbles are over there... I like bubbles."


Libby would rather just put her hands into the bubble soap than try to blow one the bubble wands. If we give her a wand, she tries to eat it anyway.


This picture is from Sunday. Libby and I took a little walk up the street. I thought she was styling with her sunglasses. She likes to walk on the street, although she sometimes will walk up to other people's houses with a very determined attitude. Maybe she wants to be a door-to-door salewoman someday.

TLA

Can I sleep now?

It's been awhile since I've blogged. This was the first week of school for me and I have been exhausted at the end of the day! One night I went to bed at 8:30. The school I work at 4 days of the week does not have A/C so that doesn't really help the tiredness, but the week went pretty good because 3 days this week the kids got to go home early because of the heat... too bad the staff have to stick around and work.

Libby is doing GREAT with her new sitters! If you haven't heard about it, we're taking her to new sitters because her sitter we loved last year decided it wasn't paying her bills and took another job. We were sad but now LOVE these new sitters - they are sisters who have been stay-at-home moms for many years and decided to try their hand at daycare. They are wonderful and they love my Libby - which if you're going to be spending that amount of time with her, I want to feel like you love her like your own. Libby comes home totally messy which tells me that she had a great day exploring and figuring things out on her own.

I'll try to get some pictures this weekend to put up.
TLA

Doors are fun

Today was my last summer day with Libby before work starts. We went by school this morning to pick up some paperwork that I wanted to look at before tomorrow morning. While we were there, Libby did something she LOVES to do - she closed a bunch of doors. One of which was locked and she locked herself into my principal's office while he was not in there. Needless to say, this was a little scary for mom. I had one of the secretaries track down the custodian to open the door all while I'm trying to keep her entertained through the window in the door. I did not want her to go around the office and mess anything up! She got a little scared when the custodian walked up to the door to unlock it though - I think because she doesn't know him.



This is something new she has been doing with her pacifiers. It looks like a gas mask to me.

TLA

Timber... again

Last night we woke up to hear a loud crash. I thought it was in the house but it was actually outside. Here's the view from our front door this morning.


Yes, that's right. More of our Bradford Pear tree fell during a storm last night. It did not hit the house or either car so that's a good thing. It's so badly damaged that we're going to have to take down the whole thing. We are sad. This tree was very big and pretty and we will now have zero trees in our front lawn. We're going to have to start from scratch next spring.


You can't see it in the picture but the tree took out our yard lamppost. So, we'll have to replace that too.


You can see the huge chunk that has been taken out of the tree trunk. That's gotta hurt!


It missed the house by a few feet.

Luckily we have a neighbor who LOVES to play with his chainsaw and is willing to take this down at a minimal cost.

TLA

Mean Daddy

Libby has figured out that she can get sympathy from us for something she is upset that the other one of us did. Last night we were putting her to bed and she was getting her last bit of milk before bedtime. She was taking her dear sweet time as is her newest ploy to stay up late. Mike was very sweetly urging her to drink by saying, "Drink, Libby". She wanted him to drink it and was holding it up for him and saying "gink" which we determined was supposed to mean "drink". Anyway, she became very upset that he wouldn't drink and was trying to get her to drink and got out of his lap walked over to me saying things like "da", "gink", and "Bibby", among other unintelligible words. We think she was complaining about him to me and was trying to get me to take her side. After she got it all off her chest she was happy again.


Libby the Strong - this litter container is actually empty. Notice the little play soda bottle in her right hand. She LOVES this thing and really sucks on it as if she can get something out of it.


Libby thinks it's funny to put her Mr. Potato Head pieces in our mouths but will not put them in her own. Here she is putting a smile into Mike's mouth.

TLA

We're melting

Just as an update, we're very hot here lately. The past week and this upcoming week are predicted to have heat indices over 105 everyday. It's very hard to go out and do much of anything. That leads to another problem if you know me. I get very bad cabin fever when I'm home too much. I try to get out in the morning with Libby but usually getting out in the afternoon is a bit much for her with this heat.

So far this week I've missed 2 videotaping opportunities. The one I wrote about a few days ago with the tantrum and yesterday I missed a very funny one after bathtime. Libby is now wearing ear plugs in the bath because of her tubes and can't hear too well (I imagine, not like she's told me). After the bath I got her out and was trying to get her to sit on her towel like I usually do. She refused and just walked out of the bathroom dripping wet and naked. She walked all around the living room before I was able to catch her to dry her off and get her dressed. All the while I'm calling her name forgetting that she can't hear too well with the plugs.

A big difference we've noticed now that we have a walker is that she seems to follow us around more. We call her our shadow. It seems I can't even turn around without possibly knocking her over. I think she's more underfoot now because when she was crawling she was looking down and was interested in things on the floor. Now that she's walking she can see ahead of her better and knows where we are all the time, so she comes along. It's cute but it's also a little annoying at times, like for example, I think I might be able to use the bathroom or something without her noticing and then here she comes down the hall ready to tear apart the bathroom. Luckily all I have to do is turn off the lights to a room that I want to shut off from her and she will leave it behind so I can close the door. That's a great trick! I wonder when she'll catch on to it.

TLA

Libby's Rug

Last night Libby was playing with her play kitchen and she was pulling on it knocking it into the wall. It seemed like she was trying to pull it over. I told her to stop and moved one of her hands off of the kitchen. I think she thought I was telling her she couldn't play at all though. She stood there with her back to us and her arms at her side and cried! I wish I could have gotten it on video. It was so cute and funny! I felt a little bit bad for laughing at her but she didn't see us doing that. When she turned around we were all business again.

This week we really started to notice that Lib is turning more and more into a toddler and is less an infant. She is walking almost exclusively. She is throwing more and more tantrums. She is eating more grownup food. She has started saying her own name but calls herself "Bibby". We've heard her walking around say "Bibby blah blah blah blah." more than once.


We loved this picture. What you can't see is that she has a snack in her lap while she's watching The Backyardigans. The other thing that we think is pretty funny is that she has some CRAZY hair in this picture but all the time! We joke that she has a bad toupee or comb over or something. It curls in the back but is straight in the front. She also has about 3 cowlicks on the back of her head.


Libby loves spaghetti. When she eats something she likes she says "MMMMM".



TLA