If you thought she looked like me....

Wally 18mo....adorable as always!
More similar than you thought?

I came across an old picture of Wally while unpacking and I just had to scan it for the blog. EVERYONE says,"Oh, she doesn't look a bit like Wally. She looks JUST like you!" But I think if you look, you can see him in her as well. Especially if you compare his baby pics to hers when he was a little plumper :)

Rhianwen has been kissing up a storm lately. She kisses us, she kisses Snowbear (her favorite bear that she sleeps with in the crib), she kisses kitty cat, she kisses family pictures, she even kissed the Prime Minister of Turkey today (well his picture in WORLD anyway). So I just had to post a video of this kissing extravaganza!

Thankful for Sweetness

With Thanksgiving around the bend, I have been in that sort of excited about life and family mood (at least for the last half of the week). The first half I was more in a "if this baby doesn't get back to normal I am going to lose it!" mood. Rhianwen at the beginning of the week skipped all naps, was very clingy, and fussy. At one point I had a bit of a breakdown and told Wally I should never have become a mommy b/c I was just ruining Rhianwen by showing her my bad attitudes and selfishness. I'm thankful that God perseveres with even me! The last half of the week, Rhianwen seemed to be feeling better (she really is still cutting at least 3 teeth at once), taking better naps, and was the sweetest funnest little oo. For devotions we have been reading out of her Bible story book, singing a song, then praying for a member of the family. We pull out Rhianwen's 2 picture albums that have all of her great grandparents, grandparents, aunt, uncles, and parents and ask her who she would like to pray for. Without fail, Rhianwen will reach for her yellow photo album, and whisper softly, "PaPa". She'll open it on her own to the page with PaPa, point to his picture, and say, "PaPa" again. Even though she's only met her PaPa (Great Grandpa on Wally's side of the family) a couple of times, she really wants to pray for him! Tonight she even gave his picture a kiss :)

Pointing to her PaPa.

It's been getting colder and colder here. Soon, we're going to have to break down and buy a real winter coat. We've gotten away with using a fleece so far, but we can tell winter is on its way! We went for a walk around our neighborhood and realized we don't have any toddler winter hats that fit Rhianwen. So we pulled out a gray hat of Daddy's. You can see a picture of it below along with some goggles we thought finished the affect (she only wore that hat on the walk, don't worry).

"I've heard of mommy-daughter outfits, but coordinated Daddy-Daughter duo? This is a bit much!"

Lastly, the grandparents are begging for a video. This may bore everyone else. It's just a video of our talker at the table. If you listen closely, you'll hear her say Whizzit, Eat, various animal sounds, and toddler sentences only she can understand.

If I Went Senile

This is a list of things I would repeat over and over again if I went senile right now:


1. You can play with it, but don't eat it.

2. That is not a toy.

3. Where's your sippy cup?

4. All good things must come to an end.

5. Are you hungry?

6. Be gentle.

7. I think you need a nappie nap.

8. That is trash.

9. Spit it out.

10. I smell a poo-poo.

11. I luu u u u UUUUv yoooooooooooou! (getting higher in intonation as you get to the end).

Questions and Lines

Rhianwen is now asking 2 questions most of the day: 1) Whizzit? (translated Who is it?) and 2) Whazzit? (translated What is it?). Reading books has turned into lots of pointing and question asking. Sometimes she even repeats what we say. When daddy walks in the door, Rhianwen will hear him and go running down the hall excitedly saying "Whizzit! Whizzit!" It's a great way for him to be greeted every afternoon. We often have a tickle time each day that Rhianwen loves. We will say, "Tickle Tickle Tickle!" and between laughs she will say "TckaTckatcktck!" It's amazing how quickly she can pick up on things. She's quickly showing us that we can no longer call her baby. She is definitely a toddler and not just because she is walking and talking! She loves dressing up. Her favorite things to wear are the pink gloves (as pictured in the previous post), a scarf I found while switching out summer clothes for winter that was the first crocheting project I ever finshed at the age of 10 or so, and her new but roomy raincoat.

"My motto is: always be prepared."

Graduating to toddler status has its downsides. Although climbing is a ball, it can lead to some frustrating injuries. This week we had more than our fair share. The first came as Rhianwen was sitting on a box she had climbed on. For some reason she decided to lean off of it, pitched forward, and bumped her head on the chair in front of it, leaving a long line on her forehead. Then later, she got dizzy from spinning around in circles in the kitchen and fell into the family room bumping her head on the floor (enter bruise number 2 on the forehead to the left of the line). Then later, she was leaning on the exterior door unbeknownst to me. I opened it and she fell into the doorframe (daddy who was in the house at the time was not quick enough to catch her).

Here is line number 1 before all the other mishaps of the week but after getting up from a nap.

We took Rhianwen to a playground today, and instead of being happy to go down the short slides designed for people her age, she climbed to the highest tube slide (at least 10ft tall), swung her feet onto it, and went down belly first as many times as we would let her. Daddy would stand at the top and I would greet her down at the bottom! Our little oo is a toddler through and through.

Molars

Molars are showing! Rhianwen has seemed fine getting them in. Although she has gotten pretty stubborn and frustrated at times, I think it's more due to the fact that she is becoming a very independent and exploratory little miss! Just the other day we were in the kitchen while she was excitedly exploring the empty family room that had just been opened to her (it's been on the other side of a gate since we moved in). We had left a ladder up, and I heard the lack of noise and decided to peak in. She was on the bottom rung looking up as if thinking...."Can I do it? Hm." I decided to find out the answer and stood behind her as she scaled it to the top.


"Well, it looks like the problem with this fan is that there are no blades on it...Oh yes, I'm quite sure!"


For her birthday, Rhianwen got a pair of gloves from her Greatmama and PaPa, and daddy put them on for her to play in. She reminded me of Miss Piggy (just a little bit) especially when she decided to eat a graham cracker.

"Whatever. I am WAY cuter than Miss Piggy!"


Rhianwen has been learning a few new words. She can say Bible and knows what books that means. One night when Wally was singing "Jesus Loves Me", he got to the part "for the Bible tells me so", and she looked at him and said, "Bible?" I guess it was the first time she realized we were singing words! She also knows that A says a and B says b. Wally often will ask her "Who made you?" and she can say "God"! It's totally amazing. Not that she knows really who God is although we have read her Bible stories since before she was born and pray to Him every day and do parts of the catechism with her as well. So, maybe she knows who God is more than we think she does! I hope so.

We got to spend part of the day on Saturday with a friend who has a younger baby around 7 months. Rhianwen was very excited to give her stuffed animals and kind of gently bop her with them. She has been very fascinated with any baby smaller than herself of late. When we read books to her we can ask her where the baby is,and she will point right at it. She can also do this with sheep and dogs! It's just so exciting to see her little mind learning without even much structure. I wish we could learn so easily for the rest of life.

"An apple for the teacher?"

A False Alarm!

"What, I was all psyched up for this lump removal thing, and now you say I have to wait?"

Because of the utter lack of communication from the plastic surgeon's office, we were prepared for a procedure to remove Rhianwen's lump today. BUT we arrived to find out that it was only a consultation! The plastic surgeon thinks it is a calcified deposit not a cyst, but says it won't go away, could get infected, and he wouldn't be 100% sure unless it was removed. In order for it to be removed, Rhianwen would have to undergo general anesthesia and a 1/2 h surgery. To wait until she was older would mean not knowing for sure what the lump was...ie. very very tiny chance it is something bad. We'd have to wait until we thought she could handle being awake for the procedure, and that might not ever happen (I mean would you want to be awake while someone dug around in your head? I probably would opt to be awake, grit my teeth and try to bear it, but it would take until Rhi was able to do that which would mean teenager at the earliest.)

SO, we have decided to go through with the surgery. It'll be on January 8th.

Sorry for the false alarm, but it was total miscommunication on the doc's part. The letter they sent indicated that it could have been today! I have a love-hate relationship with large hospitals. Love b/c I know there are skilled experts for just about anything. Hate b/c of all the redtape and possibility for miscommunication and b/c there is an emphasis on excellent techniques and research but not on bedmanner. Fortunately, all of the doctors we have met so far have been excellent communicators in person and seemed informative, genuine, interested, and patient...something we didn't always get in Pittsburgh. So, I guess we will stick with the big hospital for now.

1,000 lb.

No, we did not go get Rhi reweighed to find out she is off the charts. We went to the state fair where we saw the hugest pumpkins we have ever seen! The prize pumpkin was 1,179.3 lbs.!

To get an idea of the size look at the baby in the background.

Rhianwen had the time of her life at the fair. We showed her bunnies, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, donkeys, horses, cows, goats, sheep and probably other things that I am forgetting. Before I DO forget, we saw the most hilarious photo shoot ever! We were parked behind a dumpster full of hay and other choice selections from the animal stalls b/c we needed a semi private place to change Rhianwen's diaper. Past some bushes and down the hill was a prize cow and her owner getting ready for a picture. The photographer was trying to set the cow's hooves etc. And I noticed that at the top of the hill in front of the cow was a guy standing with a pitchfork covered in sackcloth. I thought, "Well, this is an odd way to mourn and repent of sin." No, actually I thought, "I wonder what he is doing." Then upon some secret cue from the photographer, the guy ran down the hill loudly calling "Mooo! Moo Moo, Mooooo!" and shaking the sackcloth at the cow. The ploy didn't work too well b/c I think the cow was too distracted by the strange onlookers standing next to the dumpster (namely us). But I laughed my head off watching that guy.

Watching a cow show.

Rhianwen's expressions were priceless the entire day. I finally captured one on camera!

So soft and fuzzy!

We have new molars coming in! This hasn't been too bad, but I feel like Rhianwen has been easily frustrated because of not feeling quite up to par. Of course, Uncle Christopher got to see her in her worst moment ever...throwing a tantrum over having my cell phone taken from her. He probably thinks she is this terrible monster child who needs disciplining. Well, we are trying! She was very stir crazy after staying cooped up in church nursery and a nap today, so I think going for an adventure walk at Umstead State Park helped.

We even came across and old graveyard in the middle of the woods!

I'm nervous about this coming week because, she is having the lump removed from her head on Thursday. The plastic surgeon (I never thought my daughter would visit a plastic surgeon, but at least it's for something practical shall I say?) will sedate her and provide local anesthesia while removing it. I don't know if we are going to have stitches or what. I can't imagine how Rhianwen is going to take it. Poor little oo.