14.5 Months, Thanksgiving, and Haircuts!

Once upon a time Deja's 15 month check up got scheduled about 3 weeks early.  Maybe that's normal? . . . Anyway, here are her 14.5 mo. stats!  Weight: 22.44lbs (49%), Height: 30.75 inches (67%), Head: 17.9 inches (42%).  Normal as can be :)  Deja was all sorts of friendly with the Pediatrician and his Student Assistant, which actually made the doc. nervous because she wasn't showing any "stranger danger."  I guess she was feeling more comfortable that day.  It could have been because both John and I were there, or maybe because we were letting her explore the room so she could show off her walking skills.  Overall it was a good visit, except for the shots of course :(  

                                                   

We had a good Thanksgiving.  John actually has Thanksgiving and Christmas off this year, so we are lucky ducks!!  We ate dinner with most of my siblings at my brother Joe's house.  We missed Angi and Meri (and their families).  We had a good time watching football, talking about future family vacations, and seeing all the nieces and nephews.  Deja loved exploring and playing with her cousins, but wouldn't touch her sweet potatoes for anything.  So weird, maybe they were too sweet for her, funny girl.

                                      

Deja and her cute cousin!  It's hard to tell in this pic,
but they both have the cutest curls in the back of their hair.  So fun :)

We also spent some time with John's siblings!  We got together on Thanksgiving evening and put up Grandpa's Tree.  (He went out of town, so this was a big surprise for him to come home to.)  We ate pie with them, even though I'm sure no one was hungry.  The next day we had another Turkey Dinner at Kara and Brian's new house.  They were so nice to invite us down and wouldn't even let us bring anything to contribute, little stinks.  

Deja went all Vampire on this yogurt.
I was letting her "play" with it, but apparently she was hungrier than I thought!

 Deja's First Hair Cut!!  

The left side of her hair was way longer than the right side, because she used to pull on her hair while falling asleep.  We decided it was time to even it out a bit.  

Before

After

Deja used to walk around the house all the time with her hands behind her back like this!!
I tried so hard to get it on video, but it didn't happen.  At least I have a picture of it.

She's also really into shoes.... Specifically John's haha

There was a day she insisted on wearing her winter coat and necklace around the house.
I worried about her getting too hot, luckily it only lasted about 30 min.

The only other exciting thing that happened in November was John and I went to the dentist and were cavity free. Woot, yup we're awesome.  Oh and did I mention we booked a cruise for January?  I guess that's more exciting than the dentist...  We'll be gone 4 days and it'll be the first time we're leaving Deja, so hopefully that goes well!  PS anyone want to babysit, she's cute and has many skills, just take a look ;)

Almost 14 months + Halloween!

Just some of the happenings from our home to yours!

Here favorite nook

Is there a problem?

Just some light reading in my fancy recliner!
(her new carseat before we set it up in the car)

-I have been trying to teach Deja how to sign "more," especially for use during meal times.  Sometimes she gets it, and sometimes she's too stubborn to do what mommy wants, haha. The other day I went to lay her down for nap and said something like, "Sleep well Deja, when you wake up we'll play some more."  To which she she immediately signed "more" to me.  It pretty much melted my heart :)
-The biggest difference with Deja being able to walk is probably the fact that things get scattered more and more throughout the house.  The other day I was folding laundry in the bedroom and Deja comes marching in with the rug that goes just inside our front door.  I asked her if she didn't like it by the front door anymore, to which she threw it on the floor of the bedroom.  Guess we have an interior decorator on our hands!

-One of her favorite activities is having John and I read books to her.  She has learned if she brings a book to us we'll almost always read it to her.  So after one book is finished, she'll go back to the book shelf to get another for us to read and this will go on and on until either we have something else that needs to be done, or Deja gets distracted, but usually it's John and I who have to discontinue the fun.  The other day we actually got through the entire stack of books from the shelf!
-Today as we were reading some books it was getting close to her nap time.  I could tell she was getting tired so after a few books I told her, "Alright, you can choose one more book and then we are going to take a nap." So Deja stood up and started walking, but instead of stopping at the book shelf she just kept walking straight to her crib.  Haha, she opted for immediate nap time.  It's crazy how much they pick up on, it's so easy for me to think "She's too little to understand." But she proves me wrong all the time!
-Sometimes when she's just looking at the books on her own, she'll babble like she's reading them out loud.  I really want to get it on video one of these days!  She's quite the babbler lately no matter what she's doing!
-Deja is currently cutting teeth 9 & 10.
-She is definitely getting more opinionated about things and has thrown tantrums here and there, coincidentally they have all been right before nap time ;)

-She can usually point to her nose, ears, mouth, and eyes.
-She can sign "more" but she also uses it to ask for food in general.  Now we're working on "please" and "finished."
-The other day she was playing the piano and starting yelling and playing at the same time.  Of course I thought it was pretty dang cute just because I think everything she does is pretty dang cute.  But then it dawned on me that she was "singing."  Since then, I have noticed that she'll sometimes do it in the car while listening to the radio or just at home when there's music playing. I wonder where she gets that from....
-For Halloween we visited the Grandparents!  Deja dressed up as a Lady Bug (The costume size says 3-6 months, but hey if it fits we're going with it!)

Making friends at the ward party!

The only semi-decent Mother/Daughter pic we could get while fighting over that blasted tootsie-pop
As you can see, she won

It must be Halloween when your 1-year-old won't
eat lunch unless she has a pumpkin by her side!

Trick-or-Treat Grandpa!!!

Hanging with the cousins.
Don't they look so thrilled to be together? :)

Our One Year Old!

The weekend before Deja's B-day, my sister Becca came to town and we just had to get a picture of these two little cousins in their matching P.J.'s!  They are almost exactly 6 months apart.

Best Buds!

(The day before her birthday)

We decided to go to Cafe Rio for a special Birthday Dinner with Deja.
(To be honest it was probably more John and I celebrating the fact that we survived our fist year of Parenthood,
but Deja definitely enjoyed her first Quesadilla!)

We went back and forth about how we wanted to celebrate Deja's Birthday.  John and I are both big birthday people so we knew we wanted a party with more than the 3 of us doing it on our own.  So...  We threw 2 parties!  Haha one with the Southwick's and one with the DuPaix's!  For both parties we had red velvet cake and ice cream.  We also had a quiz all about the first year of Deja's life.  It was super low key and we had a good time.  

 At the Southwick Party we gave Deja her own ice cream, which she enjoyed for the first couple minutes, but then I think it was making her too cold, so we decided to call it good.

John and I gave Deja a new car seat for her birthday.  She also got a little photo album and
some cards and toys from her cousins :)

I thought it was pretty hilarious that she turned her bib into a cup holder so I grabbed my camera to take a picture,
she wanted to make it even more hilarious by sticking her finger up her nose.

Deja opening a present from Grandma and Grandpa DuPaix!
(It was two little outfits but she was more interested in the tissue paper)

The DuPaix party was pretty much a replica of the Southwick party, except we gave Deja 

cake instead of ice cream!

 So here are a whole slew of pictures of Deja eating her Cake.   She loved it and was going at it for a good 10-15 minutes before she decided to crawl away :)

And to finish things off here are some things about the birthday girl

• She loves throwing herself on top of blankets and pillows, it's pretty amusing to watch.
• At her 1 year appointment she weighed 21.5 lbs (59%) and was 28.8 inches (41%).
• She has started to “Dance” by shaking her head and body back and forth when she hears music or sometimes when we sing to her.
• She is often trying to put on my shirts (or any article of clothing) over her head in an attempt to wear them.  However, usually she gets stuck trying to get her head through the sleeve, haha.  Clothes are confusing.
• She took her first step on 8/28/14.  On her birthday she could take 3-4 steps and her current record is 6-7 steps :)
• She was getting better at following directions and when I would sternly say her name she would hurry and turn away from whatever she was doing... too bad that only lasted a couple weeks :(
• Sometimes when she’s crawling she’ll put books or paper under her hands and slide around the carpet and it’s just adorable.  I also always have to laugh when I catch her crawling around with an entire graham cracker sticking out of her mouth. (Apparently she couldn't finish the cracker before something more interesting caught her eye that she just had to get to.)  What can I say, she's resourceful?
• One of her current favorite songs is the Itsy-bitsy Spider
• She can bark like a dog and say "uh-oh."
• I can't remember if I've mentioned this, but she is SUPER ticklish just like her momma :)

It has been such a fantastic year getting to know this little angel.  I can't wait for more birthdays to come and to watch her learn and grow even more!

Deja Months 10 and 11

10 Months

-Deja loves string cheese, bananas, pasta noodles, graham crackers, sweet potatoes (baby food), bread and so much more.

-She can walk along couches and other furniture but is still tentative about it.

-She can drink from a straw and gets mad when I have a drink and don’t offer her some as well.

-We are trying to teach her to blow a kiss, so far she can mimic the sound pretty well.  It’s so cute! 

-Now we’re working on Peek-a-boo, but she doesn’t have a sound to go with that one, so I think it’s a little more difficult

-She knows how to clap and waive when we ask her too (as opposed to just copying)

-The Fridge and the Dishwasher are her favorite places to reek havoc (as well as the bathroom, garbages, and any cupboard she lays her eyes on).

"Helping" Mom with Laundry

11 Months

-She’s pretty much accomplished at going up and down the stairs!

-She’s getting more adamant about taking things out of drawers, cupboards, bookshelves, you name it, everything must be on the floor!

-She laughs when we laugh and loves mimicking our noises and actions

-She has pretty much mastered the sippy-cup.

-Taco soup is a new favorite, she’s all about the finger foods right now

-She has been trying to climb on/into EVERYTHING.  I had to move a lot of boxes because she was using them as stairs!

-We can fit all her hair into a ponytail… ahem, a messy ponytail that is :)

-We are currently working on getting her to fold her arms for prayers, it’ll come!

-She is utterly afraid of bubbles.  She made the best face when we were playing with them at her cousin’s house last week!

-She has started standing and balancing on her own, but it scares her to death!!  The day she turned 11 months old she stood up and clapped a couple times for mom and dad!  We were pretty impressed.

-Dad is good about making her walk around the house while she holds onto his fingers.  She's slow and has a love/hate relationship about it, but it's fun to watch them together!

Other Family Fun:
Throughout the month of July we went to Seven Peaks a couple times with both the DuPaix's and Southwick's.  We are hoping to go a couple more times before John goes back to school. John worked quite a bit as usual.  He's such a great sport about working so much even on the holiday's. On both the 4th and 24th we celebrated by watching BBC's Sherlock, which was pretty ironic, yet entertaining.  We also tried to hang out with Kyle as much as possible before he left on his mission.

It was also fun going to Kneaders with some of the family before Kyle got dropped off at the MTC.  Later in the month, John and I enjoyed a fun date night going to see Wicked at the Capitol Theater.  It was my birthday present so I had been looking forward to it since April and it did not disappoint.  John liked it too, and enjoyed seeing where the songs fit into the show.  John's friend Jeff was also in town over Pioneer day, so we had a game night with him and his friends.  At the end of the month, both of my sisters who live out of state came into town and we had some fun times together at the splash pad, getting snow cones, and a couple family game nights.  Also, my other sister had a baby boy and I'm going to be nannying him come the start of the school year, so we'll see how that goes!!  Talk about a fun busy month!  

All the DuPaix Grand-Boys!

DuPaix Grand-Girls!
(Minus the oldest who was at Girls Camp)

                                     

Classic Sister pic with Mom!