Inara's 17 Month Birthday

This weekend Inara turns 17 months old. Since my week is pretty busy, I thought I'd do her birthday update today. I'm babysitting Avery tomorrow and Saturday and my friend Jill's little one, McKenna, on Friday, so yes, the week is pretty busy.

So what's new with Inara? SO MUCH!!! Some big news is Inara has more than just 2 teeth...FINALLY!!! Unfortunately, she has had about 5 teeth come in all at once, which makes for some discomfort for her. Her two top front ones are peaking through. She has several on the side that have broken through as well. Nights have been off and on in that she's been waking up more than usual, but it's understandable. At least, she will be able to chew her food better now though.

Inara is learning more about herself. I taught Inara to hold up one finger when someone asks her how old she is. Today, I'm so excited...she said her name for the first time. Hooray!!! I pointed to her and asked "who's this?" She replied, "Nar." I pointed to myself and asked the same thing and she replied, "Mommy." I then pointed to her again and asked, "who's this?" She said so matter-of-factly "Nar." I am so proud of her. This one will go in her baby book for sure!!

Inara's hair has gotten so long and I'm debating whether to cut her bangs. I want her hair to grow one length though, so right now her bangs get in her eyes as I'm letting them grow out. She had finally gotten used to having a ponytail and actually looks forward to it every morning. I sit her on the bathroom counter and do her hair. I then stand her up and say "Look at how cute you are." She then has to kiss herself in the mirror. Needless to say, the bathroom mirror has smudges all over. It's so cute watching this morning ritual though and worth the messy mirror.

She loves her tumbling class on Wed afternoons. She is getting really good at bending her knees so she can bounce on the trampoline. Inara climbs on all the tubes and stuff they have out. She's also getting to like swinging on the gymnastic rings and bars. The one skill she's picked up that I'm super excited about is she's great on the balance beam. This is so important to me because I have HORRIBLE balance and hope that my kids don't pick up that trait. So we practice the balance beam every class, and she's really good at it. She can even walk on the beam and kick the balls we've place on it as she comes to them. Hooray for Inara Grace!

Along with our weekly tumbling class, I've been trying to consistently take her to the Thursday morning My Gym class. It's awesome thinking back at how much she has grown and improved from when we first started her in My Gym almost 6 months ago. When we started going, she couldn't crawl yet. Now she RUNS all over the place and tries to do things on her own: climbing on the ladders, getting onto the trampoline, climbing over the tubes, and even walking up the slides. It's incredible seeing how much she's grown in just a few months. She has even gotten better about letting the teachers pick her up and do different activities. She's not one to sit very long during circle time. That's understandable because the toys are way too much fun. I do love watching her clap during the songs, and she's starting to get the hang of the arm/leg movements during the Hi Hi song.

Remember back to when Inara would only grunt and couldn't say any words? She's improving a ton lately with all her new words. One of my favorites is avocado, which sounds more like a gutteral gurgle, but I know what she's trying to say. The same is true for Africa. Grammy gave her a little monkey that says a few words, one of which is Africa, so Inara started saying that. I figured why not introduce her to continents and countries, so I'll just start listing various countries, and she tries to say them. It's pretty funny how these words come out though. In our StrollerFit class, we sing songs and say words, so she's now being introduced to months and days of the week, which she tries to say but nothing quite sounds right yet. She does say baby very clearly now, but sometimes it can be mistaken for binky, which she has just started saying this past week. I'm still working with her on names. She says A for Avery, O for her friend Owen, Whit for her friend Whitney, Pay-pee for Spanky, Ist for Kristi, Yak for Jack, and now says Nee Nee for Grandma Nee Nee so clearly. Hooray. She's been saying Pop, Mommy, and Daddy for quite some time now. She also said Kylie very clearly one day, which surprised me because it's not a name I practice often, but I swear she got it from the times we've talked to Kylie on the webcam. Oh, and she says Yace for Jason.

She's started getting a whole new slew of animal sounds too. She says ribbit, tweet, chomp-chomp for alligator, and quack. I also ask her how a squirrel eats, and she holds one hand up to her mouth to eat like a squirrel. It's super cute. She definitely knows a ton of animals since I can lay all her flash cards out in front of her and ask her to show me X and 90% of the time she'll point to the correct card. It's awesome to see her do this. She also says vroom for car and started saying truck the other day. She can even point to things in books. We have a Little People farm book that we read all the time. She can point out the balloon, the orange juice, hat, sun, and a ton of other things. Like I've been saying all along, she may not be able to say a ton of words, but the kid knows a lot.

Inara's newest obsession is dancing, thanks in part to the toy mom got her for Christmas. She loves to listen to the songs, bend her knees and turn around to dance. When she hears "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes", she points to her body parts. It's so cute. The other night she surprised me when Shawn was reading her the Little Teapot book, and she put her arm on her hip to form the teapot handle, then shook, and leaned over for the "pour me out" part. I've sang that song to her for months, but this was the first time I've seen her do the motions. So cool! She also still loves watching the Imagination Movers on Disney and we now listen to the Disney Choo Choo Soul CD in the car. One of my favorite things is she knows the introduction song for Movers so well that she can be occupied doing something, but turns around at just the right part to wave at the character Nina. She also loves to clap when songs are over. Music is so important for kids. I think we're going to enroll in a music class next through the rec centers here.

As for food, as many of you have already heard, the kid loves cheese! Most days, I have to argue with her "No More Cheese!" I think she'd eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I've gotten her eating quite a few vegetarian/soy products, like veggie patties and soy corn dogs. Usually, she will push meats away when we try to feed them to her. I can give her a bite of chicken mixed with other things, and she will more often then not, pick out the meat and hand it to me. Some of her favorite things to eat are edamame, quesadillas, grapes, kiwis, scrambled eggs and tortillas, tomatoes, oatmeal, and daddy's homemade banana bread. She loves daddy bread as I call it. At breakfast, whatever cereal Shawn and I are eating she wants too. So we end up sharing our bowls of cereal with her. But her absolute favorite thing to eat is Mac & Cheese, particularly the one from Noodles & Co. She can eat a whole small serving herself and will still ask for more afterwards.

Although Inara has been thriving lately, I've been a bit down in the dumps. I know a lot of it is self-inflicted mommy anxiety. I'm the kinda person who loves to accomplish lots of projects each week and likes to feel successful at accomplishments. I love to keep a clean house and cook nice dinners every night. I love getting time to scrapbook. I love (and really miss reading). Unfortunately, most nights I'm so exhausted that I'm crashed my 8pm. Yes, I'm old and pathetic. Some days I get absolutely nothing done and that's a hard shift for me. One week it was impossible to get any laundry done, so one Sunday I had 8 loads to do. Shawn said there was no way I could get them all done, and he was right. Things like that drive me crazy though because I hate projects and chores to linger and because I feel that's what I do for my family while Shawn brings home the bacon. I know as a mom of an active toddler I have to learn to let things go, but this is difficult for me at times and sometimes even depressing. But I have to remember that Inara is my number one priority and if things don't get done, so be it. Honestly, that's a hard thing to accept for me, but I'm really working on it. And when I do just let my to do list go and sit down with Inara, I find myself enthralled by her and instantly remind myself this is what my life is about right now, not cooking gourmet meals, doing crafts, and keeping a clean organized house. So be it. Because look at this amazing daughter I have to help me see the world anew again. Happy 17 Month Birthday, Sweet Pea!