OH HOW I LOVE THIS FACE!

And the funny sweet personality that accompanies it.

TATE AT 16 MONTHS OLD

Tate has been under the weather for the past 10 days. A few day with fevers hitting 104 degrees and the rest of the days 100.4 degrees. Even though she has been miserable, she still has been an amazingly pleasant baby!

I decided to take Tate to the doctor today... Poor baby, Tate has strep throat!

Tate does not get too many sweets so when she does, I let her totally get into it.... She loved her first peppermint candy cane so much she offered Mesa a taste and lost the whole piece of peppermint to one ill mannered dog!



I really think Tate will be a little dancer. She loves music and will sing and dance constantly. She is also quite flexible.



At sixteen months Tate has started to feed herself. It seems that she wears more of the food than she will eat.

Tatie loves her room and her books..... She will disappear only to be found sitting in her comfy chair with a few books.

The love affair continues with E.L.M.O.... I find myself humming the Elmo's World song ALL THE TIME!

ANNOUNCING TATE IS NOW A WALKER!!! She would prefer to be carried but will walk if she needs to.

A QUICK GLIMPSE OF CHRISTMAS.....

Two of Tate's favorite things.... Her Nana and Elmo. She is obsessed with both!



Santa gave Tate this Tree House tent. She loves it!

Tate was sick with a 104 degree temperature and spent most of her time snuggling with me or sleeping. This lasted for about a week. Today she is feeling like her adorable self and is ready to parteeee to make up for all her missed Christmas celebration.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wishing the MERRIEST Christmas ever and a bright shiny 2010!!!

SITTING ON SANTA'S LAP FOR THE FIRST TIME

Through the windowpane we spy Santa.... I am watching safely in my big cousin Amanda's arms.



Checking out this man in red.



Okay momma, I will pose with Santa with NO tears but will not SMILE!

WHAT DOES SANTA SAY?

HO HO HO!!!




A little out of focus but LOVE it anyway!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND 6 MONTH FAMILY DAY!!!

FIFTEEN MONTHS OLD

Today was Tate's 15 month check up and four more shots! POOR baby. Her doctor pronounced her amazing. Healthy, SMART, charming. He says he has a crush on my girl. I am wonder if this is why he wants to see her every two months.

Stats.... Weight... 22.5 lb (47% US charts) Height 32 inches (91% US charts)

• her speech is exploding. She babbles constantly. She will mimics beginning sounds of words. Knows about 12 words or words she uses ... Momma, Mesa, Nana, more, baba (bottle), hi, bye bye, baby, ball, puppy, naaa (Norwegian for no), cup.


• Says "hot" and blows on everything she eats... fresh fruit, ice cream, as well as the warm foods.



• Tate has started pretending with her doll. She insists to hold her doll when driving places, will wrap the baby in a "blanket" or burp cloth, and feed the doll a bottle.

• Loves LOVES LOVE to wear beads and necklaces. She will put them on by herself.
• She is showing more of a preference for her left hand when she reaches for things, eats and colors.

• will call out "Momma!" from her crib when she wakes up... at nap time, in the mornings and in the middle of the night. When it happens in the middle of the night, I will wait hoping she will go back to sleep. Sadly this was not the case the other night. She wanted MOMMA! And MOMMA jumped right up. She looked at me said "Momma. Baba (bottle)" then smacked her chest as if to say "Momma I need a bottle". There was NO question as to what Tate needed that middle of the night.



• stands on her own without holding on to something. Will go from standing and bend down and get back up. Is able to go from crawl to standing. Still not walking.



• Knows the difference between up and down and will go either up or down when instructed.



• Animal sounds.... cow, horse, cat, dog, monster, monkey, tiger. She makes the monster sound and loves it when I act "scared".



• Yikes.... the other day I caught her climbing. Apparently there was a barricade blocking her way to Mesa. She must climb go over it to get to her dog. What does a good momma do when she sees her loved one toddling while climbing? Grab her camera of course and snap away.

• SHE LOVES MESA!
  

Tate just cracks us all up... She crawls with "ATTITUDE", if you have seen it, you know what I am talking about. Gliding forward with swinging her head side to side.

FIRST HALLOWEEN

This was what Tate was suppose to be.... A monkey.




She would have NOTHING to do with wearing the monkey hat. The one item that made it a monkey. Without the hat, it just becomes a brown shapeless jumpsuit with a tail.



Plan B....
A Fairy outfit.... something I bought for dress up fun.....



MUCH happier wearing this for sure!



Tate is not walking yet but will stand on her own for 30 seconds.





Tate was not feeling her Tate-r-lusciousness self so I decided it was way more fun for her to help hand out candy in her glow in the dark skeleton PJ's... Poor little sweetie with that chappy mouth and runny nose. Symptoms of her teething.

FOUR THINGS TATE LOVES

Balloons, Ball, Bottle and her NANA!!!

FIVE MONTHS A FAMILY!!!

I cannot believe it has been five months since Tate was placed in my arms. Five months ago she filled my heart with her Tate-a-lusciousness. I crave her, I need her, she is my everything.

Hand print and foot print... 14 months old

FIRST ARTWORK......

Tate's choice for creating her art .....

SOME PEOPLE SAY...

It is said when a child is ready for a new skill, they become fussy and unhappy. I am expecting Tate to learn a new skill real soon, based on this information. Tate has always watched on with envy at the neighborhood toddlers while they run and play. I can see in her face the wish to join in on this fun. I feel this last few days, she is soooooooo ready to walk but her walking is just not there. She is communication this frustration in total meltdown mode. Apparently at her sitter's house she is a total delight. Lucky me, she saves her meltdowns for me. I know I have been extremely blessed with an even tempered sweet funny and easy child. I know this is just temporary... It will be interesting to see if this theory holds true. Will Tate become one of the walkers in the near future??? Time will tell.

MY GIRL is 14 MONTHS OLD

She is growing and changing everyday...

WORDS....
bye bye
apple
night night
momma
nana (her grandmother)
baba (bottle)
vooo-vooo-voooa for dog.

Knows where her tongue, eyes, feet, toes, nose and hair is.

She knows what she wants and will shaking her head to say yes and no. She will put thought in answering questions correctly.

Everyday is a joy and an adventure with my Tate.
She will copy sounds combos like eeek eeek eeek booooo.

Yesterday I blew a raspberry on her neck, she turned to me and blew a raspberry on my cheek.... she was thrilled and giggled so adorably. I was touched to tears with joy.

Crawls super fast. Pulls herself up on everything including the dog Mesa.
Walks around things holding on to stuff.
reaches between things like couch and coffee table.

Favorite food is broccoli.

Each day is a joy and an adventure with my Tate.

AAAA pppp l

Apple picking and pumpkin picking while in the Twin Cities!!! Tate loved munching with her 6 teeth apples. She is trying to say apple.... AAAA pppp l.

AND WE'RE OFF!!!

Tate and I will be boarding a plane tomorrow. We will be taking our very first of many trips as a family. We're heading to Minneapolis to see Tess and Julie and a bunch of other totally cool mommas and China sisters. I will be looking forward to apple picking, pumpkin patching, outlet shopping and celebrating the Autumn festival.



I cannot wait to have our Minnesota friends meet Tate! PLUS..... since I was last in the Twin Cities, new China sisters have been added to the group. Can't wait to meet these new sisters too!

I CAN SEE CLEARER NOW....

My very active crawler found my cheapo reading glass and had to give them a try. Oh how I wished I looked as adorable in these as she does.

FOUR MONTH FAMILY DAY

Tate, you are my everything.




Happy four months of the HAPPIEST time of my life, our family day.

FIRST VISIT TO THE ZOO!!!

This is the first animal Tate saw at the zoo.... and she was mesmerized.



She loved this momma and baby elephant. How do I know??? She could not stop smacking kisses and blowing kisses to them. After 15 minutes of watching, she had a little meltdown as we left the elephant area.

AFTERNOON NAP...

Somedays you just need to crash and take a goooooood afternoon nap!


When you awake, your are such a delightful girl!

THIRTEEN MONTHS OLD!!!

Tate is thirteen months old today.... She will still be my baby but looks on with envy at the toddlers running and playing. You can just feel that she cannot wait to be talking and walking. I will say she now understands EVERYTHING that is said to her. She has such a funny sweet personality and is still a show stopper. This morning while eating her breakfast, she discovered the use of the spoon. I am still pretty insistent that I feed her. She loves this too. Today I put piece of egg on her spoon and helped her make it to her mouth. She is quite pleased with her new "momma helping" accomplishment....

NEW STATS ON TATE..

Tate's doctor likes to see Tate every two months.... thankfully I have good insurance. I like that he likes seeing her so much and is so on top of things.

Three more vaccines... Chickenpox, MMR, DTP and her flu shot. This time with two nurses and fast shooting... still heart wrenching tears, but only a few seconds of pain.

• Height 31.0 inches (91%) US charts
• Weight 21.94 lbs (57%) US charts

In almost two months, she has gained 1.5 inches in height and 2 lbs.

She has gotten all four teeth on the top which gives her a total of 6 teeth. She crawls around everywhere and pulls herself up on everything. She is walking with help. She will sing along (ahhhhh ahhhh) to music and dances constantly. The other day I was tapping my hand on my leg to the beat of the music while driving... I looked back to her, she was doing the same thing. She cannot wait until she is old enough to walk and play with her best friends Gwennie and Caroline.

My baby is growing up!

OUCH!!!

It had to happen sooner or later. This is just a fact. Somehow this knowledge did little comfort as Tate took her first TUMBLE out of her stroller onto the blacktop of the parking lot. I could hear her hit the blacktop. Oh boy did she cry AND HARD. On the outside I was all momma-like. Comforting and reassuring. In the inside my heart was breaking. After an hour or so I saw her HUGE goose bump and skinned forehead. This was when my cool momma-like exterior cracked and I cried.



To Tate, her booboo has been forgotten. To me, I feel pain when I see the huge goose bump on her beautiful sweet face.

BALLOON BABY

I love the grocery store that we shop at.... I love that they hire "special needs" baggers and even use some as checkers. I will always go to one of these specials needs checkers. I don't mind he takes longer than most. He is thrilled when Tate will grin from ear to ear her sweet toothy smile. He loves when Tate throws in a wave bye-bye. Today Tate blew him a kiss. All checking business stopped in his lane while he went to select this special balloon for such a sweet kiss blowing girl. All in all it was a delightful shopping experience... Behind me I left a happy special checker guy in front of me I had a happy balloon loving girl.







Love seeing Tate's sweet small hand through the balloon.

MY TATE

First some pictures of my girl, then a little update on her milestones and her life.....

• Tate is 20.6 lbs and 29.5 inches. She no longer is on formula and HATES baby food. She will gum most anything and prefers ME to feed her. In daycare she like to feed herself.
• When I first met Tate in China she could barely sit up without toppling over. She also would not roll from front to back, etc. She was strong, but not too motivated to move around. I will say that the amount of people loving on her did not help this. We wanted to carry her and love on her. Fast forward to the month of August. Tate is now a one year old and hanging out with a 2 1/2 yr old girl and a 19 month old boy while momma is at work. Amazing what a little peer pressure will do for a girl.
• We have a crawler!!! For the first few weeks, she would do this crawl on one knee and sit-scoot on the other knee action. Real cute but not too affective for getting around quickly. I totally missed out of getting a video of this. SUDDENLY she now has learned to do the traditional crawl AND FAST.
• Not too sure how long this crawling gig will last. Tate is pulling up on things. At nap time I am greeted with a STANDING SMILING girl! She is trying to figure out the footing and pull coordination for pulling up on random things like chairs, coffee table and couch.
• Mesa is also an item pulled up on. Mesa is not too sure on how she feels about this one and has started to move out of the way when Tate-the-Terror comes crawling her way.
• Walking is a big motivator for Tate. She LOVES when she can get someone to hold her two sweet hands and let her walk. What used to be tiny close together steps are now strides with purposeful movement.
• She has caused some frustration on her walking helpers by her choice to STOP the walking action for a little dancing in place action. Tate is still a crazy dancer. She will move to the music she hears or just stop and dances.
• Tate's life is full of older kids... walking fun older kids and Tate wants to be part of their play. You can see the envy on her face when she see the fun. I am sure I will have a walker in no time.
• Language and sounds are exploding around here. Tate will try the first sound of words like..... PPPPPP when I say pretty. SSSSSSSSSSS when she hears anything that starts with a S. She is practicing with the back of her throat.... Sucking in air and growling. I hear her practicing all the time from her crib and car seat. My girl likes to perfect her sounds before she showcases it to the world.
• Not sure I like the discovery of the tongue which sticks out a lot. I know the four new top teeth coming in needs exploring and is helping this tongue involvement.
• Teeth are popping out on top. She is getting four at one time. Even with her teething discomfort, Tate is still a HAPPY baby.
• Since being in daycare, Tate is much more snugly with me. She will sometimes wake in the wee hours of the morning just to snuggle for a few minutes and then back to sleep. I am sure she is loving her time in daycare, but still misses me. I am so glad she is having a tearless time in daycare but wants her momma too.

This is the way I have baby proofed this sudden quick crawling baby. While she naps today, I will be moving stuff and making it baby friendly.