Shannon

I can't believe it's time for another update on this Twinkie!

After Tyler & I got back from our So Cal trip, we got rid of Shannon's binky. She was surprisingly our easiest kid yet to give up the binky. I couldn't believe it--especially because she was our addict and was often caught with 2 binkies in her mouth!!!

She is getting at that goofy age where she sees someone laugh at what she's doing, so she'll do it over and over again:

For example--head in chair.... 

...cracking up her siblings with Cole's hat...

...trying to get a rise out of her siblings again, this time at the craft store

It's not all fun & games lately with Shannon though. We are coming to realize that this girl is our barfer child!! One morning when driving up to take a hike with Tyler's sister, Shannon hurled so badly over everything that we had to stop to buy her some new clothes because neither of us were willing to hike with a baby covered in oatmeal barf.

She threw up another time on the way home from Tyler's sister's house, poor thing!

We ripped a case off of a pillow in the car and used it to catch the continuous projectile. I am now officially a pro at washing/disinfecting/re-looping that carseat. I'm sure that I've washed it at least 6 times this year. I've also got to look into finding some baby Dramamine.

One of my favorite things as a mom is checking on the kids while they sleep. I can't resist these sleeping faces...

 ...I guess Annie can't resist it either! See her arm reaching in for the kill?! Doh!

The other night I was tucking Shannon in with her stuffed animals, blanket, & song like I always do. I guess I was lingering a little too long because Shannon looked at me, pointed to the door and said, "Out Mommy."

It cracked me up so hard to hear my 1 year old tell me to get out of her room!

Shannon also loves her "pocks." She will keep her hands in her pockets for the longest time!

She makes me so nervous walking down the stairs like that.

•  She knows her colors, but is not the easiest to understand yet: "ong" means orange, lellow, geen, & bew are some of her other names. Shannon will interrupt us anytime she sees a color and loves to make conversations about colors. "Mommy, peek bow!" (pink bowl). "lellow dooo!" (yellow shoes!!) etc...

• Shannon loves to read books, but mostly loves pointing out the characters in books repeatedly. Her favorites are: Ariel, Elmo and animals. Sometimes if she's getting tired, I'll say the names of the characters in the book and she'll quietly respond, "Yep."

Shannon is officially done with diapers! I dedicated the last week of August to potty training and hunkered down at home to get the job done. 

The first day or two, we had a language barrier. I realized that she had no idea what I was asking her because she would only repeat the last word of my question. Are you all dry? "Die," would be her answer. Are you all wet? "Wet," she'd reply--whether or not she was wet or dry.

But she eventually got it, and we're not looking back! The girl even stays dry AT NIGHT TIME now!!!! None of my kids have stayed dry through the night before 2 years old. Usually around 6am I'll hear Shannon yelling, "MAMA!! POO POO POTTY!!!" and that's enough to jolt me out of bed and run to her crib. So far every time I get her, she's been dry and never had to go #2 (just holding in lots of pee)--she knows the right words to say to get me to her room.

She earned her poo-poo Princess toys, and I love to hear her little voice calling her princesses by their names. We're really proud of her (and her 3 older siblings who were awesome little helpers/cheerleaders)!

One day Shannon was turning her nose up at her peaches, so I put a matching bib on her baby doll and told Shannon to feed the peaches to her baby.

Worked like a charm! Shannon happily finished her bowl of peaches... after first putting the peach to the baby's mouth, wiping the baby's face, and then stuffing her own face with the peach.

We love our big baby Shannon!