eighteen months.

This has been one of those months where she's changed so much. Most notably, her speech. She can say anything she wants. She calls Zane "Z" and yells for him around the house, especially in the mornings. She's an early riser (6:15am) and Z prefers to sleep a little later (7:30ish). She can say everyone's names (mama, dada, haha, nana, I, deedee, e, tyty, sissy, bob, etc). She yells, "Siela! Skye!" everytime we go outside or back out of the driveway.

Other words include: Emma, PUP-py, baby, blankie, please, thank you, shoo-wee, good morning, YEAH!, and no. She says, "I want....." and points. Never actually says what she wants. Just that 'she wants'.

She makes her 'serious face' where she lowers her head and furrows her eyebrows. And a 'rock-n-roll' face.

Another common word I hear way too often is "mine". She does not share we'll. We are working on sharing with her brother. Constantly. She likes to push him in the face as she announces, "mine!" His patience is pretty good for a four year old....but the tattling. Oh, the tattling.

Take one look at her and it's obvious she's a toddler and no longer a baby. Love that she's a little more independent, but sad to lose my baby.

Zane and Hollin, both at 18 months.

 

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seventeen months.

She's a feisty one! She's all sugar and a whole lotta spice!

Love her curls and that grin!

She loves Paisley and Emma. As soon as we get downstairs in the mornings, she goes to their kennel and says, "PUP-pies! PUP-pies!" As soon as they're taken care of, she runs to her high chair and starts yelling, "Bites!" or "ice". We're still confused though, because "ice" doesn't actually mean ice.

She loves pushing her baby around in the stroller, but her temper flares if the baby falls out or she gets the stroller stuck.

The baby gates proved no match for this smarty pants. She started going upstairs by herself. At first she wouldn't attempt the trip back down. Then she got up the courage to go down. She always goes on her booty. We hovered for a few weeks, but eventually she proved to have way more energy than us. Hopefully we can stay accident-free for four more weeks and then we'll be back in our one-level house.

Running off her chicken nuggets.

She loves to rock her baby in her little chair. Especially right after she gets out of the tub. That naked little booty runs straight to her chair!

I can just hear her little voice when I see this picture. "BE!" She says it really high-pitched and forceful. I think she's referring to her blankie as "be". She's also started calling herself "HaHa". So cute.

I can't imagine the last seventeen months without this sweet, beautiful girl.We love you, precious Hollin Bell.

 

 

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sixteen months.

One month late. But here's a few pictures from the day I tried (unsuccessfully) to get a cute one of her in the Valentine outfit Aunt Gigi made for her.

 

 

 

 

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fifteen months.

Little miss Hollin is striking a pose! This cute girl has the best personality. She laughs at everything. Not just a giggle, but a full-out, head thrown back, mouth wide open, belly laugh!

She's walking everywhere. Loves to sing. We could've sworn she sang the first part of "Away in a Manger" at the Christmas Eve service. So she walks around talking and singing jibberish all the time. My favorite is when she shakes her head around and jibber jabbers, like she's really telling a good story.

Still loves this blankie. And usually has it in her mouth.

She's got the sweetest voice. Every time someone walks in the room, she says, "Hi!" with a big smile on her face. She says "bye" and waves. Blows kisses. Gives kisses. Dances. Her signature dance move is the one hand wave. Loves to shake her head 'no' at me. Started calling her daddy "Matt" and me "Ma". Pets and hugs the "pups" and tells them, "back!" She called Lindsey "Sissy" twice at Zane's birthday party. Says "book" 1000 times a day. She'll bring me a book and then back her little booty down into my lap so that I can read to her. Still eats ev.er.y.thing. And girl is NOT afraid to raid a candy stash. Sleeps 10 or 11 hours at night. Takes one nap a day. Usually about 1.5 hours. It seems like they're so short because I'm used to Zane's two or three hour naps. But she wakes up happy, so I'll take it.

She loves her brother more than anything. I love this picture because I know she's looking up at him. Watching everything he does. Sweet, sweet girl.

 

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fourteen months

I'm so behind. I'll do a better update later this month for her fifteen month post.

First steps December 9th. Almost 14 months.

 

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better late than never: 13 months

Just now getting around to posting pics of our thirteen month old. Girl does not want to take a nap today (not normal for her), so this will probably be short and sweet. She has dropped her morning nap for the most part. I made the mistake of letting her fall asleep in the car today at noon. So then she took like a 10 minute nap. Boo.

 

She crawls everywhere and cruises around the furniture, but still no walking. Maybe she'll start while we're in Arkansas?! That would be fun!

 

She started saying 'cheese' today while I was taking her picture. Well, "eeeee!" Close enough.

She has four top and four bottom teeth. One more coming in on top.

 

Her favorite things are: her brother, someone crawling toward her really fast, bonking heads, books, and food.

Standing up in the chair while I try to take pics.

Sweet sleeping angel.

 

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one year.

Yep.

It happened.

I think all of my monthly posts about Hollin start with how sweet she is. But she is! That's the first word that comes to mind when I think of Ha Bear. Oh, and happy! Honestly, she is happy 99% of the time.

Zane was a hard baby. Think colic, crying, never sleeping, more crying. I remember someone told me that all moms thought their babies were "high maintenance". False. Hollin is low maintenance. Low, low maintenance. I've even heard, "She's the best baby I've ever seen." Now, she'll probably sass talk me, and tell me "You just don't understand!", and give me gray hair and wrinkles when she's 13. And I'll forgive her a few extra times just because she was such a good baby.

At one year:

*Hollin still eats everything! We went to the Mexican restaurant in Hampton (yes, Hampton has a Mexican restaurant) and she ate a whole bowl of guacamole, refried beans, rice, tortillas, and cheese dip. She takes three bottles a day (morning nap, afternoon nap, bedtime). We followed the rules with Zane and gave him his last bottle the night before he turned one. We switched him to whole milk in a sippy cup. And then he fell off of the growth chart. So we're doing this gradually with Hollin. We are mixing whole milk and formula. I think we'll cut out the afternoon bottle soon.

*She has four top teeth, two bottom teeth, and two more breaking through on the bottom.

* She is crawling everywhere, but has no interest in walking. She does cruise around on the furniture.

* She goes to bed at about 730 or 8pm and sleeps until about 730am. Sometimes she wakes up in the night, but it's nothing that the paci can't fix! Sometimes she still takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap, but I think they are starting to merge into one.

* I think the only new word that she has added this month is 'bite'.

* She is wearing 12 month clothes, some 12-18 month clothes. Size 3 diapers.

* She patty cakes and now 'rolls it up'. Gives lots of kisses. She has started crawling up in our laps, laying her head on our shoulder, and giving us kisses. What a sweetheart.

Here are Zane and Hollin, each at one year.

 

 

 

eleven months.

She's eleven months old. And beautiful and sweet and funny and smart. The best baby girl I could ever ask for. I love to hear her giggle when she plays peek-a-boo. I love her blue eyes. I love that she's started giving open mouthed kisses. I love her fuzzy strawberry blonde hair. I love her.

At eleven months:

*Hollin eats everything! Pretzel sticks are her favorite snack. She likes crackers, bananas, peaches, yogurt, grilled chicken strips...basically every fruit and veggie we've given her, she's eaten. She was weird with mashed potatoes, which is funny because Zane hates mashed potatoes. This past week she has been refusing most bottles and completely stopped nursing last week. She's definitely getting enough calories, though, because she is loving real food!

*She has four top teeth and two bottom teeth.

*She started officially crawling the 'normal' way a few weeks ago. She is pulling up on everything and has learned to crawl up the stairs. I'm having to keep a much closer eye on her these days.

*She goes to sleep around 7 or 7:30pm. Sometimes she wakes up in the night, but usually just fusses a little and goes back to sleep. She wakes up around 6:30 or 7. Still loves her yellow blankie. We also started putting her in a sleep sack again because the nights have gotten cooler and she doesn't stay covered up. We think she was waking up more at night because she was cold. Most days she takes a short morning nap and a longer afternoon nap.

*I found a baby doll in her room the other day and she LOVES it. "Baby" rarely leaves her side now. I realized that all the toys she plays with are Zane's, so Buzz Lightyear is probably the closest thing she's had to a baby doll. She's such girlie girl. When she see's "Baby" she squeals with delight. She loves on her and tries to feed her. She can point to Baby's eyes, nose, and mouth when asked.

*Words: dada, byebye, mama (rarely), hi (and it sounds very southern! Maybe we won't tell her she was born in Wisconsin), and bottle. 'Bottle' really makes us laugh because she actually says 'bottle' in low, kind of mumbly voice and she says it over and over. She says it when she sees a bottle, but I think she also uses it to mean any kind of food. She loves to play patty cake and peek-a-boo. When we sing the ABCs, she 'sings' along and it even sounds like she has the tune.

*She's wearing 9 to 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers. She never wears shoes. I have ordered her some shoes and boots for the winter. I'm sure she'll be walking soon and her little feet will be cold....however, I have not had any luck getting her to keep them on yet. I put some boots on her the other day and she kicked and screamed until she got them off.

*When I leave her with childcare at the gym she usually cries. I don't think it lasts long. They told me the other day that once I give her to one of the girls there, she won't go to anyone else. It's like she's thinking, "My mama trusted you with me, so you're stuck with me!"

She looks so big in this picture!

My camera was on the wrong setting, so every pic I took in her brown chair is blurry. I have to put one anyway, just for their comparison pictures.

I really can't believe that she'll be ONE next month! I need her to stay a baby!