15 Months

The months just keep flying by! Cailyn had her 15 month check-up yesterday...

Weight: 21 lbs. 3 oz (25th %ile)

Height: 28.75 inches (9th %ile)

Head: 18.75 inches (91st %ile)

Her height was actually exactly the same as it was at her 1 year check-up, but they just got a new fancy schmancy measuring contraption at the pediatrition's office that is apparently supposed to be more accurate than the old fashioned draw-a-line-at-her-head-and-foot method.

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This little girl keeps me on my toes. Over the last month or two, she definitely seems to have changed from a baby to a toddler - she is less needy and clingy (although, that is a relative statement - less clingy Cailyn is way more clingy than Rylee ever was!) and likes to play with other kids and explore everything. She LOVES playing with Rylee's tea set, which is funny to me because I never would have thought to get a tea set for Rylee at that age, but Cailyn loves playing with it just as much as Rylee does. She frequently comes over to me with a little cup and spoon and puts them up to my mouth and makes smacking noises.

She could walk if she wanted to now, but doesn't really seem very motivated most of the time. She stands herself up without help all the time and will occasionally take a few steps, but for the most part she only walks if she's holding on to my finger and will drop to the floor as soon as I let go (even though I'm really not helping her.)

Her 5th and 6th teeth have recently broken through, so she now has two teeth on the bottom and four on the top.

Cailyn has a rapidly expanding vocabulary. I will try to list as many of her words as I can think of right now:

mommy, dada, Rylee, grandma/grandpa (she pronounces these the same), Ava, baby, dog, ball, water, drink, juice, milk, cheese, shoe, sock, Elmo, book, spoon, duck, bath, shower...I'm sure there are lots more, but those are the ones I could come up with off the top of my head.

A Small Miracle

On Friday we went to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum with Ava and the Jensen girls - a great activity for a snowy day!

I was amazed that I actually managed to snap a picture

with all 6 girls looking at the camera and kind of smiling!

Katie, McKenna, Brooke, Rylee, Ava, Cailyn

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Later that afternoon, we played in the snow out back. Here are a few cute shots:

(This is what it looks like when an almost-4-year-old girl wears 18-24 month snow pants - Ava just borrowed what we had! Isn't she a pretty angel?)

R hearts Q

This morning I asked Rylee if she wanted to make a "Queen Q" today.

She said, "No, I want to make a QUINN Q!"

So that's just what we did...

Q is for Quinn(I asked her what kind of stickers she wanted to use and she chose the hearts.)

Then, since R is next, I asked (knowing full well what she would say) what kind of R she wanted to make. So...
R is for Rylee

She said she wanted to make a silly face, not a smiley face, to take this picture...

Edamommy

When you eat this much "edamommy," I guess your smile turns green.
(This is Rylee starting on her second bag...the bowl on the left is all the empty pods she's already eaten.)

Cali

We went to California for about 2 1/2 weeks in February - mostly to see Quinn - and had fun visiting family, friends, and just relaxing and being silly! We enjoyed the warm weather by picking flowers,

playing at the beach,

(Cailyn was much more comfortable on our second trip and actually played in the sand and water instead of just on a rock!)

(and Grandma came this time, too)

playing "baseball" with the old shower curtain rod when Grandma bought a new one,

and going to the Wild Animal Park (we steered clear of the petting zoo this time...remember last year when Rylee got mites or something there?)

Here are the girls with their Valentine's Day gifts from Mommy and Daddy...

(Cailyn's Elmo books disappeared that very day, I think at church...but she was VERY excited about them while they lasted! There were 4 books - Babies, Balls, Puppies, and Food - some of the things that she loves most!)

We soaked up the sun while eating picnics

and lollipops on the front lawn.

While we were at Colin's choir fundraiser, Cailyn had fun stuffing Grandpa's mouth full of plastic spoons,

and Rylee chose cupcakes with rings stuck in the frosting for herself and her Daddy - a "flootball" one for Daddy and a butterfly one for herself.

We took about a week coming back home. The idea behind that was so I could drive while the girls were sleeping and could avoid any total melt downs, and it wound up being really fun - we got to see lots of friends and family along the way! We went up to Santa Maria with Quinn for a day to scope out the area, then began the trek back. We saw Nathan and Sadie (although we didn't get any picutres), Avery,

Grandpa Dave (we stopped for dinner at his home away from home...highlights of our visit included playing "throw catch" with a ball, Rylee finding a smoke detector and deciding that it was lots of fun to push the button, and the girls devouring Grandpa Dave's stash of Tic Tacs),

and Payton, Halle, and Cael. Rylee and Halle played and played,

and we happened to be there for Cael's 2nd birthday, so we went swimming

and ate pizza and cake to celebrate.

Sure was a busy and fun trip!

Cousin Sleepover

So after I turned off the computer last night and was headed to bed, I checked in on the girlies and found them snuggled, practically on top of each other! I couldn't not post this picture. My favorite conversations that have been had today so far went as follows:

Ava had pigtails yesterday and slept on them, so she woke up with kind of crazy hair...

Rylee: Mommy, I want crazy hair like Ava's!

Ava: I don't have crazy hair - my hair is beautiful! It's so fun to be pretty!

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After a little toddler fight, Ava was quiet and reserved and Rylee was trying to play with her...

Rylee (in a sad, whimpery voice, while she tried to hug Ava): Ava, I need you! I am your cousin, remember me? Remember me, Ava?

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And Cailyn joined in on the monkey jumping today. The big girls graduated to doing handstands...kind of. (Notice my lovely blinds that Rylee ripped apart in the guest room last summer...ordering replacements is actually on my to do list this week.)

I love these girls.

Bedtime

It's past my bedtime, but I've been uploading pictures and videos from my camera and thought I'd post a few "bedtime" things before I hit the sack.

This was bedtime at our house tonight. Ava wound up staying at our house for an impromptu sleepover. Before they fell asleep (which, by the way, didn't take long - my threats to take Rylee out of the guest room and put her in her bed if they didn't sleep worked like a charm!) these silly monkeys jumped their energy out on the bed... ...and hammed it up for the camera.

This video of Rylee telling me a bedtime story was taken a few weeks ago when we were in California. And, no, there's nothing wrong with your computer - the lights were just out, so it's black (: