Our Sweet Boy Murphy

We had to put our sweet boy Murphy to sleep yesterday. He would have been 16 in April - a truly amazing feat considering how lazy and stubborn he was, and how much he loved chocolate.
Murphy has always been my dog and after leaving for college, my mom took over and gave him all the love he could ever ask for. Though he stayed at my parents house for the remainder of his years, I always felt a special bond when I walked in and saw him. It was as if he knew I was his human and he was my dog. That special bond never once was broken. He let Peyton love on him, snuggle with him, and give him lots of kisses. He knew Peyton was my daughter and she was allowed in on those special moments. Here's a picture of Peyton with Murphy the day before he passed away. He's my sweet boy.

So big!

Peyton is just getting bigger by the day. She is talking a lot more, though most of it is in some foreign language similar to Japanese, and does the occasional sign for "more" and "water." Her speech is a little off but I am surprised (and so relieved) that I am able to understand most of what she says. When I was younger and used to babysit for 2-4 year olds, I would often have a hard time understanding what the kids were saying. Reading the lips of toddlers is no easy task, let me tell you. I was very worried I would struggle with Peyton when she started talking. But I guess, like it is with all parents, you know your kids well and understand what they are saying. She does love talking and is very enthusiatic about repeating words so I am excited about working on this with her!

She is still a full-blooded daddy's girl. The kid lights up when she sees her daddy, and the same goes for Brad. We both wanted all boys, but I think we are perfectly ok with having more girls. Brad sure does love his little girl and will do anything and everything in his power to make sure she is happy and well taken care of.

Peyton does tend to get frustrated easily and does not hesitate to let you know. The word "No" is not a very well liked word in this household. I have started a mini version of time out and I think Peyton understands it to a degree. I let her cry it out for a second, then we talk about it, and then we start playing with something else. She is incredibly smart and I can't wait to see how she does at Mother's Morning Out, which she gets to start in June (thanks to Mimi for getting us in!!!!). I also think playing with kids her age will help her out a lot. She does get to play with Evans almost on a daily basis which is great.

Other than that, Peyton is doing so well and growing so fast. I am looking forward to her 18-month check up to see how much she weighs and how tall she is!

16 months old!

Peyton turned 16 months old on the 27th of December. I just cannot believe time has flown by so quickly.

Feeding Habits:
After having such a hearty appetite early on, the child has become one seriously fickle eater. We try to get three meals down a day but often one or two actually happen. Peyton loves fruit, especially dried plums and berries. She also loves mac n' cheese, goldfish, nutter butter minis, fruit loops, and cookies. I do try to load her up on the fruit to counteract all the unhealthy foods she has come to love. She is not big on meat at all and often does the whole dramatic gagging-and-spitting-the-food-out scene when I do try to sneak in a bite of chicken. However, that being said, she does occasionally decide that a chicken nugget from Chik-fil-a is acceptable (in addition to those delicious waffle fries) and will eat an entire one! Such a momma's girl. I have limited her drinks to water, milk, V8 fruit and veggie drinks, and an occasional sip or two of sprite. I am trying to avoid juices and have done well so far. Peyton is so good about drinking water and I truly appreciate her for that. She has been drinking out of the sippie cup for quite some time now and still does well with that. A few months ago she picked up on drinking out of a straw and that is by far one of her most favorite activities. I learned pretty quickly that having a stash of straws in the house is a complete must as the girl will have a full-on meltdown if she does not have a straw with her drink. What a big girl! I will sadly admit that she is still fond of the bottle (my fault) which I have limited her to three a day. We are still in the process of weaning from the bottle - which she usually takes around nap time and bed time - but since she does so well with the sippie cup and drinking out of the straw, I am not worried.

Health:
I have been truly amazed at how healthy Peyton has been considering how bad the flu season has been and the germs I encounter at work. She does have the occasional cold but doesn't really complain much. Brad and I often do go overboard when she has a cold and load up on motrin and vapor rub, squirt saline spray up the nose accompanied by use of the dreaded and much hated suction bulb, and get the humidifier going at all times. But hey, she doesn't stay sick for long so we are obviously doing something right, right? She is such a trooper when she is sick and doesn't give any of us too much of a hard time. She is growing perfectly and has gotten a bit taller. (I don't have her height and weight yet...). I don't believe she has gained too much weight recently which is not a problem at all considering how "healthy" aka chubby she has been since day one. She does outweigh most kids her age and I often worry she will accidently body slam some of the younger kids at the gym's daycare. But hey, no injuries reported so far. At least to my knowledge...

Sleeping Habits:
I often find myself bragging about Peyton's sleeping habits. The kid sleeps great. She usually goes down around 8 pm and wakes up around 9 am. During the weekend she does let her parents have a special treat and sometimes sleeps till 10 am! A-maz-ing. She does occasionally cry out in the middle of the night. I have had to hold her a few times which I do not mind at all. It's the only time she will snuggle with me. Nap time is where we get a little iffy. Sometimes she will nap great - two three-hour naps a day - and sometimes, like today, no nap at all. It is partly my fault due to crazy schedules when I am home. I try to get a lot done during my days off and end up dragging Peyton all over town. She is such a trooper, especially with the installation of DVD players in both my and Brad's car, and tolerates me taking her everywhere.

Milestones:
Peyton does great with stairs now, and actually turns around before climbing down. Fewer grey hairs have appeared, whew. She loves imitating stunt people on t.v. with moves such as jumping off the bed, jumping off the couch, doing somersaults, and running around crazy often stumbling into objects and flying backwards. We have actually limited the bruises and cuts but she is so proud to show off her boo-boo when she does have one. She is talking up a storm nowadays but often she is the only one who knows what she is talking about. She has added several words to her vocabulary including: no, hush (to the dogs), dog, more, ball, baby, and more (which of course I cannot remember at this moment). She helps me get her dressed and undressed and lets me know when I am taking too long. She loves singing with anyone and I think she has the best voice I have ever heard. I will have to add on to this section when I remember more (definitely a good thing I have created this blog for her to read when she gets older since I already can't remember details).

Overall:
Peyton loves running, dancing, laughing, and playing peek-a-boo. She loves watching movies and telling you how she feels. She loves snuggling with her blankets and will let you know in a heartbeat that it is completely unacceptable to wash them while she is awake. Her favorite word is "No" and does not hesitate to use it. Her new word of the month is "Hot" and says it as she touches everything, including the cold grapes she's having for dinner. She has the hippest wardrobe and often makes her mommy wonder if it comes in her size. She absolutely adores her Mimi and plays hard with her cousin Evans. She loves giving hugs and kisses. She loves saying "Bye!!!" in her southern twang of an accent to anyone that will listen. She loves waving to anyone what will look. In other words, she is the happiest, healthiest, and most perfect child on earth and we are truly blessed!

Stranger Anxiety

Peyton has always been a people lover having never met a stranger. I was hoping she would by-pass the stranger anxiety stage but recently it has hit full force. This afternoon we made a quick run to the grocery store and she did great until we made it to the check out counter. The lady at the register could not have been any sweeter, asking Peyton how she was and what Santa was going to bring her for Christmas. Peyton made very unfriendly faces at her and looked the other way. After paying and loading up the groceries I asked Peyton if she could say bye-bye and she suddenly became the sweetest girl ever - smiled, waved, and blew kisses to everyone that looked her way. If she has such mood swings already at this age, I am in for some serious trouble when she hits the teenager years.

Brad and I had a soccer game tonight and so we had one of Peyton's favorite babysitters, Wanda, come watch her. Wanda has been sick with pneumonia and hasn't been able to come by for two weels. Peyton must have forgotten about her because when Wanda came, Peyton was not friendly at all. When it came time for me to leave, Peyton threw the biggest fit ever - screaming, crying with the biggest tears I have ever seen, hugging me and wouldn't let go. It broke my heart! Wanda told me that Peyton did eventually warm up and they had a great night together. Still, I feel so bad! Hopefully she will get over this phase soon!

Sorry for a lack of pictures, it really stinks not having a camera!

Peyton and Brad went to Florida for Thanksgiving since I had to work both Thanksgiving day and the day after. From what I understand she was on her best behavior and loved seeing all of her extended family. She even waved bye-bye for everyone! She has always been very sociable, never having met a stranger. Until recently. Nowadays, she has become very shy and requires a little bit of time to warm up. So it was great hearing that she did so well meeting people for the first time. When she came back from Florida, she even acted like she had missed me! This is a total switch considering how much she is a daddy's girl. The girl loves her daddy.

Today we went to a birthday party down the street and Peyton did well. She was very shy in the beginning but slowly warmed up to all the party goers. Sharing is not her best feature and that trait definitely shined today, but she is getting better. She played hard with all the little ones and took a three hour nap afterwards. She was pooped!

Tonight Brad and I had some friends over for football and dinner. Once again she was shy but eventually warmed up. At one point she was playing peek-a-boo with my friend and then the unthinkable happened. She said 'mommy.' As I mentioned before, Peyton has always been a daddy's girl and has been saying 'daddy' for quite some time. I love the fact that she is so close to her daddy, but I was becoming quite envious of how she refused to call me mommy. While she was playing peek-a-boo, she hollered 'mommy' and looked around as if she was making sure I was still there. It is amazing how one word will make such an impact. When she kept repeating the word, it took everything to not break down and cry. The word sounds so beautifully to my ears! My little girl is getting so big!

Monsters, Inc.

Is it too early to decorate for Christmas? I am just dying to get decorations up. I don't have anything fancy but I did notice today two good spots to put up wreaths on the front of my house. So sad how I get so excited about that. Definitely a sign of getting older.

Peyton is giving me gray hairs on a daily basis. Today her adventures included propping a part of the gate that we use to lock up the dogs against her red wagon and climbing up the gate into the wagon and vice versa. I finally had to move the wagon onto the grass so she wouldn't keep hitting her head on the sidewalk as she climbed out of the wagon. She has been practicing going down steps and I will brag a little about the fact that she is and has done pretty darn well with learning how to sit down then scoot down the step. That said, she has taken a few tumbles down entire flights at my parent's house. Thank goodness the only steps we have are to the basement (basement door now has two bolts on it) and steps from our front porch to the sidewalk. Today she miscalculated how close her feet were to the edge of the step and took a tumble down. Now, I have always been a klutz. As you guys know, I have the weirdest luck too. Deer crossing anyone? As I watch Peyton grow, I am close to coming to the conclusion that Peyton may just have inherited my luck. Remember the rare hemorrhagic eye virus? I mean, really? Really? I digress. So Peyton fell down the front steps today but she was able to break her fall by landing into the flower pot that I have on the bottom step, then tumble down the the ground. Thankfully she emerged with only a small scrape on her arm. She got up, I dusted planting soil off of her face, and she walked down the sidewalk, looked back at the steps with her eyes raised obviously wondering what the heck just happened, and then continued on to the wagon. The child has no fear.

Also, Peyton has now discovered the awesomeness of movies. She has never been a fan of the TV which has been ok with us. Every now and then she would watch the Einstein dvds for brief periods of time which was great for me when I needed to clean. Well all of a sudden about a month ago she is just the biggest fan of the movie, Monsters Inc. I actually bought this movie for myself a few years ago. So crazy to think that my own daughter would come to watch it. Craziness. So now the game room is 100% Peyton's room. We have it set up with a large flat screen tv, dvd player, two couches, and a makeshift coffee table thinking we would use it for rainy days and Brad's xbox. How silly we were to think we would have an big kid room in the house. It actually is perfect for Peyton. We moved her special chair to the room, put the pillows on the floor to help her climb off the couch (when I say climb, I mean fall), scattered her toys and blankets around, and boy she is set for life. She loves that room and runs in there several times a day to watch her Monsters movie. She even does the "scary feet" moment in the movie. So adorable. Also a great break for us while we try to eat and such. Good times!

Happy Halloween!

I am so bad at this! Since I lost my camera (and because of Peyton's meltdown), I was not able to get many pictures but here are a few....