18 Month Update

Rylie just had her 18 month doctor appointment. In the last 3 months she has managed to gain a one half of a pound! But she grew an inch and a half. So she is weighing in at 21.5 (9th percentile) and is 31.5 inches long (39th percentile). While she's not a real big eater, we attribute the majority of her lack of weight gain to how BUSY she is. If she's not sleeping, she is moving!

While we didn't see a big change in her size, we did notice a big change in her vocabulary over the past three months. And since I don't update her baby book (in fact I have yet to complete most of it), here is a list of words she knows at 18 months in no particular order...they don't all have the proper pronunciation yet, but at least we can understand her.

Uh-oh, wow, milk, cracker, all done, again, thank you, please, go, shoe, sock, bounce, dada, mama, up, down, ow, peek-a-boo, yes, open, close, what's that, outside, bath, night night, hello, hi, bye bye, ball, papa, banana, hot, blue, red, eye, toes, yes, honk, one, two, three, GO PACK GO, and the new favorite- NO. It's pretty much her response to any question these days.

She is in a stage where she loves to mimick what we do...groaning as she bends over (like Grr Mom) and whispering in church (like mommy and daddy). She also repeats a lot of what we say...some recent ones- holy cow, oh man, oh God (thanks to papa)...it was a one time occurence :-)

She points to all parts of her body and then has to immediately identify them on all those around her as well. She loves to "honk honk" your nose (again thanks to papa). She knows her animal sounds for cow, duck, elephant (still want this on video), horse, doggie, kitty, sheep.

She LOVES books, drawing (with close supervision), and baths. We're working on ABC's, counting past three, and putting more than one word together at a time.

We love this age of Rylie...if we could only freeze time for a little while. It's so fun for us to see her learning and discovering new things each day.

And to follow this long post...are pictures from her 18 month "photo shoot"...I only have to take about 50 to get a few good ones :-)

Voom voom!

Rylie watched Daddy get his snowmobile ready to go up North. He was racing in circles around the house and every time he went by she said "voom voom".

Waiting...

She was knocking on the window when he stopped


Some others just for fun...

Watching the Pack WIN from the best seat in the house

Touchdown!

This spot is popular in the mornings too- Handy Manny!

Another favorite spot- which pretty much consist of anything she can climb into or onto

silly girl

loves her straws

New Year's Eve

Dan and I spent our first ever whole weekend away from Rylie on New Year's Eve! I was a bridesmaid in a great friend's wedding in Minneapolis on New Year's Eve. This is the second one I've been in on New Year's Eve, and I have to say, it's the best way to ring in the new year. So much fun! I saw a lot of friends from college and it was so great to catch up with them. I miss those girls...wish it didn't take a wedding to bring us all back together!


At the rehearsal dinner

The beautiful bride!

...and her 50 bustle ties...yes 5-0!

the ladies

Helping set up- what a guy

The fun begins...


I'll teach him how to use the zoom next time

Two big nerds

I'll spare you the photo of the midnight kiss and some other crazy ones too! We had a great time, but couldn't wait to see the little one waiting for us back at my parents house. She kept quite busy while we were gone and probably didn't miss us for a second.

Playing with my old kitchen

Celebrating during dinner

Ready to ring in the new year (at 9pm)

And the next day, we all cheered on the Badgers...unfortunately we didn't cheer loud enough!

Christmas...finally.

We celebrated Christmas early with Dan's family, so we spent all of Christmas in La Crosse this year. We arrived on the night of the 23rd and had quite the trip out there. Dan's mom watched Rylie at her house while we worked that day, so we picked her up in Oconomowoc on our way out of town. The one time that we actually left on time, as Rylie was finishing up dinner, Dan realized he forgot one of the bags...only the most important bag- the one with prescriptions, makeup, straighteners, etc. So we drove 40 minutes back to our house, came within an inch of hitting a deer on the way, grabbed the bag and hit the road for the second time. Only to get pulled over for speeding in the town of Rio. The cop was SUPER nice and Dan got off with a warning.

We arrived at least an hour later than planned, around 10pm. Mom, Dad and Patrick were out down at the Freight House listening to Dan Sebranek play (he played for our wedding ceremony). They were going to meet us at home, but we decided to stop down there since Rylie was going to be woken up anyway. We listened to a few songs and then Dan and I ended up meeting up with Sara, a friend from high school. She was in town from D.C. and that was my only chance to see her. So Grandpa and Grandma took Rylie home and we stayed out for the night!

We got up early on Christmas Eve morning to go see Grandpa at the radio station. Dan Sebranek and his band String Ties were playing Christmas music in my dad's studio - it was beautiful! They played for the last hour of his show and we got there in time to catch a couple songs. Rylie wouldn't talk on the air, but she did dance to the music.

Helllloooo La Crosse!

String Ties- each playing a different instrument-bass, banjo, guitar and mandolin

We went home for breakfast and Rylie's morning nap. By early afternoon we were off to the annual Christmas Eve stop at Rose Jewelers. They close at 2:00, so we head over then for a couple drinks. Steve Rose's daughter Heidi and her husband Tim have a little boy, Maxx. He just turned 3. He and Rylie played together and he was very good about sharing his Buzz and Woody action figures. However, they seemed to have the most fun playing in the box full of food for the food drive. It may have had something to do with the balloons.
Notice the crazy static in her hair



Rylie loves drawing on the doodle pro at Beth's house, so they decided to give her one of her own for Christmas. Needless to say, we took it just about everywhere with us.


Talented

This is the first year we spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house. We usually go over to Grandpa and Grandma Jenks house, but it's just getting too hard for them to host. My Aunt and Uncle went to their kids homes instead of them all coming up here, so Grandpa and Grandma came to us instead. We opened a few gifts on Christmas Eve. We opened gifts from Dan's Aunt and Uncle, who we didn't get to see on Christmas this year. Rylie also had a few gifts from great Aunts and Uncles that she opened as well. She did great unwrapping gifts on her own.
Great Grandpa and Grandma also opened their gift...a new TV for their bedroom.

Rylie went to bed and then Santa came and dropped off a ridiculous amount of gifts:


Christmas morning, we went downstairs where Rylie saw a gift from Santa left under the tree...her own pink laptop.

Not that this will stop her from trying to use ours

Hmmm...this looks like a Rose Jewelers box...is it for me??


We went over to my Grandma LaVonne's for brunch and an afternoon with my Aunt, Uncles and cousins. We only see them all a couple times a year, so it was great to catch up. Then we go back home to open our gifts and have the annual prime rib and crab leg dinner.
Opening her stocking gifts...that didn't even all fit in her stocking


Cute little reindeer

unwrapping

Her very own carhartts to help daddy in the yard


Modeling Rylie's towel


Great Grandpa's annual gift- a board of numbers for the bowl games

This is part of my pile of partially opened gifts- somehow Santa failed to label only my gifts...so they had to be checked in the other room first...it was hilarious

Lounging with Great Grandpa and Grandma

And the big hit of the night (she lost her skirt and sweater by this time)- a tent from Uncle Patrick

It was a hit with daddy later that night too

I love Christmas night...and every year that Rylie gets to spend with all of her Great Grandparents, just makes it that much more special.

Still a hit the next morning

Hooked up the tunnel

Drawing with Grandma and Papa

I was off work from Christmas until January 3 and since I was in my friend Jen's wedding on New Year's Eve in Minneapolis, we decided to just stay in La Crosse until then rather than drive to Milwaukee and back again. Dan did some work from my parents house and did some ice fishing with my dad and brother and visited a few of the usual establishments too. I got to hang out with Rylie, do some shopping and actually read an entire book (I think it's the 2nd one since Rylie was born) on my new Kindle!

Silly girl in her hat and beads- they are a necessity every time we visit

With the crazy amount of snow La Crosse had (we had none!), we had hoped to bring the snowmobiles with the extra time we had there, but it just didn't work out.

During the week, we were able to have dinner with a couple of girls (and their hubbys) I used to work with at the bank...miss them! And last, but not least, my bestie, Elaine got into town on Wed. night so we got to go out for a night with her before leaving for Minneapolis on Thurs. She actually MOVED BACK to WI, so I plan on seeing much more of her!!

Peek-a-boo!

There are TONS of Christmas pictures coming, but in the mean time...

Peek-a-boo!