Cuteness...to tide you over

So much to blog about...so little time.  

We were celebrating Thanksgiving in the wilderness last week, and so blogging was impossible. Now we are back and there is lots of blog about, but also lots of other things to do. Eventually blogging will resume, but in the mean time, a cute picture of little Papillon from vacation...wearing Uncle A's hat!

Enough cuteness to get you through until regular blogging resumes I hope...

Full Fledged Pony Tail

It's hard to tell...

...cause once I got it up, she wouldn't hold still for a picture...

...but we got it ALL up!

A full fledged pony tail with all her hair! And it stayed in until we had to go somewhere in the car (car seats do a number on hairstyles that stick straight out the back). 

People keep asking me when she is going to get her first hair cut.  The correct answer is "not for a long time". It's long, yes. Sometimes it's in her face, yes. But Mon Amour and I both want Papillon to have long hair and don't want to deal with bangs.  So I do my bestest with bows and pony tails. But there is no haircut in the works for this kiddo for now. 

Before long we'll be working on braids!

Illness

Last week marked an adventurous new first for us. Papillon had her first legitimate illness. Sure, we've been to the hospital for malnutrition, and she's had the sniffles, some yeast infections and one round of pink eye.  But really, no serious bugs. 

Until last week when we were hit by a stomach bug deluxe.  We are pretty sure that Mon Amour brought this bug back from his travels; he had a bit of bug of his own when he returned, and based on the timing and symptoms of Papillon's illness, I think we can safely blame Mon Amour. 

Symptoms included diarrhea (like whoa!), vomitting, a fever around 103, and a generally sleepy and desperately-in-need-of-snuggles-baby.   She was sick most all week, and three solid days mostly looked like this:

Adorably pathetic, isn't it?

It was tough times. Turns out that pregnant me gets very emotional about a sick child. The morning she woke up with vomit in her hair, I just fell to tears. I wanted to make it better instantly but that was not possible. All we could do was snuggle, stay on a tylenol regimen and drink lots of water. (Side note: Papillon detests Pedialyte...we even watered it down with like 6 parts water to 1 part pedialyte...she is like a pedialyte bloodhound.) 

I am pleased to report that she is nearly 100% better...I would call it 99%. I think we are just fighting some remaining weariness, and a bit of an addition to snuggles...

...despite the lack of symptoms, she has decided that snuggling all day is pretty much the best thing ever and gets more than a little whiny if you don't comply.

I am thankful for a generally very healthy kid, and also thankful for all the snuggles necessitated by this illness, but mostly thankful that the vomit-in-her-hair mornings are over....for now.

Just had to share

Aren't these two the cutest, most innocent looking duo you've ever seen in a shopping cart together?

It's Papillon and her friend on a recent shopping trip, sharing a bag of goldfish

Baby Practice for Papillon

Last weekend, we had a friend and her little red headed son visit us for a bit. 

I love little babies, and we had lots of fun! 

It was also good practice for this scruffy headed kid who is soon to be a big sister. 

She was pretty good over all. She was ok when I held the little guy, and also enjoyed trying to hand him stuff and tickle him.   But there were definite moments of jealousy and some post-baby-visit-clingy-ness has ensued.  But who could resist being jealous of this adorable little face?

Leaf Raking

Following some cold weather, and a very blustery day, a fair amount of the leaves around here are off the trees. This means it is time for some raking! And for introducing Papillon to some fall fun! 

Believe it or not, Papillon loved her mittens despite how they prevented her from picking stuff up. I think she categorizes them in with accessories (shoes, socks, necklaces), all of which she loves.  

She was not entirely sure how she felt about the whole fall-fun thing. The leaves were moderately interesting, but hard to walk through. And when I set her down in a pile of them, she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do.  

So she mostly stood in one place for 45 minutes, watching me rake and staring at her mittens. 

Despite the rather lack luster response, it was a pretty good introduction to leaf pile fun!

Visiting Friends

 While Mon Amour was traveling, we packed our schedule full of fun friends. Poor Papillon eventually got overwhelmed with all the visits, but over all, we had a hugely fun time! 

Playing together!

Cute friends! 

One night we had delicious spaghetti. Papillon has never really liked the spaghetti I make for her, but she LOVED this spaghetti.  She at sooooooo much! And kept asking for more. She even preferred it over the accompanying bread, which is a first. Bread is generally a hands down favorite over anything.

Thanks to all the friends who helped pass the time pleasantly over the past couple weeks!

Halloween Cuteness

 For Halloween, Papillon and I had plans to sit on our front steps and hand out candy while she looked adorably cute in her frog costume.  Unfortunately, our plans were foiled by circumstances beyond our control.  

Nonetheless, Papillon managed to look adorably cute in her costume in the afternoon. 

What a cute sad face!

 A little froggy fun!

 So excited!

 Funny froggy face!

 and a little climbing on Nannie's suitcase...

 ...in order to have a comfier seat for magazine reading.

Pony Tail!

Guess who has enough hair for a pony tail!! 

It doesn't quite all make it back, but we are very very very close! 

16 Months

 Yesterday, Papillon turned 16 months old...and she loves books! 

But I have shared that before...it just so happened this time it was the only way to get her to hold remotely still for her Snoopy-photo. 

At 16 months, Papillon....

....goes to bed around 7:30 and gets up anywhere from 7:30am til 9am. With the occasional 9:30am slipped in!  

...takes 1 nap. Usually 1:30 - 4pm.  

 ....has started saying more words. At her 15 month doctor's appointment, I had to confess that she only really said one word ("Hi"), but the week following that appointment she added a bunch of new words to her vocabulary!  She says Hi, Eyes, Hot, Hat, Stuck, Yuck, Duck, Help, Elephant (usually with just 2 syllables, but there were 3 full syllables one time!), Mouth, Shoes, and a few other things said with varying clarity.

...is learning some body parts. She knows eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, tummy, hands, and feet. She can find them on other people, or stuffed animals or pictures. She is not super-good and finding them on herself, but she is getting there.

 ...is working on more teeth. Or at least one more - one on the top right. As always, it is coming in slowly and not causing us too much trouble.  Slow and steady wins the race for this kiddo.

 ...is incredibly affectionate and loving. But I have concluded that she is a definite introvert.  We have been all over the place lately, visiting friends, and staying with people while Mon Amour is out of town, and the poor kid just got totally overwhelmed. At one point we left one friends house, and I think she thought we were going home, cause when we arrive at another friend's house she gave me a look that could kill and then hid her face on my shoulder. After that trip was over, we came home and I didn't think she would nap because she had slept in the car, but I put her in her crib anyway. And she was just so happy to be home and alone, that she just sat and played for 1.5 hours. And afterwards she was hugely refreshed.  So yeah, she's an introvert. 

...loves her socks, shoes and coat. And necklaces. And the new bows we bought her the other day. Methinks she is all girl. 

....loves to torment Marge. We had taught her that she could push Marge away if Marge tried to eat her snacks. Now she takes her snacks over to Marge, holds them out for her, then, squeals in pretend-anger and swats and Marge's face. She is such a tease. Our dog is so patient. 

...is getting better and better at following orders. You ask her to find something for you (a book, a different book, her elephant, etc) and she can find it easily. It's amazing how much she understands! 

....is incredibly sweet and fun loving and I love her to pieces!

Pretty Pics

 We recently visited with a friend who owns a swanky camera, and it happened to be a day that Papillon was feeling very photogenic, so the pictures just had to be shared!

Practical Things

At her 15 month appointment, Papillon's doctor inquired whether Papillon was imitating household chores and such. In the moment I couldn't think of anything - we don't have a play kitchen, or a toy vacuum or any such thing, so I wasn't sure what kinds of things to look for. 

True to form, it was just a day or two later, that she did this...

...keys right up to the doorknob, complete with unlocking motion. 

So yes, she seems to be properly on track for imitating household stuff.  

She has also, since, discovered the joys of stirring a pot full of small toys while I make dinner!

Random Lovely-ness

Somehow I neglected to blog about this summer's annual outing with these lovely ladies:

But I recently stumbled across our pre-outing pictures and I couldn't resist posting them.

I love these lovely ladies!! I am already looking forward to next year's outing!

Mommy Daughter Date

On a recent evening home alone, Papillon and I decided to go on a little date. 

First stop, a shoe store. Papillon loves shoes. And it was a huge shoe store. So we walked around a bit, had fun times in the clearance section. Waved adorably at a few other shoe shoppers, and eventually found a fabulous pair of shoes for me. 

Next stop Panera, where things got super fun!

Papillon enjoyed her grilled cheese sandwich and said Hi to everyone who came past. She played peek a boo with the lady in the booth next to us. She was excited to recognize the dog in the painting on the wall. Laughed at everything, and was generally just hilarious fun.

Nothing is quite as delicious as a good grilled cheese.

After dinner, it was already Papillon's bed time. But we had to walk past the Petsmart to get to our car, and who can resist taking a short cut into the retail store that's as good as a zoo to a 15 month old? In we went, Papillon was unsure at first, the largeness of the store was overwhelming. Then she spotted a dog across the store. She promptly let go of my hand, screamed in delight, and took off running. It was precious. Though her choice of dog was unwise (it was huge!), so I snatched her up and headed off to find something friendlier looking. 

We admired the fish and frogs, birds and gerbils and eventually came across a nice little old lady who was more than happy to let Papillon pet and giggle over her tiny, fluffy dog. 

By the time we got home we were both thoroughly bushed, but it was possibly one of the most fun Papillon and I have had together. She is normally a lot of fun, but this was an evening full of grinning-ear-to-ear giggling-at-everything, for both of us!