One Year

Scarlett turned 1 on May 13th. She is quickly changing from a baby to a little girl which is very bittersweet. I have been getting weekly emails from babycenter.com since she was born that say things like, "Your baby: 4 months 1week", and "Your baby: 9 months 3 weeks". The email I got from them the week of her birthday said, "Your toddler: 1 year". I maybe cried a little. She's a toddler... it's true! Here are a few things about Scarlett at 1 year:

 Day 1

Year 1

- Loves fruit, especially oranges. We were driving back from Trader Joe's the other day and she somehow got a mango out of the bag and had gnawed through almost half of it by the time we got home. 

- Still loves to nurse, but is starting to explore cow's milk as well. 

- Not walking yet but getting closer. She loves to push around her little walker and has improved so much already since her birthday. It's only a matter of time! 

- She's so busy. She gets into everything! Her favorite activities include putting trash in the recycling and vice versa, pulling all her clothes out of her drawers, taking all the books and movies off of our shelves, setting surprise alarms on the clock in our bedroom, etc.)

- Loves babies. She kisses/licks their heads, pats their tummies and backs, and hugs her dollies so tight.

- She likes to blow raspberries on on her mom and dad's cheeks, arms, legs, wherever she can.

- She really likes to swing at the park, and to be outside in general. She giggles when the door opens and bolts to it and cries when it closes. 

- Her favorite toys are cars or anything else she can push around.

- She's a pro at going up our stairs and is starting to figuring out how to come back down. 

- She likes to give a really cheesy smile where her eyes squint shut, her nose crinkles, and her little teeth show.

-Ah her teeth! She's got 12. That last little molar just poked through!

- She likes to fling herself onto pillows, our padded ottoman, and her mom and dad. She puts her hands high in the air and then collapses down over and over. She did this the other day on an exercise ball and went flying backward!

-Scarlett is so sweet and good natured that she makes our job easy, but has just enough sass that she's not boring. 

- She loves being around other kids. At the store, park, and church she wiggles away from me and crawls away to the nearest child. Once she gets to them she just watches what they do and eventually climbs up on them to give them a hug.

Trying out her birthday present for the first time. 

Potpourri

Considering my daughter's age has doubled since my last post, I guess I'm about due for another one (post that is… not another daughter).  On Jeopardy, they have a category called 'potpourri'. It's basically a hodge podge of random stuff that doesn't fit into one distinct category. So that's what this post is. Potpourri of the last few months. My apologies to those of you who don't like these types of posts (I'm looking at you Stephanie Erin). I'll try to keep my words as short as possible and let the pictures do a lot of the talking. 

October: 

- On October 10th my Grandpa Vince passed away. He would have turned 94 in March. He died the day before his 70th wedding anniversary. He was the sweetest, ornery man in the world (I guess you would have to know him to understand) with a great head of hair. The funeral was very nice and it was fun to see so many aunts, uncles, and cousins that I don't see very often. One thing you may not know about me is that I'm not much of a crier. I take that back… I'm not much of an even crier. I'm sort of like a fire hydrant. Most the time the water is locked inside and I'm dry as a bone. Well, my sister Carrie and I were asked to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" at the funeral, and our sister Julie accompanied us. We practiced long and hard for the event. Practicing in the church before the service, we sounded great (if I do say so myself). We got up to sing, and it all started out fine. Then Carrie started to cry, and a semi truck ran into that fire hydrant in me. Oh well. It's the thought that counts I guess. Good thing Julie held strong and had a beautiful piano solo.

- Scarlett was a cow for her first Halloween. We were in Idaho, so we tagged along trick-or-treating with Julie's kids. Don't worry, I'm not one of those people who collects candy for my baby, who can't eat it, just so I can eat it myself later (Although, I witnessed many mom's of this nature while passing out my parent's candy). She did get a board book from our friend and neighbor Gail Browning though! My brother's dog was a lobster. Scarlett and Farfel together were 'the surf and turf special'.

-Scarlett got her first two teeth somewhere in there (I think around the 19th)

November:

- Clint and Julie had their 5th baby! William Beck Schnoor. He goes by Beck. He's a doll and may be the only blue-eyed kid in his family if they stay that way. 

-We celebrated 'Fakesgiving' with the Buttars side a couple of weeks early because Carrie and Jude were in town for Beck's birth… but missed it by a day. 

-We celebrated real Thanksgiving with the Lindseys. 

-Scarlett's 6 month appointment: weight- 18 lbs, height- 26 in, head-18 in 

December:

-Scarlett had her 6 month pictures taken, only I was a month late getting on the ball so they are technically 7 month pictures.

- Baby's 1st Christmas!! Christmas was a lot of fun. We stayed down in Mapleton with the Lindsey's for the weekend. We only live about 30 minutes away, but we didn't want to miss out on any of the action. Jonny's sister Michelle and her husband Nate were here from Washington DC. His littlest sister Jenae was there, and Lisa, Dave, and family stuck around this year, too! On Christmas day, Ben and Sydney came down from her parents house in Kaysville so we got to all party together. The highlight of my day was watching Jonny's dad dance to Britney Spears on the Wii "Just Dance" game. It.was.awesome. I sort of feel bad about one thing though. Jonny's mom plays the organ at church. I halfway jokingly said a few days before Christmas that we better be singing my favorite, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", on Christmas day in church. Well we weren't- but she called the chorister changed it because of me. Longfellow's lyrics to that song are beautiful and moving and have a wonderful Christmas message. It's my mom's favorite, too.

First present!

Jenae, Michelle, Scarlett, and I after church.

Christmas Eve at the Brobergs

- The day after Christmas, Scarlett and I packed up and bummed a ride to Twin Falls with my brother Ryan and sister-in-law Chelsea because Jonny had to work all week. He met up with us on New Year's Eve and we partied with the Buttars side. We sang karaoke, lit off ariel fireworks twice (10:00 for the kids and 12:00 for the adults and Jack), played games, and ate lots and lots of treats. Carrie and I had this brilliant plan for a kid's Chinese New Year's party, even though it wasn't really the actual Chinese New Year. They played pin the tail on the dragon since 2012 is the year of the dragon. They had to guess which Chinese characters said their names, and which beanie babies represented their year of birth. We had 3 little rabbits born last year in the year of the rabbit. We also had a piñata. So I guess it was a Chinese/Mexican New Year. Scarlett's first act in the New Year was to wake up January 1st with a new tooth (her top left). The top right next to it is probably popping out as I write this… I'm hoping. The pesky thing has been close for days.

All 9 Buttars grandkids and Farfel in their Christmas jammies.

What's new with Lettie-Lou:

- Scarlett is getting so big and so smart. She's 8 months old today! If you hold her and say, "Scarlett, do you want a shoulder ride?" she'll turn around, stick her arms out, and get in position for one. If I say, "Give me kisses," she buries her cheek into my mouth or eats my face. She can't crawl yet, but can scootch backwards. This frustrates her because she is trying to get closer to me and ends up farther away. She also tries to push off the floor and stand up and ends up diving forwards. The last couple of days she started getting herself into a push up plank position. I think that's quite an amazing trick considering her head to body ratio and the voluptuousness of her little body! I sort of think she might skip crawling and just walk instead. Scarlett is a little Mama's girl. I love this 95% of the time. She lights up every time she sees me. She dives to me from other people's arms. It's precious. She also gets nervous and cries every time I leave the room or put her down to do anything for too long. That's the 5% downside. Scarlett is still a great eater. She still nurses on demand most of the time, but we have started to feed her fruit, vegetables, and puffs (the peach ones are delicious. One for Scarlett.. one for Mama… one for Scarlett… one for Mama). 

At Grandma and Grandpa's apartment in SLC (more on that later). Scarlett got these new jammies after pooping all over her clothes. Good thing Gma and Gpa live above a mall right now!!

Oh! One last thing. Let me explain myself. You may have… or may in the future see pictures of me floating around. I am not a model!! Well, technically I am, but not in the way that you are thinking! My brother-in-law Dave sells stock photography on the side of his regular job and uses his family and friends as 'models'. What is stock photography? Next time you are driving down the freeway or flipping through a brochure, take a look at the billboards and pictures you see. That smiling Asian woman drinking coffee and chatting with her attractive black and blond/blue-eyed best friends were not hired by the company for their advertisement! That is a stock photo. Dave uploads the pictures onto websites, then companies pay him to download the file for their various needs. A while back (like a year and a half ago) Dave decided to do a little photo shoot with my Jonny's sisters Michelle and Jenae and me. Our job: show up to Rock Canyon park in exercise clothes. Most of the time, we don't know where these pictures show up. I do know the three of us were in a magazine in North Carolina. All of us are also currently in a Weight Watchers ad in Fitness magazine. I have been in Alaska airlines in-flight magazine, an Isagenix catalog, listening to my i-pod on Shape.com's website, and stretching before a good run on the Biggest Loser website. If you see me pop up anywhere else, let me know. It's pretty funny. What do I get out of all of this? Mostly free pictures! I have high quality edited pictures from Scarlett's blessing, Christmas card pictures, maternity pictures, Cancun trip pictures, etc. And occasionally Dave buys us dinner! 

Weight Watchers ad

Shape.com

Biggest Loser :)