Tuesday, August 16, 2011

What's in a name?

Josh and I have officially decided on a name for baby Herring #2...

Graham Webb Herring

Josh chose Graham.  Like Piper's first name, we wanted something different but not weird.  His middle name is obvious--my maiden name.  When we got married, Josh wanted me to completely drop my maiden name from my legal name.  I agreed under the condition that we would name our first male child Webb. 

There you have it!
www.herringfamilyhappenings.blogspot.com

Video and Pictures that go with the 18 month post


Click to play!

Coloring

This cup is her favorite!



Josh bought me an iPad.  Unfortunately for me, Piper thinks it's HER new toy.

"Painting" with suds from the sink

While I was cooking dinner one night, Piper kept herself busy by organizing my plastic utensils.  I don't know why I found this so funny!
www.herringfamilyhappenings.blogspot.com

18


Part of me cannot believe that Piper is a year and a half old.  And another part feels like she's been in our family forever.  We have been having so much fun lately; this is a great age!

We went to the doctor today for a checkup.  Piper is now 23 pounds (32nd percentile! We've come a long way since the 2nd percentile!) and 31 inches long (39th percentile).  She is right on target with her physical and cognitive development.

Other notable statistics:
  • She's talking!  About two weeks ago, she Josh and I noticed that she was trying to say single words that we were saying--things like "cake" and "church".  Of course, we are now getting her to say all kinds of things.  Brand new words are fish, balloon, gorilla (this one's a little garbled), baby, cup, ball (not bop!), car, thank you, basket, outside, block, box, and shoes.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some because I swear she comes out with new words every day.  I guess that's the way it works!
  • She LOVES to read.  Her favorite books are currently not storybooks; they are look and see books.  She especially likes books with animals.  I'm sure you can imagine her making all the noises that go along with each animal!  She also loves books that she can manipulate.  In addition to reading before nap and bedtime, she asks to read immediately when she gets up in the morning and again after nap.  I love this!
  • Speaking of nap, she officially dropped her morning nap a couple months ago (but I kept forgetting to mention it here).  This meant quite a change in our daily routine, but I'm now happy to have the extra time in the mornings to play and run errands.
  • She began insisting on drinking from our glasses and tried repeatedly to take the lid off her sippy, so we've started letting her practice drinking from an open cup.  We've definitely had our accidents, but she's doing pretty well. 
  • She knows all of her basic shapes: circle, square, rectangle, diamond, hexagon, oval, triangle, star, heart, and pentagon.
  • We're currently working on learning colors.
  • She can identify various balls such as tennis, basketball, beach, soccer, and baseballs.
  • She loves playing with the wooden puzzels we have.  They have helped her learn her shapes and animals.
  • She gets better using utensils each day. 
  • Her little face lights up when I ask her if she wants to color (I don't keep the crayons where she can reach them).  She will scribble away in her notebook for 15 minutes at a time.
I don't have many pictures to go along with this post, but the ones I have won't load correctly.  I'll have to post them separately.
www.herringfamilyhappenings.blogspot.com

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Just a reminder

To those who get my emails about new blog posts, remember that you should always follow the link to the blog itself because not everything always comes through correctly in the email. Case in point, yesterday's post has a video embedded in it that did not appear in the email version. I just don't want you to miss out on any cuteness!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

A day in the life

Good morning!
Some of you might be wondering what Piper's typical day looks like. Well, wonder no more!

Yummy breakfast!

A little sorting while Mommy does the dishes

Laundry day!

Art and music time!



Time to clean!
Off to the grocery

Lunch time
After nap, we play outside
I can even go down the slide by myself!

Cheese face during dinner
One of my favorite parts of the day: Bathtime!

All clean and ready for bed

Bedtime stories

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Yet another zoo trip

Last week Piper and I travelled to Knoxville to spend some time with our friends the Brownlees. We always have such a good time there playing with baby Cameron (who's not so much of a baby anymore!) and Kayleigh. Our second day there, Anna and I took a girls's trip to the zoo. I've been to the Knoxville Zoo before, but I had forgotten that it has so many great animals and exhibits. I honestly think it is better than our zoo in Nashville. The animals were more interactive, and the girls really enjoyed them!
checking out the animals
So cute!
Zoo-d out!