Flora and I have been taking a Parent and Child swim class.  It's going okay, but think that the teacher could be more informative and creative.  She's only 19 or something, so what does she know?  Flora likes to be there, but starts to shiver after about 10 minutes(the class is 30 mins).  At least she gets to be in the water.  Today she even kicked a couple of times, so I guess she's learning something.  Sorry I don't have any pictures.  I'm in the water with her and am not able to take pictures.  

But here is a super cute picture I took today at the party store.

I was trying on crazy shades and she grabbed this pair to put on. The funny thing was that "Rocket Man" by Elton John was playing on the store's radio. I thought it was fitting!

Tom and I counted the other night and we realized that Flora says about 50 words!  I read at her age kids have about 10 words in their vocabulary and 100 by the time they are 2.  I guess Flora is well on her way!  She says a new word or two every day.  Today she said "car" and "rock".

In case any of you out there on the World Wide Web don't already know, Flora is going to be a big sister!  I am 18 weeks today and due on December 26th.  We are hoping for a boy so we have one of each, but another little girl would be just as lovely.  Although, you will have to wait until the baby arrives to find out the gender!

16 Months Today!

Today Flora turns 16 months! She is getting so big and growing up so fast. I measured her yesterday and she is 32 3/4 inches. She weighs about 22-23 pounds. Still tall and thin.

Here she is wearing a Curious George shirt I made from one of Tom's old t-shirts. She wanted to wear those boots!
Last week we went camping with my family. We had a nice time despite the fact that Flora was cutting 3 of her first molars and developed a 102 temp on Wednesday. She was feeling all around yucky that day and was also quite lethargic. She probably had a sore throat, too. When we got home on Friday, we noticed what we at first thought were bug bites on her feet or some kind of irritation from her shoes. On Sunday I finally put two-and-two together and realized she had had hand, foot, and mouth. I looked it up and her symptoms followed the pattern of the illness. It is a viral illness that is only treated with a pain reliever(like Tylenol) for the sore throat and the fever. Adults and children over age 10 can get it but often don't show symptoms and can be carriers with out even knowing it. So we don't know where Flora got it from.
She's all better now and back to her old self! We did get to enjoy the beach and see and play with a lot of our cousins, aunts, and uncles, which was nice.

"Darn floppy hat, I can't see!"

This week I got her a baby doll stroller and she has been either having a blast with it, running into/chasing the dogs, or getting angry at it because she gets it stuck on chairs and other things. The best 45 cents I've spent this week!

She is also becoming more independent with her walking. She has sometimes been refusing to sit in the shopping cart. So that makes for an especially "fun" trip to the store. We went to Hobby Lobby on Tuesday and she had to walk in the store and she wanted to touch all the fake grapes(that looked very real) which seemed to be on every single display! We made it out okay and in a lot faster time than if we had used a cart.
Flora has been "sleeping-in" lately. She used to wake up at 6 or 6:30, no matter what time she went to bed. Now she sleeps about 11-12 hours from when she went to bed. This is very nice for us! I still get up at 6 or 7, but then I get some time to myself in the morning to do what ever(write a blog entry).
One more thing... Flora's is continuing to build her vocabulary. She often tries to repeat what we say. Her latest words are "up", "cook-cook"(cookie), and "cockie"(cracker). Something that is a little more impressive is that she started saying two-word phases. She has said, "bye kitty", "bye baby", and "Rainy food".

Flora's First Visit to the Wildlife Sanctuary

Today Flora, Val, Fischer, and I went to the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary. It was Flora's and Fischer's first times there. Flora enjoyed looking at the animals and just had to walk around by herself.

We even got to feed the geese and ducks corn. Flora didn't seems to mind them being all around her, as you can tell from the video.

Beating the Heat

Yesterday Mama was hot and crabby. So Flora and I decided to check out our local pool at Erb Park.
At first she was a little cautious. Then once she saw all the other kids, she decided it was fun. She walked around for a while.

Then she played with some other little girls and they shared their toys with her. By that time she was crawling around and gulping water. A couple of times she dunked herself when she fell from standing onto her butt and tipped backwards. I rescued her, of course, and she just shook it off and went back to playing.
When it was time to go, she cried. I guess she was having too much fun(she was also tired and in need of a nap)!

Current "News"

The most interesting thing that happened this week is that we got our house painted. Good-bye blah tan- Hello yellow!
We like it, but think it will take some getting used to. It sure is bright and cheery, and that's what we wanted.

In other news, Flora's seventh tooth came in on Wednesday. It's the left one, on top, to accompany the last on she got. She has been a little whinier and clingier than normal, but not too bad. Sorry I wasn't able to get a pic. You'll just have to wait to see it in her smile!

Not news, but fun. Today Flora explored her sprinkler for the first time. She only liked to splash and touch the water. She's kind of little to understand the whole running through thing.


That's all for now. We have a jam-packed fun-filled weekend ahead of us. Tonight we're going to my friend Amy's for a BBQ. Tomorrow we are going to Val and Joe's for a "Welcome Fischer/ Summer Solstice Potluck". Finally on Sunday Flora is going to Grandpa Joe and Jeanne's while Tom and I go to the Brewer game. Whew! It's be lots of fun!