15 Months

Little Miss just keeps growing and learning new things. She is quite proficient at walking now, so she likes to practice walking all over the house. She has developed a love of shoes- her own and others. If she finds her own shoes, she will carry them over to me to put them on her and if I don't acknowledge her immediately, she says "soo, sooo, soo" over and over. She also loves to carry around any other shoes she finds in the house. I've found her trying on the shoes of other family members and brings me my shoes/flip-flops several times a day and won't let me get away without putting them on. As of right now, she only has one pair of shoes that fit her, its going to be chaos when she gets several pairs at a time. Heidi's fine motor skills seem to be developing at a much faster rate than her brothers'. She loves to sit at out little kids' table and color with crayons (although I still catch her eating them sometimes too). She is also pretty good with her eating utensils too. The fork is the easiest since she can spear food and it is unlikely to slide off, but she is pretty good with a spoon too. Of course, there is still often quite a mess to clean up afterward, but she is very determined to use her utensils. Heidi loves to brush her teeth and comb her hair. If we ever accidentally leave the kids' bathroom door open, Heidi goes in, climbs up on the little stool, and tries to grab her toothbrush. One of the boys or I usually have to get it for her, but she loves to stand and brush her teeth. Its a good thing she is so keen on oral hygiene because although she only has six teeth total in front, she has already sprouted a molar and I can feel two more on their way. She will always let me brush her teeth in the morning and before bed, but she also insists on a turn afterward. Same thing with combing her hair- she will happily let me do it as long as she gets her turn afterward. She is also getting good at helping get herself dressed by always pushing her arms and legs through into her clothes. If an article of clothing is near her, she will try to put it on. I've found her a few times trying to put a shirt on her legs- at least she actually got her leg into the sleeve :) Heidi is adding new words to her vocabulary, but still prefers the word "no". She uses it as a way to express her displeasure, as a way to let you know you have something she wants, or just as something to say for fun. She also loves to shake her head no or nod it yes, sometimes with the proper meaning and other times just because she's being silly.
Here are a few pictures Austin took of her today while she was in an extremely good mood (she had been playing with her cousins and brothers all day, then just woke up from a nap here)

Oregon Vacation

This post may be a bit of a picture overload, but we took a lot of pictures on our vacation to the Oregon coast and the kids are so happy in all of them, that I had to share. The kids LOVED the beach and the ocean even though it was pretty cold (this is one of the beauties of going to Oregon in the dead of summer). The boys constantly wanted to go get wet and all three kids enjoyed the sand. Heidi spent much of the time outside in our hiking pack on Austin's back, but she was a good little trooper and didn't complain much- she was just happy to be out and seeing what was going on.
 The pictures are kind of unorganized because of how they were uploaded, but I tried to arrange them a little.

This is the house that we rented in Seaside. It was a bit of a last minute deal since the house we rented earlier was sold and our reservation was cancelled, but it wasn't too bad of a house.

 Asher and Leif slept on a pull out bed in the living room (there were two, but they opted to share one)


 Heidi slept in a pack & play in our bedroom. She fought going to bed every night because she wanted to stay up and be part of the fun, but once she fell asleep, she was out!

Like I said earlier the boys loved the beach! They ran around like crazy kids, loved getting wet, liked finding little things that the tide brought in, and loved the sand. Leif's only complaint as we left after our first visit was that we didn't see anything alive, so we took them to the aquarium the next day.

It was about a 3/4 mile walk from our house to the aquarium, most of it along the Promenade (the sidewalk that runs parallel to the beach). We had to stop for a few rests, but they made it without too much fuss.



Once we got to the aquarium the first thing we did was throw little fish to the seals. Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos of this, but the boys really liked that. They also got to touch and see lots of different sea creatures, and to Leif's delight, they were alive!





Here is Little Miss riding along with Dad.

And some more pictures of fun on the beach



We made a trip out to Tillamook to see the Cheese Factory. This is the only good picture I got (notice the determination on Leif's face) but we got to see Tillamook cheese being cut up and packaged (the machines were very exciting for the boys) and eat Tillamook ice cream (which was very exciting for me) :)

We also rode a little train from Rockaway Beach to Garibaldi and back.

Even Heidi was very excited to look out of the train and see everything as we passed.

We spent some time in Cannon Beach. We went once while the tide was low to see the tide pools. The kids were able to see some of the sea creatures they did at the aquarium, but this time in "real life". This was neat for them, but they were more enchanted by the water sand that sunk slowly as they stood in it. They liked to wiggle their feet and sink a little more quickly so they could pretend it was quick sand.

Here they are checking out one of the many sea stars. Most of them were purple, but we saw a few orange ones too.

You can't really tell, but this rock is covered with sea anemone and oysters.

We let Heidi play in the sand some too, I just hand to rinse her as soon as we got home since lots of it got down her diaper. She was delighted to get to play with her brothers and was even pretty good to not eat the sand (like she does in the sandbox at home)(I just realized it looks like she is eating sand in the picture below, but she wasn't). These are all pictures from Indian beach which was near Seaside, but took a little more driving and a tiny bit of hiking to get to. There were also tide pools here, but the kids were more interested in the water and sand.

 

Some of our time in Cannon Beach was in the actual town walking around and looking in the little shops (or taking pictures with large puffins) :)

One of my favorite happenings was when we stopped at a bakery to get treats (I had been looking for one for a few days really wanting the boys to have fun eating donuts) and Leif insisted on getting a loaf of sour dough bread. I kept telling him to pick a donut, but he refused. I thought he would be upset after he got it and realized that although it was huge, it wasn't sweet like what everyone else got, but he was as happy as a clam with his choice.

Here are the boys enjoying their treats and the view at a little outdoor counter.

One of the best things about the Oregon coast is the beautiful scenery all along the road. We stopped here for a few pictures.

We stopped at Austin's grandparents' house both on the way to Oregon and on the way back (it was a really long drive and we needed a rest!) The kids loved seeing their great grandparents. They love visiting, playing with the old toys, seeing the farm equipment, and the treats Great Grandma gives them. As we were driving home I asked the boys several times what their favorite part of our vacation was, and they both shouted enthusiastically "seeing Great Grandma!"
Next time we'll stop in Idaho and save ourselves the hassle of taking them to Oregon :)