Gotta Have Faith and Daniel: April 2013

I promised a post soon involving flip flops and sunglasses - and here it is! Finally - although we're in the midst of another cold spell here in Maryland. As you can tell by the title of this post, Faith has progressed from basic walking to full on running and now dancing. We attended a family wedding in Myrtle Beach a couple of weekends ago and during the reception we discovered Faith has some serious dance moves. She didn't leave the dance floor until she literally fell asleep from exhaustion. She thought it was her party and she was having a great time. Since then her dancing has continued wherever we go. She has a signature move shaking her arm and shoulder, which you can see in the video below.

We've been busy as usual and have had lots of family events and travel over the last few weeks - since Easter really. And it's not going to stop anytime soon with all of the parties, graduations and new babies that are happening in the next couple of months. I'll give you a run down in the life of Faith these days in no particular order. She still eats really well for the most part. She was 23 lbs at her 15 month check up. Some of her favorites are still blueberries and bananas, but she's added oatmeal and hummus to the list. Go figure! She will eat anything with hummus on it, which works great when she is having an anti-vegetable day. In addition to her signature dance move she also has a signature wave. We call it her Miss America wave because she rolls her wrist from side to side. She waves to anyone and everyone. When we are running errands, out to eat, or at the pool she has to wave to everyone we see and will keep waving until they wave back. Faith has never met a stranger - she loves everyone and acts like she's known them all her life. She also loves photographs. She waves to them like they are actual people. We have lots of pictures on the refrigerator and around our house. She waves to them all every day - sometimes several times a day. She has also become quite lovable and can hug and kiss and blow kisses when we ask her to do so.

She is babbling more and more and sometimes we can pick out words here and there. But she understands much more than we realized at first. She loves to show off her belly and knows where her ears, eyes, nose, teeth, fingers and toes are. We are still working on our sign language. She knows quite a few signs. Our latest accomplishment was teaching her to sign thank you and water. Another accomplishment was getting her to understand that she can't put crayons and markers in her mouth. It's very exciting because now we can play with paper and art supplies every day! And finally, a funny little story. Since it's flip flop season, I decided it was time for a pedicure. I quickly learned that Faith does not like toes with nail polish on them. It's not just mine because she didn't like her Grandma's either. She is actually scared of them and runs away. It's really quite funny!

Well it's time to put a little monkey to bed. She still goes to bed around 7:30 and sleeps until 7 the next morning (usually!). Lately she's had a few sleepless nights, but we hope those are behind us. We try to get outside for at least a little while every day to tire her out. Sometimes it's for a walk, sometimes just to swing for a bit in the front yard and watch the big kids play. Enjoy the pictures!

Much Love,

The Groves