She made it- 1 year old!!

First off- many appologies. The silly stilles have been on a blogging & myspace vacation! Too many things to enjoy in the summer fun! I've been trying to work out at night every once in a while so something had to give...

Before I go into the amazing wonder that is our daughter, let me just say that I count my blessings each day. To have a happy, healthy family and to know that we have so many others out there that truly care about us...from afar.

Warning: this blog is backwards. Seriously. I thought I could choose where to insert pictures after the text, but it isn't exactly going as planned! New additions keep going to the top. Ugh! Thanks for your patience!!


Too-cute-for-words: Tatum loves to hug boys, preferred age range- 2-3 years old. Yes, she likes the older men. This is no tender hugging (this is reserved for her brand-new baby dolls). We are talking a -get over here, I'm in charge and I want a hug type of deal. First time I witnessed this was while shopping at Gymboree... this cute little african-american boy was sitting in a chair in front of some cartoons and Tatum pretty much attacked him. He wasn't blindsided though, he had plenty of warning (via flirting) ahead of time. Most recently, she went after Loeck, a little cutie at her birthday party. I have photo documentation for this one folks (again to come).


he has a CRAZY affinity for water. I've tried to take her to the sprinkler park, let her play in a small pool in our yard or at the very least hook up the sprinkler and let her at it at least once a week. She has been trying to blow bubbles in the bathtub for over a month, and I doubt she remembers me showing her this when we had our "shrimp" mommy & me classes this past winter. She's such a natural, that when presented with the opportunity to take her to the Olympic Swimming Trials here in Omaha- I couldn't think of a better way to show her a "BIG POOL". The tix were free, and we could only stay for an hour, but right now I see the water as her calling. I'll update this blog later with oodles of pictures of her in the water. Speaking of water...

We just had a heck of a party to celebrate her 1st Birthday- with what other than a "Water Party" theme with fish, seaweed and starfish decor... again, insert oodles of pics here. Her first words may be mama or dada, but right behind this was "baba" for bath- which she of course cannot get enough of! Just after her birthday she began pointing excitedly at a balloon saying "ba-oooon!". I couldn't quite catch this on video, but believe me I tried. That had to be the cutest thing ever!!






Tatum has had a great summer.

The silly stilles visited family and friends over Memorial Day. It began sadly with a funeral but ended beautifully with our dear friend J-Fag giving birth to a beautiful daughter- Charlie. Tatum tries to learn how to drive a John Deere....









































The latest and greatest in cognitive development skills: Tatum now points at what she wants and vocalizes. It all started as an exclamation-"look at that puppy!", "wow-look at that!". It has now progressed to a thought-out request. She fully expects to get it too... demanding for a 1 year old! "I want that piece of pizza on your plate". Now we just need to work on please and thank-you-if even with sign language.

More gushing about our little tot (AKA: Tater Tot, sugar bean) to come.

XOXO to all of you!

Our Diaper Derby Champ!

The Stilles tried posing with Tatum's winnings- A $25 Babies R Us gift card but Tatum was too distracted by the beautiful plastic card.... so we used it to get her to look towards the camera....

Gimme a break- I did my part and won the derby- why the torture?

















This past Monday, 5/19, Tatum competed in a Diaper Derby crawling competition at BabiesRUs. Tatum was distracted by a nearby daddy shaking an interesting toy- and veered out of her lane, nearly disqualifying her. Jason threw his cell phone to me and this lured her back into her lane and across the finish line for a first place finish!!! Tatum excelled again in the second "championship" round. Congrats Tatum! You "burned carpet" and we couldn't be prouder!

Sizzling in O-town

Lazy Sunday....

Enjoying a sizzling day in our backyard- Tatum and mommy also had lunch with friends and strolled the old market area of downtown Omaha earlier today...

Chubby yummy feet! You can't really tell but we had fun painting our toenails the same pretty pink color when our friends Sara & Meara came to visit a few weeks ago!

More Springtime FUN from the Silly Stilles...

 
 
 
 

Tatum plays "Vana White" to showcase our new landscaping. My name Tatum- Me so big like tree. Tatum & Daddy pose at an Omaha Royals game last Thursday. We celebrate Mother's Day in the back yard with a "not quite new" little tykes slide. It wouldn't be right if Tatum didn't explore different textures with her fingers first, then her tongue. This includes sand, mulch, rocks, concrete, and grass! Happy Mother's Day to you all-

Smiles from the Silly Stilles!

Crazy Play Day!!!

       

Tatum knows how to play her game now- putting balls in and curiously looking to see where they went! We can play peek-a-boo... endless hours of fun!

Sprinkler Fun!

Let's see if this video will post- remember the silly stilles are still using training wheels in terms of blogging! You would think Tatum was a Pisces like her momma, by the way she is always drawn to water. She wants to poke, touch, taste the water. Tonight she was drawn to the sprinkler watering our lawn. So in the interest of exploration, Tatum was allowed to play just before her bathtime.

Tatum has been up to some other pretty cool stuff! Jason has taught her to ride this little car, and to walk pushing it.... We'll hope to also have a video clip soon showing off Tatum's excellent "Gimme 5!" skills. She's pretty proud of herself! She also now loves to point to things and say "ooh, ooh!". She's definately a little communicator now and seems to be interested in one thing for longer periods of time rather than being "spastic" and interested in something new each second. Our little girl is growing up. She is once again a trooper with another raging ear infection. You'd really never know it- she truly smiles all the time unless hungry or tired!

Until next time...

First Pigtails!

Spring has sprung. The Stilles have been enjoying Spring with plans of tree planting (See Crabbie, the Crabapple Tree), landscaping, walks to the neighborhood park, and trips ot the zoo with friends. Tatum loves to play in the grass, attack the garden hose and sprinkler, climb up steps and even stood independantly for about 1 full minute today for the first time. She's adventurous and gets cuter by the day (pigtails - need I say more?). This explains why I took over 50 photos this week. T-Dog is battling her 3rd round of bilateral ear infections... but she's a real trooper. Especially this week when she developed hives, presumably from Augmentin... so she's been doped up on benadryl and we're hoping her ears will be healthy enough for a flight/trip Lisa & Tatum have planned for next weekend. Oh yeah, and we discored a Tatum's first little masterpiece, on her crib rail last weekend. Busy beaver!