Victoria's tantrums

yep, tantrums. Our little love bug is turning into a full-blown toddler, tantrums and all. This morning I was trying to get her dressed. I had her standing on the changing table holding on to her crib (because she gets upset when she is forced to lie down and it's easier to change her when she's standing anyway). I leaned over to snap the buttons of her onesie and she CLOBBERED me on the shoulder!! I couldn't believe it! Usually when she's unhappy with something she'll bat your hands away or push away, but she has NEVER hit anyone (that I know of)! I grabbed her hand and gave her a very stern NO. Usually that would result in crying because she doesn't like being told no. Instead, she hit the crib. She furrowed her brow and hit the crib. I was glad she didn't try to hit me again, but it was still extremely surprising.

I have seen the signs before today, but thought our efforts to ignore her tantrums was starting to work...

She has really started to develop a temper. When we walk into another room and "leave" her, or when she can't get her blocks to stack properly, she will throw herself onto her belly and give a very gruff "Phrumph" and throw her arms out in anger. It's days like today that I have to remember the wonderful milestones she is reaching and not just the upcoming terrible 2s.

• she is walking (assisted!) very well. She lets us hold her hands and go walking with her much more often than previously. She still prefer to scoot around and only attempts to try walking when holding on to the couch or the wall. But, I'm really hopeful she'll be going on her own so that she can run around on the beach this summer.
  


• She is also talking a lot more. She started saying "dog" back in November, but has since added "this" and "baby." She waves "hi" and "bye" and will snort through her nose when we say "nose."
  


• She's very interested in opening and closing things (including the dishwasher HAVING to be closed when we are trying to load it) and LOVES chasing Peter around the house.
  


• When she wakes up in the morning, she HAS to see both mom and dad or she will go searching for the missing parent all over the house.
  


• She LOVES bananas and has to have one in the morning. We get her from her crib and if we don't have food in our hands, she points at the stairs to go down and get some.
  


• She is becoming MUCH more cuddly. At dinner, she doesn't want to sit in her high chair but wants to sit in my lap and eat with me. When we are playing a game at the table, she doesn't want to be on the floor, she wants to be up in our laps watching the game we are playing. That makes it much more difficult to play games anymore because she tries to pick up the pieces or the entire board.

Despite the disappointing recent turn events, she is still an amazing happy and kind baby. We love her and hope this phase will pass QUICKLY!!

Victoria's Videos

Victoria, my daughter is hilarious. She loves to laugh and constantly has a smile on her face. We try to catch as many funny momments as possible.  Here are a few...

As often as possible Victoria likes to help her mom play the piano

Every day in our house there is a competition.  Peter tries to eat his food as fast as he can while Victoria tries to spread it around. 

Here she is attacking her cousin conner after a fun day of sledding.

  

Victoria turns one

I still can't believe it's true, but we are officially parents of a one-year-old.  So much has happened in the past year that, on the one hand, it feels like we've had our little bundle of surprises for much much longer.  On the other hand, it feels impossible that time has passed so quickly for our little pumpkin to be jumping into the world of toddlerhood. 

Luckily, we got to celebrate her birthday in good style.  Because Dave had finals all week, we had to host the party a little after her birthday (3 days late but she didn't know the difference).

I made her a cake with bread loaf pans to construct a "V".

 
Victoria's hair is coming in so strong and thick!  Seeing all the curl at the bottom is somewhat of a consolation for having lost all my curls post-pregnancy.

She looked more confused than anything else when we turned the lights out and started singing to her.

Of course, she got spoiled with presents.  She's absolutely obsessed with these blocks from Aunt Nicki.  She's only content when every single one is dumped out across the floor.  And, if anyone tries to build something with them, she comes straight over to take it down.

So much fun opening presents!  Actually Victoria didn't appreciate my attempts to show her each present.  She accepted the routing for the first 2 presents and then took the 3rd one and ran to hide under the table.  She was determined that I wouldn't make her give up her presents.

Lots of family!  Here are the Bennetts.

And the soon-to-be-married Tom and Nicki and boys.

Of course,  grandma and grandpa had to get some snuggle time with the birthday girl.

Here are some of our favorite things about Victoria right now:

*Her half scoot/half crawl.  She puts one leg tucked under her and tilts herself up and pulls herself with her other leg and arm.  She wants to walk, I think, but doesn't like when we prop her up to practice.  She'll stand and walk along furniture and it likely to be running before we know it.

* Victoria is SO social.  She doesn't mind being passed around to anybody who'll take her.  She has some hidden reserve of energy that is activated only when we are around other people.  She'll go for hours past her bedtime because she can't miss any of the action!

*She is also VERY talkative.  We have decided her first actual word is "Daaaw" aka "Dog."  She'll say a variety of consonants but her "mama" and "dada" aren't really attached to us as people.   She waves "hi" and "goodbye", claps when we get happy, does a "pow-wow" putting her open palm to her mouth, and tries to talk in the phone out in front of her mouth like she's on speaker phone.

In general, she's a lively, fun, social, inquisitive, and super enjoyable kid.  We just love her!

First Flights and Whipple Thanksgiving

With Syracuse giving Dave a full week off for Thanksgiving, we thought it was just the opportunity we have been waiting for to go visit family in Utah. 

Our first concern was how Victoria would do on her first flight ever. We tried to lube her up a little with Benedryl, but alas that had little to no effect on her. Thankfully she was good for the first half and dead asleep for the second.

Amazingly somehow she was bright and happy when we got off in Utah. I think it was in a large part due to her awesome penguin hat.

 The only Whipple who had met Victoria before this trip was her Grandymom Carol.  Grandymom immediately got her hands on Victoria and didn't want to let go.

In the summer, Victoria had not been a fan of swimming in the lake.  A couple months later, a few degrees warmer and the hotel pool was just right.  Victoria splashed and swam with mom and dad until her little fingers got all wrinkled.

Next was the Whipple family Thanksgiving.  With twenty grandchildren, six couples, and two grandparents, there was plenty of family to spend time with. 

The siblings.

 The whole family except for a few who didn't make it.

After dinner was the Whipple family tradition, the thankful bowl. Everyone sits in a circle and a large bowl of treats is passed around.  When the bowl gets to you, you say something you are honestly thankful for and you take out a treat.  

While the bowl was being passed Victoria decided to go pillage Jennifer's snacks.  

We also got in a quick visit to the Bountiful Temple to show Victoria where her mom and dad got married. She liked it except for it was a little cold when she pulled her socks off.

Out front they had a nativity set up.

A week went by so quickly and it was time to fly again. 

This time the daytime flights were harder for Victoria.  She found some solace by tearing off a cookie wrapper with her teeth.

It was a wonderful week where Victoria got to meet the other half of her family and cousins.  We had such a good time with family and can't wait to make it out there again.

Little Things

Most often it's the little things that speak so strongly about life. 

Like shoes..

The smiles when she wakes up

 Smuggles that happen once in a blue moon.

 

Meeting new friends

Or a little help just when you need it.

Victoria has a magical way of making everything a wonderful adventure.

Around the House

As Victoria spends most of her time in the house, she seems to find an endless supply of things to play with and examine. Most of which I don't mind, but a few drive me nuts. The main floor of our house is a circle, so she can go from room to room on an adventure of discovery.

One of her first stops is almost always to get the gel bottle out from under the bathroom sink.  Some times she also trys for the soap, but it is too heavy for her for now.

 

Next she wanders into the kitchen for a little Peter time. She loves to play with him and has recently even taken to trying to feed him by hand, much to dad's chagrin. I am trying to keep the things from and for his mouth away from hers.  

We were expecting company later, so I had picked up her toys while cleaning the house.  She didn't appreciate it and was standing next to her toy bin thinking about how to get to  her treasures. I left the room for two seconds and when I returned this is what I saw.  She had climbed or toppled into the bin and was enjoying herself.  

Without the toys to play with, she decided to go under the dinner table. Usually she bumps her head and stops, but this time she crawled right under the bench...

 ....and out the other side.

One of her most favorite places is the tub.  Whether she is in the tub or not, she likes to come play with her toys.

Given the chance, she might play in the tub forever, or at least until it got cold.   

 

Big People Food

As Victoria transitions from infant to toddler, she has really suprised us by what she will and will not eat. She absolutedly loves all the baby 2nd foods except peas.  We have been trying to move up to 3rd foods with mixed results.  First we tried chicken and broccoli with no success.  One bite was enough for her to decide she didn't like it.  I think it was the texture which she isn't used to yet.  Next we tried kiwi apple bananna, which was also a no.  Finally we tried spagetti and meatballs, which was a yes.  This whole time as we have been trying to change her baby food, she has already taken to big people food.  She likes bite sized fruit, pasta, bread and others that she get a piece of.  When ever she sees the bag of Philippine brand dried mango,  she has to have one.  She gets a little bite and I get the rest, so its a win win.

Last Friday, I brought aunt Nicki some chinese so we could chat and have lunch. What we didn't know was lunch meant a steady stream of fried rice into Victoria's mouth. She loved it. Not so hot on the chunks of pork in it though.

She even devoured the fortune cookie.

With such a yummy lunch and fun visit with aunt Nicki, Victoria was pooped.

Sunday night Kristine made us some indian food for dinner complete with naan.  Somehow while we weren't watching all these small bite marks started showing up around the outside of the leftover bread.

 Here she is diligently waiting to scavange from our dinner.  She had eaten recently but that never stops her from trying out whatever we are having.

 The pasta, peas, mushrooms, rasberries, and even lettuce all went right down the hatch.  The only thing she didn't like was the chicken.  She chewed the chicken up pretty good, then decided to give it back to us. Thanks Victoria.

As with everything else she wants what she sees mom and dad have.  She is so good about eating.  She opens wide until she's full, then she will refuse and push away any more.  Seems like it was not so long ago she only drank milk from the bottle, now she wants it all.