Oh the funny things Miss Peyton does...

Of course a Christmas update will be coming with pictures from all of our celebrations but in the meantime I thought I would share some of the funny things Peyton has been doing recently –

Blowing Kisses – she has officially mastered this and is absolutely adorable when doing it! The only tough part with her now blowing kisses is that it looks almost like her sign for eat, which she LOVES to do, so we have to really watch close to see if she is giving us some love or just wants to chow down!

Washing hands – I think the girl would let her hands go raw if we let her, she loves to wash her own hands and dry them on the towel, such a big girl. Her independent streak also carries over to brushing her teeth, another super fun task to Peyton, that is, as long as she can do it herself and Mommy doesn’t try to do it for her…

Hats – Anyone that has been around Peyton knows she has never been a fan of hats, well, that is until recently. She still doesn’t always like to leave her hats on but the other day brought her hat and gloves over to me and had me but them all on and wore them around the house for at least 10 minutes – very cute.

Apollo – The way I see it, Apollo may just be Peyton’s best friend; however, I’m not sure this is a completely reciprocal relationship. Don’t get me wrong, Apollo likes Peyton and does an excellent job of tolerating her petting him (aka hitting him, usually without toys in her hands but not always) but there are days where he just looks at us as if to say, “Is she ever going away??” But what is really funny is when we go to let Apollo in and Peyton starts to head toward the door to “help” but as soon as she hears Apollo coming she “runs for cover” until he gets inside! It probably makes way more sense for Apollo to be running from her!

Our little climber – Yep, Peyton is a climber and will try to swing her little leg on top of anything to get just that much higher. She has been able to climb the stairs for quite a while but is now quite quick at it and has even learned (when she wants to) to come down on her belly all by herself. She also likes to climb on the mantel, her chair, into the bathtub, etc.

“Talking” on the phone – Peyton loves getting a hold of our home phones and pressing the buttons – I mean, what’s not to love, they make lots of fun noises when you push them! We do have to keep a close eye on her with this though because she knows exactly where the “talk” button is and even dialed 9-1 once. Thank goodness I caught that one before the second “1” was hit – hate to have a visit from the police for no reason at all! Peyton also has learned how the phone works and after she pushes some buttons she holds it up to her ear and babbles – cute, cute cute!

I really need to start writing things down because it seems like she has been doing many more fun things but I can’t think of them right now. Hopefully this will tide everyone over until I can manage to get my Christmas pictures downloaded to the computer!

Learning New Things Every Day

Peyton seems to learn something new every day - yesterday she pretty much mastered going down the stairs on her belly. We've been trying to get her to do this for months but her friend Evan showed her how to do it on Saturday and now she is quite a pro!

We are finally enjoying bath time again as well - YAY!

Peyton is quite a climber and has become quite skillful at throwing her leg over whatever ledge, chair, etc. to pull herself up - and she is quite determined to get wherever she wants to go!

Peyton's vocabulary is expanding (and she loves to babble more and more) - we have mastered Mama, Dada, Dog, Pollo (Apollo), Adie (Sadie - Apollo's girlfriend), Ba (banana), More, eas (please) - that's about all I can think of right now though it seems like there are more. She is hilarious when she gets to talking because she looks up at us as if to say, you understand me, right? So fun!

Cabo San Lucas

Whew - what a week we just had! Last week we went on vacation with Grammy & Grandpa to Cabo San Lucas. I was just a bit nervous to take Peyton on her first airplane trip considering we had 4 flights for a total of about 10 hours on airplanes but I was hoping with 4 adults to help it would be fine. Little did I know that Peyton would be an EXCELLENT traveler! Peyton slept all but about 30 minutes of all flights combined and even did a great job at the condo, sleeping in a strange crib with Mommy, Daddy, Grammy & Grandpa all very close by.

We had a super fun time basking in the warm 80 degree sun, not at all missing the cold weather back in KC! Grammy & Peyton enjoyed daily walks and a lot of pool time. Peyton met some new friends at the pool and several people around the resort recognized her when we were walking around, quite the celebrity! ;) Peyton also really enjoyed the Mexican restaurant on the resort - in the evenings they had a flute player that was quite smitten with Peyton and he often played over by her which she just loved! Daddy & Grandpa got to play 3 rounds of golf (and Mommy joined them for one round on a beautiful ocean course) - I think they had a great time! Beautiful courses with incredible scenery - they even got to use a caddy one day! Grammy & Mommy snuck away for a little spa time one day, what a relaxing way to spend the day. Grandpa, Daddy & Mommy even decided to live on the wild side and went zip lining. 8 zip lines, long climbs and the chance to go down some of the lines tandem - we went FAST! Like I said, WHEW! We had an excellent time!!!

Here's Peyton in her stroller - she often walked over to her stroller and crawled into it when she was ready to go for a ride, even if it was just on a ride around the room!

Peyton & Mommy in the zero-entry pool. Peyton LOVED this pool since she could stand up and walk around in the water, sit down and splash and then get back up again.

Family photo before a delicious dinner - the grounds at the resort were beautiful
Peyton getting ready for swim time in her stylin' bikini. Peyton also enjoyed lots of coloring time in the hotel room, the trick was getting her to color on the paper and not the furniture!
A beautiful sunset that we enjoyed while on a sunset cruise. We even saw several whales while on our cruise - amazing!
Peyton & Grammy at the Mexican restaurant. This was at breakfast - since the flute player wasn't around during breakfast time Peyton was entertained by all of the birds flying around.
Another stylin' bikini -
Grandpa, Daddy & Mommy on the zip line - we probably got up to 40-50 mph on this zip line
Grammy, Grandpa & Peyton hangin' out on the resort
Daddy being silly on the zip line - he went backwards on several zip lines so that he could go faster!
Grandpa, Daddy & Mommy on the Ocean Course -
Daddy & Mommy before the zip line tour started -
Peyton playing in the sand - she liked the sand, amazingly liked the taste of salt water but wasn't a huge fan of the cold loud ocean. All in all her first trip to the beach went pretty well.
Daddy & Peyton playing in the sand -

Another fun tidbit - Peyton learned to dip her food on vacation - especially dipping just about anything in guacamole, including her carrots.

We had many more pictures and it was hard to pick just a few to put on here - what a fun vacation!

A few short stories from the week -

Peyton the Eating Machine - Peyton must be going through an incredible growth spurt. The absolute second she wakes up in the morning she starts making the sign for eat. I’ve gotten smarter as the week has gone on and have started bringing her sippy cup and a quick snack with me when I wake her up as the walk down to the kitchen is just too far – hilarious! This morning, though, I took her down to eat her morning snack in her high chair as I planned on giving her the rest of her blueberries since we are headed out of town. She ate all that I had left but kept making the sign for more and even has started saying more! I had to show her the empty container and then find another snack for her. Dinner has become tougher as well since she is ready to eat as soon as we walk in the door from daycare – again, literally the second we walk in the door! Sometimes a snack with pacify her but the girl is always ready to eat!

Dancing with the Snowman – A few years ago I picked-up one of the Hallmark signing snowman Christmas decorations and Peyton LOVES it! She has figured out how to turn on the music and then takes a step back and starts spinning around to dance! She is so cute when she gets to spinning and sometimes spins so much that she falls over from being dizzy!

“Again” – In addition to “more”, Peyton has started to say “again”. This one doesn’t come out quite as often but is super cute when she is so excited about something that she wants to do it again, usually when Daddy is spinning her around or turning her upside down!

Hugs from Peyton – Almost every day this week when Peyton’s boyfriend Evan gets to school she has made a mad dash to the door to give him a hug – super cute! She is also quite the little hugging machine at home and is more than happy to pass out a hug to anyone who asks – we love it!

Peyton Goes to the Symphony

Today we had the chance to go to the Kansas City Symphony Concert. Peyton did GREAT! We heard many Christmas favorites and enjoyed a family night out! :)