A is for Above Average

Greetings, friends! Time certainly flies when you’re chasing after a toddler. Specifically, chasing after our toddler who is now running and she’s FAST. Life here continues to be busy and good. There’s a (small) chance that I may consult part-time, so we’ve been looking into daycare options. Regardless of employment, we’re thinking she may go a a few days a week to hang out with other kids; we’ll keep you posted.

In other news, she had her 15-month doctor’s appointment last week and she continues to be off the charts:

Height: 2′ 8.5″ = 96th percentile (and officially more than half my height!)
Weight: 26 lb, 12 oz = 96th percentile
Head Circumference: 48.5 cm = “100th” percentile

She’s a full-out toddler now, including liberal use of the word “no.” She completely understands the concepts of yes and no (typical said as “da” and “doh”), at least as it relates to her wants. She’s also hard to pin down for a photo…they need a “toddler speed” function on the iPhone. 🙂 I’ll try to post more pictures soon (vs. the long gaps we’ve had recently in posts). For now, enjoy some older pics, as these were already synced with my computer.

They do “swimages” at her swim school. Couldn’t pass up getting this one.

Hanging out with her best buddy Myles at Whole Foods. (September 11th)

AHA! Sock removal success! (October 11th)

Hey, look! A blog post! (Avon Walk 2013)

Hello there! Welcome back to the McCullough family blog, which has been very quiet lately due to the Avon Walk. Even though I only walk 13 miles and 15 miles (vs. 24 and 15 over the two days), it still requires a LOT of training (and sleep). The Walk was the last weekend in September and was even more amazing than usual since I could share with Alexandra.

Also, a huge thanks to all of you for your support. I raised an incredible $5,469, bringing my lifetime total to over $30,000!!!! I couldn’t have done it without your support.

We’ll be back to more Alexandra-exclusive cuteness soon. In the meantime, enjoy these pics from the Walk!

The official SoleMates mascot.

Traditional team dinner on Friday night at Puccini & Pinetti. (Left to right: Birgit, Mary Ellen, Cindy, Me, Linda)

Ian and I stop for coffee for the team on the way to the starting line. (Best. Husband. Ever.)

The team at the starting line. (From left to right: Cindy, Linda, Birgit, Me, Mary Ellen)

The team at the starting line. Yes, it’s still dark out.

We had incredible weather for the Walk. No fog. This is the view as we started out from Fort Mason.

After crossing the Golden Gate. I have *never* had such great weather for walking across the bridge!

After crossing the Golden Gate. We have *never* had such great weather for walking across the bridge!

Cindy, Linda and Mary Ellen entering the Wellness Village after walking 24 miles on Saturday.

Heading back to SF on Sunday morning. (Picture taken in Sausalito)

At the finish line.

Closing Ceremonies.

As happy as…

While I’d never call our daughter a pig, she is ridiculously happy playing in the mud.

At the park down the street, there’s a sand pit with a “water feature” (a fancy way of saying that you can press a button and have water pour out). At times, the water can overwhelm the sand, much to Alexandra’s joy on September 2nd.

(You don’t need to have the audio on to enjoy this, though you will miss her laugh at the end. You can also hear Ian and me in the background, commenting that we plan to show this to her future dates.)

GOoooooo!

Alexandra has added a few new words. The first was “go,” but she stretches it out a bit. And she *definitely* knows what it means, especially as it relates to anything car-related. We were fortunate enough to have our friends loan us their Cozy Coupe, which Alexandra LOVES (see pics below).

Her other new work rhymes with go, but starts with an “n.” Needless to say, the meaning behind that one is quite clear.

Cozy Coupe test drive at the Lanken’s. (August 17th)

New wheels. (August 20th)

Insert clever title here…

Rather than continuing to wait for inspiration to strike, I’m just going to post some cute pictures. Enjoy!

Chilling with her buddy Myles. We hope to embarrass them with this when they're in college. (August 8th)

Chilling with her buddy Myles. We intend to keep this picture for their college days. (August 8th)

Alexandra’s first time at bat (we were at AT&T Park for the Giants-Cubs game). She’s still learning the finer points of the game. (July 28th)

Grandad let Alex play with his phone while he was visiting. (July 18th)

Granddad let Alex play with his phone while he was visiting. (July 18th)

Last picture of Alex at her birthday party. Someone was a little tired. (July 20th)

Last picture of Alex at her birthday party. Someone was just a wee bit tired. (July 20th)

Heading home in style. (July 28th)

Slip Slidin’ Away

Amongst Alexandra’s favorite park activities these days are slides – and she is now going down them all by herself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRxHjoCkP0k

The landing usually goes smoother than that particular one, but you get the idea. 🙂

Some cuteness for you

The creative juices are moving slowly these days. Perhaps I should switch to whole milk like Alexandra, as she seems to have LOTS of energy. 🙂

Yes, she’s done with formula (hooray!) and we’ve switched entirely to cow’s milk. Some other mini-milestones:

“Kisses” us (vs. just slobbering)
Has added the words hi, book, and ball (though the last two aren’t quite there yet, we know what she means)
Loves stacking blocks (and knocking them down)
Puts things into containers…parenting WIN! Now we can play the “pick-up game”!
Signs “more” for food.
Is entirely on sippy cups

And, as promised, some cuteness:

Double fisting the sippies. (Hanging out at Myles’ house, July 23rd)

Ha! I closed the door. Myles is less than pleased. (July 23rd)

Ha! I closed the door. Myles is suspicious of this development. (July 23rd)

Aha! OPEN door! (Alex really enjoys Myles’ playhouse. July 23rd)

First time with long noodles. (July 24th)

Happy Birthday Alexandra!

I think all of us have now recovered from Alexandra’s birthday weekend. We had a great time celebrating with friends and family from near and far on Saturday the 20th. Alex especially liked the cake part of the event. On her actual birthday, we just had a family dinner at Jack’s Prime (where the ice cream was less of a hit). She also had her one-year doctor’s appointment on her birthday and she’s doing great. The stats:

Length: 2′ 6.5″ and 90th percentile
Weight: 25 lb, 3.5 oz and 98th percentile … and, again, before anyone out there worries, she’s fine and the doctor isn’t worried about her weight.
Head Circumference: 48 cm and still literally off the charts (since 100th percentile doesn’t really exist)

Her first experience with ice cream. She did not appear to be a fan of the temperature. (July 19th)

Mommy & Daddy singing to the birthday girl. (July 20th)

Mmmm…cake! (July 20th)

The aftermath. (July 20th)

Finally, a heads-up that we switched the email notification providers, so you may have missed the email about this post. Many cute pictures…check it out. 🙂

Alexandra & Daddy: Side by Side

The days do roll by quickly…

The days are slow but the years are short

With Alex’s first birthday only a few days away, we’re truly realizing the meaning of “the days are slow, but the years are fast.” We still can’t believe that she’s almost a year old, although she has been racking up the milestones, big and small.

She:

Is quite the walker, with only occasional “Frankenstein” moments.
Has a solid handle on these words: Dada, Mama, dog, cat, bye-bye. She communicates much more, but those are actual words.
“Reads” books on her own. (Flips the pages and, most of the time, the book is even right-side up. And for her favorite book, she’ll make some sounds. Unsurprisingly, her favorite book is Doggies: A Counting and Barking Book.)
Interacts with books…for instance, she pats the bunny, puts her finger through Mummy’s ring, etc.
Has mastered finger foods and is starting to use the spoon on her own.
Waves bye-bye.
Puts Mega Blocks together. And she can certainly take them apart.

We have pics of some of said milestones, and others are just for fun. Enjoy!

Mmmm…yogurt. I ate it all on my own! [Editor’s note: Some of it actually did make it into her mouth.] (July 7th)

Reading the Doggies book. And, yes, those are Christmas PJs. She’s already wearing her 18M clothes. (July 8th)

Future engineer. (June 26th)

Wonder Woman and her faithful dog. (At the neighborhood Fourth of July parade)

Swimming! (July 14th)

First time at the sandbox in the park. Yay sand! (July 9th)

Baby’s first mac-n-cheese. At Homeroom, of course. (June 26th)

First petting zoo. (At the San Mateo County Fair, June 16th)

Checking out a new ride. [Editor's note: She does not have this car. She just was entranced by another kid's car at the park.] (July 7th)

Checking out a new ride. [Editor’s note: She does not have this car. She just was entranced by another kid’s car at the park. Thankfully, she did not try to hotwire it.] (July 7th)