Babycakes: 14 months!

Health: 
It's been one healthy 14th month for our Lizzie Kate! Nothing to report, except for getting three more teeth since last month, which puts us to a grand total of four! So regardless of not being sick, it's still a pretty monumental month :) We now have two on top and two on bottom. I was poking around in her mouth yesterday and couldn't notice any signs of anymore coming anytime soon.

Sleep:
Last month, sleep was a d i s a s t e r. Girlfriend was taking 15 minute naps sometimes just once a day, and I was at a loss for what to do. We attempted having her "cry it out" (against all my Mommy instincts!) and that didn't work -- but then the expert, Grandma, just happened to show up in the middle of one of our nap battles one afternoon. She recommended going in every time she cried (yes, every time. As in, every 30 seconds, if need be). And you know what? In 20 minutes, Lizzie was out for the count... for an hour and a half! So I kept the routine up, going in when she'd cry, laying her back down, rolling her onto her tummy, putting a blankie on her and laying my hand firmly on her back and saying, "time for sleepy. Nigh-night, love you." The first day (sans Grandma), it took about an hour and a half for success (for a mere 30 minute nap). The next days, however, were less and less, until there became no battle at all. She does occassionaly wake up after 30 minutes of napping, but I just roll her on her tummy, give her the pacifier and say, "time for sleepy. Nigh-night, love you," and walk out... and she does fine, and sleeps for at least another hour and a half. So we've now gone from one 15-minute nap, to one, two-to-three hour nap. Amazing!

In terms of morning naps, we generally skip it -- I really think she'd take one, but I teach two classes at the Y on weekday mornings, so that prevents us from developing a nap routine -- so if she snags 15 minutes in the car on the ride home, great!  And if she doesn't, we don't worry about it.

For nighttime, she typically falls asleep easily and sleeps through the night lately as well. We did have a rough stretch last week where she wouldn't want to go down at night for us, so we had to go to the naptime routine we did to get her out of her 15-minute "funk" to get her to go to sleep at night, too. Again, it took an hour or so for her to finally lay down and sleep, but it's better in the long run than taking her on a car ride at 10:00 to get her to fall asleep after two hours of attempts at home. Girlfriend usually sleeps until eight in the morning :) Happy Mommy!

Diet:
We're still eating great. Girlfriend continues to surprise us with her being completely unphased by spicy/hot foods. She's now got to no problems eating buffalo chicken -- what?! It's still a little hot for MY taste buds even! Lizzie eats a little less than I think she has in the past, somedays hardly touching her breakfast or lunch -- but I've heard that's not uncommon for toddlers (seriously? Since when did I get a toddler?!).

She still eats her veggies really well (beans, peas, broccoli, sweet potato and carrots are our staples. Cauliflower is also pretty common as well), and she won't say "no" to any fruits. Favorites are from the berry family :) She loves to go out to our strawberries, blueberries and raspberries at our house and pick them right off the plant. She's finally begun to accept that the strawberry plants don't have anymore berries on them, though it was a sad realization. Peaches are a new favorite as well, since they're in season and we bought a crate of them (so keep eatin', girl!). She still loves avocado, and I made some organic, homemade hummus last week that she'll eat by the handful if I let her :) Can't complain there! But I've taught her how to dip things in it, and she's good at that.

It does seem that her ban on red sauce and pasta is lifting... she's been apprehensive about it for the last few months, but she's finally trying it and giving it a chance again -- and once she does, she remembers how yummy it is! She just takes awhile warming up to it :)

She's been slowly exposed to the realm of "added sugars". She doesn't get them on a normal day, but on the weekends, certain individuals have a tendency to sneak her bites of ice cream :)

Social:
No more tears at the Y for my baby this last month! Girlfriend has really warmed up to the workers there, and she smiles when she sees them now and doesn't hesitate going to them. She's getting down to play now, too, which she didn't do before -- just snuggled in to them instead and sat there for an hour. So glad she's feeling better about it!

She's afraid of strangers when they come close, but she'll very readily say "hi!" to them as we go by in the store... it's pretty adorable. She's in love with her Grandpa Wayne above almost anyone else, which is hilarious. It might have something to do with him supplying her with ice cream, taking her outside to play and taking her to the garden to pick raspberries.

Milestones:
Three new teeth! (Bottom left first, then top right, and then bottom right)

Girlfriend decided she wanted to officially try out this whole, walking thing on July 2nd! Since then, she's been unstoppable! :)

Lizzie can climb up on things now... yikes, look out!

She's now saying quite a few words. She says... ma, da, duck, quack-quack, puppy (doesn't sound like puppy, though -- her own, made-up word!), woof-woof, car, vroom-vroom, moo, ball, bye, hi... and some more, too. In sign language, Lizzie knows "more", "please", "thank you" and "milk"... proud Momma!

Lizzie is also getting the hang of using a fork these days. If the food is harder, she needs help "stabbing" it, but she can get softer things a little easier.