Babycakes: 17 months!

Health:
It seems we've had a perpetual cold since starting daycare a couple of months ago. Girlfriend just can't seem to kick the runny nose and icky cough! It does seem to get better, though never completely goes away. Here's to hoping it doesn't turn into anything more than just an annoyance.

We did have our very first case of pink eye one Saturday morning, so to the Walk-In we went! Just a couple days of drops, and girlfriend was cured! I had a feeling it might visit our house, as it had been going through (surprise, surprise) daycare that week.

Lizzie did finally break two more teeth, so we're now up to a grand total of SIX at this point. She's now got four teeth on top and two on bottom. Both popped through on the same day, which is good, I suppose. Double the pain, double the gain, but just one time frame rather than two, so we'll take it :) We've also noticed her top right molar has just started to poke through, complete with bloody gums and all :( Poor baby. This has resulted in a pretty sensitive girl. We'd better get used to it, though -- from here on out, I'm guessing we'll be getting teeth like there's no tomorrow. Girlfriend's gotta catch up to those other kids her age!

Sleep:

Special thanks to the whole teeth thing, sleep was tough for a few weeks. Lots of night wakes and a sad baby -- but since those two popped through last week, Mom and Dad have been sleeping like [non-teething]  babies again, because Lizzie's no longer making her 2:00 a.m. wake-up calls (woohoo!). 

We get lucky on weekends, and she'll often sleep until 8:30 or so... sometimes, I get lucky enough to wake up  before she does :) I do love those few minutes of calm before our sweet friend wakes up to play.

She's napping really well for us at home on weekends (two hours or so), and similarly at daycare.

Diet:
Lizzie's interest in eating has taken a bit of a dip lately -- and it's not that she's being picky about her foods, it's just that she's not all that interested in sitting down to eat. Snacking is a whole other story... girlfriend wants to snack and is in the pantry pretty much non-stop (lots of snack battles lately... for example, she'll go to the pantry, take out the peanut butter, bring it over and say "buh-er" and open the silverware drawer. She's not satisfied eating it spread on crackers, though -- she wants to eat it from a spoon. Which I can't figure out, because we NEVER eat peanut butter straight from the jar with a spoon...). She's even been leaving fruit behind at supper, which is unheard of for this girl! But I've read this does start to happen with toddlers, so I'm not concerned. Plus, as I said, she's not leaving out any particular food group (like veggies :)), so that makes me feel better, too.

Girlfriend does love to eat using a fork, though. And she is so proud of herself when she does! She's gotten, really, quite good at it, too. She keeps her fork/spoon facing upward, and doesn't let things fall off of it. It's pretty neat to watch her learn all of that :)

Social:

Girlfriend gets plenty of socialization at daycare each day. They say she has lots of buddies and the kids all love her :) So fun to hear! I love coming to pick her up and watching her interact and play before she notices me... It's so fun to see how she is with others.

Last week when I picked her up, I told her to say "bye-bye" to her friend -- and she walked over and gave him a hug! So sweet :)

Milestones:

New words this month: peanut butter (buh-er), cold, hot, bus, mommy used to be "mah-ee" and it's now "mama", grandpa, Deanna (daycare teacher -- "anna"), water (ah-er), milk, bottle, buddy, crocodile (I swear she says it!), fruit, please, thank you, nigh-night, out, love you (our absolute favorite, obviously!)... like I said, more than I can list, really! Her vocabulary has really exploded recently. Now I'm just waiting for her to start stringing some words together and getting more comfortable with longer words.

We have these (nerdy) baby flashcards, and Lizzie has always really liked them -- but now, she loves to dump them out and put them back in the box, one-by-one, saying the names of the items. It's totally amazing -- just tonight I heard her rattle off, "tractor... baby... car... meow-meow (cat)... apple..." and just keep naming all of her cards. So awesome.

Lizzie's also taken a liking to building with blocks and mega-sized lego-type blocks. She builds towers as tall as she can, and even stands on her tippy-toes to put that last block on top :) She's also loving little Matchbox cars so much! When we're at my mom and dad's, she'll go directly to where they're kept, saying "cars... cars..." the whole way :) She's also been enjoying shape sorters lately, and she's really getting better at them. Puzzles continue to be a love of hers as well, and she has no problems completing the ones we have.

Lizzie seems to have made a big shift in how she thinks about her stuffed animals -- almost "personifying" them in a way. She'll find a stuffed friend in her toy box or on her shelf and carry it around like it's her best friend for a few hours. She'll give it hugs and won't give it up even when it makes life more difficult (i.e. climbing stairs :)). She'll also take them for rides down her slide with her... it's pretty adorable. We're also noticing that she's making some toys "walk" around... pretty darn cute!

Girlfriend is still loving dancing and books, and she's also starting to do actions when we sing. She'll make a "beep" motion with her hand, put turn her fists at her eyes, and put her finger to her mouth when we do verses of Wheels on the Bus now :)

I am completely in awe of everything this girl seems to absorb each day. She is doing something or saying something new constantly. This age is truly so amazing.

Lizzie's just starting to throw some temper tantrums, too. We find them completely hilarious, though do our best not to smile. When we tell her "no" or take something from her that she maybe shouldn't have, she'll give us a very serious look and hit the floor, wait a few seconds, walk over and  hit a wall (not breaking eye contact), wait a few seconds, walk over and hit a door frame (still not breaking eye contact). It is maybe one of the funniest things I've seen, ever. Usually we tell her "no, we don't hit," and she'll come around, so that's good. But before we really try to curb the habit, I would like to get it on video ;) I'm such a good mom.

I can tell Lizzie's also starting to recognize when people are looking at her/laughing at something she's doing. You can see it in her eyes that she knows she's done something cute or funny and she thinks she should continue -- which I'm usually okay with, because she's typically very well behaved.

Proud [teacher] Mom moment: they tell me at daycare that she's impeccably behaved. Always stays on her "loop" in line when they are walking around the facility, always following directions, sitting down in her seat... 'atta girl! She's got some teacher's pet in her like her momma did.

We're still wearing 12 to 18 month pants, but still only those that have the adjustable waist in them from BabyGap right now, along with some non-adjustables from Old Navy. Her leggings in the 12 to 18 month size are still a little big, but we wear them anyway :) She's still wearing some 6 to 12 month onesie and t-shirt tops, but all of her long sleeves are the 12 to 18 month size. The new dilemma is what size to buy her Christmas dress in... I'm leaning toward 12 to 18 month. I don't foresee a huge growth spurt anytime soon.

Lizzie's hair is really getting thick and long now. It's so pretty and so soft... we just love it (what parent doesn't love their baby's pretty little hair?!). I did put it in pigtails one night a few weeks ago, and she didn't mind :) We're now wearing more clips, versus headbands, as they keep the hair out of her eyes.

We'll find out officially next week at her 18-month check-up, but by our measurements at home, Lizzie is 21 pounds and 30 inches tall (both between the 5th and 10th percentiles). At her age, I was 20 1/2 pounds and 31 inches tall... so she's looking like she'll be a petite one like her momma.