Babycakes: 20 and 21 months!

Health:
Lizzie girl has been healthy for the most part, but we did not escape the winter months completely unscathed. Girlfriend had a short bout with the stomach flu when she was around 21 months; it just so happened to rear its ugly head when I was spending an afternoon in labor and delivery for some simple [fake] contraction monitoring (darn braxton hicks!) and Andy and Lizzie were coming to see me. Poor girl threw up all over her daddy (er, poor daddy?) and herself. Luckily it was a short-lived illness that included no other instances of throwing up.

Last week, though, poor girl threw up on herself during nap time at daycare. We took her in that night because she was acting so lethargic (not like herself at all, even with a fever) and had a temperature of 103. We found out there that she had an ear infection and strep on top of her stomach flu. She ended up getting the antibiotic shot because it's faster acting (12 hours and she's not contagious and, according to the doctor, likely to feel much better much faster), but that darn stomach bug hung on for two more days after that (total of three days). Poor baby :(

No more teeth to report yet! So we went from getting buckets of teeth in a  short time, to none. 

We went to a check-up for Lizzie's eyes recently (six months post-glasses). Things are looking great. Her vision is still hardly bad enough to even need correction; it was explained to me that she actually has vision the same as other kids her age who don't have glasses, but she seems to be particularly sensitive to it, so one eye will turn in as a result. Anyway, the crossing has significantly improved, so all is well. An assistant did mention putting a bifocal in because she is still crossing somewhat when looking at something up close, but Lizzie's doctor quickly turned that idea down; we'll see if things are any worse with that in six months -- if so, we'll add the bifocal. If not, we'll continue without it.

Sleep:

Still rocking girlfriend to sleep -- it's a habit I'm just not able to kick mostly. I'm horrible. Regardless, if there's a night when she's just not falling asleep with rocking, we can lay her down and she will fall asleep, given some time. While sick, we were up a few times a night -- but lately, it's usually been no wake-ups (save my third-trimester trips to the bathroom).

The last few nights, though, she's requested her crib after about 10 minutes of rocking, and then she'll fall asleep on her own... so maybe it will be something that takes care of itself? We'll see.

Diet:

Lizzie is an awesome eater, and a big eater, as of late (growth spurt?)! Favorites include: tacos, quesadillas ("dias!"), anything chicken, pizza, pasta, oranges, blueberries, blackberries, apples (under lots of supervision...), craisins, Inner Peas (from Trader Joe's and are ridiculously delicious), hummus, waffles with peanut butter, whole wheat cheddar goldfish, Annie's bunnies ("bunny cookies") and CHEESE! This girl loves her cheese. She's not a big fan of sweets, in all honesty -- ice cream? Pass! She'd rather have "fishies" (goldfish).

Generally speaking, she's still not much of a picky eater. She'll usually eat just about whatever we put in front of her, besides pears for some reason :) One of the best developments these last couple months have been her understanding of "eat two bites of ______ and you can have some more ______ (usually fruit ;))". It's awesome and typically works like a charm!

Social:

Girlfriend loves kids. Like, l o v e s! She's always asking about her cousins and talking about daycare friends. She's definitely becoming more interactive with others from what we've seen.

She's starting to be a little less shy than she had been the last few months; she doesn't hide in Andy's shoulder when we go to mass anymore, which I'm glad about. It's good to have some stranger danger, but I certainly don't want her to be petrified! As long as Mom and Dad are close by now, she's usually at least a bit comfortable.

Milestones:

So, so, so much to share in this arena. Lizzie's gross motor skills continue to improve -- she's starting to run and making attempts at jumping (and I think both feet are starting to get off the ground now!), which she loves. She'll say "jumpin'! Jumpin'! Jumpin'" or "Hop! Hop! Hop!" She's also a big fan of dancing, which typically consists of her doing a gallop-type movement in place and singing, "Dancin'! Dancin'! Dancin'!" 

Lizzie is also excellent at building towers. She loves playing Play Doh lately (er, ordering us to cut shapes using cookie cutters out of particular Play Doh colors), and sometimes the fun continues 10 minutes after we close the jars up when she stacks the jars as high as they can go without toppling over :) I think that might be one of her favorite parts of the whole tower-building thing, to be honest.

She becomes more and more interested in coloring by the day. Naturally, she's least interested in coloring with her [washable] crayons and markers and enjoys coloring with my teacher pens most.

Lizzie loves her "helper stand" that Andy made for her (and so do I)! She uses it to "help" with baking/food prep, eat snacks at the counter next to me, or just to see what I'm up to. I'm also a big fan because she can get up on it by herself and is satisfied being there, which means I don't need to lift her, which I don't do since being 20 weeks pregnant and finding I had a short cervix (those bans will be lifted soon... woohoo!). Her favorite thing to do in the helper stand is to stand in front of the sink and play with water, though :) She loves to pour and clean and play with bubbles in the sink... she usually cries pretty hard when it's time to clean up ;)

Girlfriend's talking continues to blow me away with how much and how quickly it changes. She is consistently putting together three or more words and is understanding things we say very easily. The other day, I told her to tell Daddy (Andy) to "stop freaking me out, Daddy!" and she says, "stop freaking out, Daddy!" -- pretty hilarious :) At this point, I won't even bother to list all the things she can say, because honestly, what doesn't she (at least attempt to) say?

Out to eat the other night, Lizzie pointed toward the cash register and said, "cut. Cut. Hair, hair. Cut hair." and I couldn't quite figure out what she was talking about... until Andy noticed there was a man at the register with hair past his shoulders :) So he said, "does that guy need a hair cut?" and she responded, "yeah...". Too hilarious. After the fact, she did not want to even breathe a word of this conversation and even cried when we brought it up too much, but it was way too funny.

Current loves: tractors, mowers, John Deere anything, Bison anything (says, "Go Bison!" regularly ;)), baths and bath tub paint, dollies, playing outside (she looks outside on cold days and says, "warm up, playground!" because I always tell her we can go on the playground when it warms up), covering people and stuffed animals up and telling them "nuh-night", Play Doh (woke up on a snow day home with me and upon my entering her room, says "Mommy, play Play Doh!" and ran to the table to play prior to eating breakfast), her cousins (talks about them almost daily when they aren't here), putting on lotion, brushing her teeth, dancing and singing.

Lizzie knows some of her shapes (star, heart, circle, sometimes gets triangle and square), all of her colors, and can count to 10.

She also lets me paint her nails after I've done mine :)

Lizzie is very afraid of trucks and cars, which I suppose is okay -- plus I was deathly afraid of airplanes and helicopters at this age, so I don't think it's too uncommon.

She's done an awesome job adjusting to me not being able to pick her up and carry her around. She'll climb into her car seat for me and will most often be satisfied just holding my hand at stores and in parking lots (I definitely think I have a harder time with this than she does!).

She has a hilarious sense of humor and is constantly making us laugh. This is, hands down, the most fun age so far.

We're just starting to dabble in our 18 to 24 month clothes, but we're as tight as we can go on the adjustable waistband of her Gap jeans right now :) That's okay. Better than looking like we're ready for a flood, right?

Babycakes: 19 months!

As per usual, this is behind! Lizzie girl is now 20 1/2 months... this post was written two weeks ago, and the photo was taken over a month ago -- but that's okay :)
 

Health:
Everything's been looking great with Lizzie. She now has all of her one-year molars (finally). I think we're almost caught up on all the teeth we didn't get in our first 13 months ;) 

Sleep:

Usually girlfriend wakes up once or twice a night and needs "Buddy" (pacifier). Other than that, though, she's usually all set to go back to sleep.

I still rock her to sleep for naps and nighttime, and though I don't want to give that up, I do recognize that with twins on the way, a bedtime rocking may not be available every night in a few months. I've also been thinking a lot about the transition from a crib to a toddler bed. Any opinions? Thoughts? Past experiences? I'd love to hear them. Realistically, I don't anticipate the twins needing cribs until they're six months old, as I plan to have them in bassinets in our bedroom. She has asked for a few nights straight for her crib at night, versus me rocking her. However, once she gets in there, she doesn't fall asleep and we end up rocking her anyway. So what do we do? If anyone has any suggestions, we are open :)

Diet:
Lizzie has somewhat lifted the ban on eating lately. Her favorite veggies are pretty reliably broccoli and sweet potatoes. She has to be pretty darn hungry to eat peas or beans these days ;) Which is funny, because beans used to be near the top of the list. No matter -- I'm just grateful we're interested in some vegetable!

Otherwise, she's a good eater and will eat pretty much whatever. She's learned the word "meat" and will ask for it if I don't give it to her fast enough at suppertime ;) Certainly a favorite meal of hers is tacos. She will ask for them by name before supper... ha! She's turning into a pasta lover (just like momma) and has a new love of whole wheat Goldfish crackers. Any opportunity for a snack, she'll ask for "fishies". We also have some delicious cupcake graham Goldfish, but those don't hold a candle to the cheddar ones in Lizzie's world. She will also ask for crackers by name, so we'll usually give her a Triscuit, which typically takes her 10 minutes to eat (and leaves a nice trail of crumbs all around the house... not my favorite part). 

Oranges and bananas continue to be a front-runners in terms of fruit. She still loves her berries as well. 

Girl loves her milk! Asks for it all the time. We try to do water unless it's a mealtime, but usually she'll deny water (er, throw a tantrum about having it) unless it's in my hospital mug with its big straw of course :) Then she's a guzzler. We take turns taking drinks when that happens, though I'm not sure who ends up getting more water ;)

We have finally given up the nighttime bottle, right around Christmastime. We'd been forgoing it for a number of nights in a row, not on purpose, but due to our busy schedule and her falling asleep in the car without any nighttime "snack" at all and then being put directly into her crib. Anyway, giving it up was more about Mom (isn't it always?) than her... I just couldn't cut that tie! I love the rocking and the sleepiness that would come from the bottle... so peaceful and calm. But I certainly knew it was time (a long time ago). So now we let her pick out a snack (usually "fishies", surprise, surprise), get her jammies on, grab her blankie and buddy and pick out a few books. We read them on the floor in her room while she snacks; when she's done, we brush teeth and get in the rocker for bedtime. I can confidently say that Lizzie loves this new routine in so many ways. The books, the snacks, the cuddle-up time... I really think she looks forward to it, and dare I say it, I may even like it better than the bottle ;) It does take longer, but I really love and look forward to it.

Social:

I've noticed from picking Lizzie up at daycare that she's really started to interact with other kids more. She's always been interested in other kids (especially babies, who apparently include kids even a little older than her...), but now she'll play "peek-a-boo" with them, give hugs, hold hands... not necessarily converse with them, but she does get a kick out of and giggle with them :)

We did have our first biting incident at daycare a week ago or so... Lizzie was not the biter, but instead the bitee. She had four nice little teeth marks that even broke the skin on her shoulder... yikes! We felt so bad for our poor girl, but I'm sure she was fine. Still, it was our first bite experience, so it was a little startling ;) We are glad she's not the biter, though. 

Milestones:

Lizzie is starting to string words together quite often. "Momma sit couch" is a common phrase these days :) For some reason, girlfriend loves to sit on the couch and talk, play, cuddle, whatever. It's pretty cute.

New words: sit, couch, Big Bird, Stuffins (Doc McStuffins), fishies, neat, nice, cool, hot, done, washcloth (sounds like "ca-coth"... she will ask for a washcloth anytime she's messy), nose, icky, messy, puppy (used to be "buh-buh" and then turned into "woof-woof", but is now actually "puppy"), truck, mower, fix, bear, van,snow, ice, Christmas tree, bunny (actually sounds like "bunny" these days), reindeer ("ain-eer"), Jenny, Noah, Mykenna, Brayden, Michael (she said her cousin, Michael's, name five times an hour just after they left after Christmastime), Josh, Tracy, Rachel, Jake, Desi, Joseph, Mary (identifies Joseph, Mary and Jesus in her Bible), Bible, oopsies ("oopie"), peek!, "no stop!"... she's now saying "three" in sequence after one and two, which means she can almost count to three (she had the "two" down in sequence after one before, but she can't count on her own/give meaning to those numbers at this point), knows many of her colors reliably (blue, green, purple, orange, black), mailbox, poopy, potty... so many to list, and it goes on and on. Her vocabulary is constantly growing and she is always repeating words we say.

If you do something she doesn't like, she'll tell you, "stop!" or "no!"... mostly this comes when Grandpa or Daddy is doing something somewhat annoying ;) She also asserts herself and uses the word, "no!" loudly when waking up in the morning (just like a teenager already...) and if you're asking her to do something she doesn't want to do (like walk to communion at mass... she asserted herself very loudly in that particular instance, a few times).

Lizzie has a great memory. We will tell her we're going to Grandma's house and she'll say, "Michael? Rachel? Josh? Tracy? Brayden? Noah? Mykenna? Jake? Desi?" because she remembers they've been there when we have. She'll also talk quite often about fixing the lawn mower (Andy uses it for snowblowing) and the truck, because I told her Daddy was fixing the mower and truck once... "fix truck?" "mower, fix?" It is very cute. She still loves to visit Daddy's "toys" in the garage (mower, truck, tools).

Singing more and more and loves to dance and say "dancin', dancin', dancin'!" So cute!! She especially loves to do this on top of any new "surface" (a towel, a squishy mat, etc...) and inside of her teepee she got for Christmas.

Loves books still. We read a Berenstain Bears book called The Big Road Race and she loved it for a few days, always wanting to look at the pages where some cars had accidents and saying "uh-oh," about their predicaments. After we read it one night, I was rocking her to sleep and she took out Buddy and said, "uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh,"... she was obviously thinking about the broken cars in the book. She wanted to read it the next night, but then hasn't wanted much to do with it from then on; I think it somewhat disturbs her because the cars all got hurt. In terms of other books, though, we've noticed she'll sit for longer books/books with more text more than she did before.

We are still wearing our 12 to 18 month clothing; in fact, I even noticed a few 6 to 12 month clothes and jammies mixed in the other day. Those 6 to 12 month pants are getting a little short, however ;) So it's definitely time to put those in our baby clothes box. Anyway, girlfriend won't need 18 to 24 month clothes for anything but the length in the pants, so we'll see what happens there. I'm thinking we'll be in the 12 to 18 month categories for quite some time yet (another month?).