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?).

Babycakes: 18 months!

 

This is definitely long overdue (a whole month!)... but the holiday season gets away from you. Better late than never, right? :) At least her picture was taken at the right time. Lizzie is now 19 months old, but this will review her at 18 months.

Health:
We're still battling an ongoing cough and runny nose. It seems like it's completely perpetual... we just get over one, and we start a new strain. At least she seems to be feeling well :)

We've now broken SIX teeth in the last month. We now have four on top, four on bottom, along with a molar on top and one molar on bottom as well. Girlfriend has had a few fevers the last week or so, but they've all been short-lived and haven't returned after a dose of Motrin. I've been worried she's actually been legitimately sick with each fever, but not so (hooray!). Let's hope our lucky streak continues through the holidays (knock on wood...).

We had our 18-month check-up about two weeks ago and found out some official stats. Girlfriend is about 30.5" tall and 21 pounds. I truly think she's probably thinned out more since then, to be honest. She's not been as interested in eating and more all about about playing instead. More about this later, though, in its' designated section :)

Sleep:

Sleep still remains pretty easy for us with Lizzie. She usually does wake up once a night (but this pregnant momma is sleeping hard these days, so I haven't noticed... sorry, daddy!) for "Buddy" (her pacifier). She'll definitely let us know when she's tired out and ready for bed -- it's not uncommon for girlfriend to grab my hand, take me to her room, request jammies, blankie and Buddy, say, "love you," and stand by her rocking chair. It is so sweet and just melts our hearts! Still naps like a champ, usually at least two to three hours!

Diet:
As I mentioned previously, Lizzie is becoming less interested in eating lately. It's not a picky thing, but more of an "I'm too busy playing to eat" thing or I'm thinking it could be a teething thing. The two exceptions to this rule are, however, cheese and oranges. She seriously cannot get enough!

Social:

Lizzie gets buckets of socialization at daycare each week, obviously. She's definitely learning some (not-so) awesome new tricks there like hitting and pushing. I've never seen or heard of her her hitting another child, though she's swung at us just a handful of times, which we're obviously not big on. When we tell her "no, we don't hit Mommy/Daddy," she is instantly remorseful, usually with some pretty sad tears (not tantrum tears, but sad ones). I have seen her push her cousin Michael a few times, which I'm also not a big fan of. Please tell me all children are like this at this age? Though I am grateful we're not biting because I know some families deal with that!

It seems the pushing happens when it comes to toy sharing or if someone gets in her space too much, so at least it's not just aggressive for no apparent reason.

Girlfriend loves her cousins. Last weekend, we went to the Bison playoff game with my parents, sister and her boyfriend, and Lizzie went to play at her cousins' house and apparently she didn't ask about "mama" or "dah-ee" (daddy) once. She loves those kids!

Milestones:

New words this month: what isn't a new word this month? My goodness, I don't think I can even come up with them because there's so many. She says classmates' names from daycare readily, thank you, sit (while pulling on my hand/doing a little dance/motioning toward the ground... so cute!), chicken, tacos, green, blue, purple, orange (correctly identifies all four typically), "two" (says it appropriately in sequence after "one"), Christmas, puppy, tree, light, blankie, truck, snowmobile (says "mobile"), van, Santa, Jesus, "chickies" (little chick crackers), bunny (says "my-ee"), fishies, cracker, marshmallow (mallow), tractor... seriously, too many to list!

She's starting to string two or three words together at a time quite often... "Daddy shoes", "____, where are you?".

She's taken a real interest in her dollies and their shoes lately. We've got some hand-me-down Polly Pockets and Barbie dolls that we let her play with (under supervision, due to those tiny pieces) and she's obsessed with putting on their shoes!

She's also been loving tractors. We don't hardly anything in terms of screen time still, but Andy will put on a tractor video here or there from YouTube and she'll say "Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi tractor! Hi! Hi! Hi!"... so sweet! She loves to drive by the John Deere dealership and look at them with Daddy :) She's also been loving Andy's new (to us) truck, snowmobile and lawn mower. She'll make a special request to go to the (cold) garage to look at and sit on them.

Girlfriend is still a dancer and  a book reader, but my personal new favorite is her singing! She definitely was attempting to sing Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer and sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star quite obviously now ("Ih-oh, ih-oh, eeyo star, under what-ooh ah... up, up, up, high..." again, so sweet!). 

Lizzie is quite good at those Look and Find books :) It's pretty amazing to watch!
As mentioned, she knows a few of her colors and can identify both star and heart. She also knows that two comes after one, and they told me one day at daycare that she was counting more than that for them -- proud teacher mom!

We're still in 12 to 18 month clothing, and I thought she'd be out of those relatively soon. However, it doesn't seem like that's around the corner at all. Obviously I could be completely wrong, but from my current perspective, I think we'll still have at least a good month in our current clothes at this point.

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.

Babycakes: 16 months!

 

Health: 
Last month, I mentioned that Lizzie had an appointment to check out her eyes and be sure they weren't turning in slightly. We had her appointment in mid-September, and got the news that, yes, she does, indeed, have a slight case of what they call "esotropia". Esotropia is when one eye turns in. She has a type of cosmetic esotropia (sometimes she can appear to have an eye turned in slightly, but it's not actually) due to the fold of her eyelid (like mine) and that she has a wider nose bridge. Aside from that, her left eye does turn in just so slightly. It's hardly noticeable -- so much so that the ophthalmologist was amazed that I even caught it. No one else caught it, including her doctor, Andy or our parents. I just felt like I would notice it in some photos and sometimes when she'd look at me -- but I couldn't be sure, because I wasn't sure if she was truly looking straight ahead, or if she was looking slightly off to the side and I was just seeing things. So anyway, apparently Lizzie's esotropia is caused by being near-sighted. Her vision needs just a little bit of correction, hardly any. I guess the idea is that if you give a kid who is near-sighted glasses, their eye muscles will relax and no longer do that slight turn-in. So that's what we had to do... get girlfriend glasses!

When I found out she had to get glasses, I cried. Oh, I cried. I did a good job of holding back the tears in the appointment, but afterward was another story. So many mom worries... what if they fall off on the playground? What if she cries and they get hard to see out of and no one is there to wipe them off for her? What if they fog up and she can't see? And what if no one can see her pretty blue eyes anymore because they only notice her glasses? Andy reminded me kindly that I was being ridiculous and her glasses were not sunglasses, so that was silly. But still. And I think the tears came because, you know, your perfect child apparently has an imperfection all of a sudden! Not possible. Not possible!

But, it is.

And she's completely perfect, even with her glasses on :) She's adjusted so well to them. She doesn't mind them at all. We got some fake ones to begin with because we were first deciding on which color to choose (only one frame fit her face, so we had little for options... just three color choices: brown, grey and purple) and so I decided to make her wear those fakes 24/7 while at home just to see how difficult life with a 16-month old in glasses would be. But, to my delight, it wasn't a challenge at all. Sure, she hated them for the first five minutes we had them on, but after that, they became her go-to accessory. And I think once we got the real ones and they helped her see, she liked that aspect. We did have one break down where she ripped them off her face and threw them across the room (well, as much across the room as a little lady can) and shouted gibberish. I imagine she was scolding the world for her needing to wear these darn glasses for the next few years. But hey, I had my tantrum about it, so she's entitled to one (or five), too.

It sounds like she could grow out of this within two years, but maybe more like sometime between kindergarten and third grade age. 

In other health news, we're still stuck with four teeth -- the same four she got all in her 13th month of life. We have a hunch there are more coming (hallelujah!), slowly but surely... sleep has been interrupted, and the chewing and drooling is at its peak. Hopefully they break through soon :)

Sleep:
Due to the tooth situation, can be hit-and-miss at night. Sometimes up not at all in the night, but sometimes up two or three times. She's been going to bed at 7:30 on school nights because we have to get her up by 6:30 in the mornings (though she typically wakes on her own by 6:15 or so because of the noise we make after getting up).

Naps at daycare are, apparently, going well. They told me the other day that she's falling asleep completely on her own and sleeping nice and long. All right, girlfriend! I've been trying to imagine her on her little cot at daycare... too funny.

At home, her naps are great as well. Usually we get two to three hours in the afternoon out of her.

Diet:
Loves food still! But again, I think those teeth are wreaking havoc on her appetite some days and she's just not that interested. She's becoming more and more of a "spicy" and "hot" food fan... loves buffalo chicken :)

I've been letting her have a marshmallow here and there ("meh-yo" she says for them :)), which she loves. Favorite sweet treat, next to the elusive ice cream!

Her favorite foods right now would be roasted red pepper hummus (hands down, number one favorite!), Inner Peas from Trader Joe's, ice cream, buffalo chicken, sweet potatoes, raspberries and pineapple.

Social:
Lizzie is completely enamored by big kids, especially her cousins, Brayden, Mykenna and Noah. A few weeks ago they visited and Lizzie insisted that Brayden hold her during mass. When I tried to explain (seriously, why do I even try to reason with a one-year-old?) to her that Brayden might have a hard time holding her, she threw a bit of a fit at mass -- so he held her top while I supported her butt so he could hold her :) So goofy. But she loves them! It's adorable.

Apparently she's making friends like it's her job (and isn't it?) at the Y. I guess the teacher told Andy last week that all the kids love Lizzie. She's been holding hands with boys and apparently receiving hugs from one little boy in particular... oh boy. I guess she's also been tickling kids? Oh my. She's quite the little lady. :) She's a charmer.

Milestones:

New words this month: bike, dolly, bye-bye, buh-bye, daddy, mommy (believe it or not, she hasn't really said them much up to this point... or, at least, not this well), dolly, door, mine (not my favorite new word... definitely something she picked up at daycare! She definitely knows what it means and will even say "no, mine!" to us... oh boy), says "No" for my nephew "Noah" and can point him out in a picture. 

Girlfriend also knows where belly button, eyes, hands, fingers, toes, feet, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, hair and ears are -- I just forgot to mention it on last month's post! So she's known those since 15 months. 

Lizzie loves to dance and read books. She's starting to move her little feet when she dances and also includes her arms in the action as well :) It's a full-body dance sometimes! Adorable. She's also now tracking words with her finger when we read (not accurately, obviously), so I'm thinking she must be "getting" the idea that letters mean reading (I typically track words as we read in order to give her that impression). 

We're wearing 12 to 18 month pants, but only those that have the adjustable waist in them from BabyGap right now (and not all of their pants have that... bummer) -- and those that she's wearing, we have the waist cinched way, way, way in. Like, five holes on each side in. Leggings in that size are generally still too big, depending on where they are from -- but, unfortunately, she needs the length. She's not a terribly tall little lady, but tall enough to be too long for six to 12 month things. For shirts, we still do onesies and t-shirts in 6 to 12 months size for t-shirt days and those fit just fine. When it's long sleeved weather, we do 12 to 18 month things because that's the size I bought her for fall. Some things are a little big, but that's okay.

Based on super-accurate home measurements (;)), I think girlfriend is about 21 pounds and 30 inches, putting her around the 10th percentile or so for both.

Babycakes: 15 months!

Health: 
Lizzie girl has continued to be completely happy and healthy this month, but that doesn't mean it's  been uneventful! We had her 15 month appointment a couple of weeks ago the day after her 15-month birthday, so we did get some official stats as far as weight and height are concerned. Girlfriend is 20 pounds, two ounces -- which puts her around the fifth percentile for weight (where she's generally been since birth). She's around 30 inches tall, which is around the 30th percentile -- a little down from past months, but not surprising really, considering my stature.

I've been wondering if one of Lizzie's eyes turns in slightly every once and awhile, so I mentioned it to her pediatrician at the appointment. She could see what I was referring to somewhat, but she wasn't sure if we're seeing something or just making it up -- or if we're seeing something that's really not there. She explained that sometimes, the shape of our eyes can make it seem like we have an eye turning in, even if it's not -- and she happens to have that particular shape on the inside corner of her eyes (it matches my eyes, actually). Anyway, she wasn't sure, so she referred us to an eye specialist in town. We went to see them, and they basically had the same reaction as her pediatrician -- not sure, but something to look into. They wouldn't do any type of testing there, as they're not pediatric eye specialists -- so they've now referred us on to see a Pediatric Ophthalmologist in St. Cloud. I had hoped to get in prior to school starting (because A: I'm impatient and need answers now, and B: then I wouldn't have to miss school), but, alas, no openings. So we're headed there in mid-September and will find out if it's really something, or if it's just nothing.

There was also a question about whether or not Lizzie had hip dysplasia at her 15-month check up as well. Lizzie was checked for hip dysplasia as an infant, because a doctor noticed a slight click in her hip when she was just brand new in the hospital. We did an ultrasound when she was just a few weeks old, and everything looked perfect, so we laid it to rest. But at her latest appointment, the pediatrician saw an indicator of it (an uneven gluteal fold... Google it if you're curious!), so she was sent for x-rays to see if it was, again, something or just nothing. After a day of fretting and consulting Dr. Google (did you know that hip dysplasia treatment at this age is surgery with a lower-body cast for six months, followed by a hip harness for at least three months?! I was worried sick over it), it turns out that all is well and my baby just has a little extra chub to love on one of her glutes/thighs :)

And finally, Girlfriend was vaccinated for rabies this month after sleeping in a room with a bat without our knowledge while visiting a family cabin a few weeks ago. Again, I was worried sick over the whole thing. My main issue was with the vaccines -- a series of five shots in a two-week window. I'm not typically a momma who's concerned with vaccines, but in this case, I worried about that much vaccine in that short time-frame... but from everything I read and what all of the doctors told us, it's perfectly safe. Plus, what are parents to do? We are sure she didn't get bit, but what if she did? And what if she got rabies? Then what? I'd never forgive myself for not giving her the vaccines. Anyway, we finished up our final shot yesterday, and Lizzie was rewarded well from the nurse, who felt so bad she loaded Lizzie up with stickers and a coupon for a free ice cream cone :)

Sleep:
Continues to be great! Nice, long naps and good night sleeps. Still wakes up occasionally in the night hours, but just needs "Buddy" (her pacifier).

Lizzie started daycare again this last week. She's at a different center now, and is in the toddler room there. Due to the bump up in the world, she's now no longer being rocked to sleep for naps and is sleeping on a cot versus a crib. I'm guessing Mommy had a harder time adjusting to this idea than Lizzie did, because apparently she's done just fine with all of the above! But it doesn't change anything at home... I'm still rocking her at bedtime and naps on days off ;)

Diet:
Still doing well on the food front! She continues to be compelled to eat only the exact same thing as Mom and Dad are eating -- which continues to surprise me when we eat things like buffalo chicken calzones -- I'd think it'd be too hot for her, but apparently not! She gobbles it up without batting an eye.

Every so often, she seems to go on a veggies strike (broccoli is the latest that is a no-go). I try not to get too concerned about it, as she always comes around within a few days. And just to be sure she's getting her veggies in, I'll give her hummus or a green monster smoothie (spinach + banana + other fruits) to sneak them into her diet.

As mentioned previously, we started daycare again at a new center. I'm kind of crazy in terms of food for her, and I don't feel like their food is the healthiest, so we are currently bringing her both breakfast and lunch each day. We are letting her eat snack there for now -- though I'm not terribly crazy about that either :)

Social:
With daycare starting up again this week, we've had our fair share of social time with other kids! Although she's the peanut in her bunch -- she's already small for her age, but the toddler room at daycare doesn't usually start until 16 months -- so she's quite a bit younger than the others in her room. It sounds like quite a few kids are getting ready to move up to the preschool room (which means they're around 32 months... whoa!), which is a pretty big age gap. We've had some concerns about this, just because her gross motor skills just simply aren't where the other kids' are at this point. I think she's feeling a little "lost" right now -- on three out of the four days we've been at daycare so far, I've come to pick her up at the end of the day and she's either standing in the middle of the playground or by the door of her classroom, crying :( It breaks my heart! It's not been the easiest transition, and definitely has me wondering, "Is this really worth it?" My working isn't something that is a "need" -- but I do enjoy my job, and I'd like to be teaching when my kids start elementary school so I can be there when they are. But this type of stuff really makes me second guess my decision to continue to work... it's such an internal battle. Anyway, we'll see how the next week or two goes before making any decisions to find another option for us.

Lizzie continues to be very afraid of cars and new people. I think she fears cars because she now realizes there are people in the cars that can come out, and I think that scares her a little. And she's not afraid of new people at mass or when we're out shopping, but at daycare, she has a really hard time if someone new comes in to take over on a staff member's break -- but I assume that comes from being in a new place with new people and not being completely comfortable yet.

Milestones:
No new teeth this month to speak of, but I think there might be one on the way...

Lizzie goes down slides all by herself! (Depending on size, of course ;))

New words this month: bike, meow, down, knows what a lion and a bear say ("Raar!") and when I say "What's a crocodile do?", she opens her arms up vertically and slaps them together :) She also learned the sign for "help". I'm estimating that she can probably say 20 different words/animal sounds at this point.

We're just starting to try some of our 12 month clothes at this point. We're still doing the 6 to 12 month in Gap and 9 month clothes in Carter's right now -- but our pants are slowly getting a little too short. So we're trying out the 12 to 18 month sizes, but the waist is too big! Luckily, if I buy in the toddler sizes at Gap (versus the baby sizes), they have elastic bands that you can tighten in the waist, so that helps some -- but most of the time, Girlfriend's jeans are sagging pretty low in our new, size-up pants :)

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.