16+17 Months
So... I neglected to do a 16 month update. That was right when all the allergy testing was going on and we left for vacation shortly thereafter and I never got motivated. Also, as she gets older there are less dramatic changes to report. So, I'm combining these 2 months together! :)
The biggest change over this time is her verbal skills have increased 10 fold. She can say tons of words, make tons of animal noises (dog, cat, sheep, cow, horse, monkey, lion/tiger/bear, pig, bird, horse, maybe some others, although some are harder to understand!) and repeats words that we ask her to. Recently, she started saying a 2 word sentence.... some request followed by please ("more, please", "up, please"). It is very cute and very hard to ignore, even if what she wants more of isn't something we feel like doing! In the last few days I have heard her say "thank you" after I've given her what she's asked for. It's really fun as she is starting to communicate more and more. It is hard to watch her get really frustrated at times, though, when she doesn't know how to communicate what she wants.
She also likes to sing songs! She can sing bits and pieces of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”, “The Farmer and the Dell”… and maybe a few more. It’s so cute!
She's able to point out most of her body parts (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, teeth, hair, chin, knees, belly button, fingers and toes). I also love that when I ask her to come hold my hand she comes running over me and grabs my hand - SO cute!
Sleep habits are still the same... still at 1 nap after lunch lasting for about 1.5 hours, still going to bed about 8-8:30 and sleeping for about 11 or so hours. We are still nursing first thing in the morning and last thing at night. However, while we were in MA we were out and about during Kayla's bedtime and Grandma put her to bed without nursing and I went without pumping and we were both fine. So that nursing may be done soon. We'll see.
She's started learning how to eat with a spoon lately. She's getting much better about it too. She needs help getting food onto the spoon, but after that she is able to guide it to her mouth. She likes to turn the spoon upside down in her mouth, but if she turns it too early it dumps the food out! Oh well, it's a learning process! Sometimes (specifically if we are trying to buy time in a restaurant) we’ll give her a straw, and that will occupy her for a long time. When we were in MA with my parents she was a HAM at the Cheesecake Factory! She was really enjoying the straw and also being able to drink out of a real cup!
She has all 4 eye/canine teeth now.... I think the last 2 came in right before we left for Christmas. These teeth actually seemed to cause her pain and even wake up in the middle of the night crying several times. And it took a long time for these ones to come in. I'd been thinking they'd pop through for at least a few weeks before the sharp point actually made it to the surface. She did not suffer really at all for the first 8 teeth, then the molars caused a bit of pain, but nothing compared to these ones! Yikes!
She has become very affectionate. She loves giving us hugs and kisses and will typically give them on request. Sometimes she just comes over and gives them to us out of the blue! So precious. She also gives Wesley hugs (as always) and now kisses. It's so cute to see that! She can also say "uv-ya" which is "I love you". She usually would only repeats it after we say it to her, but in the last few days she has come up to me and said it to me on her own! Melt my heart!
One thing that she often does that I don't ever want to forget is when you pick her up sometimes she tucks her arms down by her side and snuggles into us. It is so cute, we love it when she does that!
She's had problems the last month with diaper rash, and we aren't exactly sure of the cause. Her bowels continue to be looser than we'd like, despite cutting out all juice (Dr's suggestion). It's probably the loose stools that are causing the diaper rash, so we are trying to work on that because it's SO sad when she is hurting and screaming when you try to change her. Poor little girl :( Also on this topic, in the past month or so she has started telling us when she has a poppy diaper, or saying yes when we ask her if she has one. Hopefully she continues to advance in that area... not that we are looking to potty train soon, but it is a start at least!
She's also started taking a daily vitamin, per her Dr's suggestion. And, well, she LOVES them. It's like candy! Every day she points out the cabinet where we keep them and asks for one.... and we have to start by explaining to her that she only gets 1, and when we give it to her we let her know that this is the last one until tomorrow, and she continues to beg for more for at least another minute (and any time we open that cabinet during the day!)! At least they are tasty!
One other change is that in the last week we moved her car seat to be forward facing. We have kept her rear facing as long as we could.... but her poor legs were pretty scrunched up in there. I have to say that we are both really enjoying this change! She really likes to see where we are going and I like to be able to look back and check up on her!
One last note! She used to “evict” all of her animals/toys from the crib when she was trying to settle down for bed/nap. But lately she isn’t doing that at all. She’s been going down much easier, but even when it’s a struggle, and even when I leave her there for awhile after she’s woken up, her toys are always still in there! I guess she learned that once they are over the rail they don’t come back, so she’s decided they can stay!!
