Toddler Summary-16.5 months

I realize it would be better to have a 16 month summary or a 17 month summary, but it's September the 3rd and I feel like doing it now.  So there.  :)


Eating
She is still a fruit head and a carb head.  I have started giving her smoothies sometimes for breakfast and she loooooves them.  She still doesn't eat much meat.  She won't eat my awesome, handbreaded chicken nuggets but she will eat Chick-fil-A's!  Hmph.  She also won't eat my sweet potato fries.  Hmph.  Toddlers are picky! 


Sleeping
She was sleeping 8-8 until about 3 days ago when she started waking up from more teeth coming in (I think)!  She finally dropped a nap so she's down to one a day.  I thought that would be a drag, but it's made my life easier not having to get all my errands and playdates over and done with in an hour or two.  So now she naps from noon-ish to two-ish and all is well :)


Teething
Her 1st molars finally came in and she was sleeping really well again until 3 days ago as I previously wrote.  No new teeth have broken the surface yet but I assume it is her canine's since they are supposed to come next and she's been pretty textbook so far.  I also must admit that at first I wrote K-9's, but at least I knew something looked wrong!


Playtime/Reading
She is really getting into her chunky puzzles.  I don't know when babies are supposed to learn colors, but she so does not get the concept!  She tries to put the red triangle into any of the holes, etc.  She loves to color with markers.  Crayons are ok, but markers are her favorite.  She is also starting to listen and sit still to an entire (short) book which is so fun for me!  We read A LOT.  The chick is a reader.  I don't know how many books we read a day-I should keep track just to see sometime.  She also likes going outside (but what kid doesn't, really?) and loves to play in the water.  I have started showing her bugs and butterflies and she thinks they are pretty cool.  She loves that game where you say "I'm going to get you" and chase her around the house! It is so fun!


Other

She is learning how to climb down stairs.  She climbs up really well.  She is starting to "talk" a lot and she knows a lot of words.  She is also starting to say 2-syllable words and phrases (apple, all gone, color).  Her hair is super super curly and stays out of control! So I have started putting it in pigtails which makes it much more manageable for mommy :) 

Cutie pie in her pigtails :)

Mmmmm, can't think of anything else to say! Have a great Sunday tomorrow!

Toddler Summary-15 months

I'm not organized/disciplined enough to do this regularly, but I thought that even randomly done will be a good reference for the future!

Eating
Baby Girl is a pretty good eater.  She will try new things and I think eats a decent amount.  I think she ate a little more when she was younger, but I heard that after the age of 1, babies growth rates slow down so they don't need as much "fuel" so I'm not too worried.  She LOVES fruit!  Fruit for breakfast, fruit for lunch, fruit for dinner.  She also loves bread.  Those are the two things that I can always give her if she is feeling picky.  For breakfast, she eats one packet of instant oatmeal plus fruit and I share my cereal with her too.  For lunch, she eats some kind of veggie (peas, corn, sweet potato, green beans), some kind of fruit, and some carb (puffs, Ritz whole wheat crackers).  On days I'm worn out, I feed her a Lunchable :)  For dinner, she eats whatever we eat-normally some kind of rice and fruit.  She still won't eat meat unless it is ground up (chicken nugget or those vienna sausage thingies for babies).  Dinner is her smallest meal.  During the day she also snacks on puffs or cranberries or animal crackers.  She is drinking a little bit more water (a little bit).  Her milk intake has seriously gone down this past week which worries me.  We have a doctor's appointment in a couple of weeks so I'll ask her about it then.

Sleeping
This poor girl has been through so much this past month it is really hard to tell what her sleeping patterns are.  She goes to bed at 7:30 and used to sleep until 8, but this past week she has been waking up at 6:15!  I tried keeping her up an extra half hour tonight and it was awful! The monster is released when you try to deprive that girl of sleep.  Seriously, every time I try to cut her sleep I regret it.  She is still taking 2 naps a day.  I wish I could cut one out so she would sleep more at night, but I'm scared!! 

Teething
Yes, she sure is teething! She is cutting her bottom 1st molars and is definitely struggling.  She cut her top 1st molars in Germany with very little disruption, but these bottom ones are giving her a time!  I am blaming the not drinking milk and not sleeping at night on teething.  After all, they both started happening about a week ago.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Playtime
She's a stud.  Plays by herself pretty well, but I don't actually leave the room.  I can read or check my email while she talks to her stuffed animals or plays with a toy.  A skill I would really like to teach her is to play alone with me in another room, but at my parent's house we dont have a good set up to do that.  I guess if I was serious about doing that I could completely baby proof her nursery.  We'll see. 

Reading
She loves her books which is so wonderful!  We read every day.  She is not so good at sitting through an entire book unless she is really tired (she is a major wiggle worm after all).  She will bring me a book, climb up in my lap, and read about 3 or 4 pages, and then want down.  Repeat this process over and over again and you can see what we do a lot.  A lot :)  She will also pull all her books off of the bookshelf and flip through them by herself.  She likes to hear the books her daddy recorded, but again, not for very long. When she hears his voice, she grins up at me and acts like she will listen to the entire book, but no, she won't.

Schedule (in an ideal world that is)
8:00-Wake up & snuggle
8:30-Breakfast
9:00-Reading Time
9:30-Playtime with Mommy
10:00-Milk plus snack
10:30-take a walk or have free time
11:00-Nap
13:00-Lunch
13:30-Sing our daily songs and make music (this week we played with bells)
14:00-Outside time
14:30-Milk plus snack
15:00-Free time/bath every other day
16:00-Nap
17:00-offer milk or juice
17:30-play with her grandpa while I cook dinner
18:30-Dinner
19:00-Milk
19:30-Bed