Category: D

D turned 14 months old this past Saturday. What the what?? Why does that sound so big? Like has it really been 6 months since she was 8 months old? That little number sounds much less scary and grown-up. Alas, I still haven’t figured out how to make time stand still or even slow down. She certainly is as entertaining and amazing as ever, though, so I thought I’d give you the latest update:

• Her last trip to the doctor’s office was at the beginning of September, when she weighed 20.7 lbs. She even stood on the big person’s scale and everything! We haven’t had an official measurement since her 12 month checkup, so I’ll have to estimate again here, but I’ll say she’s roughly 32″ tall and probably just under 21 lbs. She’s growing!
• Drumroll please… 13 teeth!! Yes, that is correct – her little mouth has sprouted 5 new teeth in the past month. I should say in the past week and a half, really. So now in addition to the 8 in front (4 on top and 4 on bottom), she has 4 more on the bottom and 1 more on top. The 4 new ones on the bottom are both cuspids and first molars, and the 1 new one on top is the right cuspid. Crazy! I was worried that teething with these big teeth was going to be horrific for her, since before they poked through you could see her gums just bulging, but (knock on wood) they really don’t seem to be affecting her much. I hope it stays that way.
• Crawling is a long-forgotten mode of travel these days, and her walking is getting more and more coordinated. She moves fast when she wants to, too! I finally wised up and got a baby gate for the basement stairs, so fortunately we have thus far avoided any monumental stair catastrophes. (insert more knocking on wood here) She loves to stand at the top of the basement steps chewing on the gate when you go downstairs and laugh as she sees you go around the corner at the bottom.
• Climbing has become a favorite activity of hers, making me wonder if she might be part monkey (well that, and the night she ate a whole banana in about 7 bites). She can now climb up onto the couch by herself, climb onto the ottoman to the glider in her bedroom, climb into her froggie chair, and just this weekend she started climbing up onto the ottoman/bench we use to store some of her toys. Ok, 2 of these have posed problems – the froggie chair and the bench. We have just recently gotten to the point where she will get in her chair and actually sit as opposed to standing in it like a total stinker. That took much “feet down”ing, physical repositioning of the toddler herself, and finally ignoring the “look at me, I’m standing!” face and squeaks to get her to do that one correctly. The bench is a new-found plaything since she started standing on the lid of it this weekend when it was on the floor (ahem, thanks a lot for that one, grandma…), then proceeded to think she could continue standing on it when it was back in place on the bench. Wrongola! So we’ll work on that one.
• Still no real words yet, but more new noises get added to her “vocabulary” all the time. I can’t wait until she does start talking, so we can finally hear what she thinks she’s been saying this whole time.
• LOVES her books. Which I, personally, find awesome! It’s so funny to watch her “reading” her books too, as she sits flipping pages, with strings of “bdyap, bdyap, bdyap” and “dis dis dis”. I know they do tons of reading at daycare too, which is wonderful for the kids.
• She loves art projects. We are already filling up a tupperware bin in the attic of water color paintings and other drawings she’s done at school. I think I’d like to get her a little easel of some sort for Christmas, because I know they’ve used them in her room at daycare. A budding artist, mayhaps?
• She loves water. They have a water table at school that they play in all the time, and she becomes a slippery limp noodle when I try to take her out of her bath before she’s ready to be done splashing around. If we walk by a sink she practically dives in it to wash her hands, like they do every morning when they get dropped off at daycare. Starting personal hygiene early – I like that.
• Unfortunately she has also already learned the throw-herself-down-on-the-floor-and-splay-out-in-toddler-misery when she doesn’t get her way. Seriously? Already? Boo on that, little one. You’re only 1! They’re called the terrible TWOS, in case you missed the memo.
• Puppies are her absolute favorite. When we’re outside and she sees a puppy she starts squealing and pointing with excitement. Puppies and squirrels. Fortunately we don’t pet squirrels.
• I guess she really loves all things furry. Whenever she gets to a page in her books that has fur or fuzz of some sort on it – a kitten or puppy, textured clouds, a lion’s mane, etc. – she loves to pick at it and try to eat it. That part I don’t get at all, but then again, there are many things going on in that little brain that I probably don’t get.
• She likes to pick invisible things up between her tiny little thumb and forefinger and pretend she’s eating them. Yeah, who knows…
• She’s pretty smart. She definitely knows your actions and imitates them – brushing hair, brushing teeth, using her q-tips, lining toys up after she’s seen me do it, wiping off her high chair or the floor after she’s seen me do it, trying to put keys in the doorknob after she’s seen us lock the door… It’s so amazing to watch her do all these things and think wow, she really does know what’s going on in the world around her. Just 1 more reason why we try to keep things happy for her. Kids sense everything and truly are like little sponges, soaking everything up, including your mood.
• She’s becoming enthralled with the toilet now, too, and if the door’s open always comes in when you’re going to the bathroom to investigate. Awesome. But maybe this means she might be ready for potty training sooner rather than later? Unfortunately she’s also taken to grabbing her crotch when getting her diaper changed or bathed. Hmm, guess we’ll need to start working on that, too.
• We’ve been having issues with diapers leaking overnight, so I sent Facebook feelers out to find solutions. Apparently Huggies Overnights in a size bigger than usual are the way to go, so we picked up a package of them this weekend. So far, so good, fingers crossed.
• She eats pretty much anything now. I’ve noticed she doesn’t particularly like things with skins and will spit that part back out – sometimes grapes, hot dogs, etc. Usually she isn’t too picky, unless she’s not feeling well, when she generally doesn’t want anything to eat. She loves carrying around her little cup of snacks and munching on puffs and Cheerios.
• I still haven’t gotten rid of her morning bottle yet, but I don’t really care so much about it anymore. I like giving her an easy, peaceful wake-up, since none of us likes having to get up early, leave home, and be apart all day. Plus I don’t think it really hurts that a 1-year old is having a morning bottle of milk. She gets that one and then another bottle at night at bedtime, but drinks all of her milk at school from a cup. So that’s fine with me. On weekends I do usually give her a bottle when she goes down for a nap, but it just helps calm her and send her off to dreamland.

I know I say it every time, but I really couldn’t possibly love this little girl anymore. She brings so much happiness and laughter to us daily, and it’s incredible watching her turn into a little person running around our house. I love you, Squeaker!

I obviously totally forgot to do these last week, when D turned 13 months old. Whoopsies, bad Mommy.

I noticed, too, that sometimes I listed out separately her likes, dislikes, stats, etc., and sometimes I just made 1 list of everything. I can’t remember which I did more often, but I think I’ll just stick with a master list this time. That way I can think of everything at random instead of having to categorize. Sorry – thinking out loud there for a sec. But here is where our little girl stands now:

• Walking like it’s her job! She actually runs, too, which is utterly hilarious. Her balance still isn’t the greatest, so when she really gets going she’s all pitched forward and looks like she’s going to take a header straight into the floor at any second. Fortunately she rarely does, though, and just continues on her merry way. She started walking the day after her 1st birthday.
• Lots of new sounds are coming out of her little mouth. Still not really any actual words yet, but in about the past 2 weeks I’ve noticed many more sound combos. “Bdyaps”, “bdips”, “bdis”, “dat”, “bla-la-la” (that’s flicking her tongue in and out of her mouth, wan’t sure how to type it phonetically) are some of her current favorites. They must have been working on “b” and “d” sounds at school lately.
• She always starts talking as soon as she wakes up in the morning, which I absolutely love. If she’s not crying awake (like she usually is when she wakes up too early), she’ll either be standing in her crib when I come in her room or else she wakes up when I turn on the light in her closet, and then the jabber begins. It’s always accompanied by her pointing at something in her room. What she’s pointing to and talking about though, I rarely know. I just pick her up and smother her in kisses to begin the day.
• She loves carrying little toys around now. My mom got her a little wooden tool box for her birthday, and she loves getting the bits and pieces out of there. She also loves carrying around the plastic balls from her gumball machine, as well as her little plastic Sesame Street characters that some of our friends got her for her birthday. She still doesn’t have a sleep toy or blanket, like many kids do.
• Books remain some of her favorite play things, and she loves to get them out of the pockets of the glider in her room, where I store a couple of them. For some reason, her favorite thing is to find a page that has something furry or fuzzy on it, pick at it with her little forefinger and thumb pincer grip, and put her fingers right in her mouth likes she’s grabbed something and is eating it. I don’t know why she does this, or why the fur entices her to do this, but it’s really funny to see. Sometimes she actually does pull a piece of the fur/fuzz off though, and then it’s amusing watching her try to figure out what’s stuck on her tongue. She also loves books with babies in them and laughs every time she sees one. Pages with little mirrors so she can see herself she also digs.
• She’s down to 1-2 bottles a day, 1 in the morning (sometimes) and 1 at bedtime. I think the bedtime one will be around for awhile, but I’m slowly trying to morph the morning one into a cup of milk. I’ve had some small successes, but she still much prefers a bottle in the morning.
• She can feed herself pretty much everything now. Sometimes I’ll still give her spoonfuls of really messy stuff or things she can’t easily pick up, like cottage cheese, but for the most part I try to feed her foods that can be served in 1-year-old bite sized pieces. She doesn’t seem to be too picky either, which is great. The other day I carried her outside as I picked some tomatoes, and she dug right into one and ate half of it. And the other night she ate an entire whole banana in under a dozen bites. Then she barfed as I was putting her to bed.
• She loves to be outside, and on these warm summer days we’ve had she’s had a ball playing at her water/sand table and in her little inflatable whale pool.
• Her last doctor’s appointment was on August 3 and her next one isn’t until November, but at that appointment a month ago she weighed almost 20.5 lbs. and was 30.5 inches long (i think). So right now I’d say she probably hasn’t grown too terribly much from that. We can certainly tell that she gets heavier more quickly now carrying her around.
• This week we go on her first plane trip, out to Denver. I’m a little anxious about it, but I honestly have been able to keep a fairly relaxed attitude so far. It’s a 2.5 hour flight out and 2 hours back, so hopefully that doesn’t become too unbearable for her. I think the noise of the plane might scare her a little at first, but I’m hoping that since she’ll be right on our laps with us we’ll be able to comfort her quickly. The flight out is late evening, over her usual bed time, so maybe she’ll even be able to have her bottle, snuggle in, and sleep for most of it. I’m planning on taking 2 bottles of milk, some blueberry puffs for a snack, and a couple little books and toys to try to keep her entertained. I’m staying hopeful that she does as well as the little guy who was behind me on my flight out to Denver a few weeks ago.
• We’re starting to get into the discipline stage, which can be challenging. She likes to look right at you, smirk, and do exactly what you just told her not to do, and I’ll admit that can drive me crazy after a couple times in a row. Right now our big thing is trying to teach her that her chair is for sitting, not standing, but she usually climbs right in it and stands up tall as can be instead of obeying. Greeeat. This’ll be fun. She also does the splay out on the floor and cry when she doesn’t get her way or you take something away from her, which is also just a ton of fun.
• R got a new seat for his bike so he can pick her up from daycare in that instead of with the stroller or bike trailer. She loves it! R said she gets especially excited when they see a dog go by, as puppies are one of her favorite things.

We’re so lucky, because overall, she is a very happy little girl. Seeing that little face light up when I walk in her bedroom each morning to get her is a certain kind of magic, as is kissing her head as I rock her and give her her bottle before bed each night. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 40 million times on here, but I love her more than I ever thought I could possibly love a child. Thank you, Squeaker! It is so fun watching you grow into this awesome little person.