22 month stats

21 mo. pics late, but she’s such a screwball i couldn’t resist showing you.

D turned 22 months old last Friday, and that means she’ll be 2 in less than 2 months now! How in the world did that happen?

I just gave a pretty comprehensive update post for her 21 month stats not too long ago, so I’ll just supplement that one with developments since.

  • New words:
    • mess
    • baby (pretty good timing, i’d say)
    • milk (sounds more like moosh)
    • pink (sounds kind of like pish. i guess she likes her ks to make a sh sound)
    • yellow
    • oh no! (complete with hands out to the side and everything)
    • night-night
  • Adores singing the wheels on the bus song (has for awhile now, i just forgot to mention it), and is excellent at saying “shh” when the driver says, “shh, shh, shh!”. She even puts her little index finger up to her lips and everything. Too cute.
  • Knows to cover her mouth when she coughs, which they must have learned at daycare. When I saw her doing that I also taught her to sneeze into the crook of her arm. She doesn’t do that for real yet, though, only for fake sneezes.
  • Will imitate a burp or a fart. Has also been doing this for awhile now too, so ladylike.
  • Simply revels in shouting, “No, no, no!” and squirming away when you try to get her to do something or pick her up to brush her teeth/change her diaper/get her in the bathtub/etc. She’s not really serious about her No!s yet, more just imitating the word, but I can only imagine where it will lead in a few months. We discovered she picked this up at school too one day last week when we dropped her off and one of the little boys in her room was shouting “No!” over and over again. Excellent.
  • Loves playing outside, and has been a wonderful little helper in the gardens this spring. R built an entirely new retaining wall along the whole back garden, and she was out there at every opportunity, usually stomping around in her puppy flip-flops, swim suit, swim shirt, and sun hat. Very helpful.
  • Still having some bedtime issues with crying after we put her down, but I hope this is just a phase. She had gotten so good at reading her night-night stories and just going right into her crib to fall asleep, but for about a month now she insists on starting to cry about 2 minutes after you leave her room. Sometimes I’ll wait just outside her door after I put her down to watch and quiet her from afar if she starts whining, which seems to work, but I’d rather not have to do that either. I want the easy bedtimes back.
  • Thankfully she’s illness-free right now (knock on all things wood around you!), but her hands and feet peeled something wicked after that last round of HFM. Her poor little feet and toes are still really peeling; her hands appear to be almost finished. It’s like she was molting or something. Very odd.

I really can’t believe how big this little one is getting. She’s an adorable, hysterical little girl, and I can’t wait to see her as a big sister. I will always cherish her big fish lip kisses and giant bear hugs as only she can give.

official 22 mo. pics. doesn’t she look HUGE? where did those gangly arms & legs come from? still as goofy as ever, though!

 

 

Memories Captured – May edition (a.k.a. 21 month stats)

Since I’m WAY behind on my D monthly update posts and I just saw that the May link for Memories Captured is up, I decided to do a combo for your blogging enjoyment. Let’s see if I can remember all that’s happened since D’s last update that I wanted to report while simultaneously putting up an astonishingly cute recent pic of the little one:

  • She weighs around 26 lbs., and I have no idea how tall she is. Terrible Mommy, I know. But I forget how tall she was at her 18 month checkup – 34″? Something like that? So by now she’s a little bit taller. We’ve unfortunately been in so often for sicknesses and ear recheck visits that I’m very up-to-date on her weight, but I don’t think we’ll get another official height measurement until her 2 year checkup on her birthday in August. (what?? 2 years?! wow.)
  • Speaking of those illnesses, she was just diagnosed with another case of hand, foot, and mouth. Come on! This poor kid can’t catch a break. I swear she’s been sick more often than not ever since she was about 6 months old. Attributable to daycare? Possibly. But at least it’s not another ear infection, for if it were, I’m afraid we’d have to go for a tubes consultation.
  • I can see her becoming a little more independent each day, but she still loves to run up to me, give me a huge hug, and wrap her legs around me monkey style. When she pats me on the back while giving hugs my heart practically explodes.
  • Dies of laughter when I get real close to her face to smother her with kisses or tickles. It’s the best.
  • Pretty much a champ eater still. Obviously feeds herself always now (has for a long time) and is getting better and better with her silverware. Just the other day one of her daycare teachers said she’s one of the best eaters in her class, so that’s great. They’re learning how to drink out of cups with no lids, too. I let her try this at home with a cup of water the other night, but it ended up all over the living room floor. We’ll keep practicing.
  • Watching her skinny little legs run through the house makes me smile every single time. Those tiny footsteps ring through the rooms like nobody’s business and always make my heart sing.
  • LOVES to play at the park. She scampers up the equipment to zoom down the slides and usually throws a fit when you have to take her out of the swings to go home. I bet she’d live there if you let her.
  • Her hair has finally grown! It’s long enough to get in a tiny little pony tail in back, but she’d just pull the pony tail holder out if I actually tried to leave one in.
  • Words these days:
    • Elmo
    • hi
    • bye-bye
    • ball
    • boat (and “row, row” for the song)
    • box
    • eyes (usually said when referring to glasses or sunglasses)
    • hat
    • hot
    • shoes
    • hop
    • more (also stills signs this one)
    • mee (said when signing “please”)
    • mama
    • dada
    • dada version 2 (how she says her own name)
    • bus
    • purple
    • orange
    • blue (sounds more like “boo”, but whatever)
    • ice
    • ooo (while waving her hand, it’s how she says something is cold. i think it’s her version of “brr”)
    • bubble
    • octopus (except she likes to transpose the syllables and say “op-o-tus”)
    • thank you (not entirely sounded out correctly, but again, whatever. we get it)
    • makes all the animal sounds (moo, ba-ba, ee-ee-ee for monkeys, woof-woof, mrrow with a blink for cats, hoo-hoo for owls, zzz for all bugs, sss for snakes, good roars for lions and bears, hop-hop for frogs, neee for horses, makes an excellent fish face, does a great elephant noise complete with her arm for a trunk)
    • apple
    • moon
    • all done
    • boom boom boom (for thunder)
    • arms
    • ouch
    • no (this one has just appeared in the past week or so and is, of course, my least favorite)
    • knows that cars/trucks go “vroom-vroom” and trains go “choo-choo”
  • Does an excellent Cookie Monster impersonation, and usually pairs it with saying “Elmo” when she wants to watch them or Sesame Street. Those are her 2 favorite guys right now.
  • Doesn’t yet know she’s going to be a big sister, but we’ll work on that the closer #2’s arrival gets.

As always, I’m sure I’m forgetting a million things – sorry, sweet pea. But rest assured no lack of listing will ever diminish the incredible joy you continue to bring to our little family. We love you!

 

A little birdie

This morning when I dropped D off at daycare, a little sparrow flew right into the front door as we were walking up and knocked himself silly. He was all upside down and discombobulated on the sidewalk, and little tufts of down were floating in the air after his collision. I felt terrible, but didn’t really want him to fly up in our face as I was still holding D.

On my way out I saw him still lying there, curled up on his back, so I grabbed a little stick and flipped him over so he was at least on his feet. I sure hope he’s ok and can fly away. Silly little guy.

Also, Happy May Day! I love May. Not only is it generally a beautiful month weather-wise (note *generally*. if our weather doesn’t shape up soon i’m packing up and heading back to the beach permanently), but it’s my birthday month. Yippee! 1 week from today is my birthday. You may get your presents ready to ship now…

Today D turns 21 months old, too. Gheesh! That’s almost 2 years old. Woah. I know I missed her 20 month recap, so I’ll have to get a good one in for this one.

I know I owe you more vacation pictures too, but I’ve only gotten through the ones from 1 of R’s cameras so far. He took 2, so hopefully I’ll get the rest of them done soon to share a lovely gallery for your perusal. It really was a splendid time, and looking back at them just makes me happy.

So there’s a post full of random for you, but at least I didn’t wait 4 years between appearances this time. I’ll leave you with a pretty picture of some lilies of the valley in closing to tide you over until the rest of the St. Thomas pictures materialize. They’re the birth flower of May and one of my favorites. I can’t wait until mine start blooming this year.

source

 

19 month stats

D turned 19 months old yesterday.

And I almost totally forgot about it!

I just kept thinking it was February, since that month seemed to last forever with its extra day this year and all, and then suddenly I realized it was March 1. 19 months!

I guess we now officially start saying her age in years instead of months? So she’s simply a year and a half old? Or would you continue saying 19 months?

Let’s see what’s new since her 18 month stats:

  • She has added “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” to her repertoire and loves to sing it whenever she’s in her “boats”. She’ll get in an empty cardboard box, usually with the 2 Moosh pillows we have for some reason, and rock back and forth all over the living room saying “row, row, row”. It sounds more like “woah, woah, woah,” but you totally know what she’s doing. So then when you start singing the song, she gets super excited, rocks even harder, and claps mightily at the end.
  • She recognizes that the little turtle in her room shines stars and moons on the ceiling when it’s dark, and she loves it. Now her new thing is to point up at the sky and wave her hand in a little circle, meaning she wants to see the stars. If I rock her to sleep that’s our new routine – watching the stars instead of reading a book.
  • She knows that airplanes fly up in the sky. Whether this is because she’s been on a lot of them recently and I always tell her we’re going on a big vroom-vroom in the sky, or whether they’ve learned about them at school, I’m not sure. But she takes her toy airplane and zooms it up above her head, just like the vroom-vrooms in the sky.
  • She loves to dance and sing and clap along to the alphabet song. My mom informed us that I knew my ABCs by the time I was a year and a half old, so now I guess we’d better get D rolling. They’ve obviously sung it at school, for as soon as you begin she knows exactly what you’re singing and joins in. I think it’ll be so fun once she actually knows the letters and can sing along with us.
  • She actually danced with me for the first time the other night. We were heading into the kitchen to eat her supper and I turned on the radio speaker in there. She grabbed both of my hands and started swaying back and forth. And then I had to mop up the puddle into which my heart had melted because I was so happy.
  • She’s still an excellent self-entertainer. She’ll happily sit in her play corner and scoot from toy to toy to book to book and back again for good chunks of time. She reads her books out loud and loves sitting in her chair. It’s the climbing from her chair to the couch that we need to work on stopping. Ahem.
  • She is ridiculously silly. Lately she’s taken to army crawling and scooting around the house, sometime pushing something with her, sometimes just on her own. Last night she was crawling around on her knees pushing her box boat from the living room, through the dining room, into the bedrooms, and back out again. I love watching how playful and goofy she is. She definitely loves to laugh. A girl after my own heart.
  • She loves to get down on the yoga mat with me when I do my push ups and sit ups at night. She’s done this for awhile now, but just the other night she actually grabbed the push up handles we have and used them exactly as they’re supposed to be. I was impressed. This girl’s gonna be ripped!
  • She’s learned to sign “please”, which thrills me. I’ve been trying to get her to do that forever. You know, teaching manners and all. Finally just recently she’s started doing it, and I love it. Combined with the “thank you”s again, this mama couldn’t be prouder.

This girl. I love her so!

 

 

 

 

18 month stats

**Updated 2/9/12: We’re growing a string bean! At her 18 month checkup last night D was 34.25″ tall and weighed 23.7 lbs. Those put her in the 100+% (!!) and ~50%, respectively. Her height just keeps going off the charts as her weight goes down them. She started in the 90%s for both. I swear we feed her!**

Happy 18 month birthday, D! I’m finally on time with your stats update again. Good Mommy. So Happy February to all of you, too. We’ve been having such great spring-like weather, I’m starting to actually harbor a little glimmer of hope that it will last through this month as well. If it does (BIG if, there, seeing as this is still technically winter in wisconsin), then we just may have had the best winter in history. But let’s not get head of ourselves here…

Back to today’s star – our Squeaker! It’s hard to believe that she’s a full year and a half old today. We don’t go in for her 18 month checkup for another week, so I’ll just estimate her stats again. And, as was the case last month, there haven’t been a ton of new major changes since the 17 month stats. Actually not really much big since the 16 month or 15 month ones either, but it seems that it’s more just tiny subtle changes each day that add up to this beautiful, growing, almost-not-baby-anymore girl.

  • She weighs right about 25 pounds and I would guess is roughly 34″ tall. We’ll know for sure next week. We stood her next to her height measurement board that R made for her birthday the other day, and she’s pretty much a full head taller than she was at 1 year.
  • Has kicked the bottle habit! She successfully gave up milk in a bottle 3 and a half weeks ago, with her last bottle being before bedtime on Saturday, January 7. Good job, peanut! You made that transition much easier on us than I was expecting, and for that I thank you immensely.
  • I thought hand, foot, and mouth was coming back a few weeks ago, but thankfully I think I was wrong. When we were down at my mom’s house for her surprise birthday party, I noticed 2 little blister-like sores on the heel of one of D’s palms again. This sent me into a HFM panic, so I gave her a full-body check and saw 1 tiny little red sore forming on the bottom of one of her feet too. I never saw any in her mouth this time, though, and even though her eczema patches were flaring up a little again at the same time, it really never developed into anything more. Whew! She did have a bad cold that following week where we had to keep her home from daycare for 2 days, but fortunately I don’t think HFM struck again. Maybe that’s just kind of a sign of sickness for her now?
  • She digs toys with wheels. R’s mom got her a Little Tykes shopping cart for Christmas, which she loves loading up with her toys and pushing all around the house. Surprisingly, she doesn’t zoom it around as much as I thought she would, but when she sets her sight on that thing, look out. She’ll come flying by with a cart full! She also adores riding on the little Lightning McQueen car R and I got her for Christmas.
  • We may have a budding artist on our hands. Coloring on the paper on her easel is one of her favorite things. Fortunately R got washable crayons the other week, after we saw evidence of her artistic abilities on the hallway wall and bathroom door. Good call, R.
  • And there might be a musician ready to sprout, too. D is fascinated by our keyboard and loves to bang on the keys to hear her musical masterpieces when we turn it on. She still dances all the time when she hears a tune, bobbing and swaying like nobody’s business.
  • She’s moving up to the next classroom at daycare now that she’s 18 months. Starting Monday, D will no longer be a Busy Bee, but a Shining Star.

This is the most hysterically cute and silly girl I’ve ever known, and I just love her to pieces. (oh my god, that’s such a MOM thing to say) I cherish every moment together and can’t wait to see what each new day brings our little family with her in it.

And a little sampling of what this 18 month old looks like today. She wakes up and signs to eat almost immediately every morning now. That growing – makes you hungry!

 

 

17 month stats

Seeing as we were landing in Denver then getting ready to fly back to Milwaukee on D’s 17 month birthday, her update post unfortunately got lost in the shuffle. So here it is, way overdue…

Well, actually, there isn’t much to update. Life is basically the same as in the 16 month stats, with just a few things to note:

  • She had hand, foot, and mouth disease in December, which manifested itself as a rash of tiny red spots on her torso and little blister-like sores on her hands and feet. There was no fever or general malaise, which are usually the first signs of it, and we only saw the very faint sores on the roof of her mouth when I took her to the doctor. Otherwise I would have thought it was something else, due to the apparent lack of mouth sores. Since it is a viral infection she didn’t get on any medicine for it, and fortunately it went away on its own right around Christmas with no real bother to D.
  • The eczema patches on the backs of her knees had flared up at the same time as the hand, foot, and mouth, so her doctor prescribed some hydrocortizone ointment for that. We noticed a few other rough patches, so we’ve been putting the ointment on all of those and it’s cleared things up nicely.
  • She was a better traveler to Hawaii than we could have possibly dreamed. Not really a peep on any of the flights, including the 6-7 hour ones to/from Maui. She had some vomiting in Denver on the first leg of our trip, which scared us for the duration of the ride out to Maui, but thankfully that subsided the night after we arrived at the Ritz. No idea what that was all about. We thought maybe a touch of altitude sickness, but it didn’t happen when we were back in Denver at the end of our trip. Plus she seemed fine other than the puking – no seeming overall illness related to it. Maybe some bad milk?
  • She can now tell you what the following things say: puppies, kitty cats (well according to her they just blink for some reason, not meow), snakes, bears, lions, monkeys, cows, cars, trucks, zippers, and Santa.
  • We have just recently begun the process of giving up bottles of milk completely. We had gotten down to only giving them to her at bedtime, but then in Hawaii she pretty much had them whenever she wanted. So it was kind of like starting from square one when we got home. This past weekend, though, we survived 2 bedtimes in a row with no bottle, and she only had 1 all weekend. Hopefully this will stick and the bottle era as we know it is over for her.
  • She’s getting really tall. Now hardly any 18 month pants fit her, although some 12 month tops are fine. Gonna have legs like Mommy, I guess.

We love you, Squeaker!