15 Months

Photo courtesy of Jessica Czerwin

Its been awhile since I've done a monthly update!  A lot has happened since 13 months!  Most new and exciting... WE HAVE A WALKER!  Yes, this is breaking news.  As of last Thursday evening, Phoebe has started walking on her own across the room, about 8-10ft.  She can also now stand up on her own initiative.  Previously when she would take 3 or 4 steps it was always with us standing her up and prompting her.  Now she will stand up and go on her own.  Mama is so proud.  And she is so proud of herself too!  I had always said I thought she would walk around 14 months...I was just a month off :)

She is quite the talker now too.  At 13 months Phoebe could say about 3 words.  Now she says about 20.  And I feel like she comes up with a new one almost every day!

15 Month Stats-

Weight- 17lbs 12oz (still below the chart... And for the record in our car seat the baby has to be at least 20 lbs in order to safely move it into the forward facing position.  This child is going to be rear-facing forever!)

Height- 29.25in (25th percentile)

Photo courtesy of Jessica Czerwin

Eating- Feeding this child is still the bane of my existence.  We eat oatmeal mixed with fruit for breakfast every morning.  I did finally get her to start eating regular oatmeal instead of just the instant kind.  I soak her oatmeal in water with kefir overnight (more on soaking your grains later) and cook them in milk for her in the morning.  She will normally have some yogurt in the morning too because at some point she will refuse to eat any more oatmeal, so you have to give her the oatmeal mixed in yogurt to help her finish.  For lunch it is almost always a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cheese, and fruit (either strawberries or bananas now that strawberries are getting more difficult to find)  Sometimes if I am lucky I can get some bites of chicken in with the sandwich.  And then dinner might be a grilled cheese or cheese quesadilla with some sort of pureed vegetable (probably sweet potato but we've also gotten some beets recently at the farmer's market) that is always mixed in yogurt.  And then whatever else I can come up with for her to try.  She used to eat a pretty good variety of pureed veggies, now she will only eat a couple and it almost always has to be masked in yogurt.  Snacks are crackers of some variety or fruit.

So to recap she eats- oatmeal, yogurt, PB&J, bananas, strawberries, (sometimes she will eat bites of my whole apple, but will not eat apple slices), cheese, and any type of cracker.  A few times I have gotten her to eat pureed spaghetti Os (she won't eat them normal out of the can)  And she won't eat mac &cheese, which I feel like is a staple for many kids- especially ones that love cheese.

She has eaten some Chick-fil-A chicken a few times, but never more than a few bites.  If she would eat chicken, I would go to Chick-fil-A a few times/week and fall even more in love with this establishment.

I keep wondering, "where did I go wrong in feeding her?"  She got a good variety of pureed baby foods from the time she was 6 months old.  (Although she was pretty picky even then and never liked anything with chicken or any type of meat in it that I made.)   I've always offered her bits of whatever we were eating for dinner- she just always refuses them.  She will try things, she just spits it back out of her mouth 98% of the time.  Not sure what else I should have or could have done, but going to figure it out for the next one.

I've started looking some at the Feeding Family website.  It was a resource recommended to us for parents of picky eaters, so I am hoping to gain some helpful tips from that.  On my list of foods to try soon- hard boiled eggs (she won't eat scrambled) and smoothies.  Any other suggestions?

She still does pretty good with her milk.  At first she would only drink her milk out of our Born Free sippy cup.  And then almost a month ago she stopped drinking milk all together for about a week.  Weird right?  And when I finally got her to drink it again it was in a different cup.  She won't use that Born Free cup at all anymore that she used to be so attached to.  Kids are weird.  But at least she is drinking milk again so I can't complain.

I have no idea where this came from, but this is Phoebe's "new" face.  She does it ALL the time

Sleep- Because Phoebe has gotten all four of her molars over the past 6 weeks, its been a bit of a weird time as far as sleeping goes.  She goes to bed still at 7:30.  For awhile she was waking up closer to 6:30- not cool.  But now it seems like she sleeps till at least 7 normally.  Although my morning seems a lot more calm and organized when I get that extra 30 minutes until 7:30.  Naps have been rough.  She takes an afternoon nap.  Sometimes it is only an hour- that is miserable for mommy.  A few times she has slept for 2 1/2 hours- that is heavenly.  I think its going to work best for her to go down for a nap around 1:30.  The morning nap is officially gone.  I've successfully gotten her to take a morning nap about 3 times over the past month- not worth the effort.  I actually like it better because I can run all my errands or go to the gym or have play-dates guilt-free in the morning and then count on an afternoon nap.  She will sometimes fall asleep in the car running around in the morning, but she won't go down in her crib if we are just at home.

Phoebe still sleeps with a paci at night.  At around 5 months or so, we started only letting her have it in the bed.  And now she's really good.  In the morning she knows she has to "drop her paci in the bed" and leave it there.  I'm hoping she wean  herself off the paci at night soon, but that might be wishful thinking.  I think I heard (or maybe the doctor told us) that after a certain point (I don't remember what point but we are past it) sucking on the paci puts them more at risk for ear infections (something about the sucking and swallowing)  But luckily we haven't ever had any of those, so I'm not too concerned. 

Play- Phoebe's favorite toy right now is this Little People bus/walker.  I really think it was this that made walking fun and encouraged her to start doing it on her own.  When we went up to my parents house in October, we discovered that Phoebe loves cars!  We've never had any cars or played with cars, but she started driving those cars and trains across their floor saying "vroom, vroom"  No idea where she learned that from...  Other than those climbing stairs and playing in mommy's cabinets are probably the most fun activities right now.  She still likes her books, but they are not nearly as entertaining as they were a couple months ago.  

Little People Bus/Walker

She loves bubbles and swinging and we just recently started letting her play some free Fisher Price App/Games on our phone.  She loves that.  It is a great way to keep her entertained during my doctor's appointments or a long grocery trip.  She's learned a lot of animal sounds from those games too.  Oh, and she LOVES the Baby Babble DVD series.  She's learned quite a few words from it too, so that is an added bonus.  I love educational entertainment...

Randoms-  She now has 12 teeth.  All eight front top and bottom, and her four molars.  I hope we can have a break from teething for awhile...  Phoebe got her first skinned knee practicing walking outside the other day.  She apparently fell again this morning when we were outside and re-opened it because I noticed dried blood on her pants this afternoon.  She obviously wasn't bothered by it.  She is such a little cuddle bug!  She loves to cuddle up on our shoulder or in our lap.  And a lot of times when I pick her up from Mom's Morning Out or the gym nursery she is cuddled up in someone's lap.

Playing in the dirt

Apparently she will eat dirt...

Dirt makes you thirsty