17 Months

I want to give a little attention to my sweet baby girl who is now 17 months old!  Hard to believe and even harder to believe she's not going to be "the" baby anymore.

I don't know how tall she is, but she has certainly gotten taller because her pants started looking like high-waters a couple weeks ago...  She is now wearing 18 month clothes.  This is the first time she's worn a size larger than her age.  (She was always the 8 month old in 6 month clothing...)  No, she hasn't gone through any big growth spurt yet.  According to our scales she's weighing in at 19 lbs.

I told Chris we would go ahead and turn her car seat around after the first of the year, so big girl is about to love getting a view of something other than the back seat while driving.  Really, she's going to be so much happier.  I had plans of keeping her rear facing till she was 2 (according to the AAP recommendations) but even the best plans are meant to be changed.

Phoebe still is not eating well.  She refuses to even try most foods.  And there are still only about 5 or 6 foods that she will eat.  I reverted back to making baby food for her because yogurt is the only thing she consistently eats.  She certainly has an affinity for smooth cold food.  So the only way I can get her to eat any meat or veggies is to mix the pureed baby food in with the yogurt.  I'm not proud of it, but I don't know what else to do.  The girl eats a lot of yogurt.
She has had a recent love of apples too.  Well really she just likes to point out apples and gnaw on them.  She won't eat apple slices, but she likes to take little bites of a whole apple.  I think she likes trying to suck out the juice more than anything.

We laugh because Phoebe has been talking up a storm these past couple months!  So much for those stupid doctors who said she couldn't hear and made such a big deal about it...  I'm sure we'll go back to the ENT at some point because she certainly does have a documented loss, but I'm still sick of their tests and referrals.  So for now I will continue to cancel appointments.  She is like a little sponge repeating everything you say.  She's done very well stringing two words together to say phrases like "up please" and "read book"
We've been trying to play more with baby dolls to prep her for being a big sister.  She got some more babies for Christmas that she can push around in strollers, feed, and bathe.  She loves giving the baby kisses.

Knox is still her best friend and I think deciding to get a dog when she was 5 months old was probably one of the best decisions we've ever made.  It was rough for about 6 weeks, but totally worth every mess I cleaned up in the house and every trip I made with him out in the rain.

Phoebe shut them both in there together.  This was not my doing...

We went back and forth between 1 and 2 naps between 15 and 17 months, but we are officially back down to one.  She goes down around 1-1:30 and sleeps for about an hour and a half.  She's still sleeping well at night.  More often than not (probably about 4-5x/week) she wakes up at some point between 1:30 and 3:30am and cries/screams for about 5 minutes and then goes back to sleep on her own.  Weird, but we just let her be.  Actually I don't think Chris even wakes up...  But this is one reason why I am hesitant for the new baby to share a room with Phoebe.  They certainly will share a room eventually, but the plan is for the baby to stay in our room for now.
My latest frustration has been our pediatrician.  Well I never loved her.  She's not bad.  She just never really addressed my questions in what I felt like was an appropriate or thoughtful way.  I was also frustrated by the multiple specialist referrals we had early on as it related to her weight and development.  And quite frankly I've never been super impressed with the office staff.  But the last time I called the doctor's office with a question, the nurse or medical assistant or whatever her title was was SO RUDE.  I mean really, it was ridiculous.  And then when we went in for a vaccination the same lady walked into the room gave her the shot and proceeded to walk out without saying 1 word to me.  Rude and quite unacceptable.  We will not be returning.  But how do you find a good ped?  We are on the search.
In the next couple weeks (really the next time I make my monthly trip to WalMart) I'm planning on getting her a little toilet seat and some M&Ms.  I haven't read a single book about potty training and I really have no expectations or time frame, but figure I'd get her used to sitting on the potty.  You know its funny she has been telling us for the last several weeks either "I poop" or "pee-you" about 15 or 20 minutes before she messes in her diaper.  It certainly doesn't happen every time, but it has happened enough to make me think twice about it.  It has been very interesting...
Phoebe's favorite toys right now a bowling set she received for Christmas and Elmo.  She LOVES Elmo.  She still likes balls and books a lot as well.

Have a great weekend!!!