15 months
My sweet little toddler is 15 months old today. I can’t believe it. Katherine, you are such a blast! This month we have had so much fun as you are able to do more and the weather has been so great and we are able to be outside and do fun things.
You are gaining independence. Sometimes I really like it and sometimes it gets you into trouble. Monday I let you walk out to the car after Mother’s Day Out (while holding my hand of course). About half way there, you decided that you wanted to go the other direction. When I kept holding your hand, you sat down on the pavement and would not move. No more independence for Katherine. I had to pick you up and take you to the car. Of course you fought getting in the car seat as well. Very frustrating. The good side of the independence is that you are now very comfortable with being left at Mother’s Day Out, the church nursery or a friends house.
With your independence, you are also becoming an explorer. When we were at a Sunday school class picnic, you were quite comfortable with wandering to the playground and not looking back to see where mommy or daddy were. You loved the gravel and made a “dirt angel” by laying down face first and waving your arms and legs. Needless to say, you needed a bath when you got home.
Your independence also shows itself in ways that we have to discipline. Your friend Ben came over one night and you did not want to share your activity table. Look at the look on your face as you try to take it away. We have started to have to discipline you more which is not fun. Today you have gone to time out 4 times, 3 of them for throwing food from the high chair. Each meal has ended when you dropped food to Hooligan and you were taken to time out. We even moved the pack and play into the den so that it was easier to quickly exercise discipline. Another time out was for dumping Hooligan’s food on the den carpet. Notice that our main problems involve food and the dog.
Your communication is improving daily. You babble all the time. I know that you are saying a lot more than we are giving you credit for because we don’t understand all of your words. One morning you tapped daddy on the chest and said “dada, dada” That was the most clearly you have said your daddy’s name. When I was getting ready, you brought me a sneaker and said “shuuus, shuuus”. You are able to do a few more signs, but have to be coached. I am ready for you to do them on your own. You have been able to point to people’s noses for quite some time. Now you can also identify (most of the time) people’s eyes, mouth and ears. You can also sometimes point to your own nose and ears.
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You are getting a lot better at feeding yourself. I still would like for you to eat more table food and less baby food, but overall I am happy with your expanding food preferences. New favorites are what I call “Bean Medely” which consists of black beans, peas and edamame (soy beans). You also like Mexican rice and finally are eating dairy products - cottage cheese and yo baby yogurt. You still do not like meat unless it is a part of a pureed casserole and you do not like to drink mild or eat cheese. You like to try to feed yourself with a spoon. It gets really messy so I don’t always let you try it. You are surprisingly successful at getting food into your mouth. You are still nursing though we are more scheduled. You nurse between 2-4 times a day.
We went to the Dr. today for your check up. You graduated up to the standing scale. You looked so grown up and yet such the baby standing nekid on the scale.
You weighed 17 pounds 8 ounces meaning you gained 14 ounces in the last 3 months! You are still in the under 3% for weight. We had a time with measuring your height. Apparently a mistake was made last time because your measurement was a quarter inch less than at a year. They even called in a second nurse to make sure they were doing it right. So, you are now 29 1/4 inches long which is 15%. We talked a long time about how you are so small. Dr. H does not think I should worry about it because you started out small and you are hitting all of your developmental milestones right on time. You are being compared to all kids in America and since you are still nursing, you will be smaller than those who were fed formula and now love whole milk (which you do not like at all). We are to continue to try to get as much protein and fat into you so tonight I made you a yummy chicken, squash, onion and apple casserole. I even added ground flaxseed for extra protein. I hope you like it.