Allyson is officially a year and a half old! How did this happen? She seems so little when I look at her yet her personality is so big and she has changed so much in just 18 months. She is a walking, talking little person that has her own sets of wants, needs, expectations and feelings. With this stage of development we have reached a new set of obsessions and frustrations. Some of the bigger milestone events over the past few moths have included kicking the bedtime bottle, shopping for size 5/6 toddler shoes, moving up to size 4 diapers, using a fork and spoon well, climbing into chairs on her own, moving her ride-on toys forward, holding a writing utensil in her right hand, following directions, climbing stairs on 2 feet, running, jumping, talking, and more talking.
Lovie. Ally has most definitely become attached to her blanket. Not that she needs to carry it around all day but it is her comfort item and when she gets tired she wants it. Sometimes it works like magic in that it will calm her down immediately if she wakes up unhappy and it will help soothe her to sleep if she is a little restless when we put her down at night. She is very particular about her
blankies and has grown attached only to the Pottery Barn fleece blanket with the satin edge. We have two that are almost the same so she has one for her crib at home and one for nap time at day care. She always has to have it close to her face to be comfortable with a satin corner in her hand. Some days she is a little like Linus with it but usually she only wants it when its nap or bed time. We are not to the point where she will just lay down in a place other than her own bed. Along with this point, the bedtime routine has also changed some and has worked out fairly well. She has been bottle-free for 4 weeks so now we just give her a cup with some milk while we read books and lay her down in her crib once the books are done.
Books. The love of books continues and now she will even pull them off the shelf and read to herself. I love to hear her pointing out pictures in the books or making noises to herself. She loves all animals but especially lions, monkeys and hippos. Her favorite stories include many of the Sandra
Boynton books like Snuggle Puppy, the Going to Bed Book, Pajama Time and Hippos Go Berserk (Karl's favorite). She is also into Dr.
Suess and flips through Hop on Pop and Fox in Socks a lot. She has tons of books but she really has her favorites and we read 2-3 of those before bed each night and we look at many others when we are playing in the living room. Along with the books has come her ability to identify characters, images, sounds in the books. She knows all the characters from Sesame Street by name and face and has can point out all sorts of body parts and make a ton of animal noises.
School. Ally still enjoys going to school and moving to the toddler room has provided her with new learning opportunities and new friends. Each week they center their time around different themes like weather, circus,
superbowl, st.
patricks day, etc... and she does art projects and different activities related to the themes. The staff is more than pleased with her ability to pay attention and retain information and it takes me by surprise how much she remembers. We are almost to the point where we can have a conversation about her day on the way home. She knows some kids by name and likes to be a helper by comforting kids when they cry or sharing toys. One of her favorite activities is climbing on toys and chairs, which
isn't necessarily a good thing.
Eating. Still her
biggest inconsistency by far. She is not a great eater and never really has been- some days she will eat a great lunch but no dinner, some days hardly anything at all and some days she eats great all around. She clearly does not like meats or veggies but loves fruit and cookies. Her favorites are banana, peaches, pineapple, grapes, string cheese, corn dogs, pasta, french fries, goldfish, yogurt, ice cream and cookies. The individual packs of fruit bits in water are the best items to take with us as we know if all else fails she will eat that. She loves chocolate milk we do our best to find a balance between the juice she gets at day care and water and milk at home or in restaurants.
Culvers,
Panera,
Qdoba and Buffalo Wild Wings are her favorite places to go.
Sleeping. Se may not eat but she loves to sleep. We definitely have done this right and we feel great about her ability to sleep well for 10-12 hours each night and nap 1.5-2 hours during the day. She will only sleep in her crib with her favorite blanket and we are very committed to her routine. Its tough when we are away from home so its a little trying in hotels and with family. Sometimes I would love fer her just to curl up with me and take a nap but for now, I'll stick with what works.
Ally's recent list of favorites:
Coloring with crayons in her sesame street coloring books
Going for walks around the neighborhood in her wagon
Saying "shush" to the dog when she barks a lot
Pointing to us and saying "mama" and
"dada" then pointing to herself and saying "baby"
Asking for people to help her do something
Putting together and taking apart anything that can be taken apart
Climbing up onto the kitchen chairs and sitting at the table
Talking about "mine co co" (Uncle Corey) and laughing with him when he comes over
Aside from a few ear infections and what seems like an endless runny nose this winter, we have a very healthy and happy child. She loves her family, even ones she doesn't see as often and is very grateful for all of the wonderful cards, clothes and toys people send. We have been making an
effort to get out into the community and do more fun things with her like museums, parks and shopping and we are really looking forward to warmer weather so we can really do fun stuff. We are also hoping to experiment with a babysitter soon too. Karl and I love her personality and promise to do a better job with pictures and videos. We took a few weekend trips recently so I do have a few from the last few weeks that I need to post but I wanted to get this one up along with the photos I took this morning. She wanted cheerios and a granola bar for breakfast so they had to be in the pictures too! Enjoy :)
