20 months
21 months
This girl. Ain’t no one got time for monthly photos anymore.
Unless she can hold something during her photo shoot.
She’s going to be 2 in three short months and I swear this year has gone by even faster than her first year.
Nicknames: Ollie, Monkey, Bug, Chunks
Weight: I *think* she’s around 26 pounds, which seems on the high side but girlfriend is also eating a ton right now.
Length: About 36 inches—maybe. She hates when I come at her with a tape measurer.
Diaper size: 4
Shoe size/Clothing Size: 5/ wears mostly 2T with some 18 and 24 months
Teeth: 12, one of her incisors looks like it’s starting to pop through
Eating: She’s still nursing about 4-5 times a day and we JUST started transitioning her to the Aldi brand organic whole cow’s milk. I still have one last bag holding a few ounces of frozen breast milk that’s been the hardest to use. Once that’s gone, she’ll be on full cow’s milk, but it sucks because I notice she has had immediate constipation issues. I’ve been giving her prunes, but have switched back to just water and she’s much more regular. Since she gets a ton of dairy already, I have a feeling I won’t be doing much milk anymore.
Her favorite foods are tomatoes, tacos, dips of any kind, especially ketchup, berries, string cheese (but lord forbid you give her a cheddar stick), eggs, especially fried with avocado toast, the middles of cucumbers, plain yogurt, cottage cheese. Breakfast is always the easiest to give her, but dinners can be a hit or a miss, depending on what we’re having.
She’s been sitting in a booster high chair now, so she’s sitting directly at the table with us, which totally beats washing a tray three times a day. But I swear she went though a semi cleanish phase and now she’s a boatload of fun to clean up again after meals.
Toileting: Her diaper changes have been going a bit better. We have had a few changes where—get this—she actually lets me change her without the TV on. I know, right? Insanity.
Sleeping: She’s been sleeping good at night, save for the few nights of teething. I’ve noticed that almost every night, she stirs around 11-11:30 and cries out, tossing and turning for a few minutes. But besides that, she’s been sleeping through the night. In fact, I’ve rarely had to nurse her in the middle of the night. She goes down between 7 and 8:00 p.m. but wakes between 6:30 and 7 now, when she used to make it until 7 or later. Luckily, it’s not every morning, but it’s most. The main problem is, I’m a night owl, so I need to learn to go to bed before 11.
She is still transitioning with her naps, so normally she just takes one around 1:00, but every once in awhile, she will take two. So far, I haven’t been able to make her sleep past an hour and a half, except for the few two hours ones that are amazing. (The only time I can actually get things done.)
Milestones: She’s been loving washing her hands at the bathroom sink because she’s finally tall enough to reach from her stool. I got a faucet extender so it’s nice not to have to hold her awkwardly over the sink. Her language has been exploding (See below). She will say, “Bubbles,” when you point to pictures of them, or when she sees them outside. When she hears a train she will make the “choo choo” gesture Chris taught her. She is starting to throw things, but luckily hasn’t really caught on to how much fun it is to throw non-ball objects around the house. She absolutely loves to help, from throwing things in the trash, to helping shut doors, put laundry in the dryer, or her dirty clothes in the clothes hamper. Her new love is standing in her Learning Tower knockoff and helping us cook. She’s a master on the stairs and is now starting to walk up stairs instead of crawl. (I won’t let her step down stairs just yet!)
She has been mimicking like crazy, including pretending to sneeze holding her fist to her mouth. (Ironically, this started when my allergies were really bad and I was sneezing constantly.) She loves to dip her foods, and likes spreading her chili on crackers just like she sees her dad do. She has her little teapot that she serves us tea in and we clink cups and say “Cheers!” before putting them on the table. Again, Daddy taught her this.
Oh, and this happened: The taking of the diaper off in the crib. Luckily a) it wasn’t a poop diaper and b) she didn’t erm, poop or pee after the diaper was off. So that was cause to laugh a bit behind her back while also saying a prayer this doesn’t become a habit.
Communication: Her language has really exploded in the last 6 weeks. She said her first official word on June 29th: “bubble.” I mean, she’s been saying Mama and Dada for a long time now, so I’m counting this as her first real word. Her next real word was about a week later: “No.” Which is totally adorable when she says it, but I’m starting to think she’s overusing it just a bit. Since then, she now says Mama, Dada, Up, No, Bubble, Ow, Uh Oh, Buh (ball) Jack, Hello, Hi and Bye. She also says “Stop” when we have dance parties and freeze! before jamming out again. She also loves pretending to talk on her play phone, or really whatever works for a phone, even if it’s just tilting her head to the side, cradling her empty hand. She is consistently waving at people when you ask her to, and sometimes she just likes waving and saying “Hi!” to anyone walking by. She also, ahem, has her own name for nursing which is “Bubba!” Bubbles? Is that what she’s trying to say? Do my boobs look like bubbles? Speaking of nursing, she insists on racing to her bedroom and grabbing the Boppy and her blanket and racing back out, barely keeping her balance every time she nurses out in the living room. The adorableness can be too much sometimes.
Activities: We’ve been busy. I’m ashamed to admit she has yet to get to the beach and we’ve only been to the splash pad once (Which was a huge thumbs up in her eyes). AND I haven’t set up her pool in the backyard because the first one had a hole and I was lucky enough to be able to return it from Sam’s Club, but then it seemed we were too busy, then the weather was cold and rainy. So, I’m sad we didn’t get to do this stuff, but I promise she hasn’t been bored this summer.
We went to the nearby little farm for outdoor story times. While she is incapable of actually sticking around for the story time (she prefers to run up on stage and be THAT kid), she loves the animals.
She and I have been loving the ECFE play times with our friends. Seriously, they’ve been a lifesaver for the rainy days or when we need an impromptu outing. Her new two year old class starts up in September and I think she’s going to love it.
And there were occasional trips to the local nature center when homegirl was driving me crazy and we needed to get out of the house.
We made it on our annual outing to the city’s outdoor art fair, but besides her painting some clay for us to take home, it was kind of a complete disaster in terms of her not being able to run around like she wanted and us not being able to really stay as long as we wanted. Next year she is staying with some relatives.
She went to her first Game Fair (a hunting and wild game fair I grew up going to with my dad) and had her first shuttle bus ride, which she loved! They had a ton of puppies for her to pet and she got to have some of Daddy’s ice cream. Unlike the outdoor art fair earlier in August, this was much better in terms of her getting her race around and look at things and she lasted for 4 hours.
Health: I hesitate even talking about her health, out of fear of jinxing anything, but she’s been mostly healthy, save for one or two small colds. The girl does get her share of bruises on her legs from scampering around like a drunk toddler 90% of the day. But besides that, she’s been doing great. It could also be her new found love for washing her hands, thanks to her mama’s germophobia, that is keeping sickness at bay.
Likes: She continues to love blowing bubbles outside, and insists on holding the wand herself.
She loves to color with crayons, paint, draw with markers. I swear she’s going to be an artist.
She still obviously loves going to the playground, but hangs out on the outskirts, digging in the dirt and collecting rocks and acorns (and old bandaids, water bottle caps, and eww! This girl has no shame.) She especially loves hanging out by outhouses and garage cans.
Oh, and she’s obsessed with Frozen. The movie, the soundtrack, and anything and everything with a picture of Frozen characters on it. I bought her a Frozen dress from a consignment store and she could hardly contain herself. Frozen bandaids, stickers, her shoes, you name it. Obsessed. A close second is Minnie Mouse. And being that I refuse to have a Frozen party, she’s getting Minnie Mouse.
Also, loving these sunglasses:
Dislikes: Still the usual stuff: Transitions, but we’re getting better by saying goodbye to everything. Works great when we need to leave the park and she can wave happily goodbye to the slides and swings instead of screeching in my ear as I drag her away. And when she’s overly tired, she has no patience to wait to nurse while we get ready and read her books. She’s also really good at making A Face and spitting out food that she doesn’t like, shaking her head and saying, “Yuck!” Lovely. It’s a good thing she has perfected the cheesy smile.
Looking forward to: Our family trip to the North Shore in September!
