Emelia at 16.5 months

This kid. She’s such a toddler. I just can’t believe how not-baby she looks now. She’s been doing this stink face and it’s my favorite thing ever.

Nicknames: Meals, Mealie

Weight: 20 lbs (26 percentile)

Length: 18 inches (82 percentile)

Diaper size: 4

Shoe/clothing size: 3 / 12-18 months, but still fits her 12 months clothes

Teeth: 8 (six upper, two lower)

Eating

Well, let’s start with her favorites. She loves bananas and most fruits in general. For the most part, she likes scrambled eggs (she tends to throw fried eggs, BUT there was one time she actually ate the avocado toast with fried egg I gave her), spaghetti, pizza, tacos, french toast, cottage cheese, plain greek yogurt. A lot of foods can be a hit or miss, depending on the day, general mood, what have you. For instance, she’ll eat french fries, until she won’t. Or she’ll eat apple slices one day and then will throw them on the floor the next.

We don’t ever really know what she’ll eat on any given day, though she does have her (very) few foods she’ll consistently eat.

But on the drinking front, she’s a champ at drinking from sippy cups and we’ve been steadily working through the frozen supply of milk in the deep freezer.

She still nurses quite a bit, 5-6 times a day, including once at night.

Sleeping

Finally, FINALLY, she’s getting better at sleeping through the night. Most nights now her first wakeup isn’t until anywhere from 5-7:30 in the morning. Thank YOU. It’s been a long time coming. Depending on when she wakes, she’ll either go back to bed, or she’s up for the day. But she does go down still around 7:00 pm.

She loves her bedtime routine. She knows when she gets in her sleep sack, she’ll see me turn on the humidifier and white noise and she’ll waddle Maggie Simpson-style in her sack over to the rocker so we can nurse. Lately, she’s been wanting to read books with her dad and sister out in the living room.

She’s still on one afternoon nap a day and does really well with going to sleep. I wish she slept longer, but it’s usually still her hour and a half.

Milestones

Emelia graduated physical therapy in mid-January and is now walking around like a champ. Walking is everything now and she’ll even experiment with going faster even though she biffs it constantly. I’m so thankful for the work her therapist did and now, it’s like you could never tell she ever had any issues.

Let’s see, she loves to be included in things and does a great job with bringing us things she shouldn’t (like carpet fuzz and tiny crumbs). The problem is she also loves mimicking us which is good except for when it comes to the garbage can in which anything and everything she can get her hands on will be happily tossed in there. Truly, I’m concerned about the things she’s thrown out when we weren’t looking.

She can get on and off her sister’s play chairs, knows to go over to her high chair when it’s time to eat and loves to pretend to brush her hair or use a napkin. She’s been successful in stacking a few blocks. She’s also able to climb onto the couch by herself and does really well getting down by herself.

She does great at going up the stairs by herself and we’re now working on her scooting on her belly to go down.

Communication

Oh, the communication has exploded this month. Her intonation is changing where we can clearly see she understands something, she just can’t say it. “Ah?” she’ll say while she furrows her brow and points to what she wants. “Ada!” Yes, I do want that. And of course, “AHHHHHHHHHH!” as she’s carrying over my cell phone to give to me from where I left it on the couch.

This has been a fun age. She also won’t purposely say Mama and Dada but she’ll do all the babbling and change to the words when we say them. “Mamamamamama!” “Dadadadada!” And of course “Ba! Ba! Ba!” We’ve been working on making animal noises to her when we read.

She has some pretty major stranger danger. As in, she cries when anyone but us or my parents talk to her, though she’s getting used to the teachers at ECFE. But even with my parents who are always the only people we really ever see, it takes her a while to warm up to them.

Activities

She’s taking an ECFE class with her sister and it’s such a great opportunity for her since she’s at home 99% of the time. She sobbed the whole time we were separated two weeks in a row, but last week she only cried when I left her for the parent education time. I guess she did pretty well without me for 40 minutes when all the kids played together in the gym. Her biggest source of tears was being left in the dust because she’s the youngest by two years.

We’ve finally been able to get out on a few walks since it’s been so cold lately. It’s been really nice getting out and getting fresh air, since a lot of the time, her only time she leaves the house is to pick up and drop off her sister at preschool.

Health

She’s been doing great except for a fungal rash in her diaper area that stubbornly won’t go away despite two different medications. So I’ll have to address it again with her doctor.

I laugh because she still only has the two bottom teeth with six now on top. But the strange thing is that her little molars are coming in on top but her incisors haven’t yet. So not sure what’s going on with that.

Likes

Read books, playing with her sister, playing with her sister’s toys, being held, nursing, walking, going for stroller walks, taking baths, throwing food on the floor, Touch and Feel books, staring at other kids, screeching, going to bed (until she’s actually in her crib), playing in her sister’s room, closing doors, and being chased.

Dislikes

When her sister is in the bath and she isn’t, eating most foods, putting her down and/or walking away when she’s Not In The Mood. Also taking things away from her that are dangerous. The other day she ran up to Chris screeching and brandishing a pair of scissors.

This kid is crazy, I tell you.

See more of Emelia’s monthly updates here.