18 Month Update

Izzy has officially made it half way to two; hard to believe.  Even harder to believe when I look back and see just how tiny (of course I would never have described Izzy as tiny at any point in her life) she was this time last year.  She had just started to sit up on her own and was barely rolling over.  Now, she is running through the house chasing after the dogs with her shopping cart. 

She has hit a growth spurt (the first sign of this might be the plate of mac and cheese and broccoli she downed at dinner the other night).  She weighs in at 28 lbs this month (I'm assuming this is accurate given she was jumping on the scale as I was trying to weigh her).  She is measuring 33 inches long (finally passing the 32 inches she seemed to be stuck on forever).  She is still in size 4 diapers and continues to wear size five shoes, which she has now been in for about five months.  She is moving into more 24 month and 2T clothing.  Her 18 month pants still fit her pretty well, but her shirts are exposing a little too much belly flesh.  We do actually need to get her back into the doctor for her 18 month check up so we can get an official weight and height on her.  We skipped her 15 month check up as it fell right in the middle of winter and there was no way I was taking a healthy child into a doctors office.  She's already exposed to enough at daycare. 

This child is a growing machine with the things she knows.  Honestly, we credit our amazing daycare for a lot of it.  Her "vocabulary" continues to expand daily it seems.  Her favorite word at the moment seems to be Maya (poor Buddy gets the shaft here).  Actually she will say Buddy when I point to him, but every dog she sees is "Maya", this includes the dogs in her books.  She tries really hard to repeat the words I'm saying.  Her current work in progress is backpack.  It doesn't exactly come out correct, but you get the idea when you listen to her.  This weekend, she was trying to sing along to wheels on the bus; it melted my heart watching her mouth the words.  I'm waiting for the day she starts speaking in sentences because I have a feeling it's coming soon.  She loves to read to us.  In her own mind she has lots of stories to tell!  However, she has no time for us to read to her.  Usually reading involves her throwing a book at one of us, plopping down in our lap and turning the pages before we can get more than two words read.  Luckily I have a few of her favorites memorized, so I can still read to her even when she is blowing through pages. 

This child loves music, and she doesn't discriminate on the type.  She can get down to Old McDonald, Michael Jackson, Halsey, Spice Girls, Billy Joel... you name it she can dance to it.  It makes my heart happy to see not only can she dance, but she has great rhythm too!  I have my hopes for band when she is older. 

This month we saw our share of struggles in the sleep department.  Sleep really isn't something I can complain about with this kid.  She slept through the night starting at 8 months old and has been pretty consistent with that since.  She is generally a good napper, and will sleep in on the weekends.  She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and when left alone will easily sleep until between 8 or 9:00 AM.  She is content to hang in her crib when she does wake up, which means I usually get to wake up slowly on the weekends rather than to a screaming child who wants to be up NOW.  Andrew did just drop her crib down to the last level this week as she demonstrated the ability to put her leg up on top of the crib rail.  Once she can get over it at this height, we will make the transition to her toddler bed.  She is a wild sleeper though, so we will hold out as long as possible.  I have a hunch this kid is going to end up on the floor a lot. 

Izzy continues to be attached to her pacifier.  I still find it hilarious that she wanted nothing to do with them when she was younger.  Teething... that's all I'm going to say on the subject.  Eventually we will have to break her of that habit.  However, like both her mother and her father, she does things in her own time, so the paci is one habit I hope she will break on her own.  Bottles are the other battle.  She can drink from a sippy cup, but she doesn't like to.  She much prefers the bottles.  In all honesty, I'm more than ready to be done with them.  Again, it's another habit I secretly hope she will break herself of one day... For those wondering, we continue on our nursing journey.  Usually just in the mornings, and only when I can hold her attention for more than ten seconds before she is up and running.  I never had intentions of making it this long.  I thought I would be lucky to make it to a year with her especially considering we had to supplement with formula.  However, once winter set in and we continued on with our journey, I made the goal to get through the winter for the health benefits.  Luckily, we really have come out pretty good as we wind down the sickness season.  I have a hunch we will be ending our nursing journey soon, but it's not something I'm going to push.  It's the quiet time I do get to share with her, and those are the moments I cherish. 

She has found comfort with her two blankets, both of which were actually mine.  The one I had when I was little until it got left at daycare one night only to have me end up liking the replacement more.  The other blanket was a replacement purchased by my grandma since my favorite pink blanket was likely to fall apart given the amount of love it had been shown.  However, the replacement blanket wasn't the same as my well loved blanket, so it got folded up and placed in a box for safe keeping.  Low and behold, these are the blankets Izzy has attached herself to.  My nostalgia is strong on the blanket matter, so I leave that one alone.  I draw the line at dragging them to daycare.  Mostly because I don't want anything to happen to them seeing as they are 20 and almost 30 years old respectively. 

I could say lots of things about Izzy not having any patience or being bullheaded, but then I would just have three fingers pointing back at me, so I'll leave that topic alone.  Needless to say, she is a solid mix of Andrew and I when it comes to her personality.  She has Andrew's curiosity for figuring out how things work. 

She has my ability to just sit and be, which I am beyond thankful for.  It's mostly during quiet time in her crib, but I'll take what I can get considering when she's up she doesn't stop for a minute.  It continues to intrigue and amaze me watching this human we created grow and learn.   

So, that's me on the left right at 18 months and Andrew on the right at 2 years old. I honestly see a solid mix of both of us, but she favors Andrew a little more.  

17 Month Update

They say life is all about various seasons.  Today I went to a baby shower for a long time friend.  I miss the days of baby things: tiny toes and fingers, staying in one place for more than two seconds, silence!  While I sometimes long for the days when my tiny (she was never really tiny) squish could curl up on my chest, I'm also really thankful for the season we are in.  Izzy can communicate with us a little more now and tell us more of her needs.  She will get her snacks out of the cupboard and bring them to us.  She can sign for milk, she can pick up her toys when asked and when she feels like it, and she knows her overall schedule.  We feel eternally grateful that she is such a solid sleeper.  On the weekends, she will go to bed at 7:30 and sleep in until 8 or 9 am.  She still takes a solid two hour nap through the middle of the day, and will sometimes take a short nap in the late afternoon. She's good about telling us when she's tired.  She will grab her blankets and crawl up to her crib, or curl up in the dog kennel.  

This month is another one that flew by.  Andrew was gone for a week for work, so that always speeds time up it seems.  While Izzy's milestones aren't quite as major these days,we notice the small changes.  Probably the most notable this month was her experimentation with expressions.  She makes a mean duck face and can furrow her brow with the best of them!  I'm just waiting for the hands on the hips and the sass factor will be at 100%.  

In terms of growth, I think she is going through a bit of a spurt right now.  She gained another pound this month.  She grew about a 1/2 inch in length this month as well.  She is still in 18 and 24 month clothes and size 4 diapers.  She is wearing size 5 shoes and has quite the shoe collection (I might have a shoe problem).  She loves to "put her shoes on"... she hasn't actually figured out how to put them on though.  Luckily we seem to have moved beyond the phase of fighting me in the morning to put her shoes on.  Unfortunately, we haven't moved beyond the "pull my shoes off the minute we are in the car" phase.  This week she surprised us by figuring out how to go down the stairs on her own.  Honestly, most of the major skills she has accomplished to date are things she has completely figured out on her own.  We never really worked with her on crawling, walking, etc.  My mom always said I did things in my own time when I was little.  Seems Izzy is a bit of a mini me in that regard.  

Izzy is quite the destructo child.  Most of the time it looks like a tornado went through our living room.  There are toys everywhere.  Frankly, we have given up on picking them up until after she goes to bed.  There's no point.  Our current struggle is with teeth brushing.  In the mornings, she's pretty good about chewing on her brush, but that really only covers her front teeth.  At night, I let her do it her way, but I end up holding her down so I can get to her back teeth.  It's a struggle every.single.day.  #sendhelp!  By all accounts from daycare, she is quite the busy bee there as well.  She loves music time; I catch her dancing all the time!  The girl has rhythm too.  

I can't wait to get outside more as the weather warms up.  Izzy loves it outside; Andrew hopes he has a new hiking buddy in the making.  He has talked about camping out with her in our backyard this summer.  We will see if anyone gets any sleep!