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!