Mobility: As a regular reader you know Addison has been cruising and pulling up on everything for a long time now; she has also been standing alone (on purpose) since about 9 months. However, her sense of fear and her height (about 31 inches I believe) has slowed her ability to walk. Lately, Addison has been standing herself up from the ground (no pulling herself up on anything) standing alone for several moments and then trying to take a step or two. She more shuffles than anything but its funny. She has taken four shuffle steps at most so far. What's funny is she wants to do it on her own without any prompting from anyone. I was hoping she would not walk until we returned from MS at the end of the month but we shall see. Once I am more than 30 weeks pregnant with Manna, I am sure I will be READY for her to walk well!
Playgroup: Addison is loving her playgroup on Thursdays. We have gone every week for about 4-5 weeks now. All the children that attend were born in 2010. Addison is very polite, shares well (and by share I mean she does not throw a tantrum often when someone takes a toy from her), listens very well to mommy and definitely likes to show off her verbal abilities. Most of the kids are a little older than her so it is funny to see that she is bigger than all of them yet not walking. And for me? I love having one day every week where I KNOW I will have a little adult time and time to bounce ideas and thoughts off other moms at a similar place in life. Sadly we will not be attending Playgroup in the fall as Addison STARTS SCHOOL and attends school when play group meets. I will miss the playgroup, but we will see how she does with school.
Talking: I do not know where to begin here; she is picking up words left and right!! She can say at least 20 words (maybe more) and understands about 70% of what we say. She attempts most words we say to her. She is also learning to SAY words before we can finish teaching the sign in some cases. Her pronunciation is not perfect, but you can tell what she is saying. Ball, flower, Daddy, Mommy, Piper, dog, water, yes, no, bird, book, diaper, bye bye, hat, eye, wow, baby, love, hi, go, shoe and Addy are just a few of the words she can say now. Its so fun how fast she is learning. I never expected her to be talking this much right now.
Routine: We are starting to shrink the length of the morning nap to ensure our afternoon nap stays intact and stays a good length. The morning nap will probably be dropped completely at 16-20 months while afternoon nap with remain hopefully until she nearly four. I have reduced her morning nap to 1.5 hours (except on playgroup days then its only an hour or sometimes she doesn't have one) and the afternoon nap to about 2.5 hours. She naps from 10:30 to 12:00 and 2:30 to 5:00 pm. Over the course of the next several months we will continue to shrink the morning nap as needed and begin to move the afternoon nap earlier a bit. Once she has dropped the morning nap, the afternoon nap will probably run from 1:30-4:30 or 1:00-4:00 if I had to guess.
Next on my routine list is to structure her play time a little better. Children/babies really love and need boundaries and I have noticed when I let Addison have too much freedom while playing (ie the entire living room) she starts to get fussy. So, I will begin to structure her day closer to the the typical "Toddlerwise" child. She is JUST now ready for that. Wish me luck!
Independent Play: Addison is doing fabulous with independent play; IP is always in a pack in play. We are doing morning IP for 30 minutes after breakfast and then off and on in the evening for 20 minutes. We need to work on transitioning some IP to blanket time AND being more consistent with the evening IP. It is HILARIOUS to sneak and watch her play during IP, she usually plays with one of her three toys the entire time and all she does it try to figure out how it works.
Pack in Play Sleeping Practice: Ug. Since IP is in a pack and play, I realized the other day that she might have a little confusion sleeping in one. We are traveling to MS at the end of the month and while at my in laws house, she will sleep in a pack and play. Which got me thinking....confusion + the need to sleep in one rapidly approaching = PRACTICE. So I practiced her morning nap at a friends house in the pack in play; she never slept! I think it was bright in there which made her think she was supposed to be playing, not sleeping. Had I been at home I would have CIO for longer, but since I was at my friends house to spend time with her, hanging out was more important than practicing sleeping in a pack and play. The next day she napped in her room in the pack and play. After 1-2 minutes of fussing, she went to sleep. I will continue with IP in the pack and play AND will continue to nap her for the morning nap in there for practice. We will probably let her try a couple of nights in there too. Funny how much they notice change now.
Separation Anxiety: Addison was right on time for her 12-15 month separation anxiety phase. About 2-3 weeks ago, she started crying when I left her in the nursery at church. It only lasts about 1 minute so no biggie. She also cried when Matthew left her with some of our friends for an evening (I think its because she has been scared of men lately and Matthew happen to hand her off to the husband when he left), but she was over it in a matter of minutes. At least if she is going to have separation anxiety, she seems to recover fast.
Eating: I still do not love meal time...do not ask why, but what I do love is what a great eater she is. Addison loves just about everything you feed her. She of course favors certain things over others, but all in all she likes virtually everything we have tried. Last night I made pizza for dinner and after getting over the chewiness of it, she loved it. I do not know why, but kids eating pizza has always been cute to me. The best part was all three of us got to eat together and eat the same meal, a rare treat!!!! I am still trying to ensure she gets enough fats (milk, eggs, avocado, cheese) and iron (spinach, cereal, lentils) because she doesnt drink a TON of milk (she is just not a big drinker) and I want to hedge off an iron deficiency issues (I have/had them). Check out Little Tummy Yummies to see the latest and greatest on what she's eating.
She really is so sweet, such a great listener and truly very obedient. We are so incredibly blessed. She has her moments and has her little things that cause a tantrum, but thankfully she gets over it quickly. It would be much easier to get lazy now and start letting the parenting slide, but now that I can see the benefits, it is worth it. My favorite is when she lays her head on my shoulder, pats my back and just says "mommy" over and over again :)
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