The Stats:
- Weight: Just bareley under 23 lbs (50th percentile)
- Height: 32.25 inches, WOW (94th percentile)
- Head: 18ish (91st percentile)
- Overall: She remains right on track with her expected growth and the doctor could not believe how many words she could say as well as how many teeth she has. Her iron level is up in the normal range so all our attention to filling her with iron rich foods (lentils, red meat, spinach, peas, broccoli, etc.) has paid off. With my history of low iron, we we warned to continue to be just as vigilent with offering iron rich foods.
What else is new?
- Walking: 100% walking now. Since she can walk, we encourage her to walk everywhere (except to and from the car) rather than carrying her a lot. When we have Manna I will not be able to carry her as much, so we want to train the right habits now.
- Talking: I find her verbal ability shocking!! 2 word sentences are becoming more common already and she can say upwards of 50-60 words. The AAP says to expect 5-10 jargon/babble words at this age, so we are very pleased with her development. I am sure you can imagine where she gets her talkative nature from. "Talks Excessively" is a report we will likely receive from her teachers, just like her mommy (sorry mia and papa, I am sure that was annoying when I was a kid, but it could be worse things right?).
- Eating: She drinks 16-20 oz of milk a day if I had to guess. She eats just about anything you offer her. Generally we all eat the same meal as a family for dinner and she LOVES to eat whatever we eat. High chair manners have been a bit of a challenge lately as she is experimenting with textures and the cause and effect nature of her foods. We are working to keep this under control, however I seem to be frustrated sometimes!!! Addison still prefers flavor packed foods over bland foods (i.e. steamed veggies with herbs vs anything canned). With the large amounts she eats, I frequently wonder where all the food goes because she is so long and lean. Many of her peers eat far less but yet are chunky---they are much shorter though. Who knows!! She is just her daddy through and through, which I am thankful for. I hope that she has the kind of metabolism he does, what a blessing for a girl!!!
- Paci: Addison only has her paci for sleep times and structured independent playtime (when she is in the play pen alone for 30 min playing) and oddly she only liked the paci after I quit nursing at 12 months. After much debate, we decided to allow the paci at sleep times until well after the baby is born. In fact, the doctor actually RECOMMENDED it. She said there will be so many other changes going on, this would be the ideal comfort thing to keep in place. Interesting. So we will worry about dropping the paci when she is old enough to understand and after she has fully adjusted to her new role as a big sister. We all pick our battles :)
- Personality: Addison is still a little analyzer/observer; very few things are an accident. Which actually makes keeping an eye on her admittedly much easier. She is a rule follower by nature (one of the few things she gets from me) so when she does disobey she is more embarrassed than anything else. She is starting to become a little comedian for Matthew, myself and others she is around frequently. Naughtiness tends to be more frequent these days, but she takes correction relatively well and usually recovers from the "drama" quickly. She is just as sweet and obedient as she can be 95% of the time. We have determined 12 months to this age has been our favorite thus far. She is still on the shy side with new people overall and I think that will probably remain for quite a while.
- Blanket Time: We are still working diligently in this area. She has blanket time for 10 minutes about 3 times a week. Interestingly, the other day she was having free play time in the living room and was growing quite grumpy. Puzzled, I decided to try blanket time a bit early that day. She was pleased as punch when I set down the blanket and created a boundary. Conclusion? She was feeling overwhelmed by the freedom and needed a boundary to harness her attention/energy. Eventually I would like to get blanket time up to 15-30 minutes maybe. Eventually this time will turn into room time.
- Independent Play: She has 30 minutes of independent play in the play pen, 30 minutes every morning after breakfast. As soon as she finishes eating she signs AND says "play" and "music" to indicate she is ready for IP (we play a selection of classical music during this time). I believe she really enjoys this time.
- Discipline: Ug, I hate this area but Matthew frequently reminds me to think big picture and remember that we are parents, not friends with our kids right now. It would be much easier to ignore this area of her life now, but it would make the future so much more difficult. Addison deserves parents. And boy can it be hard. Our hierarchy of discipline is something like this: 1) verbal warning 2) verbal warning again 3) pop hand 4) pop thigh and 5) remove from situation. We will be adding time out and/or isolation in the future but for now this works fine.
- Socialization: I am so surprised that Addison has already moved past parallel play. She actively plays WITH other children. I really started to notice the difference when we started attending a weekly playgroup and spending time with her neighbor friend (Elle, who is a year older than Addison).
I am going to wait to take a photo with her teddy bear until 18 months, so stay tuned!!!!
