Thursday, June 4, 2015

16 Months Old!





(from her 15 month checkup)
Weight: 22.8lbs
Height: 31"


EATING
We have changed her milk to being a 7oz mid-morning and a 7oz bedtime bottle, and then she gets diluted juice or water the rest of the day.  She still gets her milk from a bottle but I'm going to try to work on transitioning that to a sippy cup.   All of her juice/water she drinks from sippy cups.

She is a picky eater.  Her breakfast is typically some sort of waffle/french toast variety from Eggo.  She loves their cinnamon french toast waffles and their blueberry waffles.  She also likes the french toast sticks but we haven't bought them in a while.  She also gets some other breakfast snack, like Gerber Bitty Bites or peanut butter crackers.

For lunch she usually gets a fruit (strawberries, blueberries, half a banana) and meat (chicken, turkey or ham) which is usually deli slices that we rip up or shredded chicken breast.  She also likes pork bbq if we have it or go somewhere on the weekends.

For dinner, she usually gets a meat, a veggie, and some snack-type things.  The meat is usually one of the ones listed above, and the veggie is either a puree or yogurt blend because she refuses any actual veggies that I try to give her.  She likes the flavor but is so weird about the textures.  I'm hoping this is a passing phase because it makes it frustrating that she won't eat the same things that we eat so she still gets a different meal.

She clearly doesn't understand that she's  Italian because she refuses to try pasta. Of any kind. No spaghetti, no meat sauce, no ziti, nothing.  I suppose it's a good thing that she's not a carb-lover but again, I hate it that she doesn't eat the same dinners we eat.

Except, of course, if we are eating anything involving french fries.  Because then she's in love!

Same thing here as her last update:  She is a great eater and she will let us know when she is hungry or wants more.  We tried introducing sign language, but overall haven't really needed to use it because she is very vocal.  She has signed "more" on several occasions but usually she will tap her tray or say "cracker", "cookie" or "baba" to let us know she wants more food.  All we have to do is show her a food container and ask "would you like some of this?" and she will either say "no" or give us a big grin and reach out her hands for it.  This makes communication on food pretty easy!


TEETHING
10 Teeth!  She has all 8 front teeth and her top 2 pre-molars have broken through.  That has not been fun. 


SLEEPING
This has gotten a little thrown off lately and I think it's a combination of things.  Between moving, teething, and possibly some night terrors she has been going to sleep later than normal and waking in the middle of the night sometimes.  Bedtime has been pushed about an hour later to 8:30pm most nights, and she typically wakes up anywhere from 6:30-7:30am.   In the middle of the night she wakes with a "fake" whiny cry anywhere from 1-4 times a night but we can talk to her through the monitor and she goes right back to sleep.  There have been two nights that I think she had night terrors and she woke with a screaming, scared cry and even after I went into her room and picked her up (or more like caught her as she tried to jump into my arms!) she still took a while to calm down from whatever scared her.  The one night she woke like this at 5:30am and there was no calming her down so we just woke up for the day and watched some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to cheer her up.  
 
Her naps have also changed.  During the week she has always just taken one nap at daycare that was about 2hrs long, and that has changed more recently to only an hour & a half.  On the weekends, she has dropped her morning nap and just takes a 2-3 hr afternoon nap around 1pm.  She did this transition on her own, just refusing to take her morning nap all of a sudden but it's stuck and it actually works out really nicely to get more errands taken care of on Saturday mornings!  The timing also works out better on Sundays because she isn't as cranky during church and goes down for a nap right after lunch.   

ACTIVITY

Learning more and more every day!  Her new favorite activity is coloring.  I bought her some jumbo crayons and a coloring book and she was thrilled!  I tape a coloring book page to the removable cover on her highchair tray and she will color away!

She learns more words every day. She's my little parakeet and copies almost anything that we say.  She is learning lots of names of family and friends, and she is learning names for colors really well.  She will say names for numbers but she doesn't associate them with anything. She loves to sing, especially in church!

Her favorite TV shows are Bubble Guppies (she always says "bubby gupsee" which is pretty much the best thing in the world!), Sofia the First, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  We usually watch them during breakfast and dinner.

DIAPERING
We've moved up to size 4, they just seem to fit her better around the thighs.



 CLOTHES
  Mostly all 18month. 


 SPECIAL FIRSTS 

--Showing interest in her little potty.  Although we have yet to actually successfully use it.  We aren't actively potty training but she was sowing interest in the big potty so we got her one, just for whenever she's ready.

--Eating a food puree pouch on her own! And didn't even make a mess! So nice to not have to spoon feed purees anymore!

--Throwing a baseball, she has a pretty good arm!

--Boating Trip!! and she loved, loved, loved it!  So glad that we will be able to spend more fun in the sun this summer :)
 



Tuesday, April 14, 2015

14 Month Update



Well I feel like it's been forever.  One of these days I'm going to get back into the groove of writing more frequently.

(Guesses, she goes to the doctor for her 15month checkup next month)
Weight: 24lbs
Height: 31"


EATING
So many changes here since our last update at 12 months.  She never gave us any problems with the transition from breastmilk to whole milk at 1 year, so that was wonderful.  She now drinks about 18oz a day of whole milk (a bottle before morning nap, bottle before afternoon nap, bottle before bedtime).  The rest of the day she drinks a sippy cup of diluted juice (1/3 juice and 2/3 water).  Her favorite juice seems to be Apple but she also accepts Pear, White Grape, and Apple Prune.

She will accept just about any soft-spout sippy cup now, but her favorite is this sippy spout top on her regular 9oz Avent bottles.




She's doing better with eating cut up pieces of food (she used to like biting off bigger pieces).  She does not like her fingers getting sticky, so if we give her anything like pb&j (she likes the grape Uncrustables) she likes to bite off of a bigger piece or she wants us to feed it to her piece by piece.  Little clean freak ;)

Foods she has tried-- refried beans, chicken noodle soup, cool whip, yogurt bites, puffs and lil'crunchies from Gerber, steamed carrots, cut up banana, cut up peach, cantaloupe, parmesan cheese straws, Maple flavor mini-pancakes, tater tots, white grapes

Foods she loves--guacamole, crescent rolls, breadsticks, potato soup, half a banana, fried pickles, animal crackers, Garden Tomato & Veggie Dip Gerber Crunchies, Blueberry & Purple Sweet Potato Puffs from Pluum, Spinach Apple Kale teething crackers from Pluum,  mashed potatoes, cocktail meatballs, brownies, oreo truffles, chicken & rice, french fries, any type of chicken, turkey lunchmeat, breakfast casserole (ham, sausage & egg), strawberries, grits, Gerber yogurt (blueberry, strawberry, strawberry-banana, banana).  Nilla wafers (thanks to her Daddy!!)

She's a huge fan of breakfast foods and just about anything Eggo.  French Toasters and Blueberry Waffles are definite favorites.  The French Toasters come in a cinnamon flavor that she also likes.  Usually with waffles we will put a teeny tiny bit of Reddy Whip on it (then mash it together so the whip cream soaks in) to soften the texture a little bit.  That was the solution I came up with as an alternative to syrup because it was less sticky (for my picky child) and less sugar.  We also got some Sweet Potato Butter from the South 40 farmer's market in Clover that she likes a little bit of on waffles & french toast. 




Ryleigh is a meat lover! We call her our "little carnivore" because she will eat tons and tons of meat.  Chicken, ham, sausage, ground meat, lunch meat (chicken, turkey).  She will eat it all!  It's nothing for her to eat 4-5 slices of ripped up lunch meat.  One night she ate THREE chicken fingers herself on top of a slew of other food.  Definitely no protein deficiencies!


We still give her 1 or 2 purees (4oz) a day because it makes me feel better that she's getting a rounded meal, especially for green veggies. 



She is a great eater and she will let us know when she is hungry or wants more.  We tried introducing sign language, but overall haven't really needed to use it because she is very vocal.  She has signed "more" on several occasions but usually she will tap her tray or say "cracker", "cookie" or "baba" to let us know she wants more food.  All we have to do is show her a food container and ask "would you like some of this?" and she will either say "no" or give us a big grin and reach out her hands for it.  This makes communication on food pretty easy!





TEETHING

She has all 8 front teeth and a couple pre-molars are working their way through!  Her poor little gums are quite swollen and one tooth especially is very close to popping through (top left).



SLEEPING
Still sleeps about 11-11.5hrs a night.  She sometimes wakes around 3 or 4 am...not sure if it's bad dreams, teething pain, or that she just misses us (which I've heard sometimes happens around this age).  Usually it just takes a little back rub, or sometimes a quick cuddle, and she goes back to sleep just fine.  I sometimes change her diaper too just to help make her more comfortable.  
We have been elevating one side of her mattress to help with congestion (just put a pillow under one side of the mattress).  Around 1 year old we also started letting her sleep with blankies in her crib at night.  Her blankies of choice are burp clothes with long silk tags on them.  She likes to rub the silk tag and cuddle the blanket.   For her naps--if it's a weekday she will usually stay awake playing all morning with the daycare kids and get a 2hr nap in the afternoon.  If it's the weekend, she is pretty much like clockwork--she goes down for a morning nap about 2hrs after she wakes up and she will sleep for 2-2.5hrs, then plays for about 3hrs and goes back down for an afternoon nap that lasts about 1-1.5hrs. 

ACTIVITY

Walking & running everywhere!  She never crawls anymore.  She has the cutest little strut.  She's great at climbing up stairs, but has no idea how to climb down.  She LOVES dancing and singing.  She learned "God is So Good" at daycare and will sing along if someone else sings it (she chimes in with very loud "God" and "Good" and sometimes tries to say "me").  She loves toy cars and trucks, and she loves her mega block legos.  She loves a giant plastic ball that Sue Sue & PaPa got her. She just likes to carry it around and make it roll.  She likes her wooden farm and making animal noises (she knows "moo" "quack" "woof" and will blow raspberries if we ask her what sound an elephant makes).  She is learning colors (or at least, color names...I'm not sure how well she actually associates colors with their names yet).  She can say "purple" and "booo"(blue). She loves being outside (although not during this pollen season!) and enjoys wagon rides, stroller rides, and swings.





She understands SO MUCH of what we are saying.  We can give her commands and she will get up and do them immediately.  One of her favorite things to do is throw away trash!  If we say "okay it's bedtime" she walks right over to the stairs and waits by the baby gate so that she can climb up to bed.

She now says/has said:
 "Dada"
"Daddy"
"Mama"
"Mommy" (a couple times, usually I'm "Mama")
"Papa"
"SueSue"
 "Kk" referring to Kona
"Ssssssssssssss"
"Thhhhhhhh"
"Kkkkkk"
"Ba ba ba ba"
"Ta ta ta ta"
"Guh"
"RrrrrLLl" <--Her version of Ryleigh that she's copied us saying a couple times.
"Go, Go, Go!"
"Ko" <--Kona
"Reee" or "Eeese"<--Reece
"Cak" <----Clap
"Hi"
"Hi Dada"
"Daw" <---Dog
"Gog"  her other version of dog
"Hey duh" her version of "Hey there"
"Hey"
"Hi"
"Bye Bye"
"Bah-Buh" <--"Baby" for her babydoll
"Kak-kuh"  <---cracker
"Na-Na"  for Banana
"Diapuh" diaper
"Ah Wubbya" I love you
"Ahmee" Amen
"yeah"
"whoa"
"uh ooo" for Uh Oh!
"Ba Ba" for requesting her bottle
"baby" <--she learned this one after becoming OBSESSED with her little cousin Karrigan!
"purple"
"booo" (blue)
"God"
"Good"
"Ray-Na" she said this once when we asked her to say Reina!
"Geeee" she said this a couple times when we ask her to say Grady
"Wow"
"Weeeeeee" <--she likes saying this on the swings :)

Clicking her tongue
Giving kisses...her human version [open mouth] and dog version [open mouth w/tongue sticking out!]
making the sound of a rolling "R" (like in Spanish)
Waving Hi & Bye bye
She gives hugs, but only to her babydoll.  It's precious.



DIAPERING
Size 3, although we are getting ready to transition to 4's I think...



 CLOTHES
 She's a little all over the place.  She fits 12m or 18m onesies.  She can fit into some jackets & vests that are 9m, 12m, or 18m.  She wears 12m or 18m pants.  Pretty much, the larger sizes are nice for added length but her waist still fits the smaller ones also.



 SPECIAL FIRSTS 
--Throwing trash away on command
--Going to bed on command (climbing stairs)
--Running
--saying her first color "purple"
--More new dance moves
--Tried peanut butter, eggs, and strawberries and wasn't allergic to them!! (big win! I was worried since she has a food allergy to annatto)
--First ponytail and pig tails!  It's a sad little sprout, but it's adorable and keeps hair out of her face!
--First time using the big potty (#2)! Total fluke thanks to whole milk constipation...but it worked! Twice actually.  We are not potty training yet but she's already showing interest so who knows!


Monday, February 16, 2015

1 Year Stats



Ryleigh is ONE YEAR OLD!!!!! 

Weight: 22lbs
Height: 30"


EATING
Several changes here.  Another possible allergy is beets.  My kid has the most random allergies. 

She drinks usually five 6-7oz. bottles a day.  We have been slowly mixing in some whole milk to her bottles of breastmilk and she doesn't even seem to notice a difference which is awesome so far.  She finally, out of the blue, decided she was interested in a sippy cup and has now figured that out for water.

With table food, we have learned she wants to be a "big girl" and by that, I mean that she doesn't like us cutting her food up into tiny pieces and refuses almost all purees from me anymore.  She prefers to have something larger to take bites of.  For instance, she hates cut up banana, but if we give her half a banana to bite off of, she will eat it. Same thing with cantaloupe and mini pancakes.

Foods she has tried-- refried beans, chicken noodle soup, cool whip, yogurt bites, puffs and lil'crunchies from Gerber, steamed carrots, cut up banana, cut up peach, cantaloupe, parmesan cheese straws, Maple flavor mini-pancakes, tater tots

Foods she loves--guacamole, crescent rolls, breadsticks, potato soup, half a banana, fried pickles, animal crackers, Garden Tomato & Veggie Dip Gerber Crunchies, Blueberry & Purple Sweet Potato Puffs from Pluum, Spinach Apple Kale teething crackers from Pluum,  mashed potatoes, cocktail meatballs, brownies, oreo truffles, chicken & rice


TEETHING

We now have all front 8 teeth!  She seems to be working on her pre-molars lately and is not happy about it. They seem to really be hurting her which of course kills me. Frozen teethers have been our friend, although they only offer temporary relief. I can feel the top, right one starting to bud, but none of the others are up enough yet.  Poor thing :(


SLEEPING
Sometimes a little restless, and there have been a few nights where she woke up and took a partial bottle sometime between midnight & 3am.  I usually put Tylenol or teething tablets [as a last resort] in that bottle to help her with teething pain, which is the cause of the tossing & turning.  Other than that, still doing very well and sleeps 11-12hrs a night.

 

ACTIVITY

More and more Walking! Even though she still crawls if she wants to get somewhere quickly.  She is getting more confident by the day and taking more steps at a time.  She has now walked all the way across our living room several times.  She is also pretty hilarious with her dancing.  Baby girl cannot hear music without dancing.  Rocking her shoulders, swaying her hips, and her new signature move that we like to refer to as Serving up the Pizza [think, arm out, palm up, moving forward and backward haha]

She now says/has said:
 "Dada"
"Mama"
"Papa" only once (my father-in-law)
"Kk" referring to Kona
"Ssssssssssssss"
"Thhhhhhhh"
"Kkkkkk"
"Ba ba ba ba"
"Ta ta ta ta"
"Guh"
"RrrrrLLl" <--Her version of Ryleigh that she's copied us saying a couple times.
"Go, Go, Go!"
"Ko" <--Kona
"Reee" or "Eeese"<--Reece
"Cak" <----Clap
"Hi"
"Hi Dada"
"Daw" <---Dog
"Gog"  her other version of dog
"Hey duh" her version of "Hey there"
"Hey"
"Bye Bye"
"Bah-Buh" <--"Baby" for her babydoll
"Kak-kuh"  <---cracker
"Na-Na"  for Banana
"Diapuh" diaper
"Ah Wubbya" I love you
"Ahmee" Amen
"yeah"
"whoa"
"uh ooo" for Uh Oh!
"Ba Ba" for requesting her bottle


Clicking her tongue
Giving kisses...her human version [open mouth] and dog version [open mouth w/tongue sticking out!]
making the sound of a rolling "R" (like in Spanish)
Waving Hi & Bye bye
She gives hugs, but only to her babydoll.  It's precious.


DIAPERING
Size 3, and we have found a new love in Pampers Cruisers. They seem to allow less blow-outs than Luvs and absorb great overnight.



 CLOTHES
 She's a little all over the place.  She fits 12m or 18m onesies.  She can fit into some jackets & vests that are 9m, 12m, or 18m.  She can fit into a couple pairs of 9m fleece pants, and she wears 12m or 18m pants.  Pretty much, the larger sizes are nice for added length but her waist still fits the smaller ones also. She's in 12m footed pajamas but they're getting a little snug in length.



 SPECIAL FIRSTS 
--First toy obsession - her babydoll
--Superbowl game
--We got her to do "touchdown" putting her arms in the air twice. She hasn't done it again since.
--Requesting food [asking for a Kak-kuh when I put her in her highchair and Ba-Ba for her bottle]
--Signature dance move [Serving up the Pizza]
--Desserts-brownies & birthday cake!!
--Birthday Party!!!
 
 
 



Wednesday, January 14, 2015

e l e v e n

 

Ryleigh is 11 months old!!!!! 

Weight:  20lbs 12oz

EATING
The biggest new thing there is her food dye allergy.  We discovered this through her breaking out into severe welted hives for about a week after her exposure to goldfish crackers.  Her allergy is to Annatto, which is a natural food dye for yellow/orange color often used in cheddar flavored foods but also found in some butter and cosmetics.  Kind of like nature's version of Yellow 5, but it's still a common allergen for people.  Annatto is a seed from South America.  It's actually in one of her old favorite snacks--Gerber Lil Crunchies Mild Cheddar.  In hindsight, after we introduced the Lil Crunchies she had this weird bumpy dry skin on the backs of her shoulders.  It seemed like her baby eczema so that's how we treated it.  She also had some random times that she threw up, which we assumed was from drinking her milk too quickly, and sometimes her nose would be pink that we assumed was due to congestion.  Now we know that it was a milder allergic reaction, but the Lil Crunchies use Annatto extract and they are not as strong of a color or flavor so they do not have as much annatto as the goldfish which was a much crazier reaction.

She drinks usually five 6oz. bottles of breastmilk a day, sometimes a 6th partial or whole bottle if she's going through a growth spurt. Not showing any interest in a sippy cup, even when we put a different liquid in it [breastmilk, diluted grape juice, or water].  

Foods she has tried-- refried beans, chicken noodle soup, cool whip, yogurt bites, puffs and lil'crunchies from Gerber, steamed carrots, cut up banana, cut up peach

Foods she loves--guacamole, crescent rolls, breadsticks, potato soup


TEETHING
 Working on her 8th tooth coming through!  Her crankiness from teething seems to be much less lately, either she's getting more used to it or these teeth coming in aren't as painful.


SLEEPING
Still doing very well. She wakes up around 7ish, give or take a half hour, during the week and often times sleeps in until around 8am on the weekends which we are very thankful for!  She goes down for her morning nap around 9-10am and sleeps for usually right at 2hrs.  If she's going through a growth spurt or if it's a dark, rainy day she sometimes goes a little longer.  Then she wakes up and plays non-stop until her afternoon nap, which is usually around 2-3pm and lasts an hour.  She doesn't usually go much longer than that in the afternoon.  She then wakes up and plays until bedtime around 7:15pm.  She is really great on this routine and it works out pretty well for us. 


ACTIVITY

Lots of pulling up and I'm sure we are not long away from walking. She seems to be able to do it, just lacking a little bit of confidence to let go of holding onto something.

She now says/has said:
 "Dada"
"Mama"
"Papa" only once (my father-in-law)
"Kk" referring to Kona
"Ssssssssssssss"
"Thhhhhhhh"
"Kkkkkk"
"Ba ba ba ba"
"Ta ta ta ta"
"Guh"
"RrrrrLLl" <--Her version of Ryleigh that she's copied us saying a couple times.
"Go, Go, Go!"
"Ko" <--Kona
"Reee" <--Reece
"Cak" <----Clap
"Hi"
"Hi Dada"
"Daw" <---Dog
"Gog"  her other version of dog
"Hey duh" her version of "Hey there"
"Hey"

Clicking her tongue
Giving kisses...her human version [open mouth] and dog version [open mouth w/tongue sticking out!]
making the sound of a rolling "R" (like in Spanish)
Waving Hi & Bye bye

DIAPERING
Size 3


 CLOTHES

  Mostly 12 month but we can also put 18 month pants on her for added length. String bean.



 SPECIAL FIRSTS --First Christmas
--First New Year!
--First time she did an un-prompted "Hey there!" accompanied with a wave Hi!
--Climbing the stairs
--Food allergy :(
--Trying to let the dogs in the house [she understands the concept of the deadbolt and doorknob on the patio door, and she stands on her tippy toes trying to turn them although she isn't strong enough].
 --WALKING!!!! She decided to take several steps unassisted a few times at exactly 11 months old 1/14/15