Dear Lucy –
You are 16 months old and have changed quite a bit since my last post. Here are some things I want to remember about you at this age:
During bath you mainly hang out by the water spout. You love your stacking cups and fill them up and dump them out over and over. Recently you started getting creative and getting your hair wet (see pic), trying to drink the water, filling up cups and drinking the water, etc.
Recently you started submerging most of your body, except your head in the water. You lay on your tummy with your head sticking out and just get really happy that the water feels so good. We also had two close calls this month where you getting so confident in the tub that you flipped over into the water and we had to rescue you. I will have to watch you extra carefully from now on!
You started to shut doors on yourself. You have been really intrigued by doors but now you will enter a room, mostly your room and shut the door on yourself and promptly start crying for us to let you out. Another funny think you do is always make sure our two closet doors in our bedroom are closed. This is especially funny because I am “Type-A” and also close those doors when I’m cleaning up. I think that you have seen me do that enough times that you are trying to help out and close them for me. You have also seen me move your pack n’ play into the far corner of the room when we are done with it, and you will now push the pack n’ play all by yourself into the corner too!
Our routine hasn’t changed all that much recently. I think you are really getting into the groove of the 1-year-old schedule that was hard for you to adjust to when we first moved you to daycare. You get up around 7:30 in the morning and I go and get you from you bed, give you a sippy cup with milk, and then read to you in bed while daddy takes a shower. I try to snuggle with you but most of the time you are a wiggle-worm and are super awake. You are only happy in bed while you are drinking your milk, then you want to get out and go explore! So most mornings you are the one that really gets me out of bed! Then I or daddy gets breakfast for you and you eat breakfast while daddy packs his lunch and I take a shower. You are a really slow eater unless you are really hungry or we give you your favorite foods (canned fruit or string cheese). Daddy normally leaves for work and puts you in the pack n’ play which is where I find you when I get out of the shower and dry my hair. Then on some days I’ll straighten my hair while you play in the tub. By this time it’s around 9:00 and we will either read some more books or turn on some morning TV. Then I’ll clean up the house while you play until around 9:30 or 10:00 when I take you to daycare. Then I work from about 10:00-3:00 and pick you up. You have lunch at daycare at 12:00 and sleep from about 12:30-2:00 there. When I pick you up you are always playing happily, I have never picked you up when you were crying and they tell me that you never cry! I guess you save all your crying for home because you do cry here! Especially when you get tired or hungry. From about 3:30-5:00 we run errands, play outside, or do chores or cooking in the house. Recently you have gotten really interested in artwork. You love to color at your little table and it is so cute to see you so focused on your drawing. You are still little enough that you put everything in your mouth though and you have pretty much chewed all of your crayons. Sometimes we will put an old t-shirt on you and let you paint and you love it! You even like to taste the paint! From 5:00-6:00 we normally eat dinner as a family and then sometimes go on a walk – if I’m feeling up to it. After dinner we clean up and play with you. You get really tired by around 7:30 and we put you to bed at 8:00 by giving you a sippy cup with milk – although you have started to drink less and less of that recently. For that reason we switched you to 2% since that is what we drink anyways.
We announced recently that you are going to be a big sister! It is pretty funny because you have no clue about this and it is going to change your life so much! I am very excited that you will have a sibling to grow up with!
You are really starting to show us just how smart and observant you are! Recently I have seen you: wipe your hand with a wipe, wipe your nose with a tissue, and wipe the table off with a wet rag after you eat. Also, one time when I spilled something on the floor you grabbed the nearest towel and started cleaning it up.
You always get compliments on your hair. It keeps getting longer and curlier and it so cute! I love it!
You really love to help out. You have helped me put away your blocks and also helped me put all of your bath toys in the bath toy container.
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| She’s holding a sock in this one… 🙂 |
You are pretty fascinated with the dishwasher and will put things in it and take things out of it. I can’t decide whether to let you keep doing this or draw the link and start telling you “no” – ahh parenting…. You also like to close the dishwasher and then try to press all the buttons on it like we do.
Although you don’t say many words yet (right now you can say mama, ball, book (sounds more like ball), hi, bye-bye, uh-oh, and bubble), you show us what you think in so many other ways. For example I was filling up my water bottle at the fridge one day and you found your sippy cup and ran over and held your sippy cup up to me so I would fill it up also!
You are getting really good at bye-bye and you wave good-bye and say bye-bye to daddy most mornings now. When you first learned this phrase, you would only say it and wave after people had already left. We also had a pretty funny experience at Walmart right when you were learning uh-oh, you probably said it 100 times for an hour straight while we were in the store! 🙂
It is getting harder to clean up after you because you now can open drawers. I was reading in my book about how kids at your age learn best by exploring so I’m trying my best to let you wander around the house and learn and explore. As a result we will find your toys all over the house, in random drawers and other places. It is pretty funny and at times annoying, but we love you anyways!
One of your favorite things is to put on your shoes, it may be because you really like to get out of the house, especially if we have been home for awhile. I can be anywhere in the house and if I tell you to go get your shoes you will go running to the laundry room to find them. You also like to help with the velcro straps.
One day we were playing and you spun around in a circle three times! We have seen you do this a few times since then.
You got really excited one day when I let you drink out of a water fountain for the first time at Walmart – haha I guess all my stories this month revolve around Walmart!
You have a little play purse but sometimes you wear your bib like a purse – so cute!
You made the mmbpth (trumpet noise) sound with your lips at Daddy over and over and would just laugh and laugh. Then he did it back at you and you thought that was hilarious! There is nothing better than hearing you laugh! You also recently started wiggling your tongue on top of your upper lip to make this really funny noise. You do it all the time.
You are getting a lot better at using spoons and you can pretty much eat an entire bowl of applesauce or oatmeal that we give you. You even ate fruit with a fork at Panera during our Destin trip.
You can also turn on and off the lights if I’m holding you so you can reach them and you are starting to find all the power buttons on your toys. You like to feed your baby doll a bottle and you feed me and daddy one of your toy bottles too.
You love pushing around your baby in the stroller and will often give her a blanket or a baby bottle.
The two items that you ALWAYS want are the two items that I ALWAYS have with me: my Camelbak and my iPhone. On rare occasions I will let you play with my iphone and you always have a HUGE smile on your face the entire time you get to play with it. You even hold it up to your ear to talk and have finger swiping down pat.
You love playing with your outdoor play set. You can pretty much climb up the stairs and go down the slide by yourself and you always want to do this over and over when we get home in the afternoons. I was really shocked when you went down the big slide at my parents house while I held you but was even more surprised when you went down by yourself! It really surprises me what scares you and what doesn’t scare you. Today we took you to the Warren Fall Festival and you burst into tears when we put you in a bounce house with balls in it that only had a few other babies in it – go figure!
This fall I started helping out in your nursery class at church. I’ve discovered that compared to the other kids you are very adventurous, very aggressive (you will just barge in and take someone’s toy if that’s what you want), very energetic, and you have TONS of hair! 🙂 I really do love getting to see you interact with the other kids and I enjoy helping out.
I was supposed to go on a business trip to Washington DC the week of my birthday and your dad was going to take of you all by himself. However, due to the government shutdown, the meeting got changed from in person to online and I got to stay home!
I love you baby girl. It is one of the great thrills of my life to watch you learn and grow. I am so blessed that I get to hug and kiss you every single day. I cherish all of our moments together, even though I have been super tired this last month!
