Sweet Pea is 16 months old!!

At 16 months, Sweet Pea affectionately has a new nickname given to her by her uncle. He told me she reminds him of the Ewoks on Star Wars. I had to agree with him. She toddles around all day, easily entertaining herself and with her signature smile.

Sweet Pea points at everything. I love when babies start doing that. It means they are soaking in the world around them.

Sweet Pea still doesn’t say many words at all, but she sure can communicate. And boy does she understand everything. Today after I took her Tigger picture, I told her it was naptime. She walked straight to the gate that leads down to her bedroom. I opened the gate and she walked straight to her changing table in her bedroom! She knows her diaper is usually changed right before a nap.

Sweet Pea loves her “bankies” (blankets). Since she started sucking her thumb around 8 months old, she likes to sleep with two receiving blankets. She holds the blanket while she sucks her thumb. I don’t let her carry the bankie around so when I get her up from a nap, I say, “Put your bankie in the bed.” and she throws her bankie back in the crib.

Sweet Pea still takes two naps per day. An hour nap in the morning and then a 2.5-3 hour nap in the afternoon. She wraps herself all up in her “bankies” and still sucks her thumb. The only time she sucks her thumb is if she has a “bankie”. If she finds a “bankie” in the laundry while I am folding, she will grab it and immediately start sucking her thumb. It’s adorable.

Sweet Pea truly is one of the happiest babies I’ve ever seen. She is just joyful – all the time. And her smile is just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. For the longest time Sweet Pea had four teeth. Two on the top and two on the bottom. Then one day I noticed she had cut three of her four 12 month molars and I had no idea she was even teething. I do remember after I discovered those teeth giving her some doses of Motrin for naptime because she wasn’t sleeping well and I figured it was her teeth. But overall, this baby cut her molars and didn’t even flinch!

She is certainly a “go with the flow baby” and easy as pie…until it comes to eating.

Feeding her has become a nightmare over the past month or so! There are multiple issues going on and honestly I feel like I’ve done something wrong with her to make her a “picky eater”. I think there might be a texture issue going on. I’ve just been dealing with it the best I know how until she goes in for her 15 month check-up which is in January!! There is a story behind that, for sure. It was originally scheduled for November 15th – when she was 15 months old. But that day was Little Bug’s Thanksgiving Program at pre-k and I didn’t want to miss that. So I re-scheduled the appointment for December 13th. And, that is of course the date of Little Bug’s Christmas party at pre-k. So we are now on the books for the beginning of January. I am very anxious to talk to the doctor about Sweet Pea’s eating issues. It has never been “easy” to feed this baby and I am hoping we can get to the bottom of this and help her learn to try new foods.

In a nutshell, Sweet Pea has a list of foods she likes and she will not try anything that is not on that list. I took her off pureed baby food but she WILL NOT TOUCH table food veggies, so I put her back on purees because I want her to get veggies in her diet.

The reason I think it is a texture issue is she will ask for something she wants to try and then the moment she puts it to her mouth she makes a funny face and then won’t eat it.

Anyway, I made sure to teach Little Bug healthy eating habits from birth and I am bound and determined to have another toddler that will eat basically anything put before her. We will work through these issues, for sure. I know my pedi will give me sound advice and help us get through this.

Could she be any cuter? I don’t think so!

It is funny to me when I think of “my plans” for a baby #2. First of all, I sorta wanted our second to be a boy! Have I ever said that before? Well, I did. The perfect family. A girl and a boy. But, as always, God’s perfect truly was perfection. I absolutely love having two daughters two years apart! This baby adores her big sister. I think of them even just two years from now and what a blessing they will be to each other’s lives! I can’t imagine Little Bug without a baby sister this past almost 1.5 years. I can only pray they will always be there for each other as only sisters can.

Sweet Pea has just gotten to the stage where she loves for Gramps to show her things. He did this with Little Bug and now he is doing it with Sweet Pea. It is so precious. Gramps picks Sweet Pea up and they head to the back yard and he just teaches her about everything they see. Sweet Pea points to where she wants to go next! One of her favorite things to go see is the wind chime.

Sweet Pea is pretty good about not getting into everything like someone else we know. She LOVES to go and turn the TV on and off. The TV is a no-no. Dave was watching football one afternoon and she walked up and turned the TV off. Stinker knew exactly what she was doing and laughed. It is crazy how FAST babies learn from 12-24 months. They seriously are little sponges just waiting to learn!

As Sweet Pea’s personality blossoms, it is apparent that she is a quiet soul but…if you make her mad, WATCH OUT. She is that type. And she is so funny and she knows it. One day we were eating dinner around the table at Dave’s parents’ house and Sweet Pea was eating a banana which is one of her favorite foods. Her Aunt Amanda was watching her eat and Sweet Pea gave her a stink eye as if to say, “Let me eat my banana in peace!”.

Sweet Pea still doesn’t say too many words. She will say: Mama, Dada, Amen, crack (for cracker), mer (more) and that is about it. But she certainly does not lack in the communication department. She has her ways of communicating and makes it very clear what she wants!

This baby girl brings joy to our days! It is crazy to think that my baby is marching right towards age two and will be there before I know it!

Sweet Pea’s schedule (15 months old):

8am wake

9:45-10:45am nap

11:15-12:00 Independent Playtime

12:00pm lunch

1:45-4:30pm – Sometimes, I will lay her down at 1:30 if she didn’t sleep for long or at all during her morning nap.

6pm dinner

7pm bath

7:30/7:45pm bedtime

Happy 16 Months, Sweet Pea!!

- Elaine