Sweet Pea is one and a half year old!!

Sweet Pea is growing up faster than her sister did. It’s unbelievable and I thought Little Bug’s baby years flew by!

She loves to push the baby stroller. She had my dad’s shoes on and was pushing the stroller when I asked her to smile for the camera. This is what I got:

Sweet Pea still loves to play with anything that has a top. She loves to play outside and she loves bath time. She is eager to give her Daddy hugs when he returns from work, running to the door to do so! She is still shy at drop-off at church nursery. I hate leaving her like that, but that is the only time I leave her in the week (except with her grandparents) and she sure lets me know she doesn’t like it one bit.

Dave and I were talking about her personality the other day. She is the type that is going to appear all quiet and shy, but then, if you get her in an environment where she feels safe, oh boy you better watch out because this baby will let you know how she feels about everything!

I wish I could say her vocabulary is taking off, but it is not. When she had her therapy evaluation last month, the therapist asked me about her speech and said it might not hurt to get a speech eval as well since, at 18 months, she isn’t putting two words together and really doesn’t say anything consistently except “Mama” and “more”.

She doesn’t have a mouth full of words, but she does have a mouth full of teeth! I think she is about to cut the incisors. Those were the worst for her sister. Hopefully they won’t be too bad for her.

She loves to walk around with a bucket on her head and she thinks it is funny when she bumps into things because she can’t see.

These two play pretty well together! It is fun to watch them and listen to them as they play. I caught that sweet moment of the two of them playing with a baby doll that used to be mine when I was a little girl. That stroller is one I rescued from the TRASH – in perfect condition – in our neighborhood!

We are starting to work on puzzles. Sweet Pea likes to take the pieces of this puzzle out and then she will place them back in the correct spot, but she puts them upside down or sideways.

It amazes me how Sweet Pea can focus on one thing for a long length of time! She finds something (usually something with a top she can open and close) and she will play with it forever over any toy, any day!

Sweet Pea loves to wear dress up clothes. If sister is wearing them, she wants to, too!

Eating is still a daily adventure with Sweet Pea. I just never know what she will do. We continue to give her new foods to try and tell her to first touch it, then smell it, then taste it. Sometimes she ends up eating it and many times she ends up tossing it away. Therapy should start sometime soon. I am hopeful that I can learn a few techniques to help her want to try new foods so that we can keep these therapy appointments to a minimum. She will try new foods so that gives me hope that hopefully her therapy process won’t be long and drawn out.

Sleeping became an adventure too the week before Sweet Pea turned 18 months! It started on a Tuesday when she didn’t sleep at all for her morning nap. Over the last couple of months or so, that has happened every once in a while. To compensate I’d lay her down for afternoon nap about 15-30 minutes early. The next day she would usually go right back to her two naps. Well, this week, she did sleep for morning nap on Wednesday but she did not sleep at all on Thursday, Friday or Saturday!!

This was my first big sign that Sweet Pea is (finally!!) really moving in the direction of dropping this morning nap. This is both exciting and frightening. Exciting because our mornings will finally be free again and it’s frightening because typically the transition from 2 to 1 nap is hard for baby.

The rest of that week I continued to lay Sweet Pea down for her nap around 1:30 (so 15 minutes early). By Saturday I could tell she was getting overtired because instead of sleeping for 3 or more hours, she only slept for a little over 2. That told me I needed to lay her down around 1pm instead of 1:30pm. The next day (Sunday) I laid her down by 1pm and she slept 3 hours.

For now, my plan is to continue with the two naps. As long as she is content to lay and rest for that hour, I will lay her down for it. That “rest time” will hopefully help her be able to make it to 1ish for afternoon nap. I didn’t think Miss High Sleep Needs would be ready to drop the morning nap until closer to 19-20 months so this is a nice surprise! Hopefully by 19-20 months she will be fully transitioned to one, long afternoon nap.

Sweet Pea wears size 4 diapers, but we are out and I think we will move up to size 5. Or maybe even size 6. When we run out of her size she just wears size 6 (Little Bug’s size for naps/bedtime) and they work just fine.

Sweet Pea wears size 18 month clothing and wears a size 3 shoe. She has teeny tiny feet!

Sweet Pea’s schedule (17 months old):

8am wake up

9:45-10:45am nap

10:45-11:30 Independent Playtime

12pm Lunch

1:45-4:45pm nap

6pm Dinner

7pm Bath

7:30/7:45pm Bedtime

HAPPY 18 MONTHS, SWEET PEA!!!

- Elaine