I can't believe how hard it is to take 5 minutes to write a quick post. Time keeps slipping away so here I go.
At 15 months Althea was finally weaned. Kind of sad but very good. All it took was getting her to like regular milk from a sippy cup. It took some encouragement but we got there. Amazingly she started sleeping through the night shortly after that. No coincidence there! It has been life changing for me. I feel like a new person! Sleep is good.
She is a talking machine! I took her in for her 15 month check up last month and the doctor asked if she knew about 10 words or so. Um, yes...more like 50! The doctor said that said she should be connecting words together soon. Yes, she was doing that too. Now a month later I don't have a count of her words but I'm sure it's well over 100 and she is very good at communicating what she wants. I love it when she says "pease, pease, pease!" Good mannered little one!
When she needs help she does the sign for help. But she also is starting to say it as well. She loves climbing up on the homework table and pulling out the markers and coloring on stuff. Watch out. I know we are going to have a colorful couch one of these days.
The little thing doesn't think she needs to nap anymore. I put her down everyday but it hasn't been working. She ends up throwing all her blankets and stuffed animals out of her bed and screaming for me to come get her. She's clearly super tired so I put her in the car and off we drive around the block a few times and she's alseep in an instant. She can still fit in her infant car seat so I just leave her in her car seat and take her upstairs to her room where she'll sleep until the girls are home from school.
She loves to sing. She's doing pretty good with Twinkle Twinkle. She says "kookle, kwookle." Pretty cute. She loves "itsty bitsy spider", "here is the beehive", "If you're happy and you know it" and never tires of "Ring around the Rosie." She calls it "Asses, Asses" for Ashes, Ashes. She likes to spread out a blanket and spin around in circles by herself and then fall down. She's great at pointing to (and saying) all her body parts when asked.
She loves food generally. She'll eat about anything, thankfully. She is a wiggler though. From the moment she wakes in the morning until she goes down and night she is constantly moving. She does pause now and then to read a book but 90% of the day she is moving all over the place. We just got back from Princeton and she loved it there. We were there for a week and she just loved exploring all over the place. There was nothing really that she she couldn't/shouldn't get into so she was in heaven. Now that we are back home there is a lot more that she can't get into and it frustrates her.
She loves to buckle things. When I put her in her high chair she must be strapped in or she will stand. Not to worry. She likes to buckle herself now. Over and over. I just have to help her unbuckle.
She also likes to climb lately. She has a number of bruises on her face from the tumbles she has taken. Stressing me out. I have the stairs blocked but she constantly climbing up on speakers and stools and sometimes falls. She's learning the laws of gravity.
Also she has been teething like crazy the last month or so. Like 5 new teeth in the last month. She's handled it well. She likes to chew on her coat. Every time I take it off her it is soaked. Must feel good on those gums.
Our whole family is nuts about this girl. I love it when calls to the girls by name. "Anna, Addie (or Abby) and Avie". She likes to point to their pictures and say their names. She loves calling for mom or dad too. (That's how we usually wake up each morning...and I love it!) It's fun to have this wonderful girl around. She is a keeper for sure!
