Monday, July 14, 2014

14 Months

**Originally written July 8, 2014**

I can't believe how much Bree's little personality is finally starting to come out.  She's very patient most of the time and often quiet, but once she warms up she is a little charmer and a chatter box.  She has lots of "words", but I'm not sure what they are.  There are very specific non-words/series of sounds for some of the most common things she wants--her milk, her blanket, etc.  When she says them, I know what she is wanting, but she isn't really saying anything.  I don't even know if that makes sense, but that's what is going.

At 13 months she was nursing about 4 times a day.  And then the day Aunt Wendy arrived at our house she stopped cold turkey.  I spent the next few days trying to convince her to resume nursing but she would have nothing to do with it.  She just cried and pushed me away.  So, that was it.  I was admittedly very surprised and definitely not prepared.  But in the long run, this was probably the best way.  I had no idea how I was going to wean her as I had stopped cold turkey with the boys for different reasons, so her stopping herself was definitely helpful.  Of course, then I had to worry about getting more into her throughout the day.  The first couple of weeks there were nights she was waking up hungry but wouldn't take anything and so that got a bit tricky, but of course, everything is a stage and then it sorts itself out.

She sleeps through the night about half of the time now and the other half of the time she is up once or so.  She has also been fantastic about putting herself to sleep.  We have a normal sleep-time routine and sometimes it puts her to sleep and sometimes it doesn't, but if it doesn't just putting her in the crib works well.  I've been very grateful for this--and very spoiled.

She walks and runs everywhere she goes now.  She also nods her head yes (it's totally adorable) and will sometimes repeat something I said.  She loves to be outside and often asks for her shoes to be put on so that she can then head to the door and go out.  She always wants to do what the big kids do and will follow the boys around the house.  She loves to be pushed around the house in her wagon or the ride-on car.  She also loves to do puzzles, put things away where they belong, and just help me with chores in general.  If I'm sorting a basket of clothes she is right there helping me.  She also likes to take the silverware out of the dishwasher and put them in drawer (she actually can't reach it but she will stand under it and stretch and wait for me to come help her).

At the beginning of the month she was just starting to transition to one nap from two and by the end of the month she was successfully taking one good long nap every day (at least two hours, sometimes three or more hours!)  She also cut another tooth this month (upper right lateral incisor) for a total of 6 teeth now.  She still isn't a great eater and isn't a big fan of textures.  She likes just about anything mixed in with yogurt and she will eat bread.  She also tried and liked a chicken nugget for the first time.  Her favorite food is still watermelon (oh, and chocolate).  She isn't a great chewer, though, and she will shove a lot of food in her mouth and then stuff it in her checks like a chipmunk.  Eventually I have to take my finger and clean out her cheeks which makes her sad.  She is getting better at eating, she has just taken her time to do it.  In the meantime, I've been giving her half and half to drink (or whole milk when I run out) to try to keep some weight on her.  She weighs just a bit over 16 pounds.  I'm hoping to get her to 17 pounds by 15 months.  We will see!

Hoping for a ride in her wagon wearing one of Kai's new shirts

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