The Prices Write: 2013

Firsts: Birthday party, trip to the beach with Daddy and trip to Hilton Head, antibiotic, meeting your great grandma (Daddy's Grandma Sharon),

Our Favorites: You’ve gotten really “lovey” recently and will give hugs and kisses. Sometimes when I hold you, you wrap your legs and arms around me so tight and pat my back. When we put you to bed at night you will blow kisses and wave and tell us bye!

You’ve also started this new thing where me and your daddy will give each other a hug or will be sitting on the couch together and you’ll all of a sudden realize you aren’t being included. You’ll run over and want to join in. We started saying “family, family” because you wanted to be a part of the family, too, and not get left out. Now we do it and wait for you to run over and you say “mamily, mamily!” with a huge smile on your face.

Milestones: You are walking really well now and have been for a while. You now how a little bounce to your step and almost run when you’re really on the go. You’ve learned to go up and down the little playschool slide all by yourself. You can push and pull your shopping cart all over the house, and are getting better at riding on your little cars. You go backwards most of the time but occasionally can go forward.

Measurements: At the doctor for your 15 month check up you were 19lbs 2oz. and 31inches. You’re wearing all 6-12/12 month clothing and are in size 3 diapers during the day and 4 at night.

Funniest Moments: Aunt Caitlin moved in with us in September. You LOVE her and run through the house all day yelling “Aya” (what you call her for some reason). When she’s not here you look for her and knock on her door…you love your new bathroom buddy! She had some, uh, feminine items in her room and you kept going in there looking for them and calling them cheese and crackers. I guess they looked like packs of crackers and string cheese! You then went and hid some in your closet!! Silly kid!

Memorable moment: One night right when I was about to drop your last feeding before bed and we’d changed up your regular routine to help with that, I was having a little “sad, my baby is growing up too fast and doesn’t need me anymore” mommy moment. You’d been sleeping through the night pretty regularly, but for some reason woke up that night and wouldn’t go back to sleep on your own. I quickly wiped by tears and tiptoed out because Daddy was still sleeping (of course hehe). I went in and nursed you for the last time in the middle of the night. It was such a sweet and special time to have with you. You kept looking up at me with your sweet eyes and I held you and prayed for you and thanked God for such a precious time and for such a wonderful blessing. Right before I put you back to sleep I propped you up on my shoulder and you wrapped your arms around me tightly and rested your head on my shoulder. Then you sat up and gave me a little kiss on the cheek! Oh my goodness, my heart melted!! You knew just what mommy needed.

Challenges: Right after your 12-month checkup you got a really bad fever. We thought it was from the shots, but it didn’t go away for a while. It turned out you had a virus. A week after you finally got better, you ended up with another fever! You had it for almost a week and we’d been to the doctor several times. It turned out to be a UTI. As soon as you got antibiotics in your system you finally did better. It was terrible seeing you so sick. You got to the point that you wouldn’t even take medicine. It was awful. Thankfully you’ve been well since then and did so good with your 15-month shots!

Another and very different kind of challenge is your little temper starting to form. You have learned the word ‘no’ and use it quite frequently. If we have to take something away or stop you from doing something you get really mad. You will say “no, no, no” and “top” (stop). Its really awkward if it happens in public. Thankfully you are fine after a few seconds.

Feedings/Eating: You are officially weaned!! We had a good runJ Between your one year shots, getting sick, and molars coming in we stretched it to 15 months! I am one proud mommy!

You are a pretty good eater some days, and other days you aren’t. I’ve heard this is pretty typical of toddlers. One of the first things you say when you get up in the morning is “waffe”…you love breakfast! Some of your favorite foods are graham crackers (caka’s), cookies/nutri-grain bars (coocoos), and cheese. You ask for each of them a MILLION times a day. You make little smacking noises when you see something you want to eat. We’ve let you feed yourself a little more lately with a spoon and it basically gets everywhere!! But if you can pick it up by yourself, you are eating by yourself. Your newest thing is dipping food in sauces…especially ketchup. You will eat all kinds of things as long as there is something to dip it in. You also love Mexican because you can dip tortillas in the cheese dip. You drink from a sippy cup all the time and do really well with it. You’re doing better with milk, but would prefer water.

Sleeping: You still take 2 naps most days. That’s our goal anyways. It all depends on when you wake up though. If you sleep in later you normally only take one nap. You’ve been pretty consistently sleeping through the night.

Personality: You have such a strong personality. You’ve always been pretty strong willed, but it is really starting to shine! HA! You let us know what you want in all kinds of ways, good and bad. You are getting more verbal so this is very helpful and I think will prevent some tantrums in the future. You are determined to do things right and get mad when you can’t do something. However, after you get mad and yell you are quick to give hugs and are super sweet and loving. You are this way to people and to your “friends”, BaaBaa, Kitty, and Ellie. You give them kisses when you haven’t seen them, will feed them your snack and make little chewing noises, you share your cup, and even wiped their noses when you were sick. You are such a big helper and always want to be right by Mommy’s side. You bring me utensils out of the dishwasher and will help pick things up and put them where they go. You are also very friendly to people and will wave to strangers, tell people “hi” and “bye” when they leave.

Favorite toys and playtime: You love to play now! Its so cute to watch you play with all of your toys. You are getting better at putting puzzles in the right slot and stacking your stacking cups in the right order. You love to have a picnic with us. You also LOVE music and dancing. You swing your hips back and forth and it is hilarious. You love taking walks and we go for a walk almost every day. You will still sit in a stroller when we go for longer walks. You will head to the door and say “waa” (walk) and will normally be dragging us right behind you with our finger in your hand!

New Explorations: Since you’ve been walking we’ve let you wander around a little on your own in some stores and outside in the front yard. You love to explore and look at different things. It is so fun to see you explore…it gives us a little insight to what you like and what’s going on inside your little head.

Words, and communication: You have really taken off in this area. I am so proud of you for how much you are talking. You can say several words, point to many body parts when we ask, and follow directions (if you want to!). We are working on animal noises, but you seem to get hung up on the same ones. So far your favorites are a snorting sound when you see a pig, baaa for a sheep, and oofoof when you see the puppies across the street. You always get the sheep and pig out of your barn puzzle. You have really picked up sign language recently. You will sign and say “peas” (please) and “tae to” (thank you) on your own and use them correctly. You can also sign more, but only do this occasionally without prompting.

Teeth: You’ve gotten so many teeth recently you officially have 9 teeth (one is a molar) and have 3 more molars on the brink of coming. You’ve handled it like a champ for the most part.