Monday, December 26, 2011
Jumping Ahead - Janie at 15 months!
With all of the holiday activities our family has been busy with, I have let this blog slide a little. Up until tonight, the most recent post was Janie's 14 month photos - Ooops! The good side is that I have been taking photos so there are lots to choose from for future posts. Instead of continuing in chronological order, I am going to jump ahead a few post and write about Janie at 15 months, so I don't forget/distort anything about her development.
At her 15 month check up, Janie weights 24 pounds, 6 ounces (75-90th percentile) and is 32 inches long (90-95th percentile)
This month has been completely amazing with how much our little sweetie pie has changed! As predicted, she is walking most of the time, and getting fast! Some days I totally underestimate how long it takes for her to walk down the hall from her room behind me and before I know it, she is out in the front room climbing on something she shouldn't or half way up the stairs! She occasionally has a little fall, but always lands on her bottom and bounces back up with a smile. She loves to be where the rest of us are, so walking faster allows her to follow us around the house. We are liking not having to carry her everywhere!
Janie usually likes to hold on to a toy or some random household item she is playing with as she toddles around. She has shown a particular liking to a travel size bottle of Downy Wrinkle Release spray that I kept in the bottom drawer in the master bathroom. At times she likes to take the little cap on and off and pretend to spray her hair, but for the most part it just must be a comfortable size to hold. She is pretty good with not trying to put it in her mouth or I wouldn't allow her to play with it at all.
One area of change for Janie that is a lot of fun this past month is her play. She seems to be transitioning from the exploitative stage into doing more mimicking. She likes to copy what Clara is doing and we have noticed just how much she pays attention to our actions. She loves to play with play food and Clara's dolls. One day Clara & I were doing her hair in the bathroom and thought Janie was playing with the kitchen in Clara's room. I was floored to walk in and realize she had taken all (about 8 of them) of the wooden dolls out of their bin, placed them on Clara's bed, climbed up the little step stool and was sitting on Clara's bed playing with the dolls just the way Clara does (to keep them away from Janie).
Janie continues to take off with her speech, using lots of phrases. It seems like her willingness to ask for things she wants really reduces the fits and fussiness during the day and leads to a much happier girl and parents! At night, she still tends to verbalize less and fuss more, but that is to be expected. Some surprising things she is saying this month include, knowing the difference between some of the Disney princesses, especially "Ai-wee-el" who is Clara's current favorite, attempting to name colors (she likes to touch the stripes on her wall and say the color, and while she is getting better, she isn't exactly accurate with anything besides "yeh-yow"), she names her body parts and pieces of clothing, most of the food she likes to eat (recognizing "egg" and "meat" all by herself). Sometimes she will even try and start singing a song she wants to sing together. Right now her favorites are Happy Birthday and the playgroup welcome song.
When Janie's initial attempts at communications are not effective, she tends to continue to repeat it, OVER and OVER, whether we understands what she is staying or even if we repeat what she tells us and have to tell her no. Then she starts getting louder and more threatening. Recently, she decided that she wanted an M&M from the candy jar in the dining room. She stood below the jar pointing "That! Want That! Cawn-dee!" When I told her no, she kept repeating, louder and louder. Fed up with my unwillingness to fork over the M&M, she attempts to climb the buffet and get it herself. Boy, she was not happy being carried into the other room without "Cawn-dee"!!
Our little sweetie has started to tell us "happy" when she seems to feel happy. It is often unprompted and is just the best feeling in the world. Grandma Jan picked her up and kissed her the other day and Janie told her "Happy!" So glad Grandma could share is some of the joy she is sharing with us these days!
When she is feeling well, Janie's appetite really has picked up! It felt like most of what we put on her tray last month ended up on the floor, where now there is the occasional piece, but nothing like before. She has days were she seems like a bottomless pit and eats twice as much as Clara. She also is a good drinker and is always asking for more water in her cup.
While we were starting to make some progress with sleep last month, Janie caught a nasty cold that really lingered. One thing that we have learned about sick Janie is that she wants to be held constantly and does not sleep well at all. Mommy (even Daddy needed to help out) was doing lots of rocking, slightly shaking the car seat, or rolling the stroller back in forth in a dark, humid room only to get 45 minutes of sleep out of the little gal. We were not a happy household for a while there!!! While the cold eventually got better and lead to longer stretches of sleep, Clara then got the cold and both girls ended up with ear infections right before Christmas.
Now that she is feeling better, Janie's happy and playful self is continuing to shine through! She can be the a really tough kid when she is sick, but it is all worth when she is feeling well. She is happy, playful and so interested in learning and interacting.
Thanksgiving 2011
This year we spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Quincy with Kevin's side of the family. In light of Murray's passing it was extra special to be together and we did our best to keep the day lighthearted and joyful despite the circumstances. Amy hosted a delicious meal. Even Janie thought so, as she wouldn't let me take more than one consecutive bites. She kept saying, "more, more, moooore!"
Janie enjoyed some time with Grandpa Zane and Hailey.
She even took a liking to many of Zane's toys. It was cute to see her play her first game of "army." Around this time she was gravitating more towards cars and physical toys.
Clara, on the other hand, played all day in Hailey's room with her Lalaloopsy dollys, Groovy Girls and Littlest Pet Shop figurines (Good mental notes for Santa). She also enjoyed tinkering around on the piano.
After dinner the kids had a fun round of Apples to Apples, involving the rest of the group whenever they had difficult times as the judge. They are all such great kids and even as they get older and transition into the teen/tween stage, seem to really enjoy hanging out together.
The day ended with a long indoor nerf gun battle. The Hunt / McKee must have at least 15 different nerf guns and hundreds of foam bullets and balls. Ashley & Taylor get in on the action
Hailey
Kevin & Todd took things pretty seriously...
(Good position Todd!)
Kevin's war face
Zac
While the battle was taking place, Uncle Elmer and Janie were hanging out. He has a great touch with babies and often jokes about stealing her. We joke back that he'd want her until he has to try and get her to sleep (and stay asleep) at night.
Clara's Preschool Thanksgiving Feast
The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Clara's preschool class held a little Thanksgiving feast during the last 45 minutes of their class time. Families were welcomed to bring their child's favorite food, listen to the children perform their Thanksgiving songs and view their themed art projects. Clara insisted we bring her favorite, macaroni & cheese, although Mommy refused to make her favorite kind (that comes in a pink box). It was adorable to watch her with friends from her class and feel so proud about having Janie and Mommy come to her class.
Before they ate, the kids went around the table and mentioned what they were thankful for. It is pretty hard to hear in the video, but Clara's response was "princesses!"
Feasting!
The group also sang the Thanksgiving songs they had been practicing all month. Clara had been singing (with a very projected voice), "Oh I am glad I'm not a turkey" every day for the past month, and then when given the opportunity to perform, sings quietly along with her classmates. Tee hee hee!
Preschool continues to go well for Clara. She loves going every day and adores her teachers. I think Clara has particularly connected with Mrs. Mac, who always has such glowing things to say about her, like that "she is such a little lady!" It sure feels good to know that your child is sweet and well behaved away from home, and to know that in her time out of the home independently she is adored as well.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
14 months with Gem!
Our little baby girl is a changing...
Janie is really learning to love playgroup. We attend most Wednesdays and have been going since Clara was 8 months old. Now I can whole-heartedly say that Janie loves it just as much, if not more (right now) than Clara does. She gets into the hand motions of the songs and seems to have figured out the routine. When the clean-up song was sang the other day, she quickly seated herself next to the kids and I swear she said "snack," the next activity! She is old enough to really get in on the parachute play, both in shaking and at the end when we give the children a ride. She has a couple of friends around the same age, Rhiona & Emma, and we had our first Toddler Time playdate with them recently.
Even more than taking her first steps, Janie's communication has continued to take off this month! She can be choosy about when she talks, but we are learning to have mini conversations with her. They usually are about what she wants to eat or do, but it is clear that she understands what we are asking and gives her preference. For example, tonight at dinner:
Are you hungry for food, Janie?
(she makes sign for food and please. Sometimes she will say the words too)
What would you like to eat?
Nan-na
Would you like carrots?
No.
Would you like peas?
No.
Would you like banana?
Nan-Na, (making sign for please)
Lately she REALLY likes bananas, muffins (she calls cake), cheese, yogurt and spaghetti. Other things seem to be hit and miss, and when I say hit, I mean hit the floor! Man-o-man, can this kid make a mess with a Ritz cracker!
When she is tired Janie will ask for a ba-ba or milk, or say night-night, which is also what she calls her soft Little Giraffe blankets that she sleeps with. She has had some great sleep in the past month, too! Some she has slept through the night, but others she is up at 2 am happy and ready to party. It just isn't consistent but are blaming the bad nights on being sick or teething (still only have the 5). Going down for naps has become a lot easier. Some days she will take two naps, but on days where we have to go get Clara from school there are times her schedule gets thrown off and she will have a day or two with just one nap, but at least they are for longer stretches. She wakes up happy from her naps and loves to be greeted by Clara. She gets so excited to see her and bounces up and down in her crib.
Janie's growth seems to be very consistent. She wears 12-18 months clothes, even some 18-24 pieces, but we are having to pack up most of the 6 -12 month things and the second time around it is just as hard. Somehow after Clara I knew we'd use them again, but that may not be the case this time around.
With as timid as our little Gem is about walking, she is really quite brave when it comes to climbing. She has learned to crawl up the stairs very quickly and often thinks of it as a chase game when she makes a break for it and gets up a few of them. She also loves the little climber and slide we have in the bonus room. It did not take her long to climb up the slide and then just recently has started doing the ladder-like stairs. I turned my head the other day and she was up on the kid table trying to climb up to the kitchen counter. I think Clara was 2 1/2 before she ever tried that!
Really, Janie's drastic difference in personality from Clara has created most of our parenting challenges, as well as the highlights in raising her. We anticipate that she'll approach something one way and yet she always surprises us. Honestly, before Janie arrived I had fears about raising sisters and how to foster their own sense of self and uniqueness, but the more we get to know Janie, and Clara, I realize that is the least of our worries. From the the tips of her blonde hair to her particular taste is toys and foods, she is already beautifully unique... and fascinating to her Mommy & Daddy!
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