Sweet Pea is 20 months old!

Sweet Pea has done a lot of growing up this past month. It’s been a big month for her.

She fully switched to a one nap schedule! March 2nd was the first day of her one nap schedule and she fell right into it with no problems. I love the approach I took with Sweet Pea in this transition. We hung on to the two nap schedule as long as possible and, because Sweet Pea was so “old” when we finally made the transition, she did it with no problems. At first her one nap was about 4 hours long! I figured it would shorten some because that is one marathon of a nap and by the end of the month it had shortened to about 3-3.5 hours long.

Sweet Pea is saying more and more words. She had her 18 month check up today (we got behind on these appointments) and I shared with her pedi that the therapist was telling me Sweet Pea would probably need speech therapy too, but I felt in my gut that she would just start speaking later than average since she has done everything else (siting up, walking, etc.) later than average. The pedi said that all we really want to see is progress and the fact that at about 17 months all Sweet Pea was really saying was “Mama” and “Dada” and now, at 20 months she has probably 20 words, she IS making progress. Pedi said if she doesn’t make progress from now until her 2 year check up THEN she would need speech therapy.

Speaking of therapy…food therapy was one BIG fat disaster. We ended up just pulling her out. After three different therapists, about 6 appointments and no progress being made because the therapist we got stuck with refused to try a different method with Sweet Pea, we had had enough and we pulled her out. The pedi gave me permission to take Sweet Pea off the pureed baby food today! Woo hoo!!! She told me to pay attention to food colors, give her an empty plate at meal times with lots of healthy food choices and then let her ask for things to eat. Limit snacking so she will be hungry to eat at meal times. So we are trying this for now and hopefully she will get over her fear of textures in time.

In the picture above, Sweet Pea was eating shrimp at her Gram’s birthday dinner! She was eating those up! She loved them! But then she had this weird rash on her face and I assumed it was from the shrimp so I haven’t let her have them since. But – she ate something new. Progress.

Sweet Pea loves shoes! We were shopping and LB was trying on some shoes and Sweet Pea decided she wanted to try on shoes too so she started taking her shoes off so she could try on some shoes. She loves to walk around the house in other people’s shoes. She also loves hats!

Sweet Pea loves to dance! She’s got some rhythm too. She also enjoys spinning until she falls over. She will just spin and spin in the middle of the living room floor laughing away at herself as she spins.

Sweet Pea enjoys puzzles and she is good at them! When I took the picture below, she sat down and did that puzzle completely on her own with no help at all from me!

In the last month Sweet Pea has become a huge Daddy’s Girl. Her daddy is just loving this. Sweet Pea literally squeals with delight when she hears the garage go up when Dave gets home from work. And when Dave leaves in the morning she give him one hug and then runs to the door a million times for more hugs before he finally leaves. Sweet Pea lights up at the mention of “Daddy”. It is so precious.

I’ve noticed Sweet Pea coming out of her shell more recently! From a tiny infant she has always been pretty shy and reserved, but over the past month she has gained confidence and initiated interactions with adults and children. When I ask her if she want to go play with her friends at church on Sunday mornings she always nods her head “yes” and she hasn’t had to be ripped from my arms screaming in over a month! I am glad to see this social side of Sweet Pea!

We read together in the mornings now that Sweet Pea doesn’t nap. I am teaching the girls to take turns. When it is their turn, they pick a book, bring it to me and they can sit on my lap while I read it. Then when it is sister’s turn they have to get up and let sister sit on my lap. Oh, Sweet Pea does not like this one bit. But she will learn! Hopefully our reading time in the morning will be enjoyable soon!

Sweet Pea loves her Independent Playtime in her bedroom. When I tell her it is time to play in her room she runs to her room and goes to her closet because she wants to pick her toys. She does very well playing in there. She usually steals her blankie from her crib and has a little blankie time during her room time. She does 60 minutes of play in her bedroom.

Sweet Pea wears 18 month clothes, but I’ve already got the 2T clothes in her closet because it won’t be long and she will be able to start wearing them! She wears size 5 diapers and a size 3 or 4 shoe.

Four months and she will be two years old – the age her sister was when she was born! Doesn’t seem possible. The second child grows up WAY faster than the first. It is hard to believe I soon won’t have a child who’s age is measured in months instead of years!

Sweet Pea’s schedule (19 months old):

8am wake up

9:30-10:30am IP

11:45am Lunch

12:30-4:00/4:30pm Nap

6pm Dinner

7pm Bath

7:30/7:45pm Bedtime

HAPPY 20 MONTHS, SWEET PEA!!!

Sweet Pea is 19 months old!!

My baby is growing up. She is the sweetest little thing you ever did meet!

She is starting to say more words. She will surprise me and repeat a word I say every so often. Her food therapist mentioned that she might need speech therapy as well but my gut said just like she met her other milestones a little later than average, she will start talking a little later than average, too. I’m not worried at this point about her speech.

The biggest news this month is that, as of March 2nd, she is now taking only ONE nap!! (I’m actually writing this on day 2 of only one nap, so at this point I can’t really say how it is going!) Just before turning 18 months, she just stopped sleeping for that hour in the morning, but I kept laying her down for a “rest time”. From 18-18.5 months old, she only slept in the morning maybe a couple times. Then, after she cut her finger and lost so much sleep from being at the ER, she started sleeping for about 30 minutes in the morning. But, that morning sleep proved to be messing up her afternoon sleep! There was one afternoon when she did not sleep AT ALL in the afternoon and many afternoons where she lay in there for over an hour before falling asleep. She had never done that before. I adjusted naptimes slightly and it worked for a couple days and then she was back to messed up afternoon naps and I knew the time had come: It was (finally!!!) time to drop the morning nap!

I’ve been looking forward to this because now we can get out in the mornings to run errands, go to playdates, go on fun outings, etc. It will be so nice to have our mornings free again! I don’t mind at all having to sacrifice morning outings so a baby can sleep (I’d rather do that than have a screaming, overtired infant on my hands!), but it will be so nice not to have to be home to get Sweet Pea a morning nap!

Sweet Pea has started her food therapy and honestly, I am just not pleased with the services we are receiving. Sweet Pea has had three different therapists (because her first went on maternity leave – totally understandable) but the two she has seen since have two very different ways of approaching this issue. One follows Sweet Pea’s lead while encouraging her to touch, taste, kiss, smell foods that Sweet Pea refuses to eat or touch and the other has been trying to get Sweet Pea to learn to follow her commands and then “rewards” her by letting her do a puzzle. I just don’t see how the second approach is effective at all. Unfortunately, we are scheduled to have therapy with the second girl for the remainder of Sweet Pea’s appointments. I am going to call and politely explain the situation and ask if we can see the other girl.

After just one session with the other girl, I was able to get Sweet Pea to eat some peas! But after two sessions with the girl whose approach is proving to not be effective at all with Sweet Pea, Sweet Pea will no longer eat peas. So frustrating.

Sweet Pea’s morning nap time has been replaced with Independent Playtime in her bedroom (when we are home) and she absolutely loves it. Unlike her sister, this girl does not have a problem with playing alone. She actually loves it. When I tell her it’s time to play in her room, she excitedly runs to her room and wants me to open her closet so she can get her toys out!

Now that we have more time in the mornings, I want to start implementing a Learning Time with Sweet Pea too. It won’t be anything major. Just some intentional time when I sit down with her to work on puzzles, coloring, play-doh, letters and numbers.

At 19 months old Sweet Pea loves: playing in sister’s room (that is a real treat), eating a whole apple, bath time, playing outside, books, baby dolls, baby strollers and puzzles.

She makes this goofy face where she tucks her upper lip into her bottom:

Sweet Pea is very interested in sister going potty on the potty. She will peak into the toilet but she isn’t very fond about sitting on the big potty herself. I am going to take the same approach to potty training with Sweet Pea as I did with Little Bug: when it is clear Sweet Pea is ready (not me), I will train her. Little Bug was a breeze to train that way. For now, being interested in sister going potty on the big potty is enough for me!

Sweet Pea got a big boo-boo on February 19th after she got hold of a snowglobe and it cut her hand. It landed her in the ER and she got 3 stitches. I took her to the pedi on February 28th to get the stitches out but they were not ready to come out. We were told we’d have to go back to the ER in a couple days to have them taken out (no, thank you) so we asked my parents’ life long friend who is a doctor if he would take them out. He was more than happy to do that and the stitches came out on March 2nd. The cut has healed nicely and most likely there will be hardly any scar, if any, left.

Sweet Pea’s schedule (18 months old):

8am wake up

9:45-10:45am nap (Most of this month, she just rested during this hour.)

10:45-11:45am Independent Playtime

12:00pm Lunch

12:45 or 1:15pm – 4:30pm nap

6pm Dinner

7/7:30pm bedtime

HAPPY 19 MONTHS, SWEET PEA!!

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!!!

Sweet Pea is 17 months old!!

There really aren’t too many big updates on Sweet Pea this month! She is still her happy little self, toddling all over the place.

She loves a Tupperware container with a top that she can put on. She will play with something like that for the longest time! Kids truly do not need every single toy ever made! At this age, both of my girls loved Tupperware and most any fun, safe household object! I love that about this age.

Sweet Pea really bonded with her Gramps this past month. She finds his shoes and brings them to him so he can put them on and take her outside. She walks her around outside showing her everything. He even lets her point to what direction she wants to go in next. Right now their routine is to go out in the back yard and ring the chime hanging from the tree, then they turn and go to the tree swing where Sweet Pea loves to swing. After the swing she likes to touch the big oak tree and the bird house. Then they head to a small roof covering the AC unit where she likes to pick leaves off it. They also enjoy sitting together on the front porch looking at pinecones, squirrels and whatever else they can find.

Sweet Pea said some more words this month! She can now say: Mama, Dada, bye, all done, more, Amen!, eye, butterfly (basically is the ‘b’ sound), cracker, moon and I’m sure I am missing some more words she knows. She nods her head for “yes” and shakes for “no”.

Instead of putting her in the stroller if we take a walk, I typically let Sweet Pea walk. She loves being able to walk on her own like her big sister! She doesn’t always stay on the path. Many times I have to run off after her!

Sometime else very cute she has started doing is standing on her tippee toes to see things. She will go to the bathroom, stand on Little Bug’s stool and peer over the counter to see herself in the mirror.

Eating issues remain the same. I am looking forward to her 15-month check up in a few days from now.

She laughs when we brush her teeth! No new teeth this month. She still has the 12 teeth.

She is still needs and takes two naps per day. Occasionally she will not sleep during the morning nap and if that happens I lay her down at 1:30 for her afternoon nap. While I am not looking forward to the transition period from two to one nap, I am very much looking forward to having mornings open again for play dates, errands and special outings!

Nothing changed with her sleep schedule this month, but I did switch up some of her schedule to make it work better for us (because, after all, that is the purpose of a schedule!). I moved her Independent Playtime (which is now in her bedroom instead of the pack n play!) to right after her morning nap and during Little Bug’s learning time. It became too difficult to try and do learning time with Little Bug with a toddler getting into everything! I can’t wait to do learning time with both girls, but now is just not the time. I fought against moving her IP time to during Little Bug’s learning time because since her birth I have always had Sweet Pea do IP during Little Bug’s TV time because I am adamant that my children will not watch TV until age 2!

With this schedule change, Sweet Pea is “around” when Little Bug is watching TV. I am in the kitchen cooking lunch and folding laundry usually, so I keep Sweet Pea with me. Fortunately, Sweet Pea won’t plop herself in front of the TV at this age, so for now, this is working. If I ever find that Sweet Pea has started focusing more on the TV than playing around me while I fix lunch, I will move Little Bug’s TV time to her bedroom with my laptop!

Sweet Pea is still in size 4 diapers, although she can wear size 6 if needed (as in when we run out of her size). She is wearing 18 month sized clothing.

Schedule (16 months old):

8am wake up

9:45-10:45am nap

10:45-11:30am Independent Playtime

11:30-12:00pm Hang out with Mommy while I fix lunch and play with Tupperware

12:00pm lunch

1:45-4:30pm nap

6:00pm dinner

7:00pm bath time

7:45 bedtime

Happy 17 Months, Sweet Pea!!

Sweet Pea is 16 months old!!

At 16 months, Sweet Pea affectionately has a new nickname given to her by her uncle. He told me she reminds him of the Ewoks on Star Wars. I had to agree with him. She toddles around all day, easily entertaining herself and with her signature smile.

Sweet Pea points at everything. I love when babies start doing that. It means they are soaking in the world around them.

Sweet Pea still doesn’t say many words at all, but she sure can communicate. And boy does she understand everything. Today after I took her Tigger picture, I told her it was naptime. She walked straight to the gate that leads down to her bedroom. I opened the gate and she walked straight to her changing table in her bedroom! She knows her diaper is usually changed right before a nap.

Sweet Pea loves her “bankies” (blankets). Since she started sucking her thumb around 8 months old, she likes to sleep with two receiving blankets. She holds the blanket while she sucks her thumb. I don’t let her carry the bankie around so when I get her up from a nap, I say, “Put your bankie in the bed.” and she throws her bankie back in the crib.

Sweet Pea still takes two naps per day. An hour nap in the morning and then a 2.5-3 hour nap in the afternoon. She wraps herself all up in her “bankies” and still sucks her thumb. The only time she sucks her thumb is if she has a “bankie”. If she finds a “bankie” in the laundry while I am folding, she will grab it and immediately start sucking her thumb. It’s adorable.

Sweet Pea truly is one of the happiest babies I’ve ever seen. She is just joyful – all the time. And her smile is just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. For the longest time Sweet Pea had four teeth. Two on the top and two on the bottom. Then one day I noticed she had cut three of her four 12 month molars and I had no idea she was even teething. I do remember after I discovered those teeth giving her some doses of Motrin for naptime because she wasn’t sleeping well and I figured it was her teeth. But overall, this baby cut her molars and didn’t even flinch!

She is certainly a “go with the flow baby” and easy as pie…until it comes to eating.

Feeding her has become a nightmare over the past month or so! There are multiple issues going on and honestly I feel like I’ve done something wrong with her to make her a “picky eater”. I think there might be a texture issue going on. I’ve just been dealing with it the best I know how until she goes in for her 15 month check-up which is in January!! There is a story behind that, for sure. It was originally scheduled for November 15th – when she was 15 months old. But that day was Little Bug’s Thanksgiving Program at pre-k and I didn’t want to miss that. So I re-scheduled the appointment for December 13th. And, that is of course the date of Little Bug’s Christmas party at pre-k. So we are now on the books for the beginning of January. I am very anxious to talk to the doctor about Sweet Pea’s eating issues. It has never been “easy” to feed this baby and I am hoping we can get to the bottom of this and help her learn to try new foods.

In a nutshell, Sweet Pea has a list of foods she likes and she will not try anything that is not on that list. I took her off pureed baby food but she WILL NOT TOUCH table food veggies, so I put her back on purees because I want her to get veggies in her diet.

The reason I think it is a texture issue is she will ask for something she wants to try and then the moment she puts it to her mouth she makes a funny face and then won’t eat it.

Anyway, I made sure to teach Little Bug healthy eating habits from birth and I am bound and determined to have another toddler that will eat basically anything put before her. We will work through these issues, for sure. I know my pedi will give me sound advice and help us get through this.

Could she be any cuter? I don’t think so!

It is funny to me when I think of “my plans” for a baby #2. First of all, I sorta wanted our second to be a boy! Have I ever said that before? Well, I did. The perfect family. A girl and a boy. But, as always, God’s perfect truly was perfection. I absolutely love having two daughters two years apart! This baby adores her big sister. I think of them even just two years from now and what a blessing they will be to each other’s lives! I can’t imagine Little Bug without a baby sister this past almost 1.5 years. I can only pray they will always be there for each other as only sisters can.

Sweet Pea has just gotten to the stage where she loves for Gramps to show her things. He did this with Little Bug and now he is doing it with Sweet Pea. It is so precious. Gramps picks Sweet Pea up and they head to the back yard and he just teaches her about everything they see. Sweet Pea points to where she wants to go next! One of her favorite things to go see is the wind chime.

Sweet Pea is pretty good about not getting into everything like someone else we know. She LOVES to go and turn the TV on and off. The TV is a no-no. Dave was watching football one afternoon and she walked up and turned the TV off. Stinker knew exactly what she was doing and laughed. It is crazy how FAST babies learn from 12-24 months. They seriously are little sponges just waiting to learn!

As Sweet Pea’s personality blossoms, it is apparent that she is a quiet soul but…if you make her mad, WATCH OUT. She is that type. And she is so funny and she knows it. One day we were eating dinner around the table at Dave’s parents’ house and Sweet Pea was eating a banana which is one of her favorite foods. Her Aunt Amanda was watching her eat and Sweet Pea gave her a stink eye as if to say, “Let me eat my banana in peace!”.

Sweet Pea still doesn’t say too many words. She will say: Mama, Dada, Amen, crack (for cracker), mer (more) and that is about it. But she certainly does not lack in the communication department. She has her ways of communicating and makes it very clear what she wants!

This baby girl brings joy to our days! It is crazy to think that my baby is marching right towards age two and will be there before I know it!

Sweet Pea’s schedule (15 months old):

8am wake

9:45-10:45am nap

11:15-12:00 Independent Playtime

12:00pm lunch

1:45-4:30pm – Sometimes, I will lay her down at 1:30 if she didn’t sleep for long or at all during her morning nap.

6pm dinner

7pm bath

7:30/7:45pm bedtime

Happy 16 Months, Sweet Pea!!

Sweet Pea is 15 months old!!

This baby cracks us up. She is all smiles being her sweet self and then the next moment she is crying her dramatic tears only to be smiling again moments later.

I wrote the following a few days before Sweet Pea began walking:

And, yes, she may be 15 months old and technically not a “baby” anymore but she still seems very baby-ish to me probably because she is not walking and still prefers to crawl! Little Bug lost her baby look the day she started walking and I know Sweet Pea will too. She can often be found crawling around the house with this hat on!

Sweet Pea just isn’t eager to walk. She stands up and takes a few steps before resorting to crawling many times throughout the day, but crawling is just way faster for her right now. I predict she will become a walker by 16 months. 

(Ha! Mama was wrong on that one!!)

For about a week, Sweet Pea’s naps had been a little wonky. She just wasn’t sleeping much for her morning nap and then, one day, she took over an hour to fall asleep for her afternoon nap! Well, on October 30th, Sweet Pea laid down for her morning nap a crawler and, an hour later when I got her up after sleeping about 15 minutes, I put her on the living room floor and she started walking all over the place!

And just like that…she became a walker!!

Look at those tiny feet.

Sweet Pea is still eating pureed veggies! She won’t eat table food veggies and she will still eat the purees so for now I am going with it. She is doing good with other table foods and eats table foods minus her one jar of veggie at lunch and dinner.

She drinks about 12-18 ounces of whole milk each day. She makes up for the rest in yogurt. This baby loves her some yogurt. When you bring it out and ask if she wants some, boy does she get excited. When we first started giving her yogurt she would literally cry when the container was empty. It was the most pathetically, cute thing I’ve ever seen her do. Now she knows that the container will go empty and she has accepted that fact and moves on with life after eating all her yogurt.

Sweet Pea takes a morning and afternoon nap. The morning nap keeps getting shorter. She either shortens it or I shorten it every so often to preserve her long afternoon nap. Right now it’s about 1 hour long and her afternoon nap is 2.5-3 hours. She’s been at this schedule for a while now and I know she is going to need some tweaking to her schedule done, soon. I’m starting to see the signs now. First thing I will do is shorten morning nap to 45 minutes.

Sweet Pea does not get into things like her big sister once did. We will see if this continues now that she is a walker! She will find something that interests her and sit and play with it for the longest time before moving to something else. She does love to play in the Tupperware cabinet. Before Sweet Pea discovered it, it was all organized but now it is a complete mess since she plays in there so much. I love when my babies discover the Tupperware cabinet – easy and cheap entertainment!

Sweet Pea still does Independent Playtime in the pack n play. We are in the process of working up to 45 minutes. She will sometimes clean up her toys when she knows the timer is about to go off! She cleans up by throwing all the toys out as she did in this picture:

Sweet Pea is still my quiet, reserved, laid back little baby. She still clings to me when anyone except my mom or Dave tries to take her from me. I was so proud of her tonight though. We were at Dave’s parents’ house and Little Bug, Aunt Amanda and Grandpa were ridding in the back yard on the golf cart around the pond. Sweet Pea saw them and started pointing so I asked her, “Do you want to ride or do you want to stay with Mama?”. She indicated that she wanted to ride! So I handed her off to Aunt Amanda and off they went. I fully expected her to look back and realize she wasn’t with me and start crying, but big girl rode all the way around the pond and enjoyed herself! I was so proud of her. It is fine for her to be quiet and shy (she is like her Mama in this area) but I want to work at developing some independent and confidence in her apart from being with Mama!

Sweet Pea says three words: Mama, Dada and Amen! When we pray at meals, many times Sweet Pea will say “Amen” along with us. It’s not a clear “Amen” but you can hear an “A” and “M” sound and she only does that after we pray so I know that is her version of “Amen”! For only having three words, she communicates really well. It is mostly by pointing which is something she just started this month. She also communicates well by making sounds that aren’t words, but when she does it it is obvious (to me and those who know her well) what she wants.

She has developed a love for books this month. I read to her before her naps. I had to figure out the best way to do this because Little Bug was distracting her from reading. So now, Little Bug goes into her bedroom while I read to Sweet Pea so that Sweet Pea will pay attention to the books instead of her sister! Sweet Pea has a few favorite books. She is into any book that you can feel, open and lift flaps and any book that has pictures of babies. She will lean down to give the babies a kiss!

The sister relationship continues to grow and develop. It is so fun to watch. I LOVE hearing my girls playing together. I LOVE hearing Sweet Pea laughing at or with her sister. It is the best sound ever. For the most part, they play pretty well together. Every so often Little Bug gets too rough with Sweet Pea and she has had enough and lets Little Bug know with a dramatic cry. I remind Little Bug to show love to her sister and that usually helps them go back to playing happily together.

I know this is a broken record when I say this, but time is going by so fast with these two girls. I look at Sweet Pea toddling around the house and it literally seems like yesterday that we were watching Little Bug take her first steps across the living room floor.

Sweet Pea was the perfect addition to our family and I love watching her grow and develop at her own little pace.

She is the sweetest little thing I’ve ever seen.

Sweet Pea’s schedule (14 months old):

8am wake

9:45-10:45am nap

11:15-12:00 Independent Playtime

12pm Lunch

1:45-4:00/4:30pm

6pm Dinner

7pm bath

7:30/7:45pm bedtime

Happy 15 Months, Sweet Pea!!

Sweet Pea is 14 months old!!

I’d say, since we went through all her stomach issues, this month has been the most difficult!!

And it is mainly because she is developing a little will, she is very mobile and meal time is just not fun.

Her little will…The baby that has been so laid-back since birth is now starting to voice her dislikes. And there are LOTS of them. She does not like for her morning milk to run out in her cup. She does not like diaper changes. She doesn’t like her cream to be put on her cheeks. She doesn’t like certain things sister does to her. She doesn’t like most foods. (More on that later.) She doesn’t like water to be poured on her head during bathtime. She does not like her face to be cleaned. I am sure there are more.

Sweet Pea is either extremely quiet or VERY loud! There is no medium volume. Her cry is just…funny. I know that sounds mean but she is SO dramatic when she cries. Her cry is always intense, even if she just fell and barely tapped her toe. Dramatic has become her middle name! There is no half-cry. She is an all or nothing baby when it comes to crying! Which is pretty funny considering this baby used to rarely cry at all. Now, she cries at the drop of a hat because her middle name is Drama.

Her mobility took off this month! She zips around the house at turbo speed. At 13 months we finally had to start closing the hallway gate and closing our bedroom door again. These were things we had already done months before with Little Bug!

The week Sweet Pea started “getting into everything” she: splashed with the water in the toilet bowl, found the toilet brush and was playing with it and climbed half way up the stairs at my parents’ house.

The week before turning 14 months old, she started standing up on her own. She won’t walk without support though, but it won’t be long now before she is walking! She started cruising the furniture as well around this same time. And she has mastered walking with the push toy! This picture is blurry but I love her face because she was so proud of herself!

She is learning what “no” means. Her no-no’s are: the candles on the coffee table, pictures on the end tables, the blinds, the TV and Daddy’s computer – all of which are in the living room. She actually found the “on” button for the TV and that is her favorite thing to do now.

Eating. I am not sure exactly what is going on. Picky eater? Maybe. I don’t know. But she refuses to eat some things that she devoured no problem even just a day ago! It’s quite frustrating since Little Bug has been a pig since birth when it comes to food.

I almost feel like Sweet Pea is this way because I introduced table foods to her “wrong” or something. Like I said, I don’t know what is going on…

She eats NO table food veggies so I still give her purees so that she gets her veggies. To encourage her to eat more table foods, I’ve tried to give her those first before her purees, but she has flat out refused to eat!!

I thought it could be teething but I see no pattern to indicate it is.

So, meal time, right now, is just not fun!

I have gotten Sweet Pea to give any unwanted food to Mama instead of throwing it on the floor. She remembers to do this about half the time!

Just this past week, as she was about to turn 14 months, there were two days that she just did not sleep for her morning nap at all! Since this just started, I haven’t really figured out yet what she needs to do with her naps. Most likely, she just needs to shorten the morning nap again and then possibly start that nap at 10am instead of 9:30am. Then, based on that nap, her afternoon naptime might need to shift 15 minutes or so. In the next couple of days I will work on tweaking things until I find what meets her needs.

There was also one night where she took 45 minutes to fall asleep at night, which she has never done before. That is just another sign to me that she is starting the morning nap wean and I need to make some adjustments to her sleep schedule.

Because her morning nap has shortened over time, she is now awake for about half of our Learning Time! This can be interesting because it is a little more challenging to work with Little Bug while her toddler sister is around instead of sleeping! For now, I am just going to try and incorporate Sweet Pea into our learning times as much as possible. I will try to do the activities that Sweet Pea really can’t be a part of while she is sleeping, and then when she is awake she will join us. At this age, I am thinking she will just have a ball playing with materials that we are using that are safe and fun for her to play with!

One day Little Bug and I were painting Fall Trees, so I let Sweet Pea play with all the paint bottles on the kitchen floor. That worked perfect. It kept her entertained and then when we were done we all sat on the floor and we talked about the colors together!

Sweet Pea is still uneasy around crowds. She wants her Mama when she is uneasy, which I love! She cries every Sunday morning when I drop her off in her class (which is the only time of week that she is away from me) but I pick her up and she is all smiles and I know she has a good time there and loves her teachers. Again, she just has to be dramatic!

Big Sister still hung the moon. I absolutely LOVE to hear this baby giggle at her big sister. It is such a precious sound and one I hear daily. I have no idea most of the time what they are giggling about, but Little Bug is the funniest thing ever to Sweet Pea. They have so much fun playing together.

If Sweet Pea is crying for whatever reason Little Bug will start singing, “Jesus Loves Me” to her!

Sweet Pea doesn’t really have any new words since last month but she is an excellent communicator even still. It is so funny to me to see her actually express her opinion about something because for a year I have basically done whatever with this baby and she has just gone with it, but now, she has opinions about things and knows what she wants to do!

We were at a pool birthday party and Dave and Little Bug left Sweet Pea and me sitting at the table and headed to the pool. Sweet Pea was sitting in her stroller and started reaching for the pool and her Daddy. She wanted to go swimming too! So I put her in her swimsuit and gave her to her Daddy where she spent the next half-hour swimming. One of my parents neighbors had offered to let us use their pool while they were on vacation and Sweet Pea did NOT want to swim then. (The water was too cold.) So it was fun to watch her basically ask to go swimming and then have a ball in the pool with her daddy and sister!

Sweet Pea also loves going to the park and swinging. She let me know she didn’t want to get out by crying!

She enjoys playing with this toy.

Even though Sweet Pea has become quite opinionated this past month, she is still her sweet little self. She is such a tender-hearted little girl!

Schedule (13 months old):

8am wake up

9:30-10:45am nap

11:30-12:00pm Independent Play

12:00pm Lunch

1:30-4/4:30pm Nap

6pm Dinner

7pm Bath

7:30/7:45pm bedtime

Happy 14 Months, Sweet Pea!!

Sweet Pea is 13 months old!

Here we go, already a month into her second year…before we know it she will be 1.5 years and then two!

Sweet Pea has done A LOT of growing up this month.

She was weaned from bottles on August 6th and that was a complete breeze. My pedi recommends doing this as close to the 1st birthday as possible. She was weaned from bottles before her 12 month check up!

At 12 months old Sweet Pea weighed 19 pounds 9 ounces!

Next up was to wean her from formula to organic whole milk. That also proved to be a breeze and she had no tummy troubles at all with the milk. YAY! (I was a tad concerned about that.) She does like her milk to be warm and won’t drink it straight from the fridge. She drinks from a Born Free Sippy.

Sweet Pea has perfected her crawl and is quite fast now. It is so interesting because even though Sweet Pea is very mobile now, she just doesn’t “get into everything” like her sister did! She explores her world for sure, but I don’t feel like I have to constantly be two steps ahead of her like I had to be with big sis.

Sweet Pea started pulling up on everything soon after her first birthday.

Sweet Pea finds holes and puts her finger in it as you can see in the picture above.

She discovered the steps at my parents’ house on August 22nd! She climbed the whole way up.

This baby has been so funny with her pureed food vs. table food. There was a time I thought we were almost done with pureed foods, but she is 13 months, and she just doesn’t eat enough table food to sustain her! So we are still relying heavily on the purees. I still offer her table foods with almost every meal.

Maybe this is because at 13 months she only has three teeth and every bite she eats takes forever for her to gum and then swallow!

She cut her 3rd tooth at about 12.5 months old. She started teething right around her birthday and had some rough days until her top right tooth finally poked through a couple weeks later.

She has traded in her jumperoo for this music table! This baby loves music. She will dance anytime she hears music.

Sweet Pea takes two naps every day and sleeps 12 hours at night. I did shorten her morning nap again by 15 minutes, so now it is just 1.5 hours long. She sleeps in the afternoon for 3 hours most days.

As soon as you lay Sweet Pea down in her crib, she puts her thumb in her mouth. She does not suck her thumb at any other time of the day, which I find very interesting.

She is doing 20 minutes of Independent Playtime in the pack n play. Sometimes she does this in the morning after breakfast and some days it is after her morning nap. I will soon increase the time to 30 minutes.

Sweet Pea continues to have such a sweet personality, but she has formed an opinion on things which is quite funny at times. It is fun to watch her become her own little person. At dinner one night I was offering her cantaloupe but she clearly wanted watermelon. When I figured out what she was wanting she was so happy when I started putting the watermelon on her tray.

She is a little drama queen when she gets hurt. She wants EVERYONE around to know she got hurt and wants everyone to give her sympathy. It is the cutest thing. Her “I’m hurt” cry is so adorable. She is so dramatic. When she started getting around more she would fall and with every bump, no matter how small, she would let the world know she had gotten hurt by crying her very dramatic cry.

Sweet Pea is such a precious child and is such a tenderhearted soul! I love that about her! If she in an unfamiliar place, she doesn’t like it and wants me. She moved up to the crawler room at church a couple weeks ago and the change has been hard on her, but she is learning to like her new room and new teachers. Her sweet teachers in the baby room still come over to check on her and love on her if she is having a hard time, which I appreciate so much!

Her schedule this month was:

8am wake up, milk, breakfast

8:40-9am Independent Playtime (or 11:40-12pm)

9:30-11am nap

12pm lunch, milk

1:30-4/4:30pm nap

4:30pm milk

5:30/6pm dinner

7pm bath time, milk

7:30/7:45pm bedtime

Happy 13 Months, Sweet Pea!!

10 days old – August 12th, 2011

1 month – September 2, 2011

2 months – October 2, 2011

3 months – November 2, 2011

4 months – December 2, 2011

5 months – January 2, 2012

6 months – February 2, 2012

7 months – March 2, 2012

8 months – April 2, 2012

9 months – May 2, 2012

10 months – June 2, 2012

11 months – July 2, 2012

12 months – August 2, 2012

Twelve more photos…coming right up!!

{over the next year}

Sweet Pea is ONE YEAR OLD!!!

What a blessing this past year has been. God knew the perfect little person to add to our family – and that little person is Sweet Pea.

She has the sweetest personality of any baby I’ve ever met!

Eating: She is drinking 10-16 ounces of formula per day now. Sometimes she does not want her 12pm & 4pm bottles, but most of the time she at least will drink 2 of the 3 ounces in those bottles. I guess she is naturally weaning herself, which is very nice.

Last month I thought our baby food days were numbered but then, she suddenly eagerly started eating her baby food. I’ve still introduced her to many table foods and she eats them with no problem. She still does not bring food to her own mouth! If she would just learn to do this, I think I could transition her to table foods even more. I know it will all happen in time.

This month, she ate 2 jars of baby food per meal (4 oz). She went through a growth spurt for a couple days and was eating 3 jars per meal.

The bottle and formula wean will start soon!

Sleeping: Sweet Pea started waking early from her afternoon nap over the past couple of weeks. I shortened her morning nap by 15 minutes and she started sleeping well for the afternoon nap again.

Milestones: Sweet Pea is officially very mobile!! Early this month she started what we called “The Frog Crawl”. She would push with her little toes and feet and propel herself forward. She looked like a little frog! It wasn’t long after she started this that she learned to get into a sitting position from her “crawling” position. Then, while Dave was in Haiti she started crawling on her hands and knees! And now, she is perfecting her speed. She can crawl anywhere she wants to now, much to the delight of her big sister!

I’ve been giving Sweet Pea a sippy cup and she has learned how to get water from it.

On July 20th I went to get Sweet Pea up from her afternoon nap and found her standing holding on to the rails of her crib!

Words: Sweet Pea will randomly say “Mama” but I am not sure she knows that is my name yet. She now consistently signs “all done” and “more” while eating and she knows exactly what those mean!

Teeth: At one year old, Sweet Pea has two teeth.

Sisters: Our new morning routine includes the girls getting down from the breakfast table and playing together before Sweet Pea goes down for her nap and before Little Bug goes to her room time. They like to get our Little People play sets (we have the farm and playground) and play with those together.

Little Bug tends to be a little more “rough” with Sweet Pea than I would like (laying on her and, honestly, doing what I would picture brothers doing with “wrestling” type moves!) but Sweet Pea loves it to a certain degree. I love it when Little Bug makes Sweet Pea laugh as she was doing in this picture below!

Favorite toys/activities: Sweet Pea is enjoying her newfound mobility! She crawls all over the living room and kitchen. She enjoys playing with anything that her sister pulls out for them to play with. She still enjoys her jumperoo. I mainly put her in it when Little Bug is watching her show while I prepare our lunch because I don’t want Sweet Pea watching TV until she is two.

Personality: Sweet Pea is just…sweet. She saw a computer mouse over by her Daddy’s desk in the living room. We are teaching her that playing at the desk and with the cords is a no-no. (Clue #1 is that she already pretty much leaves the desk alone – after only a few times of being told no!) So, one day she sees this mouse laying on the floor. I was in the kitchen cleaning up dishes. I saw her see the mouse. I could tell she wanted to go after it. Instead of impulsively going for it, she turned to find me and I could just tell she was asking me, “Mama, is it okay?”. I told her she could play with it and then she went for it!!

Diapers/Clothes: Nothing has changed here. Still size 4 diapers and 9 month or 12 month clothing.

Things I want to Remember:

• At bathtime she kicks her legs furiously in the water to make big splashes.
• When she is on the changing table she uses her feet to pick up stuff that is on the other end of the table! She’s picked up her wipes, lotion and desitin this way.
• When I go to get her up from a nap or in the morning she is so.happy. She kicks her legs, waves her arms and has the HUGEST grin on her face.
• When I lay her down for naps and at night, I stand at her bed to hug and kiss her and tell her goodnight, but she is usually pushing me away because she just wants to get in her bed and go to sleep!
• Yes, she is the easiest, sweetest baby alive – I am convinced.
• At meals, she wants her next bite now! We are working on learning to say “please”.
• After her bath she will play peek-a-boo with me using her towel.
• She loves her family. I love this about both of my girls. They both just simply adore all their family members and get so excited when they see them.
• Sweet Pea somehow knows when we are about to leave or if someone else is about to leave because, without prompting, she starts waving goodbye.
• Like her sister, Sweet Pea is a huge Mama’s girl, but they both adore their daddy and crave his attention.
• Sweet Pea loves music. When it comes on Sweet Pea starts dancing.

Schedule (11 months old):

8am wake up, bottle, breakfast

9:30-11:15am nap

11:30-12pm Independent Playtime

12:00pm bottle, lunch

1:30-4:00/4:30pm nap

4:30pm bottle

5:30pm dinner

7:00pm bath, bottle

7:30/7:45pm bedtime

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, SWEET PEA!!!