Friday Flashback

I haven't done one of these for a while. This picture was taken when she was 2 months old. It was probably the one and only time she ever took a pacifier from me.

Piper started sleeping better in month 2: 6-7 hours at night. She moved from her bassinet to the crib in her room and I was worried all the time about her.

She would not drink from a bottle, and I was stuck with all of the feedings. She would refuse a bottle even when I went back to work a few months later and I had to come home and feed her during the day for the first week.

She started to smile this month.

She discovered the crib mobile and went swimming for the first time. She hated it but learned to like it the following summer. She did love taking a bath though and was upset every time we got out of the tub.

She is holding her head up and beginning to coo this month.

Her first Halloween she was a bumblebee.

Eating Habits

This post is dedicated to the unique eating habits of my funky munky. Her favorite foods still include fruits and vegetables thankfully. She loves green beans, potatoes, corn (plain or on the cob), mandarin oranges, bananas, blueberries, peas, watermelon, and probably others I'm not thinking of right now. Milk is still pretty easy to get her to drink, although she prefers chocolate over white, thanks Daddy! She is not fond of hard cheese surprisingly enough. However, if it is a dip she will eat it. In fact she'll eat anything if you give her something to dip it in. Lemons in ketchup, YUM! This drive me nuts as I can't stand it when my food touches.

Other dairy foods that she likes to eat are yogurt and cottage cheese, although this one depends on her mood. She likes her morning oatmeal, eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon (sometimes), and especially donuts. We can thank Grandpa for that one. Are we noticing a pattern yet? Everyone else feeds her junk and mean mommy won't ever let her have anything fun.

Truthfully she is not too much of a picky eater, and does eat pretty healthy foods most of the time. The occasional junk isn't going to hurt overall, but I'm not planning on introducing certain items until I have to, like soda or candy. Contrary to popular belief, even if that fruit punch or Hi-C is 100% vitamin C, it's still pure sugar and she doesn't need it. I'd rather she drink water.

She's still not a big fan of meat. She will eat chicken once in a while, and does the occasional chicken nugget. But overall meat just isn't her thing right now.

She loves pudding and cookies, although we try to limit her to lower sugar ones like vanilla wafers and newtons. Loves her Cheerios and hates Kix. Devours macaroni and cheese. If she could make her own favorite meal, what would she have? Probably mac and cheese, chocolate milk, and maybe green beans. But first she'd have to dip the beans in the cheese. Throw in some corn on the cob, and she'd be in heaven.

Art Observations

She is starting to get so particular about things. She wants to do everything by herself now and is increasingly more independent every day. She has to feed herself and eat what and when she wants to eat. Heaven forbid I want to hold her drink for her when she drinks out of a straw. It has to be her way all the time.

Tonight we were doing art at her insistence. She drug the art bin out from beside her table and threw a fit when she couldn't get the lid off by herself. I'd show her how to open it, but I really don't want her getting into the paint on her own. Hopefully she won't try too hard to figure it out.

First we played with the playdoh and she had fun stamping it and squishing it on the table. That lasted for about ten minuted before she decided to take a bite. My rule is that it goes back into the container if she eats it. So it was now gone. She didn't care. She had a big satisfied grin on her face. It must have been yummy. Yuck!

Next we did chalk drawings, and she spent more time carefully putting the chalk back into the container. It had to be perfectly lined up and all facing the same direction. The pieces were all different sizes, but she painstakingly made sure they all fit in the box the exact same way. Then we had to add Stick Stix to her creation. She loves those things so much. She enjoys taking the lids on and off. I was trying to help her hold it the right way, and again she was not having it. It had to be her way or nothing. We did a couple of lines and mostly circular scribbling tonight. Oh, and lots of dots.

As usual, she was not thrilled when art time was over, but she didn't protest too loudly this time. We didn't have much in the way of a final product, but I think today was more about the process anyway.

New Shelves and a Chipped Tooth

I bought some new shelves to put in Piper's room. She has so many books we're running out of space. She thought she would help me put them together, and fortunately didn't lose any of the pieces as she was rummaging through the parts bag. She loved putting the screws into the holes and banging on the wood with me. Now she has a lovely nine shelf unit in her bedroom to store her books and toys. I can only guess how long it will be before she decides to climb on top of them.

She is finally feeling better now after a long week of sickness. She only threw up one more time this week, but it was a daily battle to get her to eat anything or drink anything all week. I was really worried that she would get dehydrated, but she seems better now. However she chipped a tooth this weekend somehow, and now I'm on a mission to find a pediatric dentist to get it filed down. Fortunately it's not too bad, but it is rough on the edge. I just hope it's not cracked.

New Valentine Pictures

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here are the latest set of pictures of Piper at 17 months old. She was not feeling well this day, but they still turned out pretty good.

Spaghetti Shaker

This is a fun and easy activity to keep your toddler occupied for a while. Piper spent at least 20 minutes working on this last night while I made dinner. Take some uncooked spaghetti and break it into shorter pieces. Give your child an empty spice shaker, and watch as she tries to stick the spaghetti through the holes. A simple and cheap game to practice those fine motor skills.

Thank you to The Happy Toddler for providing this activity.

A Different Kind of Puzzle

I had planned on getting this puzzle for Christmas, but I couldn't find it in the stores in stock. I saw it a couple days ago at Borders and went ahead and used a gift card to get it. It is a Melissa and Doug puzzle that has latches, hooks and fasteners that your child opens and peeks inside the door. Piper has enjoyed playing with it so far. It's not really a big challenge for her, but she enjoys manipulating the different items and looking inside the doors. Each one has a different number of colored animals. One of the latches is still a little tricky just because it sticks when you try to turn, but apparently that's a common complaint from what I've read in product reviews.

Kneebouncers

Piper has figured out that SHE can control the computer just like Mommy and Daddy do. She loves to play on kneebouncers.com. It is a toddler website that basically helps kids learn that by touching the keyboard or mouse, things happen on the screen. Her favorite games are Bed Jump, Splish Splash, and the Music Maker. I took these pictures and she looked soooo grown up.

Poor Sick Baby

I think she's done vomiting now. She was up all last night and threw up at least seven times...I lost count. I felt so bad for her, and she looked so pitiful and was not understanding what was happening. She just knew she wanted her mama. I wanted mine too since I couldn't figure out what was wrong with her or how to make her feel better. I came really close to calling Erick's mom at 3 am, but I didn't think she would tell me to do anything differently.

She went to bed just fine, but woke up a couple hours later. She does this all the time and sometimes she goes back to sleep on her own, and sometimes I bring her to bed with me. Last night I went and got her and she tossed and turned in bed with me. About an hour later she coughed and started vomiting, though I didn't know it until I picked her up. So I basically held her over the sink until she stopped, and then stripped her down and gave her a bath. I took her out to the living room and rocked her (Erick and Ben were still out there watching t.v.) She wouldn't drink any water for me, and then she threw up all over again. At this point I am out of clean pj's (I really need to do her laundry!) so she's left in just a diaper. We laid in bed again for about 30 minutes before it happened again.

By the 4th or 5th time her poor stomach was empty, and she's just heaving. I finally got her to take a few sips of water because I am so worried about dehydration, but it kept coming back up. We basically slept in the chair all night with me trying to not move her around. It seemed like everytime she would move or change position, she'd get sick again.

She woke up at 8 am and wanted her water, and I was afraid she'd drink too much. She seems fine this morning. I nursed her back to sleep about 10 and now she is asleep in our bed. I hope she has a better day. Poor baby!

Happy Valentine's Day

Sorting Toy and a Bonus

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This video was supposed to just document Piper's sorting abilities, but it turned out to be more than that. First off, she did well sorting the different shapes and placing them on the stacking toy. We have yet to even talk about sorting by size as well as shape, but I thought that one attribute was enough for now. She will probably have it figured out in the next week anyway.



The bonus to this video, is that I finally caught her making her "potty" sign, and that she did it spontaneously without me saying anything. YAY! She knows what it means, and I hope this is another step towards potty training. Then last night, you all knowing what a gracious and refined mommy that I am, she heard me fart. She looked at me and made the potty sign for me too. Too funny!

Playdoh Fun

We played with playdoh last night again. I still have to watch her like a hawk, or she ends up with it in her mouth. What is is about playdoh that is so enticing? At any rate, she had fun stamping the dough with this new toy I bought for her. It has three different stamp shapes, and a roller that makes a zigzag design cut in the dough. Each time we get to play with it a little longer, but my rule is once she tries to eat it, we put it up. She has gotten better at not putting most things in her mouth, but play doh is just too yummy to resist I guess.

Blog Changes

Just a heads up that I have removed all of the non-munkychild related posts from this blog. They have been copied over onto my other blog http://indy-mama.blogspot.com/. If you haven't visited there yet, feel free to check it out.

Stringing Buttons

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

She's getting pretty good at stringing buttons now. The larger beads are trickier for her to do at times since the hole is different and she has to control the lacing string for a longer period. At any rate, she enjoys adding the items to the string and making necklaces. We also use the buttons and beads to sort by color and shape. Circle is still her favorite shape.

Reminder for my BabyCenter readers, you'll have to visit my blog in order to see the video.

Picture Identification

We haven't really focused a lot on identifying objects in picture books lately. Tonight we were reading a book and I just happened to ask Piper to show me where each animal was. Usually I am the one who points out all of the pictures. This particular page had several different animals on it: giraffe, elephant, monkey, zebra, lion, and a few more I don't remember. She did a great job in showing me where each animal was when I read their names. She has been able to do this with photographs of people, and when distinguishing between two items, for a while now. I don't know why I hadn't taken it to the next level. I love it when she does this on her own and "reads" her books saying the name of the object on each page. I guess it just surprised me that she did it with multiple objects grouped together on the same page. Silly mom!

Brush Painting

Art is one of Piper's favorite things to do. This was the first time I had hung a piece of paper on the refrigerator and let her paint. We really need an easel, and I think after watching her tonight, that she would enjoy one. However, it's not like we have a lot of space for more of her stuff.

I was impressed at how well she took to the painting this time. We have done finger paints for a long time now, and I've tried on several occasions to encourage her to use a paintbrush. She usually will paint for a while with the brush, and then put it aside in favor of her fingers and hands. She is finally learning that we don't eat the paint, and I could tell when she thought about it, she would shake her head no. I wasn't sure how she would handle the paint cup either, but she figured it out right away and knew exactly how to use it. She was very unhappy when art time was over, as I knew she would be, but I told her we would do it again tomorrow.

Stages of Undress

It's not an uncommon sight to see my toddler running through the house missing an article of clothing. She has figured out how to take off various pieces of clothing, and spends her time taking them off and putting them back on...well at least trying to get them on. Sleeves are still hard to manage. Thankfully this has not extended to the diaper, but she does find it hilarious to run away from me when I'm changing her and run naked through the house. Currently she's missing her shirt and socks, and just wearing a pair of pants. Oh...and she's playing dress up too, so she's also wearing a giant fuzzy pink hat and some beads. Can't wait to see what her personal style will be once she gets older!

General Update: February

Age (in months, or years and months): 16 months

Physical abilities: still climbing up everything like a monkey, tries to jump on the bed, but not getting both feet off the ground yet, I can't believe she hasn't tried to climb out of her crib yet. Rides all of her toys (shopping cart, car, etc.) like a horse now, complete with rocking motion.

Speech/language: vocabulary, sentence length, etc: No changes, she has learned a few new words in the last week. I'm trying hard to catch one of her important phone conversations on video, but she always stops when she sees me. Last night she helped us yell at the t.v. about a play on the Superbowl. It was pretty funny.

Reading/pre-reading: still one of her favorite things to do. She reads in the car all the time and brings us book after book to read to her.

Number stuff: nothing new to report.

Other cognitive stuff: puzzles, reasoning, etc: We started doing harder puzzles with her. I have some old wooden Playskool ones that are not jigsaw...maybe 10-12 pieces. We also have a couple jigsaw ones. So far we've been doing them together and talking about how the pieces fit together and how the picture looks. She can usually figure out the last couple of ones on her own. She knows the word "rotate" and that helps her understand when she needs to turn a piece around. Last night she did a new peg puzzle at a friend's house super fast, and my friend went on and on about how smart she was.

Creativity: Loves her art time, and is really into stickers right now. Since she climbs everything, we try to think about what to put up so she can't utilize objects to climb even higher. She has resorted to moving things from other rooms to get where she wants to go. The other day she had moved her shopping cart into the kitchen and was standing on the push bar against the counter to get into the sink. She also stacks pillows and cushions, and even uses the dog to get into more trouble.

Imagination: We're seeing more pretend play with her little people. She holds long conversation on the phone, and tries to get the dog to talk on it too.

Social: Has spent a little more time around kids lately. She's going through a hitting phase, and even hits other kids in the books she reads. We are working on this a lot. At the museum she hit another little girl, and the second I started to say something, she looked at me and then gave her a hug. I'm hoping this goes away fast!

Character/personality: very loving and sweet to us, compasionate to the dog especially

Anything else/other: wondering if I should start potty training. She knows the hand sign for potty, and what it means. I'm seeing most of the signs, and she will go get her own diaper if I ask if she needs one. I'm kinda waiting to see if she start doing it independently though.

Building Blocks & Little People

We got out Piper's building blocks today for the first time in a while. We hadn't played with them since before Christmas. She had fun building horizonally as well as vertically this time, as well as with some thought and intent. Previously she was just all about stacking the blocks until they fell over, or making trains with them. We may be seeing some more elaborate structures now. She also decided to incorporate her little people in her designs too. However, she still likes to diassemble her creations almost as soon as she makes them, so it's not like we were seeing anything amazing today. Maybe next time.