General Upday: May

Child's name: Piper
Age (in months, or years and months): 19 months
Physical abilities: independently rides her tricycle now, jumping with both feet off the ground. I noticed she was doing this on the bed and couch, and it took forever to get her to jump for me on just the ground, but she can do it Yay! Can climb the curved ladders at the park.
Speech/language: vocabulary, sentence length, etc So much progress here. I can understand her more often than not, better pronunciation as well as another big increase in vocabulary. Usually 1 word, but occasionally we get 2-3 word sentences. Increased love of opposites right now.
Reading/pre-reading: becoming more focused on letters, tries to name them but still only knows a few. She does very well at reading her books and naming things in the pictures
Number stuff: not much change, still tries to count but not using right numbers. Understands one more or just two when I am giving her something.
Other cognitive stuff: puzzles, reasoning, etc: Very much into matching and sorting things still
Creativity: Starting to tell me what her pictures are- mostly circles still
Imagination: nothing new, just pretend play with her dolls, stuffed animals, and kitchen. She loves her Mrs. Potato Head she got for Easter, and is also really into the small plastic animals like you get at Michael’s or Target.
Social: she had a couple of social interactions this month at her cousins’ birthday party and at Gymboree. Can be very quiet in public around people she doesn’t know until she gets warmed up.
Character/personality: loving, silly, determined and persistent
Anything else/other: we’ve started to play hide and seek and she thinks it’s very funny. I will say that it is a little tedious to “find” her in the same place over and over. She needs a new hiding spot. :)

And away she goes...

...on her tricycle that is. Piper is finally able to ride her tricycle independently after months of practice. She is the one who drug it out of the closet at 13 months and demanded to ride it. I had planned on waiting until this summer to even introduce it to her. First she learned to go backwards on it, then she figured out how to push herself forward. Finally we worked on pedaling while someone (me) pushed her. Now she can do it all by herself. Yay!

Night at Grandma's House

I let Piper spend the night for the very first time at Grandma's house last Wednesday. It was really emotional for me since she had never been away from me overnight before. Fortunately she did fine. I wasn't sure if she would go to sleep, since she is hard to get to bed at night. She does great taking naps with grandma though, so I was optimistic in thinking that maybe it would be similar. She resisted only a little bit, and I think grandma said she was in bed around 11pm, which I count as a major success!

18 Months...Look How Big I Am!

Is she really a year and a half old already? Sometimes it seems like she should be so much older, and other times she is still my baby girl. I can't believe how much she has learned already. This is a long list of things she can do at 18 months. Some things she just started and others she has done for a long time.

Stats: height: 34.5 inches, weight: 25.5 lbs, shoe size: 5 1/2, clothing size: 18 months for pants, 24 months for dresses/one piece outfits, and shirts, some 2T shirts, tights- at least 2T or bigger,

Teeth: all except 2 year molars, one front tooth is chipped

Hair: light brown/blond, almost reddish, getting longer every day and is past her ears now, can wear in pigtails.

Eyes: brown

Physical: walks (frontways, backwards, & sideways), runs, jumps off furniture, climbs everything, walks upstairs independently (but will use railing if it is there) and downstairs holding on to the railing, bounces on bed, strings beads and buttons on lacing string, pushes front/back on full size tricycle, can pedal tricycle if you give a slight push, tries to wash/dry hands, brushes hair, brushes own teeth several times a day, helps do laundry putting clothes in and out of the dryer, turns dryer on, blows kisses and gives real kisses with pucker, turns light switches on and off, closes doors and tries to turn door knobs, unscrews lids, kicks and throws balls overhand, "shoots" baskets, enjoys building with her megablocks, thinks it's funny to look at things upside downwhile looking through her legs, can balance on one foot for a second or two,

Clothing: can put on socks and shoes sometimes, hats, takes off clothes, unzips zippers, helps put arms in coat, hates to wear her shoes and frequently removes her socks.

Food: loves fruits and veggies, wants to feed self, uses fork and spoon, drinks from a straw, sippy cup, has distinct food and drink preferences, loves choclate milk, has still not had soda, breastfeeding twice a day, not using high chair at home-but still when eating out and at grandma's house,


Language: (about 80 words/sounds) pronunciation not great
words: mama, dada, daddy, ball, bye, no, dog, hello, yum, papaw, all gone, up, bug, nose, baby, what's this, bad, balloon, ladybug, book, this, uh-oh, see, beads, boom, whee, whoa, bite, bee, stinky, jump, hot, yucky, dirty, shh, pretty, bike, peas, tickle, block, eat, duck, blue, see ya, bubble, step, zoom, twinkle, ouch, play dough (dough), beans

animal sounds: dog, cat, cow, owl, dinosaur, lion, sheep, pig, mouse, chick, chicken, bird, airplane, train, car, frog, monkey, snake, horse, duck, kiss, laugh, cough, goose, camel, alligator, tiger, bear
Receptive language is amazing and she easily follows multi-step directions, I can't guess at her language comprehension

Cognitive: can point to all body parts on self and some on doll, easily does peg puzzles, working on 6-12 piece jigsaw, understands the word "rotate" and will rotate puzzle pieces if I remind her when a piece does not fit, does matching Eric Carle animal puzzle, sorts by color, shape, and occasionally size, stacking cups in order, stacks blocks (8) and builds trains, uses computer for Starfall, Kneebouncers, and Fisher Price websites, iPhone aps-drum kit, barnyard animals, sesame street podcasts, intentionally moves objects to where she can best use them to reach other things, seems to ask why or what happened questions, remembers what comes next in videos and books...anticipates, can pick out most shapes and some colors, matches numbers to pictures of numbers in her magnet book, some opposites like hot/cold, up/down, on/off, "counts" 123 on her fingers when watching Sesame Street,


Books: identifies objects in books by pointing or saying the word/sound, reads books to self for up to 30 minutes, loves to listen to stories and song books, can turn pages in books by self, pretends to count objects, can identify a few letters

Music: sings parts of songs- ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, Row Your Boat, Elmo song, likes to play piano and other percussion instruments, loves to dance and has several moves, loves her baby genius nursery rhymes and TMBG cds and dvds

Art: LOVES art, uses crayons, pastels, tempera and finger paints, paint brushes, playdoh, colored pencils, markers, stickers, gluesticks. Has own art notebook to draw in at any time, draws circles and lines, likes aquadoodle, doesn't mind being messy

Pretend Play: feeds dolls/animals, pushes on tricycle and car, makes them say whee when sliding or having fun, talks on phone incessantly, cooks food in microwave, pretends to eat,

Potty Training: throws diaper away, signs potty, gets own diaper and wipes, has gone on the potty a few times, but once she got sick I stopped pushing it. She is too feisty to try it again right now.

Personality: loves to tease, has a good sense of humor and does things wrong (like pants on head, wrong shape in shape sorter)just to get a reaction and laugh, rare to get a true temper tantrum, but she is very strong willed and yells at you if she is frustrated or doesn't want to be touched, loves to give kisses to everyone and everything but in her own time, Fearless and never gets hurt. If she cries you know she is really hurt. Very independent! Loves to play in water.

Social: likes other kids but not around them much, prefers boys over girls, possessive of own toys, went through a hitting stage, but I think this has stopped. Loves animals especially dogs

Sleep: sleeps through most nights, but hard to get to sleep at bedtime. Takes nap(s) easily during the day.

Favorite things to do: art!, books, puzzles, pretend play, climb, dance

Look Ma...No Hands!

Well apparently she can walk up stairs without holding on now. I didn't expect that yet. We took a walk yesterday and she climbed up the stairs just fine, but I didn't let her try to go down by herself.

BBC: See the video on my blog.

General Update

Age (in months, or years and months): 17 months
Physical abilities: Has started walking sideways, really funny to watch but I can't figure out where she picked this up? Loves to jump on the bed, but still not getting both feet up yet. Enjoys leaping into our arms when we least expect it. Last night she climbed up the back of the dining room chair like a ladder.
Speech/language: vocabulary, sentence length, etc: learning more words every day, probably about 70 words.
Reading/pre-reading: Can identify most objects in books now by either saying the name or pointing it out if we ask her where it is on the page.
Number stuff: Counts/shows on her fingers 1-2-3 when watching Sesame Street.
Other cognitive stuff: puzzles, reasoning, etc: Working on 6-12 piece puzzles. Is getting more adept on the computer and on my iPhone- very scary indeed!
Creativity: Still prefers her art time over most everything else. Drawing has become more focused and on a smaller scale, but I'm not real sure what she is trying to do. Loves to draw circles.
Imagination: Lots of pretend play with her kitchen and stuffed animals, although she is not really into her dolls. She likes to make her animals do crazy things like ride her tricycle or slide down the slide. They often kiss pictures in her books or talk on the phone with her. She is a big tease and will do silly things just to get your attention and then laugh, or act like she is going to give you a kiss and then run away.
Social:Doing better around other kids now and is not typically the aggressor. Does stand up for self though if threatened by holding arms out in front of her to keep other chid away. She is still a little possesive of community toys, but at least is not grabbing other kids' stuff.
Character/personality: Has been sick the last week or two and was very clingy to mommy. Did not want to go to grandma's house and cried when I left, which she never does. Since getting better, has become even more independent and willful, needing to do everything herself.
Anything else/other: Going to bed has started becoming a struggle again, although she is sleeping well all through the night. Next week is Daylight Savings Time and I am so dreading it, since I know she'll be up "late" and I'll be functioning on zero sleep at work.

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.

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.

General Update January

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

Physical abilities: has learned to jump off the couch, can thread buttons and beads (1 inch) onto a lacing string, better at trying to ride her tricycle- can pedal when I push it and stay in sync, but isn’t strong enough yet to pedal independently, climbing everything still. She climbed up her highchair the other day onto the counter so she could get the phone on the wall at grandma’s house. Enjoys her bounce and spin pony (especially standing up on it and trying to bounce… eek!)

Speech/language: vocabulary, sentence length, etc: about 30 words currently, 1-2 word sentences. She’s really hard to understand though. I think she has more words but I just can’t recognize them completely.

Reading/pre-reading: knows a couple of letters and tries to sing the abc song, loves to read books to herself and demands that we read to her multiple times every day. She really likes the Leapfrog letter fridge magnet set she got for Christmas.

Number stuff: knows one and can show you on her fingers how many one is, points to the numbers in her book when I count them. She sounds like she’s counting when she points to the numbers in one of her books. It sounds the same every time, BUT it doesn’t sound like the actual number words.

Other cognitive stuff: really into her megabloks now, building towers and taking them apart. Can recognize triangle, circle, rectangle, square and the color red, good at doing her peg puzzles and did a new one she got for Christmas on the first try. Starting to sort by color and shape- she really likes circles.

Creativity: starting to draw with more meaningful strokes, not just back and forth scribbling, also beginning to draw in a more circular motion, wants to do “art” all the time now, and gets mad when she has to stop. Loves listening to music and will often stop whatever she is doing to sway her head to any music she hears even for just a second. Her dancing is now mostly stomping and alternating feet.

Imagination: loves her play kitchen and cooks for us and her stuffed animals, likes to make us laugh by doing silly things like wearing her pants on her head or trying to give the dog her phone to listen to. Likes to look at things upside down.

Social: overwhelmed when around a lot of other kids, but plays okay one on one. This is an area she needs more time with as she is still not around other kids much.

Character/personality: independent and focused, does not want to be coddled, happy and silly
Anything else/other: She’s discovered t.v. in the last month and loves to watch Blues Clues, Clifford, and a nursery rhyme dvd I checked out from the library. She doesn’t care about any adult programming or some kids stuff. I’m trying to limit what she’s watching.