Sixteen Month Update

Clothing Size: Anything from 6 months to 2T.  Some of her pajamas are 6 months and most of her skirts are, too.  The rest of her clothes are in the 12-18 month range, with a few specialty tops (her “Big Sister” and Dodger’s t-shirts) at the 2T mark. As the weather has started to heat up, I’ve pulled out a few 18 month summer clothes Abue and Grandpa Trevino brought, and the tops fit fine. The shorts and skirts will have to wait.

Shoe Size: Her size 4’s fit her perfectly (this week) but she has a pair of 5’s that stay on her feet, too.  Her imitation pink crocks are her go-to shoes, although Daddy prefers she wears her white Nike tennies.

Teeth: Her front eight teeth (four on top, four on bottom) are all the way in and chomping away.  Her top two molars have started to break the skin, though they haven’t popped all the way through.  The bottom molars are still pushing up through the gums; swollen, but no actual tooth yet.

Food:  She eats anything and everything, especially breads!  Her eyes light up for bananas, cheese, beets and crackers, too.  Brandon and I have started eating vegetable pasta so that I don’t feel as bad feeding the pasta to Bailey, too.  At dinnertime, she eats what we eat 99% of the time.  Even if we’re having Mexican food, I’ll spoon out some meat pre-seasoned and put together a “burrito bowl” with rice, beans, meat and cheese, for her to pick through while we eat enchiladas or tacos. 

            Fruits: bananas, peaches, apples, pears, pineapple, nectarine, mango, papaya

            Vegetables: carrots, peas, zucchini, pumpkin, green beans, beets, lima beans

Dairy: milk, yogurt, cheese (cheddar, queso de sandwich, mozzarella, and a block cheese that’s similar to cheddar that we grate up for tacos and such)

Meats/Protein: eggs, chicken, various cuts of beef, ground beef, pork (though, if there’s a fruit or vegetable around, she’ll ignore the meat and stick to the produce)

Starches/Grains: rice, vegetable pasta, whole-wheat bread, tortillas

Other: chipa, breads, corn & potatoes in moderation

Gross Motor Skills: She’s a master at walking (most days) and is now trying to run; it’s more like a speed walk, but she waddles when she does it so it’s super cute.  She loves to dance and will do squat after squat after squat to the rhythm (roughly) of the music; drop it like it’s hot, Bailey!  She’s also started to spin in circles and is getting pretty good and going up and down ramps.  She is not confident about stairs that are “normal” sized (or larger) but will scale solo any “steps” less than 3 inches or so in height.  Her newest fetish is walking on her toes.  Mid-stride, she’ll push up on her tippy-toes and take a few ballerina steps before plopping down and walking normally again.  With Brandon’s coaching, Bailey is kicking and throwing soccer balls and tennis balls all the time.  While she prefers to throw the soccer ball and kick the tennis ball, we are just happy that she’s started actually throwing “la pelota” forward; for a while she just held it over her head and dropped it behind her back (squealing in delight as it bounced around behind her).

Fine Motor Skills: “Finger foods” reign at each meal as she pinches individual peas, grabs handfuls of scrambled eggs and switches seamlessly from one hand to the other.  She’s started showing interest in forks and spoons and will occasionally self-feed herself cereal in the mornings (using both hands interchangeably).  Grandma is shipping us some toddler forks so we can start practicing with those, too.  During play time she’s getting good at turning individual pages of her books – as opposed to flipping from cover to cover in one fell swoop.  She hasn’t mastered it yet, but she’s getting better at placing her blocks in the puzzle holes in the sides/tops of several shape identification toys she has.  She’s also getting pretty good at placing the oversized puzzle pieces in their correct location on her farm puzzle.  Mommy’s iPod touch is one of her favorite toys and she loves “pushing” the buttons, re-organizing the icons, and browsing pictures of herself that I’ve loaded on there. 

Cognitive Development:  Bailey’s a GREAT listener (most of the time) and seems to understand most of what we talk about.  At least she acts like it, anyway.  In the past few weeks she’s begun to pretend, too, which is fun to watch.  She pinches imaginary “pixie dust” from her toys and brings it to me to share.  She’ll also tip back just about any toy that remotely resembles a cup to “drink” whatever is inside.  Everything is a phone (including the bottle of infant Tylenol) and if you say “hello?” and she doesn’t have anything handy, she’ll hold her fist up to her ear to “talk”.

Body Parts: nose, belly button, tongue, ears and ojitos (“little eyes” in Spanish)

Verbal Language: She hasn’t developed a huge vocabulary yet, but there are a few key things that she says semi-regularly:

§  Mama

§  Dada

§  Shus (“shoes” but it sounds like a hissing snake)

§  Chow/bye (Paraguayans hear chow, Americans hear bye; whatever it is, it’s a farewell of her own creation)

§  Doup (what she scolds Nala with; a combination of stop/down/no/don’t)

§  Ssss (“Si”)

§  Shhh (shushing the dog when Nala barks outside, complete with her finger held up to her lips)

Sign-Language:

§  More

§  All done

§  Please

§  Milk (supposed to look like you’re milking a cow; she just kind of waves both hands up and down without squeezing her hands together)

§  Help (supposed to be one hand giving a thumbs up placed on the other palm and then brought upward from belly level to chest; she just puts two fists together from belly to chest)

§  Cup (this one is our newest word, still a work in progress)

§  Blowing kisses (not really a sign, I know, but I don’t know where else to put it)

§  Waving goodbye/hello (again, not a sign, but you get the idea)

Sleeping Patterns: She is still taking two naps a day and sleeping 10 ½ hours at night.  She’s up at 7:00 A.M. then down for nap number 1 around 9:30.  Depending on the day (and if her teeth hurt), her morning nap is anywhere from 2-3 hours.  It’s usually longest on Monday (after only getting one nap on Sunday because of church) and then slowly works its way down to 2 hours by Thursday or so.  She’s up for another 2 ½ hours before taking an afternoon nap, usually 2 hours long.   Bedtime is 8:30 (earlier if she shows signs of crankiness earlier) and she goes down without a peep.  (Insert promo for Babywise here!)  She still sucks her thumb to self-sooth before bedtime (and we still have to occasionally remind her during the day that she can’t have her thumb if she’s not sleepy), but she’s started using it less and less to self-sooth when she falls or trips or is hurt.   

 

I think that about covers it.  If I missed anything, or mis-categorized something, I apologize. J