16 months + photo dump

Our sweet B is now 16 months old.  I feel like I say this each month but she has grown up so much!  It really blows my mind how much this little person understands.  Toddlers are so smart!  I thought at 16 months I would do the full update like I did months 1-12.  

A few things about Blakely this month...

Blakely will bring me a clean diaper when she is poopy.  If there isn't a clean one around she says "pie-puh" or she brings me the wipes.  I know she isn't ready to potty train but surely this is a good sign that she sort of understands?  Anyway, one morning while we were in the bathroom, she found her little Min.nie mouse seat that goes on our regular toilet.  I decided to just plop her on there and see how she reacted.  This is the look I got...

She had no clue what was going on but I let her sit there and we read a book for a few minutes.  She pooped!  I was pretty shocked but I think she just did it because she poops every morning like clockwork.  She didn't really understand the difference.  I haven't put her on there again and I probably won't.  I want to get her her own little potty...I think she will feel more comfortable with that.  

We have had some nice days this month.  Just a little tease of spring every few days.  It has been great to be able to take her outside and burn some energy.  It makes me look forward to better weather!

She loves playing with this mini basketball outside.  I throw it.  She goes to get it.  Repeat.  

She also loves to run around the car.  

Or she plays with sticks....she is obsessed.  

She makes the kissing noise when she kisses now.

She actually took a nap with me one morning.  She hasn't done this in AGES.  It was so very nice and I miss that.  

She can make a mess like no other.  When I take a shower with just the two of us at home (rare), I let her run around our bathroom and play with her toys.  She usually just plays with her bath toys or the things in one of the drawers that she knows she can get it.  Well, the other day this is what my bathroom looked like when I got out of the shower.  Keep in mind that there was not a single thing on the floor when I got in.  

She is very good at helping me pick things up though.  I make her help me pick her toys up before her nap, before we leave the house, and before bed.  So far she thinks that is fun.  So she did help me clean up those messes in the picture above.  

She can rock the pigtails now.  I think I can probably get most of her hair into one ponytail now but I haven't tried yet.  It would take some bribery to get her to be still for that!  

She is pretty sassy.  She gives this look quite a bit.  

sassy stance....

She loves laying on the kitchen floor.  She will lay there and play with her toys or she will squirm around and give the floor kisses. 

She knows where her tummy, ears, nose, tongue, teeth, hair, toes, and fingers are.  

Where's your tummy?

She has discovered her nostrils.  This leads to a finger in the nostril often.  :-/ 

She absolutely haaaaates getting water poured over her head in the bathtub.  This makes washing her hair super fun.  

EATING
For the most part, B is a good eater.  She definitely has things that she would prefer (bread, cheese, crackers) but she will eat some veggies as long as I give those to her first.  I made some chicken drumsticks the other night and she went to town on them!

She is sort of learning how to use her fork and spoon.  I hate it because it gets so messy.  She knows that she can make her food fly if she wants to.  She does pretty good with the spoon if she is eating yogurt or oatmeal.  She doesn't quite get the fork though.  

Her favorite foods are: mac & cheese, peas, bread or toast with butter, breakfast sausage, cheese slices, crackers of any kind, chicken, bananas, grapes, and greek yogurt

Her dislikes are: tuna (I've tried multiple times), red sauce (no spaghetti or ravioli), and carrots....she throws them away every time.  

She drinks a lot of milk each day.  I would guess probably about 24-26 ounces.  I give her three 9 ounce sippy cups a day but she doesn't finish each one.  I give her a cup of milk with her breakfast, her lunch and then with her dinner.  In between she gets water, which she likes, but not as much as milk!  

We did have a somewhat interesting experience with food this month.  One day for lunch I gave her one of those steam in the bag veggie combos...it was like potatoes and peppers or something.  I gave her some ranch dressing to use as a dip (thanks Shannon for the dip tip!).  She was loving it but after about 10 minutes I noticed she looked like she had a bright red ring around her mouth.  I washed her up and noticed it was spreading across her face and getting more red and splotchy.  I didn't freak out because she seemed fine.  I did call Lonnie and tell him.  It lasted about 30 minutes and then faded away.  I figured it was something in those steamer bags because she had ranch before.  A few days later I gave her some broccoli and cauliflower and ranch as dip.  SAME THING.  Major red splotchy rash appeared where the ranch dressing had touched her face...she is messy so it was pretty much all over. So, apparently she has become allergic to ranch dressing or something in it?  She doesn't have any other symptoms just a red rash where the ranch touches.  Isn't that strange?  Sooo no more ranch for a while.  I sure hope she outgrows it or something because she will be missing some yumminess!  

SLEEPING
Blakely goes to bed at 7 every night and wakes up at about 730 every morning.  We have almost completely cut out the morning nap.  She only naps in the morning if she wakes up before 730 or if she is sick.  I like only having the one nap.  We are able to go out and do things without having to run home for her nap.  She also has started sleeping later in the mornings because of the one nap.  

Her afternoon nap is usually at 1 and lasts until 3 or 330.  

TEETH
Let's talk about teeth.  If I could get my finger in there to check I would tell you.  All I know is that I am pretty sure she has all of them but one.  When the doctor looked in her mouth a couple of weeks ago he said she had a "full set" of molars".  I may be crazy but I really think she has her 2nd year molars already.  Is that crazy?  It feels like she has her canines and then 2 teeth past that.  I am going to bribe her with a sucker to see into her mouth better tomorrow.  I can't really complain too much because she has handled it pretty well.  She poured drool like a faucet for about a week and was just irritable in general.  Some days she didn't eat too well but that was really it.  Mouthful of chompers...

TALKING
Blakely has about 20+ words that she can say regularly and without prompting.  I have tried to make a list just so I can look back and see what she was actually saying.  She will try to mimic anything I ask her to say.  Sometimes it comes out pretty good and then others not so much.  It is adorable listening to her "talk" though.  

mama
dada
Gran Di (dan-die)
no
more (muh)
milk (mee)
up (bup)
hi
bye bye
please (bees)
thank you (tan-tu)
Minnie
duck (duh)
chicken (chi-chin)
fish (ish)
dog (daw)
cracker (cha-chuh)
bear (bur)
bird (buh)
ball (baa)
shoe (igsh...a very weird sound indeed)
uh oh
Pop Pop
diaper (pie-puh)
snack (na)
tree (tee)

HER FAVORITE TOYS
She got a farm animal puzzle for her birthday.  Well mama threw the puzzle out real quick because it didn't have an on/off button.  Therefore, it talked all.the.time.  Even in the middle of the night when no one was touching it!  Anyway, I kept the puzzle pieces for her to play with. I have them in a little basket and she loves them so much.  There are 8 of them and she knows them as her "animals".  There is a rooster, pig, cow, horse, sheep, dog, cat and a duck.  She can makes the noise for all of them except the duck and cat...can't quite get those down.  They are puzzle pieces so they are all sort of an odd shape.  The other day I turned them all face down.  Then I asked her where the dog was.  She reached right for the dog and turned it over.  I then asked her all of the other animals and she didn't miss a beat, turning each one over correctly the first time.  I was seriously blown away...I mean she knew the random shapes of the pieces and which one was which animal!  As I am typing this I am thinking I should do a post about Blakely's favorite toys!  


She still is loving her books.  When we put her to bed she wants us to look through like 25 books.  She would sit there forever just pointing to things in the books and us telling her what they were.  She doesn't really like for us to "read" them.  She just wants to know what every single thing on the page is.  Tree, grass, sky, flower, monkey, car, boat, water, butterfly...you get the idea.  

She loves playing with any type of ball.  She will roll it to me and I have recently taught her how to kick the ball.  

MOMMY'S FAVORITE
This may be a little mean but I have to tell it.  Keep in mind...DADDY'S GIRL...always has been.  Once he gets home from work she doesn't care a thing about mama...ever.  

A few weeks ago I took Blakely up to work to see Lonnie.  I do this frequently but I don't usually go inside.  He just comes out to the car to see us.  Well he was having a slow day so I decided to surprise him and go in.  I let her walk in on her own instead of carrying her...that is rare.  The room he was working in was very dark (he was reading mammograms that day).  When we walked in I guess her eyes hadn't adjusted so she couldn't really see him and he scared her by swooping her up.  She started screaming crying.  Like hysterical.  And leaning for me!!!  He handed her back to me and she stopped.  We walked around to see a few people and then I gave her back to him...screamed.  She did this multiple times.  I could not believe it.  She has always been the opposite from the day we brought her home.  She would cry cry cry when I held her and then I would hand her to Lonnie and she would snuggle up and go to sleep.  He told me at work that day that now he knew how I felt!  I think he got his feelings hurt a little bit but he got over it quick.  Dare I say she is becoming a bit of a Mommy's girl??  

My babytoddler definitely grew into a toddler in the last 4 months.  I could not be more proud of her.