16 Months Old Physical Development She’s a climber: up and down on furniture, up the stairs, up onto coffee tables and beds. She’ll walk up the stair upright if I hold both her hands for support, otherwise she crawls up at lightening speed. Her walking continues to improve, although it wasn’t until later in the month that she began to walk outside. Whenever she was surrounded by a large expanse of space, she seemed to lose her confidence and drop to the familiar crawling. She also continues to "walk" along on her knees sometimes. She’s learned to turn in circles while standing in place. She very carefully places her feet and turns and turns while laughing, until she falls down. She likes to ride the swivel footstool and be spun around faster and faster. She climbs up on the stool and points her finger while moving her arm in a circular motion to indicate that she wants to go for a "ride." She then plops belly down on the cushion and holds on tight for the spinning. Afterwards, she loves to try to stand and walk, and laughs at how dizziness prevents her from doing so. Language Development In the morning, as soon as the birds would start to sing, Etta would sit up in her crib and say, "Buhr! Buhr!" When I brought her into bed with me and tried to nurse her back to sleep (because it was so early in the morning), she struggled over to the window, pulled back the curtain, and looked out while pointing and squealing, "Buhr!" if she spoted a bird. But then she learned the word for "bee," since there are bees on her curtains and in some of her children’s books. Suddenly all winged creatures became "bee," to her, even birds. She stopped saying "buhr" and started saying only "bee." Etta communicates that she wants to change the television channel to one of "her" programs by pointing at the remote, or just swiping it off the table. Once a program of her liking is found, she settles happily to watch it. Anytime she sees her shoes by the door, she wants to put them on and go outside. She’ll point to her coat in the closet, and then pick up my keys and go to the door and touch the doorknob with them. When she gets her hands on the telephone she puts it to her face and says, "Hi!" She also says "hi" when she enters a room and sees someone familiar, but she doesn’t say "hi" to strangers when we are out. She plays "shy girl" when people say hello to her in public. Etta developed an irritating means of communicating that she wanted something at mealtime: screeching at the top of her lungs. I’d been trying to teach her "water" for months, but she wouldn’t repeat it, she’d simply nod her head "yes" or point to where the cups were. However she was more receptive to learning the word, "cheese," which was her favorite food. She now says "chee," ever so sweetly, with an high lilt on the last "e," whenever she wants more of any kind of food. It sounds almost like "please!" Eating: Etta’s appetite has exploded. We finished up the last of the baby food jars, which luckily she hadn’t lost her taste for. Her usual menu is: breakfast: 1 sliced banana, dry cereal or bread, 4 ounces yogurt snack: 4 ounces apple sauce, animal crackers lunch: 1 hot dog (no bun) or pasta, sliced cheese, cooked frozen peas snack: raisins, dry cereal, canned fruit (rinsed of syrup) dinner: whatever we’re having: salmon or chicken, rice, vegetables, pasta I’m offering her milk in a sipping cup at least once a day, but she still won’t take more than a few sips before protesting. She still refuses even the most dilute juice. She nurses only twice a day now, and gets hardly any breastmilk when she does. Whenever she finds a tissue or napkin, she will grab it and wipe her face with it! Other Events: Last month I was worried that Etta would never be able to get to sleep unless she had my breast in her mouth. I tried to rock her to sleep without nursing, but she’d scream and tear at my clothes in protest for an hour until I gave in. If I left her in the crib, she’d also cry hysterically. One night I was so weary that I let daddy try to put her to bed, and he’s been doing it quickly and successfully ever since! He simply lies down on the twin bed, she crawls eagerly onto his chest and buries her face in his neck, between his head and shoulder, and drifts off to sleep. She sleeps 8 to 9 hours at night without waking. But once she’s up in the morning, even if it’s 4:30am, she can’t be convinced to go back to sleep! |
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| "Am I coming or going? I can't make up my mind..." |