Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Peyton, 18+ months

As we come to a close on 2011, I thought it would be a perfect time to do Peyton's 18 month (she is now 19 months, oops mom for not being on top of it) blog post.  Peyton is developing quite the personality these days.  She is anything but shy, has a gigantic vocabulary, and continues to amaze us with everything she has learned.  We have thoroughly enjoyed this past year with her, reaching many milestones, working through the challenges that come along with having a toddler, and learning to be patient (this is KEY!!).  Please continue on to read about what Peyton has been up to the past 6 months. 


Clothing:
  • Peyton is currently in size 24 months-2T. 
Eating:
We've continued to have great success with tofu, a favorite of hers for months now.  At this point, we try almost everything with her at least once so we can add to the list of foods that she will do well with.  We continue to make some puree's including fruits, spinach, carrots, and butternut squash, however she is for the most part eating cubes of solid food with her hands or with a fork.  She still isn't hot on meats, which is why we are thankful she likes tofu (so she gets protein).  She continues to have whole milk out of sippy cups with each meal, and we are working on supplementing her with water throughout the day with either a sippy cup or cup with lid and straw.  For the most part, she is a fantastic eater.  She eats poorly when we are around big groups of people especially when there are kids there because she becomes so distracted and wants to play.  Favorite foods, which may have not changed much since the last blog post include tofu, carrots, spinach and applesauce, eggs, sandwiches, and oatmeal.

Sleeping:
Peyton sleeps very consistently 11-11 1/2 hours a night, without waking up.  She continues to take 1 nap per day, around 1:00pm which lasts anywhere from 1 1/2 hours-3 hours.  She will on occasion every couple of weeks or so wake up once in the night (seems to be possibly a bad dream, or tummy ache), and just needs a quick snuggle and then is back to sleep.  She did have one night this past month which was very strange for her in which she woke up every half hour or so starting at 12:00am all the way until 3:00am.  That was pretty terrible, but we found out the next day it was due to a backed up tummy.  She still sleeps with her white noise ipod in regular jammies with footie pajama's over those, and a blanket. 8:00pm continues to be here bedtime and she is still sleeping on her tummy.

Vocabulary:
Peyton has too many words for me to list out on this blog post what she says.  At this point, she will repeat anything that is 2 syllables or less and speaks in small 3 word sentences (i.e. "what is that?").  She seems to be excelling in her vocabulary compared to other kids her age, although we know at this point all kids develop cognitively at all different levels.  I still credit the amount of reading we do to her big vocabulary.

Doctor/Dentist
In the past few months, Peyton had both her 18 month doctor visit and dental check up.  She was very healthy at both appointments.  However, she has started being pretty scared at both.  She was hysterical when she got her shots at the doctor, and also when her teeth were being examined.  She had a pretty nasty cough during Halloween and they checked her for Whooping Cough, which thankfully was negative.  She had some faint staining on her 2 front teeth, which the dentist said was very common for any child that has had iron supplements and that it will go away.

Potty Training:
We started working on sitting Peyton on the big potty at about 18 months just to get used to it.  For Christmas mommy and daddy bought her a little potty which has been great.  We aren't pushing the subject very hard yet, but every few hours or so we will take her in there and most times she will go.  She even has gone #2 in there several times.  She gets an M&M each time she goes and likes to flush the toilet when she is done.  We know this could be a long road, and so we are starting off slowly.
Other tidbits:

  • Peyton continues to LOVE books.  She will sit in her room and flip through books by herself for a good 45 minutes.   She is always asking us "read book" and we continue to read books every night before bed as well as throughout the day.
  • Peyton is working on learning her colors and counting (she can count to 4 on her own as of today). 
  • For Christmas Peyton received a Fisher Price bike from Nana, a helmet from Nana, a Dora guitar from Grandma and Grandpa, a kitchen set from mommy and daddy, a personalized step stool from mommy and daddy, a cabbage patch doll from mommy and daddy and several other fun toys, books and clothes.
  • Peyton loves to hear motorcycles, airplanes, trucks and buses when we see them outside.  Her ears and eyes are sharper than a whip and she always spots these items before we do.
  • For Halloween, Peyton trick or treated at Debbie's, Grandma and Grandpa's, and Auntie Katie and Uncle Todd's house.  After trick or treating we went back home with Nana, Colin and Anna and Ky and answered our door for trick or treaters.  She also attended 2 Halloween carnivals the week before Halloween where she got to wear her bee costume.
  • Peyton's favorite move during Christmas was Home Alone.  She would sit there for an hour or more and just be mesmerized by the T.V. 
  • She enjoys playing games on mommy's ipone.
  • She is into playing pretend with her dolly's, or kitchen set.
  • She loves being around other kids (especially her cousin Hank)
  • As any toddler, she is into EVERYTHING and we are working on her obeying skills.  She threw her first fit the other day when she couldn't have something she wanted.  She threw herself on the ground kicking her arms and legs and crying.  It was pretty comical.
  • She enjoys giving hugs and kisses to almost everyone.
  • This past month, Peyton has gone through short phases where she only wants here dad, or only wants here mom.  Apparently, this is common for kids her age.
  • She loves talking on the phone to mommy, daddy, and Nana.
Next up, AGE 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

























Saturday, September 10, 2011

A Little Catching Up to do...

So much has changed since my last post when P was 11 months old (now almost 16 months!), I'm not even sure where to start, so I'm just going to go for it.
P is just such a pleasure these days and we have fallen so head over heals in love with her as parents. It truly is the greatest thing to be a mom, a dad, and be raising such a beautiful, intelligent, heart warming little girl. We have had a lot of great milestones and adventures over the past 5 months, and one not so great event with the passing of my dad, and Peyton's Papa Tommy.
Sleep:
We have maintained Peyton's bed routine and she is down at 8:00pm every night. She sleeps all through the night and is up between 6:30am and 7:00am every morning. Both John and I feel great about her night time sleep and finally are relaxed about night time. I remember back to the nights when we went to bed feeling anxious about how the night would go in terms of her sleep, and am incredibly grateful we are past that stage. As far as napping goes, she is still taking 1 nap per day and goes down between 12:00pm and 1:00pm. That nap lasts anywhere between 1.5 hours and 3 hours. We have completely cut out her sleep sacs, and she now sleeps in just her jammies. We introduced a light blanked around 14 months and she does well with that. She still sleeps with her white noise, and remains on her tummy most of the night. While we do love how independent of a sleeper Peyton is, we occasionally wish that she could crawl in bed with us and have a nice sleep, but that just does not happen. If she ever gets in bed with us, she simply things its play time. I continually am saying to myself how grateful I am for the sleeping routine we established with Peyton back around 6-8 weeks old. It has been such a lifesaver for us on many occasions, and allows John and I some couple time each night, which we feel is very important for our family. Peyton is a fairly light sleeper.
Clothes:
Currently, Peyton wears 18months-2T clothing.
Eating:
P dropped the bottle during the daytime completely just after her 1st birthday. Shortly after that, we stopped the night bottle, and she now is 100% on sippy cups. She has about 6oz of milk with each meal, and we try to limit her to that. Per her doctors advice, we don't offer her milk outside of meal time very often. In regards to solid food, she still is eating 3 meals per day and eats a wide variety of food. We offered her peanut butter around 15 months, which of course she enjoys. Some of her favorite food includes tofu, hot dogs, yogurt, cheese, eggs, applesauce, and green beans. I have continued to add pureed spinach to her yogurt, applesauce, and pureed carrots to gain her some iron and vegetables.
Talking:
I estimate that P has around 50 words currently. Just after her 1st birthday, her vocabulary started to explode. Her first word (outside mama and dada) was "hello," or "kitty," (we're not sure which came first). She is in a stage now where if you say a word to her, she can almost always repeat it back to you in some form. She says "eat," (and sometimes signs it) when she is hungry, and asks for "milk" when she wants that. Just recently she has begun saying "poo poo" when she is going poo. P's sign language includes the sign for "all done," "bird," "thank you," "eat," and "more."
Walking:
P officially began walking at 15 months. She began taking some steps before that, but she really took off at 15 months.
Doctor Visits:
P's 12 month visit went well. We revisited the doc around 14 months when P had a mild ear infection and was put on antibiotics, which cleared up the infection. P had her first visit to the dentist at 12 months with Dr. Sun. He was wonderful! She has too many teeth to count (including several molars).
Loves anything that's not a toy
LOVES KEYS, CELL PHONES, AND REMOTES
Loves Wheel of Fortune (starting to repeat the letters)
Know's Nana and Grandma's streets (starts calling out Nana when we turn down it)
Loves playing with little kids
When she is done eating, she begins to drop food off her tray
Still working on her obeying "no"
Gets into EVERYTHING (including the toilet and toilet brush cleaner)
Loves reading stories every night before bed (and the "wake up book" with mommy)
Doesn't mind having her teeth brushed
Loves to be tickled (especially with Daddy's whiskers)
Loves bubbles
Loves being outside
Loved to dance to music in the back seat of the car (daddy made a fun compilation of this and posted it to facebook and You Tube), and even asks for music when its not on
P visited the fair with mommy on Labor Day and was able to see and pet cows, goats, pigs and sheep.
She loves making the sounds for animals. Her favorites are cow, horse, cat, dog, pig, lion, monkey, and bird.
I changed my work schedule back at the 4th of July so now I get to stay home with her each morning. I go to work at 10:00am and John picks her up from daycare at 4:30pm. We are still taking her to Debbie's for daycare (and LOVE it!), but we are in the process of finding a back up daycare for P for when Debbie is on vacation.















Tuesday, April 19, 2011

T minus 1 month till Peyton is 1!!!!



11 months!!! Yep, that means only 1 more month to go until the big 1 year mark!!!! This month has been pretty big for Peyton, full of milestones and activities.


Sleep:

Peyton sleeps 12 hours per night currently. We still put her to bed at 8pm and she usually sleeps until 8am. It is WONDERFUL!! We are blessed with some really great sleep right now. One big change this month was going from 2 naps per day down to 1. We thought and thought about making the change, and eventually Peyton essentially told us when it was time. It was getting more and more difficult to get her down for her 2 daily naps (i.e. we would put her in the crib, and she would play sometimes up to 45 minutes before going to sleep). The change actually went smoothly, and she goes down around noon and sleeps for about 2 hours. This, thankfully did not effect her night sleep at all.


Food:

We are having a blast with food this month! The whole feed the same new food for 4 days in a row went out the window (oops!). Now, we feed her almost everything we are eating (sometimes is a picky eater when we put things on her highchair tray, but she likes to eat almost anything off mommy and daddy's spoon or fork) in addition her staples like tofu, green beans, banana, etc. One new item this month was watermelon and cubed ham. What not to love about watermelon right? Peyton agreed. Besides solids, Peyton is drinking a total of 15-20oz of formula per day (usually about 3 bottles). We are excited to start introducing whole milk in a couple of weeks.


Clothing:

Peyton is currently wearing 12-24 month clothing. Most of the 12 month clothing is getting almost too small, so I anticipate shortly making the move to all 18mo+ clothes.


Milestones/Activities:

-Says "hello" when she see's us on the phone or when she hears the phone ring.

-daddy put up a swing in the cherry tree in the front yard, and this has become one of her new favorite activities (she never took to any kind of swinging until now).

-Standing on her own

-Opening cupboards

-Spent the weekend over in Moses Lake visiting with her great grandma and cousins from Spokane

-Gives kisses

-improved her waving and waves even when she hears someone say "bye bye."

-Starting to understand peek-a-boo

-starting to understand more cause and effect

-banging on pots and pans with spoon

-Plays in kitchen drawers

-Still looooooves the kitty

-Still loooooooves Wheel of Fortune (only show she will sit and actually watch)

-Learned to point with pointer finger

-One of her new favorite toys is balloons (loves to see them at the grocery store)

-Most of her favorite items are not her toys, rather items like remotes, magazines, DVD's

-Loves to pull clothes out of her dresser drawers


See you next month for her big year update!!!!