15 Months Old!

Our little 15 month old is growing and developing so quickly!  Here's an update of her progress this past month.

Here we go again!

The Basics:

• Official weight from her 15m well-baby visit:  20.2 lbs, or 34%.  This is great growth and she keeps going up on the chart!
• Official height is 30 3/4 inches.  We can't remember the percentage so will update later when we look at the paper.
• She is in the 95% for head size!  Whoah, baby!  
• She's comfortably wearing 9m, 12m, and 6-12m sizes.  Kids clothing sizes are all over the place, though, and she can wear 3-6m size skirts better than any other size!  Her 6m-9m size dresses she wears as shirts with leggings.  It's nice to stretch these cute clothes like that! She's still wearing size 3 diapers and is in a 3 or 4 size shoe.
• She's had nearly constant congestion and cough this past month, complete with a fever spike here and there.  We treated a likely sinus infection and will start her on baby allergy medicine perhaps to see if we can help her out.  Since she's had her tubes put in, we haven't dealt with a single ear infection despite all the cold symptoms!  Yay!

Eating:

• We are in the stage of doing our best to feed her what we eat.  She's a very good eater at daycare and usually tries everything, and nearly finishes everything she's given.
• Favorite foods:  peas, black beans, avocado, banana, turkey, and cheese.
• The day before Eliza's 15m birthday, she had a final bottle of breast milk.  Over 5 months after I stopped pumping.  I'm amazed that I was able to produce and store so much for her (my original goal was to have enough for 1 full year and we had way more than that!).  She was down to just a morning, afternoon, and nighttime bottle for the past 6 weeks, though more on the weekends.  The week before her 15m birthday we realized that we didn't have many bags left, so we cut her afternoon bottle.  It didn't phase her.  Over the weekend we dropped her morning bottle, which turned out not to bother her too much!  And on her 15m birthday when we took her to bed without a bottle, she didn't bat an eye!  She wouldn't snuggle with either of us, which made us sad, but she laid down and went right to sleep like any other night.  Winning!  
• We're hoping her whole milk intake will increase as she realizes bottles aren't coming back!  

Movement:

• Eliza is nearly running these days.  She's more confident in her ability to move around every day.  She's also incredibly independent.  She'll take off down a long hallway or sidewalk and not look back for Mommy or Daddy.  We're always there, though...we're not letting her walk around by herself!  :)
• Her climbing skills are also improving, though she hasn't attempted to climb up onto the couches.  But, she's an old pro at crawling up stairs and getting into and out of her little "Eliza" chair.

Talking:

• Saying "mama" much more often!
• Regular words include:  ball, book, dog, more, mama, dada, a variation of Adam.
• "Sometimes" words include:  fish, banana, all done, hi.
• We had a big development in the word department this month.  Eliza added the all-important N-O word to her vocabulary.  That's right, folks.  Eliza is saying NO.  Most always with extreme emphasis and feeling.  Usually loud volume as well.  Her favorite audience for "NO" is Mommy, Daddy, and any child at daycare that invades her personal space.

Milestones:

• Eating pizza.
• Last bottle of breast milk.
• First State Fair.
• First Elephant Ear. 
• Saying no.

Her Loves:

• Playing with socks and/or shoes.
• Being outside.
• Her red ball pull-toy.
• Putting things or throwing things away.
• Sitting in her booster seat and putting the tray on her lap.
• Being tickled by Mommy's hair.
• Butterfly kisses with Mommy/touching Mommy's eyelashes.
• Climbing into and getting toys out of the toy cabinet.

Our Loves:

• How easy she goes to sleep even without a bottle.
• Listening to her "read" to herself.
• Her budding personality.
• Increasing cuddles and hugs.
• Visiting at daycare and how excited she is to see us.

Her Dislikes:

• Being interrupted or given help when she tries to do something for herself.
• Being fed when she wants to do it herself.
• When we don't get her out of the high chair right away after she's finished eating.
• Coughing.

Our Dislikes:

• Hearing her cough.
• Getting used to normal toddler tumbles.
• Her sad face when we have to be stern with her (not often, but it breaks our heart when it does happen!).
• How fast time is flying.  Slow down, baby girl!

We look at Eliza every day and just feel so much wonder for the little person she is becoming.  To think that she came from us . . . parenting is just such a gift and joy.  She's in such a fun stage and we're savoring it.

We love you, baby girl.