17.5 Months

I missed Ember’s 17 months and now I am already in anticipation of 18 months! Yikes! She has been doing so much this past month.

On the teeth front she has 7 of her front teeth and the eighth is sitting right below the surface. Her molars are all poking through now, we’re just waiting for them to come in completely. Thankfully the worst of the teething night issues are done and she is sleeping much better! I’ve mostly night-weaned her by picking her up and singing to her instead of nursing her. She was unhappy with that arrangement at first, and some nights she still throws a fit at me because she wants her milkies for whatever reason, but generally a short song and she’s back in her crib, she complains for a couple minutes then is back to sleep. She’s sleeping great! … Too bad she’s sharing a room with her sister, who has started having bad dreams every night. Ember may sleep through Kate’s sobbing, but when I open the door she wakes up and then I have both of them crying at me. Oh how I wish I had a bedroom for each of them. :/ I really hope Kate starts sleeping better soon, both of them are quite tired from interrupted sleep. So while Ember has never had the chance yet to actually sleep all the way through the night there have been several ocassions where she woke once when Kate did, she went straight back down, and then continued sleeping in until 7 or 8 in her crib! That’s pretty huge here. Generally she ends up in our bed around 6am because that’s when Kate gets up and things get really hairy past that point so I’ll keep them asleep any way I can.

The other major thing that she’s been doing is speaking with actual real words. As it so often goes, I was starting to get a bit concerned because at 17 months she still had only 2 words: “Yay!” and “Ba” (bye). She was showing no interest in more words, though she was babbling at us in toddler-ese all the time. I asked a few friends when I should mention it to the doctor or get her evaluated, just to be on the safe side (I’d rather she get help sooner than later, if it is warranted). So of course the very next day she added a new word, then another and another. Now she is repeating pretty much everything I prompt her and she’s pointing out everything wanting to know what the word is. She loves to say “titty!” (kitty), she tries to say her name as “Memer,” she can say “roar!” and “tikka-tikka” (tickle-tickle). Sheep says “ba”, cow says “moo,” pig says “knk,” duck says “cack,” and roosters say “ca-ca-doo-doo.”

Along with this new-found knowledge of words has come with a big interest in books! She used to mimic us reading books, so she’d sit on the floor and flip through the book, pointing at pictures and mumbling in toddler-ese. Now suddenly she realizes that books have WORDS and she is just so excited! She’s constantly bringing me books and wanting me to read them so she can repeat everything. Her favorite book is Farm Peekaboo! which combines farm animal sounds with lift the flaps. It is just so fun to see her start to get it!

Personality wise she’s really showing her spunk now. Tantrums? Oh yes. The other night she was having a prolonged tantrum so I walked away. She stopped, got up, followed me into the other room, then layed back down and continued screaming, kicking her legs, and rolling around on the floor. Putting her in her car seat has turned into a fight because she doesn’t want to sit down, she arches her back and screams and kicks. And oh the looks we get! This child has a very expressive face, she has a sulky angry look down, any time we say “No” to her she scowls at us and pouts. It is so hilarious, I need to catch it on video. There are many ocassions now when in public she tries to lay down wherever (like a parking lot) to do her rolling-and-kicking tantrum thing so I end up picking her up and carrying her under my arm like a football while she screeches. Yep. I am now that mom.

With food I don’t even know what to think now. I thought it was her teeth causing her to stop eating most things but it continues when the teething does not. She throws most food on the floor. She still likes meats (sometimes) and some fruits (sometimes). She loves yogurt and cheese. Grapes she gobbles up. But it seems that any meal I make at least half of it ends up on the floor – even when it’s things I know she likes! (Like this morning’s eggs. She ate a few bites, then threw the rest.) She’s only nursing three times a day but she barely nibbles at food! I hope this is just a phase. Well, everything is just a phase… I hope this is a short phase.