Calendar Girl - Sixteen Months

It feels like time is speeding up.

Ok, that's probably partially because I did her 15 month post so late.  It feels like I just did a "calendar girl" post, because I did.  But that was with the 15th month stuff, and she's officially 16 months old and just becoming more and more a kid every freaking day!

See what I mean?  Attitude!

Some huge stuff happened this month.

First of all, right when she was about to turn 15 months, I was pretty much pulling my hair out and at my wits end about our sleep issues.  You can read about that in last month's post.  But seriously, I couldn't take the sometimes 2 hour shuffle of madness anymore.  

Buuuuuuut...

Things have improved so much!

Airplane!

When I put Ruby down for a nap, we read two stories in the big chair in her room, then I carry her over to the crib and sing to her/rock her, then put her down.  I tell her I love her and I'll see her when she wakes up.  She pretty much starts to cry as soon as I take her over to the crib.  Sad.  Sometimes she points to the door, too.  She's soothed by the singing, but will cry when I put her down.  But she almost always has stopped by the time I get to the other end of the hallway, after leaving.  I hate that she cries, I am SO not into crying for sleep.  But it's such a short period of time, and she was crying before this with me there anyway (and not taking a nap!).  

Ooooh, guys doing landscaping...

At night time, we still read two stories, but this time in my bed.  However, instead of being silly, flopping around, and sometimes crying, she just snuggles up with me and chills for a few minutes, then falls asleep!  Bedtime was seriously taking 2 hours.  Now, it's about 15 minutes give or take.  Sometimes (especially if I fall asleep) she still sleeps with me all night.  But other times we've successfully transferred her to her crib.  It's a start!

Hmm...  What's this?

Whoa!  Another airplane!

The other HUGE thing that happened this month, was that Ruby is now 100% weaned!  Wahoo, party in my bra!  It was always my goal to nurse completely to the first birthday, and to avoid any formula.  As Ruby grew, I knew she loved nursing, so I decided that at a year, we'd reevaluate.  If nursing was still working for all parties involved, we'd keep going.  I'll admit, I was pretty done at a year.  But I didn't want to cut her off cold-turkey.  I initiated some partial weaning, but was still using nursing as a tool to help her get to sleep.  I knew nothing else!  Still, even that wasn't working anymore, with the aforementioned sleep issues.  

I stopped nursing her at bedtime, because it wasn't really helping anybody.  Her latch had gone in the dumpster basically, so every nursing session was super frustrating.  So we were down to just nap.  

One weekend, we were out all day Saturday, so her naps were in the car.  No nursing.  So that Sunday, I devised my "read books and sing" strategy and decided just to go for it.  It worked way better than I thought, and we haven't looked back!  I honestly didn't think Ruby would ever want to wean, but I friend said to me later that maybe she was just ready too, and that's why we were having so many issues.  Regardless, I feel great that I gave her 15.5 months of mama milk, and fantastic that we've moved on and are completely done with the nursing stage.  And Ruby doesn't seem to miss it.  Win win.

These stairs are her new favorite thing.

She is a pro walker now (she's working on running), and walking is definitely her preferred method of mobility.  This is still so crazy to me.  She also obviously loves climbing stairs, too.  Thankfully, she's not too much of a climber on other things.  We had to take a couch cushion off to clean it (thanks a lot, Braidy), and she spent a good hour climbing up and basically jumping off the couch.  But that's about it.  Phew.

She still loves the dishwasher, and is a baby genius, so she knows where all the dishes go.  Which means, now that she walks, I will turn around and catch her putting the cutting board away in the drawer where it belongs.  Or the pasta strainer.  Too early for chores?  I think not.  ;)  She also will help relocate her Dada's socks from the dryer to the bench where his laundry often ends up.  Putting that mobility to good use!

Speaking of baby genius, this kid is freaky smart.  She's got herself a favorite song now, Phillip Phillips' Gone Gone Gone.  We got in the car one day and the radio turned on when I started it up, and that song was playing.  Phillip Phillips sang just two words, neither of which were "gone", and Ruby belts our "GONE GONE GONE" from her car seat.  What. the. heck.

She understands everything we say.  She knows where everything is.  She knows where things are that I don't even know where they are.  Which is kind of great, because I can use her to help me find stuff.  She can follow commands with increasing complexity or number of steps.  If I say a sentence from a book, she'll go get it off the shelf.  It is crazy to watch her wheels spin, but also so awesome.

You guessed it - more airplanes.

Trying to give me a heart attack.

Ruby has added several new words to her repertoire this month.  The best one (which she actually said before, but almost never and with no regularity) is MAMA!!!  Of course, now it's "mama" everything, but it is the best sound in the world.  She greets me with "mama!" after sleeps.  She yells "mama!" at me when she's mad about naps or being stuck at a red light.  She has a very pathetic "mama" when she is tired.  Even though I hear it a hundred times a day now, I still can't get enough.

Ruby also says, "c-c-cook it!" when something is cooking (duh), or when she is hungry.  Or if you ask her, "Ruby, do you want to go downstairs and get some breakfast?"  "Cook it!"  She has started saying, "ninight" now, too.  She was enamored with a newborn baby nearby us at a softball game, and out of the blue started pointing and saying, "Ninight!  Ninight!" as the baby fell back to sleep.  Now she says "ninight" any time she sees a little baby (in person or picture), but also any thing with eyes closed (her cloud pillow looks like it could be sleeping), or if she hears the word "tired".  I know, baby genius.

We just realized that she is saying "Bray" for Braids when her doggie comes around.  It's so adorable, Braidy will follow me in to get Ruby after her nap, and she'll smile and say, "Hi, Bray!".  She only said, "rowr rowr" for any doggie before, but Braidy gets her distinction now.  She still says "rowr rowr", but she also says "row row" when she wants you to sing "Row Your Boat" (her fave kid song).

Even though she loooooooves her doggie, and her Dada, she's started to (weirdly) run and hide behind my legs when Braidy suddenly enters a room, or Mr. G first comes home from work.  She warms up really fast, but it's kind of strange.  My toddler parenting class instructor says this is pretty normal for a kid that is slow to warm like Ruby.  And that transitions may be hard for her.  Eek.

That's really the only not completely awesome thing for the month though.  Other randoms?  She still loves books.  Kitten's First Full Moon, One Fish Two Fish, and Wacky Wednesday are favorites.  She loves sports, and yells "BALL BALL!!!" and claps whenever a sport is on tv.  I kind of wonder if she actually loves tv, but sports are the only thing she ever sees (since we don't really let her watch it), so that's why she's so excited?  Who knows.  But I taught her to yell, "I-O!" when I say "O-H!", which is amazing.  Mama's little Buckeye!

She was so proud that she figured out how to shove leaves in the cracks.

She has this kick-butt evil laugh that she frequently does from back in her car seat (totally cracking us up when we're driving somewhere), or when she's doing something she shouldn't.  She still loves her big girl car seat, but tells me to "go!" when we're stopped at lights.  She loves the park.  Loves finding moss/leaves/bark chips/etc on the ground and bringing them to me.  We taught her how to dip food into stuff, so now she loves dips and often requests them.

Ohhhhh.  And I guess I saved the best for last.  She now gives kisses.  She puckers up for us.  She'll hug then kiss Braids.  She kisses her stuffed animals when she's loving on them.  It is so so so SO cute.  

She asked to sit up here, then was all proud like she got away with something.  Ha.

Oh, this kid.  She is just TOO much, I can't even stand it.  I was so scared of toddlerhood, but this age has proven me wrong!  I just love her more and more every day!