Saturday, October 17, 2009

For the Record

Christina Corinne at almost 14 months old . . .

- is in the 8th percentile (ish) for weight.
The pediatrician is slightly concerned about her low weight (19 pounds, 1 ounce), but honestly this girl eats a lot!  She doesn't drink much, and that is something we are working on, but I think she just has a fast metabolism, like me.  Plus she is very active, so that keeps her thin.

-  hasn't been to a music class since I got back to work.
Sadly, we haven't been able to make it to any of the library offered music classes since I've been back to work.  They are mostly scheduled in the middle of the day during the week, so it just isn't feasible.  She really enjoys to sing and dance though and I like to give her as much time around other children as possible.  I think I'm going to sign her up for a Music Together class when her swimming lessons are over. 

- sat in my lap with a book the other night and (literally) flipped through it for 20 pages before she was bored.
It was amazing!  She loved this book.  It was a very large book with lots of pages and it use to belong to Nik.  Each page was themed, so for example, there was a "bedroom" page that had pictures of everything you would find in a bedroom, a page for "Park", "Doctor's office", "School", etc.  There were pages of "Colors and Shapes", "Musical Instruments", and "Seasons".  It is a pretty cool book, but seriously, a one year old sitting for TWENTY minutes with a book?  AND, I wasn't even reading to her,  I was just sitting there, watching her flip through the pages and babble away.  Amazing!

- understands the word "no", but doesn't always obey it.
My little stinker thinks it is funny when we tell her no. Most of the time, she looks at us for a second and then continues doing what she knows she is not suppose to do. It is really hard sometimes to keep her from doing something we don't want her to do because she is just so darn cute. We are totally in for it!

- has four teeth and has another tooth coming in on top.
She got her first two bottom teeth at about 11 months old and her two top teeth around a year old.  I'm sure by fourteen months she will have at  least one more tooth.

- loves to slide.
We have a little playground in our nieghborhood. Sometimes I take Christina out in her motorized car and we go for a little ride around the neighborhood. When we do, we always make a pit stop at the playground. Although she loved swinging when she was 10-12 months old, now she only likes it in small doses. I'm not sure if it is because she loves her car and the slide more, but for whatever reason, she is ready to get out after a few minutes. When we get over to the slide she gets very happy. Obvioiusly, since she can't walk, I have to help her out. I usually pick her up and put her at the top of the slide. Then, I'll count to three and slide her down (with my hands still sort of holding on to her). It is so cute that she realizes I am going to count to three each time. With each number I say, the expression on her face shows more and more excitement. Oh, and of course I have to shout "weeeee" all the way down. :-) We also go on some of the slides together, which she likes as well.

- sleeps through the night in her own room, in her own crib.
We tried this unsuccesfully when she was about four months old, but she would wake every hour. So we moved her to our bed and she started sleeping through the night. When she became very rambunctious and liked to crawl around the bed, we could no longer let her sleep there unattended. At that point she spent half the night in her pack-n-play in our bedroom, and the other half of the night in our bed. It wasn't until she was a year old that we got her back to her own room.

- absolutely loves remote controls, cell phone's, water bottles, blankets, and wallets.
It seems she loves anything she see's Mommy and Daddy using on a regular basis. This started around 7 months old.  Not too long ago Nik brought home a "demo" phone.  This is Christina's personal cell phone, but I try to pretend it isn't hers.  I make fake phone calls on it every once in awhile and keep it high enough so that she thinks she can't use it, but low enough that she can get to it.  This way when she is "allowed" to play with it, she thinks it is a special treat.

- still eats pureed food.
Although she loves to eat her finger foods, she still gets pureed food. She knows how to feed herself with a spoon but she hasn't perfected it yet. I can't trust her with a spoon and a bowl or plate of food because the bowl/plate will ultimately end up on the floor and/or her hands will end up in it and covered with food. So, for the sake of her nutrition, she gets finger foods and purees with cereal (purees fed by yours truly).  Of course she does get practice time with real table food and with feeding herself, but it just isn't a daily occurance.

- loves to splash.
Pool or bath, it doesn't matter, CC loves to splash. Then again, what baby doesn't?

- still isn't walking.
I hate to say still isn't walking, but the truth is, most people believe that baby's are suppose to be walking by their one year birthday.  Truth be told, I thought this was true as well, until my own little angel turned one and there wasn't a first step in sight.  I've done my research and let me tell you, the marjority of babies do not walk by a year old.  The range is huge (7 months - 2 years in some cases), but it is most common for a baby to begin walking between 12 and 15 months of age.  In addition, the timing of a babies first steps is more often related to genetics.  So I should really find out when Nik and I started walking to give us a better idea for Christina.  Children who are skinnier often have less balance and therefore walk later as well.  CC definitely falls into this category.  She doesn't even stand on  her own yet because she hasn't mastered balancing.  I am perfectly ok with Christina not walking yet.  I know she is learning and growing every day.  But I have to say it really boiled my blood when our pediatrician made the comment that Christina is "delayed".  I have disagreed with her on many things, but this one takes the cake.  In addition to not walking, her "Christina is delayed" OPINION was also based on CC not using any real words in the ten minutes that we were in the office with her.  She didn't even ask me if Christina talks yet, she just assumed.  This brings me to the next point . . .

- has a wide range of vocabulary.
Christina, although she is always babbling away, she can also say many words such as: dog, doggie, Dad, Daddy, car, hi, bye, goodbye, sock, look, Mama, and boy.

- still loves Baby Einstein.
Since three months old she has really enjoyed watching Baby Einstein DVDs.  Although we try to limit them as much as possible,  it is great to know that we have them on hand when needed.  Oddly, she doesn't seem interested in any other children shows.  But, that really isn't a bad thing at this point.

- is still breastfeeding.
I am proud that I have been able to breastfeed her all of this time, even with all of our problems in the beginning due to her tongue-tie.  We are now down to nursing only one time per day (right before bed) and I'm not looking to give it up anytime soon.  Now that I'm ovulating again - WHOO HOOOO - I don't think I need to stop nursing in order to get pregnant again.  So, I'm just not going to worry about stopping.  We will just see what happens.

- likes to roll balls back and forth between her and another person.
We have this musical ball at home that makes noise and music (duh) when it is rolled.  She loves to sit on the floor with me (or anyone really) and roll it back and forth.

- loves to point at everything!
At first it seemed like clapping was Christina's favorite thing to do (many months ago).  Then, it turned to waving.  She still loves to wave and she will wave at anyone and everyone that is in  her line of sight.  She doesn't seem to mind that 80% of strangers do not wave back at her.  She loves to wave "hello" at daycare (the actual building) when we get out of the car and start walking towards the door.  She uses her waving of "goodbye" to indicate that she is ready for a nap or bedtime.  If I pick her up and she is ready to go "night-night" or "sleepytime" (as I call it), she will start waving at everyone around.  She even waves goodbye to the dogs before night-night.  Although the waving is still pretty exciting for CC, her new favorite thing to do is to point at every thing.  She points and just starts talking away.  I'm not sure if she is asking questions or describing what she sees.  She just gets so excited and loves to point out whatever she sees. 

- loves babies.
This one is new.  There are three new babies at daycare and Christina is so interested in them.  As soon as she sees one of the babies she starts pointing, talking and wiggling around with excitement.  If I put her down, she will make her way over to the baby and get as close as she can.  It is so cute.

- can climb stairs unassisted.
Although we don't have stairs in our home, Christina was able to climb an entire flight of stairs the first time she was given the opportunity.

- laughs all of the time.
She understands the concept of when you are suppose to laugh.  So, sometimes she laughs because she really wants to and other times she laughs because she thinks she should.  It is actually pretty amuzing.  Either way though, her laugh is music to my ears!

- still has not shown any signs of "stranger anxiety" - knock on wood!

- loves photos.
I put up a bunch of family photo's near her changing table so that she can see them and touch them.  All of the pictures are of her with a family member (or two).  I've done pretty well to cover my basis as far as grandparents and aunts/uncles.  Christina loves to touch the pictures and babble away.  I will tell her who everyone is and she smiles because she recognizes them.  She also has noticed a strong resemblance between Nik and his Dad.  She often will put her hand on Nik's Dad's picture and say "Daddy".  It is very cool to see through the eyes of a baby. 

- always wants to hold an object in each hand.

- loves matchbox cars.
They are small, cheap and portable - perfect!

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