Month Update: 17 Months Old

Date: July 8, 2012

Weight: She is still very petite and thin but not too thin :) I'm sure she's gaining weight.

Height: Her little legs are starting to look longer. We will find out next month how tall she is and how much she weighs.

Clothing: I love this Charlotte has started paying attention to her clothes. She loves loves loves to walk around the house with clothes on a hanger looking at them. She even holds them up to herself to see how they will look on her. She's rocking mostly 12 month clothes...with a few 9 month shorts, shirts, and dresses. I put an 18 month romper on her and it fell off of her. So glad that the weather stays warm for so long so her 18 month summer clothes don't go to waste.

Sleeping:  Going to sleep is getting SO MUCH BETTER. We are transitioning her down to one nap per day (depending on the day and what time she wakes up). She's been sleeping through the night the last few nights. She usually wakes up around 5 or 6 am and comes to bed with us to snuggle (the only time she sees her dad in the day.) She gets up around 7:30 and I usually try to get her breakfast, snack and lunch in before noon then put her down for her nap from 12 to 2. Otherwise, she goes down for a morning nap when she brings me a blanket and her paci and an afternoon nap when she's untolerable bc she is so fussy :) For bed at night, we still rock for a few minutes. There is no more crying when we walk toward her room, no more screaming when she is placed in her crib. I rock her for a few minutes and half of the time she falls asleep. I put her in her bed and walk out of the room. On the nights that she isn't very tired, I still lay down on the floor next to her bed with her (sometimes I like a quick nap too). But all in all, sleeping is going SO MUCH better. I think it's the calm before the storm bc she is starting to get some teeth...

Teeth: Charlotte has FOUR teeth coming in right now. She only has six already in and now she is getting four more. The count will be up to TEN! She's getting two top molars on either side, one bottom molar on the right side, and one of her teeth beside her front bottom teeth on the left side. SO MANY TEETH. This should be a fun few weeks as all of this starts. Poor baby. I can't imagine that many teeth coming in all at once.

Health: Crazy girl has been incredibly healthy. Once she got over her belly issues when we moved here to Georgia, it was all good. I think she is allergic to Pampers diapers bc she had a weird rash thing going on off and on (mostly on) for 2 months...and in that 2 months she only wore Pampers. Since we changed her back to Target brand, she has had no issues at all. Crazy. We still use a pacifier for her. I absolutely HATE when people give their opinion on the pacifier...esp when they disagree with me still using it. I would ask them to be in my life for one day and have her to take care of around bedtime or in the car on that day without a pacifier. Charlotte only uses it for bedtime and for the car. The paci's remain in her carseat or crib...that's it. And she knows those are the rules. Every child is different so just bc one person's kid didn't need a paci doesn't mean that someone else's doesn't. If I wanted anyone's opinion on it, I'd ask for it. :) And the biggest reason that Charlotte is so attached to it is bc when she was a colicky, fussy infant with tummy troubles, we shove it in her mouth anytime she started screaming in order for her to help soothe herself.

Talking: Our little jabber box. She talks up a storm... we don't always know what she is saying, but she talks up a storm. I've been trying to work on her talking a bit more recently. I had a day where I felt she was delayed and needed more attention on her speech. The great thing about her is that when I ask her to say something that is more than one syllable, whether it's "button" or "I love you", she always says stuff back in the correct amount of syllables...just not necessarily in the same sounds. It's so funny how she avoids saying certain words that she knows how to say. It's words that we ask her to say alot and so she stubbornly refuses to say them... like "please" and "Gigi". She will not say them.  She knows how bc she has said them before but she refuses to say them for us. She occasionally says "Thank you" and her word for "pee" and "poop" is "Bop". She has started telling us when she has pooped and sometimes tells us when she pees. Once the baby gets here, the nightmare of potty training will begin! But as far as her talking goes, she has quite a few words that sound the same (like "duck" and "truck") but she knows what she's saying and usually I do too.

Favorites: Charlotte is finally starting to like TV. I'm sad to admit it but I've been trying to get her to like it since she was 7 months old. I want her to be able to pay attention to something besides my activities and follow me everywhere I go. She has always liked it but she hasn't always paid attention to it. She now pays attention for like 10 minutes at the very very most. Then she has to come check in on me. BUT in those ten minutes, I can get QUITE a few things done without her little hands getting in the way. Like I said before, she loves clothes. She loves to empty out her dresser and help me with laundry. She loves her bath time. She loves ice, ice cream, popsicles, and candy of any kind (she gets it VERY VERY RARELY.) She loves the outside, loves to mimic what we are doing, and loves to grab a grown up by the finger and take them where she wants them to go. She loves pictures, dogs, and is now obsessed with her baby doll. She loves to take care of it. I gave her an old bottle to feed the baby, some blankets, and a few diapers. I wanted her to start learning about how to take care of a baby so she would be ready for the baby :)

Personality: So Charlotte has begun all of the throwing of fits, the tantrums, the screaming, you name it. We have started time out and we use it every day. Some days she needs a time out just to chill. Sometimes she isn't in trouble, she just needs a few minutes of quiet time to get her temper under control. She actually sits in the corner she is placed and doesn't move until she is allowed to move. I was surprised the first time I put her in it that she didn't get up and run when I turned my back. She continues to occasionally pull her hair when she is mad, and she will also occasionally bang her head on the ground, an object, or my face. (All of which are reason for timeout). I hate her being in time out everyday but I also hate that she throws fits. She actually screamed really loud in Walmart one day when Alex was off of work. We had gone to Walmart during naptime which was NOT a good idea. But I knew that since I had Alex with me, it would be ok. When she screamed, Alex's face was priceless. He was like, "Where's the pacifier? Where's the pacifier?" The panic was hysterical. I'm so used to the screaming that I don't even pay attention to it. I know she wasn't the only screamer in Walmart that day. It's the price we pay for having a spunky, energetic, opinionated child.

Charlotte Marie continues to keep us on our toes. Each day is a new adventure...and each day is a different child...especially during teething times. We wouldn't trade a single second of it all for the world, though.