Baby-boo is 17 months old today!

This reminds me…I gotta make an 18-month appointment for her. She hasn’t been to the pediatrician for awhile as the well-visits stretch farther and farther apart with older babies, so I don’t have any stats. I do know that in the last month, she went through yet another growth spurt, and I’d had to pack up all her clothes smaller than 18 month sized and send it on to the next baby girl behind her (Michelle & Eddie’s daughter Scarlett, who just recently turned 1). I think she’s outgrown her size 4/5 shoes, too, and is now in 5/6.

For whatever reason, Mr. W is now all video-friendly with her. She watches herself on videos, Disney movies’ song snippets from the movies (“Bubble! Bubble!” she’d point out excitedly when she watches the “Under the Sea” song in The Little Mermaid), and Sesame Street song videos. Even though Mickey/Minnie was her first recognized character (I think she thinks they’re the same creature in different costumes, as they’re both “Mimi” to her), Elmo was a close second and her current favorite. She’d see him across the room and say, “Momo?” #3 coming in the past week is Winnie the Pooh (“Boo!”). Her two favorite music videos are Sesame Street’s Ernie and Elmo singing “Sing After Me” (I think that’s the song’s name) and Pooh singing “Up Down and Touch the Ground.” She now goes around all day singing “feedo…deedo…” and will lay/stand in her crib dancing and singing before finally laying down to sleep at night.
When she sees Pooh in her room decor, or randomly thinks of it, she’ll say “Boo?”
Sometimes I’m not sure what she’s referring to so I’ll ask, “What? Book?”
And she’ll clarify by putting both arms in the air and bringing them back down, just like Pooh, and say, “Up down.”
If we sing just a word of two from either song, she’d identify the character.
Me: “Sing dye dye dye.”
Allie: “Dye dye dye! Momo.” And she’ll snicker in that “kkk kkk kkk” way of Ernie’s (who does that half-way into the song).
Me: “Doe doe doe.”
Allie: “Doe doe!”
Me: “Up, down, touch the ground…”
Allie: “Boo!” *flapping arms up and down* “Up, down.”

She’s got new words all the time and tries to tell stories. Jayne had told us yesterday that while at the park, a big bulldog came running up out of nowhere and knocked Allie over. Because we’d known about it already, when Allie said to us in the evening, “Doggy. Doggy. Boom!” we knew what she was telling us.

Her favorite foods right now are beets, carrots, oranges, and new single fruits. She went nuts over loquats yesterday. She’s still more interested in single foods than in mixed things like when I make a one-pot wonder. She’ll eat it, but she’d rather eat asparagus or cauliflower by itself. Oh, and ice. She loves crushed ice and with a little bowl of it, she’ll happily crunch until, as she points out, the bowl holds only “wa-wa” instead of “ice.” When she finds a big piece of ice, she’ll say “Beeg!” and stuff it in her mouth.

She looooves sand and rocks. The zen garden at the front of the house has become her sandbox, complete with her rakes and shovels now part of the scenery. She’ll squat over and play with the rocks lining the front edge of our yard for as long as we let her.

Still loves other kids. Will walk up to strange kids and play. (Still calls them “baby,” too.) Still silent around strange adults. She’ll stare at a stranger but if they stare back, she’ll look over their shoulder and refuse to make eye contact. Until she warms up, of course, which happens faster in her own environment, and then she’ll dig out all her current favorite toys to show the new person.

We’ve got her sitting on her potty periodically, which she’ll tolerate, but nothing’s happened in it, yet.

She’s supposed to be going through a normal predictable long (as in, 6 weeks) fussy period pursuant to Wonder Weeks right now, with tantrums and major resistance as she realizes she should have a say as to what to do with her own body parts and where to go. She had tantrums for about a week when we “forced her” to get her diaper changed, “refused her” requests to play with the remote controls or computer components, “forbade her” to go to sections of the house unsupervised by closing the safety gate leading to those areas. Whines, tears, flailing, hitting the nearest wall, banging her forehead on the ground, and everything. We would just sit calmly and not give in. After a week, seeing she doesn’t get her way that way, she stopped it and now sings through her diaper changes, altho she’d still be unhappy with us when we wouldn’t let her take the mouse or remote control, or watch a ton of videos just because she’s pointing to the computer monitor or iPad and saying, “Momo?”

Her hair’s coming in a rather light shade of ash brown. Surprisingly light. I’m seeing less and less genetic input from me; maybe her eyes will turn blue next month. The explosive tantrums are definitely her dad’s. Ha.

Schedule-wise, Allie wakes up on her own at about 6:30a, and if she’s not up already, on weekdays Mr. W wakes her up between 6:25a-6:30a. She gets her diaper changed, nurses, gets her teeth brushed, then goes downstairs to wait for Jayne. (Sometimes Jayne comes when Allie’s still nursing, and hearing the door, Allie will pull away and say, “Jing?”) Jayne makes her breakfast of usually eggs/omelet, some fruit and/or cereal and whole milk around 8:30a, picks out her clothes for the day according to the weather. Then they go to the park and come back around 11a. (On a weekend, I give her a light snack like fruit/yogurt/cheese and milk around 10:15a, but Jayne doesn’t do mid-morning snacks cuz she does a more substantial breakfast.) Allie has lunch at about 11:30a, then takes her nap at noon. I’m starting to think that nap duration depends how tired she is, so she’ll sleep between 90 minutes and almost 3 hours. Then she has an afternoon snack, they go play somewhere or draw with crayons, and we get home around 5pm. We feed Allie dinner around 5:15p, she plays and/or takes a bath, then it’s bedtime routine around 6:30p. She is read a story (which she still has trouble sitting through) or given an interactive story/video/educational game on iPad, then she’s changed into her jammies, gets her teeth brushed, nurses, and is usually in her crib between 7-7:15p. Once she’s in her crib, it’s immediate lights-out until morning when Mr. W gets her to start her day.

Just for kicks, here’s a 2-minute video of Allie meeting Elmo for the first time in person on Saturday. Mr. W decided to surprise Allie with an Elmo puppet, and set it up on the stairway landing while Allie napped.