17 Months

Well, technically Maisie won't be seventeen months old until Sunday, but hey, let's be early for a change!

I can't believe that the last time I posted Maisie wasn't even walking yet. She started walking pretty much right after that post, at about 13.5 months. Now, at 16-going-on-17 months, she is running.

She gave up her evening bottle at 15 months. We had given up all daytime bottles already, but I had been having some trouble convincing her to take milk from a sippy cup or a straw (even though she had been drinking water out of cups or straws for months). Finally I decided to go cold turkey and throw out the bottles and she didn't mind at all! She has not taken a pacifier since she was seven months old. As soon as she stopped being swaddled, she would reach up and throw the pacifier out of her crib. I just stopped giving it back to her and she hasn't wanted one since.

She is still mostly taking two naps a day, although more and more often she will skip one or the other. The weird thing is that more often she skips her afternoon nap. Aren't they supposed to drop the morning nap first? Oh, well. For now I'm just going with it. She sleeps 11.5-12 hours a night without a peep still (knock on wood, oh please, please, knock on wood) and is just as happy when she has one nap as when she has two, so it's not a big deal yet. However, I do like having her on a pretty set schedule so if it starts to get too unpredictable I will be consulting Weissbluth again.

Maisie will eat just about anything. Her typical breakfast might be a whole-wheat waffle or a piece of cheese toast (or two pieces of toast), half a banana, and two pieces of turkey sausage. Sometimes she likes a cup of applesauce or some yogurt on top of that. That seems like a lot for a toddler, but she's the only toddler I know so maybe it isn't. For lunch or dinner she will have some kind of protein (whatever leftovers we have from dinner the night before or maybe some grilled chicken or a Gardenburger -- or, yes, sometimes she just has Gerber baby pasta, but I know that is like baby Chef Boyardee and should not be relied upon), some kind of steamed veggie, some kind of fruit, and she usually wants at least one piece of string cheese. (She eats supper at 5 so Jake and I are nowhere near close to eating our own dinner then -- Jake doesn't get home until 7, and she is either asleep or already in bed then, so family dinner will have to come when she is just a little bit older.) She likes to feed herself, although if she has at least one finger food to occupy her she will usually let me feed her the other stuff. More and more, though, she wants to use the fork and spoon all by herself. She's getting better. She's pretty good with the fork, but the spoon is trickier. I think that's just because I am prissy and impatient and I would rather feed her applesauce myself than watch her sling a third of it onto herself and the floor. She is quick to tell me when she wants to do it herself and, if I'm feeding her, which bite she wants next. (Last night I offered her another bite of chicken and she shook her head and said, "No, no -- mo' corn.") She'll also tell me if she wants something I haven't offered. Today at dinner she surveyed her applesauceless plate, looked up at me and said, "Apple? Apple? Apple?" I said, "Oh -- you want some applesauce instead?" "Yeah."

About the talking... it is the most fun thing ever watching a baby learn to communicate. Every single day she says something new or puts different words together. It's probably only interesting to about seven or eight people, but I want to write it all down before I forget -- I know that in a few months I won't remember what she said when. She says too many words to count them all anymore, although not all are pronounced correctly. The ones that have creative pronunciations are consistent enough that we are sure that's what she's saying, though -- for example, she loves to talk about glasses, point out our glasses, and look through books identifying glasses, and glasses are always "gluh gluh." Our dear departed Sammy, for some reason, was always and still is "Bay." She can communicate (with Jake and me, at least) really, really well and I usually know what she wants. She can answer "yes" or "no" to any question I ask and I feel like she understands pretty much everything I say, and she can definitely ask for what she needs when it comes to water or milk or a snack ("nack" -- her favorite "nacks" are "doedish" (goldfish) or "rayray" (raisins)), particular toys and books, most songs, and, increasingly, when she needs or wants her diaper changed. ("Mama! Bye-per. Bye-per. Bye-per." "You need your diaper changed?" "Yeah.") I'm not sure what that means as far as a potty training timeline (I assume it's still a far ways off), but she will sometimes even clarify if it's dirty or just wet.

She also says:

"Hi, [insert name here]!"
"Bye-bye, [name]!"
"More [anything under the sun]" (Sometimes we are lucky and get a "please" ("pea") stuck on the end, too, though that is only when she is really desperate or when I prompt her. She will almost always say it when prompted, though. We are working on "thank you" -- that one is slower coming and sounds more like "da doo" when she bothers to say it at all.)
"I do" (she means "I'll do it," and usually says it when she would rather climb the stairs herself , or when she wants to feed herself)
"I see..." (Mama, Fi, Daddy, people)
"No, Mama, no!"(all the time about everything -- for an agreeable toddler, she says "no" an awful lot)
"Hold this" (usually it's just "hol' dis" and she hands me whatever, but today she handed me her Baa Baa and said, "Ho' Baa Baa.")
"What's that" or "What's this" ("wuh dat?" or "wuh dis")
"It's [whatever/whoever is she's looking at" (usually Mama, Daddy, Fi, Elmo, or Baa Baa)

Funny one-offs that she has said but never repeated:
"Mama, COME ON!" (said today when she was trying to get me off the phone with my mom)
"Bye Daddy, be good!" (when he was leaving for work one morning -- sounded like "Bye da be guh" really fast but it was definitely what she was saying -- that's what he tells her every morning when he walks out the door)
"Have a good day" (also to Jake when he was leaving for work one morning -- "ha guh day Daddy!")
"Gotta get Baa Baa" (she's said that twice actually, now that I think about it -- "gah geh Baa Baa")
"Excuse you" ("scu you" -- said when SHE burped! And actually she's said that more than once too, I think)
I think yesterday she said she wanted to "take a walk." ("Tay waw? Tay waw? Waw waw waw?")

Today she was playing with magnets on the refrigerator and when I walked in she said, "Oh! It's Mama!" (I had only been about four steps away in the dining room, but hey, whatever.)

Once, a couple of weeks ago, I was straightening up her room while she played in her crib. She asked me to get her out and I told her to hold on a minute. She started howling, so I said, "Okay, okay," and got her out. When I reached into the crib to get her, she patted me and said, "Good girl, Mommy."

She can point out even more body parts now: head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, neck, shoulders, elbow, heart, boobies (ha!), bellybutton, knees, feet, toes, hands, fingers and back, and she can differentiate when you ask where is her head (or whatever body part) or where is my head or where is Elmo's, and will point to the right body part on the right person.

She can answer some abstract questions, like "Who lives with Bobo [my dad]?" "Nannie [my mom]." "Who else?" "Bet Bet [my parents' dog]." Usually when she mentions Bet Bet, she also says, "Shhhh" because Betsy is always barking when we come home, and then she says, "Good girl." (She also says "Good girl" to herself when she fits a puzzle piece in the right way or when she helps me put her toys back in the basket, which makes me laugh every time.) If you ask her what's outside ("ow sy"), she will answer babies ("baby!"), dogs ("daw! woo woo woo"), cats ("meow"), cars ("caaah"), and "people" (said perfectly). One night I asked her who loved her ("Mama loves you -- who else loves you?"). She listed Daddy and all four of our parents and then when I asked "Who else?" she said emphatically, "Erica!" ("Eh ca!"). She will ask for Jake during the day and when I ask her where he is, a lot of the time she will say "work" ("wuh").

Jake and I ask each other frequently, "Where did our baby go? When did we start living with a little person?" Basically, she is a riot all the time, and her cheeks demand many kisses all day long.