In the world of Katie:
Katie had her 15-mo. checkup the other day. The verdict: we must be starving our child because she's only gained another pound in the last 3 months! This makes a total gain of 3 pounds in the last 9 months. HOW is this possible?? It seems like she eats ALL day! She seems healthy, behavior-wise, she just isn't growing as well as we, and the doctor, would like. So, new strategy: make every bite count. No more empty calories and easy fillers, like graham crackers and Cheerios. Katie needs lots of protein, for one thing. It's been a real struggle to get her to drink cow's milk -- she would consistently take two dainty sips, make a yuck face, and refuse to drink for the rest of the meal. I think that's been a big part of the problem -- at this age, kids are supposed to be drinking 20 oz. a day; we were lucky if Katie took 4 oz. Lately she's been more willing to accept milk as a drink option, but after her appointment I decided to take away all other liquids and give her only whole milk to drink, hoping that by removing all other options she would learn to like it more. So far it's worked -- the first day afternoon she drank 8 oz. with nary a complaint, after she saw that there wasn't anything else available. The pediatrician reminded me that Katie needs protein to grow, so we need to up her protein intake -- basically doubling whatever amount of chicken and beef in particular that she's eating now. If I cook some meat & freeze it in Katie-sized portions, that shouldn't be too difficult. The only real difficulty in all this is that she's been a little constipated lately, so we need to balance the increase in protein with lots of things like pears and prunes -- so nothing but meat and vegetables for her now! :) My only question is: isn't that what adults do to LOSE weight?... We have to go back in a month to make sure this strategy is working, and if not, to check whether her slow weight gain might be the result of some disease. Sigh, worry worry worry!
Well, in all other respects, Katie is developing very normally. Even above normally. (Do all other mothers think their children are the smartest, most beautiful children that have ever graced the world with their presence?) We've mentioned before how imitative she is. For one thing, she loves doing whatever big sis does.
mini musicians
Actually, she wants to do EVERYTHING we're doing. The other day she was pretending to help me mop the kitchen, and getting frustrated b/c the mop was 3 times longer than she was! She loves helping to put laundry in the dryer, as well as to empty the dishwasher. We don't remember Miriam being this active in family chores so early. However I can see the difficulty that younger children have with comparing themselves to older siblings. Being the oldest myself, I couldn't understand it when my younger sibs would get frustrated with themselves for not being on the same level with me, I think especially when it came to playing the piano. I always thought, of course you're not on my level! You're several years younger! Duh! (I was such a tender-hearted sister!) :b But now watching Katie I can see that she doesn't understand that she's younger -- she just gets mad b/c she sees big sis doing fun things that she can't do. (Any tips from you experienced moms for how to encourage younger sibs to accept their ability level?)
Katie's play-acting with dolls is getting even more advanced. Whenever she sees a baby doll, she'll start making weird whining noises, then go to the doll, pick it up and say "Mama," and pat it on the back with a big smile on her face. She can usually be found carrying some doll or stuffed animal around the house. As I was changing her diaper the other day, she held up the baby doll she had been carrying and started sniffing. This meant, naturally, that the doll had a dirty diaper. So I gave her a wipe, and she pretended to wipe the doll -- first on the face, but then she realized that wasn't quite right, so she turned the doll around to wipe its bottom. It was very cute. I was impressed that she knew exactly what to do with the wipe.
Katie's language also seems to be taking off. We can tell that she understands a LOT of what we say to her now. And her love for imitating extends to sounds as well -- she especially loves imitating animal noises. The other day when I was desperately trying to finish some work on the computer, to keep her occupied I gave her a JC Penney flyer (pretty color pictures, crinkly pages, ooh!). After flipping through pages of bedsheets & curtains & pillows she paused and started to make a grunting/roaring noise. I looked at the page and saw that she had found a tiny picture of animal-shaped pillows. (Some of her favorite books now involve Mom or Dad making lots of animal sounds.) Regarding human noises, aside from the classic "bye-bye" and "uh-oh," her vocabulary has extended to "Mama" (finally!), "Dada," and "up" (all very important ones!). She'll pretty much try to imitate anything we say to her, but those are the most consistently recognizable words she'll use. Her versions of "bear" ("beh") and "Boppy" ("bah-pah") are also becoming more consistent and recognizable. She also has two personal all-purpose statements: "ah-bop," said while pointing to or exploring something, which means (as far as I can tell), "neat-o"; and "ah-dats," said while frowning, and which very obviously means, "I'm not a happy camper!" I remember with Miriam that this was the exact age when her vocabulary just exploded. I have to admit that the second year is really my favorite. This is when your little baby really emerges as a little person, with a personality, and imagination, and ideas, and an agenda :) of her own. It's fascinating to observe.
