This past week our Olivia turned 14 months old!
Olivia is taking a few steps here and there, generally when she thinks we’re not looking ha. Most of the time she crawls or more recently, walks on her knees, which is one of our favorite things ever. Olivia stands for longer and longer periods without holding onto anything.
We’ve had the Vtech walker since Tommy was little. Olivia’s been playing with the toys on it for months. The past couple of weeks she finally got motivated to start using the walker. Within a day, she was pacing her steps and turning corners like a pro.
It’s so much fun watching Olivia’s personality continue to develop as she’s able to communicate more. She and Tommy have always played together, not parallel played. The games just get more involved as she’s able to initiate and add her own dynamic.
Olivia is going through a phase where she wants Mom or Dad within eyesight at all times, preferably within arm’s reach. As you can imagine, it makes it challenging to get anything done. I do my best to maximize her naptime and then the time when Jake is home in the evening to do as much as I can, which isn’t anything new, just more important than ever.
It hasn’t been helped by the fact that we took a little pause from the pack ‘n plays after Olivia had breakouts after being in one of them. We still don’t know exactly what happened or why it happened, but she had some sort of allergic reaction and we don’t know what else would have caused it. Thankfully, she didn’t have any other symptoms, and it cleared up on its own. Since then, I washed the sheets, wiped them down, and removed the toys. She’s done fine with a couple of shorter periods in them.
Olivia added one new word this past month – cuckoo. We got a cuckoo clock a couple of years ago, and she loves to say cuckoo. Olivia says hi, baby, and kitty as much as ever and says thank you more consistently. Olivia continues to expand her ability to communicate what she wants, most recently, that she wants a snack, she wants more puree or other food, and when she’s ready to get out of the bath.
Sometime after her first birthday, Olivia started climbing out of her bath chair. So we stopped using the chair. It took Olivia a couple of baths to adjust. Since then, she’s gained so much confidence in the water. I put Olivia straight in the empty tub when she’s covered in food, which is most nights. She loves playing in the running water as the tub is filling, even putting her face and hair right in the stream of water.
We went back to music for Tommy about a week before I wrote Olivia’s 13-month update. During his class, the girls and I hang out in the studio’s playroom for the first half hour and then join Tommy for the final 15 minutes. Olivia has almost always had someone her age to play with in the playroom, which she really enjoys.
This last month Olivia added one new tooth, on the top right next to her middle two teeth. Thankfully, none of her teething has been nearly as bad as the initial teething with her two middle bottom teeth over the summer.
Olivia has done so well eating pretzels and crackers this past month. She is crazy about the HappyTot ABC cookies. If I leave them out on the counter, she won’t stop asking for them. I have given her tastes of a few new-to-her regular foods, including French toast and yogurt. She’s liked some better than others. But she hasn’t outright vomited, so that’s still progress.
Olivia is wearing a mix of 12-month and 18-month clothing. The 12-month pants fit perfectly. She can go bigger on everything else. I switched her up to size 4 overnight diapers, still with a liner. I was hoping to keep her in her 6-12 month Zutano boots until she started walking. But they’re just too small now, so I got one 12-18 pair to bridge that gap.
Olivia remains deep in the world of purees. I still feed her one at lunch and then let her eat two or three on her own at dinner. Most of the time Olivia sits in her high chair at breakfast, as she doesn’t want to miss out on anything. She’s happy to work on a few pretzels or crackers while we eat our food.
Olivia slept through the night exactly three times this past month, which is huge. Most nights she still wakes up hungry around 11 p.m. or midnight. Then she’s down until 7 or 8 a.m. This past month Olivia only had a few nights that she woke up more than that. It was generally due to other factors (i. e., following her last round of shots at the doctor).
You can find all of my baby/toddler updates for all three kids as well as general family updates and other family-related posts in the family section of the blog.
