(written March 25th)

Height: 32.5 inches (74%)
Weight: 20 pounds 10 ounces (5%) (my little stringbean!)
Head Circumference: 18.25 inches (44%)
Clothing size: Both 9-12 and 12-18 month pants, both 9-12 and 12-18 month onesies, some 2T tees, and 12-18 month jammies. Size 5 shoes.
Eyecolor: Hazel/Gray.
Teeth: Sixteen.
Eating: We are making progress- she LOVES broccoli, green beans,and grapes now! Other favorites include any type of Mexican food (especially homemade refried beans with lots of cheese) and pasta. She eats mini wheats, pretzels, and peanut butter crackers for snack every day. She still doesn’t want to drink whole milk… and of course she still loves my muffins 🙂 New words: Bubbles (sounds like bub-bub-bub), toes, and she has really mastered “baaaaaahing” like a sheep.
Favorite things: Wearing necklaces (and putting them on Jax), riding on Daddy’s back like he’s a horsey, helping me bake (and taste-testing the cookie dough), putting on chapstick/playing with lipgloss, reading books, dancing, and swinging! Dislikes: She likes baths again, so I don’t think there’s anything for this category this month!
Sleep: Bedtime is around 8:30 pm, and she’s been sleeping until about 9 am most days. It feels like such a crazy schedule to me, especially because I’m up early just about every morning anyway. It’s weird to be awake without her! Nap starts at 1:15 pm and usually ends about three hours later. Milestones, etc.: -She can feed herself with a fork! I’m so impressed.
-She’s mastered going up and down stairs, as long as there’s a handrail to hold.
-She can take off her own jacket now (which means that I have to put it on her at the very last moment before we walk out the door)!
-She imitates us SO well.
-She makes jokes! For example, she’ll put a hat on Jax and wait for us to laugh! She also really likes to hide Kitty.
-She can wave the bubble wand around herself to make bubbles!
-She also started to pull on our hands or clothes to show get us to go where she needs us to show us what she wants.

Dear Kaya,

I say it every month, but you are growing up too FAST! Suddenly, you seem like a “real” kid instead of a toddler. My heart soars when I see you learning and growing, but it breaks a little to see how quickly it’s all happening.

We only have three more of these monthly update posts left before you’re a big sister! I just know you are going to be the best! You are so affectionate and gentle to all your stuffed animals, all baby dolls, and any real animals you meet. I’m sure that your baby sister is going to get more kisses than she knows what to do with.

I love you Kaya. You are one of the sweetest girls I know.

Love, Mommy

(I’m so late on this because I am so picky about the picture I use for these posts… I was planning on taking a new one, but then found this from the 24th and decided it was perfect. She’s in a cute outfit, wearing her favorite necklace, and taking the bow out of her hair. This is so Kaya!)Clothing size: Both 9-12 and 12-18 month pants, both 9-12 and 12-18 month onesies, some 2T tees (we like them long) and 12-18 month jammies. Size 5 shoes.
Eyecolor: Hazel/Gray.
Teeth: Sixteen, which I think means we’re done getting any more teeth until her 2-year-molars come in.
Eating: With her “sleep regression” (more details about that below), she lost interest in a lot of her favorite foods. It came down to her getting very hungry, which meant she’d get very cranky… so she had a lot of muffins, pretzels, and tortilla chips this month, because eating those was better than her having a meltdown due to an empty stomach. We’re doing better now and she’s recently enjoyed pizza and black bean tacos!Words: Dadada (daddy), Mama, uh-oh, up! Still lots of gibberish most of the time, but it does sound like she tries to repeat us every once in a while. She definitely understands everything we say to her.
Favorite things: Riding her rocking horse, hugging her Valentine balloon, wearing shoes, putting on her necklace so that she’ll look “sooo pretty”, hide-n-seek, dancing, throwing the ball for Jax, and talking on the phone (real or fake)! Dislikes: Baths still, for the most part.
Sleep: Well… I don’t even know what to say about sleep lately, except that it doesn’t feel like anyone is getting a whole lot of it around here! We think she started the “18-month sleep regression” because suddenly, she’s waking up at night, multiple times, and often resisting naps (but as I write this, she is taking a 3-hour-long nap… so it’s inconsistent). We still try to make her go to bed between 7 and 8 pm but everything else is just hit or miss right now.
Milestones, etc.: -Climbing out of the CRIB!!! She got way too good at it all at once so we converted the crib to a toddler bed. She ends up asleep on the floor most nights/naps, but at least we don’t have to worry about her hurting herself.
-Trying to sing along to songs (she’s got the “ohhhhhh” down in Old MacDonald)
-She’ll sit on our laps at meals and feed us… It’s just a little hard to eat with the way she holds the fork/spoon.
-She’s really good at understanding requests/commands now. Yay for having a little helper! 🙂

Dear Kaya,

You get sillier all the time and I LOVE it. We play hide-n-seek a whole lot and it makes you giggle so much!

I love when you climb into my lap to cuddle. I could spend all day with you nestled up to me, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Lately, you love to “help” me bake (usually you just stand on a chair at the counter and play with the measuring cups). You love everything we make, so I guess you inherited my sweet tooth.

Love you, Birdy. Thanks for making every day brighter!

(written January 27th)Height & Weight: From here on out, we’re going to skip this unless she has a doctor appointment and she gets measured there. We are probably not all that accurate about it, and she isn’t growing super fast like she was in her first year, so there isn’t much change month to month.
Clothing size: Both 9-12 and 12-18 month pants, both 9-12 and 12-18 month onesies, some 2T tees (we like them long) and 12-18 month jammies.
Eyecolor: Hazel/Gray/Green.
Teeth: SIXTEEN! She has teeth G, F, E, D, O, P, N, Q, L, S, B and I, and all four canines are coming in right now, all at once. Poor baby.
Eating: She does great with her yogurt and Cheerios for breakfast and a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, but dinner seems to be hit or miss (mostly miss these days). She is also obsessed with those cheese crackers with peanut butter filling as a snack. We’re also still nursing three times a day. Words: Dadada (daddy), Mama, uh-oh! Still lots of gibberish most of the time. She definitely understands everything we say to her.
Favorite things: Riding her rocking horse, wearing shoes, dancing, blowing bubbles, playing with my measuring spoons in the bathtub, coloring and throwing the ball for Jax.
Dislikes: Her very least favorite thing right now is sitting in her high chair to eat. This has made meal time pretty difficult! She also doesn’t really want to lay down for diaper changes anymore.
Sleep: Still going to bed around 7 pm and waking around 7-7:30 am on most nights. Naps, though, are all over the place. This week I’m blaming her new teeth, but she’s had days where one nap was enough (whether it was 2 or 3 or even 4 hours long), and other days where she takes two shorter naps. I thought once you switched to one nap, you never went back? She is pretty cranky by about 5 pm though when she takes just one.
Milestones, etc.: -Imitating everything. She’ll pat the bed for the dog to jump up on it, and try to put butter on our rolls for us. I’m amazed at how she can do something so well after seeing us only do it a few times.
– She’s been folding her arms for prayer for a few months now, but this month, she’s become a lot more consistent. She recognizes when we’re praying and loves joining us. Sometimes, she randomly “prays” on her own, and will giggle if we say “AMEN!”
– It seems like she’s just started “pretend play”. She’ll crawl around on the floor (differently from her infant crawling a few months ago), like an animal… maybe a puppy? That’s what I always think she’s doing, so I get down there and pretend to be a puppy too.
– She’s an ultimate climber. She can get all the way up into our bed, and now she’s obsessed with balancing on the edge of the toy box. Yikes.

Dear Kaya,

Your cheesy grin these days is just too much. I love the way you look at me and just crack up! You grab our bluetooth speaker every day (more than once) and say “uh-oh!” until we turn on some tunes. We usually enjoy waking up to classical music (sometimes you’ll even join in on the piano), and you still really love getting your groove on to Taylor Swift, One Direction, Luke Bryan, or Eric Paslay. I hope you’ll still want to listen to some of my favorite country music when you’re older and more opinionated.

Love you baby girl. You’re my favorite.

Height: 32 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 20 pounds 4 ounces (13th percentile)
Head Circumference: 18.5 inches (91st percentile)
Clothing size: Both 9-12 and 12-18 month pants, both 9-12 and 12-18 month onesies, some 2T tees (we like them long) and 12-18 month jammies.
Eyecolor: Hazel/Gray/Green.
Teeth: Still twelve! She has teeth G, F, E, D, O, P, N, Q, L, S, B and I.
Eating: A TON of food! She sure knows how to shovel down her Cheerios and banana every day. She tried and loved pot roast and broccoli this month. She can probably eat about 10 big pieces of broccoli in one sitting- I think it’s a new favorite!

We’re still nursing three times a day. Sometimes, she’s super quick, but usually we still get to snuggle for a good while. I love it.

Her sweet tooth has come in in full force now (Michael shared his chocolate-chip muffin with her, and now there’s no going back). There is no sneaking chocolate when she’s around, unless you plan on sharing!

Words: Dadada (daddy), Mama, uh-oh, kitty, and hey! In the past few days, it seems like she is trying to repeat some of the words we say. Most of the time, she’s babbling gibberish like crazy!
Favorite things: Dancing (especially to Taylor Swift), giving kisses, having us blow bubbles for her, her ball-popping machine, throwing and kicking balls, helping load the dryer and empty the dishwasher, and looking at books.Dislikes: Long car rides, baths usually, and getting her teeth brushed (she’ll even bite me if I’m not careful)!
Sleep: Still sporadic ever since we traveled home for Thanksgiving. Now that Michael’s been home for Christmas vacation, we’ve been sleeping in and her nap quality/length seems random. She did get some shots at her 15-month doctor appointment though, and I think those might be having something to do with it. She is absolutely exhausted by 6pm every day, and we put her down around 7 or 7:30. She wakes up around 7:30 or 8 am lately.
Milestones, etc.:
-She seems more observant when it comes to watching how things work, and then trying to imitate that. For example, I showed her how to “feed” a baby doll with a bottle, and she caught on right away. The next day, we had a play date and she kept “feeding” one of her friends with his sippy cup!
-She’s almost a pro at climbing stairs.
-She understands so much now! I am amazed at what I can ask her to do and she’ll really follow through.
-She appropriately answers our questions by shaking her head “no” quite often!
-She’s so skilled at kicking and throwing balls now!
-She has started to help us get her dressed. We’ll say “Where’s the hand?” and she’ll shove her arm into her sleeve. She loves trying to put her coat on by herself!
-We’re slowly working on learning animal sounds. She can do horse, cow, and dragon (which is a growl/roar)!

Dear Kaya,

You are so precious to me. My favorite thing about you is definitely your smile. I hope that when you get older, you never hold back your true personality and infectious grin- both shine so brightly! Thanks for loving me, Princess, even when I make mistakes. I love seeing you grow up, but you will always be my baby girl.

Love, Mommy

This might be the latest I’ve ever posted her monthly update, partly because of how difficult it was to get a usable photo and partly just because life feels like a whirlwind lately! So here it is, finally 🙂

Height: 31.5 inches
Weight: 19 pounds 13 ounces
Clothing size: 9-12 month pants, 12-18 month leggings, both 9-12 and 12-18 month onesies, and 12-18 month jammies.
Eyecolor: Hazel/Gray/Green.
Teeth: No new ones this month, so still twelve! She has teeth G, F, E, D, O, P, N, Q, L, S, B and I.
Eating: This girl is an eating machine now! She eats a big bowl of cheerios (that we cover in yogurt) every morning, a peanut butter sandwich (on just one slice of bread) and a banana or apple slices for lunch, and then whatever we have for dinner. She’s hit or miss with how much she’ll eat for lunch or dinner, but breakfast is always her most successful meal of the day.

She recently had spaghetti for the first time, and loved learning how to “slurp” it! It was seriously adorable. We also figured out that sometimes she really doesn’t like sitting in the high chair to eat and will do better if we just hold her on our laps. She also tried broccoli and couldn’t get enough (just like her mama)!

Michael shared his morning muffin a few times… and now her sweet tooth has come in. She’ll beg for a piece of anything chocolate if she catches you eating it! Oh yeah… and she’s still a cheesit-aholic.

We’re still nursing three times a day and are definitely not ready to cut back yet. She gets very anxious for milk after her nap, and then of course still in the morning and before bed. If I ask her “Do you want milk?”, she grabs her kitty, runs over to the rocking chair, and tugs on the boppy pillow. I love my time with her and am not in any hurry to quit.

Words: (from most-used to least-used) Daddy, Hi, Kitty, Mama, piggy. Still not a lot of recognizeable words… but she babbles constantly. Her gibberish is starting to sound more like words and sentences so I guess we’ll see if her vocabulary gets bigger soon. We can ask her almost anything and it seems like she understands us.
Favorite things: Her stuffed kitty, dancing, opening and closing doors, books (especially opening up hymnbooks and “singing”), hugging Jax, tackling us with hugs, giving kisses, watching Baby Einstein, hide-and-seek, and pushing chairs or hampers around like they’re “baby strollers” (she even puts kitty inside)! She also loves to play pat-a-cake, and will start clapping your hands (or even feet) to get you to start.
Dislikes: Bath time is worse than ever (so much screaming and crying)! She also throws these mini tantrums when we take something away or tell her no.
Sleep: She’s down for bed around 7-7:30 pm and up for the day around 7 am, usually. I was in the habit of waking her up to nurse before I’d go running (hence her previously normal wake-up time of 6 am, but I’ve stopped doing that and so she sleeps in just a little now.

We are down to one nap, usually 3 hours long (10:30 am-1:30 pm), but sometimes that still leaves her super cranky around 4:30 pm, so I’m not sure she’s completely adjusted to the transition.
Milestones, etc.: -She is pretty much RUNNING now and amazes onlookers with her speed! Keeping track of her at church is getting a little more difficult.
– She is more willing to play away from us. I go to an institute class geared toward moms with young kids, and they have a “nursery” of sorts while we all learn. Well… last week, Kaya followed the other kids and stayed in the nursery for 45 minutes without me. I’m so proud of her, but also a little sad that she’s becoming so independent!
– She is so expressive and can definitely tell us what she wants… whether that’s a new diaper, a snack, or to watch a show…
– I thought she was good at climbing before… but now, if I turn my back for a moment, she can get up on the table. Whoops. I feel like I’m always pulling her off of something.

Dear Kaya,

I love you so much, and I’m so proud of all the big-girl things you’re doing now. You are my little best friend, and I love sharing so many of my favorite things with you now that you’re a little older. You’re crazy and love to run, but sometimes you still slow down to cuddle and love your mama. The moments where your cheek is pressed up against mine, and your little body is curled up next to me are some of my favorites.

I can’t wait for you to try your first Thanksgiving turkey later this week! Holidays are so much more special with you.

(written September 25th)

Height: 31 inches (95.3%)
Weight: 19 pounds 6 ounces (21.6%)
Head Circumference: 18 inches (69.05%)
Clothing size: 9-12 month pants, 9-12 month onesies, and both 9-12 and 12-18 month jammies (although the latter are still a little long).
Eyecolor: Hazel/Gray.
Teeth: She now has teeth G, F, E, D, O, P, N, Q, and L, but I can see/feel parts of the other three molars coming in already! (dental chart) She’s had a couple middle-of-the-night wake-ups this week and I’m attributing it to all those teeth.
Eating: She loves bananas, strawberry yogurt, cheese, cucumbers, cold pizza, corn, green beans, pasta (with or without tomato sauce), chili, and soup. Although I’d rather her not eat too many of these, she still loves graham crackers, wheat crackers and cheesits. This month, we went from nursing about 4 times a day down to 3 (morning, before afternoon nap, and before bed). Words: Over the past few days, “Daddy” has become very clear and she probably says it more than anything else. Her second most-used word is “puppy”… but it sounds more like “doggy” (we only call Jax a puppy, so it’s kind of strange that she says it that way). “Mama” is a less-frequently-heard word.
Favorite things: She’s obsessed with stuffed animals (and will even steal mine), but Kitty is still her very favorite. She likes rocking on her horsey all by herself, playing with her baby friends (although maybe not sharing with them), pulling the containers out of the cupboard, playing with her number puzzle, riding in the stroller, swinging, throwing the ball for Jax, dancing, and any kind of phone/device with a touchscreen. She also likes splashing in the tub now!
Dislikes: Getting her diaper changed.
Sleep: Still taking two naps that are each about 2 hours long (usually around 9 am and 2 pm). Bed time is between 6 pm and 7:30 pm and she is usually awake for the day between 6 and 6:30 am.Milestones, etc.: – We switched her over to the “big girl” (a.k.a. convertible) car seat this month. She looks so much more comfortable and doesn’t fuss as much about getting in the car now.– She’s started playing “phone” by holding any object up to her ear (which is also interesting because we talk on speakerphone about 90% of the time).
-She’ll take maybe 5 steps at a time on her own! I think she could walk more, but she’s just afraid so she still holds on to us or furniture.
– She’s an expert climber and can get herself on top of the couch or ottoman. When she’s in her playpen, she’s constantly trying to stand on one of her toys to be taller.
– She constantly does “squats” and has very good control of her balance.
– She gives SO MANY KISSES!
– She recognizes objects (if I say “where’s your horsey?” she’ll crawl over to it!)
– She imitates us a lot now (shaking her head no, clapping, turning her head sideways, etc.)

Dear Kaya,
I loved you one year ago, but with each passing day, you steal a little more of my heart. You have grown from a baby into such a wonderful little girl. You’re smart, funny, beautiful, and a little bit crazy (I’d like to think you get that from your mama). I hope you never let the world tell you who you should be, because you are perfect, just the way you are. I love you so much, Baby Bird. You are our little miracle.