Thursday, April 12, 2012

Life With Nia: 20 Months

She's wearing one of the lovely headbands made by Creaciones Jonidyn which our good friend Sonali sent!
Hard to believe in four short months Nia will be 2 years old! I really need to get on the ball with planning her party - I'm definitely thinking an Elmo theme. I used to be anti-character birthdays but seeing her pure bliss and major obsession with him makes it a clear choice!

Speaking of Elmo, Nia thoroughly enjoyed Sesame Street Live today - pics are below in the update . . .
  • Toddler's Weight: She's gained a little over a pound since last month and is now 27 lbs.
  • Toddler's Height: I feel like she's over half my height now! I can't believe how long this child's legs are!
  • What size of clothing does toddler wear? 24 months still but some items the legs and arms are too short. Her sweater for Easter was a 3T and that arm length was perfect.
  • Any milestones toddler reached during the month:  
    • Perhaps TMI, but doing #2 more consistently in her potty.
    • Walking backwards - she LOVES to do this and looks so proud!
  • Special outings toddler had during the month:  
    • Besides the Easter festivities I've already posted, Sesame Street Live today was the big event of the month:

She had such a serious expression throughout the show as though she was thinking, "If they are on my TV, then how are they here too?"

I like her little silhouette and how she kept her bow on the entire time (she tore it off in the car home though!)
  • What are your thoughts about the past month? Nia is so verbal now, and it's really helped our relationship but at the same time it makes her more demanding. We're still going strong nursing only 1x/day in the morning now which has helped my sanity tremendously. She understands when I tell her she's a big girl now and the milk is all gone. The next step is getting this to work in the morning. We are having a hard time now with sleeping through the nigh,t and it's as though we've reverted to when she was a newborn. Not quite sure what's caused this and may be teething (although she appears to have all her teeth to me!) or not being full at night - she still rejects most protein and prefers veggies and rice as her meals. The biggest highlight for me has been getting away for long periods of time/ladies events which has been great for my mental health and for continuing to work on weaning (I have an upcoming post on some of the fun things I've been up to!). This has been a challenging but fun month overall!
Nia with her Auntie Nnenna who watched her while we saw Hunger Games (I had a love hate relationship with this pic cause it was out of focus but I love Nia's fudgey face!)
  • What was toddler's routine?  
    • Getting Nia to bed is easy - we have a set routine as I've shared in previous monthly updates and she's down at 8p.m. (no tears) but the issue is her waking up at midnight and being up for 2 hours asking to be held/wanting to play. This is wearing me and Mr. Love Bird out! I want her to CIO as we established months ago, but Mr. Love Bird likes to hold her while she sleeps so she is comforted. That makes for one tired and cranky Mr. Love Bird! As a compromise I'm working on CIO during naptime and the midnight wakings I go and sometimes rock her or as I did last night, get in her crib with her until she falls asleep (whatever works). We see her dr. next month for another vaccination that was part of a series from our trip to Nigeria so I'd like to speak with her about it then if it hasn't improved. Like I said above if we can stuff her little tummy before bed I think she'll sleep.

    • During the day my goal is to run her ragged so she'll sleep. The worst part of this is that it makes me tired and she still doesn't sleep! She gets by on about 7 hours of overnight sleep and one 30 minute - almost 1 hour nap/day. I don't understand how she's making it on so little sleep and how she's growing so tall!
  • Reflect about the highlights of the month: 
    • Being away from Nia! YAAAY! I love her so much but it's been a welcome change to get out more especially in the evenings now that we're not nursing at night.
  • Did any big changes occur? Just no more night nursing.
  • What are toddler's favorites - toy, food, person, etc... Still obsessed with Elmo! Oh, and on Easter this was her obsession - a balloon from church (they weren't giving them out but she asked for one from the decorations anyway!):



  • What I'm looking forward to?
    • Weaning off the morning feeding
    • The whole family heading to my sister Lauren's graduation from Anderson University in South Carolina the first weekend of May