Spring and Summer Accomplishments

 As a teacher in the past, status reports were quite necessary to keep track of student's accomplishments and it helped me keep remember what my students still needed to learn. The following is a "Status Report" of our little girl. 

She is currently 17 months to the day, is 25 pounds and wears a size 6 shoe and 18-24 month clothing. 

Ruthie learned to walk on her own the week before Memorial Day. We thought it would never happen. All of the kids her age at church seemed to be walking by 9 or 10 months old! People said once she learned to walk there is no going back and they were right. I have lost weight by trying to keep up with her.

Our little girl bends over and picks up objects, enjoys gazing at her reflection, holds out arm or leg to help me dress her, combines words and gestures to make needs known, rolls a ball back and forth, eats with fingers, empties containers of contents like her Leggo's, imitates others, points to body parts when asked, responds to instructions (e.g., "give me a kiss"), uses a spoon or fork but only momentarily before she resorts to using her hands.

She pushes and pulls toys while walking. Plays with balls, walks backward, scribbles with crayon and "Helps" around the house by cleaning up her toys or tries to sweep the floor. She turns the pages of a book, has temper tantrums when frustrated and has shown love towards her doll by signing the word love and hugging it. Uses the signed word "Please" to ask for something. Recently has discovered the joy of climbing up the stairs, stacks three blocks one on top of the other, uses spoon or fork, has learned the correct way to use common objects (e.g., the telephone). Has gotten finicky about food and takes a solid 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Ruthie enjoys pretend games such as "tea party," riding toys and feeding her doll with a cup or spoon.

Will "read" board books on her own, scribbles independently, takes leggo's apart and puts them back together and shows signs of toilet training readiness by letting me know when she is about to go. 

We have spent the last five months taking trips to church, Target, the zoo, botanical gardens, the spray park, taking walks, walking the river park, visiting, Georgia, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, listening to music, playing the piano, swinging on her swing in the back yard, exploring the front yard and hugging our dog, Kit.

February - March Happenings...

Ruthie - you are 12 months old and 22 pounds, 8 oz! You wear 18 to 24 month size clothing and size 4 shoes. We celebrated your birthday on March 19th with a giant cupcake which you ate a piece of. You loved the Radio Flyer wagon given to you by your maternal grandparents, the wooden activity center cube given by us and your walker given to you by your paternal grandmother.

On March 19th, we held a birthday party for you at our home. Your paternal grandparents, three great grandparents and one grand uncle came. Mommy made a WW veggie chili soup for lunch and a big yellow duck cake that you loved! You enjoyed the stuffed lamb, duck and bear as well as the bike trailer we tried out together last weekend. We blew bubbles for you outside while you swung in your swing on the swing set. The day was warm and sunny.



You still hold your balance standing up for at least 20 minutes at a time or longer by holding on to the coffee table and the side of your pack and play. Walking along the side of the table or couch is favorite pastime and you have just recently managed to transfer yourself from holding on to one item to another.



At dinner time with us you sit in your high chair. We have given up on bibs unless the meal will be really messy. Since the beginning of February, you have eaten turkey, chicken, applesauce, cottage cheese, a plethora of vegetables and fruits. You are now an expert of drinking milk and water out of sippy cups all by yourself. Water is favored much more than cow's milk but that is OK since you are getting calcium in other ways such as broccoli, yogurt, cottage cheese, tuna, white beans and the like.

You have reduced your nursing intake from six nursings to two nursings in the past month. One nursing takes place at 8am and the other a 8pm. Just recently, within the past three weeks you have transitioned from waking up a couple times a night to not waking up at all during the night. Mommy and daddy are grateful for uninterrupted nights of sleep!

At your one year checkup, we learned you are 30 inches in height, 22lbs, 8oz, did not have anemia, and you received 2 scheduled vaccinations from the delayed vaccination schedule.



You say the words Da Da, do(g), du(ck), boo(k), boon (balloon), hi, hey and ma ma (only when you want to go to bed at night). You understand most of everything we say to you. Separation anxiety has kicked in and you throw a little crying tantrum when mommy or daddy go out of your sight. Your head snaps back and you cry. Sometimes daddy calls you a "Velociraptor."

I have childproofed all the cabinet doors in the house and you spend some of your time during the day trying to break into them. Just this morning, you utilized your walker to get to the toilet paper roll in the bathroom and had a blast pulling what was left on the roll into your arms and onto the floor! You bunched it up and let toilet paper fall to the floor. It was a wonderful mess I had to clean up!

Yesterday, I blew bubbles for you in the kitchen. Surprisingly, Kit decided to "eat" as many bubbles as possible which made you giggle and laugh uproariously. The sound of you laughing made me laugh and it was soooooo cute, I just had to blow more bubbles!

In the area of "crawling," we watched you "army crawl" for the first time on our bed while we were on the cruise. You just army crawled straight ahead from point A to point B, no problem. Since then, you have given up rolling as your main form of transportation and instead army crawl to get to your destinations, quite quickly, I might add! This past Sunday we promoted you to the "crawlers" class. You had a hard time since you did not know any of the children or teachers. When we picked you up at the end of church, you were such a sad little girl. :(

For months now, your favorite thing to do on the changing table is to pull as many wipes out of the wipe warmer as possible before mommy or daddy can stop you. Another fun joke on mommy and daddy is to grab as many items on the table that you can find and drop each one in the space between the table and the wall. Your body is so long now, that with a little push, your feet are able to kick over the small lamp! It won't be long before we'll have to remove the lamp or change you in the floor.

On Tuesday nights (for many months now), Daddy prints out a coloring page devotion for you to "color" after dinner. He brings child safe crayons to you and demonstrates coloring for you. You haven't caught on yet, but by 18 months, you might. After daddy tells you a brief Bible story, we gather together in the office and sing praise songs to God while Daddy plays the guitar and you shake the "egg shaker" to the beat of the songs. Your smile and enthusiastic shaking of the egg shaker is a sight pleasing to God.

Your daily routine goes something like this: Breakfast at 8am, play time, music time, lunch time, nap time, music time, book time, outside time, dinner time, play time, book time, bed time at 8pm.

Changing Ruthie!

Ruthie - you are 10 months old and I'm guessing still 23 pounds! You wear 18 month size clothing and size 4 shoes.

You have learned to hold your balance standing up for at least 10 minutes at a time or longer by holding on to my finger, the coffee table and the side of your pack and play.

At dinner time with us you sit in your high chair with a bib around your neck. Since you were 10 months old, you have tried; mini bunny shaped macaroni, cheddar cheese, Cheerios, cream cheese, chicken and Yo Baby Yogurt. You aren't a fan of the jarred baby food so much, freshly prepared foods are yummy! We have tried feeding you expressed milk with a bottle, but you don't know what to make of it. Drinking out of a cup will be the next thing we try this week! You still like to nurse and keep cozy with your mommy.

Since you were four months old, we have had the same "going to bed" routine which consists of Daddy reading you two or three books and getting your diaper changed by Daddy. He dresses you in a light weight t-shirt and then helps you put on your cream and brown butterfly sleep bag before kissing you Good Night and handing you over to me for nursing time. Afterward, I swaddle you and hold you before you drift off to sleep. You still wake up around sometime between 11-12am but go right back to sleep with some binky time.

At the end of December/beginning of January, you got sick with Bronchiolitis/RSV and it took two weeks for you to get well again. Listening to your rattling lungs and praying for you to breathe was not fun for us!

You have learned to turn off light switches when given the opportunity and enjoy "kissing" the air by puckering up your lips and making kissing noises at people.

Whenever mommy leaves the room, you cry wishing mommy would stay. When distracted with a favorite toy, person or book, mommy can get some things accomplished while you are busy!

When you are asked; "Where is the duck?" you are able to find a duck on a page and point to it with your finger. You know that wet wipes are used to wipe your bottom, you have shown us with a wet wipe where it is used!

Given a blanket, you love raising it up and down to play, "Where is Mommy?"

In the area of "crawling" we have noticed that you make it from place to place by rolling and scooting. At this time it does not seem like you are going to crawl. Rolling and scooting seems to be an acceptable method for you to be mobile. Unfortunately, the "Crawlers" class at church will not accept you as a "roller and scooter" since you have not met the definition of a "crawler" but that is fine with us. You will be skipping classes and moving on to the "Walkers" class when ready!

You have gained two middle bottom teeth and four upper teeth look like they are about to come through soon!

You say "Da"for Daddy and say this word to mean mommy too. Whenever daddy comes home through the back door, you look up at him with a big grin on your face and say; "Da!" and giggle! You know the words for Dog and Book and say; "Do" with the long short O sound and say; "Boo" with the long O sounds.

On February 19th, you will turn 11 months old and will embark on your first trip "out of the country" the very next day!