fifteen months

Please excuse the slightly lackluster mostly out of focus photos.  Somebody had no interest in cooperating with this photo shoot.  And I was grumpy.  Therefore I had little interest in trying to make it work.  But the day she turned fifteen months has been capture, and we will move on.  Bah.

Hold on a sec.  For reals?  FIFTEEN MONTHS?  Pretty soon she will be eighteen months, and that is halfway to two, and that is OLD.  (On the bright side, that means I'm slightly closer to getting to plan another birthday bash.  Huzzah!)

she wanted nothing to do with me, or my chalkboard.  obviously.

Fifteen months equals a doctor's appointment, so we actually know how big this little girl is getting.  She is weighing in at 22 pounds 10 ounces, and is 30.5 inches tall.  She is still hanging out in the 50th percentile range for both, her growth has been pretty steady there for over six months.  The doctor said she seems to be in perfect health.  I almost laughed when they were going through the developmental checklist... I know this isn't the same for everyone, we've been over it, every child is different, but she asked if Ryann was saying at least 3-6 words.  Ummm, definitely!

This kid is blowing my mind.  No joke.  I know every parent thinks their child is amazing.  I'm totally aware of that.  But the rate at which is picking things up just baffles me.  I honestly can't count the number of words she says.  A few newer ones are bucket, goggles, closet, tummy and kite.  She is starting to string words together, such as 'mommy's car', 'dad-un (daddy) home', 'more cracker pease', 'bonk head', 'wock-a-by baby', 'mammy loud' (yes mom, she said that to me yesterday, out of the blue.  :o).  She says big step whenever she has to step up or down on something.

If you are ever talking around her, you better watch what you say.  She is already a parrot.  But she doesn't always repeat you right away.  I've heard her say a word that I said maybe ten minutes earlier.  And she has definite possibilities of being tattle-tell.  I think someone may have called her a cry baby at the gym daycare yesterday (which yes, definitely rubbed me the wrong way, but I don't know if it was someone who worked there, or another kid), because all day she was randomly saying cry baby.  I don't think she would randomly string those two together on her own.

Ry is holding strong at 12 teeth.  But all of the 5:30 wake-ups lately have me wondering if she isn't getting ready to pop up a couple more.  Really I'd prefer it go ahead and happen, I'd like to just be done with teething already!  I'm sure Ryann feels the same.  Because teething isn't fun, and nobody likes 5:30 in the morning.  And it doesn't really matter what time we put her to bed, she still wakes up then.  So bedtime has started getting a little bit earlier and earlier.  Which makes me sad, because I preferred not having to get her in bed until 8 or 8:30.  She naps for about two hours around noon.  Except for yesterday, when she slept for an hour.  Who wakes up at 5:30 and only wants to nap for an hour?  Someday... someday I will feel rested.  Right?  Ha.  The doctor did say she was surprised by how little Ryann wanted to sleep, but that yes, it indeed was 'enough.'  She suggested trying the two nap a day schedule again because she is usually exhausted in the evenings, but I don't think I want to.

Separation anxiety seems to be at an all time high again, thanks to me starting to leave Ryann in the daycare at the gym.  Whenever we arrive at a destination in the car, no matter where we are going, Ry assumes we are at the gym and starts freaking out, telling me she wants to go home.  This morning when we got to the doctor's office she started saying 'no run mommy.  no run mommy!' while we were in the car.  Today we were outside with my mom, and I ran inside to grab my phone.  That kid freaking loves her grammy, and she was all out bawling because I left her.  I feel really guilty about it, about making her feel this way, and sometimes I think it is a bad idea.  But on the other hand I know at some point she will hopefully get used to it, and someone watching her for 45 minutes out of the day is probably good for both of us.  I know it's selfish, but 3 hours out of the day to myself just isn't enough time for me to get all my work done, workout and still have time to do something I enjoy, such as blog or craft or try and plan healthy meals for my family.  How do you people do it all??  :o)

She can recognize and say ten shapes:  circle, square, oval, rectangle, triangle, diamond, pentagon, octagon, heart and star (however she calls a star a starfish.  oops, our bad.)  She has been doing pretty good recognizing colors with the sidewalk chalk, however it isn't carrying over to other objects.  She can find me the pink, purple, blue, yellow, green, brown, black and white chalk no problem.  But if I ask her to identify other colored objects, or pick them out, she either doesn't want to, or isn't getting it.  Eventually it will happen.  Ry is also starting to love and recognize letters.  Her favorites are B, C, D and O.  She has also been picking out P's.  It is funny, we will walk by a sign or a car, and she will shout out 'Buh Buh B!!!!!!'  or 'Duh Duh D!!!!!'.  I love it.

This month Ry became OBSESSED with the Llama Llama books.  We grabbed Llama Llama Red Pajama in Georgia, so I could have something to read before I put her to bed, and hello giant tears when I wouldn't read it again and again and again.  A couple Llama Llama books now reside at our house, so she isn't without it!  Another favorite book is Who's That Snoring.  BUT, you can't pull the flaps.  The freak her out.  Yet she still brings me the book over and over again to read.  And when she says it, there isn't an S.  'Noring?  Noring?  Pease!'

Ryann's love for fruit is continuously growing.  She will eat blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, bananas, pineapples, pears, apples, and her two new favorites, grapes and 'main-go main-go main-go!' (mango, if you didn't follow that :o).  Goldfish have been given the cold shoulder.  I'm not surprised, she has had quite a few in her little lifetime.  Another current favorite food item is yellow and orange bell peppers.  She will eat the red and green ones too, but yellow and orange are her faves.  They have to be raw though, I've tried to give her cooked ones and she spits it out like it is the most disgusting thing ever.  We really REALLY need to work on things for her to eat for lunch and dinner.  I refuse to let her eat veggie tots, chicken nuggets, and Gerber meals forever.  Tonight she actually ate some pizza.  That is progress right?

I'm pretty sure that girl would spend forever outside if we let her.  She is always wanting to go 'ow-tide'.  Either to 'color color color!' (draw with chalk) or go to the park to 'wing!'.  Park has become the four letter word in our house.  If you don't want to go you better not mention it.  Our there will be a meltdown.  I guarantee it.  She also knows the way to the park, and if you turn on a street that isn't the one that leads to the park, she gets upset.  Sometimes she is so excited when we are going, that she giggles and squeals the entire 8 minute walk it takes to get there.  I love it.

She blows ridiculous kisses.  She is learning to 'pound it'.  She doesn't like it when Chris and I pretend to sleep.  If you catch her somewhere she isn't supposed to be, she pretends to be playing peek-a-boo.  She likes to build towers out of markers.  She knows she is cute, and does a little shoulder shrug if you ask her if she is.

Oh baby girl.  You wear me out, and you make my heart whole.  I love you!