Saturday, June 8, 2013

Alaina at 15 Months Old

Dear Alaina,

I can't believe it's been 3 months since your last letter! So much has changed in the past 3 months, so an update is definitely in order! The one thing that hasn't changed is that you're still the sweetest, most precious baby girl in the world. You have the cutest little personality. You're super smiley and happy, but you're also reserved, and it sometimes takes you a little while to warm up to people or certain situations. You love to walk around and play, but you're also still a bit of a lap baby. You like to be held a good bit, and I'm eating it up :) You're the most snuggly out of all three of my babies. You like to lay your head on my shoulder when you get shy or tired, and I LOVE it. It's just the most precious thing. You're still definitely a Mommy's girl, but you're liking Daddy more and more these days. You also really like Gramzie. She's the only person who you consistently go to willingly when Mommy is holding you :)

You're a full-fledged walker and have been for a couple of months now. You've gotten quite fast ;) You still have such a "baby gait" though. You walk a bit bow-legged. I love it! That little toddle is going away rapidly, though, and I know you'll be running soon. You are all over the place, but you aren't in to things as much as I remember Aubrey and Jude being into things at this age. You will walk over to our stairs, but you've only tried to climb them a few times, and even then, you only go up a step or two. I attribute this to your more cautious personality. I can't wait to see if that's just a baby thing or an Alaina thing :)

You wave "hey" or "bye-bye" and it's so sweet! Sometimes you wave when you see people in stores without being told to say hey. I guess you wave at people who look friendly? Of course, people LOVE it when you wave to them. You also give kisses when you feel like it, and it's ADORABLE. You make a little kissing sound, and it melts my heart. Not often are you in the mood to give kisses, though. Usually when I ask for a kiss, you just lean in and allow me to kiss you. Ha! That works too! You clap and play peek-a-boo, and you point your little finger at anything you notice or want. You babble, and we have sweet "conversations." You don't say a ton of recognizable words, but the other day, you threw your paci on the ground and clearly said "uh oh." You've done it a couple of times since then. You've also said what we think is "bye-bye" and I think you say "Mama" but it sounds like "Na Na" You also babble Da Da Da :) You squeal and laugh all the time.

You're a pretty good eater. You eat plain yogurt with a tiny bit of honey, oatmeal, or fruit for breakfast. For lunch you eat leftovers, cheese, turkey, or sandwiches with fruit. In the afternoon you have a snack of string cheese, applesauce, or Lara Bars cut into bites. For dinner, you usually eat whatever we're eating. Feeding you has been a little tricky. Over the past year, I've quit buying prepackaged foods. When Jude was your age, about ALL he would eat were Gerber toddler meals, so I feel like I don't have a "go to" easy meal for you like that. We get by, though. You accidently got peanut butter earlier than I probably would have introduced it. One of your siblings "shared" a little bit with you ;) Thankfully you did fine with it, so now you eat peanut butter sandwiches a good bit.

Sleep has changed a lot over the past 3 months. Over a month ago, you stopped napping well in the afternoons. That afternoon nap is a must for Mommy's sanity (that's when Aubrey and Jude are resting too, so that's my break), so I decided it was time to drop the morning nap in order to salvage the afternoon nap :) We dropped the morning nap right before our beach trip, and you did great. That week, you took LONG afternoon naps, and it seemed like the transition had been painless. When we got home, things got a little messed up. Granted, you had an ear infection and ended up getting tubes, and you were also teething. You started taking super short afternoon naps. Like only an hour. You also were waking up at night and crying going down at night and naptime. We pushed through that the best we could, and things seem to be getting better now. You're going down without crying again, and you're sleeping through the night. You're still waking up sometimes after only napping an hour or an hour and a half, but the past few times you've done that I've been able to get you to go back to sleep after a little rocking and fussing. Hopefully you'll extend that afternoon nap more to the 3 hour range because you are definitely a child who NEEDS her sleep. When you take short naps, you're FUSSY all afternoon and evening. When you started having trouble going to sleep, we gave you a lovie to sleep with. You seem to really like that! None of my babies have ever been attached to a blanket or lovie, so it's super sweet to me that you like yours so much. You're definitely not crazy attached to it at this point. The world doesn't stop if we can't find it. At least, not yet. Haha!

You're a little thing. You still weigh about 20 pounds. People tell us all the time how petite you are :) You wear a size 12 or 18 months in clothes and a size 2 shoe. We're probably going to need to go up to a size 3 soon, though. You're still in size 4 diapers. You've been in those for most of your life it seems. Haha! Your hair is super curly and blonde and your eyes are still bright blue. You're such a beautiful baby!

We all love you SO MUCH, Lainey. You bring so much joy into our family, and we can't imagine life without you. You're a precious gift from God, and we praise Him for entrusting you to us.

Love,
Mommy

**Today was a CRAZY busy day, so I didn't take any pictures, unfortunately.**

2 comments:

Nathalie said...

Aww, Jessica is my snuggle baby too and I ADORE it!

Jennifer said...

Henry is a short napper too. Ugh! Mama needs a break. I need to give my kids healthier snacks. They are confused on the difference between a snack and a treat. Enjoy your cuddle bug!