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Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary {18 Months Old}

This is a summary for Brinley from 17.5 months to 18 months.

SLEEPING
Sleeping has been great. The quirk of sleep right now is that she has discovered the joy of zippers. I put her in footed pajamas for naps and night, and she enjoys unzipping them. The problem is she can't re-zip them and she finds it distressing. So we decided to just have her sleep in normal pajamas without the footed pajamas. The difficulty there is that she loves to take her socks off. The problem with her taking socks off is that it is winter and feet get cold! But I haven't seen any direct negative affects from it.

I believe she is moving toward needing to go down for a nap a little later than 1 PM. I will soon be trying out 1:15. There isn't any huge event leading me that way, it just seems she isn't usually tired at nap time.

We had one major event in association with sleep this week. My husband has been staying until nap time at his lunch break (just an extra ten minutes) so he could put her down for her nap. Well, the day I got out of my boot and into my brace (this was an exciting day as you will see), I told him just to go and I would do it. Moving without my boot was much easier. I was putting her in bed and she got all hyper and crazy. She stood up and ran toward the side of her crib and just kept going. She went right over the edge (you know how they are top-heavy) and landed on the floor. Luckily we have really soft carpet with the thickest and nicest memory foam pad that money could buy at the time. She was scared but unhurt. The plus side is I don't think she will try it again. But I leapt to try to catch her fall--missed because I am operating on one good foot--and hurt my foot in the process. 

EATING
The food dropping when done eating is getting vastly better! 

Brinley always surprises me at what she will eat. She has an obvious love for spicy foods (slight spice) and strong flavors like cumin and coriander.  

PLAYING
For this full period, Brinley was very content and happy and played well. She continued with her longer independent playtime as I continued to heal.

"NO"
Brinley really embraced the word no during this period, just as I knew she would. She said "no" to everything, even when she meant yes. For example, she would sign "eat," I would say, "Are you hungry?" and she would say no, then nod her head yes. No was her word for everything. 

OPENING DOORS
Brinley loves going through drawers and cupoards--I mentioned this last time. I also mentioned we have just been closing doors to bathrooms since I was mostly bed-ridden due to tearing ligaments in my ankles. Well, during this period she learned how to open doors. So now we are moving on to her staying out of the bathroom unsupervised because it is a rule and not because a door is in her way.

The day I got my boot off and moved into a brace, I was in the kitchen getting her lunch ready. She went down the hall toward my room--no big deal. Door was closed. Then I heard the toilet seat slam down. I hobbled as quickly as I could and found she had opened my door and the master bathroom door. Then she threw a toy in the toilet, which I threw away because that is just beyond gross to me (they say kitchen sinks are actually dirtier than toilets--but a toilet is a toilet and a toy that goes in it will migrate immediately to the garbage. This is amazingly my first experience with a toy in the toilet).

PEEK-A-BOO
Brinley loves the game of peek-a-boo. She hides around corners, uses her hands, and even does the thing where she looks the other direction and assumes you can't see her (like cats and other animals do--if I can't see you, you can't see me). With the new door talent, she also goes into anther room and opens and closes the door to play peek-a-boo. It is really cute. 

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Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary {17.5 Months Old}

Bowling with the family
This is a summary for Brinley from 17-17.5 months old. Do you realize there are two weeks until she moves from pre-toddler to toddler?!?!? I am so glad Pre-Toddlerwise came out so I could have a six month buffer before my baby jumped to toddler. With Brayden and Kaitlyn, the book was not out so they went from "baby" to "toddler" overnight.

SLEEPING
Sleep was great!

EATING
Eating was great and normal. She still will drop food when she is done if you don't respond to her fast enough, however, she will attempt to get your attention and even attempt to hand you the food before she moves to dropping food, so improvement is slowly but surely being made.

PLAYING
The first week of this period, Brinley was so super clingy. She was not interested in playing with her siblings; she wanted to be with her parents at all times. She would be fine in independent play, but if she was out, she was attached to us.

She also came to love the art of removing everything from cupboards. And then removing contents from whatever she removed from the cupboard (including tampons...). This has been super helpful while I have had a hurt foot (and I mean that as sarcastically as I can manage). I have never had a child so intent on emptying every cupboard in the house. We don't have dangerous things down low, so my plan is to verbally redirect and teach her to stay out. That has proven to be more difficult to enforce while I am walking at about a quarter of her speed (IF I walk at all). So doors are being closed to a lot of rooms right now. 

The second week of this period, she got quite independent and wanted to play with siblings again. I don't know if she outgrew a wonder week, got over sickness or teething pain, or what, but she moved on. I am sure it helped that I have been hurt (for those reading this in future months and years, I tore ligaments in my foot and have been quite incapacitated for a while). As a recap, the first day that it was just Brinley and me, she cried and was so offended that I wouldn't carry her everywhere. Then the next day I got her up and told her she had to walk and I couldn't carry her and she responded, "kay" and went on like a champ! She has obviously felt proud of acting like a big girl and being a good helper. 

She has had longer independent play--about 1.5 hours instead of 1 hour. She is perfectly happy and it is very helpful for me right now to have an extra 30 minutes of her being physically contained in one room. 

STAIRS
I forgot to share last time that over Christmas break, my husband really worked to teach Brinley to safely go down the stairs alone. I am so glad! She can do stairs by herself, which is good since I can't carry her right now. 

PERSONALITY EMERGING
I love this age. I know a lot about my babies from birth, but there is a point (about this age) that they really start to show a lot about who they are. I love seeing the personality emerging. Brinley is a happy girl, a helpful girl, a girl who loves to laugh, an obedient girl, and a girl who is a little crazy. She can be wild.

GOOD HELPER
Brinley has been such a good helper to me the last couple of weeks. She throws stuff away for me. She cleans stuff up for me. Most importantly, she has been a gem in the obedience department. She goes where I tell her to and when I tell her to. It is so nice she isn't taking advantage of my hurt foot and running wherever she wants to go.

TEETH
No new teeth during this two weeks.

CHURCH NURSERY
At church, I am the choir director. I have also been teaching a youth Sunday School class with my husband. My husband was recently asked to teach the adult Sunday school and I was asked to help in the nursery (18 months to age 3). Because I am in there, Brinley is in there early. She has done great! My only worry is how will she respond when I am not there if she gets used to me always being there. I will not be in there every week, so we will see how she is on days I am out.

LANGUAGE WORD COUNTING
Brinley says words, but I was feeling worried about how much she was (or wasn't) talking. I know what she is saying is perfectly in the range of normal for her age, but I still worried because moms worry. I decided I should make a list of words she says. I believe the average for an 18 month old is 20 words. I didn't think she said that many. But as I made my list, I soon found she has well over 50 words. So my point here is if you are worried about your child's verbal skills, write down your child's word list so you know if things are okay or if you need to bring up concerns with the pediatrician. 

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Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 17 Months Old

This is a summary for Brinley from 16.5-17 months old.

SLEEPING
Poor Brinley had a cough at the end of this period. She coughed constantly through naps and through the night, even with me using all of the coughing tricks I know (thanks Vics and doTerra...). She can't have slept well. She slept an hour or more later each morning and took longer naps.

EATING
She did not eat well during her sickness.

SICKNESS
Croup and RSV were going around near this time so it was concerning when she got sick. She started with a fever. Fevers are pretty common in young ones so I didn't worry. By the fifth day of the fever, I started to be concerned and decided to take her to the doctor, but then it went away. Then she got the cough. The cough never got terrible, just always there and annoying.

Did you know (and I just learned this) that croup is an actual sickness and not just a cold gone bad? I always wondered. Apparently some kids get croup worse than others--some seem more like a cold--and it is something to do with genetics.

PRESENT OPENING
We put some presents under the tree and Brinley was obsessed. We had to do the whole teaching to not open presents just like teaching to not touch the ornaments on the tree.

Then we did my family party a couple of days before Christmas and confused her by encouraging her to open presents. Most kids around this age open one thing and just want to play with it. Not Brinley--she wanted to see what other amazing things were wrapped and she could have unwrapped forever.

Then we came home and confused her some more by instructing her to not open presents again. Then two days later told her to open.

Parents can be so confusing.

WALKING
On Christmas we were with my husband's family. His sister has a son a year older than Brinley, but not much taller than she is. After observing him for a a bit, she decided she could walk too. So she did. She just started walking around everywhere and has pretty much stuck to that. She sometimes still walks on her knees if it is more convenient but for the most part she walks now.

TRAINING DADDY
During the break, my husband took a lot of days off. And Brinley trained him well. She was sick and he is a sucker for his little girls so it was the perfect moment for her to train him to hold her at all times. And not just on his lap--he must walk around. She continued the training even after she was better. Wrapped around her little finger.

But here is the nice thing about kids. She trained Daddy, and she knows it. She knows she didn't train Mommy and when it is just the two of us, she carries on as normal. Kids are smart. They know better than we know who does what and who allows what.

MOLARS
The sickness wasn't enough--she also needed to be breaking molars, too. I think I will get her an amber teething necklace. I hear good things and with her extra collagen it should make us all happier over the next year as the really painful teeth come in.


SCHEDULE
8:15--wake up. Eat breakfast (fruit, cereal, and milk)
Get ready. Clean with mom.
10:30 Independent Playtime.
11:30 Play
12:00 Lunch.
Play with McKenna.
1:00--Nap starts
4:00-4:30--wake up. Snack. Play.
5:15--Dinner
7:30--Sippy of milk, then bedtime. In bed by 8:00.

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Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 16.5 Months Old

She wasn't to sure about Santa
This is a summary for Brinley from 16.5-17 Months Old

EATING
There were no big eating changes this period that weren't related to sickness. She ate less when sick, ate a ton immediately after being sick, and ate as normal when she got back to herself.

PLAYING
Playing is good. She loves her independent playtime. Looooves. And I have noticed if she is getting clingy, we do IPT and she comes out not clingy. Such an amazing tool! If you don't do it, you seriously should. 

SLEEPING
Sleeping is good. When she wakes up from a nap, she has started the blankie game. You know, the game where you throw your blankie out and get upset about it? Brayden tried that game one day. One nap of not having blankie fixed that for him. Not so with Brinley. 

You know how "they" say with the child and the dropping of things that the child will do it for a bit then get over the novelty and quit? Well...remember the food dropping fettish? I swear she has been finding dropping things novel for at least six months! 

At church, if we don't pay super close attention, she will pop up and toss something over the pew for the people behind us to get. And she is relentless. You know how people tend to sit in the same spots in church every week? So behind us is a family with just their youngest (16 year old boy) at home. We also have a couple of older couples who have great-grandkids. Brinley loves to get the 16 year old to get stuff for her. She also loves to work one of the great-grandmas. This lovely woman starts trying to be tough--I can see it on her face. She is going to hold her ground. Then Brinley holds her eye contact and she caves and gives it back to her. If the eye contact doesn't do it, Brinley starts innocently repeating, "Uh-oh!" and gradually increasing her volume until the item is back in her hands. 

So whoever "they" are, they haven't met Brinley.

THROW UP 
Brinley had her first throw up experience. Oh poor girl! It is interesting because Kaitlyn had reflux as a baby, and because of that, her throwing up has never been a "thing." It was just business as usual. I don't remember Brayden throwing up until he was a little over two and McKenna I think was even older than that. So it was our first baby experience with an inexperienced baby (she is still a baby okay!). 

She handled it well, but oh the aiming! How do you get a baby to not throw up everywhere?!?!? Unfortunately for my husband (and I guess fortunately for me but I felt really bad at the time), I had the same thing at the same time. So I was busy laying in bed holding it down while he tried to get her aim somewhere okay. Her first time, she was on her changing table getting her diaper changed. So that one was okay. She just needed to be washed up and clothes changed, and the changing pad cover needed to be changed. Then she seemed fine.

The a bit later she suddenly started throwing up in the family room. Oh...dear. So that took some carpet and upholstery cleaning. Luckily for us all, she just had those two times and then was fine.


TEETHING
She had a molar working its way toward pushing through during this period. She actually handled it way better than I thought she would.

SCHEDULE
8:15--wake up. Eat breakfast (fruit, cereal, and milk)
Get ready. Clean with mom.
10:30 Independent Playtime.
11:30 Play
12:00 Lunch.
Play with McKenna.
1:00--Nap starts
4:00-4:30--wake up. Snack. Play.
5:15--Dinner
7:30--Sippy of milk, then bedtime. In bed by 8:00.

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Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 16 Months Old

This is a summary for Brinley from 15.5-16 months old.
This is her favorite thing to do right now--sit at the
table with the picnic set. 


EATING
Eating is good and normal. Have I mentioned that she is a sugar-addict? She loves sugar, especially chocolate. Loves. You know the crazy thing? Brayden tasted some sugar at his first birthday, then not again until he was 18 months old. Just another difference between a first and fourth child. At least she still eats healthy food :)

PLAYING
Playing is also good.

SLEEPING
Brinley moved to one nap a day even on Sundays. She is quite flexible, so on Sunday we can put her down two hours early and she still takes a good nap. I don't know if that is because she is still young for one nap or if it is just how flexible she is. Time will tell. My best guess is it is her age. She definitely is a flexible person--she has been great through disruptions over the holiday season. So she definitely has flexibility going for her, but going down for a nap two hours early is pretty odd for a baby, so I am guessing it is mostly that she is young enough she can be tired enough for a nap at that point and partially that she is also flexible.

BOUNDARIES--TOUCHING
Remember how I was wondering how the whole Christmas tree thing would go? She has been awesome! She started by touching, then moved to just looking, and now she doesn't even seem to be tempted by it. She only took one day of reminders to get to be consistent enough I trusted her by the tree. 

SICKNESS
Brinley got another cold during this period. Sicknesses are so annoying! And I don't think she is sick that often, but it seems like every summary lately has had a section on her having a cold or some other sickness. 

SCHEDULE
8:15--wake up. Eat breakfast (fruit, cereal, and milk)
Get ready. Clean with mom.
10:30 Independent Playtime.
11:30 Play
12:00 Lunch.
Play with McKenna.
1:00--Nap starts
4:00-4:30--wake up. Snack. Play.
5:15--Dinner
7:30--Sippy of milk, then bedtime. In bed by 8:00.


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Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 15.5 Months Old

This is a summary for Brinley from 15-15.5 months old.

EATING
Eating is the same. You might remember in the past we have had issue of her throwing food on the floor. This has continued to slowly improve. She mostly does it when she is done eating and we don't respond to her signing "all done." She then starts throwing food on the floor because she knows she will get noticed. This is a struggle with a fourth child--we are often distracted with other children! Children do what they know works. But each time we remind her the correct way to get our attention and require her to ask the right way. She is getting better with time. 

PLAYING
Playing is good. She loves her independent playtime. Sometimes it can even get her out of a grumpy funk. Maybe she just needs some time alone sometimes :)

SLEEPING
We continued with one nap a day during this period. We continued on with every other day, but then moved to one nap a day every day (except Sunday) by the end of this period. 

BOUNDARIES--TOUCHING
I had some Thanksgiving decorations out that Brinley LOVED. They were little Styrofoam balls that looked like little berries that went with a cornucopia. It was right at her level for playing with. Oooh boy. She loved to pulled them apart. Those things lasted through three other children and I was not about to let her destroy them. But it was a battle. She definitely has some tenacity in her. She gets worse when she is bored or tired, as I am sure every child does. Those berries survived, but not without lots of intervention. I am wondering how the Christmas tree experience will be...I imagine by the end of December she will be much better at obeying my voice.

WALKING
Brinley does not walk. She has walked, but it is not her preferred mode of transportation. She mostly walks on her knees these days--not crawling, just walking on her knees. I am not sure why she won't walk since she can. I don't know if she feels nervous at all or if she wants to hold on to "baby" for a while longer. I don't mind so much--she can't move as fast on her knees or even crawling as she will get once she starts walking.

NEW TOOTH
Another new tooth during this period! Brinley always gets a bright red cheek right before a new tooth comes through.

TIME CHANGE
The time change was during this period. It went really well. We couldn't do much prep before hand because of older kids and driving to school. We took about a week to move morning waketime to where I wanted it to be, but I wanted her waking earlier than she had been. The hardest part for her was adjusting to nap time. We took about the full two weeks to get nap moved to the right time.

SNOW
Brinley got her first encounter with snow. She wasn't so keen on it. She absolutely loves the outdoors and I knew winter would be a hard time for her. We get a lot of snow and it is hard for a child that age to move around in snow with proper attire on. She does not like being cooped up on the house--she likes to wander in the outdoors.

SCHEDULE
8:15--wake up. Eat breakfast (fruit, cereal, and milk)
Get ready. Clean with mom.
10:30 Independent Playtime.
11:30 Play
12:00 Lunch.
Play with McKenna.
1:00--Nap starts
4:00-4:30--wake up. Snack. Play.
5:15--Dinner
7:30--Sippy of milk, then bedtime. In bed by 8:00.

But during this period, nap was shifting between noon and 1.


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Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 15 Months Old

This is a summary for Brinley from 14.5-15 months old.

EATING
Eating is the same. She is just eating foods she can eat by herself.

PLAYING
Playing is good. 

SLEEPING
For naps, during this period we went to one nap a day. She wasn't quite ready for one nap every day, so we did an every other day plan. This worked nicely for our schedules of what we do each day. 

Brinley has this new thing of liking to throw her blankie out of her crib. Okay, she doesn't like it being out of the crib, but she likes to see what happens when it is thrown. 

Brayden also loved his blankie. My other two girls weren't highly attached to anything for sleeping, so we never had this issue, but I did with Brayden. With Brayden, he threw it out once, maybe twice, and then stopped. I think if I remember right, he threw it out, I gave it back, then he threw it out again during the same nap, so I didn't give it back, and he never threw it out again.

I tried the same thing with Brinley. She has gotten significantly smarter about it, but she still test by throwing it out every so often (though maybe she accidently drops it as she is throwing other stuff out). Most of the time, she throws everything but the blanket out. This isn't upsetting to her. But if the blankie makes it out, you know immediately.

The good news is she typically doesn't do this all until after she has slept, so it isn't preventing her nap from happening. 

I can talk to her through our video monitor, so when she has hung her blanket over the edge, I will talk into it and tell her not to throw her blanket out. The first time I did it, she looked pretty shocked :) But she has always listened.

SICK
Brinley had a cold during this time period. She was not happy about it. The first night, she woke up crying about 1 AM. I went in and sucked out her nose (used Little Remedies Saline Spray/Drops and a plain old Bulb Syringe Aspirator), put some oils on her (I use doTERRA Breathe Essential Oil Blend), and put some baby vics on her (Vicks Babyrub Soothing Ointment). Then I held her for a bit before putting her back in her bed.

Funny story about the nose sucking. I was doing it with as little light as possible so I wouldn't wake us up more than necessary. As I was squirting the snot onto a rag, it bounced off and hit me right in the eye! So gross.

MAMA!!!!
At the beginning of this period, Brinley started yelling MAMA!!! in about as annoying of a manner as you can imagine when she wanted me. Amusing initially, but quickly not something I enjoyed. Happily, before this two week period was up, she was done with the annoying yelling.

NODDING YES
I LOVE when babies start doing things like nodding yes and shaking head no. She is nodding yes now, which is very fun.

MINI-FITS
Oh yes, we have them. The mini-fits. Any time she doesn't get what she wants, she throws a little fit. I think this is highly compounded by her siblings. Any time she cries, they try to make sure she stops. They will basically give her whatever she wants in order to stop her from crying. Can we say spoiled much? I am having to work with them. They have such a soft spot for her, but it obviously is not the way to react with mini-fits. It will be interesting to try to teach them how to be gentle and loving during a fit while not giving in to the fit--children are so "black and white" that they can have a hard time understanding things like this sometimes, but they will get it. See The "Mini-fit"

SCHEDULE
Two naps:
8:45--sippy of milk, fruit, cereal, yogurt, finger foods. Independent Playtime happens in this block.
11:15--nap starts
12:45--wake up, sippy with solids (veggie, fruit, other foods we are eating)
3:15--nap starts
5:00--wake up, sippy with solids (veggie, fruit, dinner) 
7:30--Sippy of milk, then bedtime. In bed by 8:00-8:30.

One nap:
8:45--sippy of milk, fruit, cereal, yogurt, finger foods.
Get ready. Clean with mom.
Independent Playtime.
Lunch.
Play with McKenna.
1:00--Nap starts
4:00-4:30--wake up. Snack. Play.
5:15--Dinner
7:30--Sippy of milk, then bedtime. In bed by 8:00.

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Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 14.5 Months Old

Brinley at a soccer game of Brayden's

This is a summary for Brinley for 14-14.5 months old.

EATING
Eating went on pretty much as usual over the last couple of weeks. One change is she is totally done with being spoon fed. She wants to eat foods she can eat herself. 

PLAYING
Playing was good over this two week period, also. 

SLEEPING
This was our big event this period. She has often been the type to fuss for a few seconds even up to a few minutes when I put her down for a nap or night. Nothing big or concerning, but not the peaceful roll over and go to sleep I am used to with my other children. I have wondered if it is because she doesn't suck anything for comfort? 

But during this period, this "fussing" turned more into crying. I always take a change in normal behavior pre-sleep to mean something needs to change or the child is sick or otherwise afflicted. So I thought about things and decided she likely needed a waketime length change. I have long hypothesized she would be one to drop to one nap a day as a 14 month old. However, I know negative things can happen to sleep overall if you move sooner than the child is ready, so I tried something else first.

I moved her naps so they started 15 minutes later but ended at the same time. This did the trick! She stopped being upset before naps and before bed and took two naps as usual.

SICK
An interesting thing in conjunction with what I just talked about is she did get sick during this period. We had a fever run through our house and she got it, too. It happened after the nap change. On her worst day, she slept a lot longer for naps.

DENTIST
We had our first dentist visit! I was completely shocked but she didn't cry and she laid on the normal dentist chair/bench thing and opened her mouth. She is my first child who didn't go back to the back room for the first visit due to the crying. It was pretty exciting! This is a benefit of having older siblings go first and her observe them.

I learned some interesting things about her teeth/gums. I told the dentist how her teeth seem to push on the gums forever and then finally pop through and look like they have been through for a week or two. He said some children have more collagen in their gums than others. For children with lots of collagen, the teeth push and push against those gums before they finally break through, so once they do, they look like they have been through longer than they have. 

And that explains why her teething seems to last so long (it does) and why she is not what I call a "graceful teether." I feel bad for her! And I really, really, really, really dread the K9s and the molars. Really.

SCHEDULE
8:45--sippy of milk, fruit, cereal, yogurt, finger foods. Independent Playtime happens in this block.
11:15--nap starts
12:45--wake up, sippy with solids (veggie, fruit, other foods we are eating)
3:15--nap starts
5:00--wake up, sippy with solids (veggie, fruit, dinner) 
7:30--bottle, then bedtime. In bed by 8:00-8:30.


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