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21 MONTHS OLD

Eat wake sleep cycles 21 months old babywise

Caroline turns 21 months on 8/26/16! I just did an update at 20 months, so I actually wasn’t planning on a post at 21 months, but she happens to have a lot going on!


Schedule/Sleep 


There were some minor changes to her schedule this month. I pretty much just follow her lead at this age, and adjust accordingly.

She’s working on getting all 4 eye teeth at the same time, and is STILL working on getting her molars all the way through. I swear they’ve been moving at a glacial speed.

I think the major teething this month has contributed to some eating and sleeping issues, which is why we’ve adjusted the schedule slightly.

Eating– 

She’s simply not wanting to eat much (most days). She even points to her gums and says “uh oh” to tell me it’s hurting. As a result, she’s been on Ibuprofen and Tylenol, and I’m trying to give her
soft foods to eat.

She also gets frozen peas with her lunch to help calm the pain down. In addition to the teething pain, she’s just getting stubborn and testing boundaries at the table.

Many days she simply refuses to try something, or already has her mind made up and puts it in her mouth not long enough to even taste it. She’ll ask to get down and say she’s done immediately.

Eating has become a bit of a struggle (which is a first really). I’ve pushed out her dinner time to 6 (unless she shows signs of hunger earlier), to make sure she’s nice and hungry for dinner. Some days it seems to help her eat more, and other days it’s a wash.

We are still being consistent with our table rules. She is only allowed to eat what is offered for breakfast/lunch/dinner. In other words, if she doesn’t eat, I’m not going to go make her something else.

With that being said, I always make sure she’s got something that I know she’ll enjoy. Once she gets down from the table she’s done eating- no snacks.

In the extremely rare occasion where she’s hungry in between meals,  she is allowed to eat whatever was left on her plate for the previous meal, and if it’s close enough to the next meal, I simply move the meal a bit earlier.

She never asks for snacks, so I only save her plate for this off chance if she really didn’t eat anything.

Sleeping 

Caroline has gotten much better at bedtime. The sticker chart is unfortunately no longer working, however. She’s simply no longer motivated by it. The ok to wake clock is still being effective!

While she’s gotten better about staying quiet and trying to go to sleep at night, it’s taking her awhile to get to sleep. Most days she’s not asleep until around 9 even though we start her bedtime routine at 7:15, and she’s in bed a little after 7:30.

We were putting her down at 7 for awhile, then 7:30…it really doesn’t seem to matter the time right now. She’s just taking awhile. So, we settled on 7:15 for this month.

Naps have been a bit more challenging this month. I had to help her get to sleep twice (which never happens…I literally can’t remember the last time prior to this month).

Her naps have also been shorter. All of the above mentioned issues may simply be due to teething. She may also be learning new skills and just wanting to practice. She talks a lot at night before she goes to sleep, and talks when she wakes as well.

With all of this going on, I am letting Caroline sleep in later (if she will), and I never wake her from her nap. She needs the sleep right now, so if she can catch up and get a few extra minutes I leave her be! She’s always tired enough to still stay on schedule (even if she sleeps in).

I went ahead and adjusted her wake clock to be set for 7:15 instead of 7. Even if she’s not sleeping, she gets 15 extra minutes of quiet time.

7:15 am wake and drink milk
8/8:30am breakfast
12 pm lunch
12:30-3:30 pm nap (I no longer wake her), milk when she wakes
6 pm dinner
7:15 pm bed

See all of our schedules here

Wake time


Independent play has been a HUGE struggle all of the sudden. Caroline is going through a very clingy phase, and simply won’t allow room time to happen. She stands at the closed door and knocks for me to open it.

How we do room time

She calls for me and whines and cries. She does not want to be without mama right now. While I know she’d benefit from the room time, I am not forcing it. If she calls for me I come.

Sometimes I can calm her down and encourage her to play. Other times she won’t let me leave. I probably should hold my ground a little bit better, but to me this seems like just a phase that she will move on from quickly. She’s always been great at her room time, so I know she’s going to get back to it eventually.

As for the clinginess…. her tantrums are pretty

isolated to moments when she wants mama to do

something:

– Walking from the car into a store, or into our house. 

Normally she’s thrilled to walk and holds my hand when I ask her to. At home she even walks on the sidewalk until she gets to the stairs, then waits for me and holds her hand out. At the moment, she is refusing to walk. She wants up all the time.

She will immediately go into a tantrum if I ask her to walk instead. She’s good about using her words when I ask her to. So, as long as I have free hands to pick her up, if she say’s “up please”, I go ahead and pick her up. There have been a few moments, however, where we were walking towards our house and I had my hands full.

I simply couldn’t pick her up. I tried explaining to her that I couldn’t pick her up right now and I needed her to walk. I’ve also tried asking her to help me carry something, etc. to get her involved.

None of my tactics work! She screams and cries, and even says “please”. If I don’t pick her up she is all out tantruming on the sidewalk, trying to climb up me, pulling at the things I’m carrying, etc. I’ve even tried to get ahead of her and encourage her to follow me.

She’s fast…I simply can’t get around her! I’m sure this is quite the sight from our neighbors’ windows haha! This too shall pass….

– Getting up on the couch. 

Normally she’s super excited to go and get her stool, and climb up on her own. She thinks to do it on her own and would probably throw a fit if I simply put her on the couch. She is very independent.

Right now, however, she had a moment where she walked up to the couch and immediately started crying and screaming for me. I was making dinner, so I came as soon as I could.

I calmed her down and had her explain what she needed. “Up”, she said. I reminded her she could get her favorite green stool. She started immediately crying again saying “no no no mama up”. She was fine as soon as I put her on the couch…

– Daddy starts to read a book to her and she takes the book from him and says “Mama”, as she walks it over to me. 

– She would rather get on Mama’s bed and snuggle than have playtime most days.

etc, etc…..

This same clingy girl however, went to daycare last week and never cried. She had been to this place only once before for a few minutes while we were checking the place out and talking with the owner. It was MONTHS ago.

This was the first time I’d actually used it for daycare. I dropped Caroline off for 3 hours. She immediately started playing with the toys and other children. I told her goodbye and she was totally fine with me leaving.


Milestones/Interests

– Starting to put 2 words together (more beans, no mama, uh oh mama, no no mama, no go mama)
Notice a mama trend!?

She can answer a pretty challenging question of “what did you do today“. She comes up with simple words to describe what we did (go, water, lunch)

 She’s excellent at following directions. I ask her to wait, come, turn around, stop, go, etc. She does it all perfectly! If she’s upset that’s a different story and she has some selective hearing going on…. haha

– Her favorite place to be is Mama and Daddy’s bed

– She can get onto a low balance beam all by herself. She then needs a little assistance walking on it (only because she’s distracted and not paying full attention)

– She can do a somersault all on her own at gymnastics now!

– She loves vacuuming like Mama

– She points out all of the dog hair that finds it’s way onto everything. She says “Moe” for Moose.

– She points out if the toilet needs to be cleaned “uh oh, Mama”

– When she is thinking she says “hmmmmm”

– She can apparently put her big wooden block puzzles together in a matter of seconds (found that out yesterday)

– She loves singing “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear” at gymnastics and doing all the moves

– The last couple of days she’s really enjoyed feeding Moose his breakfast and dinner, by hand

– She loves getting together with other children and having someone to play with, but she’s still very independent and likes to do things on her own.

– She still is too shy to say hello or wave to people, but she will say thank you (yaya) and bye bye

– She can say all of the “beeps” in Little Blue Truck as we read it. She also says “stuck” when it comes up in the book.

– She understands how to close her eyes and tries really hard to do so at bedtime

– She is back to letting us brush her teeth easily. She says “ahhhhhh” the entire time now, instead of just when she opens her mouth.

– Pumpkin seeds are her new favorite thing to eat (as of yesterday).

– We read The Kissing Hand a few weeks ago. I gave her a kiss on the palm of her hand when they talk about it in the book. That day when she went to the bathroom she stuck out her hand for a kiss. I gave her one, and she held out her other hand. She then held out her feet for kisses too. She asks for this every time she is on the potty at home now! She gives my hands and feet kisses in return.

– I can blow a kiss at her and she’ll catch it and slap it to her face. She tries to blow one back.

– She is really into smelling food. In the grocery store we leave with smashed bread because she sticks her face in it so much. She looked like she had a bloody nose the other day from smelling cherries at the dinner table.

– She’s a great little helper and loves putting the groceries away and carrying the bags.

– In the car, she knows when we are close to home and she’ll shout “Moe” for Moose. She also knows when we are close to Daddy’s work and shouts “Daddy”.

– Any time we go anywhere, when we get there she  yells “yay”.

– I can now ask her to clean up her room, and she can clean up the ENTIRE room. We used to have to specify to “put away your books, please”.

– She likes to carry her giraffe bike and flip it over to “fix” it.

– She loves dancing and will stop what she’s doing if her favorite song comes on (yes it is still Thomas Rhett T-Shirt)

– She loves sitting on things and telling me that she’s sitting.

– She’s excellent at waiting patiently for her turn.

– She loves when I put flower clips in her hair and usually requests that I put all 3 in!

 

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