Brooklyn: 15 Months Old

After Brooklyn turned 1 year old (and we finished her monthly sticker photo sessions), I decided that it would be too much to continue to do a monthly update like that EVERY month. It takes a lot of time to get good pictures, edit them, upload them, and write out/edit the posts. So, I think what I’m going to do from here on out is just do a “Brooklyn update” each time she has a well check-up at the pediatrician (because I’ll also know her exact height and weight). So, Brooklyn turned 15 months old last Tuesday, but her appointment wasn’t until yesterday (1 week late).

As of Tuesday, Brooklyn weighs 22 lbs 10 oz and is 31 inches long. I knew she seemed taller, but I didn’t realize she’d grown 2 inches in the last 3 months! She has also gained about 1.5 lbs since her last check-up. She is 75th percentile in both height and weight now, and about 65th in head circumference. Sounds pretty perfect to me!

Brooklyn is still a pretty good eater, but she has definitely gotten more picky in the last few months. We have cut back to nursing only once a day (right before bedtime), and unfortunately, we are going to probably have to stop completely in the next week or two. I’m already getting sad about it. She still loves to nurse, and I love those few minutes with her in the evenings together. She is so active during the day that she rarely wants to be held unless she’s nursing or she’s hurt herself.

As far as table food, Brooklyn drinks whole cow’s milk with her meals and does pretty well with it. She doesn’t love it nearly as much as mommy milk though! She usually eats yogurt and fruit for breakfast. Many days she will eat a PB&J for lunch with fruit or sometimes leftovers if we have something she’ll actually eat. She usually eats what we eat for supper. Her favorite foods right now are raisins and grapes…haha. She loves most fruits and still likes many veggies (carrots, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, squash, zucchini). She doesn’t really like meat, although she did like hot dogs one time when we gave her a few bites. Most meats she just spits out unless they are mashed up in a casserole or something.

We have also recently started letting her use a spoon and/or fork with some meals, and it’s been pretty interesting. It’s a messy process! She can stab foods pretty well with her fork, but using the spoon is another matter. More food falls off the spoon onto her tray than what makes it into her mouth. Interestingly enough, she seems to prefer using her left hand to hold her spoon and fork, so we’ll see if that means she’s going to be a lefty one day :)

I’ve decided that I must have passed my sleeping genes down to Brooklyn. She is such a light sleeper these days! I don’t think we’ve intentionally made her that way, but it’s gotten to where I feel like I can’t make any noise while she’s taking a nap. Lately, she is back to sleeping through the night (knock on wood!), and she generally sleeps from about 9 PM to 7 AM, although the past few mornings she’s woken up around 6:15 AM. (I think she’s still on Eastern time from our trip to Gatlinburg!). There have been a few days where she’ll only take 1 nap per day, but she really does better with 2 naps. Her naps usually are anywhere from 1 to 1.5 hours each. She still sucks her left thumb when going to sleep for naps and at night.

As of a few weeks ago, Brooklyn is officially walking! She was about 13 1/2 months when she took her first steps, and it took about another month before she really started walking more than a couple of steps at a time. We really noticed a change on April 28th, the night of the tornadoes when we were at the Hesters’ house. She just seemed much more interested in walking than she had been before. By the end of that week, she was walking everywhere and rarely crawling! It was crazy how fast it happened. She is walking really well these days, although she still falls down quite a bit. She can walk outside on uneven ground pretty well too and is able to walk up and down hill decently.

I thought Brooklyn was into everything when she was crawling, but it’s definitely ramped up in the last few weeks since she started walking. She was a pretty loud crawler, but now that she walks everywhere, she can quietly sneak into other rooms without me knowing and cause havoc. It’s enough to wear me out sometimes! One of her favorite activities is still opening drawers and cabinets and pulling everything out onto the floor. I put the same things away multiple times throughout the day! Maybe that counts as my exercise, right? :)

Brooklyn is such a little helper, and she loves it when we acknowledge her efforts. We try to make it a point to thank her when she hands us something or to tell her “great job” when she’s done something good. One of her favorite things to do is “help” unload the dishwasher. Of course, it would go much faster without her help, but that’s okay :) She also enjoys helping me put clothes from the washer into the dryer. I will hand them to her, and she throw them in. Then we clap and do it again! She gets a huge thrill out of clapping for herself. It’s pretty cute!

Brooklyn also loves to talk and make noise. She says several words now that we can understand and plenty of other ‘words’ that only she understands. She can say “kitty”, “doggie”, “woof woof”, “bye bye”, “mmmmmm” (which means “yum!”), “uh oh”, “da” and “mama”. Right now, her favorite words are probably “kitty, bye, mmmm, and uh oh”. For a while, she thought that all animals were “doggies”, but we must have overcorrected her because now she calls them all “kitty”…even the doggies! :) I guess she’ll figure it out one day. She enjoys chasing Gabby around the house saying “Kitty! Kitty!”. She loves to say “uh oh” anytime she drops something or throws something, even it’s on purpose. She is also really smart about saying “bye!” She definitely knows what we are doing when we head to the car. She will always wave and say “bye!” Sometimes, when we are talking to someone, she will just randomly start waving and saying “bye”. I think that’s her not-so-subtle hint that she’s bored and ready to leave…haha. I’m telling you…this girl has some personality!

This little smart girl has also learned some other tricks. One day recently, she grabbed a box of Kleenex, pulled out every single tissue, and started using them to blow her nose. She would hold the tissue up to her nose and actually blow. Then, she would stuff the used tissue back in the box. So silly! She also knows what a hairbrush is for. I found her using her daddy’s comb to brush her hair one day last week. She is obviously watching everything we do (which is a little scary!), and she is soaking it in pretty quickly. She also understands what we are telling her a lot of the time even if she can’t respond back to us in words. We can usually ask her to hand us something, and she will do it. It’s crazy how fast she catches on!

I guess this comes with the territory of being a toddler, but Brooklyn is also turning into “Miss Independent” and sometimes has a bit of an attitude. She wants to do everything herself. She wants to use the spoon herself, hold her own sippy cup, and she wants to walk everywhere by herself. She usually refuses to hold our hand while she is walking, which isn’t a big deal around the house, but it is out in public. She has also started using this really annoying scream sometimes, which sounds like the beginning of a tantrum when she doesn’t get her way. It’s easy to get frustrated with her when she starts acting that way, but I try to be patient with her while at the same time not giving in to her “tantrums”. I don’t want her to figure out that she can scream and fuss and get whatever she wants. Most of the time, she is very well behaved, but she does have her moments :)

Brooklyn is still pretty friendly overall but is definitely more shy around strangers these days. She was very wary of Dr. Dudley in the office the other day and squirmed around when she tried to touch her. Brooklyn usually does fine with people she knows pretty well though.

Brooklyn currently has 5 teeth (2 on bottom and 3 on top), and it looks like #6 may be here soon. She’s been stuck at 5 for a few months now. She recently moved up to size 4 diapers and is wearing mostly 18 month to 24 month clothes. I think 18 month clothes are fitting the best right now. She wears mostly size 4 shoes, although I did put her in a pair of size 5s yesterday that fit great. Her hair continues to grow and get a little bit longer. It’s started to get a little curly in the back, especially after she hasn’t had a bath in a day or two :) She generally refuses to wear bows in her hair unless I can sneak it in her hair without her realizing it’s there.

A lot has changed in the last 3 months!! I can’t believe how much she has learned since then. Brooklyn doesn’t go back to the doctor for another 3 months, so I’ll be sure to do an 18 month update then.

Brooklyn, you are such a smart thing and so full of personality! We love you so much!