I’m a few days late on this, but Savannah turned 15 months old about a week ago! It’s pretty crazy how fast the time is flying by. It really doesn’t seem like that long ago that we were celebrating her birthday.
She won’t go to the doctor for her checkup until August 16th, but I’ll be sure to update her stats after that appointment. Right now, I’m estimating that she weighs between 21 and 23 pounds. **Update: On August 16th (so she was more like 15.5 months), she weighed 23 lbs 12 oz (80th percentile) and was 31 and 1/4 inches long (75th percentile). I knew she was getting heavy, but had no idea she’d gained about 3.5 pounds since her last check-up! After she turned 1 year old, we cut back to nursing twice a day–first thing in the morning and right before bedtime. Then, a couple of weeks ago, we cut back to just once before bedtime. She has adjusted really well! She still loves to nurse, and I enjoy those few minutes in the evenings with her. I don’t know how much longer we’ll go before I wean her completely, but hopefully that transition will go well too.
Savannah is still a great eater! She still eats just about anything and everything, although sometimes she will be picky about certain foods occasionally. For breakfast, she usually eats Cheerios, fruit, and sometimes yogurt. For lunch, she will eat whatever Brooklyn and I eat (sandwich, leftovers, etc.). And for supper, she eats whatever I fix! She makes it easy because she’s usually happy as long as it’s edible! :) Her favorite foods are probably fruit (pretty much all of them) and snack foods (animal crackers, raisins, Goldfish, etc.—because she eats them whenever Brooklyn does!). She drinks whole milk and water from sippy cups really well, and she is learning how to use a fork and spoon. It’s a messy process, but it keeps her entertained and occupied :)
Savannah is sleeping well at night (knock on wood!) almost every night. It’s so nice–especially since she didn’t consistently sleep through the night for so long! These days, we try to get her in bed by about 8 PM, and she almost always sleeps until at least 7 AM and sometimes as late as 8 AM! I won’t complain about that one bit! Her naps, on the other hand, are very inconsistent these days. Some days, she won’t go down for a morning nap until almost lunch time, and other days she is tired and falls asleep by 9:30 or 10 AM. Her naps are usually not much longer than an hour, if that. She really still needs 2 naps per day since they aren’t very long, but hopefully we can transition down to one good nap per day soon. She always sleeps with her paci—I’m not sure how we’ll get her to sleep without it whenever we get to that point! Definitely not ready for that yet :)
Savannah took her first unassisted steps on June 8th (13 months + 1.5 weeks old), and by the time she was 14 months old, she was walking pretty well! These days, she walks like a pro—no big deal, Mom! I only see her crawl every once in a while. It’s funny how she just dropped something like crawling that she did for months! But, I guess it’s because walking is so much faster now. She falls some on uneven ground outside (obviously), but she is really steady when walking around the house and is getting faster every day. She’s not running yet, but I’d definitely call it “speed walking” :)
Savannah’s biggest specialty area is probably climbing, as I’ve mentioned before in other blog posts. You name it—Savannah can probably climb it ;) I’m honestly surprised she hasn’t figured out how to climb out of her crib yet. I don’t even worry about her climbing my 2-step step stool in the kitchen because she’s such a pro at it. She climbs onto Brooklyn’s bed (from the window seat or the desk chair), climbs into the dining room chairs and onto the table, and up and down the step stool in the girls’ bathroom. She has recently even begun to climb onto the coffee table from the floor. She can just barely reach one knee up on top of the table and then uses her arms to push the rest of the her body up. It’s pretty impressive! She has even climbed into the bath tub once like that too…just dove right in head first once she got her knee up on the side! She also LOVES to climb stairs. She can crawl up and down stairs on her knees and also go up and down on her feet as long as she’s holding onto a rail or the wall. It’s really insane. She might just be the athlete in our family one day! ;)
One area that Savannah has fallen behind in, however, is her speech. She was saying “cat” for several months, but dropped it one day around the time she started taking a few steps. She hasn’t said it (or anything) since. Every once in a while, I’ll *think* that I hear her say a word (I thought I caught her saying “doh” for dog last week when the neighbor dogs started barking), but I’m never exactly sure. And when those times happen, she never says it more than once. She either refuses or can’t repeat things that we babble to her. So, as of right now, Savannah doesn’t say any words. She does babble some on her own terms and will say things like (Ma! Ma! Ma!) and “eh”, which is her response whenever you address her by name or ask her a question. I’ll just be honest: I go back and forth between worrying that something’s wrong with her and trying to convince myself that words are coming eventually. We addressed it with her pediatrician about a month ago, and she suggested we get Savannah’s hearing tested and also get her evaluated by Early Intervention. Long story short: her hearing is fine, and she barely qualified for services through Early Intervention because their assessment is that she has a 25% delay in speech. So, once a week we have a special instructor coming to our house to work with Savannah. Right now, she is learning some sign language and gestures (like pointing to pictures in a book), and in a couple of months, a speech therapist will start coming too if she hasn’t caught up.
Thought this one was sweet even though its blurry! She kept smiling and running up to the camera…haha
The good news is that Savannah’s receptive language skills are great. I feel like she understands a lot of what we say at this point. After her naps, I’ll ask her to hand me her paci, and she will take it out of her mouth and put it in my hand. I can ask her to go get a book, and she’ll walk across the living room, grab a book, and bring it to me. And it’s very obvious by her grunts and “ehs” when I ask her if she wants food, that she knows exactly what I’m asking :) It will just be nice when she either learns some sign language and starts uses it on her own, or starts using some words! Other than grunts and “ehs”, crying is really still her primary form of communication with us, which is getting old at this point. I’m ready to move on from that!
Savannah loves to be a helper right now and is starting to imitate things that we do. I know she has learned a lot from Brooklyn about how to clean up, but Savannah just impresses me with how she loves to help! We will start cleaning up blocks in Brooklyn’s room, and if Savannah is nearby, she always comes over to help us. It’s so cool! She also likes to play with the dust mop and broom, although she can’t exactly use them yet :) She likes to help put clothes into the washer and dryer too. Basically, anytime she can help put things into a container or take them out, she’s all in! She also likes to pretend to brush her hair with a hair brush, holds a cell phone up to her head (as if to talk on it, I guess), and uses a rag to “wipe down” different surfaces. I love watching her learn new things like that!
Savannah is still very much a mommy’s girl these days. I think she’s gotten better about being away from me; she doesn’t always cry when I leave her with someone else (as long as she’s distracted when I walk out). She used to cry when I got home from work and she saw me, but she doesn’t do that anymore either. So, she’s getting better! Thankfully, she usually does just fine when Travis or my parents are home with her. Most of the time, she doesn’t want to go to someone else that she doesn’t know very well. But, I think she’s gotten a little more adventurous since she started walking and can toddle around on her own; she will go explore around the church building after services without us nearby and doesn’t mind one bit!
I love how she crinkles her nose when she smiles so big!
Savannah currently has 10 (TEN!) teeth, which is just crazy to me. Looking back, apparently Brooklyn only had 5 teeth at 15 months old. Savannah has doubled that at the same age! She has all four 12 month molars, 4 front teeth on bottom, and 2 teeth in the front on top. I can’t tell if more are currently on the way, but she’s not currently cooperating with tooth brushing very well, so maybe her gums are hurting. A few weeks ago, we moved her up to size 4 diapers, although she can still fit in 3s if necessary. She is mostly wearing 18 month clothes, although she can still wear some 12 month stuff and even some 24 month stuff, depending on what it is. She is also wearing size 4 shoes currently. Savannah is slowly but surely getting more hair, but it’s not long enough for bows yet—and her head is really too big for just about all of her headbands. Her hair is pretty blond, so it’s kind of hard to see! It’s definitely lighter than Brooklyn’s was at this age. Savannah loves to pull her hair in the back when she’s tired or upset. It’s a comfort thing, I think. Her eczema is pretty well under control except for around her wrists and hands where her skin stays pretty red.
Likes: clapping for herself, waving bye-bye, playing Peek-a-boo, getting tickled and chased around the living room, trying to pet Gabby, looking at books, climbing anything she can, throwing balls
Dislikes: getting antagonized by her big sis – Savannah lets out an ear-piercing scream when Brooklyn is getting on her nerves; getting out of the bathtub, using sign language (so far, she will usually protest when we try to get her to do a sign), not getting food fast enough :)
We love our sweet Savannah! It’s so much fun to watch you grow and change!
