SwedeBaby Update, 14 Months

for her far off fans

So I never even posted the pictures of her first steps at 11 months, and now she is off and running. Our little girl likes going outside above all else, and brings her shoes to us and sings the little song we sing when we put them on her as her way to beg to go out. The song is to the tune of elmo's world.... we sing 'la la la, la la la la, baby's shoooooes! We have have our shoes on, let's go outside, baby has shoes!' So she begs to go out by opening her mouth and wiggling her tongue and going la la la la , in a sweet little begging motion. We also sing a song when we change her diaper that goes 'Didy didy dooer, didy didy doe, diddy diddy dooer, you know we love you so.' So if she has to go to the bathroom she lifts her shirt and points at her belly button and sings 'didy didy doe.....' We have been doing elimination communication with her where she goes on the potty, and so she sings us this song to let us know she needs to go. Most of her poops are on the potty, and the pees when we are looking out for it.

She likes this car, as it is one of the few things that is hers alone. This morning she did not want to come in, and stayed outside in the car where she could see us through the kitchen window, waving with excitement with glee in a 'look I am outside, you are inside, and I see you' way.

She is a good sleeper. We have never had an up all night, or up in the middle of the night night, even with jet lag and changing time zones with our winter travels. She is still a twice a day napper, but if there is something to do at nap time we do it, and sleep longer later. She nurses when ever she wants, which is basically when she wakes and sleeps, and in the night. We cosleep, so she is in our bed, and mostly falls asleep nursing. I attribute her calm sleep demeanor to the fact that we can always just nurse her back to sleep and stay cuddled up together.

She weighs 22 pounds, and we have no concerns over what she eats.

Her quickie snacks are skorpa which are swedish toasts like teething toasts, knackebrod (wasa type) crackers, rice cakes (which she helps herself to in the cabinet when she wants one), whole wheat pasta, pancakes, meatballs, chicken, red pepper, oranges, eggs, cheese, oatmeal, granola and yogurt, and her new found love- milk. She loved the vietemese pho soup we made so much she laughed out loud, and we ended up putting it in a sippy cup so she could eat plenty with out us having to spoon it in. She also enjoys pad thai and tom kha gai. She has a special fondess for smoothies.

The carnage after a peanut butter and jelly sandwich

Even under the arms...

If you think a kid can get messy with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, may you never know the damage that can come from her finding two stray frozen blueberries that rolled away on the floor to melt. We are on a smoothie kick making them with milk, frozen bananas, frozen berries. When she wants a smoothie, she stands at the kitchen counter and makes high pitch blender noise. I was making one this morning, and she opens her mouth really really big in an 'O' to indicate she wants some. She did this recently when we were having some ice cream, we were laughing as she chased the cones with her big wide open mouth....

Her other talents include saying water, mama, papa, her sister's name, and nanny and pa, and picking them out of photos. She can sign water, all done, more, owie, brush teeth, squirrel, cat, dog (or saying 'woof') when seeing a dog, and indicates she would like to go to bed now by making the rounds and giving goodnight kisses then walking in the bedroom. She is also a great dancer, and likes to push buttons to try to get the CD player to come on, her favorite CD is 'Let's Play' by Raffi. She loves to do itsy bitsy spider, and requests Old MacDonald often by singing EIEIO. She snuggles her older sister, and even curls up next to her. She tries to do sommersaults, having a strange desire to stick her head on the ground very firmly on the carpet, then sometimes toppling over. Today, she was leaning forward and guiding my hand to scratch her back, and clearly requesting a back massage and scratch. She also loves the stroller, and will go crawl up in it to request a walk in the neighborhood. She is patient in the ergo and beco back carriers, allowing me to take hour long walks in the forest with her strapped on. If it is nap time, she will sleep there. On the play ground, she loves digging in the sand. We can let her dig unsupervised in the yard for quite sometime. She also likes going on slides that are way too big for her. They make her laugh. If we go to the playground, she demands we put her on them over and over. On the toddler playgrounds, she can climb up the stairs or wall to the platforms herself.

In the garden, we try to keep her from playing in the dirt where the seedling are sprouting. She likes to have the water can filled so she can dump it out, often all over herself. She loves baths and water play, and experiments by putting her face under water and blowing bubbles.

She can follow instructions in swedish or english. She knows belly buttons, eyes, mouth, hair, head, feet, and others. She generally like copying anything we do, so if her sister is getting her hair done, she like to have a comb in her hand to follow along.

The little copycat likes to 'help' when we are working with the dishwasher, and gratefully, she is learning that sometimes it is being filled and sometimes emptied. She usually takes things out of the drawers but is now learning how to put things back in as well.

Her personality and demeanor are calm and sweet. She likes to make people laugh, and has developed a impish fake laugh to indicate she thinks something is funny. She once got quite squeal from me when she unexpectedly stuck her finger down my exposed butt crack while I was bent over weeding, a trick she tries to repeat when she sees any exposed skin, tickling and squeeeling, and making her fake laugh.

She has been an easy and fun addition to the family. While babies are always so demanding and ON all day, having a sweet older sister who is 4 and now 5 who can wait her turn made the transition to two kids pretty easy over all.