Dear Siena,
I procrastinated on your update this month and now it’s 2 weeks late. But, better late than never!? I want to keep these updates so that I can read them for years to come, so it’s better to post late than to skip one in my opinion!
You grew up even more last month and your language skills are exploding. Your dad and I started writing down the words you say and we couldn’t stop thinking of them – we got to over 100 before we stopped counting. Your ability to communicate with us helps SO much becuase you’re able to tell us what you want and it really eliminates a lot of frustration on both our ends. You can now tell us when you want to “see” (usually to watch us cook), if you want to be held (“up”) or now (“down”). You know most of your favorite foods including toast, apple, eggs, and avocado and when you want more of them you can ask (“more berries”). You can also tell us when your food isn’t the right temperature (“hot”) and when you want your jacket off (“hot”) or on (“cold” or “brrrr”). You continue to love to learn new words and will sit with us and point at pictures in books for quite a while. You even know a few letters, including “O” and “S” and shapes, including “heart” and “star.” You can say yellow but I’m not sure you really know what it is.
You’ve become quite affectionate with your stuffed animals and have grown really attached to them. Every night before bed your dad has a little ritual where they all hug and kiss you goodnight. You really like to bring them into different rooms and stack them all up on someone and then try to sit on top of that person.
You really enjoy baths, even more so now that we bought you colorful letters that stick to the walls of the tub. You still love my purse and have managed to learn to zip and unzip it. You still like keys and try to use either our real keys or your toy ones to unlock the door (and now you can reach the door handles and try to get out! You can’t actually turn them yet thankfully). You love to click glasses with us and shout “cheers!” and when we’ve taught you to cheer and say “FUN!” which is pretty adorable. When a group of people laugh you let out a really loud, fake laugh, to show us that you want to be included in the group. 
You finished the final leap of the “Wonder Weeks” last month and one of the milestones from that leap was the ability to finally walk in one direction for more than 30 seconds. You used to just wander the street when we’d go on walks but now you’re much more focused on moving in one direction (not to say you don’t still wander). This means we can actually take you for walks on the trails near our house! That’s a fun new event for us and we’re looking forward to many walks this summer.
You have continued to be a picky eater and it seems to be getting worse. The good news is, the foods you DO eat are healthy, but it still frustrates me at times that you don’t eat a wide variety and it often means we have to pack foods we know you’ll eat when we go anywhere. You really love greek yogurt which allows me to sneak some extra nutrition in it by mixing things in like flax seeds, hemp seeds and even peas! You LOVE eggs but aren’t loving the frittatas I make in advance (which I also snuck ground turkey and veggies into) as much and prefer your eggs fresh from the griddle. Sometimes you eat so much I can’t believe it and other days you barely get anything down and just throw it all on the ground. My patience wears thin at times but I try to remind myself that it’s normal and you will eat if you truly need it.
Sleep was weird this month. You used to sleep through the night without a peep but consistently woke up at least one time in the middle of the night for the entire last month. Usually we just go in, check on you and put the paci back in your mouth and you’d fall back asleep, but it is still disruptive to our sleep! You also started waking up earlier than normal. It has started to get better already so I’m hoping it’s just a phase.
Our week continue to be full, with Nana coming Mondays to watch you, Grandma Ewing coming Thursday afternoons through Friday mornings (me and your dad go on date night every Thursday), gym class on Friday mornings, Mommy and Me at a local pre school either Tuesday or Thursday and several meet ups at the park or out and about with other moms and their children, including some new friends. We run together in the stroller about one time per week now, always for a just a slow recovery jog for me and usually along the coast.
Siena, I couldn’t be more thankful to have you in my life. I feel so lucky that I get to spend so much time with you and be the one to teach you so much. It’s an honor to watch you grow and learn. I love you!
Love,
Mom
oh no! sounds like the 18 month sleep regression! hopefully its over soon!
I’m glad you said that! I was hoping that is what it was (becuase it’s temporary) – I read it can last a few months so that makes sense. It seems to be getting better already so hopefully all back to normal soon enough!
Oh, so sweet! She’s a lucky girl to have such great parents! She will love reading these blogs some day!
Love this and all the pictures! The food thing can be very frustrating, especially when you try so hard to make healthy things and they don’t eat it. I do find my kids (ages 5 1/2 and 3 1/2) will have days where they eat a TON and days when they eat very little. It’s so nice that at their ages they really can practice intuitive eating. So I try to not stress and just let them lead the way. It can be hard sometimes though!
Thanks Taryn! It is certainly frustration and I definitely need to work on my patience. I know she’ll be just fine if she doesn’t eat everything give her and it’s better for her to choose her own foods and finish when she’s full but it’s sometimes easier said than done! Hah. Glad to know I”m not alone!