Clare at 19 months

It's been a roller coaster, since I posted about Clare last.  And I've had so many good intentions to post about her, so I could remember the ups and downs.  So, here I am.  After the last post, where we thought we had figured out her stomach / food issues, things got bad again.  We took the food sensitivities out of her diet and she did REALLY well for awhile.  But as we introduced new foods in, she had the same issues.  It's just kind of been a blur of lots of trial and error.  Here's what I do remember (thank-you iPhone notes):

-  9.5 months:  Started crawling

- 11 months: "Peek-a-boo" and blowing kisses

- 11.5 months: Standing with the help of furniture; loves music and to dance

- 12 months:  Self soothe for naps;  not a picky eater, at all

-  13 months:  Understands and follows verbal directions; signs "more," "hot," "please" and "all done;" waves for hello and goodbye; taking steps on her own (Jan 16)

- 14 months:  Walks across the room by herself; loves books, turning off the TV to tease Max, playing in Brady's water dish and unrolling the toilet paper; nursing only a few times a day (before going to sleep and first thing in the morning)

- 16 months:  Running; down to 1 nap a day; loves Mickey Mouse; developing a strong personality

- 18 months:  Completely done nursing; quite friendly from a distance (try to pick her up, she's not a fan); says "hi, bye, papa, gaga, mama, dada, ma (Max)" and not much else; has become quite the picky eater (ugh!)

At 19 months, Clare goes to bed around 8:30pm and wakes at approx 7am.  She takes a 2 hr nap in the PM.  She's a pretty good sleeper at home (periodically still wakes up with gas issues).  She enjoys playing in water, getting dirty and being involved with anything Max does.  She'd eat fruit and fruit pouches all day long, if we'd let her.  Unfortunately, more than a little causes issues.  Cooked carrots, eggs, blueberry pancakes, hot dogs and chix noodle soup (no chix) are also favs.  Meat has become a big fat "NO" for her.  She doesn't like things like muffins . . . anything too "bready."

Her personality is so hard to describe.  Everything is on her terms.  She's a mama's girl, through and through and doesn't easily go to people.  She really has to warm up to someone before she'll go with them.  She's still not saying much, which makes life rough at times.  There's so much she wants to say and b/c she can't, there's a lot screaming and yelling, instead.  I'm really looking forward to when she can communicate better and have been contemplating speech therapy.

When the stars align for Clare, she is a happy, loving and easy-going child.  It's refreshing and gives us a glimpse of who she'll be when she can communicate better and her gas issues (hopefully) fully resolve.