Our Little Jellybean in Month Fifteen

Margo is growing in so many ways… taller and skinnier, verbally, musically, physically… it is amazing how much they change and how quickly! She continues to be our utter delight and brings so much sunshine to our days! Margo’s vocabulary includes: dog, wa wa for water, dad, ball, bubble, mmmm or num num for yummy, and I am pretty sure she is saying other things but it is unclear. We have heard milk, mama occasionally, light and so much more gibberish. She loves to make sounds and learned “ho ho ho” at Christmas and continues to mimic more and more animal sounds including: cow, cat, owl, sheep, elephant, bee, she growls for lions, tigers and bears, sniffs her nose for a bunny and tries to whistle for a bird. When she drinks, she says “ahhhh” afterwards.

Margo is also able to identify most of the animals for which she makes sounds and she LOVES Sesame Street characters even though she does not watch the show. She has been fascinated with Cookie Monster since she was born. We have Sesame Street books and if I ask her where a certain character is she will point out Elmo, Cookie, Oscar, Ernie and Bert. We are working on the Count, Grover, Rosita and Betty Lou—all of which we have small stuffed characters. One of our new favorite activities is identifying objects on chunky puzzles and she is really working on and trying to put the pieces back in place. She is starting to kick a ball and thanks to The Little Gym, she can almost jump off of the ground. She has also learned to do a forward somersault with my assistance. She will put her head on the ground in position and I help her roll forward. The Little Gym has been amazing for her development and unfortunately we will no longer be able to attend due to our new daycare and work schedules. I am going to see if Gymboree offers any classes that might work better.

Margo knows to go to the fridge or pantry when she wants a drink or snack and can be quite demanding at times, ha ha! She can also be a little stinker, although she is still pretty darn well behaved. We struggled a bit with the Christmas tree ornaments this year and have a continued battle with the blinds. Telling Margo “no” does not work very well, but we don’t know what else to do. I have tapped the back of her hand, but think she is too young for spankings yet. No matter what we do to discipline her, she usually laughs in hysterics and thinks it is a funny game. So… we continue to say no firmly, remove her from the thing she should not be doing and have started to hand her one of her toys for more distraction. Sometimes we have to do this ten or more times in a row, all the while she is laughing her little self crazy! I used to think it was funny, but it is starting to get on my nerves. The book, “1, 2, 3… Magic” is on my reading list for 2012.

One thing that has amazed me about Margo is her love of music, singing and dancing. Our girl has definitely got rhythm and she is excited by any kind of music we put on, whether it is children’s music, 80’s or her favorite, classical. Her musical toys are her favorites and she dances and dances away. She has also started to sing which is so so sweet. I usually have no idea what it is, but she is carrying a tune of some sort well and this past month started trying to sing “Oh Christmas Tree”. She would point to the tree, sing, “ohhhh” and kind of carry on the tune. Then, for Christmas she got this awesome refrigerator alphabet game and it was probably her favorite gift. On the day after Christmas, she was already clearly singing the tune to the ABC’s, which my sister pointed out and really took me by surprise. We are definitely going to have to foster her love of music and I want to make sure she takes piano lessons whether she ends up liking it or not. Cary and I are both mathematically challenged and music is supposed to help develop math skills, among other things.

This past month we also made a decision that I am so happy about. After waiting for an hour and a half at Margo’s 15 month appointment, I walked out. It was the second appointment of the day, no one communicated with us and based on other past experiences, I had it! We selected a new pediatrician who is the only physician practicing in his office with the help of a nurse practitioner and I am so thrilled. The are appropriately called, VIP Pediatrics because they treat all of their patients like VIPs. Their office is happy, clean and their staff is caring, attentive and wonderful. I just wish I had made the switch sooner. Margo’s 15 month stats are:

Weight: 26%
Height: 45%
Head: 23%

Her pediatrician also looked at her stats based on the WHO growth charts and she is more like 50% in weight and height using that measure. Since we have been using the other formula since she was born, I will stick to that. Our girl’s Michelin Man arms are gone and she is getting longer and leaner because she is so active, a force to be reckoned with she is on the move so much! Margo is so active that at 15 months, it was definitely time to move to one nap and it has worked beautifully! She wakes around 6 am, has an early lunch between 11:15 and 11:30 and goes down between 12:00 and 12:30. She was not the best napper before, but now she consistently naps between 2 to 3 hours and is now able to stay up until about 7:30 pm. It works better for all of us across the board. Margo is more well rested, I have a great block of time to accomplish things and we can actually go out to dinner without being so worried about an early bedtime. The only thing I miss is my ability to go out to lunch, but the pros definitely outweigh that one little caveat.
After spending an hour and a half with the pediatrician, Margo is doing great and we got lots of excellent advice. Things we will be working on is stacking blocks, throwing the ball and talking more. I have been a little concerned that Margo does not say “mama”. The pediatrician thinks it is because I am always there to meet her every need so she essentially does not need to ask for me. I have to practice a little tough love and start trying to get her to say it before I just give in to her every want or need. I am also supposed to start getting her to say the things she wants rather than immediately give her what she points to. I will say the name of the object, encourage her to say it and if she tries (whether it is understandable or not), I can then give it to her. I am hoping that since she will be starting daycare two days a week, that some of these things will be remedied and they will know what to teach her and she will learn from her peers.

I could go on and on, so much has happened with Margo in recent months regarding her growth and development. This is a long post and I am probably boring my readers. Pray for us as we transition Margo to daycare in January, work on some major constipation problems and try to transition her to regular whole milk instead of lactose free—I am sure a new post is soon to follow. In the meantime, I am thoroughly loving this age that our girl is in. She is a hoot with a funny and sweet personality and she adds so much to my life!