Anya turned 15 months yesterday. This morning we went to the doctor for her well-child visit.
weight: 22 pounds, 13 oz - 50th percentile
height: 30-3/4 inches tall - 50-75th percentile
Locomotion
Anya is still running......not that I suddenly expect her to stop. Unfortunately for Chris and I, she is quickly gaining proficiency in climbing. Yesterday, I caught her on top of her dresser. She had used the rocking chair to get to her nightstand and then the nightstand to get to the top of the dresser. Not 15 minutes after I moved the nightstand out of the room, she was on her way to the top of the dresser again -- she pulled the drawers out and used them like a ladder. Now this means I have to move all her medicine, etc. off the shelves we hung on the wall since she can reach it when on the dresser. She is keeping me on my toes.
Speech
I guess her vocabulary to be around 200 words now. Her favorites the last week have been "soccer ball" and "bicycle". She likes to practice saying them. Her annunciation has improved...not strongly, but I notice. I talked to her pediatrician briefly about it this morning. He said there is a strong correlation between language skills and general intelligence and that Anya is most likely a "gifted" child (as he witnessed her naming all sorts of things in the exam room). He just wants to address it again before Anya enters Kindergarten, for testing and to talk about special programs. But until then, no need to do anything differently. The idea of raising a "gifted" child honestly freaks me out. She's already a pain and more work in many ways than other kids her age (although in some ways she's easier and for that I'm thankful). I guess it is what it is and we'll figure it out. Or she'll be a terror and run the house.
Other Development
Anya is constantly testing both me and her boundaries, which is typical for this age group. If there is something she knows she is not allowed to do, she often attempts it (sometimes in slow motion), watching me the whole time and waiting for a reaction. Per Lynn's suggestion, we set up the pack & play for a time out spot. So far she loves going in there and jump-jump-jumping...and jumping. Quite alright with me.
Speaking of jumping, man, this kid is active. Not hyperactive, just...busy. In preschool co-op the subject last week was activity level. Some of the moms commented that Anya was extremely active. This sort of surprised me. I mean, I know she's considered active and is more than some kids. But I never thought that she was the most active, or unusually so. I can't think of any children in her age group more active than her, but I still don't think she's unusual in any way. Just has things to do. I hear my older brother was like that as a toddler, which is probably why my parents waited 5 years to have me.
She is starting to recognize some shapes, knows a few letters of the alphabet, and the names of a few numbers. I think only the idea of shapes is clicking at the moment, though. The other stuff is just memorization.
Food
After talking to the doctor, he thinks that the tomato and citrus looks more like a sensitivity rather than a true allergy (I would have thought the itchy bumps were a histamine reaction, but whatever). He doesn't think it would show up on an allergy test, so we're not going to put Anya through that for now. After her newest tomato/citrus-induced diaper rash has completely cleared, he wants us to very slowly reintroduce those foods in small quantities and in different forms (for example, tomato sauce, versus roasted, versus raw) and see how she reacts. And we should keep a food log.
Other than that, Anya's food habits are typical of toddlers (except for her love of broccoli). She spits out many vegetables, unless I "hide" them in soups, and some things she loves one day and won't eat the next. We really need to let her eat with utensils more often than we do (even per the doctor). I just hate the idea of cleaning soup-splattered walls. I guess it's time to get over that. Sigh.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Makin' Daddy Proud: A Concept!
My little daughter understands a real live concept and how to apply it!
We noticed that she was calling one of the dog's chew toys a "ring" which isn't what we call it (we call it "boomerang" for a reason too complex and/or stupid to go into). So I pulled off my ring and showed it to her and she said "ring".
Then she said "circle". I have no idea where she learned that one.
So I did a quick experiment. I pulled the remnant safty seal off a bottle of saline, and asked her what it was, "circle". Holy Cow!
Then I made an Okay sign with my hand and asked her what it was. She didn't say "hand" or "finger", but "CIRCLE".
I'm flabbergasted! That's not a noun or something, it's a shape. A concept applied across multiple and differing circumstances, and *I* didn't teach it to her.
Perhaps she's been reading books on semiotics or something while I wasn't paying attention (I have been working an awful lot lately.
Oh and she also just WALKED up the stairs. She had to use the wall for support, but she did it all standing up. Crazy
Man I've been away too much.
We noticed that she was calling one of the dog's chew toys a "ring" which isn't what we call it (we call it "boomerang" for a reason too complex and/or stupid to go into). So I pulled off my ring and showed it to her and she said "ring".
Then she said "circle". I have no idea where she learned that one.
So I did a quick experiment. I pulled the remnant safty seal off a bottle of saline, and asked her what it was, "circle". Holy Cow!
Then I made an Okay sign with my hand and asked her what it was. She didn't say "hand" or "finger", but "CIRCLE".
I'm flabbergasted! That's not a noun or something, it's a shape. A concept applied across multiple and differing circumstances, and *I* didn't teach it to her.
Perhaps she's been reading books on semiotics or something while I wasn't paying attention (I have been working an awful lot lately.
Oh and she also just WALKED up the stairs. She had to use the wall for support, but she did it all standing up. Crazy
Man I've been away too much.
oh!
I finally just figured out that Anya has a sensitivity & possible mild allergy to tomatoes and/or citrus. I was thinking that she just had very sensitive skin, but thinking back...every time she had something with tomato for dinner, the first morning poop would cause an immediate diaper rash. And the other day after lunch she was itchy...she had a little bit of lasagne with me. Last night was (an awesome) dinner of fish tacos with a guacamole-ish sauce I made with lemon & lime. This morning she had an immediate diaper rash after her morning poop. For some reason it never quite clicked because it was so mild, plus the diaper rash came 12 hours after the fact. I feel silly about not recognizing it because *I* had a tomato & citrus allergy growing up (mom, dad - was it mild when I was a toddler, though?)
We have Anya's well-baby visit to the doctor on Friday. I'll chat with him about it. If it turns out to be the same level of intolerance I had, it's no big deal. I'll just avoid tomatoes & citrus while she's in diapers & then not have them as a big part of her normal diet.
We have Anya's well-baby visit to the doctor on Friday. I'll chat with him about it. If it turns out to be the same level of intolerance I had, it's no big deal. I'll just avoid tomatoes & citrus while she's in diapers & then not have them as a big part of her normal diet.
Monday, January 26, 2009
As bad as the dog
After putting away some laundry, I came back into the living room. Anya had her coat sort of on, one arm in a sleeve and her head in the other armhole yelling "shoes! pawk! pawk!" It took me a minute to figure out that "pawk" was actually "park" (she doesn't pronounce her r's very well yet) and she was ready to go. It was quite adorable and I wish I had thought to get the camera. Unfortunately I wasn't planning on taking her, since it's freezing outside and I had some errands to run. Sorry kiddo.
Our dog is park-obsessed and is always ready to go. We can't say the word around her (or anything that rhymes or remotely resembles the word) or she gets overly excited and keeps bugging us until we either relent or tell her to go lay down. I suppose it's fortunate that Anya can't say her r's yet, otherwise we'd have two excited beings in the house begging us to go all the time. But I suppose that's something coming down the pipeline. Great.
Our dog is park-obsessed and is always ready to go. We can't say the word around her (or anything that rhymes or remotely resembles the word) or she gets overly excited and keeps bugging us until we either relent or tell her to go lay down. I suppose it's fortunate that Anya can't say her r's yet, otherwise we'd have two excited beings in the house begging us to go all the time. But I suppose that's something coming down the pipeline. Great.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Sleep connections
It seems over the last few days Anya has come to a realization: that she is not the only one who sleeps. It's one of those things I never thought about, just sort of figured she understood --- but of course, why would she?
I think the start of it was the other day (or perhaps when I or Chris would lay down on the living room floor, who knows). We were in my/Chris' bedroom. Anya pointed to the bed and said night-night. Sleepy. and then wanted up on the bed. She laid her head on the pillow and said mama, dada, night-night, pointed at the pillow/bed and then said various combinations of mama, dada, night-night, pillow, sleepy, Laika for several minutes. I could see the wheels spinning in her head and she was making some sort of connection. Who knows exactly what that connection was, but it was one nonetheless.
Today (so far) she has been rather obsessed with talking about sleep. She keeps wanting to read this book my mom got her about cats. In it there are pictures of cats sleeping. She flips to the pages and says kitty, sleepy and/or night-night. And has been pointing to the dog and cats when they are sleeping and saying the same thing. Kinda cool. I get a kick out of watching her figure things out.
Yes, little girl. Other people/animals sleep. Now I'm hoping she'll soon make the leap that at night we want to sleep and that she should be quiet and not wake us up. And sleep later than 6am while she's at it.
I think the start of it was the other day (or perhaps when I or Chris would lay down on the living room floor, who knows). We were in my/Chris' bedroom. Anya pointed to the bed and said night-night. Sleepy. and then wanted up on the bed. She laid her head on the pillow and said mama, dada, night-night, pointed at the pillow/bed and then said various combinations of mama, dada, night-night, pillow, sleepy, Laika for several minutes. I could see the wheels spinning in her head and she was making some sort of connection. Who knows exactly what that connection was, but it was one nonetheless.
Today (so far) she has been rather obsessed with talking about sleep. She keeps wanting to read this book my mom got her about cats. In it there are pictures of cats sleeping. She flips to the pages and says kitty, sleepy and/or night-night. And has been pointing to the dog and cats when they are sleeping and saying the same thing. Kinda cool. I get a kick out of watching her figure things out.
Yes, little girl. Other people/animals sleep. Now I'm hoping she'll soon make the leap that at night we want to sleep and that she should be quiet and not wake us up. And sleep later than 6am while she's at it.
Monday, January 19, 2009
milestone
Not a very exciting milestone, but today was Anya's first non-well baby visit to the doctor's office. This is not a post she will want her future boyfriends (or anyone for that matter) to ever read, but since I'm the one writing this blog and I'm a cruel, cruel mom, it's in here. Call it payback for not letting me lie on the floor, baby.
Anya has an itchy butt. She had a minor diaper rash the other week. I kept putting ointment on it and carefully cleaning, etc. But every time it looked like it was healed, she'd start scratching at it like mad, so we'd have to start over. Finally over the weekend, the itchiness started impacting her sleep. So I called the doctor this morning, figuring either a)some bacterial/yeast/etc infection was going on or b)I was doing something wrong.
Turns out it's neither, really. Yes, she does have a very minor secondary yeast infection out toward her legs (I actually can't even see it), but that wasn't what was bothering her. It was just plain old irritation. Not even a diaper rash. Apparently common in babies this age. Who knew. And we just have to break her itch-scratch cycle to get the area to heal. So we're armed with a higher-dose of hydrocortizone 3x a day for a week and also an antifungal for the yeast infection 3x a day for 2 weeks. As soon as she stops scratching so violently, the doctors orders are for her to go diaperless as much as possible. Time to stock up on more Nature's Miracle, since I don't know how the carpets will fare.
Oy. This will be a fun week.
Anya has an itchy butt. She had a minor diaper rash the other week. I kept putting ointment on it and carefully cleaning, etc. But every time it looked like it was healed, she'd start scratching at it like mad, so we'd have to start over. Finally over the weekend, the itchiness started impacting her sleep. So I called the doctor this morning, figuring either a)some bacterial/yeast/etc infection was going on or b)I was doing something wrong.
Turns out it's neither, really. Yes, she does have a very minor secondary yeast infection out toward her legs (I actually can't even see it), but that wasn't what was bothering her. It was just plain old irritation. Not even a diaper rash. Apparently common in babies this age. Who knew. And we just have to break her itch-scratch cycle to get the area to heal. So we're armed with a higher-dose of hydrocortizone 3x a day for a week and also an antifungal for the yeast infection 3x a day for 2 weeks. As soon as she stops scratching so violently, the doctors orders are for her to go diaperless as much as possible. Time to stock up on more Nature's Miracle, since I don't know how the carpets will fare.
Oy. This will be a fun week.
No rest for the mama
We've got a bit of a double standard going on in this household and I am the victim here (woe is me).
If either Chris, Laika, or the cats lay down on the floor while Queen Anya is present, she (very adorably) does some combination of patting them, grabbing a blanket, kissing a shoulder and/or saying "sleepy", "night-night" and "baby" and then just watches them or goes off and plays.
However, whenever I attempt to lay on the floor, she yells "No, no, no!", runs over to me, then keeps saying "up! up!" and "no!" as she proceeds to pull at my head and shove me until I am 100% vertical again. Without fail. I don't know what I did to deserve such treatment, but complaining to the management hasn't produced any results to my liking yet.
Hrmph. Not fair.
If either Chris, Laika, or the cats lay down on the floor while Queen Anya is present, she (very adorably) does some combination of patting them, grabbing a blanket, kissing a shoulder and/or saying "sleepy", "night-night" and "baby" and then just watches them or goes off and plays.
However, whenever I attempt to lay on the floor, she yells "No, no, no!", runs over to me, then keeps saying "up! up!" and "no!" as she proceeds to pull at my head and shove me until I am 100% vertical again. Without fail. I don't know what I did to deserve such treatment, but complaining to the management hasn't produced any results to my liking yet.
Hrmph. Not fair.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
a pleasant surprise
Anya has only been put down for naps/bedtime by us and Grandparents Lodwig, to the best of my memory. And only spent the night at G&G Lodwigs, our house, or a few other places where we were present. If Chris and I wanted to go out, either she'd spend the night at G&G Lodwigs or a sitter/friend would come to our house so Anya could be put to bed by us first and not have her sleep interrupted. Except for last night. It was my birthday and we wanted to go out, so we tried a little experiment. Our PEPS friends Loren and Deborah and their son Benjamin watched Anya at their house (thanks, guys!).
I expected the experiment would fail. I imagined Anya might take an hour to fall asleep there and possibly scream the entire time & we'd have to leave the restaurant to come and get her. That Deborah would have an exasperated, worn out look on her face & be totally relieved when we finally showed up. And then when we came to pick her up, that she would take another hour+ to fall asleep once we got her home (because, generally, if her evening sleep gets interrupted she takes awhile to settle back down). And I expected to pay for it big time today. Dramatic, aren't I?
I am pleasantly surprised to say it went well last night. Deborah said Anya (along with Benjamin) protested about 15 minutes before falling asleep -- unless she was just trying to make us feel better :). When we came to pick her up, she was groggy yet happy. She fell back asleep almost instantly when we got her back in her crib at home. And slept through the rest of the night even.
So while I'd still prefer to have her watched at our house if we need to go somewhere, it helps to know that staying at others' houses is an option. And maybe I can relax a little more about such things.
I expected the experiment would fail. I imagined Anya might take an hour to fall asleep there and possibly scream the entire time & we'd have to leave the restaurant to come and get her. That Deborah would have an exasperated, worn out look on her face & be totally relieved when we finally showed up. And then when we came to pick her up, that she would take another hour+ to fall asleep once we got her home (because, generally, if her evening sleep gets interrupted she takes awhile to settle back down). And I expected to pay for it big time today. Dramatic, aren't I?
I am pleasantly surprised to say it went well last night. Deborah said Anya (along with Benjamin) protested about 15 minutes before falling asleep -- unless she was just trying to make us feel better :). When we came to pick her up, she was groggy yet happy. She fell back asleep almost instantly when we got her back in her crib at home. And slept through the rest of the night even.
So while I'd still prefer to have her watched at our house if we need to go somewhere, it helps to know that staying at others' houses is an option. And maybe I can relax a little more about such things.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Our little climbstress
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
My little guilt-tripper
It seems that my daughter is learning the fine art of subterfuge.
At the moment her tactics lack refinement, but I can tell she's getting the idea and have no doubt she will soon be mastering the finer points of parental manipulation.
Exhibit A: Waking up.
She screams at night these last few days. (HA! say all you who have had insomniac babies. 'Bout time you Lodwigs got your comeupin's. Fine.) But she screams and scream incessantly for 45 minutes. I finally give in go to her and she'll gaze up at me with dry eyes and say, "Daddy. Book."
Exhibit B: "Falling down"
Last night I was holding her, and she wanted to play with the thermostat. (Being a father I now understand the joy of refusing the thermostat to my progeny.) I put her down and she whined. Getting no response, she decided to "fall down" and started crying.
Exhibit C: My favorite
Our dog has tail that is somewhere between a riding crop and a baseball bat. Several times a day Anya gets a rosy welt across her forehead, falls to her butt and proceeds to cry until picked up. The other day she wasn't getting the attention she felt she deserved. She walked over to the dog, grabbed her tail with both hands, whacked the tail with her head and began to cry.
Nice try kid.
At the moment her tactics lack refinement, but I can tell she's getting the idea and have no doubt she will soon be mastering the finer points of parental manipulation.
Exhibit A: Waking up.
She screams at night these last few days. (HA! say all you who have had insomniac babies. 'Bout time you Lodwigs got your comeupin's. Fine.) But she screams and scream incessantly for 45 minutes. I finally give in go to her and she'll gaze up at me with dry eyes and say, "Daddy. Book."
Exhibit B: "Falling down"
Last night I was holding her, and she wanted to play with the thermostat. (Being a father I now understand the joy of refusing the thermostat to my progeny.) I put her down and she whined. Getting no response, she decided to "fall down" and started crying.
Exhibit C: My favorite
Our dog has tail that is somewhere between a riding crop and a baseball bat. Several times a day Anya gets a rosy welt across her forehead, falls to her butt and proceeds to cry until picked up. The other day she wasn't getting the attention she felt she deserved. She walked over to the dog, grabbed her tail with both hands, whacked the tail with her head and began to cry.
Nice try kid.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Potty time, excellent!
So after two long weeks, our daughter is now potty trained. We're so proud of Anya. Diaper-free life is wonderful!
Just kidding. Actually, I got lazy and more or less gave up on the idea for now. She still announces her bowel movements most of the time, but it tends to be while I'm in the middle of something and/or don't feel like rushing her to her potty. I was reading up on the subject, and it's sort of pointless to focus on it too much right now anyway.
In order to potty train successfully, two conditions need to be satisfied. 1) Child needs to be aware of need to go to the bathroom. (check). and 2) Child must desire to be clean. Potty training readiness tends to happen around 2-1/2 years or so for most girls. As a now 14 month old, Anya doesn't mind walking around in a soiled diaper.
So any potty training we do now is just training *us* (to rush her to the bathroom), not really the kid. So for now, we just read her potty book often because she likes it so much (it's called Once Upon a Potty if anyone is curious). I still plan on setting her on her potty when the timing works out and getting her used to the idea. She certainly is not afraid of the potty, and gives it kisses in greeting (ew) and puts the removable pot part on her head (again, ew, but it's clean), and sits on it for fun. Love thy toilet, I guess.
Just kidding. Actually, I got lazy and more or less gave up on the idea for now. She still announces her bowel movements most of the time, but it tends to be while I'm in the middle of something and/or don't feel like rushing her to her potty. I was reading up on the subject, and it's sort of pointless to focus on it too much right now anyway.
In order to potty train successfully, two conditions need to be satisfied. 1) Child needs to be aware of need to go to the bathroom. (check). and 2) Child must desire to be clean. Potty training readiness tends to happen around 2-1/2 years or so for most girls. As a now 14 month old, Anya doesn't mind walking around in a soiled diaper.
So any potty training we do now is just training *us* (to rush her to the bathroom), not really the kid. So for now, we just read her potty book often because she likes it so much (it's called Once Upon a Potty if anyone is curious). I still plan on setting her on her potty when the timing works out and getting her used to the idea. She certainly is not afraid of the potty, and gives it kisses in greeting (ew) and puts the removable pot part on her head (again, ew, but it's clean), and sits on it for fun. Love thy toilet, I guess.
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