My Baby At 16 Months

Little is picking up new skills so quickly at the moment. We teach her something (like where her chin is) and a few hours later she demonstrates she still remembers. Her personality continues to get stronger each month too. She is still pretty chilled and she does some great cheeky grins, but she is getting to be more of a handful as well. If we turn our back she might have climbed on to the dining room table or be picking all the flowers in the garden. We’ve had a fair bit of screeching when she needs help or she’s protesting, like when we take her off the table. Keep reading for find out the biggest development this month though.

A 1 year old in a pink dress sitting on a red pillow and playing a small black piano

Feeding

Our success with food varies so much from one day to the next. We are trying hard to feed Little at set times and to give her a good range of protein, carbs and fruit and veg, but what she eats one day she ignores the next so it’s a bit of a challenge. Some days she rejects most food, others she eats everything. When she has finished she will put the food back in her plate and then pass her plate or bowl to us. She is still using a fork and spoon most of the time while she eats and she’s improving all the time. Recently she has shown us she can peel and eat a satsuma all on her own, but banana’s confuse her a little and she has eaten the skin a few times.

The amount of milk she has each day varies hugely too: if we are at home she will be tugging on my top all day, when we are out she is unlikely to breastfeed. I even spent 48 hours away from Little while in Manchester for BlogOn and she managed without milk the whole time (she won’t take it from a bottle or a cup).

Walking out the house holding a shopping basket; view of her back playing in the garden; sitting in front of snap dragons; going down a slide in the garden; sitting in front of bluebells; in a soft play; in big sister's pink princess dress; messily eating an ice lolly; sitting on a chair in the library in front of lots of books

Sleep

This is the month! The sleep has improved!!! If you’ve read any of the last 11 monthly updates you will understand just why I feel the need for those exclamation marks. We started to implement the advice from Sarah Ockwell-Smith a month ago and we began to night wean Little a week before I went away to Manchester. Her sleep isn’t perfect, but we’ve had a few nights where she has slept through the night and it’s pretty normal now for her to sleep from 8pm until after 3am. This is such a huge change. 

Most morning Little wakes up early (from 5ish) so I take her into bed to try to get a bit more sleep, sometimes this works, often it doesn’t. I’m not about to complain as I’m still enjoying the luxury of a few solid hours sleep, I might say something different next month though. I’ll be writing up about the sleep consultation and what we’ve been doing soon, I haven’t want to do it do earlier as I’ve been making sure it’s not a fluke first.

We also normally get a decent length nap after lunch of around 90 minutes, but this depends on when Little wakes up and what we are doing for the day. She goes to sleep more easily and sleeps better if she has a good nap. I find I tend to be happier too! As her bedtime is now later I am less likely to have time in the evenings to relax so I'm enjoying naptimes.

A 1 year old asleep in her cot with her arms above her head in a navy star sleeping bag on an elephant pillow

Growth

Little is still in aged 12-18 months clothes and size 4 nappies, but she’s had her feet measured again and it looks like she’s gone up a size and a half to size 5. I say “it looks like” because Little decided she didn’t like the lady in Clarks so we didn’t get a reliable measurement. Little has gained a bit of weight this month and is now 11.5kg and she measures 82.5cm (more or less the same as last month). It’s funny just how much growth slows down in the second year.

We bought a new car seat for Little this month. She hadn't grown out of the old one height wise, but she was close so we thought it was time to move her on. We went to the In Car Safety Centre (Rayleigh branch) who were really helpful advising us on the best car seat to fit in our current car and also our plans for a future car.

Activities

Little is such an active little girl she loves to run around and enjoys kicking balls around the garden. We are working on throwing balls too. When her sister is home they will often chase each other and play fight which leaves me worried she will get hurt. Her upper arm strength is really improving and she can now pull herself up on chairs and other high surfaces. We recently witnessed her first jump where she managed to take her feet off the ground while holding on to a bar.

In quieter moments Little enjoys reading. She will pick a book up, turn all the pages, put it down and pick up the next book working her way through a whole pile. Sometimes I think she enjoys this more than being read to. She also likes to take lego apart (her sister REALLY doesn’t enjoy this) and to tidy up. 

In more practical skills Little can now unscrew lids and undo zips. As she can reach most surfaces now it means no where is really safe to put things.

Little doesn’t really have an interest in playing with other children her own age. She wants to play with older children and she interacts well with adults, but at our music glass and toddler group she doesn’t really play with other children. 

A one year old in a spotty red sleepsuit drawing on paper

Communication

Little is starting to pick up more words; she can mimic what we say and surprises us with the correct use of a new word every few days. Her understanding of words gets better too as demonstrated by her following instructions and pointing out the object or animal we are talking about. Words she regularly uses include: hello, buh bye, yes, no, ball, duck, quack, cat, uh oh, boo, bubble, Mummy and Daddy. She will also sign to ask for food or for more of something.

Little really enjoys music and we regularly dance or sing songs together. She can do some of the actions to: Twinkle, Twinkle; Row Row your boat; Wind the bobbin up; If you are happy and you know it; the Hokey Cokey and 5 little ducks (complete with brilliant quacking noises).


Despite Little becoming much more work and the need for more attention she is lots of fun to be around. She makes us laugh and she’s warm and loving, I love my regular big cuddles. She is quite happy to play on her own so while I need to make sure she is safe and interact with her every so often she is quite easy to look after if she is in a safe area where she can’t damage anything or herself.

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