In my last monthly update I said I wasn’t sure if I’d continue these updates monthly anymore. Then the 14 month update was reeeeeally late… so here we are with the 15 month update!! (also late…) It’s an exciting one with lots of new things, so read on, dear reader!


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Lil Miss Wagon

15 MONTH STATS
Weight: 25.4 lbs (93%)
Length: 32.25 in (95%)
Head Circumference: 19.2 in (99%)


Biggest development: At around 14 months, LMW started standing on her own, and she could also take up to 7 steps all on her own. Usually it was 2 or 3 steps and then she’d sit back down on her bottom. Now, at 15 months, she is walking all over the place. Her stride is still a super-wide stance and she’s still very cautious, but sometimes she gets excited and steps very quickly. If there’s nothing on the ground in her way, she can easily walk across the room! She loves to walk to you and fall into your arms.

Now it’s hard to take her into stores and restaurants because she just wants to walk around. After some wrestling, we usually let her loose, and the first thing she does is walk up to a stranger and she tries to say hi. We get a lot of smiles and comments when we’re in public because she is so friendly and not afraid of anyone or anything!


As for talking, she’s still on syllables but she’s very vocal. She uses the syllables “dat-doo” to show that she likes something, we think. She points to the dogs, her dad, toys, etc. She can repeat words after you (I say “beautiful” and she says “boh-duh-boo”) but actual words are still not quite there. In general, for anything, if you ask her to do it (say hi, say bye, wave, walk, point, etc.) she absolutely will not. She always wants to do things on her own time.

 

Another huge change is that LMW started daycare this month. She goes 4 days a week, to the same center as Wagon Jr., and her teachers are the same teachers that had WJ two years ago! We had a few rough dropoffs but, as we expected, she loves school and her new teachers, and she has never had a problem with crying or being upset for more than a few minutes. She eats great, but the napping has taken a toll on her for sure. But overall, she has a blast at daycare and the best moment of our day is when she sees us at pickup… she immediately screeches with joy and walks towards us with her arms outstretched. If we take too long to pick her up, it turns to whines… but of course we scoop her up immediately and she is always so happy to see us.


Eating

LMW absolutely loves eating and mealtime. Her favorite foods, hands down, are fruits and vegetables. Cooked, uncooked, sauced, plain… doesn’t matter. She loves it all. It’s a struggle since WJ still reluctantly eats these things, so when she finishes hers and sees his plate full of them, she screeches for more.

When WJ was this age, we still hand-fed him because we wanted to avoid messes. Now with LMW we just let her go crazy and clean up afterwards. WJ didn’t mind being fed, but LMW absolutely must do it herself. Also, if you’re eating your own food or drinking from your own cup, be ready to give it up because she absolutely must taste your food. From your bowl. With your fork. Now.


Sleeping

LMW’s sleep remains excellent, and she goes down for naps and bedtime without a fuss at all. The main problem, though, is that daycare only has one nap time, after lunch. LMW still really needs two naps, and takes two naps the 3 days a week she is at home: around 9am and around 2pm. Her naps are usually right around 1 hour long. The single nap at daycare is consistently around 1 hour as well. So when we get home, we feed her dinner and put her to bed right away, around 6pm. She falls asleep almost instantly and sleeps all night, but she has been waking up super early every morning, between 5:30 and 6:00am. She wakes before the sun! This is killer for our mornings, because she is cranky upon waking and cries while we scramble to get ready. Because of this, we’ve been going to bed earlier and earlier ourselves to try and beat her before she wakes up. We’ve tried pushing her bedtime forward and backward, with no success at all. The latest she has ever woken up since she started at daycare has been 6:15am, and that was on a weekend when she had two naps and got to bed before 6:00pm. So all we can really do is try and get her to catch up on her sleep each weekend and wait for her to adjust to the new schedule.


Wagon Jr.

WJ is nearing what I hear is the “magical” age of 4. I can definitely understand this because he is really a little man now. The biggest difference between 2 and 3 is that at 3, we can communicate with him in a back and forth fashion. This fares well for us as WJ’s parents because he is a very sensitive soul. He naturally understands how we feel and what we expect very easily, so if we are able to get him to focus on a conversation and understanding why he can’t do something, he is quick to say “awright” and move on to the next thing. He still definitely throws his share of tantrums, but we are able to stop most of them before they start simply by getting down on his level, talking to him, and explaining things in a way that he can understand.

The new challenge, however, is attitude. We’ve heard our first “I don’t care!” and several rebellious instances where he said he would do something because he didn’t care for what we laid out for him. For instance, if we announce that we’re having pizza for dinner, he’ll immediately say, “I’m eating pizza and NOTHING else!” because he knows we’ll try to get him to eat vegetables or something. Or, stepping back even further than that, when he comes in the door after we pick him up from daycare, before he even takes off his shoes, he announces, “I’m NOT eating any dinner!” We are very strict with him when it comes to these bad attitude moments, and he almost always is willing to take a do-over and say things in a more gentle manner, such as, “I am going to play with my toys a little first, then we will all eat dinner together as a family!”


He’s obsessed with superheroes and has recently discovered The Care Bears. Right now his favorite color is yellow (probably because his favorite Care Bear, Funshine Bear, is yellow) and his favorite vegetable is carrots.

Sibling Love

WJ and LMW continue to co-exist peacefully, for the most part. Fights are pretty few and far between since they don’t spend much time together during the week. And whenever they are together, Wagon Sr. and I are usually with them as well, so any time they are not being gentle we are quick to diffuse the situation.


It’s pretty clear that WJ really adores his little sister. Even though when we’re together he pretty much ignores her, we hear all over school that he is always talking about her and bragging about her. All of his classmates know exactly who she is and they all scream her name when they see her.


As for LMW to WJ… she loves when he’s around, and he really makes her laugh, but for the most part she just always wants to steal his food and toys!


That’s it from us this month! We’ll probably see you in a couple of months for LMW’s 18 month update (and WJ’s 4 year update)!