15 Months

Well, things around here are busy, busy, at least for Miss Kalaya! She is growing and changing so much every day, I can't keep up with everything! This last month has been full of so many new things, it is so exciting to watch her!

Kalaya is walking, walking, walking! She basically just got up about 2 weeks ago and walked back and forth across the room all day and hasn't stopped. She definitely could have done it much sooner, she just lacked confidence. She is go, go, go! It's super cute, we love watching her waddle everywhere, toes turned out, knees locked. She gets going really fast, falls over, and gets right back up again. She seems so unsteady, but she doesn't fall as much as it seems like she should. She explores all over the house and any where else we go.

It's crazy how much her play time has changed. She is so independent at playing, as she always has been, but even more so now. Our house is pretty much completely Kalaya-proof (not necessarily any baby proof, she knows what she is and isn't supposed to get into), so she likes to explore and experiment where ever she goes. She has some drawers in the kitchen to play in, which she LOVES and empties several times a day. She has lots of toys, though she doesn't play with a lot of them as much. She looooooves books. She sits and reads quietly to herself several times a day, which just tickles me to death. She is starting to play pretend, which is adorable. She hugs and kisses her babies and animals, puts them on blankets, while saying "night night!", pushes them in the stroller, carries around bowls and spoons to "feed" herself, pushes trucks around and has a noise that goes with them, pretends to brush her hair, put on lotion, carries a purse around, plays dress-up with animal ears, jewelry, hats and shoes; it's so fun!

Her eating habits have gotten much more diverse. (on most days) She will finally eat a lot of different foods. She also seems to want to eat more in one sitting. We used to throw out a lot of food, because she wouldn't eat it!! It was awful, I hated the waste! Now that she's eating bigger meals, I've gone back to making meals for her (kind of baby food and baby food upgrades), freezing a bunch and having them ready. I like that she's being exposed to so many tastes and foods, which you certainly can't get in baby food jars! I made some with broccoli, cauliflower, salmon, quinoa, and avocado, just to name a few. I haven't seen those pre-made! Part of the reason she may be eating better now is that 2 more molars came in, so maybe teething will slow down a bit. She's up to 12 teeth!

She says 2 words clearly now (bye bye and night night) and has several more that are very close. (do for dog, da for daddy, nnnuh for nurse or sometimes no, etc.) She signs a LOT, which is so helpful, I am so, so glad we decided to sign with her! If for no other reason, it avoids meltdowns, because she has figured out that crying will not get her what she wants/needs. If she starts to fuss, whine, beg, etc, we say, "Use your words please!" and she signs for what she needs. This includes: want please, all done, more, help, eat/food, nurse, dad, mom, sorry and we see a LOT of dogs and birds when we're out and about! : )

One thing that has been happening at our house occasionally, it time out. With this new freedom of walking, of course, comes independence. It maybe happens once a day, if that. It's only if she's doing something unsafe, after a warning, or if she refuses to do something deliberately. (usually when she has something she's not supposed to and won't give it to the person requesting it) She gets a warning and she KNOWS what "time-out" means. A lot of the time, simply saying, "Do you need a time out for not listening?" is plenty and the behavior stops. (this is after we've asked her to stop repetedly and tried distraction too, unless it's something extreme or dangerous) If she refuses to cooperate, we have a spot in the family room that we put her in until she calms down (since it's usually not accepted well) or 1 minute, whichever is second. She then has to say (sign) "sorry" and give hugs and kisses, which she always does and 9 1/2 times out of 10, the behavior disappears! It's been working great. I'm amazed that parents think that their 3 or 4 year old "won't understand" time out. The first couple of times she tried to get away, but now she understand that she stays there until we say she can get up.

Yesterday something AMAZING happened. My mom and I were out shopping and I found a potty for her that was dirt cheap on sale that can either sit on the ground, convert to a seat to put on the big toilet, or a stool for after they're trained. I bought it and set it up in the bathroom, just to get it out of the box. We told Kalaya what it was and didn't think anything of it. A little while later, while starting to talk about bath time, she started undoing her diaper. I asked, "Do you want to sit on the potty?" She knew exactly what we meant and walked into the bathroom. I helped her sit on it and gave her some water to drink. I had a book we looked at and less than 3 minutes later, there was pee pee in the potty!!! We couldn't believe it! And, she did it again today! I had NO intention of starting potty training this early, but who knows??? I have read that cloth diaper babies can learn earlier, but this seems REALLY early. We're going to leave it in the bathroom and any time she shows interest, we'll let her sit on it. We'll also offer in the morning, after naps and just before bath. No rush, of course, but why the heck not???

We've been pretty busy this summer on the weekends. We've attended some weddings and we went to Nelson's 10 year reunion. (eek, that means mine is only a year away!!) This was a step for us as parents, because we left Kalaya with 2 friends of ours, which we've never done before. She has always only been left with one or the other of us. She has stayed with my parents twice, less than 30 minutes each time. She did fine, we did fine. I'm glad we waited as long as we did. It's funny, when I posted on Facebook that we were leaving her for the first time at 14 months, people acted like we were nuts for waiting so long. And they acted like leaving your child is such a huge break and so relaxing! I don't know, it was fine, but I didn't think, OMG, why did we wait so long?? Nelson and I are both in total agreement that we will have YEARS to be just the two of us. We like being with our baby! Maybe when we have more it will be different, but she's nice to have around. : )

We have been doing some sleep training at our house. As parents, we agree that learning to sleep should be like any other part of growing up: solid foods, weaning, potty training, etc. We think that when our children are ready, they'll take the next step. We don't believe in forcing them aka, for sleep training, we don't leave them alone in a room to cry themselves to exhaustion. We know many people swear by it, but we're choosing otherwise. Since we c0-sleep, Kalaya still had been waking up once a night to nurse, which was fine. Then, she started waking up much more often, for several nights in a row. I was beyond exhaustion, so we tried an experiment. Since Nelson usually sleeps in his own room and I sleep with her, we decided to switch. Because Kalaya hasn't HAD to be nursed to sleep in several weeks, I felt confident that she is able to fall asleep on her own. So, Nelson sleeps with her and I sleep in the next room. It has been working! Kalaya stays asleep most of the night between 8pm and 6am. However, a LOT of people told us that once she wasn't getting to nurse at that 3am feeding, she would stay asleep and sleep all night. WRONG! It's been 3 weeks and that hasn't changed. But, she does go right back to sleep pretty quickly most nights. And, when she wakes up at 6, I go in to nurse her and she usually goes back to sleep until 9 or even 10am. The funny thing is, I don't feel like I'm getting THAT much more sleep. I sleep for longer stretches, which is great, but during the day, I don't feel any more rested than when I used to nurse her once a night. I knew I was getting enough sleep from co-sleeping. : )