Aurora - Fifteen Months

A few of Aurora's new words this month :: Banana "Babayaya" Milk "Mats", Dolly "Daddy" Tutle "Durdle"

Aurora has starting to ask to go to the potty when we are out.  We aren't potty training her, but we have taken her to the potty since she was a tiny baby and it is very exciting to see her start to ask us to take her.

Matt and I took a CPR class at a friends house this month and brought Aurora with us.  It was so sweet to see her watching us all with the babies and then mimicking the CPR moves on them. 



She has all of the sudden become very interested in putting things inside other things.  She especially likes stacking her nesting boxes and transferring objects from one container to another. 



Aurora loves music!  She wakes up in the morning and asks for "dance dance" which is a kids station on Pandora.  She wants to listen to music all day long and bounce along to the beat.



She has started giving out kisses!  Love those sloppy wet ones she plants on us.

Aurora - Fourteen Months

  

Weight :: 21 pounds 9 ounces

The major milestone this month is -- SHE'S WALKING!

I swear she was taking a few steps months ago, but then I guess she decided that she didn't want to walk until she knew she could do it well.  I will be interested to see if this caution continues to be a personality trait as she gets older.
 


She seems to be adding new words all the time.  Some of the new ones this last month are Wyatt "Wyaa", doggie "daddy"

Signs :: potty, water, all done 

Aurora signing potty

Aurora loves giving kisses!  I'll admit they are sometimes extremely wet and on occasion she slips in a little tongue ;) but she still makes our hearts melt every time. 

Kissing Grumpa!

When Nanny and Grumpa came to visit they brought a cute little bunny cup, which was just the motivation Rora needed to learn how to drink out of a straw.




We have officially given up the morning nap so until we are able to push her nap late enough she is getting super tired by bedtime.  I was really hoping that her two one hour naps would translate to one two hour nap... but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case.  She is now averaging a one hour nap in the late morning. 




Nighttime sleep is generally from about 6:30pm until 6:30 or 7am.

Aurora - Thirteen Months

 

Weight :: 21 pounds 3 ounces

Words - up "uppa", baby "be-be", byebye "ba-ba", no "nah nah nah"

Signs - "eat/hungry" "more" for just about anything, trying "water"

Loving that she can direct us now.  She gets such a kick out of asking for "uppa" from one person then immediately asking "uppa" from someone else so that she gets passed back and forth.

I don't know how long she has been doing this, but the other day I noticed that she never holds a book upside down.  In fact, if you hand her a book upside down she will look at it funny, turn it right side up and then nod at it ;)



She loves climbing up into her little rocking chair with a book and just reading to herself.

Still cruising.  She can stand independently and I am pretty confident that she could walk if she wanted to but she doesn't seem to have any interest yet. 

She definitely doesn't eat all foods all days, but she has yet to consistently refuse anything in particular.  This month she has decided she loves bread.  Once the bread comes out she isn't really interested in anything else.

She is can feed herself with a  preloaded spoon and is using her sippy cup independently (we don't use a valve so prior to this she was just turning it over and dumping it out)

Sleep has been amazing at night.  Since daylight savings time she has started sleeping from 7pm until 7am.  I am loving the extra 30-45 minutes of sleep!

Unfortunately we went away at the beginning of the month and naps just haven't been the same since.  Not only is she crying a lot when we put her down but I also think she may be ready to give up her morning nap.  She has only taken two naps one out of the last 4 or 5 days.  I hope she will give me a good two hour nap in the middle of the day...

Aurora - One Year

One year?  How on earth did this happen already??

Height :: 30" (75%)

Weight :: 20 lbs 6 oz (40%)

Head Circumference ::18 3/4" (90%)

Honestly it doesn't seem possible that my girl could already be a year old. I remember someone telling me when she was born that every stage is absolutely amazing and you can't imagine how it could possibly get any better but it does.  I didn't believe it at the time as I was holding my little one week old in my arms -- but she was right!  It is incredible to watch her little mind coming alive, see her absorbing the world around her and starting to make sense of it all.  I can't wait to see what the next year holds for us.

This past month has been a huge one for developments.  She has always been a very social and aware baby, but she seems so much more so than she did even a month ago.  It is incredible.

Aurora can finally talk to us!  She is signing "more" and "milk" as well as saying mama and dada to the appropriate person.  Before this I swear everything fun was dada ;) I am amazed by how much she is showing she understands and how much she can communicate with her limited vocabulary.  She was eating dinner one night recently and started screaming that she wanted something so I waited until she was done, looked at her and said "Aurora Lynn how do you ask for more?" and she promptly responded with the "more" sign.  I was floored.  I hadn't actually expected her to comprehend or respond.  She really is becoming a little person!

She is still cruising and has even started taking a few steps in order to get from one hand hold to the next.

She has started handing us stuff when we ask for it and she is helping us get her dressed by holding out an arm or ducking her head into her shirt.

She has been big into sharing food lately.  I can hardly get the girl to eat her own food because all she wants to do is feed one of us.  It's terribly cute but often times the tidbits she is trying to share are less than appetizing.

She got a mini piano for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa that looks exactly like her Daddy's.  She absolutely loves to sit on her little bench and play while he is playing on the big piano. 

Sleep continues to be pretty good except when she is teething.  She is just about ready to cut her two top front teeth.

We are making real progress with naps.  She has been going down extremely easily for both of her two naps.  I nurse her, read her a book, and sing to her before laying her down and leaving.  She rarely even makes a peep after I leave.

Aurora - Eleven Months

We have a tooth!  Actually it was one right after the other so she now has both her bottom front teeth in.

Getting ready to take off.  She "takes us on walks" all over the house but still needs us to hold both of her hands. If you sneak one away she stops dead ;)

Go Broncos!

She has really started copying us.  If Dad bangs on the table she bangs on the table.  And when Grandma starts singing patty-cake Rora starts clapping her hands.  It is so fun to see her starting to interact with us. 

She is still stuck on da-da but babbling up a storm.  A few times it has really sounded like she has said words.  She was patting Chile the other day and I swear she said "chile"  Last time we were at the vet he also could have sworn she responded "okay" to something he said.   

Aurora has really taken off with solids this month.  It was like something finally clicked and she started shoveling food into her mouth!

Bedtime continues to get better.  This month we established playtime in the crib after all of her sleeps and this has made her infinitely more comfortable in her bed.

I don't make this stuff up...this is literally how my daughter sleeps

Naps are still tricky.  She goes down really easily -- often with no protest at all -- but the length still usually ranges from 30-60 minutes.

Aurora - Ten Months

weighs 19 pounds 14 oz

She's cruising!  Aurora has finally discovered that her feet move. I am pretty sure life as we know it will soon be over



Loves taking things out of other things like unpacking boxes or the diaper bag. She also likes stacking the dog food bowls and putting the pieces of her puzzle stacker back on the peg 




Loves to play the fake coughing game--you cough and she coughs back...indefinitely :)



Separation anxiety is starting to kick in a little. Every once in a while she decides there is someone she doesn't want to be left with, and when she is tired she will cry if Mama leaves, but for the most part she will hang out with whoever




Picking up food with index finger and thumb. Her coordination is improving -- more food is now making it into her mouth rather than in her lap



Huge leap forward with bedtime. Not only is she falling asleep in her own bed, but she is falling asleep pretty quickly. Our bedtime routine only takes 20-30 minutes after bath now. I can't believe how far we have come



No real change in naps. She still goes down easily, but doesn't stay asleep terribly long and there is definitely no resettling once she has woken up

Aurora - Nine Months

Height :: 28 1/2" (80%)

Weight :: 18 lbs 10 oz (50%)

Head :: 18 1/4" (95%)

She's mobile! She finally figured out that she can move herself and hasn't stopped since.



The other day I started her bath and plopped her down on the floor before running into our bedroom to grab my pj's. I came back in to find her hanging over the bathtub watching the water fill up. What a way to find out your daughter can stand! Yikes.




Still no teeth. We keep thinking that she is teething, but nothing has broken through yet.




She eats pretty much anything we put in front of her, but I think more of it ends up on the floor than in her mouth.



Finally going to sleep on her own in her crib. After a last feed, bath and some books we put her in her crib and sing to her from the hallway.




Naps are getting better too.  Since we have started getting her to fall asleep in the crib she has been able to take solo naps that last longer than 20-30 minutes.  She is currently taking two naps of about 60 minutes.