Rooney, 15 Months

15 month old

Rooney, 15 Months

Started walking!
Knows her name (she points to herself when I ask "where's Rooney?")
Can sign please and knows it is a magical word
Learned to take off her sleep sack (and then proceed to throw it out of her crib in nap protest)
No longer cries when she gets adjusted at the chiropractor (yay yay yay!)
Mastered drinking from a straw
Favorite toy is the shape sorter (we show her where it goes, and she puts it in)
Can un-velcro and take off her shoes
Thinks doing "cheers" with our cups is hilarious
Loves to dance
Got her first goose egg when she fell and hit her head at day care

Growth

Weight: 24 pounds, 15 ounces (we weighed her using Wii Fit)

Clothing: 18M - 3T

She wears 18M shorts but her clothing ranges up to 3T for some T-shirts, and everything else falls somewhere in between.

Shoe size: 5-6

She is outgrowing size 5 and into size 6. I think this means she is going to be tall (which is not a surprise, considering Eric is 6'2" and I'm 5'10")! Based on my parents' measuring board, she is taller than I was at her age.

Diaper size: 4

Words:

Baaaooww (ball or anything that looks like a ball, like a watermelon)
Naaaow (no)
Uh oh
Mama
Dada
Nana (my mom, and also banana)
Hi
Bye

Signs:

Eat
More
Please

Eating: If you can't tell by her weight, she is a very good eater. :) I hope it stays this way!

This lucky girl gets scrambled eggs (made by daddy) every morning. I think they may have surpassed bananas as her favorite food. She also loves avocado.

New foods this month:

Watermelon
Tuna
Banana bread
Corn dog
Popcorn by the handful
Reese's peanut butter cup (oopsie)
An entire cupcake
Donut
Ketchup (hilarious video...she is clearly not a fan)
Chicken nuggets
Corn
Blueberries

Also, maybe the cutest thing I've ever seen her do is blow on her food, even when it's not hot at all. Oh, imitation.

Walking: Rooney started walking a few weeks ago! One Friday night (May 10) she took 15 steps in a row and then gradually from there she kept doing it more and more, and getting more stable. She rarely crawls anymore. She is getting quicker, but also still falling some. She currently has a scraped nose, forehead and knees.

She walks with her toes pointing out, belly out and with a very wide stance. It's so cute! She is getting pretty good at turning and walking on our driveway too (incline and decline). She likes to use her walker still so she can be super fast.

She also loves stairs. Up and down. All day long.

Here's a video from when she was still pretty new at walking (and falling quite a bit):

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Bedtime: 5:45-8:30 pm. Haha. Do you see that wide range there? I wrote last month that she had never fought bedtime. Well, guess what we did all month? Sleeping has been rough lately. Well, falling asleep has been rough. I think a lot of it has to do with her learning to walk. She just can't seem to settle down for bed. After chatting with my sister, I realized we needed a bedtime routine. Isn't it funny how sleep training has to be done over and over again as they grow and learn new skills? :)

I think our ideal bedtime for her right now is around 6:45 pm. This gives us a lot of play time in the evenings and allows her to sleep 13 hours if she wants before we need to get her up in the morning (one morning we had to wake her up).

Night sleep: Although falling asleep was rough, I need to thank our lucky stars that once she is asleep, she sleeps great (anywhere from 10.5-13 consecutive hours). Except for one night, when she woke at 3:00 am. I gave her a silent house tour with a side of banana and then she went back to bed for four more hours.

Bedtime routine: starting around 6:15 pm. Bath (on Sundays and Wednesdays, or as needed), get pajamas on, dim the lights in the house, put on Curious George (via Netflix), sit on the couch with Roo on our laps and a big bowl of popcorn. As soon as she loses interest (gets squirmy or climbs down from the couch) or when "the monkey show" is over, we take her to her room, give her a pacifier, put her in her sleep sack, and then lay her in her crib.

I think we will also add "read a book" so going night-night is less abrupt. The first few nights after we implemented the bedtime routine, we let her CIO (cry it out) for 5-10 minutes before she fell asleep. She is crying much less, though, with each day.

Watching the TV show is my new favorite moment I share with her. She hasn't sat that still since we fed her with a bottle. (She also makes monkey and puppy sounds at Curious George and it is so cute.)

Naps: 1, 2 or 3

She takes one afternoon nap on days that she goes to day care. If we are at home, she will usually nap twice. Once she actually took three (3) two-hour naps!

I think she is getting much more tired now that she is walking! I used to be afraid of moving to one nap but I have to say it is pretty nice to have the flexibility.

Health: No sickness this past month! Woo!

Teeth: 11, working on 12!

She has more than half her teeth! It is crazy to think that two months ago she only had four teeth. I am excited for the rest to come in for a couple reasons:

She will be able to bite and chew more foods (raw veggies).
No more teething! Although I have to say I really think that amber necklace is doing wonders.

[tentblogger-vimeo 66360729]

Family time: Because of birthday parties and graduation parties and long weekends and the annual MS Walk that my family participates in, Roo got to spend a lot of time with her cousins this month! She loves those three girls, and they are all so sweet to her!

Parenting: Someone asked me what it's like to be a parent of a 15-month-old and I said it is awesome! I personally think toddlers are so much cooler than babies. :) We have a lot of fun together!