One and a half years!

Yup....Meera is now 18 months! My baby is growing up. And the past month has brought up quite a few changes.

Meera's vocabulary is growing quite steadily. Most of the words are pretty hard to catch and more often than not she only repeats them rather than saying them spontaneously. And given her love of food most of the words are food related. I wouldn't exactly classify them as proper words but she attempts to make a sound which I (and no one else) can identify. So is that really talking??? For now her vocab includes hi, bye, baby, bread (more like 'buh'), orange (owenge), open, juice, wow wow (for dog), and a few others which I have yet to interpret. At the same time she is still using signs for some words like raisin, eat, down, phone, camera (she made up her own sign).

After we moved to the new house there was a few days where her sleep was disrupted (looks like this happens every time she sleeps somewhere new) but after a few days she went back to normal.

Right now our schedule is something like this:

8.30 am: Wake up, milk
10.00 am: Breakfast
12.30 pm: Lunch
1.30 pm : Milk then nap anywhere between 1.5-3 hours)
4:00 pm : Snack (if she's awake)
5:00 pm: Bath
6:00 pm: Dinner
9:00 pm: Milk then bed

I've started to switch her formula to S-26 since her previous formula is unavailable. So far she seems okay with it. I've also started to give her steamed rice instead of porridge a few days a week. She takes longer to eat (guess it's tiring to chew) but I try to be patient. Hopefully I can stop making porridge before she's 2.

She's also been quite keen to feed herself (not something I encouraged). So I've had to relinquish the spoon on quite a few occasions. It all makes for a very messy meal time but I try not to let it bother me. Recently she also likes to 'dip' her food in sauce. I'm guessing she's seen us dip food in ketchup and sauce and wants to follow suit. Here's a picture of her dipping her toast in egg yolk.





Since we moved to our house I've been a bit braver about going out with her alone. We've taken walks to the park (she loves the slide but not really keen on the swings) and I've also gone to the nearby centro with her in the car. I usually use a harness (or leash?) when I'm out with her.

Her current obsession is with babies (any child is a baby to her..even a 7 year old) and she loves animals especially dogs. Also still obsessed with food stuff (she insist on eating anything we eat). Strangely enough she does not insist on tasting our coffee or wine (I simply say 'No, this is... and she doesn't insist on it!) Not sure how come she doesn't raise a fuss...

On the teething front, all four molars have made an appearance. I was still expecting the bottom front tooth to come out so wasn't really paying any attention to the back. But one day I happen to get a glance inside and there they were! Maybe that explains her sleep issues.