Dear Juliana...

Dear Juliana,

You are now 15.5 months old. You have the ability to make your Daddy's and my heart burst with pride and love, and also ache when you are upset. You have figured out how to communicate most things you want to us. Once you realized that saying "Please" would typically get you whatever it was you wanted, you now say (and sign) "Please!" without telling us exactly what you're asking for first! Luckily, we have a pretty good idea of what you want.

You have a fantastic appetite, and as far as I'm concerned an adventurous eater too. For breakfast, you will eat a full pouch of oatmeal (you especially like it when Daddy makes plain oatmeal and adds butter and brown sugar), or cheesy scrambled eggs. Occasionally you will also have a bowl of Cherrios with milk, but I try to limit how much dairy you get with breakfast because you are still taking iron supplements and the pediatrician said dairy will inhibit how your body absorbs the iron. You have your iron with water, and then you will have some OJ (half and half with water). Your lunch box at school normally contains: a Baybel cheese (you LOVE cheese and ask for it by name. Sometimes we have to be sneaky and make sure you don't see us getting cheese out of the fridge otherwise you will relentlessly demand to eat it), approximately 3 ounces of Stonyfield Farms Whole Milk French Vanilla yogurt (which I think tastes like ice cream, but you'll also eat the Plain version with the same enthusiasm), a serving of fruit (Banana, Strawberry Banana puree, or unsweetened applesauce), a pouch (now I'm making them, but you've also enjoyed the store bought kind. The current flavors I have are (1) berries with yogurt and spinach, (2) spinach with pea and pear, (3) pumpkin with banana and yogurt, (4) apple with pear and barley, (5) broccoli and sweet potato, (6) kiwi with pineapple, yogurt, spinach, and banana, (7) banana and avocado. The apple with pear and barley is your favorite, but for the most part you will eat the entire pouch by yourself. I think you like that it's a different way of serving your food and you can feed yourself with it), a meat for lunch and dinner, and a veggie for lunch and dinner. In addition to these, you also have snacks at school which are graham crackers, Cherrios "Ohs!", or fruit pieces. When you get home, you sometimes have another snack like yogurt melts, or peanut butter spoons. You will drink whole milk at lunch and dinner meals (but you don't usually drink a whole lot of milk), and water for all times in-between.

You love to try all sorts of new foods (and sometimes pieces of paper or cardboard boxes too!). Although you love sweets, you could probably eat ice cream until the end of time, we don't have to feed them to you except on very special occasions because you eat so well most of the time. You love salmon and cooked spinach (yes we add butter to the spinach and I'm sure that's part of the appeal for you), but you don't like ketchup or even mildly spicy foods. Bless your heart, though, you still are determined to try these foods! Especially if Mom and Dad are eating something different than you...

You only take one nap at day care after lunch, but at home, sometimes you take two naps, depending on what time you woke up and if you're acting tired or not. You are very very good about going to sleep. At school, for naps you sleep on a mat on the floor, and you are very good about going right to sleep when it's time. Although, they do call you the "den-mother" because you make sure the other kids have their blankies and passies at nap time too. Sometimes you wake up after about 30 minutes, but they try to pat your back and get you to go back to sleep, which I think works most of the time. At home, sometimes you're so wound up at nap time that you want to be cuddled and rocked in order to relax and be ready for your nap. When it's time for bed, you keep telling us "night-night" and after a quick hug and cuddle, you are ready to be laid down in your bed, and you cuddle your stuffed elephant Elly, and I cover you up with your blanket and sing you a song. You are still wide awake when I leave the room, but I'll softly tell you "night-night! I love you!" and you'll take the passey out of your mouth and say "night-night." Last night, I was trying to sing the song to you and you told me "Good bye. Nigh-nigh." So I didn't sing the second verse... Your bedtime is around 7 pm and you wake up between 6-7am. Most mornings I will nurse you when you wake up, but there are somedays when you tell me "All done" and on Mondays and Wednesdays, I attend an early morning work out class so I'm not there when you wake up. On those days when I get home, Daddy has already fed you breakfast and you're back to playing.

You constantly request "Elmo", which pretty much means you want to listen to Elmo sing while we eat or play downstairs. We have exhausted all the Elmo albums on Spotify, and so we're trying to expand your musical tastes by listening to Winnie the Pooh, Veggie Tales, classical, Children's Songs, etc. I've been trying to teach you the chicken dance, but you'd much rather be held while I do the dance than be on your feet trying to imitate what I do! Sometimes I've caught you singing along with songs by saying "la la" and when I make a tone, for the most part you can match it (if you're interested, of course). You will sing "E-I-E-I-O" on demand, and "Row Row Row" for Row Row Row Your Boat. You recognize lots of songs, but those are the two that you actually sing along to right now.

You love looking at books and moving them around to different places in the living room. We try to read you books, but you don't like to sit still for very long. We're trying to start reading books before bed, while you have your passey, blankie, and Elly, but most evenings it seems that you're so excited to go "Night Night" that we rush to get you into the bed. You still remember Skippy Jon Jones from those days when you were a baby that I read it to you over and over. I still have most of it memorized! You still have the habit of sticking books into your mouth when you aren't thinking about it, but we're trying our hardest to be vigilant and break you of that habit.

You now have all 4 of your molars and all 8 of your front baby teeth. Amazingly, even with getting your molars, there have only been a few nights when you had trouble sleeping, but in general you started sleeping through the night around the same time that you starting cutting them. In a few months, you will probably start getting your eye teeth, but we aren't thinking that far ahead right now!

You do a lot of pretend play. You like to pour milk into cups and containers using all sorts of empty pitchers. You will rock your baby dolls, sometimes in your arms, and other times by putting them on your rocking chair or your rocking horse. You cover and wrap your babies up in blankets, you try to put diapers on your babies by opening a diaper, placing your baby on it, and then folding the diaper back on top of the baby. You like to stack your wooden blocks, you like to throw your balls, you like to sit on your balls and bounce, you like to crawl up onto the couch, you like to rock in your rocking chair or on your rocking horse, you love to play in the water. At school, when it's warm and sunny enough, you go outside in the afternoon for water play, and you don't have any problems with water getting into your eyes. At bath time, you have started to lay down in the water on your tummy and we are trying to teach you to kick your legs and paddle your arms. You like to scoot all around the bath tub though. You love to go outside. If you're upset because we told you not to do something, a quick trip outside seems to pull you out of your funk. Although sometimes it makes your emotions harder to handle because you don't want to come back inside!

I read something that said by 18 months of age, you will be able to speak 15 words, so I've tried to compile a list of where you are right now at 15.5 months. I believe most of your progress is from your socialization with other kids at day care, and your teachers doing such a great job of pushing you and challenging you. You imitate a lot of sounds and words that we say, but I've included the words that you are using on your own (not repeating after us), and are using in the correct setting:
(1) Help
(2) Mama (although you call Daddy this sometimes too...)
(3) DaDa/Diddi
(4) Cheese
(5) Please (you also do the baby sign)
(6) Thank You "Tink oo"
(7) Water "Wawa" (you do the baby sign for "Milk")
(8) Milk "Mimi" (baby sign for "Milk")
(9) Bye Bye (sometimes accompanied by a wave)
(10) Hello/Hi (normally you hold your arm up to your ear or hold an object up to your ear like a phone)
(11) Up
(12) Yeah/Yes
(13) No (usually long and drawn out instead of a short No!)
(14) Buckle
(15) Baby
(16) Elly
(17) Diaper "Biper" (usually with the baby sign for "Diaper")
(18) Elmo
(19) Ball "Ba"
(20) Night Night "Nigh Nigh"
(21) More "Mo"
(22) Rock "Rok"
(23) Cherrios "Ohs"

Actions you do:
-Wash Hands (mimicking the action of washing your hands whenever anyone says something about washing your hands)
-Bath (rub your chest like scrubbing)
- Kisses (blow kisses after we tell you "Bye Bye", or on demand. You can also give kisses which are normally open mouthed...)
- Hugs (you give these on demand, mostly to "big kids" at school who ask for hugs, and you squeeze tightly around the neck)

Mommy and Daddy are busy with work and school. Many big changes are happening in our lives which will affect you, but we mostly look forward to coming home after a long day and getting to spend some sweet time with you. We are enjoying our chosen "professions" and are planning on creating the brightest future for you and your dreams (as well as our own).

We love you so very much, and appreciate your patience with us as we navigate this parenting thing!!