Cara is 17 months old!

{my absolute favorite picture of her, ever}

Stats:

• We don't go to the dr. until 18 months, but I'm guessing she's more than 30 lbs and more than 30 inches.
• She has 11 teeth--cut another molar. One more is trying to break through, but they take forever! A couple of her molars are BIG and fully pushed through.

Milestones:

• continued language development--she will try to say anything you say to her, such a parrot!
• runs through the house or down a long hall
• knows lots of words and says them without prompting (if I had to guess, I'd say Cara has 50+ words that she knows and can label on her own)
• climbing onto taller things--she's not a total climber, but she's trying 
• getting better using a spoon/fork or eating from a bowl
• drinking from a straw sippy cup, a soft spout or hard spout cup
• knows more signs for more things in addition to words
• moved to a new daycare room (Toddlers 1), where they take 1 nap a day consistently--and sleep on floor mats!!

Personality:

• increasingly independent--doesn't want to eat some foods unless she can do it herself
• contemplative--likes to watch and take in a new environment before diving in
• curious--points to lots of things, asks questions, wants to know words or how things work
• verbal--parrots everything, watches your mouth to see how you make words, repeats them and asks for reassurance in what she says
• happy--will just burst out in giggles over the silliest little things, kicks her feet and flaps her hands in joy
• helper--brings things to you, puts toys away, helps with any simple task you ask her
• silly--amuses herself and us with funny dances, faces or sounds

Sleep:

• sleeps from 7:30 p.m.-7 a.m.
• fully transitioned to 1 nap a day, naps from 11/11:30-12:30/2, basically at school she sleeps 1.5 hours or so, at home it's closer to 2-2.5 hours. Sometimes she wakes up halfway through and can be shushed back to sleep. At school, I think she wakes up and sees stuff going on and wants to be in on the action.
• will be transitioning to a nap on a floor mat soon--they have a few cribs at school for the littler kids that she sleeps in now, but she'll move to a floor mat in a few weeks. That will be a BIG change!

Clothes:

• almost out of 18m clothes... footie pjs are going to be the first to go
• pants are getting shorter, cardigans are getting harder to button, etc.
• been buying some 24m and 2T clothes for the spring/summer
• wears size 4.5 shoes for a little bit longer, but can wear most of her size 5s
• in size 5 diapers for overnight--she started having leaks in size 4, so we sized up just at nighttime. We'll move to size 5 all the way when we run out of the current case.
• I bought her a denim jacket and LOVE how much of a little GIRL she looks like when she wears it!
• We're able to pull her hair up now!! We usually do a top or side pony (like Pebbles), and have done piggies once or twice. It is A-DOR-A-BLE, but she doesn't like to sit still to let me pull it up, and she fusses when I take out the elastic. Hopefully she'll learn!

Food:

• likes most things we feed her, but is also more stubborn about what and how she eats--likes to do it herself
• is mastering the spoon and fork, but still has trouble scooping
• keeps most food in the bowl or on the plate, but likes to pick up the bowl and make a mess for fun
• prefers to hold a spoon in one hand and feed herself with the other hand, or put food on the fork with her fingers and then eat it
• doesn't like to be fed much anymore--prefers to help me guide the spoon or do it herself
• likes to eat mommy's food--bites from the banana or apple slices, cutie oranges, fruit snacks, drinks from my water cup
• favorites include chicken (still), bananas, oranges, pears, beans, carrots, water, beef, pancakes or biscuits, GOLDFISH
• drinks 15-20 oz of whole milk. Sometimes she doesn't ask for her cup at 5:30 when we get home, so I don't offer it until dinner time.

Likes:

• cuddling lovie
• playing in the water at bathtime
• giving kisses
• reading all her books
• talking up a storm
• being outside and going to the zoo
• playing with Po, finding his nose and tail (guess how much Po likes this)
• running
• playing with her DIY wipes container I made (strips of fabric and numbers)
• rolling around on our bed
• holding "her" remote

Dislikes:

• being in the carseat
• wiping her face at all (food, boogies, drool, putting on lip moisturizer--they're so dry!--fixing her hair)
• sitting still to clip fingernails and toenails
• being patient
• showing her teeth--they hurt and so her mouth has been off limits lately

Most challenging:

• communication and patience
• We're at the stage where she can ALMOST tell us what she wants or needs, but not always all the time, so she gets frustrated and so do we, trying to figure out how to help her. We've used lots of words and lots of signs, to some degree of success.
• She's a toddler, so tantrums are coming-whether from frustration or from being 1.5, so we try to talk about lots of things and teach her to wait small amounts of time for things before giving in. Hopefully she will learn to do both of these things more and more as she gets older!

Looking forward to:

• having conversations! I can't wait to sit down and talk back and forth about her day, what she learned, what she's thinking. Now, when we get home from school, we recite her friends' and teachers' names over and over again, which is adorable. But I'm excited to have that give-and-take of conversation, even if they're 2-word sentences.
• Gosh, she's almost 1.5 years old, and she just seems so grown up. I'm anticipating each new development and milestone, and I'm so proud of the ones she's already accomplished. She is so easygoing and funny, and she makes us so happy!