The Larson Ladies: August 2012

Weight:
Length:

Clothes: Size 12 months (9-12 months).

Diaper: size 3
Over this past month, we’ve come to prefer Pampers over Huggies. They smell so good (well, when they’re clean) and really do a good job of “holding in the big ones”.

USA! USA! Audrey watching the London
Summer Olympics in her patriotic diapers

Food: Audrey is on the same feeding schedule as last month. She’s getting better with the baby food with “textures” and chunks. Depending on what it is, she’ll make funny faces and sometimes won’t eat it, but she’s been overall more accepting of it lately. She still loves her puffs and biscuits and really any table food that we’re eating. Anytime she’s sitting next to me while I’m eating, she drops her pacifier, looks at the food, and opens her mouth. So funny.

Sleep: Such a change from last month’s update! Audrey slept like a log, consistently from 8pm to 6am every night this past month. She wasn’t up at all during the night. And sometimes on the weekends she sleeps in until 6:30 or 7 – wow! I really think our new sleep routine (letting her fall asleep on her own) is better for her. In general, Audrey doesn’t cry anymore when she lays down in her crib to fall asleep.

Naps: She is more consistent in her napping during the day. On the weekdays (at daycare), she goes down for a nap at 11am. She has always just put herself to sleep during naptime and usually sleeps an average of an hour. Some days it’s less, like 30 minutes… and sometimes it’s more, like 2 hours! She also naps in the car on the way home from daycare. Some days she continues sleeping even after we get home. We have been trying to keep this routine at home, too, on the weekends. We read her a book or sing her a song and then put her down in her crib around 11am, and then she’ll take a late afternoon nap either in the car as we’re out and about or in her crib if we’re home. We try and gauge her tiredness (rubbing her eyes and pulling on her ears or burying her face) to determine what time her late afternoon nap should be and just put her down when she’s tired.

Bedtime: At night, we read a few Bible stories or a few books, say 3 prayers, and then sing 2 songs. Then she goes in her crib (on her stomach, naturally) and I pat her back and sing the ABC’s. She’s awake when I walk out of the room, and doesn’t even make a peep. Carl and I take turns putting her to bed, and I know he has a similar bedtime routine with her.

She’s always been a happy girl, but she has really been happy and pleasant during the day with this more consistent sleep schedule. I’m glad!

Teeth: I noticed another tooth broke through just recently! So Audrey now has 3 bottom teeth now. About 3 weeks ago, Audrey had a fever and was cranky. More cranky than I had ever experienced with her ever. She was just miserable. And, even though we couldn’t see any teeth coming through, we attributed it to teething. She slept a lot during that time (long naps and full night’s sleep), but when she was awake she was really unhappy. I was thinking that maybe it was her top teeth moving down, but now that I’ve seen that 3rd tooth on the bottom, I think we have our answer! Those darn teeth. Poor gal.

Audrey got to spend a lot of time with her Grandma Larson over this summer. Grandma Larson was able to watch Audrey 2 days a week over this summer. But unfortunately Grandma Larson is back to school now. It was a short summer! Audrey likes daycare and doesn’t mind being back, but I know she really enjoyed her time with her Grandma this summer. They did a lot of fun things like walks, going to the park, running errands, going to lunch. How fun!

It’s a lot of fun around our house these days. Audrey is so much fun to play with. She is so happy and playful and just a joy! She keeps us on the move, but it’s a lot of fun. I can’t really predict when she’ll be walking, but she is definitely moving around with a lot more ease everyday. She will now “walk” a couple steps along the bathtub or the couch or the railing up in the loft while she holds on. Here is a pic of her opening her toy chest.

Some of the new developments this month:

Audrey waves “bye, bye” on her own
She babbles words now like “mama”, “ma”, “dada”, “ba”, “baba”; not sure if it’s intentional and that she knows what she’s saying, but I’ll take it.
She pets Chief (instead of only pulling his hair)
She squeals when she’s excited, like if I chase her and Carl up or down the stairs
She loves crawling through the tunnels and playgym at daycare, and most days she makes sure to do a loop as she crawls over to greet me at the door
She does loops around and around the downstairs in her walker and always finds a way to knock over Chief’s water bowl
She loves carrying things (purses, bags, blankets, towels) over her shoulder… both when she’s playing on the floor and when she’s in her walker
She likes to sleep in a corner of her crib, and always on her stomach