0-2 Months: A's Milestones

First Two Months

• An incredibly sweet baby girl who is super easy.

2 Months

• Smiling lots.
• Very easy going.
• Enjoys the bouncer and laying under the gym.
• Never had clogged eye ducts.  Tears are precious and hearbreaking.
• Doesn't cry more than 5 minutes normally when laid down for sleep.
• Started rolling from tummy to back at the beginning of two months.

13-18 Months Training

13 & 14 Months

• Pack-n-play time (30-45 minutes, 1-2 times/day)
• Require first time obedience
• Training to "Come"
• If she doesn't obey discipline and place her back where she originally was and tell her to come again until
• Training to lay her head down upon command when being held
• More sign language as needed
• Trained to help clean up toys and books
• Must ask to get down not squirm out of our arms when she's held
• Continued training of don't touch

15-17 Months

Normal weekdays include:

• Reading with Mommy each day
• Chair/book time
• Used egg timer and started at 5 minutes... 
• 16 months up to 15 minutes
• 17 months up to 20 minutes
• Pack-n-play time for 45-60 minutes each day
• Usually use time to do devos, shower, do chores or prenatal yoga
• Mommy needing to be consistent with disciplining
• Continued practice of "Stop", "Come" and "Lay your head down"
• Reading The Jesus Storybook Bible and praying before bed most nights.

• Fully able to clean up toys with help now
• Work with using utensils, bowls and plates
• Correct any throwing of utensils, bowls and plates
• Start practicing drinking out of cup without lid
• Move to booster chair?

• 17 Months: Trained how to clean up milk when she spills it (gets the rag by the sink)

18 Months

Normal weekdays include:

• Reading with Mommy each day
• Chair/book time
• Doing great for 20-25 minutes most days
• Pack-n-play time was changed to room time with North States - Supergate III Gate 
• Initially do pack-n-play in the room (instead of the dining area) to get used to the new environment
• Then switch to gate in the room (leaving door open so she gets used to playing with me still walking by on occasion)
• Coloring time with crayons and coloring book pages (tape paper down to keep her from drawing all over the table) or Melissa & Doug Water Wow Coloring Book - Animals
• Reading The Jesus Storybook Bible and praying before bed most nights.

• Delayed obedience is disobedience!
• Addressing a lot more whining 
• Moved to booster chair so I can correct quickly when eating
• Putting clothes in hamper on her own
• Blowing her nose (loves taking tissues)
• Throwing things in the trash when told to
• Helps with opening and closing cabinets as asked

13-18 Months: Sleeping

13 months: From two naps to one

• Same schedule as 12 months for first half
• Stopped bottles shortly after switching to whole milk and Carmen stopped coming into our bed for her bottle before breakfast.
• Became super frustrating having her afternoon nap so short.
• Read Healthy Sleep Habits book and tried his suggestion of pushing morning back and dropping afternoon. 
• With ISR lessons in the morning this meant delaying her breakfast a little when we got home around 9:30am and then getting her to bed by 11 or 11:30 (swim lessons were at nine and we were always gone from about 8:45-9) late lunch after  she would wake up and then dinner as normal.

The New Norm (aka once ISR lessons were done)

• Wake up 7:30-8am 
• Bed at 12:30
• Naps normally 2-3 hours!
• Bed at 7:30

Stayed this way for all of 14 months.  Threw things off with our East Coast Trip.

15 Months

• Put down for nap at 5-5 1/2 hours after she wakes up.  Sometimes Carmen will play another half hour before she falls asleep but then she normally naps for 2-3 hours.

16-18 Months 

• Basically the same as fifteen months.  
• Wakes up on own accord between 7:30 & 8am
• Nap time between 1-1:30pm
• Naps normally 2-3 hours
• Bed at 7:30pm

• Switched Carmen to a big girl bed at 18 months.
• Used Stay Put Big Girl and Boy Bed - Semicircle Bed Rail Bumper Pad for Toddler
• No sheets, comforter, blankets or pillows (too distracting and fun to play with)
• Within two days we were good!
• Stayed outside her door to immediately correct her if she got out of bed.
• Plan to be home for 3-5 days straight if needed to train to stay in bed.
• Used video monitor to keep an eye on her the first few nights.  
• Bought VTech DM221 Safe & Sound Digital Audio Baby Monitor and love using it because I can tell her to be quiet and lay down when I'm in another room without going in there.  She normally quiets down pretty quick once I tell her to go to sleep.

10-12 Months: Sleeping

10 Months

• Up around 7am
• Nap between 9:30 & 10am
• Up til around 2:30-3pm
• Bed around 7:30pm

11 Months

• Up around 7:30
• Nap between 10 & 10:30am
• Up til around 3pm
• Bed around 7:30pm

12 Months

• Up around 7:30-8:00
• Nap at 10am (sometimes took 30-45 minutes to fall asleep)
• Wake up after 90 minutes
• Nap three hours later (normally only 45 minutes to an hour if doing good, poops seemed to wake up on occasion)
• Bed around 7:30pm
  **When started doing ISR lessons Carmen took two two hour naps for the first couple of weeks because she was so tired and went down earlier than normal.

13-18 Months: C's Milestones

13 Months

• Finished ISR lessons!
• Understands the following words: Daddy, Mommy, Auntie Kali, Grandmama, Bella, food, milk, more, ball, book, bed time and shoes.
• Delay tactics to avoid nap and bed time
• Cuddling, asking for milk or water, wanting to read
• Picking up on social cues way more
• Anything that makes us laugh she does more of
• Hugs our legs (especially when upset about something)
• Fake crying as if the world is over before naps
• Frantically asks for headband (and sometimes her stuffed animals) as soon as she wakes up
• Said "Daddy" and "Doggy" first
• Plays hide-and-go seek
• Likes playing with the door stopper
• Loves wearing shoes (hers and her parents)

14-15 Months

• Discovered Siri and tries to enable it on the phone so she can 'tell' it what to do
• Loves Baby Signing Time and asks for it by signing "baby"
• Knows where her toes, nose, eyes and ears are
• Understands almost everything we say
• Hunching shoulders and daintily asking "more" when she really wants something
• Frantically grunting when the fridge opens asking for either milk or cheese
• Helped us
• Primary sign language: please, thank you, down, food, more, milk, water, ball, keys, shoes
• Now also says "cheese" and "Kali" and "hot"
• Try to get her to say "Mommy" and she just points to herself (because that's what I do and it makes me laugh)
• Blows on her food like she sees us do when we tell her the food is hot
• Squeals in delight:
• when doorbell rings and goes running to answer it
• when Geoffrey gets Bella all riled up
• when she runs and tries to throw a ball (tends to simply drop it), picks it up again and repeats the process
• when she plays with the tennis ball and Bella
• Loves squeezing daddy and mommy's noses to make us 'honk'
• Loves climbing!
• Rocks back and forth with body and/or head to ask for music
• Loves "Seeds of Faith" music online
• Loves books
• Loves being scared
• Mommy hides behind door or counter and jumps out at her)
• Loves looking out the front door when it's open as the weather cools
• Loves going outside 
• Loves bath time
• Thinks it's hilarious to pour water with cup
• Loves her dolls
• Runs to the garage to see Daddy when I tell her he's home
• Hands up in the air with a high pitched questioning noise when I ask where someone or something is
• Starting to point to my belly when I ask where baby is
• Waves hello not just goodbye'
• Understands almost all the instructions she is given now including getting her shoes, putting things away, cleaning up
• Thinks it's hilarious when she claps and we mimic her
• Makes a basket with the ball and hoop when instructed to
• Running and as a result falling more

16 & 17 Months

• Understands naps
• Loves playing with a blanket
• Stacking rings toy
• Climbed onto table
• Cleans up after herself when she spills milk
• Tries to help me with laundry
• Telling her more frequently to wait and she does not like that
• Now loves using a spoon (kind of claps to for the sign) at every meal
• Loves milk
• Now knock when we go in to get her in the mornings and she replies with "ehh?"
• Geoffrey started watching wildlife movies with and she calls it "birds" using sign language and scrunches her shoulders cutely when she asks
• Now takes pictures using my phone
• Also likes accessing the calculator on my locked phone
• Prefers hair clips over head bands
• Smiles by scrunching her nose whenever she sees me pointing the camera or phone at her
• Pushes the little tikes car around the home
• Loves swinging and can't get enough of it
• Same with spinning in circles with Daddy
• Loves climbing on the bunk bed to bounce on it
• Bailey doll and plastic keys are her favorites
• Pushes crib away from the wall using her feet and the crib slides because of the jars, discovered the clothes packed away underneath and played with it a couple times delaying naps twice before I wised up
• Basically tries to climb up anything she can
• Geoffrey showed her how to climb up the 'rock climbing wall' on the slide
• Over Thanksgiving discovered she loves playing in the sand
• Loves trying to get Bella to chase the ball and does the same with Trigger who always obliges
• Asking every meal for a spoon and almost mastering how to eat with utensils
• Becoming very opinionated about what goes on her hair and trying to set a new trend of multiple hair bows being worn at once
• Climbing on everything she can and sometimes getting stuck
• Closing any open doors, cabinets or drawers which is usually great but sometimes hinders me putting away the laundry and dishes :)
• Discovering her pjs unzip which is how she has been spending the first ten minutes of each morning lately when she wakes up
• Discovering how to honk our vehicles horns and how to ring the doorbell
• Enjoying "driving" in Daddy's car and riding in the passenger seat of the van while in the garage
• Finding it hysterical whenever anyone copies what she's doing
• Having opinions on where she wants to sit and what she wants to eat
• Helping herself get dressed
• Learning how to clean spilled milk, put dirty clothes in the hamper and knock on the door when someone's in the bathroom
• Loving getting her finger and toe nails painted by her aunts
• Mastering how to take blurry selfies using Mommy's phone
• Moved into her big girl bed
• Pretending she's talking on the phone as she walks around the house
• Randomly requesting to have her teeth brushed throughout the day 
• Rotating her square based cup 90 degrees thinking that will solve the problem of not getting water in her mouth instead of tipping it more :)
• Scrunching her nose and eyes whenever we tell her to smile
• Touching the ground in a froggy position every few steps to imitate Mommy doing squats
• Wrapping her doll Bailey in her favorite blanket and pushing her around in her doll stroller
• Every day that Christmas lights were up would tilt her head back and frantically say please to get me to turn both the tree and garland lights on

18 Months

• Doing an "oh" face when she knows she's doing something she shouldn't or an accident happens
• Telling me when her diaper is wet!
• Loving reading books and talking the full time about the 'doggy' and 'hat' and 'bird'
• Loves Jesus Is With Me
• Moved to booster seat (for training not to whine purposes)
• Play time in room with gate instead of pack-n-play
• Organizes ducky, bottle and cup on the tub shelf when taking baths
• Loves tackling her unicorn pillow
• Enjoys being goofy
• Helps with choosing her clothes and putting socks away
• Tries to tickle us now when prompted and sometimes on her own initiative
• Recognizes the food court at Costco and immediately asks for food when we pull up
• Putting any clothes I give her into her hamper when I say to put them in her room even when they aren't dirty
• Loving the basketball hoop and playing with the plastic balls
• Pushes her train, car and stroller around the house
• Loves putting her sippy cups and phone in the bottom pouch of her stroller
• Knows who Stuart and Agnes are 
• Figured out how to open and close the garage with the keys for walks
• Asks for Daddy if I'm the only one to go get her in the mornings
• Stomps her feet in excitement when she gets food she is asking for
• Grabs the dryer balls every time I open the dyer
• Makes sure Bella has her food and water full
• Loves using the stool to wash her hands
• Regularly asks to get her nails painted
• Frequently asks to go in the swing
• Finally figured out to point at me when asked where mommy is instead of herself
• Points to her 'eye's when I say 'ice'
• Enjoys taking all the letters off the ABC board and then putting them back
• Told her to clean up the water and she went and put the rag in the water bowl instead of cleaning up what was spilled on the floor
• Knock on her bedroom door and she says 'eh?' when we ask if we can come in

7-9 Months: Sleeping & Feeding

7 Months

• Up around 7am
• Nurse, solids (veggies), nurse
• Nap 9am (unless she seemed fussy then I'd put her down at 8:30)
• Sleep no more than 2 hours
• Nurse, solids (veggies), nurse
• Awake for three hours until next nap (aimed for 2pm)
• Sleep until woke up
• Nurse right after waking
• Around 5-5:30 give 2 oz of formula in pack-n-play, feed oat or rice cereal using formula, nurse
• Bed between 7 and 7:30pm

8 Months

Completely stopped nursing by end of 8 months

• Up around 7am
• 8 oz bottle, solids, water
• Nap 9:30am
• Sleep no more than 90 minutes (did this because the afternoon nap was shorter than morning nap)
• 8 oz bottle, solids, water
• Up til around 2:30pm
• Sleep until woke up
• 8 oz bottle
• Around 5-5:30pm give 4 oz bottle then finger foods while making dinner
• 4-8 oz bottle
• Bed around 7:30pm

9 Months

• Up around 7am
• 8 oz bottle, solids, water
• Nap between 9:30 & 10am
• Sleep no more than 90 minutes
• 8 oz bottle, solids, water
• Up til around 2:30-3pm
• Sleep until woke up
• 8 oz bottle
• Around 5-5:30pm give 4 oz bottle then finger foods while making dinner
• 4-8 oz bottle
• Bed around 7:30pm

Mommy Reflections

• Pray.  Ask God for wisdom, patience, and joy.  Put on thankfulness.
• Let a routine serve my family.  Don't force my family to serve my routine.
• Nap time stuff became way easier around 7 months. 
• If Geoffrey's schedule ever changes make bed time 7pm.
• If naps become hard try putting baby to bed earlier than I have been doing.  Sometimes the fifteen minutes makes a world of difference.

6 Months - 3 Years Old: Teeth Care

Teeth Care

• Once teeth make their appearance start cleaning before bed.
• Can just use a washcloth with water on it to wipe them off.
• Once a couple teeth are really in can use toothbrush with toothpaste that does not contain fluoride.
• Can start using toothpaste with fluoride once kiddo is two years old.
• Make first dentist appointment at 2 1/2 - 3 years old.
• Unless see problems earlier.