Time really does fly and I don’t want to miss a bit of it – the main reason we started this blog… So although I haven’t done previous months, this is where Kyla is currently at.
Current Nicknames: Monkey, Nuts (cos she is often quite nuts), Kyla Bella, Kyla-la, Sister
Things this month have been crazy! Fighting for hours to get her to sleep have led us to reduce her sleeps to one per day at 11.30. This has worked wonders and we now have our evenings to ourselves again from 7.30 or so (most times). For the last couple of nights she has slept right through too which has been fantabulous!!!! As our first efforts in reading the Bible to her before bed resulted in a torn Bible, we decided it’s best to just pray with her before bed now. We are trying to be very diligent with this.
This past month has been the second time that she has been so sick that she had to take antibiotics. With a chesty phlegmy cough that just wouldn’t go away no matter what else we tried. Praise the Lord that she hardly struggled with a temp and that she was able to put herself back to sleep (most of the time) during the night.
On the teeth front, they took forever to arrive (the first one – left front bottom) arrived just before her 1st birthday, the next 2 (right front bottom and left front top) arrived at early into 14 months. Surprisingly, the next to arrive was the top left lateral incisor – had to look that up – was going to call it “top left one next to the front one”, but thought I had better get up to date with this lingo. Right now she is struggling with the left canine, right central and lateral incisor AND right canine. Who knows how long they will take to come out, but we have to medicate her at night for her to be anywhere near remotely calm. We don’t use Teejel or Prodol or anything like that anymore as they contain local anaesthetic, so now we are using Pansoral which is all natural but less effective.
She really loves her sister and besides trying to make sure Riya is constantly warm by giving her blankets, she has now progressed to trying to put Ri-Ri’s dummy into her mouth! She is able to point out Ri’s nose, mouth, fingers, toes, tummy, ears, head, hair, eyes and tongue (by sticking her finger into Riya’s mouth). After she points out Riya’s she does mine, dada’s and anyone else’s in the room! She has managed to say Riya (or something like it) a couple of times, and although I would love to brag here, I think it is totally by accident.
Still not really talking besides “mama” or “dada” here and there, but not for Mama or Dada but for anything. I would say that the only thing she really has under her belt is yes, no and ta. Her main means of communication is pointing and grunting/moaning/crying, this usually gets her her way and therefore why change it! Although she is not talking, she is absolutely soaking in everything we say. I am amazed everytime I ask her to find a certain toy or do a certain thing and she does it without hesitation.
Now a semi-confident walker she often walks around to get things etc. One thing about Kyla is that she is SUPER careful and would rather use her push walker or a hand if the path looks a little too long or perilous, or just resorts to the faster method of crawling if she is in a hurry. A couple of months ago she started standing up by herself by spreading her feet in the crawling position and pushing up slowly with her hands, but now she kneels, plants one foot firmly and then stands!
She is becoming quite an artist, with one of her favourite things to do being drawing on the chalk wall or in her colouring book. It boggles my mind that just last month she was not interested in it at all. She even makes sure she is holding it in her hand properly! The great outdoors is hugely appealing to her and she loves to play in the sand and with the stones in our driveway. Another of her favourite past times is to stare out of the doggy door…
She had a couple of firsts happen this past month:
- First time eating lemon…
- First time in the pool this summer (and hated it!!!!! Only got her toes in!)
Other than that she is CONSTANTLY on the move! We are lucky to get her to sit still for more than 4-5 minutes to attempt to read a story! She dances, or more like bops with music, clapping her hands occasionally. She can switch on and off lights, pack away her toys (when asked to, but sometimes not), switch on the washing machine, change channels on the TV, render the DSTV remote useless, climb onto and off the couch or other surfaces unassisted, talk on all her many phones, open doors (when lifted), brush her teeth, throw small objects about a metre, put her own hat on, feed herself, go without her dummy unless being put to sleep, find her dummy in her sleep and so much more.
You are doing so well my Monks, we are so proud of you. 🙂
[slideshow]