Week 66 – her 15-month-old wellness checkup, repeating words

Standing at her learning tower to eat breakfast

Week 66:

Dec 23: As of yesterday, bb kept signalling for me to take her to the basement where she wanted to play with the miscellaneous things there. They’re rarely-played-with items so they have a fresh appeal for her. She plays with household items more than her toys, which makes sense because anything can be a toy to a child. When I tried to refuse to not take her downstairs though, she would cry and so then I would give in…
Looking forward to moving to the new house for the fact that she will have a bedroom that’s located more in the “middle” of the house as opposed to a bedroom facing the street. She wakes up easily at night from the noises outside (car door slamming — I really dislike our neighbours who come home late at night, and lights from bypassing cars, and it’s a general brighter room in general from being near the front of the house). Perhaps this is why she doesn’t sleep so well. It could be the bedroom itself all along…
Dec 29: She had her 15-month-old wellness checkup last Thursday. Again, both parents were allowed to go into the room which was fantastic. And this time, I was prepared! I wrote down the questions I had ahead of time for the pediatrician and also added up the milk totals that she drinks each day in case he asked about them like last time.
The nurse weighed her and she is now 20.4 lbs! Yay!
It was a short checkup. The pediatrician didn’t have a lot of outstanding questions to ask her. He asked if she was saying words like “mama/dada” which she does. If she is walking — yes. If she can pull herself up — yes. He said she remains slightly at the 50 percentile range in terms of height and weight just like she was since birth. He’s not worried and sees no concerns. He did a VERY quick check/look at her under her diaper and eyes and that was it.
I asked about whether she still has to take vitamin D drops daily and he said it’s not truly necessary anymore as her foods will contain it but it doesn’t hurt to. I asked about water amount that she should be drinking. He said her foods and milk will contain water so it’s not really about a specific amount; to look at her stools to determine hydration and maybe 2 or 3 ounces a day. I asked about shoe wear. He said anything goes but probably something with a sturdy base is good. I asked about the flu shot for babies and he said that he can provide it to her and have it done in two doses. (I think babies under 2 years old get the dose split up). So on this visit, she got the chicken pox shot (as scheduled) and also the first of the two flu shot doses.
DH asked him about her expected sleeping schedules/not sleeping well concerns. The ped said that she should keep her naps to one hour each so that she can sleep better at night. Her current naps are two hours each… but we feel that she is tired enough to need that 2 hours for sleep. Parent knows best in this situation we think…
Bb didn’t cry when the vaccine needle went in. She had a delayed reaction and cried only a few seconds after it was already done. Proud of her.
She has been consistently speaking and repeating words after us. She can repeat and say “cookie”, “cupcake”, says “di lo” like a Mandarin speaker for “day low” (basement), and so many others I can’t think of right now.
She has been liking the “transportation” Chinese-English book and asking to have it read to her.
We took her to the playground near our house and she went on the slide for the very first time! She was a little dazed and didn’t really understand it and didn’t have much of a reaction when we went down the slide with her too.
She giggled on the little moving ride though.
Going down into the basement to play has been a daily thing. She says “di lo di lo” all the time and fuss when she doesn’t get to go down there.
Had her first time unwrapping gifts by helping her to rip open the wrapping paper (actually she had some at her birthday too, I think…). I thought she would be more interested in the wrapping paper than the actual toy so I left them in her play area but she didn’t really touch them.
She can look into the camera and smile now when I take pictures of her. She knows and plus I’ve taught her to smile too.
On a personal note, this week my HS came back after like 3 years of remission… feeling humble again as I learn not to take my body for granted and to take my nightshade/spicy/fried foods diet more seriously again. I overdid it for the past couple of weeks and now I’m paying for it. 😪 Also wondering if it had to do with me stopping producing breastmilk and now my body is “back to normal”. Read how some people with HS went into remission when they were pregnant — thinking back to when I was pregnant and able to eat anything..
Oh, forgot to mention that I let her watch a TINY bit of TV for the first time this week — on Christmas Day specifically. DH had put on the Mr. Bean episodes and because those are “slower” images (not flashy like most of the current things on these days) and it was the holidays, I let her watch. She was glued to the TV…
I mean I don’t want to deprive her of EVERYTHING. That’s not healthy or normal either. Eventually, she will encounter more things in the world anyway. I read a post this week where someone said they had a friend who didn’t let her child play with any pink or electronic toys and now as an older kid, that’s all the kid wants — pink electronic toys! Obviously, that’s quite exaggerated and a little extreme, but a little bit of something doesn’t hurt.
At the same time, we all know that watching too much TV causes attention deficit problems and behavioural issues too, so that’s why I don’t want her watching at a young age. Also physical problems like eyesight too.