13 months - Adriana is a toddler

Adriana became a TODDLER the last month.

A toddler is a young child who is of the age of learning to walk, between infancy and childhood. Toddling usually begins between the ages of 12 and 18 months. During the toddler stage, the child also learns a great deal about social roles, develops motor skills, and first starts to use language.

She is still very social and now goes out almost every day somewhere for a class of playgroup and also has friends coming over to play at her home. But still is funny to see how they don’t recognize each other when they meet at different places. Jacob and Adri also go to the same gym and yesterday they were together at the nursery but they didn’t even look at each other – and they play every Wednesday for a long time (or I have to say, they take each other toys for a long time).

But at the same time I think she knows her aunties pretty well and even knows when they leave our place. She cried already with Cindy, Annette and Marina when they leave home. Same is with Tata and Yolanda. It is so cute to see her when they are about to leave, she goes to their arms and “hugs” them. Then she doesn’t want to let them go for a while and finally she waves good bye and cries…only for a few seconds and then she is ok.

She is also learning how to clean her 4 teeth, we start with the toothpaste for babies and then she just plays with the tooth brush for a few minutes. Seems that she likes to do it and let me clean her without any problems, of course it took a couple of try outs and to do it to Tata for her to want to try it. It seems that lately she is into imitating us big time. I wear a headband and ask her if she wants while and she wants one, I put my sunglasses and she tries to do the same. And more little things we are discovering that she likes to “copy” us. I suppose now we have to be more careful…

She is becoming an expert in opening and closing doors, drawers and anything that looks like. So far, we only had one tiny accident that she realized a few minutes after and cried of course. At least now I can change and use the bathroom and keep her entertained for a little bit while she looks thru drawers and takes everything out. No worries – everything that may cut, poison, choke, etc has been taken out…She also learned how to pour water from the water machine so now that door has to remain close to avoid the water to be wasted. In another water related point, she is learning how to drink from a cup, usually ends in water all over her and a couple of sips in the mouth, but she likes to hold the cup and if I am drinking she wants from my cup or glass.

We bought her a potty training “toilette” to see how that works with her, the first time she tried it out ended up on her back and head on the floor crying…then she decided to take it apart and that was it. We sat her still with the diaper so she can get used to it but we won’t force or anything until later on.

Still not sleeping the entire night, but now she goes to bed easier and faster. Only takes a few minutes for her to be done…until about 4-5 am when she calls for mom or dad. Sometimes we just move her to the mattress where she takes naps and that’s it. Other times we move her to our bed – since is only for another couple of hours until the day starts we don’t mind and we can also sleep too. One day we hope she will sleep the entire night. During the day she naps twice and longer naps depending how much she plays. I enjoy it because it gives me that extra time to do other things…so at the end I don’t mind if she doesn’t sleep the entire night but I can have those hours during the day. And since she is heavier now, no more naps on mom…instead sometimes we just sleep together in the mattress.

I took Adriana for a mini photo session with a local photographer and after 50 pictures this was the ONE, I realized that I will have to take her pictures for her to feel comfortable with my camera...