Lily Big Girl?

With the recent cold snap, I was desperately looking through Lily's cold weather clothes, hoping she still had a few things that fit. It turns out, she still fits in a couple of things that I bought last winter. Above, Lily is sporting one of my favorite outfits at 13 months old and at about 6-7 months old. Even though Lily appears to be so much bigger, her growth has definitely slowed. Thank goodness! Now clothes may last for a couple of seasons!

I took this picture because I think it's so funny that Lily always hooks her toes on the bottom side of the highchair. Silly Lily!

We've been having an interesting week or so in the sleep department. For the past month, Lily has been sleeping until around 8:00am (~11 &1/2 hours). This has been wonderful since I have a bad habit of staying up late. She was then taking a nice long morning nap (2+hr) and a shorter afternoon nap (~1hr). However, things started changing last week. Lily woke up from her short afternoon nap screaming and crying. Normally, I would assume she was still tired and would fall back asleep. However, this was not the case as it just escalated and I ended up getting her. Then, on Friday, she wouldn't go down for her afternoon nap at all. She just screamed and cried. So, she just skipped it that day...and the next. She did take two short naps on Sunday and then proceeded to sleep 12 and 1/2 hours (until 9:00am!) at night. That is an all time record. So, we tried just one nap at 12:30. I was hoping she would sleep for awhile since it was going to be her only nap for the day...not so. She slept 1 hr 15 min. Let's just say she was not fun later that day. Again, this morning she slept over 12 and 1/2 hours at night and then 1hr 15min for a nap. I feel like I shouldn't be complaining to have a toddler that sleeps that long at night. However, she's so tired in the afternoon/evening (but not enough to take a nap) and it doesn't leave me much of a break for the day. So, I'm hoping that she starts shortening her night time sleep and extending her nap. Maybe I'll have to wake her in the morning a little earlier or put her to bed earlier. She's obviously ready to go from two naps to one. I just hope it's a short transition. Any suggestions???

On another note, I have continued to realize that Lily understands so much more than I think she does. I feel like I underestimate her and even though she can't verbalize it, she knows what's going on. The other night I said, "Lily, should we go do your bath?" and she dropped everything and walked right to the stairs. If you ask her to brush her hair, she puts the comb/brush up to her hair. I say, "Lily, let's put your shoes on" and she turns around and sits in my lap so I can put them on. She's added a couple of more animals noises: Baa and Quack. I'm being reminded constantly how important it is to talk to her and to narrate our day. Even though it is still largely a one-sided conversation...she is listening and learning all of the time.

In my last post, I mentioned how much more stable Lily is when walking. She still is...which is why she has become a bit more daring the past few weeks. She walks so fast sometimes, she's practically running out of control. This, of course, has led to more falls, bumps, and bruises than she had when she was learning to walk in the first place!