Rooney is 16 months old today!

Highlights at 16 Months

Finally tripled her birth weight (many babies do this by 12 months)
Walks everywhere and loves to explore
Forward-facing in the car
Blows me kisses when I drop her off at day care
Makes up little "games" of repetition
Can make a mess faster than we can clean up
Tests boundaries and independence (most-used parenting phrase: Please sit on your bottom.)
Holds our hands when we pray before dinner

Weight: 25 pounds, 13 ounces (92nd percentile)

Height: 32.5 inches (93rd percentile)

Head: 18.5 inches (80th percentile)

Clothing size: 18M - 3T

Diaper size:4

Shoe size:6 (!!!)

Little Miss Roo is still at the top of the growth charts for size. Sometimes it feels silly to do these updates every month but then I look at all the growth that happens in one month and I decide to keep doing them for now. So here we go!

Development

Words: I think this is where Rooney has grown the most this month, and specifically in the past week. She has gotten much braver at trying to say new words.

New words:

Peace (please)
Tay ooo (thank you)
Mo (more)
Ooose (shoes)
I-per (diaper)
Nigh nigh (night-night)
Tea tea tea - in the most high-pitched voice (tickle tickle tickle)
Whoa
Weeeeeee!
Pop-o (popcorn)
Eahh (eat)
Ahh oh (all gone)
Ar-uh (Sarah)
Shanni (Shannon)
Dada (Adah)
Myee (Mylie)

She attempts many words we ask her to say, but these are the ones she can say really well.

Old words:

Mama
Dada
Nana
Papa
Uh oh
No
Baby
Ball
Banana (nana)
Hi
Bye bye

Signs:

More
Please
All done
Thank you
Love you (blowing kisses)
Milk

Eating

Food: One of her favorite foods this month was rice (Spanish rice, white rice, brown rice, Mexican rice). This is a great thing for us to order at restaurants for her because so many have it on the menu!

New foods this month:

Cheese balls
Dippin' Dots
Nutty bar (ice cream, chocolate and nuts)

Sleeping

Bedtime:7:00 pm

She has had an easier time falling asleep this month but occasionally she will fight bedtime. Not nearly as bad as last month, though.

Night sleep: 12-14 hours

She usually sleeps 13 hours (making wake time 8:00 am, which is great for our morning routine).

Naps: 1 or 2

We think she's happier if she has two naps so we try our best to make that happen.

Health

Chiropractic: We take her to the chiropractor every Monday, which she enjoys. She usually needs a neck adjustment but it doesn't bother her at all!

Well-child checkup: She had her 15-month appointment last week, where she got three shots :(

I had to take her home from day care early a couple times this past month because of loose bowel movements (the rule is they can't have more than two in 24 hours). I attribute her diarrhea (which is officially the hardest word to spell) to teething.

Teeth:11. No new teeth this month, but I think a couple are close.

Changes

Car seat switch: We ended up switching her car seat to be forward-facing late last week. For months we had planned to do it before leaving for vacation, and then I posted a question on the Words of Williams Facebook page and the commenters were pretty strong toward rear-facing til at least 2 years (which is currently the AAP recommendation). I had made up my mind though and was still OK to switch her (Rooney is bigger than many 2 year olds), but then Eric (who wanted to switch her a long time ago) said that he knew he was the one who was really eager and we could wait if I wanted. So, we did...and everything was fine til this past week. She started to straighten her legs and kick the seat/head rest quite often, and she seemed to be frustrated about something. Then it was frustrating for me to be in the car with her by myself and not be able to see her or know what she was so upset about. I got to work on Thursday and immediately emailed Eric to see if we could turn her around. He said yes and we switched her that evening.

To be honest, it hasn't gotten much better. I've been looking forward to the first ride with her forward-facing for a long time. I told Eric that I wanted to be in the van for the first ride because I was so excited to see how she would react.

Well, here it is:

Tears! Screaming! Crying! The whole production. And she didn't calm down for quite a while.

To be clear, (I think) she was mad about having to get out of her new wagon to go to dinner, and once she saw how much extra room is in the van now she wanted to walk around and sit in all the seats. She did not want to be strapped down.

Luckily it has gotten better:

Since the switch, she has been more verbal (talking about all the new things she sees!) but it also is tempting to feel like I need to give her attention when she babbles since she can now see us and I can turn around and see her if I want (but it's very bad for my motion sickness, and I won't be able to do that if her and I are the only two in the van).

Baby proofing: Now that Roo is walking like a pro, she is getting into more things, including our cupboards and drawers. Eric spent time this past month putting safety pulls on our bathroom and kitchen knobs.

Imitation: Rooney's favorite thing to imitate is mommy folding laundry. When I am doing it she will come and "help" me. She takes one off the pile, shakes it around quite a bit, brings it close to her body and puts her hands together, drops it on the floor and then takes another one from the pile. It is quite endearing. When they are all folded (by me), she will go to her pajama drawer in her room and bring them out to the couch (where I fold laundry) one by one and pile them on the couch. You know, because we should totally fold all the clean laundry too.

Following commands: She is just starting to follow commands. If I tell her I need to change her diaper she will (sometimes) walk to her room where we change her diaper. I am excited to see how this develops in the coming months.

Happenings

Rooney loves to be outside. Daddy picks the weeds and she eats the mulch:

Since Rooney loves riding in the wagon so much at day care (she will sit in that thing for hours, and I am not exaggerating), we bought a used one off our local for sale page on Facebook for $20. It doesn't have buckles...hopefully that wasn't a mistake.

Earlier in the month we took her to the park and she played on it for the very first time. Doesn't she look so grown up in these photos?

She just would not accept that she couldn't climb up the slide.

We went to my cousin Blake's wedding:

Last Wednesday (after Eric got home from work) we rode our bikes to the local farmer's market and Pizza Ranch (5.6 miles). I was really struck with how old she looks. Those hands certainly do not look like they belong to a baby:

Vacation: We took a week-long family trip to Okoboji. See our recap/photos here.

Working On

For next month, here are some things we're working on with her:

Independent play while we cook dinner or do chores in the evening
Patience (for food, mostly)
Body parts (she can do belly, nose and toes)

Rooney: You are a joyful little girl and we are having so much fun! Everyone we meet tells us how beautiful you are, and you have many online fans too. Your voice is high and delightful, you walk quickly and are learning how to run. We call your top speed a trot right now. I love being your favorite person and the one who gets to rock you before you go to bed and the one who gets your best kisses. The one who gets to see you first when you wake up in the morning and lift you out of your crib and teach you new words. I feel incredibly lucky to be your mama.