Rooney is 17 months old today! We're on our way to drop her off at her cousins' house for a long weekend while we go to Austin for the Texas Style Council conference (more on that here).

Whoa there little Roo. 17 months sounds so much older than 16 months, and in only one month you will be one and a half! Crazy!

Rooney, 17 Months

Bows her head, babbles and yells "Ma-men" when we pray before meals
Found daddy's tattoo and keeps trying to rub it off
Would be OK if she never had to take another bath
Says "Mmm" and "Yum yum" after she takes a bite, indicating that it's delicious
Likes to watch us cook in the kitchen
Seems to prefer her left hand when eating
Loves (real) babies

Growth

I wasn't able to weigh Roo this month (our Wii is acting up). Last month she weighed 25 lbs., 13 oz., but I feel like she is slimming down! Her leg rolls are getting smaller and smaller.

Clothing size: Mostly 2T

Shoe size: 6

Diaper size: 4

Also, doesn't she look so tall?

Talking

Rooney has so many new words! She loves to babble and imitate our voices and words. She is definitely doing less signing and more talking. Her day care providers are very impressed with how much she's saying! (They also said she is the best toy-picker-upper -- do they tell every parent that?)

At times she even attempts to string together multiple words: "Diaper off." "Bye bye daddy." "Pretty please."

I also think there are lots of words she says that we can't understand -- for example, cheers sounds more like deuce, but I finally figured out what she was saying. I'm thinking it will be really fun when she can enunciate a little better!

She can also follow some commands: "Throw this in the garbage." "Bring me mommy's shoes." So she definitely knows more words than she can say!

(By the way, I still think it's cute when she says no.)

Health

The most eventful thing that happened this month was that Rooney smashed her right ring finger in a heavy door. :( I saw the whole thing happen and rushed to her as fast as I could. It really could have been much worse, and she's cried harder at other things, but it was super sad. I don't worry about much but when we were running it under cold water and I saw how red it was, my mind jumped to the worst possible outcome and I wondered if she was going to lose the top of her finger! We didn't take her to the doctor or anything, so I don't know if the bone broke at all, but I figured there wasn't anything they could do about it anyway. It bruised and she lost her fingernail two weeks later. Luckily, it hasn't seemed to bother her much.

Bath: We still only do bath twice a week, but by the amount of photos I take, you'd think it was much more often. It usually takes a lot of over-the-top persuasion to get her in the bath and to keep her in the bath while Eric washes her. She doesn't always love it. She has lots of toys, and we sing...but does anyone have any tips on this? Colored water maybe?

Teeth: 12

This month we went to the dentist for the first time. It was a short visit (20 minutes) and Rooney did awesome, but there were tears involved. :( Her top teeth were stained so those got cleaned, and the dentist said all her teeth are looking great!

I asked him about her pacifier use and he says he is not worried about it until past age 3. So, we will have time, and probably will wait to wean her off. For now, she is great about keeping it to the crib or car.

Tip: Get dental insurance on your child before you visit :) I was expecting a $45 charge, but it was $171! So insurance is definitely the cheaper way to go, especially when they suggest two visits a year.

I wanted to get a photo of her laying on the chair, but I was by myself and they had her lay on my lap. But I did get this photo of the fun slide in the barn-themed waiting area:

Sleep

Naps:1

We are officially down to one nap a day! Only once in the past month she took two naps, so her switch was right at 16 months. She goes down right after lunch and will sleep about three hours at home (up to 2.5 hours at day care).

I now kind of understand that when kids go to one nap a day it's not necessarily because they are less tired or need less sleep but rather they throw fits and fight naps and want to go-go-go instead of sleep-sleep-sleep. :) At least that is how it happened at our house. But once we all got adjusted to it, after a couple weeks, it's been great. I think she was definitely ready for it.

Bedtime:7:00 pm

Night sleep: 12-13 hours

When we get our bedtime routine right (pajamas + lights off + popcorn + Curious George), Roo doesn't fight bedtime. During dinner and George we remind her that it's almost nigh-night, and that seems to help, too.

But, we've wondered a couple times if she's having night terrors. There have been multiple times in the past month when she's woken up crying (screaming?). If we let her cry it out, it lasts anywhere from 2-25 minutes.

We tried having her sleep with us one night because she was refusing her crib but would fall asleep on me immediately when I got her up. She slept between us on top of the covers but I slept terrible (five hours). Roo and Eric slept fine, though. I've been told not to start the habit, but at the time it seemed like the best option for everyone. Tips on that?

Eating

New foods this month: ranch dip, sunflower seed butter, chips & queso, black beans, spaghetti, hamburger patty, organic Mum-Mums, corn on the cob

Rooney's a really good eater. She doesn't try everything, but she is quite adventurous, in my opinion. Lately she has a lot of interested in forks and spoons. She can't quite work them yet, but if she's not into her meal, I just stick a fork in it and she likes to eat off the fork. (I also did a separate post on what she eats, which you can read here.)

I learned that Walmart sells goat milk so we used that earlier this month. Rooney does not even seem to notice a difference between whole milk, SO coconut milk and goat milk, so I like switching it up. However, she does NOT like the Silk brand of coconut milk. She refused to drink it!

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Thanks for reading! Here are just a few more cute photos to tide you over til next month: