Greta Barbara: 14 months and a photo catch-up

Greta turned 14 months old yesterday. We spent the afternoon in Maple Grove Arbor Lakes with our friend Johanna and Greta's future husband, Harry. I'm bummed that I didn't take a picture of them together because Harry was looking quite handsome yesterday.

Greta in her new dress from grandma and grandpa.

She didn't like the feel of the grass on her bare legs.

A little recap of what Greta's up to at 14 months:
- She pulls up on everything and is cruising around furniture. She hasn't stood on her own for more than a second and is very cautious. I think it will be another month or so before she takes her first step.
- Her favorite toys right now are her music table and she always has a baby or small stuffed animal tucked under her left arm wrapped in a blanket or washcloth. Chad and I were just laughing tonight because we don't know where she picked up wrapping babies or animals in a blanket since she doesn't sleep with a blanket. She will sit so quietly trying to get her little square of a blanket just right and then lay her baby down on it and wrap the baby and then tuck them under her arm. She's even invented a crawl so she can get around with her baby. She will scoot with her left foot forward. It's kind of a kneel/crawl scoot. I've yet to capture it on video.
- Ever since Greta turned one year old she's been sleeping at night a lot better. She will go to bed at 7:30pm and sleep until 8:30am and usually only gets up one time in the middle of the night to eat. Last night she went to bed closer to 8pm, got up at 5:30am to eat, and slept until 9am. That's my girl!
- Greta has been an awesome napper since about 4 months. She usually takes 2 naps per day. The first one is about 1.5 hours after she gets up and the second nap is usually around 2pm. Her morning nap seems to be the most important and if we are out and don't get home until 3pm or later she is pretty flexible with her afternoon nap and takes it when I put her down. The morning nap is 1-1.5 hours and the afternoon nap is 1.5-2 hours long. Some days (like today) she was a little crabby so I put her down for a 3rd nap at 4:30pm and she woke up at 5:45pm with a completely different attitude. It's nice that she is staying up a little later at night (thanks to the daylight savings time change) so Chad gets to see Greta more at night.
- Eating has still been a bit of a struggle. Greta was in the 5th percentile for weight at her 12 month visit so our pediatrician wanted us to make sure she was still getting a good amount of milk along with trying to get her to eat more solids. She drinks about 5 bottles per day and gets about 25 oz of milk total. I'm still pumping twice a day and getting about 12 oz/day total so we supplement with a toddler formula for the other 13+oz. We've tried whole milk a few times and are going to try and incorporate it more over the next month. Greta won't drink the whole milk/formula unless it's mixed with half breastmilk. We ran out of our freezer stash of breastmilk when Greta was about 11 months so luckily I've been able to keep up with what she needs and supplement with the rest. For solid foods, Greta loves the organic food pouches from Happy Baby, Plum, or Ella's Kitchen. She's not a fan of feeding herself finger food (unless it's puffs). We continue to try different things and she's gotten a lot better in the last month. I bought some tofu yesterday and we're going to try adding that to some food for added protein.
- Greta loves music and will often try to sing along with me to some of her favorite songs- Twinkle, Twinkle, Ba Ba Black Sheep, ABCs, Itsy Bitsy (she'll try to do the hand signs), and Don't be Tardy for the Party (this is a dance favorite of hers). We play her McPhail Sing Play Learn Cd often and she loves to sing and dance to it. It's a great distraction for car rides too!

Busy practicing walking.

Checking herself out in the mirror.

Playing peek-a-boo with her dress.

Greta loves getting together with her friends. She will often squeal when she sees her friends. We had a playdate last week with Greta's friends- Elle and Ava.