16.5 month update

I probably won't do another Caleigh update until she is 18 months (her next MD appointment) and really close to my due date, so I wanted to do one now.  Caleigh amazes us - she really does.  She seems like such a small and compact little person and seems too little to be able to understand all that she does... She really understands most of what we say to her.

• *Naps: We are working again on dropping the first nap - since our last post on this she has been napping twice on most days but for about the last week or so she is down to one nap again.  She did 2 days of 30 minute morning naps and then no nap on her own (instead she just had playtime in her crib)... Our current problem with the one nap is that she will sleep hard for about 45 minutes or 1 hour and then wake up screaming - after you go in and comfort her she is back asleep for another hour or so.  We are working on napping 1-3:30 without waking and she is doing it as I write this.  Maybe the waking is from teething...
• *Teething: Caleigh is getting some big, fat molars and has been working on getting them for quite some time.  It is really impossible to look in her mouth but I can feel them just below the surface... shouldn't be long now.
• *Eating: Caleigh has been eating on her own plate for quite some time (13 or 14 months) and drinking out of a cup with a straw with no problems (since probably 13 or 14 months).  We have recently started giving her a fork and/or spoon at meals that require them and it is a messy task.  She loves it but rarely gets food on the utensil, up to her mouth, and into it.  She does better with a fork but often food falls off the second before it enters her mouth.
• *Talking: I doubt I can list the words that Caleigh will say... most times when we say, "Caleigh, can you say ____" she will repeat most anything.  The exception is mama.  She still won't say it - she just calls me dada in a higher pitched voice.  Lately she has started saying help, more, thank you, love you, diaper, cold, hot, snack, tv (she says that alot even though she hardly ever watches it), open, dirty, plus all the other words she has been saying for a while.

One funny thing Caleigh has started doing lately is saying uh-oh when she has pooped her diaper.  It took us so long to figure out this is what she meant.  She has known the meaning of uh-oh and said it properly for 3 months or so but in the last 2 weeks she had started saying uh-oh when she hadn't dropped anything.  We would go get her up in the mornings and say 'uh-oh' as soon as you walk in her room but there would be nothing dropped outside her crib.  Then last Sunday on the way to lifegroup she said uh-oh for no reason again... when we got to lifegroup we realized she had pooped in her diaper and even since then every time she says uh-oh for no real reason it is always because she has pooped.  She also says it when she pees in the bathtub and every time I get worried that she pooped in the bathtub but gladly that hasn't happened yet.  She has also started grabbing her diaper when it is full so I really feel like she is starting to notice its discomfort.  I wasn't planning on potty training until this time next year so I hope this isn't any type of early indicator...  It seems so smart of her to realize all of this and to find a way to verbalize it.

Discipline update:

We have just gone through a season (last 2-3 weeks) that have been really difficult discipline-wise.  Caleigh has been disobeying a lot and it has been a struggle for us to figure out what to focus on for right now and what to let go for the time being.  The biggest thing we are still working on is, "Caleigh, come to Mama (or Dada)" and often she will smile and turn in the other direction and walk away.  We only hand pop/ spank for direct disobedience and hand pops haven't been working lately so we have been resorting to spanking at times.  It is so hard (emotionally) to spank her.  I feel the attack of the devil so often in it - questioning/doubting that I am doing the right thing...  I have been praying lately for wisdom in knowing what to discipline, perseverance and persistence to be obedient to God to discipline her, and hope/encouragement that I am doing the right thing.  It is so obvious to me that "Folly is bound of in the heart of a child..." Prov 22:15a - especially when I see how (at times) she delights to disobey and thinks it is funny... it is harder for me to believe that the second half of that verse is true, that "the rod of discipline will drive it far from him." Prov 22:15b.  Also I know that if I love Caleigh I will discipline her, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him." Prov. 13:24