Hi friends!
It has been ages since I did a Riese update – apparently my last one was the 1 year update! Whoa. Now that she’s 16 months old as of this week I thought I’d pop in today to share how things are going over here in toddler-land.
Read on for updates on what Riese is into lately, where we are with nursing/weaning, our new childcare situation, and more!
Looking at that photo above I’m like, wow, is that really my little baby?!
It’s crazy how quickly I feel like she went from being a baby into a full-blown toddler – she is now walking (nearly running), doing a little talking, and full blown tantrum-ing here and there, too (yikes – she does NOT like when she doesn’t get her way…).
Current Favorites
Now that Riese can fully walk (she started a couple months ago but didn’t get super confident until earlier this month), she is obsessed with it and wants to walk all the time!
At home, she loves trying to unravel all the toilet paper and then shred it all over the bathroom (Zara must have taught her that one…), and she’s also a big fan of taking all the rolled trash bags out of the dog leash.
She’s also obsessed with taking off her shoes and socks in the car and stroller.
It will be like 40/50 degrees and she’ll rip off her shoes and socks and make me look like a bad mom who doesn’t keep her child’s feet warm… 😉
Quite the mischievous little one!
Her favorite word is “dog” – not surprised there. 🙂
She LOVES Freyja the dog and Zara the cat… we are working on gentle petting and she’s been pretty good with it lately. They have been very patient with her!
Other words so far include mama, dada, “uh oh”, and “la la la” if we are singing. 😉 She has started trying to mimic a lot of words we say now, too.
She’s a big explorer and adventurer. She LOVES being outside, so anytime it’s nice out we explore nearby parks.
At the playground, she loves the swings, climbing up and down any stairs/steps that are nearby, and going down the slide.
She also really loves playing in the dirt, analyzing leaves, carrying around sticks, etc.
Stay tuned for some mud pie blog recipes in the future (jk). 😉
Sleep + Nap Update
We are lucky she’s still a good nighttime sleeper (knock on wood) – she usually sleeps from about 6:30 or 7 until about 7.
I have zero advice re: sleep – every kid is so different and I don’t really think it’s anything we did… we just got lucky she turned into a good sleeper.
As for naps, she has switched to one (instead of two) naps per day, which I’m pumped about.
She usually takes her nap around 12 or 12:30, after eating lunch.
Not only is one nap awesome because now we have more time to do fun stuff and scheduling activities is easier, but it’s also nice because she’s sleeping for longer because it’s all at once!
Riese was never a great napper (the price we paid for solid nighttime sleep – very worth it) – she would normally only nap for 30 to 45 minutes, twice a day, so by the time I would clean up stuff around the house, hop in the shower, whatever, she’d already be up again.
Now that her two naps are combined we are more often getting a solid 2 or even 2.5 hours – amazing! I’m able to get so much stuff done now while she’s napping compared to before, which is awesome. I guess all that walking is tiring her out!
I love creeping on her when she sleeps… so sweet. <3 (And I see why that pose in yoga is called “child’s pose” now!)
Childcare Update
It’s good news that I have more time built into my days with her one longer nap because we very sadly said goodbye to our nanny of over 1 year last week.
She had to go home to Bolivia for awhile and wasn’t sure when she’d be back – probably early summer, but long enough that she resigned vs. asking us to wait for her.
Her last day was last Thursday and both of us (me and our nanny, not Riese – she was oblivious) cried when we said goodbye. So sad to see her go – she was with us starting when Riese was about 11 weeks old, and was so sweet and lovely with her.
After much debate and interviews, I decided to drop down to 2 partial days a week of childcare (vs. the full 3 days we were doing before) and we found a sitter who could come on Mondays and Wednesdays.
I’m so grateful to have an extra full day each week (and some extra mornings) with Riese now! It was a change I’d been wanting to make for awhile, but I didn’t want to rock the boat with our nanny because I knew she needed the hours/full days… so when our nanny told us she needed to leave, I decided it was a sign to mix things up.
The longer nap situation makes it a lot easier than it used to be. And any work I can’t get done during the day can always be tackled after she goes to bed, too.
I’ve got a really busy next few weeks so I’ll probably be doing a lot of work at night, but that’s okay – worth it to get some extra time for adventures with the little one!
Our new sitter started this week. She seems very nice, although it’s a big adjustment to have someone new in the house and Riese is in a stranger danger phase right now so it took some time for her to warm up which was stressful for all of us!
I’m sure we will settle in, though. 🙂 I’m going to start looking into preschools soon, too – my big girl, ahh!
Food Update
I feel like this is probably ironic because I’m a dietitian and should have all sorts of creative ideas for food, but to be honest, I find mealtime to be a bit stressful!
Part of the stress is logistical — I’m not always great about planning ahead for meals, so sometimes I’m trying to make something for Riese while she’s flipping out and holding onto my legs. Not exactly relaxing for either of us. 😉
The other part is just that I feel like I am running out of ideas for what to feed her already!
We do a lot of basics:
- Fruit
- Yogurt or cottage cheese, sometimes with nut butter mixed in
- Banana oatmeal with chia seeds
- Protein pancake
- Veggies she likes are peas, string beans, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, and cucumber
- Toast with hummus or nut butter and with hemp seeds sprinkled on top
- Cheese + chopped spinach quesadilla sliced into pieces
- Grains + beans mixed together (sometimes with hummus mixed in as well to make it more flavorful)
- We still love Raised Real (if you want to try it, use my affiliate code ANNE3854 for $20 off) – her favorites are the sweet potato + beet with coconut butter, and some of the quinoa ones
- Salmon, tuna, or chicken
- Guacamole (she doesn’t like avocado, but likes guac – good taste)
- Veggie burgers (she likes the Amy’s brand black bean burgers)
- Meatballs (we just used up the last of my butternut squash + chicken sage meatballs from the freezer, and sometimes I’ll grab an organic store-bought version too)
Reading that list I feel like it sounds like we give her a ton of variety, so maybe I’m being too hard on myself?!
She eats some of our dinner leftovers, too, although whether she likes them or not is hit or miss. She’s definitely gotten more picky lately!
She can be really funny at meals, though – very mischievous! She loves trying to feed the dog and it’s all I can do to not laugh and encourage it…
Mullet game: still very strong
On the Go Snacks
One of you of Instagram requested some on the go snack ideas for toddlers, so I wanted to be sure to touch on this!
For snacks when we are on the go, we still do some fruit + veggie pouches as a backup, but I’ll often bring some sort of a snack ball or a muffin as well.
We like the Simple Mills muffins (I make them with whole milk instead of water, and I add about 1/4 cup of chia seeds to the mix too) a lot for a fast option, and for snack balls I usually make a variation of my Oatmeal Raisin Energy Bites with different combinations of nuts/seeds/dried fruit.
Snack balls in particular are great because kids seem to love them (because they mostly just taste like fruit), but thanks to the nuts/seeds they are filling as well! And they are so portable.
Riese also likes Cheerios and Power O’s (from Love Grown Foods – they look like cheerios, but are made with beans – nice way to mix it up with some extra protein too).
Nursing update
Everyone always wants to know about nursing + weaning plans when I ask for topic requests on Instagram for these baby update posts!
I’m still nursing Riese 2 to 3 times a day, depending on the day. First thing + sometimes after the afternoon nap unless I’m gone/working + before bed unless I’m not there.
To be honest, I’m starting to feel really ready to be done nursing – I’ve had two bouts of blocked ducts in the past month (ugh, so painful… I just started taking some sunflower lecithin again this week so hopefully that will help – apparently it helps prevent clogged ducts) and I’m just feeling like I want to have my body to myself for awhile and to not worry about pumping if I want to go do an early morning workout before Riese is up, etc.
But… it’s such sweet time with her, and she’s not ready to be done.
I feel like it’s going to be harder to stop now that she’s older/a lot more aware… she always taps my breast to ask for milk and looks at me with those big blue eyes and I can’t say no!
And if I try to say no/offer her regular milk or a snack instead, she cries and I feel like the worst mom ever.
So… any tips for those of you who have weaned around the 16 month time frame or later?
I wanted to make it through cold and flu season and now that we are just about there, I feel like it’s time. I for sure want to be done by early June because I have a trip away from her scheduled.
So, yeah, any tips would be very helpful. She loves whole milk and drinks it throughout the day with meals/her snack, so that doesn’t seem to be the issue, thankfully!
Favorite products
Riese is really loving her books lately, and her current favorites are all the “Little Blue Truck” books. We have the original, the Christmas book, and the Halloween book. They are super cute and well done books that Matt and I actually enjoy reading, too. One other current fave is “Goodnight Gorilla” – so cute!
For water, Riese loves her glass straw cup (it has plastic on the outside so the glass won’t shatter when it’s dropped).
For milk, Riese uses a stainless steel straw cup. At first we tried just offering her milk in her water cup, but she didn’t seem to like that, so now we have the one cup that’s always water and the other one that’s always milk. I just offer her both of them at meals and snacks so she can choose.
Riese got a new high chair for her birthday (per our request) late last year – the Stokke Tripp Trapp. We had the super cheap Ikea high chair previously, but I didn’t like that her legs were dangling without a footrest, and she was always able to slouch and even pull her feet out and onto the tray while in that high chair… plus, the legs went out super wide and we were always tripping over them.
We LOVE our new high chair. Highly recommend!
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And I think that’s about all I have for you today! If there’s anything I didn’t discuss you want to hear about, feel free to ask!
We are looking forward to getting out for lots of hikes this spring – she loves them as much as we do. 🙂
Flashback posts:
- Riese’s C Section Birth Story
- The first 2 weeks
- Day in the Life: 8 month baby edition
- How we got started with baby led weaning
- Products I recommend for new babies + expectant mamas
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Please note there are affiliate links in this post.
