14 months, 1 week, 3 days

 

Thank you everyone for your responses regarding milk. I received a number of great suggestions and Kerala's milk intake is getting better. Unfortunately, we have to add Ovaltine to her milk to get her to drink it, but at least we are getting somewhere. Today, she was actually really excited to get her milk, which is such a nice change. Her improved milk intake has made up for her not so great appetite the last couple of days.

This past weekend we bought Kerala a doll stroller that she absolutely loves. She saw the stroller at a bbq on Saturday and was quite obsessed with getting her hands on it. I ran out that evening and picked one up for her and she has been playing with it ever since. It's pretty funny because it's the same brand and style as her actual stroller. She looks pretty cute walking around with it. She usually puts either her duck, a doll or my phone and a sippy of water in the stroller as she pushes it around. Unfortunately, she now wants to push everything around - today at the zoo, she insisted on pushing her stroller rather than sitting in it or walking with us. It made some slow going, but we still had a good time. She got very excited when we saw the dolphins and elephants, but other than those animals she didn't really want to have anything to do with animals.

Over the past couple of weeks, Kerala has added quack, tree and bowl to her vocabulary. When you ask her what a duck says she will generally respond with duck and when she picks up her duck she usually says "quack quack." She also seems to be having conversations with herself, which are pretty cute. I can't wait for her to really begin talking because she sounds like she has the sweetest little voice.

13 months, 3 weeks, 4 days

 

I know we have not posted forever. Things have been somewhat hectic and Kerala actually has not been feeling very well the past few days. She had a somewhat high fever towards the end of last week and, while the fever is gone, has been super super cranky this past weekend. We did make it to music class yesterday and Kerala had a special treat with a visit from my friend Tania. Tania and I became friends in 4th grade and she has been traveling around the world for the past 2 1/2 years. Kerala got to meet Tania and received a beautiful dress from Ethiopia.

Kerala continues to do well with developing a bit of a vocabulary and knowing her various body parts. This past week we realized she would point to her hair and feet if you asked her where they were located. Also, when you ask her what a horse says she will respond with "neigh neigh." Occasionally, she will also respond with panting if you ask her what a dog says. With respect to words, she may say a word a few times and then not say it again for a while. It does seem like most of her vocabulary is based on food - wa wa (water), apple, nana (banana), cracker, cheese, chex, and kix. We have also been working on high fives, which she seems to be getting somewhat.

We are still trying to figure out the sippy cup thing. I think I mentioned before that she takes water just fine, but refuses to take milk out of the sippy cup. This has definitely been a more difficult transition than when we transitioned her from nursing to the bottle. I am actually quite stressed about her milk intake. We still do a couple of bottles and are supplementing with extra yogurt and cheese, but the whole thing has me a bit freaked out so if anyone has any suggestions we would love to hear them. Today I sent to Target to get some different sippy cups to see if that would work. A number of people suggested using the sippy cups with the straw, but Kerala is having a difficult time figuring out the straw thing. We will keep plugging away, but beware Ushma (my roommate from college who is now a pediatrician) you may be getting a panicked call from me shortly.

As far as general family matters, this week is a very exciting week for the Smerry household - Troy is graduating from law school! We are so excited. Unfortunately, this does mean that he will have to start studying for the bar shortly. His graduation is this Friday. Northwestern does allow parents to bring their kids across the stage when they receive their diploma. While seeing Kerala up on stage would be adorable, the ceremony begins at 1:00 which is when Kerala goes down for her nap so she will miss it.