Progress and Development

Wendy at 16 months

I'm going to list some of what Wendy can do at 16 months because, developmentally, she has reached a very interesting stage and it will be useful to look back on in years to come.

Vocabulary
Wendy loves communicating, and here are some of the things she says:

Shut the door
Eat it up
Get in the bath

dog, cat, juice, Brak, hot, mamma, dad, yum yum, gate, door, no, yes, good, dirty, Michelle, ta, bye, baba, up.

Eating
Wendy is not a fussy eater and she eats what the rest of the family eats, bearing in mind that they eat a low salt low fat diet. She climbs up into her high chair and feeds herself. She eats quite well at formal mealtimes but like other toddlers, she is easily distracted so once her immediate hunger is satisfied she wants to get down and play. Her parents give her snacks in between formal meals to make up for that. She enjoys snacks of fruit, veggies like carrots, rice cakes, toast and bovril and yoghurt. She is flourishing on this regime and is the perfect weight for her height. Unusually for a baby, she loves water and carries a bottle of it around with her.

She still swigs at her mum's breast during the day but it is mostly when she is tired, teething or needing comfort. She needs a proper feed before settling down at night though.

Health
Overall, she is a happy and healthy baby but as her diet has increased in scope we have noticed that she reacts badly to certain foods. We know that she reacts badly to cows milk especially if it uncooked, cheese, bananas, orange squash, possibly wheat and/or yeast. She has seen the paediatrician and is having tests to find out exactly what the problem is. She goes very blotchy then has soreness in her nappy area when she has had something that she is sensitive to.

Fun and Games
She loves Peek-a-Boo
Making a 'boat' in a laundry basket
Playing with her brick trolley
Loves being read to and often fetches a book and asks someone to read it with her. She tears up newspapers and magazines, but has never damaged a book.
Playing with a ball. She is learning how to catch a ball at present.
She dances whenever she hears music
Tickling games
Rough games like wrestling and being thrown between her parents.
She loves being upside down.
She is crazy about nursery rhymes, especially The Grand Old Duke of York, Twinkle, Twinkle little Star, Ride a Cock Horse and Baa Baa Black sheep. She loves all of them though. If she is unhappy, she can be distracted with a song or nursery rhyme.
She loves music, playing with dolls, unpacking cupboards, and playing with velcro.
Water play
Slides, but not swings.
She puts her doll to bed wrapped in a blanket in the laundry basket. Then she gets in and cuddles the doll and says 'aaahh, aaahh, aaahh in a very soothing voice, which is how she gets put to bed herself.
She is gentle with other babies and kisses them softly on the cheek.
Friendly and sociable provided someone she knows well is with her. She is cautious of strangers and stays around her parents until she is sure the stranger is OK.
She loves walking and running around outdoors and she gets very moody if she isn’t taken out, even in bad weather..
She didn't go through the stumbling and falling stage when she was learning to walk. She walked well right from the start.
Blows kisses
Loves blowing raspberries on her mum or gran’s tums.
Likes playing messy games but comes and asks to be cleaned up when she is tired of the game. She stretches out her hands, saying ‘dirty’.


Attitudes and Abilities
Gentle with animals
Scared of noisy appliances like the vacuum cleaner and the hairdryer.
She can power up the computer and unlock the keypad on Nokia mobile phones.
Excellent co-ordination.
Not fooled by old computer keyboards or mobile phones. She works out in seconds that they don’t work and she leaves them to look for ones that do work.
No interest in television whatsoever.
Very quick to learn things.
Loves to make people laugh.
Stubborn and determined which makes her difficult sometimes but these attributes will stand her in good stead in adult life.
Uses pull-up nappies now and is beginning to get the idea of potty training and washing hands afterwards.
Excellent problem solving, for example, if she wants to climb up somewhere, she will push her toy box or some other sturdy article to where she wants to reach, then climb up using it as a step.
Comforts people when she thinks they are sad. She does this by putting her arms around them and patting them while making soothing noises.
She can play ‘put in, take out’, eg putting a pen into a bag and taking it out again.
Friendly and sociable.
Interested in everything.