McKenna Pre-Toddler Summary: 16.5 Months Old

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A full summary of life for this 16.5 month old. Find out what daily life was like and find a 16.5 month old sample schedule to follow.

16.5 month old McKenna

The craziness of summer continued in a major way, and McKenna handled it all like a champ. She really is an easy child, isn’t she?

EATING

Still eating well. Still eating a whole lot. Still leaving people speachless on how much she eats.

McKenna has decided she does like tomatoes after all, so that is off her dislike list. 

Manners

She was starting to scream when she wanted more of something. I really worked with her on saying more. One morning, she was screaming for more at breakfast–only it was just screaming in a tantrum way.

I told her to sign more. I showed her more. I even attempted to take her hands to do more for her–the fit continued. I patiently waited while she had a little mini-tantrum over it. But she stood her stubborn ground and so did I. We left the breakfast table with her not getting more. 

This is easy for me to do with her because I know she eats enough; I am not worried about her food intake in the least. So it is easy for me to walk away. Also, I have been around the block a couple of times so I know a little pain on the front end leads to more happiness on the back end. My stubbornness paid off.

At lunch, she screamed for more, and I said, “Do you want more?” and signed more. She immediately signed more, and has done so since that day. The screaming has stopped and she signs more. If I am not looking at her, she will moan in conjunction with more. So one meal of me standing my ground led to weeks of peace at mealtime. 

>>>Read: How to Teach Table Manners to Your Child

Spoon

McKenna is really taking to liking to eat with spoon and fork. She wants one in her hand at all times, though she doesn’t always use it. She does really well with the Little Grips utensils I reviewed a few weeks ago. 

PLAYING

There isn’t anything extraordinary going on in the play department. She has independent play each day.

We still aren’t back into blanket time. Brayden starts school in a little over a week and life will slow down considerably. We will then be able to get everything back on track.

SLEEPING

Sleeping is still going well. One night late in the two weeks, she woke crying at 9:30 PM. I went in to her and rocked her. I couldn’t tell any reason for her being up. She just was.

After I rocked her for about 20 minutes, she started trying to play with me, so I knew she was calmed down and okay. I sang her the bedtime song, tucked her in, and left. She was perfectly fine after that.

COMMUNICATION

McKenna adds words every day. It might make you wonder why she doesn’t just say more, right? I guess she already has a way to communicate that 🙂 . She tries to repeat what I say and is saying at least one new word each day. I have gotten her to say “up”–but she says it “buh.” Brayden and Kaitlyn both did that at first, too. 

I think I might need to teach her to sign “help” like I did with Brayden. She does not have the extreme patience Kaitlyn had (and has), and will get frustrated and start to scream when something isn’t going how she envisioned it. She really has a lot of personality similarities to Brayden. 

>>>Read: How to Teach Your Baby Sign Language

HELPER

Speaking of that, one major way she is like Brayden is in her work ethic. She loves to help and is very good at it at a young age. Kaitlyn hasn’t always been big into cleaning. This might have a lot to do with my practices as a baby with each child. 

With Brayden, we lived in a studio and so I had no choice but to clean while he was awake. With Kaitlyn, we lived in a house, so I didn’t clean when she was awake–I just played. But I sensed that Kaitlyn’s lack of interest in cleaning had to do with her not seeing me clean much. 

So with McKenna, I tried to do more balance between cleaning and working while she was awake and playing. I think it worked.

MINI-FITS

We are coming closer to real fits. That breakfast situation might be able to be classified a real fit, except that she wasn’t having a fit the whole time. Most of the time she stared at me while I stared at her.

>>>Read: How to Discipline Your Strong-Willed Child

ECZEMA

I wanted to discuss her Eczema. In case you don’t know, McKenna has eczema. It appeared around November/December of last year. It went away when the snow went away. She still has no signs of it.

I am pretty positive it will come back in the winter. We live in such a dry climate that in the winter with a heater going, it really zaps the moisture from the air.

As an illustration, we use humidifiers. In the summer, I only have to fill them up about once a week. In the winter, though, I need to fill them up pretty much daily. That is the moisture difference in the air. 

MIMIC

McKenna is entering a stage in life that I dearly, dearly love. The stage of mimicking.

The child mimics so much in such an exaggerated way that you start to really notice the quirks of you, your spouse, your other children, and other people with close contact with the child.

She does everything she sees people do. I love it so much.

POSSESSIVE

A strange thing happened at the park one day. I was at the park with a good friend. She has a daughter about 4 months older than McKenna. McKenna was off playing and my friend’s little girl decided to sit on me.

Well, McKenna did not like that at all. She screamed and came right over. She didn’t want another “baby” sitting on her Mommy. Then that Sunday at church, she scared a poor little boy when he tried to approach her food. She screamed at him, he stopped dead in his tracks, then wisely kept his distance.

This is a normal phase all kids go through, though most do it around 18 or so months old. She is a bit early. Brayden was right on time. Kaitlyn was late.

SCHEDULE

8:45-9:00–wake and eat breakfast. Music time. Bath. Go for a walk.
10:45-11:00–nap
1:00–wake and eat lunch. Independent play.
2:45-3:00–nap
5:00-5:30–wake and eat dinner. Various activities.
8:00-8:30–bed

GOOD BOOKS/WEBSITES

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