Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 13.5 Months Old

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13.5 month old pretoddler schedule and routine. 13.5 month old schedule. Baby schedule for baby’s 58-59th weeks. 58-week-old and 59-week-old baby routine and daily life. Learn about feeding a pretoddler, weaning from a bottle, independent playtime, cleaning up after playtime, teething, and throwing food on the floor.

Brinley at our town's festival

This is a summary for Brinley from 13-13.5 Months Old. These are weeks 58-59.

EATING

A while ago (several months), I asked on Facebook about blenders and you all gave me great input! I ended up borrowing a Ninja and a Blendtec. After using the Blendtec, I was completely sold. I ordered one from Amazon.

Once it came, we did smoothies every day for lunch. Brinley LOVES them. Loves. 

BREAKFAST ON THE RUN

Once a week, I drive my turn for taking McKenna to preschool (we carpool with other moms). The tricky thing right now is that Brinley gets up at 8:45 typically and we need to be leaving the house at 8:40.

Hence the reason I want to move her schedule to start the day earlier, but I can’t yet because of the time change coming up in a month. So right now I get her up, change her diaper and clothes, and we leave.

But what about breakfast?

Right now, I give her the sippy of milk when we leave. By the time we pick up the second child, she is done with her milk. I then give her a cereal bar to eat. When we drop the kids off at preschool, I give her another cereal bar. That usually fills her up. She and I then go run errands.

I completely realize this is not the most ideal breakfast ever to grace a child. But it is once a week and short-term since we will be changing the schedule at the time change.

I am not too worried about one meal in the week being less than ideal. I don’t want to “serve meals” any more than I want to “serve my schedule.” In other words, I am doing what makes the most sense for breakfast that one day a week right now.

Brinley at a parade

BOTTLE WEANING

During this period, Brinley started to refuse to drink from her bottle. At first I didn’t really notice the anit-bottle sentiments; I just figured she sometimes didn’t want milk.

But after a few days, I thought about it and realized she was consistently refusing a bottle. So we went straight to sippy cups and she drank great! So she weaned herself fully to the sippy. Isn’t that nice of her?

>>>Read: How to Wean Baby From a Bottle

INDEPENDENT PLAYTIME

I really vacillated as I was deciding what time of day to do her Independent Playtime (IPT).

There isn’t a time that we are consistently home. We are mostly home in the mornings, so I went with that. But as I mentioned, we have our once a week that we are not home in the morning.

There are of course other days IPT doesn’t work out for the morning. On those days, I just do it in the afternoon if we are able. And she is totally fine with that! It is awesome that she is flexible about that. 

CLEANING AFTER PLAYTIME

Because of my experience with my children and seeing how the ones I stressed cleaning with as a baby have grown to be better cleaners than those I did not, I have really made it a point to clean up with Brinley after every play time.

I didn’t do this as much with other children because it seemed to be a waste of energy since the same mess would be made in a couple of hours anyway. But I now think it is an investment into your future to teach a child to clean immediately when done playing with something. This is true even if you are 100% sure that child will make the same mess later that day.

It has been paying off already! She is starting to help clean up when she is done playing. She also likes to help clean anytime she sees anyone cleaning. 

TEETHING

Brinley cut one tooth during this period. It was a central incisor. Her teeth are definitely coming in a different order than all of the books say they will.

THROWING THINGS ON FLOOR

Brinley has long been the type that when she is done eating, she throws things on the floor. Done with her milk? It goes to the floor. Done with food? To the floor (I often say it is like she is trying to create food storage down there). She is casting her things to the side when she is done.

I naturally don’t like that. I don’t like the mess. I don’t like the manners of it, either. I have been working with her to not do it. I haven’t done anything big. When she does it, I just tell her that is a no and that she doesn’t need to throw things on the floor.

If I catch her about to throw something, I take it from her hand and tell put it on the counter and tell her she can just put it on the counter. If she didn’t know how to sign “all done” I would teach her that as well, but she knows. 

She has improved a great deal! It has taken time–I would say around a month between me deciding to work on it and her showing real solid improvement. It is great to see her about to throw and then make a better decision.

>>>Read: How to Stop Baby From Throwing/Dropping 

CUTE SPEECH

I love the way most babies this age talk. She says “buh” for “up.” It is common for babies to leave a consonant off of a word or even reverse them. One day she came to me saying “buh, buh, buh” quite happily. I wasn’t even thinking and just repeated it back to her as I do when babies babble. Then she sat down and got offended. I then remembered “buh” meaning “up” and picked her up. Then she was fine 🙂

SCHEDULE

8:45–sippy of milk, oatmeal/prunes mixed, and solids (fruit, cereal, yogurt, finger foods). Independent Playtime happens in this block.
11:00–nap starts
12:45–wake up, sippy with solids (veggie, fruit, other foods we are eating)
3:00–nap starts
5:00–wake up, sippy with solids (veggie, fruit, dinner) 
7:30–bottle, then bedtime. In bed by 8:00-8:30.

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