Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 13.5 Months Old

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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11 thoughts on “Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 13.5 Months Old”

  1. You're like a hair expert. Is there a book(or website) you use that teaches all these hairdos that I see on your girls(like the braids)? My little girl just has a little hair now, but I can't wait! I just have to learn how!! 🙂

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  2. Some things I just come up with but some I find. The only website I have used for instructions is:http://www.princesshairstyles.com/She is amazing!I do have a lot of things pinned on my "hair" board on pinterest, too. I don't know if the pictures actually lead to instructions because I haven't checked them…yet…someday maybe? lol

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  3. Kaitlyn's braid in that picture is what I call "Katniss Braid"–it is just a french braid going across the back of her head.

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  4. I'm so glad you mentioned Brinley throwing food. My 12.5 month old does that and it drives us mad. I never know what to do because he'll do it when I know he's hungry…just for fun. Sigh.

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  5. Just stay consistent Andrea. Let him know when he does it that it isn't okay and just remind him over and over. He will learn 🙂

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  6. Love love love your blog. Iv'e been reading it for years, and have been doing babywise with all my kids for the past 7 years. But this fourth one of mine has been rough. Hes got an intolerance to dairy and soy and has had chronic ear infections. He turned 1 two days ago and also got ear tubes on his birthday so hopefully that part is solved. However he has been waking up between 5 and 6 am, with a bedtime of 8pm, and I cannot figure out what is going on with him. I initially thought that he wasnt getting enough protein or calories since he was drinking almond milk, so I switched to a higher protein/calorie milk and added more protein to his meals, but he is still waking early. When he wakes up he seems hungry and ready for the day and almost never goes back to sleep. I usually give him a bottle and let him stay in his crib until around 7. He takes two naps a day, at 9:30 and 2, for around 1.5-2 hours a day. He has on occasion slept til 7:30 so I know that he is capable, and probably should be sleeping until at least then. Do you have any insights into what could be causing his early rising? Between him and my 3 year old that is having some sort of night terror I am quickly becoming fatigued, any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks! -Jenilyn

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  7. My daughter is 13 months… Lately her sleep has been off. Naps short, waketime in the am earlier and taking her awhile to fall asleep at night. Lately schedule is as follows: wakes at 645-7, naps at 10-11 lunch, play nap again at 2-330 then bed time 730 but falls asleep closer to 8-830. Not sure if ready to drop a nap? Use to take a 1.5 hr nap in am and 2 hr nap in afternoon and morning wake time was 730-8. Any advice?? Not sure what the change is, and how to fix it.

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  8. Jenilyn,It could be that he needs less nap time in the day. That is really rough with the time change approaching. If he is hungry, then I would focus on getting more calories into him during the day.He could just be thirsty. I leave a sippy of water in the crib with Brinley and she drinks usually half of it each night. I, myself, drink a fair amount of water during the night so I am sympathetic to it. If it isn't hunger or thirst and you are sure he isn't too cold (since seasons are changing), I would go in, pick him up, calm him, tell him it is still night time, and put him back down. Especially with the time change coming up. I would make sure you don't get his body used to waking up and eating early.

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  9. Denise, For Brinley, moving her nap 15 minutes later (each nap) worked. But I would say he is close to being able to drop to one nap, and possibly even ready. I would start by moving nap back and then see how it goes. If it is still rough, I would try out one nap.

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