Sophie’s 16 Month Update

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It’s been so long since I’ve shared a Sophie update here on the blog! I did monthly updates of Sophie’s first year of life but I didn’t plan to do them forever. 🙂 Her last update post was her one year update. Wow! Of course, if you follow me on Instagram (especially Instagram Stories), then you’ve seen tons of photos and videos and other snippets of our day-to-day life 🙂 But either way, it feels like it’s time to do another more official update post! Here’s what she’s been up to:

Sophie’s 16 Month Update:

Nicknames: BeeBee, Missy Lucy (no idea where I got that one), BeeBee Bonnet (still no idea, haha), Honey, Bunny, and more! And I guess technically Sophie, since her full name is Solveig. 🙂

Size: She actually still fits in some of her 12 month footie pajamas, but they’re getting short in the sleeves! Much of what she wears right now is 12-18 month clothing, with some 18 month items mixed in. She’s definitely gone through little growth spurts (or just general growth, I guess) here and there, but I don’t feel like she’s growing out of things immediately like before! I’ve begun to shop ahead on Kidizen (click here for my referral code of $5 for free!) so that I can stash away 18-24 month clothes, and even some 2T!

Sophie weighed 20.5 pounds at the doctor for a recent appointment (February 2019), and she was 31 inches tall! This puts her in about the 60th – 70th percentile for height and about the 30th percentile for weight.

Sleep: Sleep has been pretty great for a while now. 🙂 Of course, there is still the occasional rough night when she’s teething or sick 🙁 BUT, for the most part, we’re in those days that we could only dream of back when she was tiny! Sophie goes to bed around 7:30 pm every night (if she’s extra tired, we’ll do 7:00)…and she sleeps in till 8:00 am! This past week, she’s been sleeping 7:30 pm – 8:30 am and it’s glorious. She feels better with that much sleep, and so do we. 😉 We were working on transitioning her to one nap a day, but then she got her fever and then we all had a cold, and she really needed two naps a day. Right now, she tends to nap from 11:30 am till maybe 1:30 pm, but it’s sometimes shorter. If she doesn’t have a great nap, then we can pretty much plan on a mid- or late-afternoon nap later on that day. Even if Sophie has a good nap, she still likes some cuddles and then quiet time in her crib for a bit in the afternoon, especially if we’ve had a big day! She’s also figured out how to escape from her sleep sack, haha – after a nap, she’ll sit up and quietly work on unzipping it. She’s so proud when she wiggles her way out!

Fun Milestones: There are SO many! She walks everywhere (unless she’s flopping around or crawling to be goofy). Sophie even runs in that fast toddler-run style when Daddy is chasing her (or when I need to wipe off her mouth, haha). She’s really adept at stepping across uneven ground. The floors in our old house here are really uneven in parts, and the floor height changes when you step between any of the rooms. Sophie easily navigates any trim or edges of the floor! It’s impressive!

She can now hold up one finger when people ask her how old she is! <3

Her language development has been so fun to watch. Sophie says a lot of words and has a good amount of signs that she still uses, too! Sophie’s words right now include: HIIII, Mama, Dada, Daddy, please, more, nana (banana), cado (avocado), fish, Josh (her giraffe Wubbanub was named Joshua the Giraffe after the Raffi song), rub (for washing hands), dry, bath, boo boo, hush (from Goodnight Moon), up, down, graham cracker, book, thank you, cheese, God, Amen, again (which sounds like GINN) and many more! 🙂 She also knows a TON of animal noises! If you ask her what a dog, cat, bear, dinosaur, lion, sheep, cow, horse, wolf, owl, duck, birdie, chicken, pig, monkey, and other animals say, she’ll quickly and eagerly tell you! (She’s a huge fan of animals.) Basically, Sophie will try to mimic any word you say – language development is a fascinating thing!

Her FAVORITE thing to do these days is to say a cheerful “HIII!” to basically everyone she meets. She definitely has that “stranger danger” sense if I were to just hand her to someone she doesn’t know well, but that doesn’t mean she’s not friendly from Bjorn’s or my arms, haha! Sophie loves to smile at others in the grocery store and greet every single person we come across with a toothy grin and a “HII!” Sometimes it makes their day and sometimes I walk us away quickly because we’re getting loud with our greetings while they’re trying to shop. 😉 It’s also been really eye-opening to realize how much language she truly understands! Once Bjorn was talking about China, soybeans, and their hog market with my parents, and when he said the word “pigs” in passing, Sophie immediately starting oinking like a pig! Or we’ll mention the word “bath” or “book” in a conversation between the adults, and Sophie will run for the bathtub or go open up a book!

Speaking of books, Sophie loves to read. She’s really into “Goodnight Moon” right now, but also loves her Alphabet Lift-a-Flap book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Baby Beluga, and any books about Biscuit or real animals!

RELATED: Sophie’s Favorite Books at 14 Months

Sophie even has a great little sense of humor. It’s great to see the little goofy things she does to try to make others smile. But she’s also got the sweetest spirit and has so much empathy in that little body! My mom broke her arm/wrist recently, and when we were there, Sophie knew she was in charge of morale. 🙂 She’d lean her head near my mom on the couch, point at Mom’s arm and say “Boo boo,” and then say, “Shhh, shhhh…” She did the same for a fish of ours that was on its deathbed. She pointed at him and cried, and then made a rocking motion with her arms and said, “Shhh, shhh…” It is so sweet how perceptive she is.

She’s great at keeping her bows on her head still! (Yay!) Sophie’s a girly girl and loves dresses, pink, hair bows, and more. She also loves to help! She can often identify what you’re pointing at and will go grab it for you 🙂 and it’s so neat seeing how her mind works. She’s watched me fold washcloths enough that she’ll crouch down next to me while I fold laundry and attempt to fold one herself! She’ll help me wipe the floor after a messy lunchtime. And when I bring grocery bags into the house, she even tries to drag them from the front door into the kitchen! 🙂

Sophie had a brief season of being sick and it was so sad! 🙁 She got a fever back in January, and it was her first ever fever. It’s nice she hadn’t had a fever until 15 months but it still meant I had all of those first-time parent worries! It was no fun. After a couple days of fever, she got a rash. Upon taking her in to the doctor, we had it pegged: roseola. Luckily, it’s a virus we all only get once. So she’s done with that for good! Unfortunately, right after Sophie got over the roseola, we all came down with an awful cold that lasted about 10 days! We’re finally feeling all better and I pray it stays that way as long as possible! 🙂

Sophie eats off of toddler plates and does a great job of navigating the food from each section into her mouth! (We weaned off of breastfeeding back in December and she hasn’t missed it, so it was the perfect time for us to end that journey. It was really bittersweet but what a great journey!) She’s pretty good at using her Grabese fork and spoon, and even a longer spoon, too! She’s mastered drinking from a straw (we got her a special insulated thermos with a silicone straw), but most days, we just use the Munchkin cups. She sure loves food and does an awesome job with a variety of cuisines, textures, and flavors! Favorite foods right now include: a big bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, veggies (she LOVES the frozen mixed veggies when we steam them for her), any other roasted vegetables like broccoli or carrots, avocado (she’ll eat an entire one!), bananas, crackers of any kind, whole milk, pears, mango, cottage cheese, and more! Sophie has 2 teeth on the bottom and about 4 (or more??) teeth on the top now! She’s got the cutest grin.

Sophie has enjoyed all sorts of fun activities, outings, and get-togethers these past 4 months. I’m sure I’ll forget something here, since I’m doing it off the top of my head, but here’s a brief list:

  • We’ve gone to a February Festival near the Twin Cities, where Sophie got to walk on a frozen lake and see sled dogs in action!

  • We’ve enjoyed time at MOPS (where Sophie plays in the 0-2 year old room), and we recently started attending an ECFE (Early Childhood & Family Education) class where Sophie gets to play with toys, friends, have snack time, circle time, art projects, and more! It’s so darling to see her at “school!”

  • There have been a TON of snow days for Bjorn this winter (I don’t know if we’re on number 7 or what!), so Sophie and I have enjoyed some bonus time spent with Daddy!
  • We’ve traveled to my parents’ quite a bit these past few months – not only because of the holiday season, but also because of army! Bjorn’s had some additional army commitments lately, and it’s always nice when the three of us are able to stay with my parents and get some time with them!

It’s been such a joy doing daily life with this precious little soul! She is an amazing gift and Bjorn and I still can’t believe she’s ours.

PS — if you like seeing darling Sophie photos or other snippets of our everyday life, be sure to follow along on Instagram! I post Instagram Stories basically every day, and often multiple times a day! Come join us 🙂