Eden’s 16 Month Update

It’s been a while since I did a monthly update, so I figured it was time to bring you all up to date with my favourite little human and what she’s been up to over the last few months!

So, little girl is 16 months old! It’s crazy to me that in just two months, she will be a year and a half. When we go to Florida in December, she will turn two years old. It absolutely blows my mind how time flies, especially with both me and Amy working now.

My little blue eyed girl still has blue eyes. Sometimes they are really blue and other times they look a little more grey, but they are definitely sticking with the blue. Her hair is still blonde although it does seem to be darkening, and it is definitely curly. There still isn’t a whole lot of it, but at the moment it seems to get thicker by the day! Eden is heading quickly into size 18-24 month clothing at the moment, although she still fits nicely into the vast majority of her 12-18 month clothing. Her little legs are no more, as she seems to have shot up over the last month or so and really got taller. I haven’t actually measured, so I’m not completely sure how tall she actually is. I have a feeling she is going to be tall like me though. She’s a size five shoe as far as we know, but we’ll be getting her measured again soon.

She is walking like a complete pro and gets faster and faster every day! Nowadays, she wants to spend less and less time in the buggy and more time walking or on her trike. We use reins when we’re out and about as she still doesn’t really listen to us in terms of dangers, so we’re working hard on that. I’m not the biggest fan in the world of reins, but if they help keep her safe then that’s more important than any opinion on the matter! Plus, she gets faster every day. It’s to the point now where you can look away for one second and she’s at the other end of the garden or climbing a toy. Unfortunately we managed to lose her Trunki ToddlePak, which was our favourite, so we will have to come by another one of those. In the mean time it’s Little Life Backpack time…

Eden is turning into a toddler. She has mini tantrums where she just loses her mind . They’ve been fun to deal with! We try to follow “gentle parenting” as much as possible and they are as new to us as they are to her, so at the moment we’re working on our approach. Talking to her does seem to help. She’s not old enough to properly tell us what’s wrong, but I think she appreciates the empathy. I try to remember that we are her safe space, so whenever she is being a total moo we keep that in mind. She’s learning to be a human – it must be pretty confusing and filled with emotion! But, on the flip side of the tantrums is the lovely, sociable behaviour. She chats to other children – nothing sensical but chats all the same. If you ask her for a cuddle or a kiss, nine times out of ten you get one. She loves to talk to anyone and everyone and we are often told what a lovely little one she is – that makes me proud.

As far as language goes, hers seems to be coming on leaps and bounds at the moment. The latest thing she has learnt is “no”, which is all kinds of fun as it always seems to come in groups of about twenty and is usually shouted! She says “doggy”, “pusscat” and “duck”. Any bird is a duck and most furry things are doggies – which is also usually shrieked at the top of her lungs. She also says “mummy”, “mama”, “baba”(her great grandma), “nana” and sometimes “grandad.” Amy also taught her “bye see you soon!”, which is the most adorable thing. Most of the time she just says “bye” with a wave. She says “hi” and will point and say “baby” if she sees a baby. She tells us “juice” if she wants some water and “naaaana” if she wants a banana. Some of the time she will answer “yes” (With or without a nod) or “no” to questions, but it depends on the question. She can also name “Skye” from Paw Patrol and says “minmouse” for Minnie Mouse, and sometimes Mickey depending how feminine he is looking that day. She also has an Anna (from Frozen) doll who she calls “Anna/Nanna”  and a bear who she calls “Bear”. If you ask her for her shoes, she will go and get them (sometimes saying shoeshoeshoe) and the same if you ask for certain teddy bears or toys.  She often brings us the phone too as she wants to Facetime with either Amy’s sister or my sister. She literally will not give up until she gets her phonecall! Also, if you say “one” and ask her what comes next, she tells you “two” and holds two fingers up.

Her favourite toys at the moment are her Talking Puppy, her Skye toy and her Fairy Coupe. She also loved her shopping trolley (Kids, right?) and her Rainforest Activity Centre thingy. At the moment it’s all about anything that either has lots of buttons to press, interactive activity or things she can run around with or climb on. She still loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Doc McStuffins, but her absolute favourite at the moment is Paw Patrol. She actually sits and watches things now too, rather than just dancing to the theme tune and then getting on with whatever she was doing. Finally, she has started taking a real interest in books. Often, she will go and get a book and bring it to Amy and I to read. Whether she sticks around to listen is another story, but I love that she’s taking an interest. I’ve always loved to read, so I hope she is like that too. The park is one of her favourite things as she loves to climb, go down the slide and run.

Food wise, Eden still eats just about anything you put in front of her. She usually has a banana, cheerios or some sort of fruit puree (or a combination of all the above) for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch with a yoghurt for dessert, followed by a mid afternoon snack and then a smaller portion of whatever we have for dinner. She loves spaghetti, chicken, Kiddylicious veggie straws, Kiddylicious Splashed Rice Cakes and bananas. Sweetcorn, cucumber and tomato are her favourite veggies but she genuinely will give anything you put in front of her a try. She wants to share anything that anyone else is eating, which occasionally leads to me taking cake up to the bathroom with me – ahem! We love going to restaurants like Pizza Hut and Harvester as Eden will happily fill up on the salad bar! She still has about 10oz of whole milk before bed and sometimes some milk during the day too, but its definitely all about the food nowadays!

I love this age. I really do. I love interacting with her and watching her develop her personality. At the moment she seems to change every day and pick up new things. There was one time that I said “shit” when I dropped something and she spent the next few days repeating it! Needless to say we ignored that and she stopped saying it because she got no reaction from us for saying it. Hilariously, though, she was using it in context! You can definitely see that she is a toddler now. Gone are the baby face and the babble and it’s been replaced with a face that looks like a little girl and babble that often contains actual words used in the right place. She often makes decisions, shoes us what she wants or lets us know how she feels about something and that is awesome.

I’ll update on little miss again soon. Until then, enjoy these pictures!

You can also follow us on Facebook and on Instagram if you fancy a bit of daily Eden goodness! I post new pictures most days because I just love photographing her!