I remember on the 14th of each month how I would take McKenzie’s pictures and see how much she changed within the first year. It was really crazy how fast she grew right before my eyes. When she was 6 months she was sitting up and was becoming more intrigued with the month sticker I put on her. By 10 months it was close to impossible to get the perfect picture of McKenzie with her sticker visible. Up until now, it was hard to get McKenzie to sit still for any photo. Ever. She was always the first kid to get up and run as soon as we would try and put all the kids together for a photo. She’s always blurry in photos because she is constantly on the move. Now she listens to me (sometimes) so she will stop and say “cheese” or she knows I’m taking a picture and runs the other way on purpose. My spunky little girl certainly marches to the beat of her own drum.
I couldn’t love that stubborn little sassy girl any more than I do. She’s independent and adventurous, but can also be timid and look for Brian or me when she’s around strangers. She’ll be running and see someone she doesn’t know and stops in her tracks and says “mama”, looking for me to come to her rescue. It melts my heart. I noticed a huge change in McKenzie around 19 months when all of a sudden she was putting 2 words together. “Hi Mama” or “what’s that” or my favorite”thank you mama”! She’s exploring and figuring out the world around her and it’s the best to watch. You can tell she gets frustrated when I have no idea what she is trying to say to me. She speaks her own language and will put her hands up like how can you not understand what I’m saying to you mama? McKenzie can be real stubborn sometimes, too. If we try and stop her from doing something she goes into full blown tantrum. We were on vacation recently and we were letting McKenzie walk up and down the stairs before dinner. She thought it was the coolest thing not having crawl up the stairs so she did this several times. I picked her up when our table was ready and she freaked out. Swinging her body, screaming, crying. She just didn’t want to stop.
We are for sure in full swing of “terrible two’s”. The other day she asked for a snack and I gave her an apple and all of a sudden the world was ending.
There are some cases when I feel bad for her when this happens like when we were on vacation, she didn’t understand why she had to stop. But, for not getting what she’s wants in our own home, not so much. She even looks at me under her arm and gives me the side eye to see how I’m reacting. I usually let her do her thing, I’ll then sit next to her and start to talk to her and we eventually get through it. A lot of things that use to be easy are beginning to become more challenging. The bath use to be so easy to get her into, she would run to the tub and she would get in. Now it’s run to the tub, take shirt off, run around, come back and take pants off, run around, and come back and keep doing this until she is finally naked. Then I have to basically trick her to get in and tell her what tv show she can watch after. McKenzie basically watches Sesame Street, Shrek, Toy Story and now this dumb learning colors thing on YouTube. I swore I would never be an iPhone at dinner Mom but there are a few times that we have been out to dinner and Brian and I will just give up and be like iPhone? I mean it’s tough to expect a kid to sit there for 45 minutes waiting for their food. We always start with coloring, then books, but if she’s freaking out before our meal even comes then we just let her watch something until her meal comes. She is usually pretty good at restaurants so we have been really lucky. McKenzie LOVES to eat! She will really only start to act up if she seems to be tired and it’s just too much for a toddler. But listen, to the Mom’s who I had judged in restaurants in the past, I am sorry. Use your iPad to get your kid through your meal if you must. Do you.
Mckenzie’s typical schedule each day is pretty consistent. She wakes up between 7:15 and 9am (yes 9am). Sometimes we have to wake her, but that chick can sleep. She takes 1 nap now, usually from 1-4. Some days she naps for 90 minutes, and some days she will nap for 3 hours. The worst is when she poops during a nap. I can almost always tell that if she woke up after 90 minutes, it’s because she has pooped. I usually put her down for bed between 8:15 and 8:45, I say I because even if Brian is home he gets kicked out of her room. She will say “Bye Dada” and then basically look at me and start playing with my hair and think to herself “how long can I get you to stay up with me tonight”? She’s way to smart and knows that the cuter she is the longer I will stay in there! I’ll finally put her in her crib after I read to her and then she immediately stands up and says “mama!!!” She will fake cry for 5-10 minutes, she actually does this for like 2 minutes for some reason if Brian isn’t home. Once she lays down, she will talk to herself for 20-30 minutes. She will run through every word she knows, it’s so cute.
I’m excited for the next few months before McKenzie turns 2. She currently has 4 teeth coming in at once which could be contributing to our fun tantrums, but most of the time she is so fun. She is getting better at playing with kids and communicating with us so I think the nicer weather will only make it easier for my baby to progress further. I will do a 24 months update (holy shit) once we cross that bridge too so let me know if you have any questions or advice for the next few months!
Thanks for reading!
The Redheaded Mom 