15 Months and some answered prayers

I don't usually blog on Lexi's monthly anniversaries. It may just be because up until 9-10 months she really wasn't making a lot of progress and it was almost a little painful to realize how far behind we were. After that she was making strides but we were still far far behind lots of kids her age and to come up with a joyful list of all the exciting things she was doing was about the farthest thing from my mind. I always felt like those lists for for parents of healthy normal kids. I would do them few and far between just out of obligation because I didn't want to forget some of the things she did down the line and then regret it.

On this particular anniversary, I feel like I actually WANT to be writing down her milestones and for once, I looked forward to posting this.

In early January, I wrote down a list. It was kind of a wish list of things I hoped The Chubs would accomplish by the time she was 15 months old. She was doing none of these things at the time so I felt like it was kind of far fetched but nonetheless, I wrote it down and prayed to God that he would answer the following prayers of mine and she would reach the following milestones by 15 months. This is exactly what I wrote:

"At 15 months, my prayer is that Lexi would:

Be eating some table food without gagging, whether on her own or with my assistance
Be drinking consistently from something other than her bottle, on her own or with my assistance
Crawling
Saying a few words other than mama dada and baba
Have much less oral defensiveness and not battling refusal nearly as much
Taking one good nap each day"

Let me reiterate that she was doing none of these things at the time. Let me also expand on all of these requests:

1) Be eating some table food without gagging

Lexi is eating mashed banana, blended cooked sweet potatoes, taking bites of veggie straws, rice crackers, mashed avocado (although she doesn't dig the taste), baked and blended squash, and other prepared table foods without any gagging. Although I still need to feed them to her she has made major steps in her texture acceptance and management.

2) Be drinking consistently from something other than her bottle

I've already blogged about this before, but Lexi takes all of her milk during the day through her sippy along with some juice by sippy as well. When I wrote this, she was not drinking from her sippy AT ALL, or anything else other than her bottle.

3) Crawling

Although Lexi is not crawling, she can crawl on her knees while scooting her push toy. She can also walk around the house independently with her push toy and cruise around furniture. She may never crawl, but I would say the fact that she is taking steps and walking with her push toy, that she is already exceeding my expectations.

4) Saying a few words other than mama dada and baba

Lexi can say:

Book ("Boooo")
Ball ("Bahhh")
Baby ("BehBeh")
Bath ("Baaa")
Duck ("Duu")

She also says "pppp" for "Clap", but we know what she means so I suppose it counts! :)

She can also sign:
More
All Done
Milk
Dog
Car
Bus
Hat
Shoes
Airplane
Eat
Wash Hands
Sleep
Brush Teeth
Please
Thank You
Bike
Fan

And probably more but I can't think of them all right now. She learns more everyday.

5) Have much less oral defensiveness and not battling refusal nearly as much

She now lets us (and enjoys) brush her teeth every day a couple times a day. She puts toys in her mouth (finally) and chews on things. She even does minimal self feeding with biscuits and crackers. I never thought I'd see the day!

6) Taking one good nap each day

Recently her afternoon naps have been about 2- 2.5 hours long which has been wonderful considering she would only nap 30 minutes at a time from about 7 months until 14 months old. As long as she poops before her nap we usually can count on a wonderful long nap and I am beyond thankful for it!

Needless to say I am beyond grateful and so thankful to God for answering my prayers. I really thought it was a stretch when I initially wrote this list, but it just goes to show you that nothing is impossible for Him!!

Happy 15 months Chub Muffin!