Peytra walking

This month, Peytra has really grown up.  She is now walking.  She can’t walk everywhere, and she does still crawl, but she tries to walk or be upright as much as she can.  Yesterday, she stood up in the middle of the floor and took 11 steps to get to me.  She could have just crawled over, but I guess she likes walking. 

Also, she can clap, and it doesn’t look like she’s washing her hands anymore.  She can dance (bounce) a little, and she likes to kiss and hug sometimes.  She’s not shy at all about the kissing, and will put her mouth around my nose or all over my neck. 

Stryker and Peytra looking at the new truck that the builders across the street bought for Stryker as a thank-you for him bringing them those tool cookies

She loves her turquoise monkey, which she sleeps with, and she still loves her pacifier.  We try to only give it to her at naptime and bedtime.  But she also gets it when she is loud in church or the grocery store, or when she is able to grab it herself off of the end table.  She also loves socks.  She likes to carry around her own socks, or Stryker’s.  She often puts them in her shopping cart and pushes it around.  On Thursday, which was laundry day, she was playing in the clean whites when Stryker wanted me to go outside.  So I picked her up to go out, but she had a fit when I had to pry Stryker’s underwear out of her hand (he was not wearing this particular pair at the time). 

Peytra checking out Grace Johnson, her 2nd cousin, on February 18

She still really likes people and faces, but she has some stranger anxiety.  On Monday, my friend Amy watched Stryker and Peytra while I went to the eye doctor, and when I tried to hand Peytra to Amy, who we see once a week, Peytra clung to me like a koala.

She has learned to point to things we say, like, “Where is Daddy?  Mommy?  Stryker?  Doggy?  Monkey?  Book?”  She is saying Dada, but she says “da” for a lot of other things, too.

She is also making the transition to one nap a day.  This month she changed her naptime about as often as she changed her clothes.  First it was 8:30 and 1:00.  Then it was 9:30 and 1:30.  Then it was 10:30 and 2:00.  Now, she takes a nap at about 12:00 after lunch.  I don’t see how that could change.  I hope it stays that way for the next 2+ years.  The length varies.  The first day, she slept for an hour and a half.  The second day for 3 hours.  Hopefully, she sticks with the 3-hour naps.

Peytra just sitting there

She can climb up stairs.  One day, I was in the bathroom, and I heard Stryker say, “Uh-oh!  Peytra is going upstairs!”  I said, “Oh, can you shut the gate?”  He said, “Ok,” and I heard the gate close.  Then he said, “She’s going higher!”  Peytra had already gotten past the gate when he shut it, so she was past the landing by the time I pulled up my pants and got to her. 

Peytra at Quaas Creek Park

She is wearing 18-month clothes, size 3 diapers, and size 4 shoes.  She eats 3 meals a day, 2 snacks, and nurses 3 times a day.