Saturday is for Vivian: 15 Months Update.

This picture is taken today on April 19th, a day before Easter, the day Vivian turned 15 months. Don't let the Outfit fool you. It is cold, rainy and Wintery around here. 

Today My Beautiful Princess turns 15 months old. A year and a quarter has already passed by since she was born and time has gone by way too fast. She was born on a cold, rainy, Wintery Saturday and today is also a cold, rainy, Wintery Saturday though it is April 19th, not January 19th. I figured I would give you guys a little update on all things Vivian, all her main changes and growth between 12-15 months. Caution, this post will be long and filled with many pictures. But I think that's just might be the thing to read during a Holiday Weekend. So Thanks so much for reading. Hope her sweet demeanor brings lots of Smiles to your faces. =) And Happy Saturday before Easter!!

First, some pictures from today, before taking Vivian to day-care, this morning.

Today I am 15 months old.
I now walk on my own.
I have 6 teeth, but more are coming out.
I turn on and off light switches.
I love TV remotes, phones and anything involving buttons.

I love playing with my shoes and my brushes. I also brush my own hair at times.
I love Music. I even dance to it.
My favorite Children's Song is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".
My favorite foods are: Yogurt, Orange Juice, Mandarin Oranges, Bread, Fruit sauces and Potatoes.
I love Books and Toys that talk.
I love playing "peek-a-boo".
I can say "Mama", "Baba", "Nena", "Teta", "Ta-ta", "No", "Na", "Hopa" and a few more other words (these are all in Albanian, except the word "No").

...But my most favorite word to say is my Mommy's name "Ada". I call Ada all day.
I can wave "Goodbye" and sometimes even blow you a kiss.
I am usually smiling and laughing, unless you get me mad or I am hungry or sleepy...
I love Grocery Shopping with Mommy.

I love being in Daddy's arms.
I love getting ready to take a bath...
But I absolutely hate getting dressed.

Below are more photos of Vivian over the last couple of weeks. Since I have posted many pictures of her on the blog, from when she turned one, I figured I'd show you the latest pictures only. They are in chronological order. As you can tell by the photos she loves playing with the remote and no light switches are safe if she is around them. LOL

OK, so here is a more thorough update on Vivian's stats and growth. When Vivian turned one, she only had 2 teeth, the 2 front bottom ones. About a week later, after so much pain and a long time waiting she got her first top tooth and about 2 weeks after that another top tooth. Then, a month went by and she got her 3rd top tooth, and about 3 weeks after that her 4th top tooth, which brings her total to 6 teeth: 4 on top and 2 on the bottom. This has made things easier with her eating. She was such a bad eater, but thankfully the last month and especially since we started her on day-care 4 weeks ago or so, she has been eating and snacking more. She still loves yogurt and soft baby cheese (similar to cream cheese) with fruit. Her favorite vegetables are carrots, potatoes and peas. I usually give her green veggies mixed in with some potatoes or carrots, though. Her favorite fruits are bananas, peaches, oranges and mandarins. I haven't noticed much of a sweet tooth yet, but she loves sour foods. She makes faces and is fussy when it comes to soups though, but we manage to feed her some soup from time to time. Chicken broth is usually what I use to make her soups. At 12 months old we were able to switch her from a baby bottle to a sippy cup. A few weeks ago I taught her how to drink from a straw also. So that's good, but of course if she is drinking from a straw, we have to hold the cup for her.

Though Vivian started crawling since she was 7.5 months old, it took her a little longer to walk. She had been using her walked at 8 months old and by the time she was 11 months old, she would even get out of the walker, lean on the side and hop her butt on the floor. LOL So after that, we taught her to walk, by holding her with our hands. She was scared to walk on her own though. She stared making her first 1-2 steps on her own, when she was 13 months. Then finally, a few days before turning 14 months, she took a leap of faith and started walking on her own. Just 4-6 steps at once, but she did that repeatedly. It took about 3 weeks for her to get strong and confident but finally she walked many steps at a time. She walks a lot now and usually even quite fast. 

I haven't measured or weighed her since her 1-year visit, though she has seen the doctor several times since then, poor girl. I don't think she has changed that much in weight, maybe gained a couple of centimeters in height though. Vivian has been at a very good health mostly all through the first year of her life. But then in February she got sick for the first time. She had fever for several days. She lost her appetite. Her sleep was bad - or I should say worse than usual, (because she always wakes up through the night, a few times). We had to give her antibiotics. A lot of these happened as a combination of being sick and teeth coming out too, but it was awful. Even worse since I was sick myself at the same time. Then she got better and started eating a little more and sleeping better. And for a couple of months now she takes two naps during the day, one is shorter like 25-45 minutes and the other can be anywhere from 1-2.5 hours long. But then, in April, just last week she got sick again, due to the weather changes and the allergy season. She is better now but her cough is still not cleared 100%.

A couple of weeks after turning one Vivian got her first hair-cut. We cut the bangs a little bit and also we chopped off some hair from the back. Then again, in late March we cut off the bangs again, this time we shortened them more. I took her to a hair-dresser of course. I wouldn't try cutting her hair. She actually behaved very well while getting her hair cut, sitting on my lap, watching the scissors in front of her face, full of curiosity. I love her hair long but she hates clips and headbands now. She usually takes them off, so her hair is long and gets all over her face. It had to be cut. Her hair is still one of the things she gets most compliments on. She also gets lots of compliments on her gorgeous smile and her stunning grayish-blue eyes which sometimes look like a water-color green.

Vivian loves watching videos and TV. Her favorite things to watch are music videos and Teletubbies. She isn't into that many other animated or children's shows yet but she loves Teletubbies. What she loves even more is Music. She can seriously listen to Music and watch Music videos all day. I usually keep the TV on, in one of our 2 music stations alternating between an Albanian-playing station and one that plays American Music. She loves many many children's songs, both Albanian and American ones. "Twinkle Twinkle" is her favorite children's song and video. She always smiles when she watches that and it soothes her. But she also really likes these 3 videos and songs "What Does the Fox Say", "Wrecking Ball" (her aunt used to play this a lot when she was with Viv so now Viv likes it, too LOL) and "Can't Remember to Forget You". These are all so different from each-other but she loves them more than any other ones (as far as grown-up music goes). But probably the most favorite of all is "Nothing Else Matters" that we would play for her since she was about 3 months old (by "we" I mean, my husband did and then I started to). I know this is Metal/Hard Rock but let's face it, it's hardly considered Hard Rock. This song soothes and calms Vivian like no other and we play it (on repeat) almost every night before she goes to bed or when we try to get her to sleep. Vivian loves it, we love it and we have gotten so much used to it by now. All of these songs I mentioned and her favorite children's songs are all over: in our cell-phones, I-Pad, on both Lap-tops, etc. We have them saved there even in case the Internet is down or something. 

Last but not least, Vivian loves books. She loves flipping through the pages and watches me with a smiley face when I read to her. She also really likes books with sounds and music - obiviously. I usually read her two books with Albanian Children stories or Cinderella. She got a lot of books for Christmas and has plenty of books, both in Albanian and in English (we will get started with the English books maybe in another year to year and a half) but I want her to learn just a few stories now, cause she is still very young, so I read the same ones over and over. 

We are so Happy and Lucky that God decided to make you Our Daughter and that you are Happy and Healthy. Happy 15 months My Baby Girl. Mommy loves you to Eternity and beyond!

P.S. Linking up with Claire, Rachel, Patti and Molly.