Ivy is 17 months old!

I missed the last few months' updates, so I am determined not to miss this one!

Ivy is so complex for such a little person. She is a jokester. She is well-mannered almost all the time, affectionate, cuddly, gives great hugs and snuggles. She can also throw terrific, epic tantrums with a deep, gravely, growly cry and I can do nothing to console her. She is very much aware of things going on around her, often to my surprise. She remembers things for hours and days and weeks, so if, for example, I bought her a banana from the little grocery store across the street, she will expect a banana the next time we pass it.

Ivy loves to do silly things with her siblings, especially if it involves climbing and tumbling around:

She loves to stack objects. She can spend hours putting things in containers and taking them out again. She especially likes holding onto water bottles--one is good, two is even better. Sometimes she tries to carry so many toys that she keeps dropping them, and then this catalyzes a tantrum.

Ivy loves shoes--putting them on, organizing them, getting her siblings' and bringing them to the right owner, placing them back in the shoe organizer. She loves dogs, cats, birds, fish, trains, and airplanes. She is our strongest signer and can communicate very effectively. She loves to "read" books and has just started babbling along as she reads. Like this:

Ivy does not sleep well. Clarification: she still wakes up 3+ times a night to nurse. She's a tricky one. Zari also woke up frequently at the same age, but that was only because she was still co-sleeping. As soon as we put Zari in her own room around 20 months of age, she started sleeping through the night. Inga and Dio both slept through the night, or very close to it, by this age. They also went to sleep often without having to nurse all the way down. Ivy, though, must nurse every time I put her down, and if she's even slightly awake when I try to set her in her crib, she freaks out.

I can't think of anything else to do at night but nurse her immediately. If I try to comfort her without nursing, she goes ballistic. If Eric tries, she she goes ballistic. If I let her cry, she gets so agitated that she makes herself vomit within a matter of minutes, sometimes even less than that. (This started happening maybe 2 months ago...really annoying.)

I've never had a child who was so particular about sleeping and waking at night. So for the moment, I am getting up 3x/night to nurse her back to sleep...which is just like having a newborn. Except when I have a newborn, all I have to do is roll over. Here, I have to trek down the hall, open her door, close the door, nurse her, and then reverse the whole process.

Ideas???

Ivy has had a rough few months between waking more frequently than she used to, getting a few different stomach bugs that went through our whole family, and finally teething her first set of molars. I felt the first one poke through this week, and the other three aren't far behind. During this rough patch, she mostly stopped eating solid foods. I'm so glad I was still nursing her; what would I have done if breastfeeding weren't there to pick up the slack? She started eating again with great enthusiasm this past week. Whew.

In California at a Freeze family reunion

Because everything is more fun upside-down

California family reunion

Zari's idea (and hands) when she saw a beautiful California sunset