18 Months

How?  How is my baby a year and a half already?  It seriously felt like we JUST had her birthday!  I guess that's the difference between the first year and the second.  Here are some things my big girl was up to this past month:

-We transitioned her to a backpack instead of a diaper bag.  She doesn't really want to carry it, but it's much easier on me when I'm chasing her around a park or when I'm dropping her off at the church nursery and have my own stuff to carry.  Unfortunately, it won't be long that I'll be adding that pesky diaper bag back into the mix.

-Trains and Elmo are her new favorite things!  The girl will ask for them each 50 times a day.  She has a lot of Thomas books and toys (from my therapy days), so I understand that one.  However, I'm really not sure how she learned about Elmo.  We watched Sesame Street maybe three days one week, she barely even paid attention, and I never said his name.  But then the next week his name was being spoken every two minutes.  She loves Thomas and Elmo!

-Sleep.... ughhhh sleep!!  It took her the ENTIRE month to recover from us being on vacation.  She still isn't consistently going down without crying, but there have been 5 times in the last week when she has gone down calmly at either bedtime or nap time.  She's still waking up from her [way-too-short] naps crying most days though.  As I've said before, I'm never leaving her again if this is what I get for it!

-The little lady has loved music since she came out of the womb.  However, this month she has gotten really into songs with motions!  She loves for us to sing songs like "This Little Light of Mine," "Jesus Loves Me," "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," etc.  She enjoys getting to do the motions and will ask for us to do them over and over!  It's precious : )

-She's been working on four more teeth this month (the canines).  One has broken through, but the others are still trying.

-She's had a language EXPLOSION this last month!!!  As of my last post, I think she had around 24 words.  Her count this month is 68!!  As an SLP, I'm so used to seeing slow language growth in the kids I work with.  It's very different when you see the typical development.  It makes her look like a GENIUS!!!  She's not really putting words together too much though.  She will imitate me doing so, but unless they are just a phrase (ex- "Thank You, Hot Dog, etc), she doesn't really combine words yet independently.

-We had our last pool day at the beginning of the month : (  I didn't realize it would be our last, so I didn't get to soak it up.  A random cold snap came through and then the pool was closed for the season.  This preggo sure could use that weightlessness again!

 -She's become a picky eater again... ugh!  Basically the only way I can get her to eat fruit right now is by making smoothies.  Thus, she gets a smoothie every day!  But she seems to love them and she likes helping Momma make them.

 -She has become very fascinated with my growing belly.  She calls it "baby" and will pet it, kiss it, and snuggle it.  She doesn't call anyone else's tummy "baby", but I'm still not quite sure just how aware she is of the fact that there is truly a baby in there.  Whether she does or not, she's very sweet with it!

 -If the kid wasn't obsessed with books before, (she was), I think she's reached a whole new level.  There are many days that I go to get her out of her crib and "book" is the first word out of her mouth.  She wants a book at all times!  I'm not complaining though ; )

 -She got to ride a horse for the first time!!!  She wasn't too sure about it at first, but by the end of the ride, she was saying "yee haw" and smiling.

-Learning to "jump."  She doesn't often actually get any air between her feet and the ground, but she loves doing it.  She especially loves when we jump with her.  If you pick up Lilly and make her jump too, it's basically the greatest thing in this world!

Stats:

Weight- 22 lbs 6 oz (46%)

Height- 32.5" (70%)

Clothing- 18 mo tops, 12 mo pants

Shoes- size 4

Teeth- 12 and working on canines