18 Months

I can't believe my little baby is a year and a half old already. She's getting so big and learning so fast. Her new favorite thing is books. She is constantly bringing us books to read to her, then getting up before we're done and running off to find another. She is becoming more independent. She will play in her crib for awhile after she wakes up before she starts crying for us. She highly prefers to feed herself, but can't be bothered to eat if there is playing to do. Although I will give her a lot of credit for being open to trying new things. We feed her whatever we're eating now and she will at least try it. We found out recently that she loves mushrooms and will eat tomatoes. She still turns her nose up at lettuce and she has never liked eggs, but if she sees us eating it, she wants to give it a shot. Breakfast and lunch are a little harder...she doesn't tend to eat a whole lot for breakfast and is sometimes too busy playing to eat her lunch, so I have to feed it to her. But she must be growing because she is really getting to be heavy to carry around! We stood her up to the ruler in the kitchen the other day and she's grown at least two inches since her birthday.

She likes to be outside now. She runs up and down the sidewalk (which is her boundary), waves at neighbors as they drive by, and picks flowers to give to me and Tim. She enjoys riding in her little car for walks, and will run in circles on the deck if we sit outside with her.

She is beginning to follow more complex directions ("Get the ball, then put it in the basket,"--which would have been two directions before) and she understands cause and effect (if I eat this cracker and sign "more", I'll get another cracker). We're still waiting on some words. I've been modeling for her. I feel like I narrate everything non-stop when we're playing. She doesn't call us Mama and Dada anymore...something she lost when she picked up walking. She's practically running now, so I'm hoping she has a language explosion soon. She says meow (when she sees Jack), woo (and throws her arms up in the air like 'woo hoo!'), dis/dat (this/that, usually while pointing to something), yes, and she can sign more and milk. But instead of signing "More milk", she just throws her empty cup at us. She is babbling a lot--non stop, actually. She will string sounds together with hand gestures and we have to pretend to know what she said. Eventually she'll figure out that we don't speak baby. :P

She does pretty well at our play groups now. She interacts with the other kids and is comfortable wandering away from me to play as long as she can see me. We've gone to the playground a couple of times, but she hates the swing right now and has no interest in climbing the equipment, so we end up standing there watching the other kids play. So for her half-birthday, we got her a little plastic play set for in the yard. She can climb up one side and slide down the other. I figured it was a good start.

I've been reading up on potty training, but I think we will hold off until she can communicate a little better.

She's been fighting her baths lately, and I'm not sure why. She had been doing so well. She hears the water running and starts wailing now. We still bath her, but she hates it :( I'm hoping it's a passing phase. I'd like to get her a kiddie pool to play in this summer and I don't want her to be afraid of it :(

She is growing so fast. Every day she looks less like a baby and more like a little kid. I hope she slows down a little.

She has her 18 month check up on the 10th, so I'll come back and add her stats to this entry then.