18 months!

full force cute!

 The toddler tornado is in full force! At a year and a half this child runs circles around us (literally sometimes) but is such a sweet, good girl 90% of the time!  She really keeps us busy, nearly every day I think to myself "oh! I should blog about that!" or "Oh, I really want to remember that she did that!" and by the time bed time rolls around I've forgotten or I'm too exhausted to actually sit down and write.

full force smart!

 One of the things I constantly want to blog about is how much E absorbs every day.  She's a little sponge.  At her 12 month check up her doctor was worried about her verbal development.  Her 18 month check up will be on Tuesday and I'll be happy to report that she has a vocabulary of so many words I've lost count.  She says new words every day.  Of course you still have to be well versed in E-speak to understand everything (and sometimes I don't even understand it) but she's really talking.  Even full sentences.  The other day she spilled her water down her front then wiped her hand across her shirt and said "isiwet" (This is wet).  She'll assert her independence verbally now "Isee" (I want to see it) "babydo" (I want to do it) "nome!" (let me do it!).  Her current favorite phrases are "uh-sigh" (other side), "uhkay" (okay) and of course "mo" (more).

full force curious!

She is also absorbing knowledge at a phenomenal rate.  The other day I drew shapes on the ground with chalk and she ran up to the circle, danced around inside it and said "ro, ro, siruhl" (roll, roll, circle).  She sorts her "High Ho Cherry O" fruits by color, though she finds it hilarious to put the wrong color in a basket and shout "uh-oh!, Uh-no!" She names her colors frequently (though she still thinks most things are yellow on first try).  She's even beginning to count.  She can reliably do "uh, tooo, teee" (one, two, three) and "helps" mommy count to ten by saying every other number.  He favorite number book is her  Star Wars 123 book.  She especially likes the 7 bounty hunters and the 100 storm troopers (we don't count those) but she starts singing the Imperial March when she turns to that page. (why yes, I am raising a nerd, thank you)  Her favorite page is the 1 Yoda page.  She asks for that book by saying "wee, weed, oda peas!" (read, read, Yoda please!)

She likes to sit at her "desk" and "write her letters" (pictured above).  She has taken over the end table.  She climbs up, puts her feet under the drawer so she can scoot up to the the top shelf and then uses the travel Scrabble dice and pencil to trace the letter on the die with the pencil and then scribble on the paper.

full force spaghetti monster!

She also loves to sing.  We are starting to get snippets of "the ABC song", "Twinkle, twinkle", "the imperial march", "Farmer in the Dell" and of course "row, row, row your boat"  she asks for music to be put on almost constantly and will play with her musical toys while the music is playing (this drives mama a little bit nuts).

She also, still, LOVES to eat.  I think her favorite foods currently are yogurt, blueberries, grapes, peas, pasta, ham and cheese.  But she still eats nearly anything.  She eats raw onions and lemons!  She devours Italiano's spaghetti with reckless abandon.  She calls tortillas "nana" which makes me laugh though I have no idea why she thinks a tortilla and a banana are the same thing (she does use the same word for banana).  She has stopped eating yellow squash, tomatoes and mushrooms.  They get nibbled and then she shakes her head and says "no" and then hands them back to me.  She did the same thing with a raspberry tonight.

full force play!

 Summer has brought about several big events.  The first being E no longer goes to daycare!  Mommy has the summer off so we took E out of daycare to save money.  We will be returning to daycare once school starts back up in August but she will no longer be in the infant room, she'll be in the toddler room where they no longer have cribs but instead sleep in cots (scary!) and they do more formal lessons (awesome!) and lots more crafts (excellent!).  Oh and they can do part time rates in that room too (YAY!).    Not being in daycare means mommy gets to take E on playdates more!  Many of which involved water which suits E just fine.  She would spend all day, every day at the pool or a splash pad.  She LOVES the water.

participation medals
taste good!

 Summer also meant the end of E's season at Little Gym.  She's been in the same "Birds" class since she was 8 months old and both she and mommy made some friends in the class.  She had her "show" the last week of class.  Her teacher's praise was that "E always does what I ask her to do" and then she asked E to stand up and E promptly sat down.  I laughed.  E has such a strong will.  Thankfully we are getting good at finding ways to make what we want her to do something she wants to do, but be wary if you butt up against that will!  We enrolled for summer session and E had her first class, she was a little taken aback when all the other kids were new. She's still in the Birds class because of her age but most of her friends moved into the "Beasts" class.  I know that one of her friends is supposed to be there, but was out last week for some reason, hopefully she'll be back this week.

full force passed out!

All this fantastic development and endless energy result in a pretty tired kid.  She has her bedtime routine down pat.  She knows that after dinner we have a bath, then pajamas, then she runs to daddy for milk and books, then she runs to the bathroom to brush her teeth and then she calls for daddy to sing her to sleep.  Usually she goes down with no problem.  Even now with the binky weaning she goes to sleep well.  However, she's having a hard time staying asleep.  I think it may be a combination of separation anxiety, binky weaning, 18 month sleep regression and teething.  This past week has been a tough one.  Everything I read says the 18 month regression can be tough...and can last up to 2 months.  I hope E gets this out of her system a lot faster than that or Mommy might need a vacation.  Her pattern for the last week has been sleep from 8-11ish, wake up and scream until mommy comes to get me, scream until mommy lets me sleep with her (on the floor, in the bed, wherever), fuss and cry every few hours, then get up sometime between 5 and 530.  Coming from the baby who slept from 8-7 with maybe one or two fussy points during the night where she self soothed most of the time this change is killing me!  I know it will pass, I know it will get better, and I'm hoping it will happen quickly.  I haven't been this much of an irratable zombie since she was a newborn!

I hope E keeps me busy, though I do hope I can sit down and blog a little more, between my blog and facebook I have some hope of eventually sitting down and scrabooking her baby book, but at the rate E is running these days that won't be until she's in college so I need to take the time to document what I can, when I can!

full force love!