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| Family Photos by Sara Brennan-Harrell, July 24th (17 months old) |
Dear Bug,
One and a half. You are one and a half! That is just insane to me. Insane, I tell you. I can hardly believe it most days, but then you remind me that you are a "big kid" and I'm brought back down to reality. You are nothing less than a toddler these days, Bug. An independent, opinionated, terrible, hilarious learning sponge of toddler. You are my daily dose of fun and frustration rolled into one big, giant smiley ball and I am loving every minute of it. (Well, almost every minute!)
For example:
You love to run. You run everywhere. You say "Run! Want run!" when you want to run, or "Running!" when you are, in fact, running. We had our first public tantrum regarding said running - you wanted to run, yet when I put you down, you suddenly had noodle legs and became a speed bump in the middle of the mall. Needless to say, you were hauled out of there like a football and promptly taken home for a nap!
You have to do everything your self. "NO! Self! Lily!" (Pointing at yourself and emphatically taking whatever it is you want, usually shoes, a spoon or a fork, meanwhile shoving our hands away.)
You are a parrot and are repeating everything we say. ("Do you want me to pat your butt to sleep?" "Yesh, pat butt!" and now you yell "butt" as part of your nap/bedtime routine. Oops.)
You still are only stringing two or three words together to create simple sentences, but those sentences are almost always in reference to something you do or do not want to do. Your first long sentence? In between gulps of air, at bedtime, "I don't want to!" Geez, fancy that.
You are recognizing the urge to use the restroom and ask to "potty" most days, but get gunshy when on the toilet. When you have an accident on the floor, you get very upset. When the weather gets colder, I plan on keeping you home for a week and knocking this out. The interest is there, and so are your communication skills, so we are going to bite the bullet!
All of your teeth have finally broken through the gums! Now that they are not sore, you are obsessed with brushing your teeth. Every morning while I get ready, you climb up on your footstool and say "Teef! Brush. Toof-pase, pwease." You don't really brush them, but you sure are excited to try.
You climbed out of your crib and the pack 'n play this month, so you are now in a big kid bed on the floor of your room. I was sad to see the crib go, but it is nice that you can get out of bed when you are ready to be up. It's even nicer at 1am when you can come to me instead of me coming to you; you can wake up and wander down the hallway to us instead of screaming from your crib. This has actually meant that you go back down much faster than before, as you're not all worked up.
You love your girlfriends and their siblings. I can ask you who your friend is, and you sweetly say "Fwiend. Eh-Yee! Lola! (Ellie and Lola)" In fact, if you are being cranky, I can tell you we are going to go play with your friends and you will immediately say "Fwiend!" and run around the house happy. It is so sweet to see you interact more with children your age. I can't wait to see how your relationships with these girls grow as you get older.
You are such a girl! Despite my attempts at keeping the frilliness at bay for now, you definitely gravitate toward all things pink, purple, and girly. You love your dresses, tutus, princess truck, bracelets, and having your hair in a "bow" aka ponytail. If we don't do your hair in the morning, midday you will suddenly touch your hair and ask "bow?" then run to your room to get your bag of bows! You are also obsessed with Minnie Mouse. Obsessed. In fact, that is what you are going to be for Halloween this year!
The neatest thing for me to see at this age is how quickly you learn. It is amazing! While I have always been able to see your brain whirling away as you observed your surroundings, now your ability to learn, catalog, and apply what you are learning is much more obvious. You have definitely hit your 18-month learning leap and the difference is amazing! You never stop talking at home - ever. If we are reading and you don't know what something is, you point at it and say "Dis?" then repeat the word when I describe it. You know some of your colors, and are starting to use them to describe things. You are also bossy - you know what you do and don't want to do, or what you want us (or the dogs) to do, and have no trouble telling us now that you have the words. "Izzy, DOWN! Reesy, dumb (come). Puppies catch it! NO! Momma do (grabbing my hand to do something.)" You didn't say "No" for a very long time, but it is now your favorite word. I guess you wouldn't be a toddler without knowing that one!
I know I say amazing a lot when I talk about you, but the most amazing thing about you this month? You are recognizing your letters! It seemed to come out of nowhere; one day you were playing with your alphabet letters on the fridge saying "S! T! U!" and I was grinning, listening to you, and then you ran over to me with an S, T, and a U in your hands! Out of curiosity, I took you to the fridge and started pointing out different letters and you surprisingly knew a lot of them. I can also ask you "What word starts with the letter N?" and you say "Nana!" You also do A-Apple, C-Kitty, D-Dada, Dog, Down, Done; E-Elephant, G-Do (go), H-Hat, Hand, Hop, I-Izzy, L-Lily, M-Momma, N-Nana, P-Papa, S-Sock, and W-Water (wa-wa). You know the sounds of some of your letters, and can find almost all of the correct ones if I ask you to grab them. You are astounding! And before anyone says I should "let kids be kids," I want you to know that you love it. LOVE it. It is, by far, one of your favorite games - you hate the ABC song, but doing "yett-uhs" is a blast.
Oh little Bug, little Bug. You are still the happiest kid I know, but you still don't like to sleep! The doctor thinks it's because your brain development is moving a mile a minute and just can't slow down enough to take a long break - and I have to say, not only does that make me feel better, I can see what he means. Every day, especially after a nap, you do or say something new. When you wake up between 12-1am, you run down the hallway to me and when I take you back to bed, you nurse and take breaks to talk to me. It's almost like you need a couple of hours to get the pistons firing, and then you have to wake up right then to try it out. Thankfully, I think my body has finally gotten to a point where I'm used to it. If you sleep longer than a three hour stretch, I wake up thinking I got the best night of sleep in my life! Someday you will sleep, and then I will to, but for now I am enjoying that you want to snuggle with me.
Sweet baby, I love you more each and every day. I am so grateful to be your Momma. You are a blessing, a joy, and a challenge. I cannot wait to see what the latter road to two looks like.
All my love,
Momma
Seventeen & Eighteen month stats (as of appointment 9/4)...
Weight: 25 pounds, 4 ounces (75%)
Height: 33.5 inches (90-95%)
Head Circumference: 19.5 inches (>95-100%)
Clothing Size: 18 or 24 month "big kid" jammies, 18/24 month and 2T shirts, 18 month pants, 18 month dresses, size 6-7 shoe (depending on the shoe)
New Nicknames: Terrible Toddler, little miss
Favorites: Reading, shapes, "helping" in the kitchen, being outside, doing your letters
Milestones: Too many words to count, saying longer words and simple sentences, knows many letters and can count "1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10", only up twice a night (usually)
Signs: daddy, more, milk, thirsty, yes, up, dog, all done, music, please, thank you, wash hands, hot, sleepy, bird, food, eat, moose, elephant, want, help me, down, I don't know, diaper, drink, outside, potty
