A whole year and a half have flown by and our little girl is definitely not a baby anymore. She's a toddler. As many of you know that means she's still sweet but definitely is learning how to be more independent. With that comes different challenges, and her being a little more defiant, the word "No" has definitely been said a lot more lately. We are managing through timeouts and a lot of patience. Now let me just say she is only challenging 10 % of the time. The other 90% she is good. So when she is defiant it seems worse than it really is.When I took her to the doctor on Thursday she was really good about getting on the scales and weighing in, being measured, and having the doctor check her heart, ears, throat, and abdomen. I was actually amazed how well she sat still and did not cry...until the shot but I expected that. However it has now almost been a week and she is still pointing to her leg and saying "Boo Boo." I keep telling her, her boo boo is all better. Her stats for 18 months are 24 pounds and 31 3/4 inches tall. So she is average is what the pediatrician is telling us as far as her size goes for her age.
She really enjoys swinging, sliding, running, hopping, riding in her wagon and jogging stroller. She loves to chase after her soccer ball and kick it. We have also blown some bubbles and I thought she was going to blow so hard her ears were going to pop, hilarious. She has drawn with chalk on the sidewalk at the sitter's house several times. She loves the outdoors so much that the only way to get her to come back in is to trick her by giving her a drink or snack which works great in the afternoon right before nap. While we are outside she loves to watch the birds fly, the ducks swim, and the dogs on the path. Along the bike path there are quite a few dandelions that she loves picking and bringing back to the house to put in a little vase.
Other new developments are playing pretend with her baby dolls and her kitchen. She loves to pretend to wash, change, and feed her baby doll. She gives them hugs and kisses. In the kitchen she talks on her little phone and has mini conversations with Grammy, Poppy, Mam Maw, and Pa Paw. She also serves up Cheese (Mac N Cheese), Hot dogs, Tea, and Ice Cream.
Her most favorite thing to watch on TV is the Imagination Movers in Concert. She loves the song Jump Up, and we dance and do the motions with her....which she has gotten really good at.
She now has two friends at the sitter that she talks about daily. Charlize and Hannah. We ask her how her morning is and she says "play Hannah, play Charlize". Also the other day I held on of the baby's while I waited for Sophie to finish her lunch..immediately she was at my feet saying "mommy, baby, down. In her own little words that meant Mommy put that baby down. So that was just a glimpse of what kind of reaction we might get if we have another child :) Although the sitter has said she is a very loving, caring child with the littler babies.
This month's new words and sentences are definitely "up please," "more please," "down please." So she has picked up on the manners we've been working at teaching her. She likes to point at Bob and say "my daddy" and she points at me and says "my mommy". We are now more fluent in saying family members names as well.
She loves climbing up and down the stairs, up on the couch and chairs. Recently she has discovered laying on her little pillow and wants to be covered up with a blanket so she can relax, and some times at night she wants to be covered up too. She also seems to be going through another snuggling stage because she loves wrapping her legs around our waists and her arms around our necks for the biggest hug a little girl can give her parents...and we love them and can't get enough of them.
Lastly, we have had several kids CD's in the car and we listen to them over and over again to the point that Bob and I are singing them in our sleep mostly the Laurie Berkner Band..funny thing though Sophie has started singing certain words out of the songs, like "ah ah ah," "la la la," "oh ah oh ah." I/We honestly have to laugh because it is just too cute in her little voice.
As far as her eating habits go, we are still doing really well with that. She loves cheese in general...mac n cheese, cheese cut up, cheese crackers and cheese pizza. She is still a big fan of chicken nuggets, and peanut butter sandwiches. We still are managing to get almost every fruit you can think of into her, however the veggies are a little more difficult...she likes carrots, peas, and cucumber. We've tried spaghetti a few times and weekly we are adding more choices to her diet. Recently she has gotten pretty good at eating with a fork and spoon, but still eats a lot of things with her hands.
Everyday we Thank God for our daughter and no matter how much she challenges us we love her with all of our heart and are truly blessed with the joy she brings to us each day with that little smile, her baby bear hugs, and that little voice that says mommy and daddy.