18 Months!

My bright,beautiful, brilliant little Beanie turns 18 months today.

One and a half years old! Happy half birthday, baby girl!

She is growing every day and learning new things. I had read on blogs the children do new things daily but I never quite believed. Well its true! Every single day she does something new - it could be cute, silly or naughty, but always something new! Keeps me on my toes for sure :-)


Development wise the past month has been mainly on language She is not at the "verbal explosion" of 4-5 words a day, think that would be a bit crazy, but she is definitely picking up several new words a  week. She can also now get on the couch herself, earlier she needed a bit of lift from me.

Some other things:

1. She cannot get enough of "hoofs" (shoes) and "eyes" (lights). She points to lights everywhere and gets so excited with the street light across the street. Its now part of our nightly ritual!
2. She loves to try new things, for example when she plays outside in the evenings she would play with the water, or the sand. Now she mixes them up and comes up with new activities. She has also been trying my shoes on, which really surprised me since I thought that comes a bit later at 3-4years of age.
3. She is very observant and knows where everything is in the house much better than I do and what happens where :-) . This morning we woke late so I decided to get dressed and come back and shower. As I was brushing my teeth, she was in the bathroom and kept saying "hat" "hat" - I realized she was referring to the shower cap I wear and thought I was going to take a shower.
4. She is showing a lot of independence which I am encouraging. For example, she insists upon choosing her own socks in the morning, so I let her.  End result is socks that do not match the outfit but that is okay.
5. She knows when she goes potty, which she calls "poop". Not sure where she picked p that word, probably school. So she will 8/10 times correctly tell me when she has done "poop". 
6. She is showing interest in the potty so I have kept it out and talk about it. Not pressing her too much but at least its something she is aware of.
7. She is so loving and helpful. When I wake up in the mornings, she will scurry and hand me my glasses, or get me my socks.
8. She loves kissing things (except me). She will kiss her toys, things in books. So sweet. When I ask her to kiss me she runs off!  So, I just go after her and shower her with kisses!
9. It is cute when reading a book she will grab at the pictures in an attempt to lift the object out of the book.
10. The best part of the last month is being able to converse with her now that she can say Yes and No. I can  actually have a mini  conversation with her which is so awesome. I can ask her if she had a good day at school, if she likes a particular song I am singing, if she wants her socks on/off, things  that earlier I just had to guess at! And I know this part is only going to get better and better!

 Food-wise we are still with the cheese. Have not tried anything new really, except she finally likes beans - black beans, so I feel much better about her taking in enough iron given she does not eat much meat. She will however eat things off my plate, so I am employing that tactic, The other day she ate two small meatballs off my plate quite happily.

Sleep is a bit challenging these days. She still takes a while to wind down. I have to sit in bed with her. Its funny because as she falls asleep, first her upper body quiets down, but her legs keep kicking, then her legs quiet down but her fingers or feet are still moving slightly, until finally she is fully still. THEN I can get off the bed! The 18 month sleep regression is in full swing so are having somewhat restless nights.

Oh the other big thing this month is that we transitioned to the sippy cup for milk.  I made a compromise, so daytime milk in is the sippy, but nighttime is in the bottle. I am not in any rush to take the bottle away.


Same with the binky, she is obsessed with them.  She is happiest when she has one in her mouth and one in each hand. She hides them in all weird places in the house. A lot of times she uses it since she is drooling a lot and it avoids her sticking her hands in her mouth. In school she is not allowed except nap time, so I am okay with it. At home too I take it away many times so we can talk.

She is eating independently now, with a spoon or hands depending what she is eating.

She has about 11 teeth so far. Four front top and bottom, two molars fully come through on the right side and two partially out on left.

I think that about sums up Beanie at 18 months. She is a ton of fun, even though now she is saying "no" to a lot of things and wants things her way. But I get it!!  She is finally understanding that she has a free will and wants to exercise it, who wouldn't?  And its important for her to be able to do so within reason.

She loves my singing and I have to sing to her all the way back from school. When I stop she says "more-more". How is that for an adoring audience!!

There are so many amazing minutes in a day when my heart is overflowing with love and I just want to freeze and remember always. This blog is one way I can document her growing up.

Love you, Beanie girl. You are growing up so fast and amaze me daily!

We celebrated today with takeout pizza!

And Beanie got her first taste of it - albeit just a tiny bit :-)