A Typical Day at 18 Months

Heya, Baby Girl! It’s your Momma again after a long silence. If it wasn’t so cliche, I would ask where the time goes… But I really have no idea. I am completely overwhelmed right now and have been putting off posting in your scrapbook for months – literally – because the task of recording all the cool things you do, getting it all organized, finding the pictures to illustrate your special moments, it’s just SO BIG.

I’m going to start worrying less about making this blog interesting and perfect and get back to why I originally began it – so that i would be able to remember and you would be able to know what you were like when you were little. Maybe I won’t be able to keep up perfectly with monthly posts and organized categories, but I need to star writing again. Because you, my love, are worthy of words.

I apologize in advance for the chaos and super lengthiness that will inevitably be this post trying to recap over 4 months of your life at a time when you do something new every day. I don’t want to put it off anymore, so I’m just going to write it out as things come to mind rather than planning it and getting stressed and putting it off again. hehe…

You are 1 and a half. Did you hear that? One and a half? AH! Crazy. And amazing and so wonderful. Literally every time you reach a new age and all its milestones, your Daddy and I think that it can’t get any better, that we’re going to miss “back when” you were littler. But every age surprises us as the best one yet, and this age is no different. It’s the best yet. This is your first “posed” picture. I asked you to cross your legs and smile. HAHAHAHA…. thank you for trying, baby girl. 🙂

And here’s one more of that very special smile that we have come to call your “Stephie Smile.” Your Auntie taught you to smile like that last time she was here and now when we tell you to smile, this is what we get. hehe

Last time I wrote you had barely started walking. Now you run and climb all over the place. And it’s such a cute walk, very girly. You stick your chest out, swing your arms really high and prance. Just this week you started walking on your tippy toes on command. “Tippy tippy toes” gets you going and then you’ll put your arms above your head and smile really big – the prettiest little ballerina I’ve ever seen. I’ve been trying to get you to go “round and round” in conjuction with “tippy tippy toes” and “arms up.” But that confounds you just a little. You can get 2 of the 3 at the same time. We’re working on it. 🙂

You climb all over the furniture now, and have taken a couple tumbles, but nothing too serious. You are learning to walk down stairs when someone has a hold of your hands, but you’re still a little freaked out by it. You get close to the edge and bend your knees and then step, just like I taught you. You can and will learn ANYthing we are willing to teach you.

I’ve said before, I know every parent tends to think their child is special. You are special. You are so smart. You do things that are not typical for an 18 month old, things you’ve been doing for months. Your understanding always surprises me. I talk to you like you can understand me. I try to always explain what we’re doing and why, where we’re going and what we’re going to do when we’re there, what things are called and what they’re used for. We’ve done that with you since you were a newborn. I don’t know if you’re just naturally smart, or it’s a product of how the people around you have raised you – probably a combination of both. But for months now you have understood complex commands and sentences. I can tell you to do a series of things like, “Go get Kitty Bing (your horse) and her brush, bring it over here and we’ll comb her hair, but close the gate first.” Things like that. And you will get it right. And I’d say that’s been true since about 15 or 16 months. Another example of where your understanding surprises me is when we read books. I always ask you to point out things, “Where’s the kitty? What does the kitty say?” Lately, I’ve been asking you more random questions like in the story of Noah and the Ark I asked you where the dolphins were the other day and you knew! That totally surprised me. I might have told you about dolphins once or twice, but it’s not like pointing out a cat or a dog – animals that are in every other children’s book. You know really random things.

Another reason your intelligence is so obvious is because you’re so willing to please. It’s easier to judge your understanding when you really do listen to what we ask you to do, and you want to do it. You put your heart into whatever it is that you are trying to do and you look at us for approval when you do it. You’re a really good girl, healthily motivated by our praises. And you look us in the eye. You search out what we’re thinking and what we’re feeling, aware of things that are not spoken. You are going to be a perceptive, intuitive little girl. I can’t wait to see how you grow and develop because you’re already so amazing and have been since day one. I look at you and I see so much depth. You are vibrant and full of life and so, so special.

Can you tell how proud I am of you yet? Not even close to done. hehe…

Let’s see… more about your personality. You are super feminine and girly and love playing with your stuffed animals and fischer price people and your tea set and your jewelry and other dress up items. You love to brush your hair and smile sheepishly when we tell you how pretty you are.

And you have become extremely affectionate. That’s newer, in the past couple of months it’s really come out. You never were much of a cuddler when you were really little. You certainly are now. When I’m sitting at my desk in your play room, you will come over and lay your head on my lap and just stand there letting me rub your back. We cuddle in the moments before every nap and bedtime. Wouldn’t give up that time for the world. I put your head over my shoulder and you nuzzle your head in my neck, and you will stay there for as long as I will hold you.  Sometimes we’re just silent and I rock you a little. Sometimes I sing to you. Sometimes we listen to some lullabies on your CD player. Sometimes we play drop and nibble…

Okay so what drop and nibble is. When I’m holding you with your legs wrapped around me, I hang on to your waist and you throw your head back until you’re upside down, dangling. You love it and will keep throwing yourself backward even when you’re terrified with wonderful anticipation for the inevitable nibbles that I will take at your neck when you are in such a vulnerable position. We both laugh hysterically and then cuddle some more.

Anyway, affection. You give hugs and kisses to everyone you know on command, almost every time. You make a lot of days for a lot of people. A lot of the time you initiate hugs and kisses without being asked. It’s hilarious and cute because you don’t know how to close your mouth when you kiss yet, so when you want one we see you coming at us with your mouth open, really carefully and slowly. It’s the best.

Something new this month, separation anxiety and major stranger danger – two things that we haven’t had to deal with until now. But you are suddenly hyper aware of people you don’t know (and sometimes even people you do know) and get super shy and pretty much want only me – or Daddy or Mima. And you will bury your head down in our shoulders and cry. It’s heartbreaking and a little baffling. I want to be sensitive to your feelings and never want you to feel trivialized, but your reactions of late are really kind of unacceptable and I don’t want to coddle you either. So, we’re trying to strike a balance.

For example the other day we went to Red Robin and on our way out the man holding the door open for us said hi to you and you would have thought that the bogeyman himself had asked for your soul. You screamed. And buried your head in the balloon you were holding, your lip sticking out about 3 feet, and tripped your way over to me where you clawed half the skin off my legs trying to get up to my shoulder. I mean, major drama. So I just tried to comfort you as best I could and told you that he was a nice man and we went over and said hi to him together. But you didn’t let up much. Gonna have to figure out how to help you through this latest thing.

We’re also started taking you to the church nursery on Sunday mornings and you cry and frantically sign “all done” when I hand you off to the nursery worker. 🙁 It breaks my heart. But they say that you’re fine as soon as I leave and you don’t cry at all, just play the entire time with the toys and other kids. So that’s good for you. I’m glad you’re getting to gain a little independence and have some interaction with other little ones.

Which brings me to signing. You are using all the signs you know all the time, sometimes in strings to communicate an entire thought. Like yesterday I told you we were going to put your shoes on and go to the park.Your eyebrows shot up and you immediately did the sign for “bye bye” followed by the sign for “play” while nodding your head.

Now, I will say… Rachael Coleman of Signing Time told me that signing wouldn’t delay speech, and there are studies to back that up. But I’m wondering if it actually will take you a little longer to talk since you can effectively communicate most of what you want/need without saying anything. It’s still early and I’m not worried or anything, but it’s safe to say at this point you aren’t going to talk before your time. You say “Mama” and “Dada” and “UhOh.” Those are your 3 words that mean what they say and you use them appropriately. Other than that, you babble a lot and can make a lot of other sounds (and mimic a lot of other sounds), but you don’t necessarily use them to communicate except in a silly I’m-happy-and-babbling way.

Back to nodding. You nod ALL THE TIME. It’s the ultimate communication tool. All I have to do is ask you the right question and I can know exactly what you want. You understand everything and can answer yes and no questions, can sign the things that are most important to you. Who needs speech? Right?

You’re starting to get into things more. For the longest time you didn’t bother opening cabinets. I knew that wouldn’t last forever (and am kind of amazed it lasted as long as it did), but we can’t have you in the kitchen anymore without policing you. Unfortunately, I have a lot of breakable things on lower shelves. I either need to reorganize or install more child safety locks. I installed a bunch back when you first got mobile, but I only put them on cabinets containing chemicals. The glassware is still vulnerable. I think I may just wait for you to outgrow it instead of locking up everything though. Even though it’s frustrating to have to tell you the same things over and over again, I know that eventually you get it and I like that you understand that not everything is for you to play with. Some things are dangerous, like the toaster oven, and I want you to know that you can’t touch it.  And it’s nice to be able to safely take you to unfamiliar places and know that you will probably listen to me and respect things that aren’t yours – as much as an 18 month is capable of doing. You definitely test boudaries, but so far I’d say that you are more compliant than testy. When you do touch things that are off limits, it’s a little bit of testiness, but usually I think it’s more just curiosity. And your Daddy and I try really hard to not make issues of things that shouldn’t be issues. If it can’t hurt you and you can’t hurt it, it’s fair game. We pick our battles. This morning you sat on my lap while I paid bills and played with all the credit and membership cards in my wallet. The battle we can’t seem to win is with the entertainment center. Those buttons are just too tempting for you. We have our fireplace screen in front of it to keep you out.

Hmm… you know almost all your body part, head, shoulders, knees and toes. Mima has been teaching you the song for months. You’ll almost do it on your own, but you still need a little help to keep up. You love to dance and, if you could talk, you can count to five. I’ve been counting with you for months and if there are 5 of something in a book, you will point one at a time and let me say the numbers. You will also grab one of my fingers at a time and wait for me to say the respective numbers. And you’ve been doing this for at least a month. So smart. Have I mentioned that you tap your pointer finger on your head when we tell you you’re “so smart”? Cutie.

A couple things we need to work on. Getting you off the bottle. You refuse to drink milk out of a cup, all kinds of cups. It doesn’t matter. You believe milk can only be enjoyed in a bottle… and a bottle with only one nipple. Somehow I let you get super picky about that. I don’t know what to do. I tried giving you no water one day, only milk, and you went 3/4 of a day without drinking anything! Yikes. This is one of the things I have to have a conversation with your Dr. about next month. And binky needs to go bye bye too. But I’m not in as much of a hurry on that one. You really like it. I wonder what the big deal is. But I am starting to think about weaning you off of it.

And lastly, Daddy is still hurt. So you get to spend lots and lots of time with him. It’s been 9 months and he is home with us most of the time. It’s a trial and a blessing. He loves you so much and you spend a lot of time playing, building things, dressing up, playing make believe, watching Sesame street. I love watching you two together.

It’s a start. Not everything, but I did it. YAY! Now I need to pick a few favorite photos from the hundreds of favorites I’ve complied in just the past 4 months sitting in a folder on my desk top. That’s the really overwhelming part. Choosing photos. You are such a good little model.

Love you, baby girl. God bless you and keep you. You are an immeasurable blessing to me (and Daddy, and the rest of the family!)