18 month update

A little late, but I thought I'd still do Ella's 18 month update anyway. I still can't believe she is now closer to two than to one. I look at this wild girl running around and wonder where my squishy newborn went.

Stats: Crazy girl hasn't managed to put on any weight since her 15 month appointment, staying steady at 20 lbs and change. Meaning she has gained a whopping 2 lbs since she was 9 months old. I swear she eats! Although she is still in the peanut club for weight, she is in the 90% for her height- 33 inches.

Clothes/diapers/potty training: She is all over the place in terms of clothing size, mainly because of the big height/weight disparity. At least it's summer and she can get away with running around half naked (or, as she would often prefer, completely naked). Shirts and dresses are a mix of 12 month and 18 month, pants and shorts are mostly 18 month, and pajamas are entirely 24 month and 2T (!).

She is now almost exclusively in training pants or undies when we are at home, although she still wears a diaper for bed and will for a while longer yet. I've tried taking her out with only the training pants and even if she uses the bathroom before we leave and goes while we are there, she gets busy playing or looking at stuff and forgets to tell me she needs to go. So for now if we are doing more than running a quick errand she's still in a diaper. I'm sure all the potty training gurus think I'm messing up the process by taking her out in a diaper. Whatever. She'll get it when she gets it.

Teeth: With the oh-so-fun eruption of her first year molars, kiddo is up to 12 teeth. More than halfway through the baby teeth!

Food: I'll be honest, she's definitely not the world's best eater but by no means hugely finicky. She still can't have any citric acid and we found yet another food that is off the table- watermelon. Pretty much her favorite thing to eat right now is cheese, and she will take my hand and drag me over to the fridge when she wants some.

She also takes after her mama in that she loves to cook. Every day she helps me with some aspect of preparing food, whether it's stirring or putting the veggies I chop into a bowl. Now, if only I could get her to wash the dishes too.

Frustrations: On Ella's end, I think she gets frustrated that we don't always understand what she is saying. Part of the difficulty is that a lot of her words sound similar. For example, trash, dress, grass, and giraffe all sound almost identical. I have to use a lot of context clues to figure out what she wants. It's hard when she adds a new word to her vocabulary because oftentimes it's a week or more before I can figure out what the heck she is trying to say. For a while she kept on saying something we thought sounded like, "Hodor" (Game of Thrones fans will recognize that). Turns out she was saying, "color" and she wanted her art supplies. Oops.

On my end, the climbing wears me down. I turn my back for two seconds and she is on the table or counters. She also wants to walk a lot when we are out in public, but tries to dart away. I may have to get one of those toddler leashes.

In the past few weeks I've tried doing time out with her. She thinks it's a big joke. Either she runs away giggling or sits there and laughs at me. Yesterday I told her if she didn't help pick up the mess she had made she was going in time out. She looked at me and preemptively sat herself down. Clearly I'm a very stern parent.

Cute/fun stuff: I don't know how I can pick and choose from all the things she does, but here are a few of my current favorites.

-I love how excited she gets when Jim comes home from work every day. No matter what she is doing, as soon as she hears the garage door she stops everything, yells, "Dadadadada!!!!" at the top of her lungs, and races to the back door. She stands there waiting for him and even knows she has to stay behind the door mat so he doesn't accidentally hit her with the door. Once he comes in the house, she helps put up his lunch box and demands he take off his shoes.

-When the mood strikes her, she is very affectionate and gives lots of kisses- not only to me and Jim, but to her toys as well. She also has figured out the whole "boo boo" thing and demands about a gazillion times a day that I kiss the little scrape on her leg.

-She loves to color- or as she say, "holor." I have a cabinet in the kitchen full of art supplies and she goes in there multiple times a day to make beautiful scribble drawings for me. Sometimes she even tells me a certain one is for Daddy and makes me put it at his place at the table. Some days she also gives herself temporary tattoos with the markers or acts like they are makeup and gives herself some interesting shades of toddler lipstick.

-She's started tucking herself in at night. The past few nights when I've gone in to check on her she has her blanket over her, always in the same spot in her crib. One step closer to being ready for a big girl bed.

-She is still very into music. She loves songs that have motions to go along with them, like "The Wheels on the Bus" or "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." Recently she has begun to imitate me when I sing her the alphabet. Her version goes something like, "ABCEEEEEEEE." Gotta start somewhere, right?

There are a gazillion other things I could mention but in the interest of time and space, and knowing that not everyone else finds them as endearing as I do, I'll stop myself. Happy 18 months, little girl- we can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring.

Being silly and dramatic- "Mom, stop taking pictures of me!" For future reference, I could have posted the picture of her climbing half-naked on the counter, so Ella, your teenage self can thank me.