18 Months

Hi Monkey.

You are technically 19.5 months. It's just we were out of town, and then you had a bit of a cold and then your mom forgot...so you just had your 18 month well check up.

You checked out good baby girl. You continue to be miniature. You're only 32 inches long (about 20%) and weigh a measly 20.5 pounds (that puts you below 5%, you're nearly falling off the charts). You've always been petite, but Dr. Amit seemed a little concerned you're nearly falling off the bottom, so he wants me to help you gain some weight. My friends tell me I should just break down and start buying you Happy Meals. I thought about it, for a second. And then decided you and I will start perfecting our guacamole recipe together and slathering some more butter on your toast.

You also continue to be very smart and my favorite word the doctor uses: advanced. Ahhh, music to your mama's ears. He couldn't believe it when I told him you had well over 50 words and were starting to string two, three of them together at a time. He was also astounded when I told him you knew all your colors and could count to ten...other than that silly 9 you forget a lot of time, who needs 9?

You're nearly caught up on your immunizations, I like to spread them out more than most, so we'll go back in a month to finish up and then no more until you're 4!!! Yay! Although I just dread to think of you as 4.

Some other things you're great at right now:

-Dancing. You love it.
-Songs. You love music and you love playing your piano. You're pretty efficient at "Isty Bitsy Spider", "Popcorn Popping", "Me, You, We" and a myriad of other songs from your Musicmakers class.
-Climbing. You're just recently figured this one out and try hard to get those itsy bitsy legs up and over anything they'll get over.
-Pretending. I am loving watching this one start to develop. You're little imagination. You wander into you're mini kitchen in your bedroom now and then and I can hear you say, "Cooking, Cooking, mix". Then you'll wander out and bring me a cookie or a cup for a "taste". I love it. You love you're baby too, mostly just pushing her around in her stroller (which you love to say). But you grow tired of her quickly, especially when her stroller gets caught somewhere you can't get it out of. Wow, does that make you mad!
-Coloring. You call it "colors". But you love it just the same and you're great at it.
-Helping mom. You love to help me wash (wipe a rag over anything mom does), vacuum, cook and do laundry.
-Eating sweets. You have an out of control sweet tooth. I have no idea where you got that.

You are learning some independence. You are more aware now of what you like, what you don't, what you do or don't agree with. You are also learning the fine art of the scream or tantrum when it's in falls on the "don't" side. Luckily, you're pretty easy to re-direct...so far.

You just make me crazy I love you so much. Dad and I are having so much fun with you right now. You can talk to us, laugh with us, run around with us. Just when we think it can't get any better, it does. If you have to grow, I suppose this is the way to do it. Happily and healthily.