18 months

Mary Hyatt, you are 18 (well actually 19 now that I'm writing this post) month's old.  How in the world can this be? Though at times I hate that you are growing up and aren't really a "baby" anymore, I have realized that every stage seems to just get better than the last.  And at this stage, you are so. much. fun.  

We celebrated your offical  half birthday with a cookie from the Great American Cookie Company.

At 18 months your vocabulary has skyrocketed.  Your daddy and I tried to count how many words you have and we lost count because there are so many.  You have well over 50; probably somewhere closer to 100. All of your words may not be totally intelligible to other listeners, but your daddy and I typically know what you are saying because you say words the exact same way every time you want a certain thing.

 Here are a few of our favorite things to hear you say because you don't quite have all the sounds right but its really cute:
    You say "pathy" for passy
    You say "Edie" for Ellie.
    If we ask you a "Where" question like "Where is your juice?"  you say "I know" with your  hands turned upward as if you are trying to say "I don't know."
     You call your blanket that you sleep with "Nigh Nigh"
     You say "duckkkk" with the "k" really emphasized when trying to say "truck" (We love to  look for trucks when in the car)
     You have started to call your daddy "Ben."  haha I guess you have heard me call him that and have picked up on it.  We laughed so hard the first few times you did it, but now we are trying to correct it and I try to call him "dada" as often as I can..
    You say "gup" for " get up."  You have started to wedge your arm under our head or back and push us when you want us to get up to get you juice, a snack etc. You are a demanding little thing! :)
    You say "nack" for snack.
    You say "peas" for please.
    You say "uice" for juice.

 Speaking of communicating, you use all kinds of gestures and facial expressions and you understand almost everything that we say.  You are just about able to get most of your wants/needs met by communicating.  You have even started to come up to us and say "poo poo" and wave your hand in front of your face when you want your diaper changed. haha.  You don't do it every time but when you do it's pretty funny. (Yep, we bought you a potty since you seemed in to it, but you aren't quite at the point where you can tell us ahead of time yet.. are at least showing an interest! Maybe that means you will be potty trained earlier rather than later!)

I absolutely love the above picture of you.  It captures your sweet smile and personality perfectly! If we say "show me your teeth" you will now smile for the camera sometimes! :)

 At 18 1/2 months we turned your car seat around to face forward.  You were so excited and you still love it.  You are so much more content in the car and I love being able to look at you through my rear view mirror.

 You are all girl.  You love shoes,purses, and necklaces.   You often put on mine and your daddy's shoes and you love putting on my boots.  We got you your own pair of rainboots for Christmas and you love them.  You will often bring them to us and ask us to put them on you. Same with necklaces. You have a Hello Kitty necklace that we often can't get away from you.  You call it your "neck" haha.

 We have gotten a lot of use out of these boots lately since it has rained nonstop for the past few days. You love splashing in the puddles!

 You are such a big helper these days.  You love to "help" us cook and you do all sorts of chores. We try to let you help us as often as we can.  One time I let you help me put all of the water bottles in the refrigerator.  You were so proud of yourself.  Last night I was folding laundry in the living room.  You kept trying to mess up all of my neatly folded clothes so I decided to give you a task.  I gave you a pair of daddy's socks and said "take these to dada."  You did it and came back so proud of herself with hands out waiting for the next thing. You love to empty the dishwasher too and sweep the floor.  Lately, your favorite thing to do is to pretend to vacuum with the vacuum cleaner.

 I actually changed your bed to a toddler bed this month.  I'm not sure that it really needed to be changed this month but your daddy and I were getting a little desperate in trying to get you back on a good sleeping schedule.  I hate to admit it but it's really my fault that got you all messed up.  Your daddy was out of town for work for about 2 monthsstraight and I got "lazy" and just started putting you in the bed with me.  I didn't realize how hard it would be to break you of that habit.  I figured that making your bed in to a toddler bed might allow me to lay with you a little in your bed or at least sit at your bedside.  The first night you slept a solid 11 hours in your bed and your daddy and I thought this toddler bed worked like magic.  The next few nights you went to sleep fine but often woke up in the middle of the night and would walk in to our room (it's right next door).  As soon as you would come in to our room you would reach up, pat daddy's arm and say "ma ma? ma ma?"  It has been a work in progress and we still aren't perfect yet, but (knock on wood) you have slept in your bed until at least 4 AM every night this week and a few nights have slept all the way until 6 or 6:30.

 You are such a cuddle bug.  You love to cuddle with us now and will even cuddle up and watch cartoons with us now.  You are still allll about twirling hair.  The second I pick you up, your hand goes in my hair.  Here you are twirling your daddy's hair when we made a pallet on the floor one night to watch a movie..

 This month you have been to the dentist for the first time.  You were SO good.  The dentist told me he  was totally shocked and that most 18 month olds aren't that calm.  You even let them put the mechanical toothbrush in your mouth to clean all 12 teeth that you have. haha He said your teeth are looking beautiful!

As far as your stats go, you weigh 24 lbs and are in the 55th percentile and you are 32 1/2 inches long and are in the 75 percentile for  height.  You are still wearing size 4 diapers and are wearing 18 months and 24 months size clothes.  A lot of times I am already having to get the 24 month size for the length. 

Here is one more cute thing that happened this month that your daddy and I hope to always remember. We have been practicing saying the blessing before dinner every night.  One particular night this month the national championship game was coming on.  We were a little out of routine and were in a hurry to get done with dinner so I put you in your chair with your food and went in the kitchen to make my plate. We skipped saying the blessing.  As I was walking in to the dining room, I found you with your hands together, head bowed, and you were babbling away in your baby talk as if you were saying the blessing all by yourself.  It was by far the cutest thing I've ever seen and I was so proud of you in that moment.

Mary Hyatt, you truly are such a blessing to us.  I can't believe we are halfway through another year and that in just six (five now) more months you will be 2 years old!! We love you baby girl!!