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| Daddy with our little toddler |
It's safe to say that at 18-months we have a full fledged toddler on our hands. She loves to explore everything and her vocabulary has grown tremendously. She now strings together sentences and phrases, and it's amazing to see how much she retains. She can name all her favorite foods, animals, toys, shapes, colors, Disney and other favorite characters, and so much more. We have baby flash cards and she can identify nearly all the objects on them without a problem. She can also locate any objects in a picture book that we ask her to find. She can count to 20 and she sings her ABCs all the way through G and then hums the rest, it is so cute! We are literally surprised everyday by how well she can communicate.
One of the funnier aspects of her speech, is that she will sometimes mispronounce words and they come out sounding more like four letter words that shouldn't be repeated. The worst one is frog, somehow she forgets the "r" and adds a "k" to the end and it ends up sounding pretty bad. We were at the store, when she saw a frog toy, pointed to it, and started yelling it loudly, while sticking out her tongue (the baby sign for frog). I think the people walking by were shocked, so we had to quickly reinforce "yes honey F-R-O-G". Crisis averted! Thankfully, we've worked on her pronunciation and she is able to say such words correctly now.
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| Cuddly Elise sporting her new beanie |
Another thing that mommy and daddy just love, is how affectionate she's become! Prior to this age, she would rarely slow down to cuddle, hug or give kisses. Now, she tells us when she wants a hug and loves to say "kisses" and give us smooches. We've been adoring all this newfound affection from her, though she has already learned to leverage such sweetness to get what she wants from us. As far as we're concerned, it's a much more preferrable method than fussing, so we can't complain.
Weight - 26 lbs 11oz (50 - 75th percentile)
Height - 34 1/2 inches (Above 95th percentile) - Our little beanstalk!
At 18-months, Elise's appetite changes on a daily basis. Some days, she wants to eat all day long, while others she barely even touches her meals. I know most toddlers go through a growth spurt around this time, so we do our best to feed her appetite on the days she needs more. Lately, she's been a big breakfast eater. She loves when we make her scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, cottage cheese, and waffles or english muffins for weekend breakfasts. She likes to sit in her chair and slowly eat all her food, but the second her hand get messy she's yelling for mommy or daddy to "wipe yucky", our cue to clean her hands. For lunch, she's been enjoying sandwiches recently. She loves turkey and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but mommy must cuts them up in small pieces otherwise she won't touch them. She also loves fruit; her recent addiction has been grapes. For dinner, she usually eats what mommy and daddy have. Lots of chicken with fresh vegetables, rice, pasta and we've even given her tacos and fajitas and she never turns her nose up to anything spicy, just like her parents.
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| Ordering us to allow her to play on the desk and continue making a mess |
While Elise is usually sweet and affectionate, we can't leave out the realities of having a curious little toddler. Lately, she loves climbing up every chair and other piece of furniture in the house, and making a mess out of everything she can find. When we catch her, she gives us a huge grin and then proceeds to tear into whatever interests her. She loves to attack mommy's computer and play with the pens and stamps on her desk, which have since been put out of reach. The funniest thing is that she now tells us, "it's ok I up here", as if that gives her permission to wreck havoc! She's slowly learning the art of manipulation, and just how far she can push her limits.
We have just started to introduce Elise to the idea of potty training. We got her a brand new pink potty that plays a song when she uses it, and she loves it. For the first few weeks, she just sat on it saying "my potty" over and over, not really sure what to do, but since then she has went pee on her potty maybe 5-6 times over the past month. We had to laugh at ourselves, as we were watching her like a hawk and thrilled the very first time she finally did it. Proud parents alright. It is still super early for full on potty training. From what I've heard, most kids aren't fully potty trained until around 2 1/2, so she has a good head start.
Perhaps the most exciting news, is that she has finally accepted her bedtime routine. Both mommy and daddy have to be there to put her to bed, and she points at our mouths and says, "mommy song" and "daddy song", and we sing and hum her bedtime lullabies each night. When we put her in the crib, she throws out all her blankets and toys, except Tinkerbell, and lays down and says "night, night", "love you" or "bye, bye momma, bye bye daddy, see ya", and that means she's ready to fall asleep. We've been so proud of her new nightly routine, because in the past she always cried at bedtime. It feels good to know that she can express when she is ready to go sleep all on her own. She also makes sure to let you know when she is awake the next morning. We usually wake up to "momma, dadda, where are you?". After hearing that, we can't wait to go get her out of her crib and get hugs and kisses from our happy little morning baby!
