Sweet Little Alina at 18-Months-Old

Adorable and playful Alina at 18-months-old

Little Alina turned 18-months-old on February 12th! She is becoming such a big girl, and while we still call her our "baby", as she is the youngest member of the family, she has truly reached toddler status. Every time I use the term toddler I second guess myself because last I remember she was my tiny newborn, cradled in my arms, and sleeping like a tiny porcelain doll. Oh how quickly these cute kids grow!

Alina's 18-month growth stats:

Height: 33.5 in (90th percentile)

Weight: 24 lbs 10oz (50th percentile)
 

Happy 18-months sweet girl!

As for the headline, YES, you read that right, "Sweet little Alina at 18-months-old". She really is the sweetest little girl. She is right at the age where the pre-terrible twos usually happen, and while we keep waiting for those well expected epic tantrums (a la. big sissy Elise), she keeps her cool and rarely throws a tantrum. Her version of a tantrum is crying at a slightly higher decibel for about 2-3 minutes and as soon as we address her needs she immediately calms down. I've devised a little trick that always works with her. Whenever she gets upset or starts saying no, I immediately pretend to pout and sniffle, which is always met with a smile, hug and a kiss from her. She immediately forgets about why she was upset and wants to do everything possible to make mommy happy (especially since she knows how much I love hugs from her). This speak volumes about her personality, she is giver and a sweet little nurturer, and even at her very young age she puts the feelings of others above her own. She is so much like her daddy in this regard. 

Aside from her sweet, even-tempered demeanor, her other big personality trait is being a curious little explorer. More specifically, she is CLIMBER! She climbs everything she possibly can. I have said before that she is a mini-daredevil, and it has become quite apparent now that she is going to be our little thrill-seeker. She laughs hysterically whenever she is turned upside-down, thrown up in the air, or riding a push car while precariously balancing on top with both her hands in the air. She loves pushing her limits, and that rush of excitement that comes with achieving a daring new feat. She is never afraid to get dirty. If you put her outside on the playground for 20 minutes, she comes back filthy and smiling. She will play in the dirt, sand, grass, mud, you name it. It is such a huge contrast from Elise as she did not like getting messy at all. At 18-months Alina's little personality is really starting to shine through. She has a very keen sense of humor, and the most adorable laugh. She loves to do silly things, and get laughs from all of us. We love watching her cute little personality develop.

Silly little Alina channeling Uncle Colin in potato head glasses!

Alina talks up a storm now. She can sing her ABCs all the way through, as well as the words to countless other lullabies. Her favorites are "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Frere Jacques". She sounds so cute singing the words to these songs! She has also learned to count to 10. Alina has been building her vocabulary over the past few months, and can identify many different objects now. She knows most of her animals and all the sounds they make; her rendition of cat is my favorite because she does the perfect high pitched "mew". She strings together small sentences now like "I want some", "that one", etc. She is still more of a mover than a talker, but we have seen huge leaps in her speech in the past few weeks alone.

Alina has almost all her baby teeth now; 16 in total! She had eight teeth when she turned one-year-old. Her first four back molars started to crown at about 13-months-old, and her canines started to come through at 16-months-old. She did really well with teething, though the canines were the worst for her in terms of pain. She drooled and rubbed at her gums quite a bit when they came in, but as I've said before this girl is just amazing; she hardly ever cries, even through teething pain.

 

When it comes to her appetite, little Alina is a bit of a pickier eater than her big sister. She has turned her nose up to more than a few things I have offered her recently. She isn't particularly fond of tomatoes, which surprised me because Elise loves them. She still loves her broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, squash and avocado. She loves chicken, rice, pasta and other dinner foods, but is not a huge breakfast eater. She will usually only eat half her eggs, hashbrowns and toast. She loves cheese, but what kid doesn't? She often picks her cheese off the eggs, bread, etc and eats that first. I can already tell she is going to be my little snacker, as she won't eat everything on her plate right away, but will go back to the table and pick at it for the next half hour until it is gone. We are hoping to keep her appetite adventurous, and I know that when it comes to food preferences many toddlers go through phases. We have phased out bottles for sippy cups...well all except her nighttime bottle. I hate to admit that, but she loves her nighttime bottle and it has been hard to give up. Mark my words that it is on the agenda, but at the same time her night bottle is the last truly "baby-like" thing about her. I am struggling just as much as she is haha.

Cute toddler in the laundry basket

Sisters playing together - love their smiles!

Perhaps the biggest new development is that Elise and Alina are both starting to become best little buddies and actually play together. I say actually because it really did take a while for Elise to become fully interested in her. I think this is primarily due to how close in age they are, but also because Elise is very mature for her age and not being able to communicate with Alina meant she lost interest rather quickly. We have finally reached the point where Alina can communicate, play and keep up with her big sister, and Elise just loves it. When they get home from school, they often head straight into each other rooms, just playing and laughing, while I make dinner. I can't even put into words how great this is. 1. It is wonderful to see the sisterly bond they share and hear how much they make each other laugh 2. It is SO nice that they are starting to have a little bit of independence, instead of clinging to moms legs, waist, arms, face, etc - while she tries to navigate between placating their needs and making dinner all at the same time. They certainly still have plenty of the "mine" yelling matches and toy tug-of-war sessions, but overall they are learning to play happily and share. I look forward to watching them grow up together, and I can already see they will be the very best of friends.

Elise beautifying Alina's hair, with as many clippies as possible

Alina's 12-Month Update

Our active little Leo at 12-months-old

 

Little Alina turned one-year-old on August 12, 2012. She has accomplished so much in her first year; from learning to walk at a mere 10-months-old; to climbing and scaling every piece of furniture in our house; to baby talking and repeating back words; to expressing her first few feisty toddler moments (she hardly ever does, but when it happens the girl can squeal loud enough to stop traffic). It is truly difficult to believe that she has completed her very first rotation around the sun ;) in what feels like record time. Where did our baby go!?!? While we will miss her being so little, the excitement of watching her grow supersedes any feelings of baby nostalgia. She has been an absolute joy to raise this first year.

 

 

Eating breakfast...completely unphased by the wild bedhead

 



She is getting so tall, 93rd % baby!



 

Alina's 12-month growth stats:

 

Height: 31.5 in (93rd percentile)

Weight: 20 3.5 oz (52nd percentile)

 

At our most recent checkup, we discovered that Alina's weight has now shot up into the 52nd percentile! This was good news to hear, as I was somewhat concerned at how underweight she was at all her prior checkups. I transitioned her from formula to whole milk early, at 11-months-old, to help bulk her up a bit. In addition to her whole milk bottles, she eats like crazy. Her favorite foods are: chicken, pasta, rice, eggs, cheese, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower and squash. She eats most everything we put on her plate; but believe it or not, Elise is our most adventurous eater, she will try anything. Alina just started turning her nose up to tomatoes and a few other foods. I know the routine with kids appetites, they are cyclical and you'd better be prepared to give them second and third helpings during growth spurts. Alina had her most recent growth spurt right around 11.5 to 12 months. We are so happy to see her weight in the 50th percentile, and it looks as if we may have another tall girl on our hands because Alina is in the 93rd percentile for her height.

 

 

Big smile and look at all her teeth!

Laughing fit - she's happy and loved

 

In teething related news, at 12-months-old little Alina had a total of eight teeth, four on top and four on the bottom. She got her first molars in, top and bottom, at 12-months and three weeks old. In all honestly, I had no idea they were coming through until they had started to crown, she was that good. In fact, we barely heard a peep out of her due to teething. She was slightly fussier than normal, but nothing bad. Elise was extra cranky for a month straight when she got her molars in.

Dancing with her shoes...yeah it's a baby thing!

 

Alina had added a couple more words to her baby repertoire. She learned to say "baby" right around 12-months-old, and this is her favorite word. She loves pointing to photos, of her and Elise, on the fridge and saying "baby" to each one. She can almost say "sissy", but it comes out more like "sissa". She is also in the early stages of working on her ABCs, so far she can say "aaaa, bbbb"...we're still working on the rest, but it is super cute hearing her shout "aaaa, bbbb" for 10 minutes at a time. Overall, Alina is still a baby of few words, she is more interested in singing and music; I think she may be able to sing an entire song even before she learns how to string a sentence together :) Although she can't say all the words yet, she can perfectly hum the tunes to, "Twinkle, twinkle little star" and "Frere Jacques". It is so cute to hear her hum along when we sing these lullabies to her before bed. She also loves to dance! Any time there is music on, she slowly starts nodding and bobbing her head and then she puts one hand out and waves it back and forth to the beat. One thing is for sure, she is taking after mommy and becoming a little music lover. 

At 12-months-old little Alina is virtually fearless. As I said before, she loves to climb and stand on everything she possibly can, no matter how precarious. She has since progressed to riding Elise's push cars and mini battery powered quad runner. She also gets a big thrill from attempting to ride her sister's bicycle. Alina is such a mini daredevil, and when she falls she rarely cries, she just picks herself up and climbs again. She is one tough toddler!



Already trying to ride big sissy's bike

 

Alina is such a loving little girl. She has always been incredibly sweet, but at 12-months-old we are really starting to see the depth of her affection toward all of us. She gives the best full body hugs! She will come up to us, throw out her arms, lay her head down on our chest, and proceed to cuddle for over a minute at a time. It is the sweetest thing ever, and I fully enjoy every moment of it. Alina also loves to give kisses to all of us before bed each night. She is always in a good mood, and it has been the biggest joy to care for her over this first year. We look forward to countless more cuddly moments with her!





Love her :)

 

Goodbye 2010 - Happy New Year 2011!



January - 7 months



February - 8 months



March - 9 months

   

April - 10 months



May - 11 months



June - 12 months!

In the span of a short 18 months, we've watched our tiny baby girl transform into an adorable little toddler, with more personality and spark then we could have ever envisioned. She's made us look at life from an entirely new perspective; one full of love, laughter and yes the occasional moments where our sanity was put to the test, but through it all we've found love in each other greater than we could have ever imagined. Watching Elise grow has made 2010 an amazing year! 2010 brought us so many unforgettable milestones, Elise has learned to crawl, walk, climb, dance, talk, sing, laugh uncontrollably and love us with all her little heart. Goodbye 2010 and Happy New Year 2011!

July - 13 months

  

August - 14 months



September - 15 months

October - 16 months

November - 17 months

  

December - 18 months

15-month growth update

Silly little Elise at 15-months-old

Playing around and learning to pose for photos

Bringing us her books to read

Elise had her 15-month checkup yesterday. She is growing so fast, that it's become difficult to remember the time before she could walk or communicate. We re-watched some of her baby videos and were just astounded by how much she has changed. It's amazing to see videos of her before she was able to sit up, crawl or walk. It just seems so natural that she now runs, jumps, climbs, dances, skips, sings and talks up a storm! We are so proud of how much she's progressed, yet also grateful to have tons of wonderful video, photos and memories of that very fleeting baby stage.

Weight - 23 lbs 9oz (50 - 75th percentile)

Height - 33 inches (Above 95th percentile) Still super tall and lean :)

Her pediatrician mentioned that she should be saying about 6-10 words regularly. She was impressed to hear that Elise is well beyond that. If I had to estimate, I would say she uses about 50+ different words and phrases on a regular basis. Daddy calls her his little parrot, because she repeats back everything now! She says her words very clearly and in the sweetest little baby voice. This is the point where you have to really watch what you say. Mommy learned that well when she let a bad word slip, Elise immediately repeated it back, clear and proud, and sounded so darn cute saying it. Lesson learned, I won't be saying that again!

Story time before bed

Elise naming all the pictures in her book

She is now able to name almost all the items we point out in her picture books. She knows all her basic animals and the noises they make, she can identify nearly all her body parts, and her baby sign language skills are very impressive. She can already say all the words, but still uses her baby signs to make it even more clear as to what she wants.

Messy little eater with her new uneven haircut, she doesn't like to sit still; EVER!

As far as food goes, Elise is a very unfussy eater. She is open to trying new foods and loves her fruits and vegetables. Her recent favorites are squash, avocado, yellow bell peppers, potatoes, cauliflower, tomatoes, pears, kiwis and pomegranate. I thought for sure, she would spit out the pomegranate seeds, but she ate the entire seed and absolutely loved them. While her appetite is certainly subject to variation, thankfully there are very few foods that she will refuse. She has even enjoyed some of mommy and daddy's more spicy dishes.

In related teething news, Elise now has a total of 16 teeth. She got in all her upper and lower cuspids and molars from 13 - 14 1/2 months, it's no wonder why she was so cranky for those two months! At this point, all she has left is her two upper and two lower second molars. Yay Elise you're almost there!

Smiling for daddy as usual

One last funny tidbit about Elise at 15-months-old, is that she gets extremely upset when mommy hugs, kisses, or lays too close to HER daddy. She used to just cry when it happened, now she has resorted to pushing mommy's hand away from daddy. She even said, very matter of fact, "my daddy". Yep, she definitely has daddy wrapped around her finger, and we both can't stop laughing at her possessive antics around her daddy.

13 1/2 month update!

Cutie pie Elise at 13-months

Elise walks everywhere now. She started walking unassisted right around 12-months-old and for a few weeks after that she would teeter around the house very gingerly. She has since become a pro and is on the verge of running. Mom and dad will be chasing after her sooner than expected!

At 12-months-old, Elise was already saying five words regularly: mama, dada, baba, cat and up. At 13-months-old, she has now expanded her vocabulary to over 20+ different words. She's added words like banana, dog, ball, down, book, apple, car, fish, bird, bunny, hi, bye, uh-oh, daddy and mommy among others. About 23% of 13-1/2-month-olds say over 10 words, so she is a bit ahead of the curve in terms of her vocabulary! We're at the point where she learns a new word on a daily basis.

Daddy and mommy are amazed each day by how smart she is. She can already count to three. She says it as, "un, tooo, fee", it is pretty darn cute. At first, we thought she was just repeating it back until she actually started counting her toys, and other items around the house, without any guidance from us. I was reading to her this morning and when I pointed out objects in books she correctly identified dog, banana, apples, and even did her best to say octopus (it came out more like octo-pol) but still impressive nonetheless! For alligator she points to the photo and says "grrrrr". It is very cute and certainly a video worthy moment!

Elise now goes to daycare three days a week. It is great for mom and dad, as we are able to get more work done, but best of all Elise really enjoys getting to spend time with her little friend Lillie.

She loves hide-and-seek and squeals with delight whenever we discover where she is hiding and chase her around the house.

She likes to squint her eyes, pucker out her lips and turn her head when she doesn't want to eat something we offer her. We now have to trick her into eating her food by acting as if we are eating it.

She has learned to give kisses! When she gives kisses, instead of puckering her lips she just curls them inward and smacks her mouth together. It is pretty freaking adorable.

She started singing at around 12-months-old. She has the cutest little singing voice. During car rides, she will sit in her car seat humming and singing to her own little tunes.

Elise got a hold of mommy's cell phone and made her first (and hopefully last) 911 call. The officers actually showed up to our house. It was pretty embarassing to admit our 13-month-old was the culprit!

She is on a primarily solid food diet now with three glasses of whole milk a day. She's tried just about every kind of fruit and vegetable there is. Her favorites are bananas, peas, avocado, squash, grapes, macaroni and cheese, tomatoes and of course her cat cookie graham crackers. She likes her graham cracker cookies so much, she went as far as to dig them out of her food bag and eat them all while mommy left the room for a minute. Bananas are her # 1 favorite food and she will go to the refrigerator and ask for them by name!

Enjoying the outdoors

Elise's art from daycare :)