My mom is the best. Whenever my siblings and I would comment on us growing up like "isn't it SO WEIRD that you have kids that can drive?" and "isn't it SO WEIRD that your youngest is in high school?" and "isn't it SO WEIRD that you and dad are about to be empty nesters?" her reply was always something along the lines of "No, that's not weird. That's just life." I kinda loved that response.
Despite the fact that it was often me asking those questions to her, I have found it is a slight pet peeve of mine when the whole world marvels that their children grow up so fast. Because actually, everybody just grows one day at a time. Wouldn't it be more marvel-worthy if 18 months later your newborn was still a newborn? After 18 months it really shouldn't be SO WEIRD that I have a child that can run and talk and sport a sassy attitude. It took her 18 months to get there and yeah, it feels like she's been with us for 18 months. So I get my mom's response. But who knows, maybe 16 years from now it will be SO WEIRD that my baby is driving a car?!
All of that nonsense aside, Grace has hit the notable 18-month mark (notable probably only because she can now officially attend nursery and not because 18 months makes her eligible for baby voting or anything). As with all my other update posts, time has only made her better and made us love her more. I foolishly quit doing monthly updates when she hit 12 months either because I was lazy or because I ignorantly assumed she wouldn't change from 12-18 months. Well, it WAS lazy of me and she did change. A LOT. I can't go back and give you her progression but I'll tell you what she's up to these days. And it is mucho.
Let's begin with her words. She has recently-like within the last few weeks-greatly expanded her vocabulary. She has taken a keen interest in reading books with me and trying to say new things. She's bright and very teachable. This explains her 96th percentile head.
She says all the following (although a few of the words are really only understood by us)
- mama
- dada
- papa
- grandma (kinda)
- baby
- baba
- Elmo
- stroller
- shoes
- doggy
- meow
- please (sounds like "deeeee")
- thank you (only recognizable in the context of the situation, like when you hand her something or she hands you something)
- cracker
- blueberry (it's a stretch but I'll give it to her. Sounds more like "buoy be")
- more
- night night
- bye bye
- hi
- ooh ooh ah ah (monkey....or when you say Uncle Mikey and that sounds close enough to monkey)
- quack quack
- bird
- bus
- car
- nose
- hot
- cold
- tree
- ball
- no
- all gone
- calculator (okay, not really, but she makes a strange conglomeration of sounds that we do actually know means she wants her orange calculator)
She recognizes and can point to:
- nose
- mouth
- teeth (she chomps her teeth together)
- tongue
- ears
- eyes
- hair
- belly
- toes
- fingers
She will also do her impressions of:
- laughing
- crying
- silly
- mom sneezing (seriously, every time I sneeze-which is a lot if you know me-she mimics me)
Specific Grace-isms
- She is OBSESSED with stairs and chairs. Everywhere we go-the museum, the library, the park-she always wants to be walking up stairs or steps or curbs or onto the bases of lampposts or anything that goes up and down OR she is sitting on little chairs, wanting to sit on big chairs or benches, sitting on steps or curbs or the bases of lampposts or anything that can be used as a chair.
- She thinks hiding in corners keeps her safe. Whenever we say we're going to change her diaper or it's time for night night and she doesn't agree, she runs herself over to a corner and backs into it.....as though this is a game of tag and she's reached "base" so she's safe and we can't touch her.
- She chatters nonstop. Because she does say so many words, when she jabbers people look at us like she's speaking coherently and they just didn't catch that last bit. But we don't know what she's saying either 90% of the time. She just likes to talk. And sometimes when James gets home from school she'll just follow him in and out of rooms jabbering constantly. She's probably telling him all about her day with me. Who knows.
- As mentioned above, she says please....kind of. We have really been working with her on this one, because when she wants something she immediately gets so exasperated and screeches or moans or cries or flops or whatever. So we stop and ask her to say "please." She almost always does. And recently she's gotten better about saying it without prompting. This may come after she screams for several seconds and then looks at us all impatient-like and says "deeee! deee!" And sometimes.....SOMETIMES she will just start with please ("deee") before she screams. Unfortunately, it is so cute to hear her say it and her face is so cute when she says it that we're having a really hard time not giving her whatever she wants just because she says please. So, we'll have to work on that.
- She has turned into a TV girl. Maybe I shouldn't be proud of or excited about this but I am. Because it means I can get her to sit still when I need to do her hair or just chillax. Her absolute favorite is Sesame Street and we actually didn't purposely teach her to say "Elmo," but she watched enough TV I guess that one morning James went to go grab her out of her crib and she just pointed at her stuffed Elmo and said it! Many of you have probably seen her dancing to Elmo singing "Letter of the Day" on my instagram. She gets very excited and often dances along. She also likes Daniel Tiger and Super Why.
- She also loves shoes, her stuffed "bebe" and real babies, cereal, eating on her own/trying to stab with a fork and scoop with a spoon, mama (I actually don't like this when moms put this down, but she really has become quite partial to me because she is now with me ALL the time. Yay!), doggies, climbing on the couch, being outside, pushing her doll stroller, drinking from big water bottles, cups, and drinking fountains, talking to herself in the mirror, and lots of attention. She's the best.
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