Dear Q,
Wow. Today you are 18 months old and, per usual, I have no idea where the time as gone. It’s the middle of winter but it just got cold. I think that’s messing with my sense of time a little bit. We had a busy Christmas were we got to see lots of family and you got a ton of presents. You didn’t care about the unwrapping part but you really enjoyed the presents once they were open!
At 18 months you are a trip. You’re a great walker and you’re starting to try to run. Your vocabulary exploded a few months back and you’re still spouting out new words every day. You still sign a lot as well and it’s so fun to see your signs turn into spoken words. In just 4 days at Grammie’s house you started verbalizing your signs for More, All Done, Milk and Bath!
Speaking of baths, you now ask to take a bath at the end of every meal. It cracks me up every time. You’ve obviously picked up on the fact that bath time comes after dinner time but have taken it to the next level. You really would love a bath three times a day if we let you!
I think the bathroom may be your favorite room in the house, actually. Not only does it have the bathtub but it has the Potty!! You love all things about the potty, except for sitting on it. Sitting on the potty completely terrifies you! Any time you see a bathroom (in a house or in public) you gleefully yell “potTAY! potTAY!”, do the sign for potty, and try to go inside. Once you get in there you like to lift your Bjorn potty seat and set it on the potty. You then want to fast forward to your favorite part which is waving and yelling “Buh-BYE!!” when the potty flushes. We then wash hands (another favorite part) and then march out the door saying & signing “All Done”. You then close the door behind you. You think it’s just fun but it’s really to keep you from hanging out in the bathroom 24/7. I’m looking forward to the day you’ll sit on the potty yourself but I’m not going to push it!
You’re a careful and cautious little girl. You like to investigate situations before you relax and let your guard down. Just today Papa asked me if he should take it personally or if it’s just your personality. I assured him that it’s just how you are. Once relaxed you flirt and talk and explore. Sometimes it takes a lot of reassurance but sometimes you warm up almost right away. Now that you know how to express when you’ve had enough of something you are not hesitant to share your view. Yesterday while grocery shopping you decided you were ‘all done’ about halfway through and you didn’t understand why we couldn’t leave right then. When you decide that it’s time to go or you hear someone else winding down to leave and you go around saying “buh-BYYYEEE!!!” to everyone. The “bye” sounds more like “boy” and you wave at everyone and I crack up every time.
You are sweet and sassy. You love to wear hats and necklaces and you will turn things into hats and necklaces if the real thing isn’t available. Once you accessorize you’ll go look at yourself in the full length mirror and beam at yourself. You LOOOOVE your reflection! You also love phones, or should I say, you’re OBSESSED with phones! We gave you my old iPhone as your own but you still prefer the real thing because you want to call people. If given the opportunity you can and will make phone calls from an iPhone and when someone answers you’ll say “Hi, hi, hi” in your husky breathy voice. I now have to password protect my phone so you won’t steal it and call everyone!
We are still going strong with breastfeeding although some days we only nurse 3-4 times a day instead of the usual 5-8. I don’t see you giving that up any time soon. I still enjoy it as well.
Every time we make progress with sleep something happens to mess it up again so it’s a constant work in progress. Someday you’ll sleep. Someday.
I want to write down every single amazing, funny, cute thing you do and record every word you say but that would make this the longest blog post in history so I’m going to hold back. Let’s just say that you keep me very well entertained and I enjoy my days with you so much!
You are a blessing in my life. You give me purpose and joy. Now quit growing up so fast, ok?? 🙂
Love you forever and ever,
Mommy
