18 Months

Eighteen months is just too big.  I have been dreading it for a while now.  I have faced each new milestone and age change with excitement and grace, but not 18 months.  I want to curl up in the corner and cry.  The only reason I can come up with as to why 18 months is bugging me so much, is that it's now on the upswing to two. Two. That is waaay out of "my little baby" land and into full on toddlerhood.  I know the age of two can be fun.  I am looking forward to all of the new things we will be able to do.  It's just that the time seems to be going ridiculously fast.  It doesn't help that people already think she is two because of her size and vocabulary.  I am gladly enjoying each day with her.  Each new word. Each light bulb moment.  18 months just makes me feel like I'm going to wake up tomorrow and have to be deciding Kindergarten plans.  A little dramatic?  Maybe.  But it really does make me a little sad.

Regardless of my sad state, I want to remember and take note of the fun things she is currently doing.  Her doctors appointment is later this week, so I will update on that after the fact.

I know I've said it before, but I always swore I wasn't going to be one of those parents who thought my child was sooo smart--however, I find myself constantly amazed at her skills. :)  I continually debate with myself whether she really is "ahead of the game" or if it's just that I didn't work with toddlers so I'm easily impressed with what really is the average. Either way, we think she's pretty smart. Go ahead--label me "that" mom. :)

Olivia has a great sense of humor.  She also loves to make us laugh.  I seriously laugh all day long.  She makes some of the best faces ever.  She uses her facial expressions to get her point across.  She seems to find physical humor funny.

She loves to accessorize.  She loves to wear scarves, necklaces hats and anything else she can get her hands on.  She wraps her pajama pants around her neck as a scarf.  She's been known to put underwear over her head as well. :/  She also loves shoes.  She sometimes asks to wear hers.  She likes to play with mine.  Sometimes she just carries mine around. Sometimes she rearranges them on the shelf.  She also likes to carry around Michael's dirty shirts that she finds in the hamper.

She has become somewhat of a picky eater.  I know it is completely normal for this age.  I was just hoping that since she has been an amazing eater from the beginning, that we'd skip over this stage.  She's at that stage where she may love something one day, and then the next day she wants nothing to do with it.  It makes it a little challenging to feed her.  Right after Thanksgiving, she went through a week long phase where she wanted to eat every hour.  It was insane.  She was literally eating everything in the house and then some.  Since then, she's gone to the reverse side of things and is actually eating less than her "normal".  Ahhh, the joys of toddlerhood. :)

She eats 3 meals a day, plus usually one snack after nap.  She has milk at breakfast and dinner, but has been drinking less and less.  She drinks water throughout the day.  Green monsters are the only other thing she drinks and they are her absolute favorite.  I can sneak almost anything in them.  After steaming all sorts of carrots for her, she decided she didn't like them.  So now they go into the smoothies.  Along with her liquid vitamins.

Besides green monsters, her favorite foods are bananas and applesauce.  Some of her favorite breakfasts are: oatmeal with pumpkin, banana, and cinnamon mixed in or scrambled eggs with strawberries and blueberries.  Some of her favorite lunches are peanut butter sandwiches with applesauce and pears or pita smeared with hummus, mandarin oranges and yogurt. Some of her favorite dinners are: tilapia with peas and cous cous or pasta with pesto, zucchini, and sweet potato fries.

She loves music.  She loves to dance.  She loves to sing.  She loves to read.  She loves to do puzzles.

Besides books and puzzles, her other favorite things are animals and anything having to do with animals.  She has magnetic animals that she got from her grandma. They are on our fridge and she plays with them multiple times a day.  She rearranges them. She moves them from the fridge to the dishwasher.  She brings them to us and tells us their name or sound. She loves them.  She also loves her fisher price talking zoo and farm.

She understands almost everything we say to her.  She can also follow one and even two step directions.  We had a friend who watched her the other night and she even mentioned that to us.  She said, "When you tell her something, she knows exactly what you are saying and responds appropriately". She also mentioned that she followed two step directions for her.  I appreciated that someone else noticed and reinforced what I had been noticing.

Olivia gave up her morning nap this past month.  Unfortunately, she's given up even more sleep than that.  I'm not sure if it's all because of taking the paci away, or if it's a mix of other things.  She has been sick for a few weeks now and there was a week where she was waking up during the night from coughing and not being able to breath.  Mix that with getting her eye teeth on top of taking the paci away and we have been having some issues.  She has only taken one hour naps all week.  One hour.  She use to nap 3 hours total in a day and now it's down to one.  On top of that, her normal 12 hours of sleep at night has gone down to 10.  We put her to bed and she plays for at least an hour.  I am hoping and PRAYING this is just a phase... the teeth... something, and that we get our amazing sleeper back soon.

Olivia is very strong willed.  This isn't really surprising.  But it does make things difficult sometimes.  She is generally very happy and sweet.  When she doesn't get her way, though, she throws a normal toddler tantrum.  She isn't bothered by any form of punishment either.  We have started reading all the books we can on the topic. ;)

She is affectionate, but only on her terms.  She does not like to snuggle.  She does not like to feel like she is being confined.  She does not like to "relax" for fear that we are trying to put her to sleep?!  She will hug and kiss us when she feels like it.  She will come up and lean her head on our shoulder.  She will back into us and sit on our lap.  She just isn't overly touchy.

 At 15 months she had 50 words. At that point, since she was so "ahead", I quit writing every word down.  It was just too much.  She literally comes up with new words every day.  I did that animal post last week and she has already added more to it--including giraffe! :)  I love that she knows how to communicate with us.  It does make things easier.

I was going to do a separate post about fun things she's said, but it never got written so I'll add it here.

Thank you was one of the first words Olivia said.  She says it often.  She also says please.  For the past two months or so, she says "excuse me" if she burps or toots and says "excuse you" when I burp.  She also says "bless you" when someone sneezes.  So one night at dinner I burped (yes, I know--classy!) and she said, "Excuse you".  I said, "You are one of the politest 17 month olds I've ever met" and she replied with "Thank you". Both Michael and I got a laugh out of it.

Whenever we sit down for dinner, Olivia says "pray!".  She doesn't like us to hold her hand though. But as soon as the prayer is over, she says "Amen!" joyfully.  I posted on facebook, but since I want to remember: when she was sick I was rubbing Vicks on her feet and saying, "We claim healing in Jesus name".  She relates "Jesus" to "pray".  So she said, "Pray!".  I said, "Yes, we pray for healing" and she said, "Amen!" She knows "Bible" and carries around a fuzzy one that she got as a gift.

She has known to say her name since 15 months.  She says, "I-ya". 4 syllables is a bit much!  Her Little Gym teacher said that saying your name would be unusual for her class (10 to 19 months), but she always gives them the opportunity.  I really wanted Olivia to say it in class, but she would clam up every time it was her turn and I would end up saying it.  Then two weeks ago, she finally said it in class!  She's done it both times since. It's so cute!

She sings "hallelujah" and "holy, holy, holy" because of watching Praise Baby.  She also says, "ooooh toodles" from watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  She sings "La La La La Elmo's World".  Of course, "world" isn't as clear as it should be, but still super cute.

She loves to mimic what we do.  A couple of months ago with was brushing her teeth and putting on make up.  More recently it has been washing her hair, putting on deodorant, and making the (wretched hacking) sound Michael makes when brushing his teeth.

She tells me when she goes "poopy" and also knows the word potty.  We brought her potty up from the garage and put it in the bathroom.  She sits on it (with diaper and clothes on).  I am not pushing her into anything.  It's just as much work when they are potty trained as it is when they aren't.  I'm just getting her familiar with the potty and we'll see where it goes from there.