Blog BlogLovin Instagram Pinterest

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

18 Months Old

For the first time ever, I literally cannot remember the last time I blogged.  Bad mama.  Life has just been happening, and fast.  I have been so busy chasing the busiest 18-month-old.  Yes, 18 months old!  I truly can't believe it.  Time surely flies.  I have a lot to catch up on and a lot of photos to post at some point, so I'll get right to the stats. 

Doctor's Stats:  We'll know on Friday.  I do know a rough weight estimate, though.  We took a quick trip to the doctor last week to see about a bug bite (they were concerned it was a tick bite...thank the Lord it wasn't!) and our Lilly bean weighed 25 lbs.  Chunker!  I'm anxious to find out her height and percentiles on Friday, because it seems to me that she is growing like a weed.

Sleep:  I thank the good Lord daily that we were blessed with such a great sleeper!  Lilly goes down most nights around 8.  I would say she doesn't fall asleep until usually 8:30, sometimes later, but she rarely cries - just lays in her crib and talks to herself and sings until she's sleepy.  I have tried putting her to bed later to see if she just really isn't ready at 8:00, but she appears to have some wind down/alone time because pushing bed time back did not go over well.  Most days she sleeps until 9:00 or 9:30.  Sometimes it's earlier but not usually before 8:30 unless she has a poop.  She naps once each day, we put her down between 1:00 and 1:30 and I normally have to wake her up at 4:30 - any later and it's too close to bed time.  I'm jealous of all of the sleep this child gets!

Eating:  Lilly is generally a pretty good eater, but she definitely knows what she likes and what she doesn't like.  I feel like she eats the same things ALL THE TIME and wonder if she ever gets bored, but she doesn't seem to mind.  She is still a self-proclaimed vegetarian, for the  most part - she will eat hot dogs, bacon, sausage, and sometimes chicken, but that's about it.  Here are some of her food "likes" that I can think of:

Pancakes, waffles, french toast (anything she can dip in syrup - she LOVES to dip); yogurt; cereal (her favorite are Quaker Oatmeal Squares and Strawberry Yogurt Trader Joe's O's); any fruit; oatmeal (Whole Foods Apple Cinnamon is her fav and it is the jam, y'all); smoothies; also we finally got her to drink whole milk, we just have to add some chocolate (we've been using Ovaltine which I need to make sure is OK with the doc on Friday); grilled cheese sandwich; almond butter (or peanut butter) & jelly sandwich; pretty much any fruit but her favorites are blueberries, strawberries, bananas and apples; black beans; rice; hot dogs; broccoli (sprinkled with parmesan); edamame (sometimes); any carb/bread; guacamole.

I'm sure I've forgotten some but those are probably the most common things.  Lilly definitely lets us know when she doesn't like something, but is (usually) pretty good about trying it if we bribe her ask her to.  The thing I struggle with the most in this category is that she is usually so busy that she just doesn't want to stop and take the time to eat, so a lot of times she'll tell me she's "all done" when I know she isn't.  Everything that I have read on this matter says that she is still very young and it is a long time to expect her to sit in a high chair and stay still, and that I should just let her graze.  In my opinion, that just creates more bad habits that I'm going to have to break later, but obviously I'm not expert.  I'm anxious to see what the doctor says about it on Friday.  In the mean time, we do the best we can to have a family meal time and convey our expectations that we eat together and we do not get to get down and run around and play until we're done.  Hard core parenting at it's finest.  I think we must be doing something right, because in the past two weeks on three separate occasions if we have been out to eat other folks have made it a point to stop by our table and comment on how well behaved she is at the table.  That is definitely not to say she is always a perfect angel, because trust me that is definitely NOT the case, but it makes me feel good to feel like we are doing something right!

Developments:  Gosh, too many to even try to name.  Lilly's language skills continue to improve - it's like once she started talking she did not stop.  We saw a new doctor at our practice last week when we were in for the bug bite and the doc expressed that she was very impressed as well.  L consistently says short phrases and a lot of times tries some longer ones - usually I have no idea what she is saying, but she can repeat it when asked so at least she knows what she's saying.  I continue to be amazed at what she hears/remembers/repeats, which means we've had to be extra careful what we say around her.  The other day we were in a store and she was holding something and dropped it, and she bent down to pick it up and said, "Oh, me."  The sales associates thought it was hilarious, and I told them I guess I should be thankful I said that instead of "Oh, sh*t" when I'd dropped something that morning.  She recently also has started saying "hush" if she hears a dog barking, which is hilarious.  Also on Monday I was upstairs working and L was downstairs with the nanny.  I sneezed, and all of a sudden I heard this sweet little voice say, "Bless you, Mommy."  She walked around for an hour saying it over and over.  Cutest ever.  

Lilly's hand-eye coordination is improving with each day as well.  We are still working on perfecting her fork and spoon skills, but she has gotten a lot better at that with practice. She loves to color, and we are working on staying on the paper.  :-)  She also does pretty well with puzzles and shape sorters, both of which occupy her for longer periods of time than most other activities.

We have been working on shapes and colors, and she's getting pretty good at both - but better at colors.  She consistently identifies purple, yellow and green correctly.  The others are hit or miss.  

Lilly is very independent in a lot of ways and wants to do everything herself, and often gets frustrated with herself if she can't do something on the first try.  I was hoping she would avoid that trait that she undoubtedly gained from her mama.  She is also good about asking for help when she needs it, though.

Tantrums are still going strong and getting worse - I often wonder if we're hitting the "terrible twos" early.  We usually just ignore them, or remove our attention or something that she is playing with from her for short periods of time to get our point across.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  It's a work in progress, and another thing I have on my list to ask the doctor.

On the flip side, she loves to laugh and is a total ham, and will do just about anything for applause (I use this as a persuasion technique at meals a lot of times..."Lilly, if you take one bite Mommy will clap a LOT!").

I'm sure there are a lot I have missed, but I think those are the highlights!

Favorites:  Oh gosh, so many.  Singing, dancing, bath time, playing outside, swimming (at any pool and also in her backyard baby pool), the water table, coloring and drawing, her play kitchen, blocks and building, Layla, books, babies (she thinks anyone that is remotely close to her size is a baby and it is hilarious), the park - especially the slides, or the train and/or boats if we are at Pullen, Elmo/Sesame Street, seeing pictures and videos of herself, lovey, giving kisses and hugs, washing hands (or anything for that matter), "helping" Mommy in the kitchen, Mommy and Daddy, blocks, reading (I can't even tell you), all of her grandparents and all of her cousins.

Not-so-favorites:  Not being able to do something she wants to do, being told "no," eating (most) meat.  I'm sure there are more that I'm missing.

I must have taken this category off last time because it was getting to be too hard to keep track of new "firsts" since there are so many, but Lilly did get to meet her baby cousin Mason for the first time and she loves him.  :-)

If you're still following along, here are some recent photos.  I have some really cute videos but do not have the energy to post them tonight, maybe soon.  I'll report back with Doctor's stats, hopefully on Friday!


Durham Food Truck Rodeo with Erin & Ryan.  She loves french fries - can ya blame her?

Monster Face

Helping with Kinsley!



Puttin' on some lipstick

Kisses for Papa, Lilly's maternal great grandfather
Snuggles with Granny, Lilly's maternal great grandmother
 Meeting PawPaw's baby chicks for the first time!








First right on the light rail in CLT.  Lilly, Mommy and PawPaw went to have lunch with Mimi uptown.

Snuggles with Grandma at the Knights game on July 3rd
What Lilly thought of me trying to get a photo of her in her cute July 4th outfit
Meeting cousin Mason for the first time.  "Mommy, hold!"
Giving Mason sugar!
Just playing in some rain puddles when we had what felt like a monsoon!


Flirting with Sawyer and holding his hand

"Cheeeese!"

Feeding the ducks (read: herself) with Daddy at Pullen

Making pancakes with Mommy 




Lilly LOVES her "house" that Daddy made her

Lilly insists on putting on a bow the minute she wakes up.  Here she is eating her breakfast, in her jammies, rocking a bow.
Do we have a future shopping addict???

Ice cream tonight after we met Daddy for dinner to celebrate her half birthday!

Happy 18 months, sweet girl!  We love you more than we ever thought possible are so blessed to be your parents and to watch you grow.

Sarah



More from The Baum Squad:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...