At 19 months...

• She is using her words more often!  (like, "sit", "down", "cheerios")
• Please now finally sounds like "peas" instead of "buh", and Yes is actually "yes" instead of "da"
• Her kisses are more traditional kisses.  (No more open mouthed "buhs")
• She can give hugs
• She is difficult taking out to restaurants because she won't sit in her high chair for long and wants to wander everywhere
• She is getting pickier with what she eats--likely because all the other kids at school get junk for snacks
• She averages about 5 tantrums every morning getting ready for school 
• We're trying to get her to use a spoon but usually ends up banging the spoon and using her other hand to eat

At 18 months...

• She likes to lay down blankets/towels/fabric and lie down on it as if she's going to sleep
• Ironically, when it really comes down to bedtime, she's starting to resist--sometimes screaming as Dad takes her upstairs for a bath
• She fell sitting on the third step of the stairs, hit her right cheek on a step and gave herself a black eye and a small chipped tooth (#E)
• Her vocabulary is blooming...too many words to list.  However, she's still not utilizing her words very often.  
• She finally says mama all the time!
• She likes to point us out in pictures and say mama or daddy
• Tantrums, tantrums, and more tantrums!
• She likes sitting in my lap...turns her back towards me and backs in and plops herself down :)
• She gets very jealous if I hold another baby, or even pay any attention to another baby!
• She doesn't play nice...9 out of 10 times she will approach another kid and hit them on the head or touch their face or push herself in their way to play with what they're playing ( I notice this from taking her to the children's museum but teachers at school say she plays okay). 

The "terrible twos"--is this it?

I think two months ago I was saying, she's started her "terrible twos".  The tantrums and meltdowns for no apparent reason.  Two months later, add her refusing to sit in a shopping cart because she wants to get out and explore or push the shopping cart herself.  This means she doesn't like sitting in anything confining i.e. high chair, car seat, stroller because she wants to get out to explore.  For my birthday, we went out to eat and before entrees came out, we had to pack it to go as she was screaming to go out and explore.  This must be the terrible twos.  I'm sure next month I'll be saying, no, now this is the terrible twos.  This is a normal pattern, no?

17 months

At 17 months...

• She is starting to imitate words better. "Tuk" for truck, "ma" for Max, "buh" for bus 
• Throws tantrums i.e. Lies down screaming, banging head on ground (but oh so slowly and carefully)
• Likes to wipe things like the floor or hers or your mouth
• Likes walking around outside and lets go of my hand more often now
• Can say "no" but for the most part just shakes her head 
• Says "da" for yes ( I think bc I say yea? a lot )
• Transitioning to one nap a day
• Can say "bah!-boh" for bubbles 
• Went to uncle Hai and aunt Maisie's wedding and did great!
• Threw up for the first time, after the wedding, all over mommy. Had a little too much fun...(and she was sick). 
• Can stay up much later. Bedtime is now 8/830
• Can say "má-tewww" for Matthew, her long time nursery class buddy
• Can say "téd-deee" for Teddy and "dá-dee" for daddy

Her vocabulary has grown so much this whole 17th month!  We've had a lot of those, did she just imitate that word almost perfectly?? Apparently she knows the names of all her classmates and teachers (identify, not verbally).  Her teachers keep saying how smart she is but I hesitate to play into all the accolades. I don't want to have exceeding expectations and then have her fall short of them. Is that wrong??!  I've always believed in aiming just average, that way if you exceed that, you'll feel better about yourself.  I know it contradicts every motivational speaker out there, but it's a motto that's worked out pretty well for myself. 

Poop

She pooped!!--in the toilet!  It's funny how one can get so excited about something that normally would be so gross.  When it is coming from your baby, it's worth celebrating!  I wasn't really planning on any potty training but since it seemed like all my friends babies were starting already, I decided to try it this morning. I'm not sure if she was as excited about it as I was. When it occurred, her expression was an, omg, what just happened??

Look what I did!

Almost 17 months

At almost 17 months....

• She says 'buh' for please, 'na' for milk, 'nana' for banana
• She can point to the correct places when asked, "where are your ears, nose, mouth"
• She makes sounds "bzz" for bees, "bok bok" for chicken, "vvvv" for car
• She loves to try to brush her hair or your hair
• She sometimes is cooperative when I try to brush her teeth and other times it's struggle
• She likes to hold the phone on the side of her head (not at the ear) and say gibberish 
• She loves her shoes and is obsessed with going outside. I usually have to hang out with her a little bit outside before she will go in her car seat. 
• She likes to hold my hand to walk around outside 
• She likes to smell flowers
• She also likes to pull the petals off the rose bushes in the front yard 
• She loves to run (walk fast) towards me with a huge smile when I pick her up from school 
• She had her first ear infection at 16 months. We didn't know she had one and it festered for so long that it wasn't til it burst and started to smell that we realized something was wrong.  Poor baby!!
• She talks a lot of gibberish 
• She understands the majority of what I say to her
• She's been sleeping and waking up later (8pm - 630/745 am)!
• She loves to eat bananas.  She eats them every morning and sometimes for lunch and dinner too!  Sometimes I think she's a monkey because she also persistently makes a sound that resembles a monkey when she wants something.
• She is very impatient especially when it comes to being fed 
• She finally moved up to the toddler class at her school!  (April 7 official first full day) She cried a lot the first week when I dropped her off in the classroom but today I handed her over to the lead teacher and she held her arms out willingly!
• She enjoys the Children's Musuem and discovered how fun a slide can be
• She likes to say "uh-ooh" , just for fun
• She experienced her first snow in Colorado.  She liked the actual snow but didn't like walking in it...too unstable for a new walker I suppose.  She enjoyed sledding too!
• She had her first allergic reaction to what we still don't know but she broke out in a rash and her hands, feet, and face swelled up over the course of  2 days. It occurred on the day we left Colorado. 

Post bday

It's been 2 months since my last post and for babies development that's like 2 years!  After 6 months of trying to get A to sign, one week after her first birthday it finally clicked!  She can sign for "more" and eventually signed for "milk", and "all done".

• At 14 months she finally took her first few steps.  She's very cautious and prefers to just sit down and crawl
• Her first official word by 14 months is dog.  She can point to a dog and say "dog" (dah!) and when asked what sound does the dog make, she's says "woof woof" (heh heh).   Technically her first word was probably "dada" but "dog" is more unbiased.  (Why won't she say mama?!?  She prefers my arms over anyone else's anytime but she refuses to say mama!!)
• Started to get her first primary molars