Eighteen months. I sometimes feel like it was yesterday I was holding my newborn nursing 24 hours a day, keeping myself awake by scrolling through babycenter on my iphone as the 2 am hour passed. Other days I feel like it's a lifetime ago that I was pregnant, waiting for Sienna to arrive, and living in the surreal days of having a new baby. Either way, a year and a half later, here we are.
18 months seems like a huge milestone. The emergence into toddler from babyhood. We find ourselves sitting on the bed at night, reading a book to our little one or letting S watch a cartoon and just cracking up laughing because our talking toddler is making jokes or laughing hysterically at something she finds funny. I know I've said a few times that she's a person-- but now-- she is for real a person. And thus far, I think we're doing okay at this parenting thing because we think she's pretty cool. We shoot each other a knowing approving look- she's an awesome kid. We still fall asleep at night after talking about the heart-melting thing she did that day. We're sort of hopelessly in love with her; parenting (despite its struggles) really works for us.
And here's the other wonderful thing: today I was chatting on the phone to my friend Kelly and she said "you and Jamie seem to really be enjoying wedding season this year!" And I found myself shaking my head yes as I replied. Because, it's true. Sienna's at an age where she is EXCITED to go to my parents for a night. She screams BAMPA and some form of grandma we can't quite pin down when she sees them. She squeals as they chase her around the house. I know that not only do J and I get quality us time, she gets quality (maybe more fun than us) time too. That tiny baby who clung to me all hours of the day? Gone. Do I miss them sometimes? Sure. But I rest assured that at 7 am when my little love wakes up she will want to cuddle in "mama bed! Bed! Mama!" for a little while before she starts her day. It's the best half hour of my day, every day.
The talking. Oh my goodness the talking. It is non stop and I am infinitely impressed. She has started to use adjectives (big, little, baby, occasionally colors when she happens to pick the right one) before words. Big duck, baby cat, little car. She also has been saying more than 2 word phrases which blows my mind. Sure they are sometimes still a little hard to understand, but the other day we walked outside and my girl said clear as day "rain rain go way" aka go away. Proud Mama. Speaking of proud, she knows so many words now and can tell me what she wants!
Words:
Mama, Dada, Mamadada (when excited these get combined), kitty cat (pronounced key cat), dog, hop
apple, bed, in, up, sit (but the s is rough, so sometimes this is "it"), this, that, water, milk, ba ba (aka lamb), duck, big, little, baby, mickey (pronounced mick-me), no, yes, cake, snack, door, please, bear, whale, necklace (neck-nis), ear, beep, eyes, teeth, nail, paint, color, chalk, toes, belly, belly button, knee, hair, hat, hi, bye, hello, rain, go, block (bock), home, wee, wow, whoa, blue, yellow (yeyow), out, help, walk, down, tick tock, bird, poo poo, pee pee, bath, diaper, doll, night night, pop (as in ice pop), Elmo, nice, Hazel, Meem (Jamie's mom), Pop (Jamie's dad), Em, Stey-a (Stella), Nenna (her name for herself ha!)
I'm sure there are more too but that rounds it out for now. Not all of those are super clear, but her communication is getting better and better.
She also knows just about every animal noise including "eee, eee" for the Flamingo. My favorite one is her cat noise which legitimately sounds like a cat since she hears our cat make noise every day.
Her motor skills are crazy. We no longer go on walks, we go on runs. We look for the cats and dogs in the neighborhood. This kid should live in Spain or Italy where the homeless pets run the streets. She'd be in heaven. At gym class she is doing things like jumping up a little bit to grab the bars and swing. I can't stop her if I try. She loves gym class, the pool at the Y, and the Children's Museum this summer. She likes to try to do a front roll on her own, but mostly just falls on her side. She lifts her legs up and down and laughs. She sometimes ends up in yoga-like poses that leave us laughing. She just wants to be on the go constantly.
She thinks she is funny (and she is) and tries to make us laugh by doing things like putting a box on her head and saying "Nenna! Hat! HAHA!" She loves petting our cat (saying nice while she does it), she loves brushing her hair. Books line our shelves and we've read them all tons of times. She loves to watch Curious George for a half hour before we actually get her out of our bed in the morning. She loves to learn and for us to sit with her as she figures things out. She wants to do things on her own though- especially put on her shoes. She hates sitting at dinner for more then 7 minutes. But, she does know how to go to the freezer, open it, take out a pop and hand it to us. Thank goodness they are still those pedialyte pops and all they do is hydrate her. She runs at full speed to the front door when J gets home yelling DADAAAA!!! Her smile is infectious, her personality is a solid mix of mama and dada. Her little personality shines more each day.
We just love watching S grow and turn into such a cute and friendly little person.
Happy 18 month birthday week, sweetest girl! Onto the photos, the best part of these posts anyway, am I right?
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| Snoozing on mama's bed |
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| Painting outside. |
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