~18 months old~Probably my favorite age so far!

Some random thoughts about being 18 months old:

It seems like everyday Summer is doing or saying something new. Just today she started to "moo" like a cow when we were watching her Baby Einstein DVD and I pointed to a cow and said "moo." She also said "apple"..well it was more like "app!" But she said it each time they showed the apple, so I"ll give it to her! She said "blue" when they showed a blue cup. She has been saying "duck" a lot too and I didn't teach her intentionally. We just happened to be going to the park to feed the ducks, and then the next day she saw a duck on her DVD and said "duck!" Then she pulled out her yellow ducky at bath time and showed Dada and said "duck." He was quite impressed. So it just goes to show us that she is listening to every word we say!!

She is babbling all day long, chatting away saying who knows what! But she sure knows what she is talking about, that's for sure!

Every time we go to Trader Joe's they give her a balloon. She absolutely loves balloons! After they "die" we cut the strings short and she drags them around with her everywhere she goes. We try to name them according to color. So far most of her toys have boys names, so we've been trying to use more girls names. So far, her favorite balloons have been Miss Lavender, Miss Mandarin and Miss Scarlet.

She is very independent, strong willed full of energy and she knows exactly what she wants and doesn't want. However, when other people are around she can be very quiet and she'll just study you until she feels comfortable enough to crack a smile. Which can take a while. She's not easily "won over." Haha!

She is getting to the point where she doesn't want me to feed her with a spoon anymore. She likes to do it herself, and she's pretty good at it too. She can eat yogurt with a spoon and not make too much of a mess. Nana and Papa were pretty impressed with her spoon skills when they were here to visit. She'll even use a napkin to "wipe her face." Whenever I cough and cover my mouth, Summer will do the same.

She still gets scared by loud noises and will come running to us whenever a big plane goes overhead and she hates the vacuum. Of course, so do I...but for different reasons! haha!

She loves to eat whatever you have on your plate (even if she just ate) and she has started drinking from a cup, with a little help from us, but she's still doing it herself. We just make sure it hardly has any water in there. She never really had a bottle, so she's not too familiar with the whole "tilt your head back" way of drinking. After we weaned her she went straight to a sippy cup with a straw.

Whenever she is wearing socks, she'll fling them off any chance she can get, even if it's cold outside. Shoes too. She loves to take off her shoes. She loves to wear sparkly bracelets (especially Grammy's) and we got her a few with "diamonds" in her size and she wears them all the time. She'll even hold her arm up so they won't fall off. She still loves to put on other people's shoes and walk in them.

Her new favorite books are the 2 that Nana and Papa brought her. "What Does Baby Say?" and the "Mommy and Me" book. She loves that one because at the end of it is a mirror. So she loves that part! She also loves her new stuffed blue seal that Nana and Papa bought her at the Long Beach Aquarium. Papa named her "Lucille The Blue Seal", but we also call her the "Gug Seal" since Summer thinks she's a "gug" A.K.A. dog.

She has a sticker chart with right now she is more interested in peeling the stickers off and playing with them. But when she is good she'll get a sticker. She gets stickers for not fussing when we wipe her hands and face after she eats, for letting Mama brush her teeth in the bathtub (and not fussing) and for not fussing when we change her diaper. So far those are the only times she'll but up some resistance, but we've been tackling it pretty good with the sticker chart! She is totally aware that she gets stickers when she is good!

We're trying to keep her on a pretty consistent schedule. Right now it sort of looks like this:

Between 7-7:30 am she wakes up and plays while I fix her breakfast.

Between 7:30-9 she eats and plays. (sometimes she eats for a looong time!)

Between 9-10:30 we'll either go for a walk through the park or we'll play in the house and watch her Baby Einstein DVD-depending on the weather.

Around 10:30 we'll have a little light lunch snack, something with chicken to last her through her nap.

Around 11:30 I try to put her down for her nap. We'll read some books and have some milk.

If I'm lucky she'll sleep from about noon til about 2-2:30ish.

Whenever she wakes up we'll have another little light snack. She doesn't eat much for her lunch snacks. Which is fine since she eats so much during breakfast and dinner. So we try to make the lunch snacks count with lots of protein!

(We don't really run any errands after her nap unless we really need to. She will sometimes wake up fussy and we're gearing up for the night time routine so sometimes we'll sit and snuggle and read more books or we'll color and play with stickers or if she's having a really fussy afternoon we'll sit on the couch with a warm milk and a blanket and snuggle while we watch a calm DVD with classical music. It all depends.)

Around 4pm I "try" to start making dinner , but it's hard with a fussy baby at your feet.

Dada gets home around 5:30ish and he'll play with Summer so I can finish dinner and we'll usually be eating around 6pm. After diner we play and about 6:45 we start the bath.

If all is going well, abut 7:15-7:30 we get her out of the bath and in her jammies. We read a few books, she has some warm milk and Dada dances with her and puts her to bed. Sometimes she'll fall asleep in her bed, but most of the time she fights it and cries for about 5 minutes until she falls asleep. She's just like her Dada! Always fighting sleep!

Hopefully by 8pm, sometimes even 8:30 she is fast asleep. She'll usually cry out a few times starting around 11pm, but won't wake up. She can be a very restless sleeper. On occasion, we'll have to go in her room and help to rock her back to sleep. But she can usually soothe herself back to sleep. Which is the goal!

(Of course, while I finish writing this post, it's 12:08pm and I have been trying to get her to calm down from playing and take her afternoon nap! She was all hyped up and was drinking her milk like it was the last milk on earth then she was jumping and bouncing in her crib, totally nowhere sleep. Then I smelled poop. Ugh! Ar you kidding me? Ok, change your diaper, try to get you calm once again and put down for a nap. She cried in protest when I left her room for about 3 minutes...and so far it's been 2 minutes and I haven't heard another peep....But I have thought that before and I have gone up to her door to check and as I slowly creep up to the crack in her door, trying not to make the hardwood crack and squeak under my feet, gently push the door open hoping to find a sleeping baby, but only to find that she is standing at the edge of her crib staring at me. We make eye contact....I'm hoping she didn't see me, her mouth opens and she says....."up!"

Ugh! Little stinker!

I blame Dada!

The Life of a 17 month old Toddler

17 months and counting...

Baby Girl's new words are:

*poop

*bubbles

*ball

*row, row, row...(as in the song)

*blue (and she'll point to the blue flower on her wall by her changing table.)

*nose (while she is pointing at it)

*color (which sounds like "GaGa")...but she is using it in the correct context, so I'll give it to her!

*diaper "die-die" (and she'll pat her diaper.)

*balloon

*Yea-Yea! (when you ask her a question, do you want to do....?) or she'll say;

*Nah!

And last but not least, her new word is:

*A-Ga!

-We're not really sure what it means, but she sure says it over and over and with gusto! So it obviously means SOMETHING!! Sometimes it's a question, sometimes it's a statement, sometimes she sings it sweetly pairing it with "Dada" and sometimes it's like she is getting ready to karate chop something. Aside from "Dada," it's her favorite word.

She is still saying:

*I love you

*mama

*dada

*mum mum (which is for the baby cracker "mum mums", but she says it for all manner of yummy/crunchy/sweet/cookie/cracker thing.)

*up! (which also means freedom...as in give me my freedom from whatever situation I want out of!)

*dog a.k.a: "gug"

*Hi-ya!

*hello? (which sounds like He-woa?) She says it whenever any type of "phone noise" is made.

She makes a cute noise when she is eating something yummy, like mmmMMMmmm! It's very sing-songy and cute.

She makes the sign for:

*milk (milkies)

*all done (She also says, "all gone" while she is making the sign, which also means, "all done.")

*diamond (as in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star...like a diamond in the sky...blah, blah, blah)

*more

and she does these little "pincher fingers" which translates into "gimmie...."

She'll also make "diamond" when I ask her to say please. Very cute! Like a little present she is giving me.

She'll pat her diaper when you ask her where her diaper is.

She pull up her shirt when you ask her where her belly button is and she'll point to it.

She'll point to her toes and her hair whenever we sing this one song at Gymboree that mentions "toes" and "hair".

She'll eat her whole meal, drop food on the floor (because she's done) and wouldn't take money if you offered it to her to finish her meal. However, the minute you put her down, finding the food on the floor is like striking gold and you sitting down to eat your breakfast has suddenly made her starving to death and she MUST HAVE whatever you are eating. Even if you literally just took her out of her high chair because she was "all gone."

She loves to push buttons, turn on and off the fan and her music in her crib. She likes to send daddy a "text" on the blackberry and listen to music and babble to her monkey and dance and sing songs with mama. She is always walking around singing a little song that only she knows the words and the tune.

She now puts her toys away when we sing the "Gymboree Clean Up-Clean Up Song"...we've learned to love that song as it has come in handy, but it took a while.

She loves to sit in her little chair and watch Baby Einstein DVD's and eat mum mums.

She loves stickers and has a sticker chart and is TOTALLY aware when mama says, "Don't fuss while I'm wiping off your face/changing your diaper/wiping your nose and you'll get a sticker." And she makes sure that a sticker is produced when you promise said sticker! Her favorite thing is to pull the stickers off her "Good Girl Sticker Chart" and stick and re-stick them on anything and everything until there is no stick left in the sticker.

She loves to walk in other people's shoes. Literally.

She laughs whenever I say, "Dada" or, "say hi to dada."

Whenever I say "no" to something her response is, "Dada!"

She'll give you a hug or a kiss or do the same to her monkey or baby doll and she always says "Awwwwww!" (Like, "awww, how sweet!")

And the best of all, she'll come running into my arms when I scrunch down and hold my arms open to her. I love it! She's my little sweetheart who is almost 18 months old! Where did the time go??

I guess I better get her 1 year pictures taken soon, huh??

She dropped her toys in the box, folks!

Wow, this baby girl changes so much each day!  I just can't believe it.  Today at Gymboree we started singing the huge crowd pleaser, "the clean up, clean up song" and I watched Baby Girl as the teacher was heading for the center of the room with her "busy box" ready to scoop up every last toy.  This is not our favorite part. I could almost see her thinking, "wait a sec...this is the part of the class I DON'T like!"  And we all start singing so Baby Girl stands up and I thought for sure we were gonna have a runner, but she watched in awe at how other kids were actually putting their toys away.  So she thought she'd give it a try.  She muscled her way through the crowd of 10-15 months old babies, got to the edge of the toy box, reached over and dropped the toy she had in her left hand.  "Good girl Baby!  Mama's so proud of you!"  She looked longingly at the toy she just let go of, having second thoughts and was just about to drop in toy #2, when all of a sudden a brand new walker of about 1 week - Javier, bumped into her throwing her off her game, dropping the toy when she wasn't ready and she panicked and started to dumpster dive!  Mama swooped in and scooped her from the scene and again with the stiff arms and legs, grunts and yells.  

So I'd say that's one for mama and one for baby.  

*Shaking my fist* That darn Javier and his wobbly legs.  We were so close...so close!

A Toddler and Her New Love, The Baby Monitor.

Isn't it funny how you can be around other people's children all the time and you don't really notice all the little things as much; the milestones, the progress, the subtle changes. But of course when they are your own, you marvel in the smallest things!

Lately, it's almost daily that Baby Girl is doing something new and makes me think, "oh my gosh, my little baby girl is getting so big!" And although my heart is soaring for her, it sinks a little too as I think about the tiny infant who couldn't even hold her head up or uncurl her little baby fingers just a short time ago. And now she's almost 16 months old!

So yesterday she walked over to the table and grabbed her baby monitor and was walking around with it, holding it by the very end tip of the antennae. You know, a good sturdy spot. And ever since we've been going to Gymboree (the Play and Music Place), I have been trying to do some similar things here at home that we do there, like have them put away their own stuff.

One of the things they do there is to bring out a box of toys to play with during class time. The "busy box." They only let them play with this new, exciting stuff for like 2 minutes, then they sing the "clean up, clean up song" and make the babies put everything back in the box, which just ticks her off to no end!  

The first few times we were there and they had them clean up so fast making a few babies cry, Baby Girl included I was thinking, "this seems a little rushed that they are already cleaning up", because the "busy box" of toys is so exciting and such a huge hit!  

Why rock the boat? 

 She has cried a few times, and still will if she hasn't had a nap before class, but she's getting better about putting the toys back so soon. We haven't actually gotten to the point of her going up to the box and dropping in her loot and waving, "bye-bye," but we're working on it. Right now we're still at the point where I have to prep her for clean up when I see the lady head for the box and walk her over to the box (sort of like walking a dog through the vets door), and say, "Ok Baby, say bye-bye, time to clean up, put it back in the box", etc. 

This is usually followed by me having to then pry the musical instrument, ball, rattle, squishy thing, bumpy teether, etc., out of her sweaty little baby hands and convince her that this is fun! Sometimes she goes for it and sometimes it ends in arms and legs stiffening up like a soldier and animal grunts coming from the bottom of her throat while she is kind of bouncing in protest.

Other kids are happy to pick up every toy they see on the ground and drop it in the box. Not my child, she'd rather take things out faster than everyone else is putting them in and stash them away for future play. And you can see her little baby mind working;

"Ok if I tuck this toy here and squeeze this here I can fit this here and hold this here..." 

 Sorry baby girl, we're singing the "clean up, clean up song."  Doesn't it sound happy and fun? Doesn't it? Everyone loves to clean up! (The first lie we are teaching our baby!)

So long story short, I'm trying to not just take things out of her hands that she isn't supposed to have and then redirect her onto something else. I do sometimes if we are in a hurry or it's the end of the day and mama needs a nap! But mostly I'm trying to take the time to teach her to put it back and get something else. 

Yesterday was a breakthrough and mama almost wept!

Summer grabbed her monitor and started walking through the house with it and when I saw it I thought, "crap, I forgot to move it from the coffee table from when she was napping!" So I said, "no-no, go put it back on the table." and at first I thought, "yea right, this is gonna work." Then she stopped and gave me a look like she knew she wasn't supposed to have it and kinda stood there and then shook her head "no" (like only a toddler can perfect) and said, "Dada?" As if Dada will say yes. So I thought, "well, maybe this will work." So I said again, "no-no Baby Girl, go put it back on the table." (I kinda had to say it a few times and use lots of sign language motioning to the table.) and she actually turned around and walked back over to the table! I was so proud. So I said, "Yay! Good girl for following directions!" 

Well, mama made too quick with the endless praise because said monitor antennae was yet to be pried from her pudgy little grip. So she lifted it back off the table, looking at me with the "I know I'm not supposed to be doing this...buuuut..." face and again I started at square one. 

"Put it back on the table." 

We played a few rounds of "if I set it on the table, but still hold the tip of the antennae is it considered putting it back?" game.

I resisted the urge to just walk over and gently remove it from her hands and give her something else to play with. I was trying to teach her that it was OK to put something back on your own in addition to following directions. Plus, she wasn't really going to do any damage to the monitor, I figured we'd just take the time to learn something new. I tried to hold back my "good girl, Baby" praises until she actually released her grip, but I still wanted her to know that she was doing what mama wanted her to. So I fused the two and said, "good girl Lovie, put it back on the table." Although she was reluctant she actually set it down and let go as opposed to just rubbing it all over the top of the table appearing to have put it back, and she walked away clapping! So of course mama was thrilled and was singing her praises. She was feeling giddy and clapping for herself and actually seemed proud of her accomplishments. Then we did a "high-5," something we just learned the other day.

...and as quickly as Juliet searches for her forbidden lover Romeo, Baby Girl walked back over to her baby monitor, rescued him off the coffee table and made a mad dash in the opposite direction.

*sigh*

Baby steps mama, baby steps.