18 Months

Sweet Addison Kate,

Your 18 month birthday has come and gone, and I am just now finding the time to post. You are one amazing little girl. I cannot believe how quickly the past 18 months have flown by. With the passing of each day, our lives become richer. You are no longer a baby -- you are a full fledged toddler. Life definitely does not stand still around you. You are on the go, go, go! You are so full of life, and you spread a little ray of sunshine wherever you go.

At your 18 month well visit, you weighed 24 pounds and you were 31 inches tall. You are growing like a weed, but you are still on the petite side.

At 18 months, you are very sure footed, and you have mastered the art of running. You rarely walk anymore. Who has time for that, right? You are also quite the climber. You love to load the sofa up with all of your toys and then climb right on up.

Your vocabulary is growing by the day. "Mama" and "dada" have turned into the sweetest little "mommy" and "daddy." Not only are you saying numerous words, but you are starting to string your words together into phrases now. Your favorite is "Hey Momo!" One of our favorites is when you point your finger at us and say, "not nice." You are also beginning to repeat things that you hear. I guess it's time for your parents to really watch what we say around you.

Speaking of Momo (aka Molly dog), she is by far one of your favorite things these days. You love to play with her (aka chase and torture her), and for the most part, she is pretty tolerant. You are obsessed with her tin of dog food. You love to scoop out a scoop of food and throw it on the floor. Over and over and over again. You've done some pretty funny things to her lately. You chase her around the house trying to wipe her nose and just today, you tried to "plug" her in to the laptop charger. Needless to say, she wasn't thrilled about that. Luckily, she is tolerating all of your "love" these days. (I think she has figured out that you will continue to feed her your leftovers as long as she humors you).

You also love to play outside "side" but we have to limit your time outside right now because of the heat. You love to play in your water table with your BFF "Lala" and ride your new "trike."

Bedtime is less of a struggle than it was a month ago and you are sleeping soundly through the night, but you have shifted your wake up time to 6 instead of 7. We are working on this, but I am afraid that the 6 am wake up call might be here to stay for a while.

When it comes to eating, some days you have the appetite of a horse and other days, you have the appetite of a mouse. One thing remains constant, though -- you love your milk. As long as you are drinking your milk, I am not going to worry. Some of your favorite foods this month are grits, eggs, cheese (of course), goldfish and most fruits. You are kind of on strike from the veggies right now, but we are continuing to work on that. I think meats are a hopeless cause right now. For whatever reason, you will have nothing to do with any kind of meat. Maybe next month... You discovered corn on the cob, and you just can't get enough of it.

You are learning to use a fork and spoon to feed yourself, and you aren't afraid to let me know when you would like to do so. You also think it is tons of fun to drink out of my straw when we go out to eat. This wouldn't be such a bad thing except that you insist on holding the cup that said straw is in. It hasn't happened yet, but I keep waiting for you to dump the entire drink out on yourself. I am sure that it is only a matter of time!

You've also decided that you can dress yourself. In the pictures below, you are trying to put your pajamas on over your dress. Somehow, you managed to put your top and bottoms on your legs. At some point, I think you just gave up and decided to stand on your head for some reason. You are one silly little girl!

You've always been strong willed, but I am afraid the best is yet to come. You are beginning to voice your opinions more and more. Those "terrific" twos are on the way, I think. For some reason, you are not a fan of Mondays. Often times, this is how your Mondays begin around here. The good news is that things seem to get progressively better as the day goes on. Those Monday mornings sure are rough! You're still cute -- even when you're a little crabby!

Little one, you light up our lives, and we love you more and more each day. Happy 18 months!