An 18 Month Update

Per usual, it is so hard to believe my baby girl is 18 months old!!!  She is just a little ray of sunshine and has the sweetest heart in the whole world. Of course, it isn’t all sunshine and roses over here, but more on that later!

Right now Emmy is super into two things:

1-      Babies

2-      Books

She LOVES all things baby. She loves her baby dolls, real babies, kids that are her age that she thinks are babies, catalogs with babies, books with babies – the girl loves a baby! When she sees them (the real ones) she will always give them hugs and it is just the sweetest thing ever. She loves to give hugs, especially to her mama, which is heart melting.

As for books, she could read them for hours. Well, only if I am holding her on my lap and reading them. Luckily, she is not super into any one book, so we have a rotation of about 30 that we read.  She was for a while into the book Little Quack Counts that she would wake up in her bed and I would hear her say, “No” (referring to when Little Quack and Widdle see five bees) and then “Yay” when they see their mama! It really was darling. I got her several more Little Quack books for Easter because she loves this one so much.

Emmy is also into hide and seek. She will go in our closet and “hide” between Tommy’s shirts and giggle and give huge hugs when we find her. It is just the cutest thing.

She can say so many words! Each day there is a new one! This morning she was able to identify most animals in the books and the sounds they make (cow, lamb, puppy, bunny – the sound to her is “hop” J, cat and duck). One of the cutest things is that at Julie’s she participates in circle time with the big kids. They all go around the room and say their name and favorite color. We started asking her at home what her name was and for a good few weeks she would say “Pink.” And then if I asked her favorite color she would say “Pink!” She gets so excited about it. Now it is hit or miss as to whether she will say her name as Emmy or Pink. It really is darling. She is also really into the word “apple” right now.

Another milestone is that I am no longer Mama, but Mommy. She says it all.the.time. But I love it and it is so sweet. She loves her mama. If I am there, I am the only one who can do anything for her. And I mean anything.  But I so love being her superstar. No one else is this into me!

Though I should be paying attention at church, Emmy always does some of the cutest things. We NEVER make it to the homily at mass, so we usually end up in the cry room during the bulk of church. The past two weeks there have been kids her age (which, of course, she calls “baby!!!”). Each time she has just given those kids the sweetest hugs. I love that she loves to show affection. This past week I was so proud of her! There was a picture of Jesus that she kept pointing to and saying “Geesus” and then took the little boy’s mom’s hand and pulled her over to show her Jesus. Then she turned around and started pointing at the cross on the wall saying “Geesus” again.

I just love this sweet stage and age.  I love that her little smile and personality. This is truly a fun stage.

Now, as mentioned, my precious baby does have a little bit of a sassy side, too. Emmy had a rough month 16-17. Yowzas. Not going to lie, there were some TOUGH days. I am not sure what was going on – we will blame it on teeth like we do everything, but truly once her 16th tooth came in, she was a whole other baby.

During this month of…shall we say….undesirable behavior – she straight up refused to have Tommy or anyone else remotely near her. If he would come close, she would push him away and say “no.” We had a lot of talks about how hitting hurts. J Of course, at Julie’s she remained an angel child. Sigh.

No was the word of choice for the month and sleep wasn’t as great. Oh, and the clothes and diaper changes – horrid. Like dreaded them, terrible. Kicking, thrashing and screaming were pretty much the norm. So that was fun.

Since the tooth popped through, she is generally super happy, though still not really into diaper changes (I have resorted to bribing her with her paci – or as she calls it – momo) and have to read her a book to trick her into getting dressed, but overall pretty sweet behavior with some toddler tantrums thrown in daily here and there.

We have hit a spot where washing her hair has become a challenge. She does not like me to get the water out of her hair. I have to go through this elaborate routine of getting her hair wet with a washcloth so she doesn’t actually know that I am doing it, then hold her over the bath tub and use the cup to get the water out of her hair so as to avoid her eyes.

We just love our precious girl. Everything is more fun with her in the world. I love seeing the park, the zoo, even our front yard through her eyes.

While, she is becoming much easier to understand and communicate with, I am totally needing some mom advice.

1-      How did you get your child off the bottle? Emmy takes one at night and sometimes one during the day. She will drink milk from a sippy cup at Julie’s, but straight up refuses to take more than a sip at home.

2-      During her rough patch, Emmy went from sleeping from 7:30 until 7ish to waking up every day at 6. She will play in her crib until 7, but will not stay asleep until 7. I have tried moving her bedtime up, moving it back and everything in between. I mean it may just be what it is, but I would love for her to wake around 7 each day vs. 6. 6 is early, y’all.

XOXO, friends!