19 Months

Dear Annie,

Another month gone by, and I really do think this is my favorite stage yet - which is what I've pretty much been saying since the beginning, but these last few weeks solidified it for me! You seem to have a few less tantrums than you did even a few weeks ago, but they will ebb and flow throughout the next few years I'm sure. Right now though, we are enjoying a very happy and laid back little girl that is almost always pretty content! Even Sue your daycare lady talks about what a great kid you are, and how lucky we are to have you - we certainly know that! I'm sure you are quite the easy kid for her - you do have your opinions, that's for sure, but you can also go with the flow after a few seconds. So far, you aren't too aggressive with other kids, although you will watch for an opening with a toy and grab it when another kid isn't looking, that's for sure. You play by yourself really amazingly. Rarely do you need or want interaction from us, even if we are right there staring at you. We can do our thing and you do yours, but luckily you are pretty amenable to reading books (as long as YOU choose them) and singing songs together so we can still get our fill of time with you!

Probably my favorite thing about you is your facial expressions - they are seriously HILARIOUS. The best is when you hear a noise, and your eyes get huge and you make an "o" with your mouth and go "ooooooooooooh, what's that??" You have gotten more and more into YELLING and laughing REALLY loud, almost fakely, lately. It's awesome.

Your opinions definitely stretch to food still - you have your favorites and they are pretty consistent. You've gotten more and more into examining food and removing offending pieces, such as a piece (TINY, TINY piece) of tomato on a quesadilla. Some still manages to sneak in, but apparently you are FIRMLY in the no thanks vegetables stage of your life. Again, you aren't angry about this - you just eat what you want, then immediately say "ALL DONE" (which sounds like - ag gok - not sure where you got THAT pronunciation, but whatever!) and push your plate away, and then sign "all done" too. When you are done, you are done. If we try to feed you a few bites, usually you just say "nooooooooo" or take the bite and then spit it out like 2 minutes later. So we definitely just let you decide what and how much to eat out of the options we give you and that's that. There have been more than a few nights where you only drink milk, but thankfully you are fine with that, probably due to the massive quantities of food you apparently eat at daycare!

Thankfully, the sleep issues we were experiencing for quite a long time have seemed to resolve themselves. I'm so glad, and maybe this has something to do with your improved mood too - you aren't waking up randomly to scream a few times a night anymore! It does still happen, but it is by far the exception and not the rule. You go to bed at 7:30, sometimes taking up to an hour or more to actually FALL asleep and sometimes going right to sleep immediately, and typically wake up around 7:15... although you have taken to laying there silently in your crib just kind of waking up for awhile, and then talking to yourself happily for quite a while. This is obviously awesome since it means sometimes we can stay in bed until nearly 8 on weekends! You seem to follow in your parents footsteps of liking some time to adjust to waking up before actually getting out of bed. Naps are short, though, if you nap 1.5 hours that's pretty typical. Anything over 2 hours is absolutely unheard of around our house. Oh well.

Sometimes you can be pretty quiet - like if you are around a lot of noise, or in a new place. Other times, you are jabbering up a storm! Previously I had said that you rarely babbled anymore - now I'm noticing that you do still babble, quite a bit! You're always talking to yourself, with some understandable words mixed in. While your dad and I can understand a lot of what you're saying, and you are saying new words quite a bit, most people probably wouldn't be able to understand what you're talking about JUST yet. Lots of new words again this month - my personal favorite being "toot" :) You still mostly use 1 and sometimes 2 word phrases - pointing out the various objects you see - car! ball! water! milk! banana! etc. No real sentences yet! You have started finishing off a few phrases - like 1, 2 - and you'll say "3!" and "sit... down".

This month I feel like you've progressed ALMOST to running, but your body moves a bit faster than your feet will go, so you still fall. New this month is that you don't actually cry when you fall - you just get up, even if you scrape yourself a bit. You still cry with some tumbles, mostly if you are already in a bit of a mood, such as during diaper changes. You try to jump but don't actually get any air, and love to stop and bounce around to dance a bit to music you hear.

You've mastered quite a few of the toys we have - simple puzzles, the pound and roll tower, and the shape sorter. You also love to buckle things, and to climb in and out of your booster seat if it's on the porch. You still love your doll and pull toys, and this month have also loved the 4 tiny little farm animals. You enjoy carrying them around and arranging them in various locales around the house. We aren't always QUITE sure what's going on in your little brain as you play, but rest assured - you are doing exactly what you are supposed to at that moment :) It's really amazing to watch you as you do your thing!

Love you, my little bunk!

Mom

itsy bitsy spider...

down came the rain

and out came the sun! :)