18 Months Old

My oh my.  I cannot believe I haven't written an update post in three months!  I've put in little tidbits and stories and written a lot about our travels, but has it really been three months since I've detailed what AJ is into?  Oops!

So, with fair warning, here comes some major proud Mama bragging: 

I reread the 15 month post and it's hard to believe how much has changed just since then.  We are well past the point where I can list all the words she can say, because there are just too many to count!  I read somewhere that at 18 months they are learning and committing a new word to memory every 90 minutes.  I believe it!  She is surprising us with at least 3-4 new words a day.  And she repeats them over and over until you figure out what she's saying.  Sometimes we win, sometimes we have to try and distract her.  


Some of her latest and most adorable words and phrases are "pajamas" (this comes out sounding like pumjumoms), "Big girl" (when doing something "mature", such as sitting on the couch or taking a bath in the big tub for the first time),  "Right back" (she'll say as she's leaving the room), "Dare she is" (when she finds something or someone, regardless of gender) and “You alright” (she’ll tell herself if she’s bumped her head).  One of my favorite things she says is “All Gong” because of the soft “G” sound she puts on the end of “Gone.”  We work a lot on repeating pronunciation, but that one I’m leaving alone for now.  It’s just too cute.

Her comprehension of verbs, especially similar ones, is amazing too.  For example, she'll use bring vs. take, fell vs. drop, and have vs. do correctly most of the time.  And believe me, "Audrey do it" is an extremely common phrase around here nowadays!  Thankfully “Mommy do it” is still pretty popular, too.  She is also learning big vs. small and can tell you which object is big or "mall." 

With all of these new verbal skills, she has begun to put together simple sentences:  “Mommy change Audrey diaper” or “Audrey carry drink” or “Show Daddy _____” (baby, leaf, whatever), and “Mommy sit down.”  She also answers basic questions.  “What should Mommy wear today?” is usually answered with “Pants”.  The cutest is when she’ll request something repeatedly “Color? Color? Color?” and then we’ll say “Would you like to color?” and she’ll answer, “Okay!” or “Sure!” as if we came up with the idea instead of her.

She knows her alphabet A-Z and can say it and point/pick out all of the letters.  We had to work hard for about a week to get "LMNOP" all in without skipping any, but she's got it down now.  She can also make a lot of the letter sounds.  I hope to work with her more on those and lowercase letters after Christmas.

Animal noises are so old news.  Now she refers to most of them by name and will even note whether or not they have a tail, what color they are, if they're soft, etc.  She still loves watching our neighbors’ cats when they come through the backyard and will hold her sippy cup up to the window as if offering them a drink while telling me whether they're black or white.    

And speaking of colors - they came out of nowhere!  We have been naming them from Day 1, but haven't purposefully worked with her on them.  Nonetheless, it seemed like one day she just started saying them and now she knows about ten.  She even understands the concepts of "shades" as she proved when I was wearing a navy shirt under my light blue robe.  She pointed and said "Blue, blue.  One, two blues."  I think she already has most guys beat in that department!

She can name most shapes and can easily put them all into her shape ball now without much help from us.  She'll say "almost" to herself as she works to get them oriented the right way then usually gives herself a hand and a "Yay Audrey" when she's finished. (Sometimes if Mommy and Daddy are playing too, we'll get a "Yay Mommy!" or "Yay Daddy!  Good job!" from her.  So cute!)  She also knows numbers 1-13, though 11 usually gets skipped.  She loves counting so much that what begins as actual counting often ends up just reciting the numbers she knows.

Schedule-wise, she/I are still pretty rigid, but I feel that that actually allows us more flexibility and dependability.  I know when/where/what we can do because she's so predictable and she can handle the occasional interruption and flow with it because she knows it's temporary.  She wakes up at 8am, has a snack at 10:30am, eats lunch around 12:30pm, naps from 2 – 4:30ish, has a snack when she gets up, eats dinner around 6:30pm, and goes to bed around 8:30pm.

Like her parents, she enjoys most all food.  She still hasn’t had strawberries, chocolate, much seafood, or peanuts/peanut butter.  I also have yet to give her French fries, cookies, or many other treats and sweets, but she does love the occasional fried chicken nugget from Chick-fil-A or a lick of their ice dream cone.  She is getting better at feeding herself with utensils, but I must admit that we mainly stick to cut-up finger foods for the sake of time/cleanliness.   

Her favorite toys by far are still books.  She will get one and "read" it aloud which is hilarious hearing her make up words and sounds.  There are one or two that she really can name every word on every page (Sandra Boynton "Opposites").  We've read it to her so many times that she's memorized it.

She also loves her baby dolls and her Little People sets.  She has a nativity one and I cannot tell you how precious it is to hear her say "Jesus?! Jesus?!" as she's hunting for the baby Jesus.  The other day she was sifting through basket where we keep it and said, “trough” as she held up the animals’ feeding trough.  It took me by surprise and I cracked up, which got her cracking up, of course.  Apparently David had taught her that one.     

We do let her watch a little television now (bad Mommy, I know!  We really try to keep it to about one 20 minute show 3-4 times a week at most plus a few nights of Wheel of Fortune, of course.) Little Einsteins is her favorite and she requests it by name and quotes parts of it throughout the day.

Her manners are coming along well, too, thankfully.  I must hear "Up, please" at least a thousand times a day!  "Scuse me" is my favorite, mainly because she'll say it as she is lightly butting you out of her way.  We're still working on "Thank you" and are now introducing "Ma’am" and "Sir." 

I have continued to try and involve her in little chores around the house in the hopes that she’ll develop a spirit of service.  She loves to match socks from the laundry, stir things when I’m cooking, and (usually) to help pick up her toys at the end of the day.  Side note:  Baby Center.com posted the results of a study about toddlers helping that I found really interesting.  In the overwhelming majority of cases, if a toddler saw an adult struggling to complete a task (i.e. stacking books) they would quickly and eagerly pitch in and help.  If, however, the adult did it without a problem, the toddler was less likely to assist, even if asked for help.  Seems like we all need to be needed from a very young age!  So, though it may take two or three times as long, I really try to let her help me as often as I can. 

She is still a little shy when first meeting people, but warms up much more quickly than she used to.  She remembers faces very well, even if weeks pass in between visits.  We still hear quite a lot about Brian, Kimmy, and “Leese” from our Savannah trip and rarely a day goes by that all four grandparents aren’t brought up.   

Here are a few other cute quips about our big girl:

-      In the grocery store the other day, an older lady stopped by to fuss over her.  When she walked away, Audrey pointed to herself, grinned, and said, “cute.” 


-    Sometimes she gets on a greeting kick, saying hello to everything.  "Hi milk." "Hi sofa."
     "Hi chair."  "Hi brush."  When she's really feeling friendly, she'll throw in a little wave.

-     This morning, she asked where Daddy was.  I explained that he was at work, but that soon he was going to be off for vacation and would get to spend lots of time with us at home.  “Isn’t that wonderful?” I said.  She nodded and very clearly said, “Treat.”  Indeed, it will be a treat!

-      We’ve been singing a lot of Christmas carols this past month, with Jingle Bells being a common request.  She can’t quite keep up with all of the words, but she’ll say “Hey” and “Ha, ha, ha” at the appropriate times.  She also loves to dance to them...foot stomping optional.

-      In addition to hugging and kissing on her stuffed animals herself, she’s started to have them hug and kiss each other.  The objects involved don’t always make sense, though.  The other day she gave her coat a kiss and tonight her hat gave her lamb a kiss.

-      I can’t remember if I shared this one, but it’s so cute it’s worth writing again.  A few weeks ago, she had a cold.  One night I heard her through the monitor as she sneezed.  It was followed by a very faint and sleepy “Bless you” to herself.  Precious!

I've saved the absolute best for last:  About two weeks ago, she began saying "Yuv (love) you, Mommy" or "Yuv you, Daddy" totally unprompted and spontaneously.  It is the SWEETEST thing I have ever heard and it melts me.  

Yuv you, Audrey.  Happy 18 Month Birthday, Sugar.

(P.S. Check out the two newest albums in the gallery.  One is random pictures and visits with friends/family for her 16th - 18th months and the other is Christmas activities and family celebrations...more to be added to that one soon!)