One and a Half

Happy 18 months, Adley Grace! The photo of this little girl flipping through a book is a very fitting one for her 1 1/2 year old milestone. This girl is going through quite a language explosion. She LOVES listening to books, hearing new words, and trying to imitate new words and sounds. She is such a curious little lady. She also, however, is trying to exert her independence in new ways, often with mini-tantrums, pouting, or shouting "no" when she doesn't get her way. Adley certainly makes each day an adventure. Through it all, we love this girl immensely and thank God each day for the blessing that she is in our lives!

18 month old stats:

PHYSICAL

• Started to cut top R incisor tooth (but is taking FOREVER to come in!)
• Loves trying to put on her own socks, shorts, PJs, or any of her family's clothes that she finds
• Learned how to flush the toilet
• Likes trying to "help" wipe herself during diaper changes
• Raises her hand to give a high-five whenever someone tells her "good job"
• Much more stable with climbing down the stairs; Mommy rarely uses the gate at the base of the stairs anymore
• Tries to "jump" by going up on her tiptoes

SLEEPING HABITS

• Sleeps through the night most nights but often awakens at times that are way too early for Mommy and Daddy's liking (4:30-5:00)
• Afternoon naps are typically 1 1/2 hours
• Had to retrain her to fall back asleep on her own at bedtime but is now doing well

EATING HABITS

• Fully weaned from nursing
• Drinks LOTS of whole milk at mealtimes
• Gets VERY excited about Lucky Charms cereal but then will only eat the marshmallows
• Will grab own snacks (usually fruit snacks or chocolate kisses) from the pantry if we leave the door open

Proudly opening up her own chocolate kiss
that she found all by herself!

LANGUAGE

• Some new words include: mine, cookie, kick, marker, marble, sticky, amen, arm, bus, pop,
  nack" for snack, milk, drink, ant, key, book, door
• Absolutely LOVES listening to Highlights Hello magazines and can expertly find the hidden pictures
• Can say and match animal names with the correct animal, including buzz, baa, neigh, moo, drr for dinosaurs and tigers, roar, and a good attempt at oink
• Knows the sounds for car (beep, beep); trains (choo, choo) and zippers

PLAYTIME/OTHER

• Favorite playtime activity is getting piggyback rides from Mommy or Daddy
• Wants to take ice packs or teething toys out of the freezer anytime we open it (and will throw a fit if she doesn't get her ice pack
• Enjoys playing dress up with her brothers
• Observes and connects the dots in amazing ways; One day Mommy was setting up the jogging stroller before a morning run, and Adley drug out the tire pump, since she had seen me use the pump on the stroller when we went on our last ride
• Does really well with the shape sorter toy

 So serious...

First REAL ponytail

So proud of herself when she wriggled
out of the seatbelt on her own at Target. (Yikes!)