18 Months

This is the age where I stop giving her age in months. Now she's a year and a half. A full fledged toddler, except when she's sleeping and still looks like my sweet baby girl.

Sleeping or not, this girl is still pretty sweet. She keeps me pretty busy (which is why there hasn't been a monthly post in awhile) and I can't even begin to describe all the growing she's done lately. I'm pretty sure she learns something new every hour.

I couldn't begin to give a list of her newest words, I can't keep track of them all. I will give a few of my favorite pronunciations though (you'll see I'm too lazy to use the real deal phonetic transcription).

• Daddy: 'Da-die' 
• Okay: 'oh-toe'
• Owie: 'ow-wow'
• Uncle: 'untle' 
• Emerson: 'unyun' (sounds a little like mumbled 'onion')
• Jammies: 'jib-jim' 

I'll also give you a couple videos of her vocabulary taken at the beginning and end of November. 

We still have just 10 teeth which includes only two molars.. we've been working on a third molar all. this. time. Emerson went through quite a growth spurt. She shot up and was so lean for awhile but now she seems to be done growing up (for the time being) and is filling back out again. She's just about 22 lbs and I'm sorry to say I haven't measured her in quite awhile! I'll try to do it and update this post.

Emerson still loves rocks, books, and her latest love: babies. She's obsessed with them, mostly because of my niece, Ellie. This may or may not come in handy later (... and I mean that to say she might adjust to having a sibling but she might try to be too helpful. This is not saying I'm pregnant but we do hope for a sibling eventually). She also loves to 'help' me cook. She does this best by stirring some water in a jar for me. 

She continues to be a good eater and goes through phases of favorites. Currently, she loves: sauerkraut, butter (still), cheese, apples, eggs and sauteed spinach. She has also recently started really liking fruit, which she used graze over. Bananas, mandarins, oranges and pomegranate are top on her list. In addition, she's getting really good at feeding herself these days. I can't tell you how much I love that. It means sometimes I eat warm food ;). 

My spunky girl is full of personality. She's so sweet but also so sassy. She seems to know she's cute and works it. Cocks her head to the side and bats her eyes. Says, 'hi,' all coy-like until you relent to her request. She also adds a sweet little 'please' now. She is really shy, which kind of surprises me, but gets sooo hyper and excited when people come over to play. 

At some point in the last few months she's really accepted and embraced the word 'no', which really upped my parenting game. We're still working through it but she responds well to the prompt, 'okay, mama' when I give her a direction and she says no. She repeats back, 'oh-toe' and scurries off to do it, usually with a smile on her face. It's pleasantly surprising. 

She is still pretty good about telling me when she needs to use the potty, and she's so far very accurate (i.e., when she says she has to go, she really does.. for the most part) but also doesn't always tell me when she has to go pee (which is why she still wears diapers!). She's occasionally dry after a nap but not often enough. 

We are currently night weaning, a week and counting. I'd noticed subtle changes in her lately that made me think she was ready. We've tried a few times before, even just to cut one feeding, and the results were heart shattering and didn't last long. This time is different. She was ready, could understand, or something. She still wakes up when she usually did but in 10 minutes or less (on average) she's back to sleep without milk (and in her own bed). She whines a little and once or twice has gotten mad, but all-in-all, it's going well. Now for her to start sleeping through....

We have pretty simple days: eat, play, read, nap, run an errand or maybe a playdate, do some housework, and welcome daddy home. She still loves to be my shadow, the busier I am the more she wants to be held or sit next to me on the counter. She is constantly bringing me toys/books/spices or whatever else she finds to get my attention. In the process of bringing me the object she usually finds something along the way and drops the original thing to pick up the new thing to have me see that. Once she gets to me in the kitchen she sees the fridge and drops the second thing to ask me to open ('opah') the fridge. It sounds something like this: 

"Oh! Mama, mama, mama, mama! Oh! Oh! De! De! Mama! Oooh! Shoe! On! On! On! On! On! Mama! On! Oh! Opah! Opah! Opah! Opah! Peas. Peas. Opah! Up? Up? Up? Up?" That's all in about one minute. She's nothing if not persistent. ;) And she rarely slows down.

Gosh I love her!

Here are a few pictures.. She doesn't mind the occasional picture, but she appears to all but hate the chair pictures now. Which is why you might not see any more until she's two ;).

Her latest thing: hands behind the head.

This is how she really feels about these photo shoots. Fake tears, fake I tell you.

My pomegranate lover.

At the library. This little guy wouldn't leave her alone after awhile.

My sweet girl. 

Oh and she also loves peas.

She loves the swings.

And she loves the chickens and 'outside'.