In a week my girl will be 18 months, a big one and a half year old, a toddler - how?!!!!
How did this.....
Grow into this so fast?!
This age is so great and so trying all at the same time, I love her independence when she colors while I fold laundry, I struggle with it when she feels she must put on her pants by herself (which she can only half way do and even that takes 20 minutes). I love her ability to communicate when she tells me "milk please" or Dada bye bye", I struggle with it when she tells me "NO!" I love her sense of humor when she belly laughs from making a silly face or putting a scarf on the dog (a new favorite game), I struggle with it when she dumps her food and laughs. You get the idea - the up, the down, the ying, the yang, the good, the bad.
I try and see this time for what it is, a time of growth - for both of us. I am gaining some serious patience and perspective (it really is okay for her to feed herself yogurt even if in the process she gets her hair, face and chair covered in it). And Char is learning, well, everything, impulse control, right vs wrong, kindness, emotions, routines, and a million other things everyday. That is a lot for a little brain :)
I know I wont remember everything but I want a snap shot of where is she now, what she has learned, her favorite things etc.
Food:
Sister is finally getting a little picky, she is still a great eater overall but she wont eat some of her old favorites (salmon, sweet potatoes and fig bars). Her favorites for right now are whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, quinoa with pesto, smoothies, white potatoes, fruit and nut bars from the local bakery, pork with BBQ sauce (I had to search high and low to find one without sugar and junk but luckily I did and you LOVE it), peas with butter, all fruit especially pomegranate seed, blueberries and clementines, and your favorite breakfast scrambled eggs with sunflower butter toast :) She also finally started drinking milk! She drinks a combo of almond and coconut milk. You have 3 meals and 3 snacks a day. When it is time to eat you say "highchair" (high-cha) and try to climb in.
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| loving her banana pancakes, fruit and yogurt :) |
Communiation:
This has always been a strong suit of hers and its only getting more so the older she gets. I haven't counted but a rough estimate I would say she has about 50 words, body parts (ear, eye, nose, mouth, hair, belly, toes, leg, teeth etc), animals (dog, cat, duck, cow, monkey, goat, and all their noises), names (mama, dada, papa, bailey, penelope, aiden, emma), toys (ball, car, block, blanket, pillow, book, coloring, ) clothes (shoes, sock, pants, hat, jacket) and randoms (highchair, peek-a-boo, up, down, all done, night night, hi, bye bye, go go, what happened?, whats that? oh no! no no no, more). Im sure Im forgetting some, this girl seems to learn a new one every day! My favorites are peek-a-boo, she says beek-a-boo and her monkey noise is hilarious <3
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| climbed in the car and said "car go go bye bye" |
Skills:
Now that a lot of the gross motor stuff is old news, she has moved on to fine motor. She has started doing puzzles, coloring, stacking cups, putting objects in holes, pushing small buttons and twisting knobs, twisting caps off of bottles (learned this when I walked into the bathroom to find she had opened the drawer, gotten my make bag out, unzipped it, took out my mascara, unscrewed the top and smeared it all over her body! haha) and using and fork and spoon.
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| standing up all her animals upright |
Overall Charlotte is a super happy, funny and energetic toddler. We have some big stuff on the horizon, transition out of the crib and potty training. But for now Im going to just sit in this sweet age of half baby half big kid and love my little girl <3
xoxo
Ashlea
