18 Months Old

Dear Emily,

You have grown so much in the last six months. You are such a fun part of our family and we are so grateful for you. You are your own person now and you surprise us with the things you come up with.

I have no idea where you picked this up, but when something startles or surprises you you fling your hand to your chest and gasp.

Sleeping ebbs and flows with teething, but we think the last of them are almost through! You have switched from books being the comfort item you snuggle in your arms when you go to sleep to a little brown beanie baby dog that was mine when I was little. You sign dog and call it puppy and it is becoming a regular member of the family.

Access to your belly button is still a must. Nursing is also high on your priority list. In the morning you sometimes read or talk to yourself, but now that you are sleeping 12-13 hour stretches you wake up ready to eat, which you start signing the moment we walk into the room.

Mealtimes have become more routine. Oatmeal or cereal for breakfast with fruit as soon as you wake up. An attempted lunch that really resembles a snack at 11 before your nap at 11:30.  Your real lunch at 12:30 when you wake up, which lately we’ve been eating outside if the weather is nice. You snack on apples, pears, carrots, strawberries, raisins, cheese, or dry cereal in the morning and afternoon. Oranges have recently appeared as your most favorite food and you ask for it constantly and prefer it to everything else. Dinner is between 4:30 and 5 depending on when we enter meltdown mode at the end of the day. The most important development is that you sit at the table with us on a regular chair. No more booster seats or high chairs for you at your own insistence; you sign “table sit” over and over just to make sure we remember how this works.

You are really helpful around our home and the kitchen is no exception. You put away all of your clean dishes, stacking the cups, plates, and bowls like a pro. When we are making a meal you help bring us ingredients, stir or mix things, and most importantly, bring us a bowl or plate for us to put your portion on and then we carry it to the table. You make sure things go I the garbage can and spills are wiped up immediately.

You help encourage the rest of our home to be clean as well. A few weeks ago you insisted that we vacuumed for our family home evening game. You are also really good about helping to clean up your toys and clothes after we sign “clean up/pick up toys now please”.

You love being outside and really love going on walks. You usually ask in the morning but you always ask in the afternoon to go on a walk (by signing walk). We always collect rocks, sticks, or pine cones for you to hold during these outings. You also enjoy playing at the playground. Your absolute favorite is the slide and you have no fear. You will go down the tallest slide at the playground without any help or second thought (the kind that goes in a circle, not a straight down variety). I love it when you get going in a slide loop of running up the stairs and sliding down because it wears you out and you sleep well! The last few days I’ve been shocked as you have finally taken to swinging. Normally you don’t last more than thirty seconds but now you will swing for 15 minutes and love every minute.

The other really attractive feature to the playground outside our apartment is sand. You love playing in it, taking handfuls and putting it on the slides or the swings with the other kids your age, and occasionally drawing in it with sticks. Unfortunately you also really enjoy eating sand, and the only way to get you to stop is to pick you up and move you away from the source.

You are signing more everyday and I’m shocked at what you’ve picked up. We’ve been singing and signing “twinkle twinkle little star”. At hobby lobby a few days ago you started signing star (which looks a lot like sock and I was confused why you were talking about those). At closer inspection you had found a bag of small glitter stars – an impressive connection and application.

Emily you are a great problem solver. We were getting ready to go on a walk yesterday and you wanted to leave right then. I asked you to look at my feet because I still needed to put socks on. You noticed grandma had her socks on (we took and impromptu trip this week) and so you started trying to take hers off to give to me. When that was thoughtfully denied you offered your own socks for me to wear.

I’m afraid it is impossible to capture you in a single letter. You are wonderful and the perfect addition to our family.

Love you sweet girl!