Meghan @ 18 Months

Meghan is 18 months old! She is 22 lbs and is 32 inches tall. She wears size 2T clothes.

Fine Motor: 

•  She is getting better at puzzles and figuring out how to twist pieces to get them to fit. She especially likes her shape puzzle. She really likes circles and ovals :) 
• She is making lots of dark, long strokes with crayons while coloring now. 
• She finger painted for the first time and liked it! 
• She has been working on threading her large beads. It's a difficult task, but she enjoys working hard on it. 

Gross Motor:

• When she hears music, she proclaims "dance" and either rocks side-to-side from foot to foot or spins in a circle. She loves to dance! 
• She is very fast at walking - we might have a runner soon! 
• She is starting to come down the stairs - we have to talk her through the process, but she is learning! 

Language: 

• As I said last month, I am no longer counting her words because she is gaining them so quickly. I'm glad I said that - there have been several times this past month where, while sitting and playing with her, I hear her use at least 5 words I'd never heard her say before! 
• I love the way she says "butter butter" for peanut butter. 
• When she works had on something and accomplishes it, she proclaims "DID IT!!" - often raising her hands or clapping along with it. It's so cute!! 
• When you ask her if she wants something and her answer is yes she gives an excited laugh and we have then prompted her to "say yes" - she responds with a head nod and "Yeah!!"
• She has hit the "no" phase. She says it so much these days - whether she means it or not. It's cute the way she says it, but hearing "no" all day becomes draining... :) 
• Her words are gaining sounds and becoming so much more clear now!
• She is trying to say words CONSTANTLY. I feel bad when she is trying to tell me something and I don't understand. She is able to show us things she finds exciting and make requests using her words. 
• She is learning names of body parts quite quickly - she enjoys them! She especially loves "TOES!!"
• She recognizes several shapes. She knows and names all of her colors - and enjoys naming the colors of things she sees. She recognizes the numbers 0, 8, and 9 (random...yes!). 
• She loves flashcard language games. She likes to look through a bunch that are laid on the ground for one that I say or to have me put 3-4 in front of her and then try to find the one I say. Her receptive language and recognition of labels is increasing so quickly! Every time we show off her "school" skills to Daddy he is impressed by how much more she has learned in just a few days. She absolutely is loving learning the labels for the objects in her world! 

Eating:

• We have made a slight adaptation to our breakfast routine and breakfast has been going so much more smoothly. 
• She has seemed much more hungry for lunch and has been eating lunch very well most days as long as she can use her "week" - which means fork - I have no idea where that came from, but it's better than the very inappropriate word fork sounded like her first few attempts to say it. 
• Because of our sleeping issues (I think) dinner has been a difficult meal. She seems to be tired and not want to eat. There is usually some fussing about eating, but eventually she gets the meal down. Sometimes it takes watching a movie, standing in the kitchen to watch Mama cook, or playing silly games with Daddy to get through dinner. But she's cute - and worth it!
• She is still drinking her milk 25% cream and 75% whole milk - she loves it and drinks an average of about 12 ounces per day. As a result, she has gained almost 2 pounds in the last 2 months! We are so proud of that growth! 

Sleeping:

• We seem to have hit the 18 month sleep regression - with a vengeance! 
• She skips her nap 2-3 times per week. She rarely takes as long of a nap as she needs. 
• To help make up for her difficulty with naps, we have been putting her to bed between 6-6:30 depending on how little nap she took and her mood in the evening. She does seem to be falling asleep shortly after being laid down and usually sleeps until 6:30ish. (Though there are mornings when I peek on her on her video monitor and she is already laying in her crib awake when I get up at 6:00).
• We have gone back to a morning rest time after taking it away - without that rest time she was just sobbing from about 9:30-12:00. With 30-60 minutes of rest in her crib in the morning - not sleeping - she is a happy camper until naptime at noon!

Other Updates:

• She loves playing outside - sandbox, gardens, water table, balls, bubbles, slides, a stick....it doesn't matter what we play with, she just loves being out there!
• She loves "school" - our learning fine motor activities, vocabulary flashcards, puzzles, etc. She asks for it all of the time!!
• She loves the book "Mr Brown Can Moo Can You" - it's the "boom boom boom" book. 
• She is getting very good at listening to read alouds. She loves the collection of stories by Eloise Wilkin - especially the story "Baby Dear."
• Tantrums - they have shown up. She will stomp her feet, cry, or say "no" when she does not want to do something....oh my. 
• She loves to "cook" and "take care of babies" - her imaginative play continues to explode. 

We took some 18 month pictures of her in her K-State dress :: 

(That one cracked me up! She was laughing so hard!)

(She's saying "TOES!" - her favorite body part to name!)

(Reading her K-State alphabet book from Uncle Jordan!)

(Yes, I know there are shadows in these pictures. To take them at a time when she would be super smiley right now requires doing them with poor light. Oh well - she's still cute!!)