Elise is 18 months old!

I have so much to blog about that I am finding it hard to actually sit down and write one post. I've been working on this post for at least a week! Elise says and does so many funny things every day. 18 months is a really fun age for us.

Physical facts:
Her last two incisors came in earlier this month, so she now has 16 teeth. She wears size 2 shirts, size 2 or 3 dresses, and size 3 or 4 shorts/skirts (I bought big and use the adjustable waist thing. It is awesome!). She has officially outgrown all things 18-24 months. There are a few wide dresses that she can still wear with leggings or jeans underneath. She is about 27 lbs and between 33.5 and 34 inches tall (it is hard to measure her!) and is already bigger than her mommy was at age 2! It looks like she stayed in the 75th percentile for weight and the 95th percentile for height.

Verbal changes:
Elise is a BIG talker. Last week, my mom and I sat down with the laptop and counted up the words that she says on her own (without being asked to repeat something... if I counted that, there's no way I could even make a list!). We stopped counting at 500 words and over the last few days, I keep thinking of many others that are not on that list. She says well over 500 words, including 26 letters, 6 numbers, and many animal sounds. I am going to print out the list for her baby book. More and more of her conversation is made up of phrases or short sentences. She likes to add adjectives or verbs in front of nouns to more effectively communicate. She is a little parrot and will repeat anything you ask her to say. She is getting much more accurate with her colors but is still only 100% with the color blue. She also identifies green, yellow, orange, red (this is her weakest color), white, pink, and purple with about a 75% accuracy. She is most accurate with her colors if she initiates the color description. She likes to distinguish things by their colors, size (big, little, or heavy), owner, or temperature (hot or cold) by saying "orange ball", "purple mail", blue W, yellow 1, heavy purse, big truck, hot stroller, Eeese shoes, etc. She knows the numbers 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, and 0. She still thinks that 5 is the same as S and proudly pointed out the S candle on her grandpa's recent birthday cake, haha. She will forever think that 9 and 6 are the same thing. If you ask her to count, she says "one two!" or "one two three!". I can't think of any words that she should know that she doesn't already use and she daily surprises us by using a word that we didn't already know that she knew. Today it was "juggle". Most of the time, I have to prompt her to say "thank you" or to add "please!" to the end of a request, like "strawberries, please!". If she really wants something, she will definitely add it on her own, like when we had Chick Fil A for dinner last week (only her second time to try it, yum!). "More Gicken! Gicken, please!" We think it is funny that whenever she runs into something or otherwise "hurts" herself, she immediately names the affected body part and often wants a kiss to make it all better. In summary, she says a ton of words and can accurately say up to 4 syllables (either one word or several words combined).

Here is a video of her with her letters (I was grabbing random handfuls off the fridge but after the third one, she got bored).

Letters for Breakfast from Stephanie Powell on Vimeo.

She has an amazing memory. This month, she really started getting bothered by missing things. If one of her shapes goes AWOL, she will carry the others around while saying "square, square, square?" or "purple mail, purple mail?" until we can find it. If you can't find it, you are stuck hearing the word over and over and over again until it turns up. This goes for anything that is part of a set (her groceries, mail, balls, shapes, etc). Last week, I got out a new package of wipes. This just so happened to be the same package that Sarah brought for John when they came to visit last month. Elise stared at the wipes and immediately said "John John? John John wipes?" I was absolutely shocked that she recognized the wipes from the time she saw them one month ago and then associated it with the rightful owner. She has about 20 people that she asks for on a regular basis, even if she hasn't seen them in a while. It is really funny to watch her brain move from one thought to another in a logical sequence. People and places generally go together, along with things that she likes to do with those people or in those places. At the end of dinner, she pointed to her bib, which was hanging a few feet away, and said "bib! on! (short pause) no no no!" (She saw the bib, knew that you put a bib "on", but immediately wanted to make it clear that she did NOT want to put her bib on).

Here is a video of her "memorization" of the Five Little Monkeys book. This is actually very representative of Elise at this age. In summary,
Me: "Five little monkeys jumped on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head..."
Elise: "Mama call doctor!"
Me: "Mama called the doctor and the doctor said..."
Elise: "No more monkeys!"
She will repeat it verse after verse! Haha. The funny thing is, this isn't even a "regular" book for her to read. She also tries to repeat part of the alphabet song.

Elise 18 months from Stephanie Powell on Vimeo.

For the record, the orange mentioned in the video was indeed in the car... haha.

Other funny "conversations" from this month...

Elise: (squatting) "Toot. Pee Pee. Poop."
Me: "Sweetie, do you need a new diaper?"
Elise: "New diaper?"
Me: "Yes ma'am!"
Elise: "No ma'am! no no no!"


Me: "Love you!"
Elise: "Love you mama! Hug!" (moves in for the hug... so sweet!)

Elise: (garage door opens) "Daddy home!" (runs halfway to Mike and then back to the living room) "Daddy get you!"
Mike: "I'm going to get you!"
Elise: (falls on floor giggling hysterically)
This happens nearly every day around 6 pm.


Me: "Elise, do you want to go to the library?"
Elise: (running to the door with her purse) "Eeeese go wibarry! Eeese go wibarry!"


She loves to play with Boss and point out his body parts. She says "hey Boss!" whenever she sees him. Thankfully, he is a pretty good sport.

One morning a few weeks ago I took her to run errands while Mike was still sleeping (since he was flying that night) and I told her to "whisper because Daddy is sleeping" when we walked past our bedroom to go out the garage door. When we got into the garage, she said "bye daddy sleeping!".

She has a book that has the baby animal and daddy animal on each page. She will open the book and say "tiger! big tiger! little tiger!" (or the appropriate animal on the page)

"I pooped! New diaper!"

(holds up her purse) "Eeeese purse."
(holds up my purse) "Mama purse. Heavy."

When the toaster beeps, she says "waffle done!"

One afternoon, I was working in the kitchen and she started handing me all of the colored balls that belong with her house. She started saying "guggle!" and it took me asking "what?" a few times before I realized that she wanted me to juggle for her. This was the first time I heard her say that word. Mike occasionally juggles for her and she loves it. The next thing I knew, she ran into the living room, sat down in the middle of the floor and said "in here! in here!". Thankfully, she was impressed with my juggling attempt even though I can only do 2 balls at a time.

I would have expected her to hate being confined in a stroller at 18 months old, but she actually LOVES it. It is the strangest thing, but hopefully it will last for a long, long time. We went to Pottery Barn Kids last week and I took her out of the stroller so that she could try on a back pack. Instead of wanting to run all over the store and explore, she asked to get back in her "roller".

She likes to ask for hugs and gives hugs and kisses. For some reason, this happens most frequently when she is sitting in the high chair and I am working in the kitchen. She always wants a "hug".

She asks for your "hand" so she can take you somewhere. She usually says "hand. walk."


Behavior:
Since Elise is such a strong communicator, we never have the "I can't communicate what I want" fits. She can tell me (in words) exactly what she wants. Rather, we occasionally have the "I told mom what I want and she said no or she won't let me have it RIGHT NOW" fits. Fortunately, for the most part, she accepts the "we'll have _____ later" or "we'll do ____ later" answers and sometimes we can still distract her by asking her questions about other things. It took about a week to get her to accept the fact that she isn't allowed to stand on the couch. She typically doesn't get into things that she isn't supposed to. Several times a week, she starts throwing food from her high chair when she doesn't want it anymore. The other day, she was happily eating her turkey and cheese when she saw the cucumber. This is one of her newest favorite foods. She finished the cheese and left some turkey on her tray. I gave her several pieces of cucumber to eat, and she was enjoying them immensely. At some point, she thought that the turkey would be better if it was on the floor. I immediately removed her tray (which still had some cucumber on it), and in her most pathetic voice, she wailed "cuuuuucumber! cuuuucumber!" like the world was coming to an end. Mike and I both couldn't stop from laughing.

Her eating habits are still about the same as they have been for the last several months. I bet that 98% of her diet is composed of the same 30 foods. She eats lots of fruits, vegetables, beans, cheese, and meat. I usually let her have a bread or grain (like cereal) for part of her breakfast or for a snack later in the day. She can name all of the foods that she eats, even cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumber, and guacamole. If she decides she is finished eating her vegetables, we can usually bribe her with fruit until she has eaten it all. She is still not really interested in eating with a fork or spoon. She prefers to pick things up with her hands. Occasionally she will try it, but gets frustrated when she can't shovel the food in as fast. I figure, as long as she is eating what I want her to eat, the spoon and fork isn't a huge deal. She won't go to kindergarten still eating with her hands, and her fine motor skills are obviously improving in other tasks so I am not too worried.

Sleeping habits:
Her sleeping habits have also been pretty constant over the last few months. I can't remember the last time she woke up in the middle of the night. She goes to bed between 7-7:15 and usually wakes up between 7:45-8. She averages about 12 hours and 45 minutes of nighttime sleep. Not bad! This might explain how she has a boatload of energy throughout the day. She takes her nap right after lunch (between 12-12:15) and typically sleeps until 2ish, sometimes later. She totals between 14.5 and 15 hours of sleep each day.

Playing habits:
Elise loves to play with her toys and loves to go outside. Unfortunately, it is July, so if we want to go to the park, it has to be right after she wakes up or right before she goes to bed. Even still, we still end up sweaty. Hopefully October will hurry up and get here! Elise is allowed to have one toy out of her toy closet at any given time. When she is ready for a new toy, she says "new toy!" and walks to the toy closet. About half the time, she carries the old toy to the closet to make the trade. She loves to read books, and reading books really makes us realize how many words she knows. She doesn't really want you to read the book to her, she just wants to point out the names of everything on each page of the book before turning to the next page. She also likes for me to move her big toys from room to room. For example, she'll go up to her rocking chair and say "rocker! move! living room!". She still likes playing with her magnetic letters and numbers. She carries her little Vera Bradley purse around all the time (with her cell phone inside, of course). She loves to play with people just as much as she loves to play with toys. She also likes Duplos and her Haba animal blocks. She has learned how to stack the parts of the animals together to make a pig, alligator, monkey, and lion. I will have to take a video of this. She especially likes playing with people. Her favorite "games" are "____ get you!" (insert the name of the person who is instructed to chase her) and "hide" (where she hides under a blanket or couch pillow.

Potty habits:
She has started asking for a "new diaper" after she poops (about half the time). Sometimes, she even says "poop" a few minutes before she actually does it. I think that is probably the first step to potty training. I am hoping that we can start doing that in a few months so that she's trained by age 2. We shall see. She often says "pee pee" when she pees in her diaper.


I will leave you with some recent pictures. You'll notice that she finally leaves a bow in her hair. :)

A future mathematician (haha)

Pretty mullet

Eating oranges (new favorite snack)

Boss just took my fruit snack! (her "reward" for letting me cut her nails... that is the only time she gets to have one)

A serious tea party

Her beloved house

Playing "mama get you!"

Lots of teeth

Playing with daddy

Playing with her letters

Probably eating something (imagine that)