Letters to Reese- 18 Months!

Reese,

You turned 19 months on February 18th, 2013, so this post is a recap of your 18th month!  You celebrated your second Valentines Day, and first Valentine's party at school. You had your first fever ever. :-(  You are becoming more independent each day-- wanting to do things yourself, learning how to dress yourself, put shoes on, and are mastering using utensils during mealtimes. You now sit at a booster seat at our dining room table when we eat together as a family, and you do great at restaurants sitting in a booth or booster. Your language is really starting to develop, which is an amazing thing to witness. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you and are also commenting on how lucky we are to have such a smart, happy, silly, little girl!

Going for a walk on a mild winter day.

Post nap bedhead-- wanting to open up the closet in your playroom to get out Play Doh.

Sunday morning crafts! Stickers and stamps.

Taking a water break.

Hanging with your two girlfriends, Julianna (6 months) and Rory (4 months).

Out to breakfast at Red's!

Reese's 18 Month Stats: 

Weight: No weight check until your 2 year appointment, but I'd guess 25lbs.

Height: 33.5"

Clothing: Mostly 18-24, although some 2T stuff fits. Anything summer I'm buying you is 2T.

Diapers: Size 4.

Favorite Toys:  You love your kitchen set and playing with "real" food.  I've given you some pasta in a container to keep in your kitchen, and you love to take it out, sort it, dump it from one container to the next, etc.  You also love playing at the kitchen sink with water while Mommy cooks.  This keeps you entertained for a while, and makes my life preparing dinner much easier.  Other things you love are your dolls, playing with Play Doh, playing with stickers, and your Melissa and Doug magnetic wooden girl.  You love to dress her and undress her!

Favorite Past Time: You are such a funny and smart girl.  You love to play with Daddy and Nana, and are pretty good with most people in general.  You've definitely outgrown your stranger anxiety, and this makes Mommy and Daddy very happy.  You're doing great in school and are adjusting really well.  You still will cry at drop offs more often than not, but bounce back almost immediately. You are most happy playing, being active at Mall Tots, the playground, and just being outside in general.  I cannot wait until the weather is better and we can be outside every day!

Communication: You're language is improving each week, and you understand EVERYTHING we say. You say mama, mommy, dada, nana, nonna, papa, Emma, Enzo, light, yes, up, wow, NOOOOO, mail, down, milk, get, bum, bubba, shoes, baby, hi, bu-bye, and know all of your body parts.  You also know most animal sounds. Your phrases are "ut oh!" and "I do!" You are so smart! 

Cries: When you're tired, unhappy, or are having a tantrum.

Bedtime/Nap time: You are napping around 12:30/1pm and sleep mostly for 1.5 hrs, sometimes you'll surprise us and do a 3 hour stretch, but then the next day it's back to 1.5 hours, so I'll take what I can get! You are still going to bed around 6:30-7pm and sleeping until 6:30am ish.  Wondering what this next time change is going to bring-- I'm okay with you going to bed a bit later as the warmer weather is approaching and I for see lots of BBQ's with friends outside, but on school days you have to be there by 8am, so I need you up by 7am to make sure you eat breakfast, and have enough time to get dressed, etc. Hopefully you can go to sleep at 7 and wake at 7.  That would be ideal.

Foods: You are an awesome eater for the most part.  You have such a good appetite in the morning, and eat a huge breakfast, then snack until nap time when you're home.  If you are at school, you'll eat lunch there before your nap.  Your favorite foods are scrambled eggs with cheese, waffles, strawberries, blueberries, black beans, edamame, peas, rice, mac and cheese, most types of chicken, and then snack type food (goldfish, yogurt, cheese raisins, nuts, etc.).  You've recently started to eat deli turkey meat which is awesome because it gives me more options when packing your lunch for school.  Your school is peanut free, so lunch can be tricky! I now do turkey/cheese roll ups and you love them! You love chocolate but don't love ice cream.

You still will drink milk from a sippy twice a day- in the morning when you wake up and at night during dinner/before bed. 

Happy 18 months, sweet girl! 

Love,

Mommy

xoxox