18 Months

This Anna is 18 months old now.
She is a big girl.


Stats: 20 lbs (!) 3rd percentile
height - 31.3" 37th percentile
head - 18" 27th percentile

fun facts:

• As I sat down to write this post, a blue crayon fell out of the couch. She loves to draw and color (especially on my coffee table) and does it all with great concentration and zeal.
• She is learning to say so many words. Yesterday, I sat on the bed folding laundry, she sidled up next to me, patted the bed and for the first time said "bed". Then she looked at me very knowingly until she got a hug. Today it is "belt" because she loves to play with Ben's belt while he gets dressed and "bum" because she was walking around with some diaper rash cream mimicking putting it on her lips like chapstick. I told her it was for her bum and pointed to her diaper. She spent the next 3 minutes shouting "BUM" and unfortunately pointing to the front of her diaper because I didn't think it would really stick. Hopefully we have remedied the situation.

• She loves to put little things away. I converted an old wipes box into a "Magic Box" she put stickers all over it and colored it some. She pushes the little button to make the top pop open then puts her crayons inside. Then she tells me it's "tuck" and I open it so she can get the "cayns" out, and then we start over again. Yesterday she sat at the table for 20 minutes putting small paperclips in a paperclip holder with a magnet around the rim. In and out.
• Today she said "me maos" (Mickey Mouse) instead of "gika" so she got to watch a "show". but when it came down to it, she picked a Pooh Bear episode over Mickey Mouse Playhouse. Go figure.
  
• It turns out that "Gika" means a lot more than I thought. At first it referred only to Mickey Mouse, but she has been using it for just about anything that she doesn't know the word for. We will work on eliminating it from her vocab over time.

• Every time she hangs out with her cousin Lincoln (6 months older) she learns at least one new word.
• I really like hanging out with her everyday. It is amazing how much she picks up from observing the world. Plus she's just stinking adorable.
• I have way too many pictures of her reaching out for the camera.