18 Months Old: ABC & 123

RICHLAND, WASH. -- As I dropped Marin off at nursery a few weeks ago at church, all by herself for the first time, I felt never-before-experienced pangs of guilt as a parent.  People just drop their kids off and except someone else to watch them? This is a new concept for me that I wish I was much more familiar with. I can hardly believe she is already a year and a half old! It brings me so much joy and also a little sadness. My little side kick is old enough to brave it on her own a bit. 

She looks so sweet and innocent, doesn't she? This was taken on her big Sunday going to nursery all by herself.

This girl is such a delight and a terror all at once. She's so sweet and loves to give hugs and kisses. And the very next minute she'll be arching her back in fighting rebellion over something she can't do, or something I want her to do that she has no interest in doing (changing diapers or getting in her carseat for instance).

I am enjoying my final months with it being just me and her. She'll never remember this time as an only child, but I will treasure it always.  

Picking flowers in the mountains on our trip to Utah this past week

My mom made this darling dress for her

Eighteen Month Stats:

29.5 lbs. (98%)

35 inches tall (100%)

18.31 HC (57%)

Eating: Still picky, picky, picky. This frustrates me tremendously. She still eats applesauce like its candy. Almost every time I ask her what she wants for breakfast, she says, "pie." And then smiles really big. Such a jokester, who inherited my dangerous sweet tooth. 

Sleeping: 7pm to 7am give or take an hour or so. She's been waking up earlier due to the summer early morning sun coming up around 5 am. Ugh. Her naps though have been especially delightful. They are the longest they have ever been in her life.  Anywhere from an hour to up to 2 and a half.  

Wearing: 18 -24 month old stuff usually with with some 2T thrown in for good measure.

Tricks and New Skills/Interesting tidbits:

• This girl has her alphabet down pat. We've been working on it for months and finally, around 16 months or so, she started stringing them altogether. We were making our way back from Portland one night back in April, and thought Marin would sleep the entire way back. Instead, about half way through, she woke up very bright-eyed and started reciting her ABC's like a pro. She can even identify all of her upper case letters and most of the lower case ones. I'm really quite impressed with her ability to soak up everything we try to teach her. I'm giving Isaac's genes credit for that one. Please watch the below video to see her alphabet in action (also, note, that since this video was taken back in May, she has improved significantly and no longer skips letters). 
• She can also count and identify numbers up to 10, and says other numbers after that, but generally not in order.  
• Her favorite thing to say is "uhoh" and usually says it two or three times in a row whenever she says it. Just for effect, I guess. It generally indicates she's found something out of place, she did something wrong, or is questioning something she sees. A few weeks ago I was in the kitchen making dinner, and left her in the family room to watch Elmo for a few minutes of peace and quiet. Suddenly she declared, "Uhoh, uhoh, uhoh!" I assumed it was because the laptop battery died. Several minutes later, however, I discovered it was because she had found a pen and scribbled all over one of my new sofa pillows. Irk.
• When I sing to her at nap or bedtime, I will leave out the last word of every sentence and she will fill in the blank. The same thing happens with books we read a lot. I'll pause somewhere in the story, and she will fill in the word I stopped on. 
• Every preposition she uses is, "off." No matter if she means on, up, down or out. And if she can't move something, she declares, "stuck!"  
• Isaac is her buddy and she loves to play with him when he gets home from work. But... ughhhhh... the second he tries displaying an actual parenting role, and not playmate role, she flips out. Full on flips out. Forget having him put her to bed... it is a full on meltdown complete with hyperventilating, sweat and tears (she cries so hard she actually heats herself up to the point of sweating). I'm trying to figure out how to deal with this and hope this phase ends quickly. I hate it. So much. 

  

  Marin loves to climb all over Isaac. It warms my soul to watch them play together. 

• This girl loves being around other kids. I feel bad that we don't have many (or any) friends here in the Tri Cities, because I know she could sure benefit from some playmates. Thank goodness we have nursery now at church, and swim lessons where there are other kids around. 
• Marin also has some strange fear of men. She's fine around Isaac (minus the bedtime/parenting thing), but any other man she is extremely hesitant of, this includes grandpas, uncles, etc. 
• She's also growing more and more independent. She loves to try to dress herself before it takes too long and I just do it for her, which she doesn't always appreciate. She could sit for a good 30 minutes at a time trying to put her shoes on her feet. She also loves to put mine and Isaac's shoes on too. 

We started swimming lessons a few weeks ago and despite the look on her face in this photo, she loves them

This girl LOOOOVED getting so much attention from her cousins (and grandparents) in Utah this past week. She hugged the "kids" and gave them kisses numerous times a day. She was in heaven having playmates for a solid week.

Up in the canyons in a dry river bed

We went to an amazing new splash pad numerous times near my parent's house, complete with waterfalls and a river. She loved it. 

She likes to go in and outside over and over and shut us out and then stare through the door window smiling at us

I've been nervous about how she might react to a new baby around our home in a few months. While we were in Utah, she watched me hold Brittany's baby frequently and didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, she loved going up to him and kissing/tormenting him. I hope she has the same reaction to her new sister.