18-Month Update

It seems like just yesterday I was holding my fresh, new, squirmy little newborn for the first time...then I blinked and she grew out of her newborn/0-3 month clothes--I remember the packing away of those little outfits to be a bit of an emotional task for me and I wondered how on earth did she possibly grow so fast? Then I blinked again and the next thing I know is she's already 18 months old. 18 months seemed so old a year ago, it used to seem so far away...yet here we are. My baby is not a baby, she's a toddler and I'm still wondering where the time went.

18 months seems like a pretty monumental mark, just like 6 months was when she started sitting up...and when she turned 12 months-old old and got her first taste of birthday cake. So I wanted to jot down all her current stats, likes and personality traits now that she is one-and-a-half. Geeze--saying it that way makes her seem so much older...I think I'll stick with "18 months."

V's 18 months stats:

-Teeth: she has a whopping total of 15...currently working on #16, her last "eye" tooth.

-Vocabulary: I lost count of how many words she knows--she's really starting to randomly repeat words that we say. Her most common words that she uses daily (besides "Mommy" & "Daddy"): "Pa" (potty), "Ball," "'ick" (quick), "tickle," "E" (eat), "Si" (outside), "No," and "thank you." She also tries to count to 3, but it sounds more like "two...two...tee..."

-Signs: I didn't/haven't taught her as many signs as I would've liked...but the ones we've taught her she uses as much (if not more) than her words. My favorite sign that she does is "help." She also uses "please," "potty," "eat," "more," and "all done."

-Percentile stats: I don't know yet...I haven't gotten her in for her check-up yet...

At 18 months Vienna is running, not walking, around everywhere. Climbing everything. Sleeping in toddler bed. Using the potty 95% of the time. Napping for usually 2 hrs in the afternoon. Goes to bed at seven...wakes up between six-seven. Really likes food (eats most of her vegetables). Loves music...and loves to dance. Is still attached to her blankie and is starting to really like a certain little stuffed bunny. She could play on the beach for hours but hates deep water. She particularly likes dirt, pine cones and flowers. She loves running to the window to watch daddy leave for work. She loves trying on shoes...regardless of whose they are. She loves helping with laundry and gets upset if I don't let her throw the clothes in the dryer and press the buttons. She runs to the bathroom if she knows mommy is putting on make-up because she likes to pretend she's putting some on too (oh boy). When she does walk she does so on her tiptoes. She loves to help mama vacuum and unload the dishwasher. She loves animals and likes to copy dogs barking and kitties meowing. She likes to give kisses and lots of hugs. And she loves to snuggle and watch Tangled.

Over the past 18months I have loved getting to know Vienna and the little person that she is, it has been amazing to see her personality blossom. If I've discovered one thing about her, it is that she is very independent. She likes things her way, in her time, and she likes to do things herself. (I wonder where she gets that from?) ;) I'm not quite sure if I would classify it as strong-willed (yet) but definitely independent. She is very transparent (she gets that from daddy) :) and absolutely loves people. She loves to laugh and make people laugh. She is smart and learns fast. She is cautious when it comes to "dangerous" things, but when she figures out how to do something herself then there's no stopping how adventurous she's going to be with it. I can already tell that she doesn't like when someone is upset with her (she gets that from mommy too) if I scold her or give her a time out, you can tell how much it hurts her feelings and it breaks my heart. Good side to that though is that she usually learns her lesson the first time. She's definitely girlie and feminine...right down to the way she walks and her little run. She loves dresses, dolls and dancing and one her favorite things to do is carry around a bag/purse in the crook of her arm and put things in it.

She is such a delightful 18-month-old :)

Big-Girl Bed

As of last week we've officially moved Vienna to a big girl bed. Taking apart her crib today made it final, and made me realize, yet again, how big she's getting.

I didn't particularly want to upgrade her bed so soon, but she was days away from climbing out of her crib so I started keeping my open on craigslist for a bed, because I just really didn't want to spend the money on a brand new one. When I found one that was too cute to pass up, and too good of a deal, I jumped on it and once it was in our house it was hard not to put it together and give it a try. I guess I don't have any patience.

I have to pause for a minute to say how much I like craigslist. I like the fact that I can buy things, like a toddler bed, for less than half of what it costs brand new. People get rid of stuff they don't want and I save money. :) Win. Win.

Anyways. Vienna helped me put the bed together, I was actually surprised at how into it she was, she never left the bed until it was finished...pretending to put screws in and helping me hold things together. She had fun and a part of me thinks she knew that the bed was for her right from the start.

She felt pretty special climbing into her new bed.

I was so nervous about putting her in a big girl bed. Not only for the possibility that she could roll out, but I was afraid she wouldn't stay in it--that she would just go nuts with her new freedom.

To my surprise the first night was uneventful. The first morning however, the minute she got up she was out of bed and by the door, pounding on it to be let out. Naptime was a little bit more of a challenge, but she only got out once. She wasn't too happy about staying in the bed but she learned her lesson after one try and eventually fell asleep. She's stayed in her big girl bed since then. It's been six days and we've had zero issues. Besides that first morning she has stayed in her bed, period--while falling asleep and when she gets up. I'm shocked. I've watched her through the crack in the door and when she gets up in the morning or from naptime she sits up in bed, plays with her stuffed animals and scoots around talking to herself/telling me she's ready to get up...and waits for me to come into the room before trying to get out of bed. Most of the time she just stands up and waits for me to pick her up. I'm honestly very surprised she responded so well and it wasn't more of a battle to get her to stay in bed. Maybe she was just so used to staying in her crib that it wasn't such a hard transition...so in that sense I'm glad I didn't wait until she figured out how to climb out of her crib!

She's such a good girl. :)

Bathtub & Rainy Days

What do you do with your kids on rainy days?

Well. Let me tell you what we did. Vienna asked to play in the bathtub this morning...so I let her, for a really long time. Just to play, that's it.

I tried to tell her she took a bath last night and that we didn't need to take another one this morning, but she kept asking so nicely. First she took all of her toys out of the bathtub and brought them to me...signing "please." Then she took my hand and brought me to the bathtub...signing "please." She tried to take off her clothes, got a little mad that she couldn't, but kept signing "please." Then tried to climb in by herself.

She was pretty irresistible so I filled up the ol' tub with bubbles and let her play. No timeline, no washing routine...just playtime, until she was ready to get out. She LOVED it and had a blast and spent nearly two hours in there.

She's like a fish.

Heck...it's raining outside, what else are we going to do?