18 Months...Look How Big I Am!

Is she really a year and a half old already? Sometimes it seems like she should be so much older, and other times she is still my baby girl. I can't believe how much she has learned already. This is a long list of things she can do at 18 months. Some things she just started and others she has done for a long time.

Stats: height: 34.5 inches, weight: 25.5 lbs, shoe size: 5 1/2, clothing size: 18 months for pants, 24 months for dresses/one piece outfits, and shirts, some 2T shirts, tights- at least 2T or bigger,

Teeth: all except 2 year molars, one front tooth is chipped

Hair: light brown/blond, almost reddish, getting longer every day and is past her ears now, can wear in pigtails.

Eyes: brown

Physical: walks (frontways, backwards, & sideways), runs, jumps off furniture, climbs everything, walks upstairs independently (but will use railing if it is there) and downstairs holding on to the railing, bounces on bed, strings beads and buttons on lacing string, pushes front/back on full size tricycle, can pedal tricycle if you give a slight push, tries to wash/dry hands, brushes hair, brushes own teeth several times a day, helps do laundry putting clothes in and out of the dryer, turns dryer on, blows kisses and gives real kisses with pucker, turns light switches on and off, closes doors and tries to turn door knobs, unscrews lids, kicks and throws balls overhand, "shoots" baskets, enjoys building with her megablocks, thinks it's funny to look at things upside downwhile looking through her legs, can balance on one foot for a second or two,

Clothing: can put on socks and shoes sometimes, hats, takes off clothes, unzips zippers, helps put arms in coat, hates to wear her shoes and frequently removes her socks.

Food: loves fruits and veggies, wants to feed self, uses fork and spoon, drinks from a straw, sippy cup, has distinct food and drink preferences, loves choclate milk, has still not had soda, breastfeeding twice a day, not using high chair at home-but still when eating out and at grandma's house,


Language: (about 80 words/sounds) pronunciation not great
words: mama, dada, daddy, ball, bye, no, dog, hello, yum, papaw, all gone, up, bug, nose, baby, what's this, bad, balloon, ladybug, book, this, uh-oh, see, beads, boom, whee, whoa, bite, bee, stinky, jump, hot, yucky, dirty, shh, pretty, bike, peas, tickle, block, eat, duck, blue, see ya, bubble, step, zoom, twinkle, ouch, play dough (dough), beans

animal sounds: dog, cat, cow, owl, dinosaur, lion, sheep, pig, mouse, chick, chicken, bird, airplane, train, car, frog, monkey, snake, horse, duck, kiss, laugh, cough, goose, camel, alligator, tiger, bear
Receptive language is amazing and she easily follows multi-step directions, I can't guess at her language comprehension

Cognitive: can point to all body parts on self and some on doll, easily does peg puzzles, working on 6-12 piece jigsaw, understands the word "rotate" and will rotate puzzle pieces if I remind her when a piece does not fit, does matching Eric Carle animal puzzle, sorts by color, shape, and occasionally size, stacking cups in order, stacks blocks (8) and builds trains, uses computer for Starfall, Kneebouncers, and Fisher Price websites, iPhone aps-drum kit, barnyard animals, sesame street podcasts, intentionally moves objects to where she can best use them to reach other things, seems to ask why or what happened questions, remembers what comes next in videos and books...anticipates, can pick out most shapes and some colors, matches numbers to pictures of numbers in her magnet book, some opposites like hot/cold, up/down, on/off, "counts" 123 on her fingers when watching Sesame Street,


Books: identifies objects in books by pointing or saying the word/sound, reads books to self for up to 30 minutes, loves to listen to stories and song books, can turn pages in books by self, pretends to count objects, can identify a few letters

Music: sings parts of songs- ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, Row Your Boat, Elmo song, likes to play piano and other percussion instruments, loves to dance and has several moves, loves her baby genius nursery rhymes and TMBG cds and dvds

Art: LOVES art, uses crayons, pastels, tempera and finger paints, paint brushes, playdoh, colored pencils, markers, stickers, gluesticks. Has own art notebook to draw in at any time, draws circles and lines, likes aquadoodle, doesn't mind being messy

Pretend Play: feeds dolls/animals, pushes on tricycle and car, makes them say whee when sliding or having fun, talks on phone incessantly, cooks food in microwave, pretends to eat,

Potty Training: throws diaper away, signs potty, gets own diaper and wipes, has gone on the potty a few times, but once she got sick I stopped pushing it. She is too feisty to try it again right now.

Personality: loves to tease, has a good sense of humor and does things wrong (like pants on head, wrong shape in shape sorter)just to get a reaction and laugh, rare to get a true temper tantrum, but she is very strong willed and yells at you if she is frustrated or doesn't want to be touched, loves to give kisses to everyone and everything but in her own time, Fearless and never gets hurt. If she cries you know she is really hurt. Very independent! Loves to play in water.

Social: likes other kids but not around them much, prefers boys over girls, possessive of own toys, went through a hitting stage, but I think this has stopped. Loves animals especially dogs

Sleep: sleeps through most nights, but hard to get to sleep at bedtime. Takes nap(s) easily during the day.

Favorite things to do: art!, books, puzzles, pretend play, climb, dance