Eighteen Months and Summer Pictures

I told her to smile. This is the face she gave me.

On Tuesday evening I started a post that said the post was going to be brief. And then I never finished it. I am sure the couch and an episode of Burn Notice lured me away. The first week of school is always exhausting, so the couch is always tempting. Going from a lackadaisical schedule to a rigid schedule where I have to be responsible for 28 kids instead of just one is always a bit tiring. The job is perfect and I love it, but the transitions both into summer and back into school always throw me for a bit. It doesn't help that Lilly is now at a different day care because our previous fabulous day care provider moved, so there is the worry about how she's fitting in and getting along at her new place. She has cried when I have dropped her off but they assure me that she's done crying before I even get back out to my car. The biggest relief though with her new day care is that she's taking naps - at least an hour - on the floor on a sleeping bag, with all the other kids and without being in a completely dark room. Phew!! We were worried she was going to have to sleep in the laundry room!

Lilly is a bit over 18-months old now and we are just having an absolute blast with her. I just looked back at the 15-month post and she's basically just gotten better at all the tricks posted there.

Her stats, in case you missed them:
Head Circumference - 19", 92nd percentile
Weight - 24 pounds 4 ounces, 69th percentile (and the same weight as 15 months!)
Length - 33 1/2 inches, 92nd percentile

The doctor isn't at all worried about the lack of weight gain, she still is on a trajectory on the growth chart and with how active kids this age are, it sometimes just takes some time for them to figure out how to get enough calories in.

In terms of her teeth, she has the canines all in (the upper right one took forever to come in and just broke through last week - and started coming at the start of the summer!).

Playing with phones is a favorite activity. She picked
the boots to go with the outfit.

At breakfast and dinner she likes to have her puppy toy sitting with her and she feeds him and gives him some of her juice/water to drink. We are particularly fond of this activity because after she pretends to give food to the dog, she eats it. So, when she says, "all doooooo," and tries to escape from her chair, we can say, "your dog wants some more cereal" and she'll eat a few more bites.

One of those "when did she get so big" moments

Lilly is still our little fashonista, particularly fond of hats and shoes. She also likes to pick out shoes for us. Thursday night Lilly and I were heading out for a run, Nick was heading out to go for a bike ride. She picked out her shoes. Then, it was Nick's turn. He wanted Lilly to bring him his biking shoes but she refused. She brought him his Crocs instead. Apparently the biking shoes weren't just right for his outfit. Earlier this week at day care they couldn't figure out what was bothering her when they went outside. When I picked her up, one of the teachers was explaining what she was doing to get my take on the situation. After hearing what she was doing I figured it out - the problem? She was outside without her hat on and wanted to go back inside to get her hat!

At the park! We spent lots of time at the parks, sliding,
swinging, and lots of watching kids.

Safety first! We went to watch a bike race and brought her bike,
she didn't really ride it but kept her helmet on and wouldn't
let me take it off!

Words - she has a ton now and is trying to say more and more every day, trying to repeat what we say. My personal favorites right now are "P.U" (said when we change her diaper) and hippo. Hippo sounds like "ah-pooh". She is also somewhat into singing and will sing songs occasionally. The other day she was singing "Wheels on the Bus" (not the actual words but the tune).

Dancing - she's still a dancer. I have managed to get some video of this, but it is again really brief, and I need to fiddle with it a bit. She is a big fan of Mat Kearney and will dance and sing along.

Running and jumping - the girl is determined to jump. Perhaps once she's actually gotten both feet of the ground when standing by herself. She does tons of jumping when holding on to chairs, tables, etc. In terms of running, she is getting fast and loves to run. We went out to dinner tonight and Lilly and I went outside after we were done eating and Nick wasn't quite done (he had already done a walk around with Lilly while I finished). All she did was run back and forth on the sidewalk, probably for five minutes.

Sleeping - we've made it (knock on wood here!) - she's sleeping through the night! We had to do a modified cry it out for a few nights - we would go in every 10-15 minutes, rub her back and tell her to go back to sleep and after about an hour and a half she was asleep. In the middle of the night we did the same thing. After a few nights she slept through the night. Now her bedtime routine is up to her room, PJs on, snack and milk, brush her teeth, stories and then we put her in her crib. Some nights she cries but most night she just kicks her feet a few times or babbles a bit to herself and then is asleep. Gone are the days where she sleeps until 8, but we'll take a full night of sleep and getting up at 7 or a little after over a night where we are up once in the middle. I knew we had a girl that will sleep through the night when we went to Eau Claire for Labor Day weekend and she slept all night - in the pack and play!

I can't think of anything else to say except that we are just loving this girl! Enjoy the summer photos!

She's still not big into baths, so we spent lots of time
this summer with the kiddie pool in efforts to keep her somewhat clean.
I believe she just had cold water poured on her.