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Whew – I am so behind! Lately, it seems like the only chance I have to do blog posts is on the weekend, and the last few weekends have been hectic. So, I’ll try to knock out a few blog posts in the next couple of days, starting with M’s way overdue 18 month post.

This picture quite effectively captures our Miss Personality (aka lil bit, aka our menace, etc.). She is on the go the minute she wakes up and she wants to get into, explore, play with, and do EVERYTHING. She is very adventurous, much more so than B ever was or even is now. In the pool, she is fearless. She has no comprehension that she cannot swim, no comprehension that she cannot just magically make herself taller, and no concern what-so-ever about water coming up to her mouth or nose. She’s gone under so many times now, at this point she has learned to hold her breath before she actually goes under! I think next summer will include swim lessons…

The day she turned 18 months we were in the mountains and she got to visit with some horses. She was all about watching the horses and petting the horses.

She even fed one of the horses a carrot (sorry, I don’t have a picture of that)!! She thought the experience was one big grand adventure, and she was NOT happy when it was time to leave.

At 18 months, M is a pretty good sleeper (11-12 hours at night, 2.5-4 hours in the afternoon). She even takes a 1-2 hour nap at school when she is there. The girl likes her sleep, and will tell you “nigh-nigh” when she is ready.

As for food, we are still hit or miss on many things. She still loves avocado, pretty much any type of baby food (“sauce”), turkey and cream cheese wraps, blueberries, black beans (especially those given to her at school), cantaloupe (pretty much only at school), peas (only at school), smoothies, cheese (especially the free samples at the grocery store), chicken nuggets, noodles, egg whites (scrambled eggs, not so much), toast soldiers, gold fish, pretzel crisps, and pirate booty. She prefers fruit to veggies (really, other than sauce, she is not much interested in veggies at all). She also is not much interested in sweets, unless it is sorbet or ice cream. While it is sometimes a challenge to make sure she eats enough of the right foods, the girl can eat…she is in no danger of starving…

Her vocabulary and comprehension is really taking off. Unlike B, however, we need to be more diligent about taking her bink away (probably her favorite thing in the whole wide world) to help her speech development. Favorite words include B-B, bink (binkie-binkie), Mickey, sky kitty, kitty, sauce, noodles (noonos), milk (mik), more, Mommy, Daddy, and night night (nigh-nigh). She has also started branching out into multi-word phrases, e.g., milk please (mik peas), more milk please, more sauce (mo sas), Mommy up, socks and shoes (goks and goos), etc. She also is quite fond of identifying various body parts (eyes, ears, mouth, nose, cheeks, tummy, knee, etc.). The only downside is that the eyes are her favorite…and she likes to point them out when she says eyes (e.g., poke you in the eyes repeatedly). We’re working on that… at least Bear doesn’t mind…

She chatters constantly, and even I only understand about half of it. But she definitely has something to say, and is not afraid to say it!

She walks great (falls down much less), and has even started running. It’s necessary to run, you see, to keep up with B and to chase Sky Kitty… She also puts that mobility to good use, as she loves to help. She will help get her shoes, throw things away, get the lunch table ready at school, etc.

If you compare the girls’ hair at this age, they both have roughly the same color hair (though I think M’s is a little darker). At 18 months, B had longer hair, but it was stick straight – not a curl in sight. M, on the other hand, has curls in the back. I am very curious to see whether the curls continue or if she ends up with straight. I think she just may end up with wavy dark hair like her daddy, or curlier dark hair like her Mimi. Only time will tell!

She is quite the social butterfly – she knows the names of all her school buddies, and loves to interact with them all. She also loves to tell them what to do and how to do it. I’m told she was the first to be able to say all of their names. I don’t know if any have managed to say hers – it is a pretty big mouthful for a toddler!

Best of all she LOVES playing with her sister! The two of them seem to have a great time together, playing with cars, being silly, etc. It is wonderful to hear their belly laughs so much!

Now that B is in kindergarten, M has me all to herself on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Honestly, both of us are still trying to figure out what that really means. It is quite strange to not have B around deciding things for us and telling us what she wants to do. I’m sure we will manage, though! It is fun to be able to do some things with her that B would perhaps not be interested in, or wouldn’t have much patience for.