A Day in the life...: Eighteen Months

Wow.

Eighteen months.

Eighteen.

How did that happen?

The past eighteen months have whizzed by… quickly.

There are many days when I want time to slow down. Stay little. Stay chubby. Stay innocent. Stay sweet.

But other days? I just want her old enough to climb up/down stairs safely on her own so she can go play.

I want her old enough to have a conversation with me when she's upset - so I am not guessing.

But - I am enjoying my sweet time with her because we all know how fast they grow up.

Too fast.

I thought it would be fun to compare her at 18 months with where she was a 15 months.

Below is my 15 month post. Written in bold is where she is at 18 months.

Nicknames:

Had, Haddie, Hadster, Boom Boom, Mae Mae, Haddie Mae, Hizzy, Hizzy Mae

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Her main nickname these days is Hizzy or some variation of that - Hizz. Hizzer. We do call her Haddie quite a bit too. Boom Boom and Mae Mae have faded.

Eats:

Not much breakfast. Sometimes she will eat a little breakfast but prefers milk.

Speaking of milk- she still drinks her bottle. 3-4 of them a day.

I haven't really tried to break her from it because she drinks wayyy more milk from the bottle than a sippy cup.

Lunch is normally turkey, nuggets, hotdogs, cukes, cheese, carrots, fruit. etc….

Dinner is mostly what we eat or what I wrote for lunch foods.

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Had still will NOT have hardly anything to do with breakfast. Anything with carbs in it - no way. Bagels? Pancakes? Cheerios? Nothing. She will occasionally eat a banana, sausage, part of my protein bar.

And yes- she still drinks milk out of a bottle. I am unabashedly ashamed. Not. I honestly don't care she still drinks milk from a bottle. For a while I worried about but I don't anymore. She flat out refuses to drink milk from a sippy cup so I'd rather her drink milk from a bottle than not drink milk at all.

She's obsessed with these whole grain nuggets I found a Publix. She eats those a lot. She won't eat hot dogs anymore. She loves grapes, meatballs, pasta, turkey roll up.

She really, really loves Cheez-Its. It's terrible but she will dig through the pantry to find them.

Sleeps:

On a 'normal' night she sleeps from 7:00 ish to 7:ish.

She still wakes once or twice a week and cries out. Most of the time she falls right back to sleep but I do have to go in her room and rock her occasionally.

She still mostly takes two naps a day (seriously I can't believe she does this). There are days that she only takes one nap but mostly it's two.

I do need to break her of this habit since she starts preschool in early September.

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Well- sleeping has changed. It's still an issue for sure. The best way I can describe it is this: UNPREDICTABLE.

She'll go days, maybe even weeks without waking at night. Usually it's just days. Sometimes I have to go in her room to calm her down but normally she'll fuss for a few, talk for a bit and then fall back to sleep.

Back in early September- over Labor Day weekend she was an absolute nightmare. For a couple of weeks following that weekend she would wake up every single night and I would have to go in room multiple times to calm her down. I even resorted to playing her 5 minutes of a cartoon to calm her down.

Nightmare!

Luckily we're over that.

But - she still gives me a hard time sometimes going to bed. Tonight I had to go back in her room twice to retrieve her lovie off the floor and rock her for a few.

But I haven't had to do that since last Wednesday.

Like I said- unpredictable.

We are down to one nap a day though. It can be between one hour and 2 1/2 hours.

Talking:

She doesn't talk too much but does have some worlds.

Jaaaa - for Jack

Momma

Dadda

Hiiii - for Hi

YiYi - for RiRi (sometimes)

ice (sometimes)

She signs the word MORE when she wants to eat or wants more of something.

She understands everything. You can tell her to get a diaper, give it to Daddy, throw it in the trash, close the door, get your baby, sit down, watch your head, etc…. and she will understand it all.

I'm hoping the speech kicks in soon but I am not too concerned yet - she's very advanced in her communication skills for not having many words yet.

~~~

Hadley has made a ton of advancement in the area of talking. She still doesn't talk a TON and is probably behind a normal 18 month old but she has many more words.

Like:

Jaaaa -Jack (she just started making the 'ck' sound as well)

Momma

Dadda

Down

Off

Ousssiii- outside

cuu- color

booo- book

bubble

eat

juice

mil - milk

Paa Paa (my mom)

Peppa - Peppa the pig cartoon

and others…..

Not putting two words together yet.

Other stuff:

Wears size 2T clothes and can fit in a small amount of 18-24 months and even a few 3T shorts from Target.

Moving into 3T in some brands.

Loves to climb on furniture.

Still climbing on furniture but she can get herself down easily now.

Wears size 6 diaper.

Same.

Her attention span for reading books is very, very small.

Same. But she is very into reading books now. We must read multiple books every night right before bedtime.

She loves to climb in boxes.

Still loves those darn boxes.

She's obsessed with Mickey Mouse and a sweet cartoon about bees called The Hive. In fact- she will hand you the remote, climb in her chair and say "Buzzz Beeee" when she wants to watch it. So cute.

She's not really into The Hive anymore. She loves Peppa the Pig and watches Jungle Junction. She loves watching the movie Frozen in the car.

She loves dancing.

She loves to bounce up and down to funky music.

Elmo is on nonstop in the car - keeps her quiet.

Not much Elmo anymore but something is usually on.

Gets annoyed when people get in her space.

Yup.

She adores Taylor, our babysitter, who has helped me soooo much this summer and will continue to do so in the fall for soccer/baseball at times.

She still loves Taylor but will cry when I leave.

Climbs stairs easily.

She has started practicing going down with me.

Loves the pool.