Today Addy turned 18 months old. Here at our house we celebrate half-birthdays and this is Addy’s first half-birthday with us. She was just a few days past her six month birthday the first time we met.

As is tradition, we took her out and let her pick out a toy all on her own. It was quit fun. The girl can shop. She picked out Butterscotch first. I always wondered what kind of kid would want that ridiculous pony and now I know! My kid! haha. Seriously she really really REALLY really wanted that horse. Then she downgraded to Baby Alive or Baby McKayla but finally settled on a Doodlebops Keytar becuase she is the World’s Biggest Doodlebops Fan. Which, thank God, becuase it was way cheaper than the alternatives!

We also spent the day at Zoo Boo down in Houston. Addy was sporting her Kitty costume which she quickly totaled with sticky goo from suckers and candy. Yuck. So glad it isn’t her only costume!!

So here we are, at 18 months. Babyhood is a thing of the past. Here are a few of the milestones she’s reached at 1 1/2 years old:

The Stats: Addy had a huge growth spurt in the last month. She’s 24 lbs and I think 33″ tall. I am trying to reconcile the fact that I think she is totally out of 12 month sizes! All the fall clothes I bought are too small, too short or too tight. A few months ago her pants were falling off and now they are snug. A few months ago I wrote that I would never find panties to fit her tiny butt and now I think her panties may need an upgrade. Her feet were a 4.5 last month and now the 5’s don’t fit. Seriously, she’s a giant.

Teeth: She had a serious teething month. She now has all 4 front top and bottom teeth and 3 of her 4 molars with the 4th right about to pop through. Today she learned to chew with those back teeth which was actually really funny to watch as she realized they have a higher purpose than to just cause pain and agony.

Sleep: FINALLY she has slept through the night. A few times. Not consistently. In fact her sleep patterns have one thing in common - a lack of a pattern. Sometimes she wakes for a bottle several times, sometimes she sleeps all night. There’s just no telling. She does go to sleep at 8 and sleep in until 8 or 8:30 every day, though.

She takes a great 2-3 hour nap every day at around 1:30pm. LOVE the great big nap. She is in her own room full time now and loves it. So overall the girl gets a lot of sleep.

Potty: She is completely potty trained so long as she’s naked (which is most of her day lately) and completely poop trained all of the time. She will use any potty and has no fear which makes it really easy. Except yesterday when she saw a Halloween bowl on the floor and decided it must be a potty. haha. She asks to go potty most of the time when we are out but we are still using pull-ups for most trips becuase we are chickens She sleeps dry for her naps half the time and has slept dry all night a few times. Our big effort now is in working with her to not pee in her underwear. She rarely pees in a pull-up or when naked but the underwear are elusive. She wipes really really well on her own and she also remembers that she needs to wash her hands a lot of the time.

Dressing: She can take her socks off and put them on. She can get her underwear off and sometimes on. She can put her pants on by herself when she wants to. She loves to be naked most of all. She LOVES hats and sunglasses and can put those on by herself. She would like earrings but Daddy says no. This has caused a few outright fits. She still hates hair ties, clips and bows but her hair is so long she has to wear them now.

Speaking & Understanding: She is growing her list of words fast. She isn’t very easy to understand on a lot of her words but we understand her. A few of her words sound nothing like they should - like tonight she said “dot” repeatedly and it took us awhile to figure out she meant “march”. When we work on words, she will try very hard but often will just say the very first sound - like cookie is “k-k” - heehee. She calls things funny names sometimes like she calls water “cold”. All the numbers are “one”. She still babbles in her Vietnamese babble a lot of the time but her word list is long enough that I’m not sure I could count the number of words she uses very easily. But she knows how to say 3 body parts, she can point to at least 12 body parts on herself, she recognizes herself in pictures and the mirror and calls herself “Addy-Mum” which is cute. She has names for her brothers individually and as a whole, Tony & I, our cats, etc. She has one toy with a name (her beloved Bear whose name is, you guessed it, bear) and she has one favorite tv show that she asks for by name (10000x per day - Doodlebops) and loves to look for Mo Doodle. She understands essentially everything we say, can follow directions and uses a variety of signs to ask for things as well.

Motor Skills: I think I’ve blogged enough about Addy’s small & large motor skills to fill a book! She’s very skilled in both areas. She is incredible at watching someone do something and replicating it. She is also pretty obsessive and will try over and over and over to do a skill until she gets it. She’s really coordinated with her body and very flexible and strong. She can finally jump with both feet every once in awhile although this skill still drives her crazy because she can’t do it “right” every time yet.  She can climb up with alternative feet and she tries to walk down instead of going down safely on her butt or belly. I still won’t take down the baby gates but it is probably long past time. She holds her pen correctly and can write on paper (and any other surface) very easily. She loves to color, too. She has also long since been adept with the spoon and fork. She’s also really good at putting things together and taking them apart. She will dismantle anything in my purse including my book light that she got hold of the other day, took off the battery cover & popped out the flat lithium batteries. She can also put things back together like her C9 Sportscar Automoblox (a toy I *highly* recommend). To me, this is crazy! She is also huge into water play. She loves loves loves to pour water from one cup to another and could easily spend half her day doing that. In fact, I can’t even drink water around her anymore becuase she will freak out if she sees it and insist that she use it for her “experiments”. It is a messy, cold pain in the butt but she is getting really coordinated!

Imagination: Her imagination is booming. She loves to pretend with her babies & her play kitchen. She loves to dress up, grab a purse and take her shopping cart out for a spin. She loves to pretend to cook and eat and share drinks with her stuffed animals. I love watching this part of her most of all. She loves to pretend she’s a doggy and crawl around on all fours panting and licking us! haha. This doesn’t fit anywhere else but I noticed yesterday that she can sort things by color now and, no surprise, she is really anal about it.

Food: She still has a milk bottle a few times at night, as mentioned, and sometimes for her nap but otherwise she is off bottles entirely. She eats like a cow and weaning off formula sure didn’t change much. She has gained a LOT of weight and is just huge to me. She will still eat anything and everything. The other day she ate an entire bowl of salsa with a spoon at a Mexican restaurant and it was not mild! She eats really healthy but also has a huge sweet tooth. Her favorite treats are ice cream, bananas and candy. Halloween has totally spoiled her. One thing I will say, though, is that she HATES to sit still so meals are never ever fun or enjoyable now. Eating out is a nightmare. And she wants badly to eat what we are eating even if it is identical to what she has which gets annoying.

I absolutely love this age. Addy is so strong-willed but also so quick to get over things. She is super-affectionate and loving and very empathetic which I think is so sweet to see. She is also so full of energy and so loud, but also can be a sweet cuddly whisperer too. She is super super goofy, loves to show off and has a hilarious sense of humor. The 18 month old is one big yin-yang!!

Happy Half, little one!

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Holidays & Vacations, Milestones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.