Evey is 18 months. I still can't believe it.
I love saying "I'm the mother of a toddler." This age has been so much fun! Evey plays hard and sleeps even better. We did go through a shaky teething period in January where she kept waking up, but we discovered the amazing teething tablet (aka candy) and quickly made it back to our full-night's sleep.
At 18 months Evey has 13 teeth. She weighs 21 lbs.
Her favorite word is "this". She points at everything she's curious about and says "this". That's what she was saying in her 18 month photo and pointing to a red, victorian style chair that she thought was oh-so-fun! Mommy, on the other hand, thought that it didn't match her outfit at all!
She says so many words now and we're working on teaching her to use her words instead of making an "at" sound that she's fond of. I realized that's the first mommy mimic that stuck around. WHOOPS!
A lot of her words start with "B". She can say ball, block, bath, bye-bye, baby, beep-beep. She also says fish, off and on and will repeat almost anything I ask her to.
She LOVES animals. She says the sounds for cow, horse (which is her favorite), sheep, owl, monkey, cat, dog (her other favorite), monsters, dinosaurs, tiger, lion, and elephant. She thinks bunnies are called "Emaline" and says "ladle, ladle, ladle" with a soft a when she talks about them. She makes a similar sound for Llamas.
She still loves airplanes, cars, trains and all things that go.
She can say all of her immediate family member's names except for Harrison (but that one is difficult) and Auntie Ali where she uses her tongue instead of vocals to get the point across. She can also pick out most of us in photos. We're still working on Uncle Joel for that one!
She loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and does the sign for mouse whenever she wants to watch it, but her favorite movie is Spirit, Stallion of the Cimmaron. We watch it over and over. She also loves to watch Stellaluna, Monsters Inc., Homeward Bound (the "vuf, vuf" movie) and Over the Hedge. She watches Eebee Eebee Baby and Yo Gabba Gabba with Mimi and says both of those.
I love that she knows what every room in our house is. I can tell her to head to the kitchen for some water and she knows where to go. She knows the bathroom is where we go potty and take baths and she knows where Mommy's room and Evey's room are. She also knows the living room is where she plays. It still amazes me that she can follow simple directions so well.
She loves to play kitchen and baby. She wraps her babies in blankets and changes their diapers. She's a natural! She also loves to be "destructo-girl," as we call her, and build towers then run through them to knock them over. Her favorite toys at home are her Little People Noah's Ark and Farm and her coloring books.
She has gotten so good at using sign language that she even makes her own signs to get her point across. She made up her own sign for ice cream (she rubs her first finger on her tongue) and for coloring (she sits down and makes a coloring motion with her hand and arm). She's learned more, I'm sure. She can pick them up after we show them to her once, but I can't remember for the life of me.
She knows her head, shoulders and toes... we're still working on knees. She knows where her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, hands, fingers, feet, legs, arms, belly and belly button are. Oh yeah... and her butt! LOVE IT! She also knows how to say and sign all the different colors. Her favorite is "back" (aka black).
She loves singing with me. Her favorite book right now is Puff the Magic Dragon which I sing to her before bed 1-3 times every night. She also loves the Llama Llama books and Goodnight, My Love which is my favorite. We have this dinosaur 4 pack that she loves as well. How Do Dinosaurs Pick Up Their Room, etc...
We definitely stay busy. She loves water and bath time is her favorite time of day. We've gotten our Y membership back, but have been having trouble finding time to get over and swim this winter. She can go all the way up and down a play slide on her own and has mostly mastered climing stairs in general. I still have to help her go down - more because it makes me nervous than her!
My favorite thing to see her do is pray. She loves praying and we get to do it over and over - at her request. She folds her hands and says "Jesus" and "Men" (amen). It's adorable.
I'm so proud of all the things my TODDLER can do! Every day she learns something new. I have never enjoyed anything the way I enjoy motherhood and this little girl is perfect in my eyes. I am so thankful for everything she brings to my life. Who knew it could be this good?!?
