18-Month Recap

Well, it happened. My little girl turned one and a half years old today. Wow. That sounds so old. She truly has become such a little girl and has changed so much this month. Here is a quick run-down of some of the highlights of the past four weeks.

1. She figured out a new trick that she likes to do when showing off or expressing excitement. She will pull herself up onto the coffee table or onto a chair and then bring her legs up in the air while laying on her stomach. Often times, she will do several of these "pull ups" in a row. Fancy acrobatics, eh?
2. Thanks to her father (I burned out months ago), she learned how to sign "All done" in sign language and will do it after every meal or snack. The only problem is that she will often times sign it when she is only half way through her meal. We're still working on perfecting this one.
3. Lia is most definitely a girl. She has fallen in love with all things make-up. Whenever we are in Ron's and my bathroom, she insists that I put my little make-up bag on the floor for her. She will then spend several minutes going through it, one item at a time. But, here's the funny thing. Lia thinks that all make-up is meant for the hair instead of the face. So, she will take my lipstick, blush brush, eyelash curler, etc. and run it all over her hair. We're still working on this one, too, but I'm in no rush. I'd be happy if she didn't perfect this one for another fifteen years or so.
4. Lia is all about kissing. She will now blow you kisses and has started to kiss non-human things such as her reflection in a mirror (she did this for the first time totally unprompted by us), pictures of animals in books, and various stuffed animals. It's too, too cute.
5. A personal favorite: Lia has learned how to fold her arms for prayer and will even say "Amen" sometimes. The only glitch is that she often times will fold her arms mid-meal and start saying, "Amen," over and over again.
6. This one just cracks Ron and I up and she only could have learned it from her aged parents, but Lia has started to grunt like an old person whenever she sits down on the floor or has to bend over to pick something up or has to get up or walk over something big. Such a little drama queen.
7. After the glorious times of last month when Lia ate 99% of anything placed on her plate, it all came crashing down with the start of the heat wave the end of July. Round #2 of pickiness moved in a few weeks ago. Once again, Lia is refusing many different meats and vegetables. Thank heavens for bread, cheese, and fruit!
8. I know that I have been fortunate to have a child who has religiously taken two naps a day for so many months, so I can't complain, but Lia is in the process of outgrowing one of them. Looks like we will be heading into the land of the one-nap-a-day-after-lunch very soon.
9. Lia has really started to talk and with that has come her pseudo-conversation voice. Several times a day, she will look at you and just start blabbering in this Mandarin Chinese gibberish while nodding her head emphatically. The poor girl really is trying to have a conversation with us.
10. She taught herself how to walk downstairs alone using the railing or the wall for support!
11. Alright, are you ready for this one?! Words, words, and more words! Lia's vocabulary TOOK OFF this month! She started to pick up so many more words a week in comparison to the last few months. It's rather remarkable to us (yes, a proud parent moment). She has started to communicate some of her basic needs/wishes a lot easier and can identify several more pictures in her board books. So, here goes the mother list of words that she really has picked up this past month: bike (pronounced "bye"), book or bookie, bird, beep beep (for the bird noise), pooh pooh (she has even started telling us when she has it in her diaper), pee pee, bath (pronounced "uh bah"), ready (but she doesn't say the "d"), cookie (she says this one all the time), sucker (the word Ron taught her for pacifier and she says it like "suckuh"--his new favorite word), cracker (pronounced "crackuh"), towel, doggie (this has replaced "dog"), froggie, rain, duckie, moo, toes, house, turtle, star (pronounced "dar"), beach, water, all gone, berry, rockie (for rock, not Sylvester Stallone), keys, dollie, bunny (pronounced "munny"--my new favorite word), choo choo, fly (for butterfly), fish, apple, mouse, squeak (for the noise a mouse makes), and the "neigh" sound that a horse makes. So, there you go! No embellishing or exaggerating going on. I promise.

Can't wait to see what next month brings....