18 Month Developments

WARNING: This is long and more for my memory than anything else. Feel free to skip.

I'm a bit late in this post, but I just realized I haven't done a developmental post in a while and I know I'm not going to remember what things Kaitlin was doing at this age, since I can't remember what she was doing at any other milestone times. I always just assume "oh, of course I'll remember she was doing this" but then I have friends ask at what age she started doing "x" and I have no clue. So anyways, here are some things that are going on with Miss K around 18 months:

Favorite foods:
Cheese, grapes, bagels with cream cheese, waffles, spaghetti, PIZZA, beans and rice, applesauce, tortillas

Still not a huge fan of veggies, although I try to serve them at every meal so she is exposed. She has days where she won't eat anything and days that she eats just about everything I offer.

Has over 200 words. This was as of the end of Kindermusik in January when we had to count them for class, so I'm sure she has more now.

She LOVES to sing the ABC's and knows the whole song, but kind of glides over M-O.

Counts from 1-12 on her own, can go to 20 with help.

Sleeps from about 8pm - 7am, give or take an hour on either end. 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. She goes down by herself, although some nights require a little more cuddling/rocking than others.

Favorite activities:

• Walking around outside with baby and stroller. This usually ends up with her saying "Mommy take it" as she hands me the stroller, which I'm to carry the rest of the time while she's free to roam and explore unencumbered.
• Zooming around the house in her car. The faster you push and take corners the better, and the more screams you will elicit.
• Going to the Tubes, the park, Barnes & Noble, McDonald's play place
• Helping mom '"clean" when she sees me wiping up the counters or table. She demands her own spray bottle and towel.
• Blowing bubbles
• Watching You Tube (Mommy is ashamed to admit this, but it's a great way to get some stuff done around the house. Somehow I feel less guilty about this than letting her watch videos, since a You Tube watching is shorter and involves me interacting with her to determine which video to watch next.)
  

Favorite toys:

• Baby dolls - loves to feed them and have them do whatever she does. Especially likes to help put them to sleep.
  
• Stroller
• Bus
• Elmo & Abby Cadabby
  
• She's just recently become interested in balls, I find this funny compared to all her boy friends the same age who have been into them for a long time. And her interest still pales in comparison to theirs.
  

She loves to read and will pretty much read anything, but these are current faves:

• "Old Macdonald" (Little Golden Book) - she is obsessed with this book and can look at it forever.
• "Who Is Coming to Our House?" - book about animals in the stable preparing for Joseph & Mary to arrive on Christmas
• "Peekaboo" - picture book with babies and flaps. There is a baby in there that sort of resembles Thomas and she loves to yell "THOMAS!" when we are on his page.
  

She loves to sing and sings along to most of the CD's we have. She can sing these songs on her own:

• Twinkle, twinkle
• Itsy bitsy spider
• Old Macdonald
• Barney "I Love You"
• "Hello" and "Goodbye" songs from Kindermusik. We sing these for pretty much everything to keep from melting down when it's time to leave something fun we are doing (ie. "Bye bye park, bye bye park, bye bye park, we'll see you later on.")

Still has huge separation anxiety issues. I talked to the pediatrician about this at her 18 mo appt and she said she has a 4yr old who is the same way still, some kids are just momma's kids and don't outgrow it. I think this is God's sense of humor since I am an incredibly independent person. She's gotten better, but there is still always a hysterical drop off (at church or at home with the nanny). She recovers within 1-2 min though which is much better than it used to be!

She will only hold hands with me when we cross the street. She has become more giving with her affections though, and will give most anyone a hug and a kiss if she's been around you for a bit. She loves other kids and loves to hug and try to talk to them.

She misses her daddy very much during busy season! He usually gives her her bath and does the nightime routine, but since it's been all me all the time for the past 2.5 months, she's become a bit wary of this stranger in our midst.