My baby girl turned 18 months old today.  Officially one and a half.  As in… Tomorrow she’ll be closer to two years old than to one.  Goodness gracious…

One thing I’ve noticed since becoming a mommy is that I now have an overwhelming urge to create traditions, make the holidays more special than ever, and create memories that our little lady will keep with her always.  So today, we continued a little tradition we started last year.  We celebrated Gracen’s half birthday. Nothing fancy.  Just a day focused on Grae with a few special little things mixed in here and there.

Our day included a trip to Science World with friends, a Mama and munchkin date for hot drinks, picking up helium balloons on a whim, and a “cupcake” (a healthy banana nut muffin topped with fresh whipped cream) with a candle after dinner.

Here’s what our little lady has been up to this month…

Gracen loves:

• Having dance parties in her crib
• Wearing sunglasses (and actually keeps them on!)
• All animals (she often chooses to read non-fiction animal books over story books)
• Having painted toes (although Papa’s put the kibosh on that)
• Playing hide-and-seek
• Splashing in puddles
• The “Papa Song”, a.k.a. ‘Howling for You’ by The Black Keys (and requests it multiple times a day)
• Doing jobs (she actively seeks them out and sticks with them until they’re done)
• Greek food (tzatziki especially)
• The colour purple (she points out purple things everywhere we go and is in LOVE with her purple shoes, purple crayons, and purple clothes)
• Cooking and baking

She doesn’t like:

• Having things taken away from her if she’s enjoying them
• Potatoes (still)

She thinks it’s hilarious when:

• She’s laying on the floor and you lightly put your foot on her belly and wiggle it around
• She sits on your belly and bounces up and down
• She grasps on to the back of your shirt and follows you around like a little shadow

Grae’s new foods include:

• Mexican lasagna
• Fruit salsa
• Quiche
• Mustard
• Larabars
• Stovetop-popped popcorn
• Mango popsicle (not that it’s a new food that she regularly eats, but she did get one when she was getting over last month’s sickness and had a dry cough and sore throat)
• Also, my brother and sister-in-law will be very pleased to know that although Grae doesn’t get junk food (and won’t for a while!), she has had honey, pure maple syrup, and organic cane sugar (in tiny amounts) when they’ve been baked into things like homemade muffins or granola

The new words she regularly uses include:

• “star”
• “bedroom”
• “dot”
• “peep” (like a chick)
• “blue”
• “heart”
• “bump!”
• “G”
• “Chay Chay” (her cousin’s name is Chayton and we often call him Chay or Chay Chay)
• “straw”

The new signs she’s using regularly include:

• Cry / sad
• Hurt
• Water

She now:

• Mimics the emotions she sees characters displaying in books
• Is very into shapes and can consistently point out circles, hearts, and stars
• Can point out most basic colours
• Points and calls out “purple!” and “blue!” when she sees objects of those colours
• Has an amazing memory (sometimes I truly cannot believe the things she remembers)
• Is great with locations and directions and can find her way to favourite places in stores we visit regularly (like to the fish tanks in the back corner of Superstore)
• Points out the capital letter ‘G’ in books and in the environment (she finds them on posters tacked on power poles, on store signs, and in newspaper headlines)
• Is great at cleaning up and has no issue with tidying one thing before you help her get something else out
• Helps with laundry and is totally insulted if you try to do it without her
• Remembers who bought things for her and regularly pats the items while announcing the name of the person who purchased them for her (we always hear about “manmaw” {Sue} when she puts on her raincoat, “manmaw” {Charlotte} when she wears her cream sweater, and Papa when she sits in her carseat)
• Has 16 teeth! (all 8 front ones, four molars, and four canines)
• Walks upright up and down stairs when she has a hand or railing for support
• Does a funny gallop / skip sort of walk
• Is experimenting with jumping

Funny / Cute things she’s been up to lately:

• I’ve walked into her room twice recently and found her “nursing” her baby (just picture this – Grae sitting in her reading corner with her shirt off,  her baby in cradle position near her chest, while making suckling noises… too cute!)
• She dances in the car pretty much the entire time she’s in there
• Regularly requests ‘Chay Chay videos’ (videos of her cousins) by saying ‘Chay Chay’ while holding my phone in one hand and putting her other palm up to the sky
• She requests the “Papa song” (Jennifer Gasoi’s ‘Monsieur Glouton’) and “Mama song” (Jennifer Gasoi’s ‘The Pizza Man’) over and over again while in the car
• She says “nomanomaneigh” if she accidentally bites you (she can get a little aggressive while giving kisses)

Big things that have happened this month:

• She spent her first day away from Mama / spent her first full day with Papa
• She met her new little friend, Baby Tate when he was less than 24 hours old

Well, another month and what feels like a hundred new little things learned by our doodlebug…  Before we know it, it will be time to start planning her second birthday party.  (Okay, who am I kidding?  I’ve already given it some serious thought.)

If you want to see the difference 12 short months makes, you can see her last half birthday update here.