Today our baby girl turned 19 months old.  Yeesh.  I feel like we just celebrated her half birthday last week.  Why do the days have to pass by so quickly?

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

Gracen loves:

• Going to story time sessions at our local libraries (she visits with the other babies, dances during the songs, and does the actions to the poems)
• Cooking and baking with Mama (the instant you mention it, she runs to the kitchen and retrieves her little vintage apron)
• Hiding things and having you find them (typically she hides them right in front of you, so it’s not an overly difficult game)
• Cottage cheese, avocado, peanut butter and cooked carrots
• Being outside (no matter how cold or rainy it is)
• Wrapping herself in a blanket and rolling around in it
• All animals
• Looking for dogs while we drive in the car (which leads to some ridiculously slow driving and rolling our windows up and down a lot)
• Having ice cubes in her water
• Sweeping, helping with laundry, and “doing” the dishes
• Teeny tiny babies (especially her wee friend, Tate)
• “Talking” on the phone
• Mothergooseclub.com (we’re pretty much done with the TV thing that started during her last bout of teething, but this is becoming its replacement… The teacher in me thinks, ‘at least it’s all nursery rhymes!’)
• Having pretend tea parties
• Likes “playing” Angry Birds on the iPhone (ugh…talk to her Papa about this one!)
• Having her toe nails painted (like LOVES it so desperately that she signs ‘please! please! please!’ while smashing the nail polish bottle on her little toes)

She dislikes:

• Having food stuck in her teeth
• Having fuzz in her mouth
• Laying on Mama’s shoulder if my hair has not been properly cleared away first

She thinks it’s hilarious when:

• You get really silly and roll around or “wrestle” with her
• You slowly creep towards her while saying, “I’m gonna get you…”

Grae’s new foods include:

• Spinach smoothies of all sorts
• Biscotti
• French crepes
• Pine nuts
• Tomato salsa

The new words she regularly uses include:

• “pool”
• “hop”
• “uh oh oh ohhh”
• “shhhhhhh”
• “tea”
• “straw”
• “run, run, run”
• “rain, rain, rain”
• “more”
• “nin” (in)
• “turtle”
• “clip”
• “bubble”
• “beep”
• “Grae Grae”
• “mane”
• “knee”
• “bedroom”
• “barrette”

The new signs she’s using regularly include:

• Happy
• Umbrella
• Rock
• Around

Right now, she:

• Talks about her “manmaws” constantly
• Sleeps with a pillow (stolen straight from Mama’s side of the bed)
• Isn’t afraid to wander off on her own (and therefore we have to keep a really close eye on her)
• Gives THE BEST out-of-the-blue leg hugs
• Often gives herself an enthusiastic applause after a job well done
• Pats Mama’s chest and declares “Mama!” very matter of factly when a stranger says ‘hello’ and she’s feeling shy
• Says “uh oh oh” if she sees any sort of mess on the floor
• Rushes to get cloths to wipe up real and imaginary spills/messes while saying, “uh oh oh…”
• Can retrieve books from her shelf or bin by title
• Is rapidly expanding her dance move repertoire
• Is really getting into imaginary play (like sipping on pretend tea, having her dolls go potty, and pretending to be sad)
• Can point out her chin, cheeks, neck, tongue, teeth, shoulders, bottom, and knees (in addition to the basic body parts she knew previously)
• Is really into collecting (rocks, seashells, pinecones – you name it!)
• Can do the actions to several of her favourite nursery rhymes and songs (like Where is Thumbkin?, Zoom Zoom, Zoom, and Peel Banana)
• Enjoys walking backwards
• Can put on her hats, underwear, pants, mittens, and gumboots by herself
• Sometimes tells you that she wants to go to sleep in the middle of lunch or dinner
• Can climb into her highchair on her own
• Can do the buckles on her high chair and car seat
• Immediately says “OW-AH!” every time she sees a knife or a pair of scissors and gets very worried if she sees you washing knives
• Uses signs (and words) to tell you about places you mention (for example, if I say, Grae, do you want to go to the beach, she’ll sign/say ‘rock’, ‘birdie’, “pup pup”, “drink” because we always collect rocks, see birds and dogs, and stop at Starbucks for hot drinks while visiting the beach)
• Gives proper kisses, complete with the ‘muwah!’ sound
• Is very brave at playgrounds (she’ll climb up and slide down anything!)
• Starting to use words in pairs (like “buh-bye Papa” and “no, no, Grae Grae”)
• Refers to herself as “Grae Grae” more than “Bubba”, like she used to
• Holds her pointer finger up to her mouth and says “shhh shhh shhhhh” if someone nearby is sleeping
• She is very kind to her peers (and wants to hug, kiss, and share with other toddlers at our play groups)
• Puts her shoes and hat away in the closet each time we come home

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

• If you ask her to do something, like give you a kiss, and she doesn’t do it, she’ll ask you if you’re sad using her sad/cry sign…  When you respond that you are in fact sad, she’ll immediately do what she was asked to do and give a big smile while signing ‘happy’
• She’s now got a crazy silly “smile!” face that she pulls out when you’re taking her photo
• After framing and hanging her first real finger painting, she now wants to hang all of her artwork on her bedroom walls
• If we’re out in public and she hears or sees a baby crying or whining, she imitates the baby’s sounds and you can just tell that she’s feeling sympathetic
• When she has to use the potty, she announces, “Poo poo!” (whether it’s number one or two) and then shouts, “Run, run, run!” as she hurries to the bathroom
• Many times, she’ll announce, “Poo poo!”, stop to grab a favourite book, and then run to the toilet with her reading material
• She likes to keep her pockets filled with “rarahs” (nuts) at all times
• Before bedtime, she kisses her dolls, adjusts their blanket, and gives their cradle a rock
• She is very affectionate and wants to kiss everything she likes (yes, including rocks)
• She lip syncs to her favourite songs very passionately (eyes closed/squinty, body swaying, head bobbing – it’s hilarious!)

The basics:

• Stats – Not too much new as we just had her 18 month wellness check up and won’t have another for a while, except for the fact that I measured her (twice – both standing and laying) out of curiosity after she jumped from the 95th percentile down to the 45th percentile for her height between her last two wellness appointments.  Turns out she’s actually 84 centimetres (rather than 80), which puts her at the 85th percentile mark.
• Teeth – Still 16 (thank goodness – we’re enjoying the teething break!)
• Eating – She continues to be a great little eater, but has definitely begun to show preferences for certain things at certain times.  Even though she loves Thai curry, it might not be what she wants for dinner the night that I’ve cooked it.  We try really hard to not make a big deal of these situations because we know she’ll eat when she’s hungry, and she almost always ends up eating some or all of it.  Things that she will never turn away are: tofu, cooked carrots, nuts, seeds, cottage cheese,  blueberries, edamame beans, yogurt, anything with peanut butter or almond butter, miso soup, and watermelon.
• Drinking – As of now, she continues to drink only water and whole organic milk.  She has about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of milk with breakfast, after her nap, and with dinner, and drinks water the rest of the time (unless we’re on a special outing and she gets a mini steamed milk when Mama gets a coffee).  She does have homemade smoothies for snacks sometimes, but they’re made with milk and naturally-sweet fruit only.
• Sleeping – *Knock on wood*, but we continue to have a fantastic little sleeper on our hands.  She goes to bed at 6:30 p.m. and sleeps through the night until about 6:30 a.m. (sometimes 7:00 if we’re really lucky).  She has one midday nap around noon, and generally sleeps for 2 hours, but it can vary between 1.5 and 2.5 hours.  She is definitely a routine little girl, and she does best if she stays on that routine.  Having a short nap or going to bed too late can cause an early morning, which is why we almost never stray from her schedule.  Although we have always made our very best effort to have her sleep at home in her crib for nap times and bedtimes, a few months ago we started being able to transfer her from her car seat to her crib if she had accidentally fallen asleep on the way home. We try not to be in the car driving right before nap time, but it’s nice to know that her nap won’t be ruined if she does fall asleep in the car.
• Potty training – We’re pretty much back to business as usual in the potty department!  When Grae and I got really sick at the end of January / beginning of February, we had Gracen in a diaper full-time for a week as she was spending most of her days sleeping.  Of course, wearing a diaper after going 3 months without, caused a little bit of backtracking, but we’re back to no diapers at home and on short outings.  I have been putting one on her for long outings (like a 10 km seawall walk or a day at Granville Island), but she’s been keeping those dry too.  Looks like Mama has to man up, be brave, and let them go again.

Well, that’s been Miss G’s month.  Like always, our little lady is a constant source of humour and joy and time seems to fly by faster than it did the month before.  I’m excited for what next month will bring…  I know that very soon she’ll be learning so quickly that I will no longer be able to keep track of all of this stuff, but hey – I’m up for the challenge!  Here’s to another wonderful month with our Little Lulu.  ♥

This post is late. BEYOND late.  So late in fact, that Gracen will be 18 months old in just 2 days.  But we were so sick when she turned 17 months that staying awake was nearly impossible…  Let alone posting a monthly update.  So here it is, short and sweet with one lousy picture of my very sick {at the time} little doodle.

Gracen loves:

• Pillows (still)
• Taking care of her babies (they get regular cuddles, kisses, and pats on the back, as well as snack and book deliveries)
• Colouring in her colouring books
• Drawing on her chalkboard
• Moving objects from one place to another, and then moving them back again
• Books (she carries them with her absolutely everywhere)
• Hanging out in Mama and Papa’s bed (she dives into the pillows and then buries herself in the duvet)
• Unwrapping presents
• Milk
• Raisins (so much so that she’s been known to try and sneak them out of the cupboard)
• Doing puzzles
• All animals

She thinks it’s hilarious when:

• You hide from her, jump out, and shout “Boo!”
• She runs and hides from you

Grae’s new foods include:

• Radishes
• Stovetop-popped popcorn
• All kinds of Mexican foods
• Pretzel crackers (we were on a 9 hour drive to the Okanagan in terrible weather and were desperate)
• We also tried juicing an orange for her while she was sick, but she’d have absolutely nothing to do with orange juice

The new words she regularly uses include:

• “Table”
• “Manpaw” – grandpa
• “Cock-a-doodle-doo”
• “Bzzzzzz” (bee sound)
• “Gido”
• “Mango”

The new signs she’s using regularly include:

• Frog
• Puppy
• Rabbit
• Butterfly

She now:

• Has a new big girl car seat (still rear facing)
• Answers ‘yes’ and ‘no’ appropriately to almost all questions
• Has 14 teeth (8 in the front, 4 molars, and 2 canines on top)
• Is starting to walk up and down stairs upright

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

• She is still ridiculously kissy and loves on you all day long
• She instructs you on where to blow bubbles on her body and then giggles like mad when you do
• No matter what’s going on or what’s she’s up to, if she sees the TV remotes somewhere, she immediately stops what she’s doing, retrieves them, and delivers them to her Papa
• When taking a crayon from her jar or a cracker from the box, she stops, holds up one finger, and then carefully selects just one item
• She loves doing jobs around the house and actively seeks them out

January was a bit of a crazy month for us…  Between traveling home to the Okanagan for a week, our ‘Christmas in January’ celebration, another round of teething, and the sickness that hit our house just recently, things have been a little chaotic.  Here’s to a low-key February!