18 Months = An Offical Grown-Up Toddler

I can hardly believe that our little Lucy is 18 months old now! I remember clearly the day that Luke would have turned 18 months old, and I remember wondering how that was possible too. Milestones are so bittersweet with both of my children, but the bitter and the sweet is wrapped differently with each. With Luke, I wistfully imagine what he would be doing at particular calendar milestones. With Lucy, I watch with pride as she accomplishes each milestone, but then realize how fast she is growing up. It was only a year and a half ago that we brought our long awaited baby home from the hospital but even now, the memories are a sleep deprived blur. I wish I could remember more clearly every moment and wonder how my memories will be in ten, twenty, and heck - fifty years. I keep telling myself that with Baby T Three, I am going to try and focus more on the moment and not let the sleeplessness interfere with my ability to remember the preciousness of babyhood. Now that we are planning for a new baby, and we are bonding with Baby T Three, I really feel like Lucy is no longer a baby and officially a toddler.

She still has those squishy cheeks that I love to press my face against when I hold her, but she squirms away so fast now that it's hard to get my cuddle quota met. As if to prove my point that she is now an official grown-up toddler, in the below picture I caught her (the house got too quiet, and I went searching) at my computer trying her hand at some emails.

To prove my point even further that she is now officially a grown-up toddler, she not only is earning her keep at freelance writing, but can also literally fill in Will's shoes and take the garbage out while saying "heavy!"Speaking of shoes, she can also put her own shoes on now, and most of the time even gets them on the correct feet! The other day I told her to go find her shoes. A couple of months ago she would have done this promptly and proudly, but now that she has her own mind she is quite over following any sort of direction from her mom. So the house got quiet again, and in an exhausted tone I said loudly (I never yell of course! ha ha) "LUCY, I said get your shoes!" Then out popped a head from behind the couch ottoman and a proud little face that smiled and said "SHOES! YEAH!" She had put both of her shoes on the proper feet all by herself for the very first time! I can't tell you the joy that washed over me - you would have thought that I had just opened an envelope with a surprise tax refund. This is huge for us, especially with my expanding belly. Oh, the sweet freedom to not have to get down on the floor, pin down a resisting and squirmy toddler and try and get a pair of shoes on feet that refuse to take the shape of a shoe! Here she is below, showing how she puts on her shoes. If you notice the criss-cross of the velcro tabs on her shoes - that was all her, and apparently that is how all the cool kids are wearing their velcro these days.

On a final note about feet, Lucy loves dancing to the song "Happy Tappin' with Elmo." If you are going to be around us any time soon, make sure you request that Lucy dance to it because it is absolutely hilarious. It reminds me of the way the Peanuts characters dance on Charlie Brown. She gets a really serious look on her face, and then her feet start going wild while her upper body stays stationary. I'm thinking of enrolling her in either Irish Step dancing or tap dancing.

Will's birthday was this past month which brought no end of anticipation and excitement for Lucy. Her favorite song is "Happy Birthday", which she refers to as "Happy", and she loves birthday cakes and blowing out candles. She can now color pictures without eating the crayons this month, which worked out well for Will's birthday card that she is coloring below.She even is beginning to learn about her colors, and has green and orange down pretty well. When in doubt though, green is her trusted standby when asked to name a color. Here she is below helping her Dada blow out his birthday candles.Besides loving birthday cake, her favorite new food words this past month are "donuts" and "orange juice". She loves these new words so much, she actually says them over and over as she is falling asleep. In fact, we have to designate a specific time in the future when we will get her donuts or orange juice for her to relax enough to fall asleep. For example, on a Thursday night when Lucy won't go to sleep because she keeps saying "donuts, donuts, donuts" we will break down and promise her: "Sunday after church we will go get donuts." The next morning she wakes up and tells us first thing: "Church. Donuts. Dada. Mama." She has a killer memory.

With her expanding vocabulary she is able to convey more and more how accurate her memory really is. She fills in the words now when we read her books or tell her nursery rhymes. She is so proud of this skill that she will shout the word slightly in advance of us saying it.

When reading 'Go, Dog. Go.'

Us: "Go by skates, go by bike, go by foot, run, skip-"

Lucy: "HIKE!!!"

Us: "Stop, dogs, stop, the light-"

Lucy: "RED!!!"

Us: "Go dogs, go it's-"

Lucy: "GREEN!!!"

And then there is the book 'Good Night Moon' which Lucy's favorite part to say follows us reading: "Goodnight to the little old lady whispering-" Lucy: "hush" which she whispers and says oh so sweetly.

Lucy is now stringing together her first attempt at sentences, which are only lacking the connective words. A couple of weeks ago Will took Lucy to the duck park by our house and met up with her friend Aeden and his dad. Aeden is a couple of years older than Lucy and took a spill while riding his bike. Apparently this made quite an impression on Lucy, as she has been talking about it ever since, saying: "Aeden. Boo-boo. Bike. Duck. Dada." It's like playing Mad Libs for Will and I except for the fact that we have the nouns, and have to fill in the rest of the story. We went to friends of ours baptism for their baby son two weeks ago, and ever since this is what Lucy tells us about that: "Beebee James. Bat. Wa-wa. Cry. Mama. Dada. Home. Swing. Rock. Nap." To which we translate: "We saw baby James get baptised in the water and he cried. Then his mom and dad hugged him and he stopped crying. Then they took him home and put him in his swing where he rocked to sleep for a nap." Pretty good that she can convey all that in only eleven words, and it took me around forty! My other favorite 'sentence' that she repeats multiple times every day that Will is at work: "Dada. Home. Lunch. Nap." To which I translate: "Daddy is at work, and will be home after lunch and after our nap."

I guess most of this post is going to revolve around the things Lucy has said this past month, and I apologize if this is getting a bit boring. It's just that next month she will be on another level completely with her vocabulary, and I don't want to forget all the cute things she said. Besides from updating family and friends on our life, my purpose with this blog is to create my own version of a scrapbook of my children's lives. I hope that one day they can look back on it and know how loved they are, and I can look back on it and remember their childhoods.

Okay, so back to Lucy talking. She has picked up on phrases that Will and I say often, and in fact has pegged each of us with one word. The funny thing is that neither Will or I realized we had a signature word, until Lucy started repeating it when imitating us. While Will is at work and she does something cute or good I will say to her: "When daddy gets home we'll tell him how you colored like a big girl today. What do you think he will say?" Lucy: "Woooow!" Me: "You got dressed so nicely this morning. What do you think daddy will say when we tell him?" Lucy: "Woooow!" And then there's me. Will: "What do you think Mama will say when she finds out you ate a good lunch?" Lucy: "Umhumm." In the below picture, Lucy is pretending to be me on her play phone. How do I know? She just keeps repeating the word "Umhumm!"

Her play phone was given to her by her Aunt Denise and Uncle Bob. When Aunt Denise saw the pictures on the blog of Lucy talking on my cell phone, she decided Lucy needed a phone of her own. After Lucy opened the present from "Bob and Neese" as she now refers to them, Aunt Neese pretended to talk on the phone to someone named Bernie. Aunt Neese and Uncle Bob have since gone home, and Will and I have been trapped into talking to this Bernie person, who Lucy has not forgotten, multiple times a day. Aunt Denise, that Bernie is a talker! Thanks a lot for putting her number on speed dial for Lucy!

Last month Lucy loved saying "No!" to every question we asked her, even if we knew she really meant yes. This month we have reached a break through as she now will say "Yeah" when she means yes. I find it funny that she is talking in the same Midwest American form of English that Will and I do. Oops!

Finally, Lucy loves to play Patty Cake this month, and so cutely will sing "Peetey cake, peetey cake, woll, woll, pat!" She then points to herself and says "Beebee". When asked what her name is, she says "Beebee" and we're not sure if she really thinks her name is Baby, or if she can't say the 'L' part of Lucy and so has found another way of referring to herself. Either way, I have caught myself referring to her as baby way more than I thought I did, and have tried making an effort to call her Lucy!

Okay, enough about what I think are Lucy's cute phrases and sayings. Below is a little less talk and a lot more pictures! Remember this picture from exactly a year ago on Lucy's six month birthday?

Here she is a year later with a different pumpkin and slightly smaller cheeks!My, oh my, how much she has grown in a year! My little grown-up toddler!