18 Months

My little monkey is now 18 months old (on June 27). Time has flown by so quickly that I just about missed that milestone. We've been sort of off schedule on our pediatric checkups after the move. We ended up getting our 12 month check up at 15 months since that was the earliest we could get in as a new patient. The doctor said she didn't need an 18 month checkup since we had been in at 15 months, so the next time she returns for a well-child visit will be at age two!

Arden is still as strong-willed as ever, but she is also extremely funny and sweet. She loves playing with her brothers and running after them saying, "tickle, tickle, tickle" as she tries to tickle them. She is very tall for her age, but we haven't gotten a measurement since she was 15 months, and it was already 33 inches then! She is now into size 6 1/2 shoes! I have been randomly surveying all the little girls around her age, and she has the very biggest feet . . . by far! She is wearing the same size shoe as our neighbor's little girl who is three years old. Oh my! I am hoping she will slow down, so we don't have to order her prom shoes from the "big foot" catalog of special order women's shoes. Once you wear over a size ten, there just isn't much selection at local shoe stores.

Here are some things Arden is doing now:

• sleeps really well for about 12 hours at night (8-8) and then another 3-4 hour afternoon nap from 12-3:30 or so.
• feeds herself and is starting to spear her pick up foods with a fork
• drinks milk three times per day and likes diluted apple juice which I limit to one cup per day
• she is saying a lot of words. I think she is talking more than the boys did at the same age. She probably says 75+ words that I can understand. Stuart doesn't understand as many as I do because some don't sound exactly right, but I know what she means.
• she is putting two words together now and saying phrases like "all done, " "no more," "my book," "more waffle." Pretty amazing.
• she is wearing size 18-24 months and some 2T clothes.
• she is in a size 4 diaper -- which already seems tight
• she can tell me when she has a wet or poopy diaper, so I think she'll potty train earlier than the boys did (they were almost 3 when fully trained).
• she has all her teeth except her 2 year old molars
• she can take off her own clothes and her diaper
• she can climb onto the kitchen table, our tall bed, and over the couch
• she has just started playing with her doll and doing things like rocking it, feeding it, etc. It's so cute!
• she loves baths and gets very wild in the water. She goes all the way underneath and tries to slide down the back of the tub like a waterslide. It is like washing a wiggly seal! She hoots and hollers like it's a water park, and I have a hard time keeping her safe!
• she refuses to wear her shoes unless she is walking. If she is in the stroller, she just takes them off and drops them along the ride. I have spent countless hours going back and looking for the missing shoe, so for now she is riding barefoot!
• she can point to her head, ear, eye, nose, mouth, elbow, belly, and foot when asked.

We love her so much and so thankful that God allowed us to have her in our family!