18 months + other stuff

Every day I keep telling myself that I need to be better at this blogging thing because as I get older, things are just plain getting harder to remember. Especially when it comes to this sweet kid, who JUST turned 18 months old on the 1st! :

I just can't believe it.

Okay, well before I allow myself to go off and get sentimentally sappy, let's do some 18 month facts so recorded and out of the way...

- she is just beginning to talk up a storm within the last week. Favorite words to say are "ball", "duck" (pronounced"guck") and "gog" ("dog" also sometimes says "gaga")

- started speech therapy back in November on a biweekly basis to help encourage talking. Next week, we will move into weekly sessions and I am very much hoping and praying that this gets things moving. I honestly don't think therapy is necessary since she shows signs of being extremely cimmunicative at home, but the craniofacial clinic speech people want to be proactive about it.

-Other words she says are: grandpa, grandma, mama, daddy, cat, moo, robot, milk, cup, star, Phoebe (our dog's name), teeth, bowl, Alexa (we got an Amazon Echo recently, haha), banana, apple, blueberry ("blue"), cookie, square, this, poop, diaper, water. I know there are others but can't think of them at the moment. Obviously, she's not saying them as clearly as an adult, but we understand what she means, and apparently--according to the SLP-- that's what counts.

She's also climbing a LOT, running, reaching for our hands when we go out, loves to drink from straws, HATES napping and bedtime and brushing her teeth. Oh, and after a poop incident in the bathtub last week, is also terrified of baths now (great).

She can be picky about food, so I have to get creative and compromise a lot. But overall, she's a good eater and drinker.

Over Christmas (man, I am so behind on this blogging thing), she got bitten by the in-laws'dog, a miniature schnauzer that doesn't do well with little kids. So we took her to urgent Care to be safe. She is nicely healed now.

Ever since she turned 18 months....I don't know, I guess I had that number in my head like it was an important age... I've just felt the urgency to stimulate her in overdrive. I constantly wonder if I'm doing enough; is going out to play at a playground once or twice enough? Should I do that all the time?! Or am I reading to her enough? Am I letting her watch too much kid TV? (but man, sometimes I reeeally need that time to cook dinner, etc)
I'm a musician, but should I have already started giving her "lessons"? These questions of Am I An Adequate Parent float around in my brain continually. But then I stop to tell myself: you just need to LOVE her. Sure, doing things is important, but love will prompt you to do the right things. The things that are needed at just the right time.

Lots of other things are not getting done but that's okay. This time is precious to me. I am predicting she'll be talking to us in conversations by this summer. Where did the friekin' time go?!?!

Some stats (before I forget):

18 MONTH STATS

- 23 lbs, 14 oz (65 percentile)
- 33.5 inches (height, 91 percentile)
- 18.5 inches. (head circumference, 69 percentile)

In music news, I got some accompanying requests in January; one was a last second emergency for a concerto competition, so I scrambled to learn the UN-sight-readable music in less than two days. Spent late nights and early mornings preparing for that. But it paid well, and i do love accompanying. I've got another accompanying job next weekend, but it's easy.
And then next Sunday, we'll be dedicating Maddie in my church. So mething my husband doesn't quite understand, but is always something I wanted to do. I grew up with unstable church going habits (my mother was always finding something wrong with whatever church we were going to, and as soon as I'd make any friends, we were off to the next one!) and it's been one of my desires to have Maddie grow up in a solid church to make good friends and life experiences.

After all that, it'll suddenly be February, the month people either love or hate:/

Okay, gotta take a shower, as it's become apparent that Maddie hasnt slept this whole time I've been writing. Ugh.

Comments

Cat Simmonds said…
I'm right with you on the worrying, glad to know I'm not alone. I guess we just have to go with our gut feeling that we are doing the right thing! Hope you guys are having a lovely winter :)
Gaby said…
Thanks, Cat! Hope life is going well with the twins--double the fun!

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