My Lil' American Doll

Our baby girl has morphed into a toddler, and it has been an absolute joy.

(And, yes, that is a wee- little ponytail in her hair. The neighbor girls put it in her hair and I thought it was cute)

Some things about our girl. 

• Her latest stats are: Length: 28.9" and Weight: 20.8 pounds 
• She wears 18 month clothes.
• She has 8 teeth (she didn't get her teeth until 11 months, and her two tops and two bottoms came in at once).
• She waddles around. She started walking at 13 months.
• She loves blueberries, bananas, grapes, cheese, breads, milk, juice and pb&j sandwiches. 
• She tolerates carrots, sweet potatoes, and apples. 
• She hates peas and broccoli. 
• She loves to play music and shake her booty. My aunt bought her a disney musical book that you press a button and music plays, she goes over to it and presses the button when she is in the mood to dance. 
• She loves Elmo. Sesame Street captivates her. 
• She likes Barney, but only when they are singing and she can dance.
• She loves dogs, she walks right up to dogs no fear (we will need to work on the asking of permission to pet these strange dogs).
• She loves horses, cows and goats but only at a distance.
• Her vocabulary changes by the day, and what I mean is she will say a certain word for a while and then she just stops saying it. For example, she would point to her sippy cup and say "duce duce" which to me sounded like "juice", well, now she doesn't say that. Another word she has done this with: "nigh nigh" - when I would get her ready for bed or whenever she was tired. 
• Words she consistently says, "Mama" "Dada" and her newest ones "hi" and "dough" (when she points to a dog).
• If you ask her to clap she claps. If you ask her where her tongue is she will show you her tongue. If you ask her to blow a kiss, sometimes she will blow a kiss. If the dogs are being too noisy she will put her finger to her mouth and say "ssssss" she can't quite say "shhhhh", so she sounds like a snake. 
• She loves to drink out of my water bottle. 
• She is a very social child. She will walk right up to kids (no matter the size) and will "play" with them. 
• She loves the water, we are working on getting her face wet. 
• She still naps twice a day for about 2 hours each, and she sleeps from 7:30 pm (with summer it is a little different with bedtime because we are out later) to 7:30 am.
• (Please do not feel you have to read this next one -or any for that matter -, it is more for me and my posterity).  A typical day in our household looks like this: She wakes up at 7:30 we head down to eat breakfast. Around 8:15 we get ready and head out for our jog/walk. When we get back we have a half an hour of play time, with no technology, just me and my girl doing good ol' fashion play (I am embarrassed I have to admit this, but I am very dependent attached to my phone and I realized I was spending way too much time on it. I would be sitting there reading a book and simultaneously checking my email [not something I am proud of]. So I have periods throughout the day that I unplug and give her my full attention.  These unplug times have become my favorite part of the day - so much so that I now have days that I unplug [ok, not entirely this only during her waking hours, I don't know if I am that good, but I should try it some time). She takes her morning nap. She wakes up and we have lunch. After lunch we do errands, outside time, garden time, play time, or whatever we feel like. Then she takes an afternoon nap. She wakes up for dinner. Then we have family time and whatever we feel like doing in the evening. And by 8:00 o'clock she is in bed.
• When she receives compliments it is usually regarding her eyes or how happy/smiley she is. 
• She already has many friends, thanks to an awesome neighborhood full of little girls who love babies. I will never be short a babysitter.
• She had her first real (by real I mean paid) babysitter this week. It was our neighbor Mckenzie. It was only for 30 minutes, but still. 
• We love her to pieces.