18 Months

Height: 34.5 inches (98%ile)

Weight: 29 pounds (96 %ile)

It is hard to believe you're already a year and a half. It's even more unbelievable how much you've grown in just the past three months. Looking at my last post, I still see my sweet little baby Isabelle. Now, you are a full blown, independent, confident toddler with boat loads of spunk! I mean, are you kidding me with that look?!

You have almost all of your teeth now. The only ones missing are your four eye teeth... Your hair is getting longer (which is hard to tell because it's so curly). You've also grown about two inches and gained about 3 pounds. I swear you get more beautiful every day. We still get stopped practically everywhere we go by people commenting on your big blue eyes or curly blond hair or how you look just like the Gerber baby.

Your daily schedule consists of happily waking up sometime around 7:30. I am alerted by your singsong voice babbling and singing away. You prefer to wake up slowly (just like me), so I leave you be for a bit while I get myself and Jax ready for the day. Then you have breakfast, get dressed, and we take Jax to preschool. Then we go to the gym, or to ECFE, or (if we're having a lazy day) we just go back home and hang out for a few hours before we pick up Jax and have lunch. The problem is you often fall asleep in the car, which has messed up your naps a little bit. You seem to believe that a 5 minute car nap is equal to a two hour nap in your crib. At least once or twice a week you completely forgo your afternoon nap (which leads to a very cranky Izzy by about 4pm). This winter bedtime has been pushed earlier and earlier. Most nights you are asleep by 6:30 or 7pm. I guess I can't complain too much about the naps since you sleep so well at night!

You are becoming a great little helper and seem to have inherited my desire for orderliness (something the male members of our home lack). As soon as we enter the house you take of your coat and hang it on your hook and you have me help take your shoes off, which you then place nicely in the closet (along with any other shoes that happen to be laying around the mudroom). Whenever you hear me open the dishwasher you come running to help. You've actually gotten really good at putting away the silverware, measuring cups, and your sippy cups and bottles. You even put your dirty dishes in the sink and throw away your garbage! It's really quite impressive!

Your vocabulary is expanding rapidly. Some of your favorite words include dirty (see above), mine, no, more, yay, banana (you would eat three a day if I let you), bottle, KG, and mommy. You also love pointing to and naming body parts.

It seems like so long ago, but we had a great time celebrating Halloween. We went to a haunted horses night at our favorite pizza farm. You loved watching the chickens and got to go on your first carriage ride.

We also went to downtown Victoria's Halloween party and on a Halloween story trolley ride. The trolley ride was a little too long for your taste. Thankfully, a bottle prevented you from having a complete meltdown. It was a close call, though.

You absolutely LOVED trick-or-treating and lasted way longer than expected! You toddled along with Jackson and our next door neighbor and went up to every single house they went to.

 

We were lucky to have a relatively warm Fall, which we took full advantage of. These were taken on a NOVEMBER afternoon. It was so nice to have a bit of a late start to our winter.

Needless to say, just a month later, we were facing this!

Which meant it was time for the Christmas festivities to begin! Of course seeing Santa was top on the list! You were definitely a little apprehensive at first. You watched Jax and Santa for a little bit before you went to sit by him.

Another afternoon, you helped Jax and I make gingerbread cookies (you were mostly just interested in eating the dough).

Another highlight was the North Pole Express (which was actually in downtown St. Paul). You were very entertained by the singing and dancing elves, as well as Santa. It was a much more successful trip than the Halloween ride...

Christmas itself was fun, but busy! Jackson was up before the sun (as usual) because he was so excited to see what Santa brought. You, on the other hand, were less than thrilled to be awoken from your beauty sleep. (We did make Jackson wait an hour to let you sleep, which was pure torture for him, so give us a little credit). At least you found a comfy new chair to sit in...

...and a cozy new bunny pillow to cuddle with. It took a little coaxing to get you to open your presents, but eventually you got the hang of it, which was good because you had lots more presents to open at Grammy Ginny's and at Grammy & Papa White's houses that day.

 

We had a fun little family game day and New Year's celebration to ring in 2016! You loved dressing up in your tutu and devoured king crab and candy sushi. (Sorry you did not get to indulge in any of mommy's champagne!)

Another fun adventure we had was visiting a park (with some unbelievable pine trees) for a winter walk. Jax was sweet enough to pull you in your sled so mommy could take pictures. You tried to return the favor, but you didn't get very far...

When we're not out having fun adventures, a lot of our time is spent at Target or grocery shopping...

...or just hanging out at home building forts and playing with your big brother. I'm afraid you're going to be pretty bored at home without him all day when he goes to Kindergarten next year...

I better wrap this up- there's so much to cover in three months! The bottom line is, you are an absolute delight and I am so lucky that I get to spend my days adventuring with your sweet little self.

Happy 18 months, sweetie!

Love, Mom