18 months old
Sadie, during your first year, I wrote to you every month to let you know about things you were doing and saying. When you turned one I thought "ok, well I'll do it every year now since she's not really changing as much as the first year" but boy was I wrong! I can't believe how much you have grown in the last 6 months, so I wanted to take a little time to jot down some things that I want to always remember about you at 18 months. I love you.
NIGHT-NIGHT
- Shortly after your birthday, your bedtime moved from 7 o'clock to 8 o'clock and you still sleep all the way through the night.
- Most of the time you make it to 8, but other times when you've had a busy day, you get tired earlier and need to go down around 7.
- Some nights when you are definitely ready for bed, we say "are you ready to go night-night?" and you grab our hand and lead us back to your room for a diaper change and bedtime.
- Other times when you are kind of cranky we say "are you ready to go night-night?" and you say (usually with tears in your eyes) "noooo" in your sweet and pitiful voice.
- Here's what you usually sleep with in your crib: seahorse, Violet (that you got for Christmas), Ladybug and Bumble Bee Pillow pets and two blankets.
- You usually wake up somewhere between 7 and 8 in the morning, and once you do wake up, you love to play and babble in your crib.
- Sometimes you are really tired because you don't wake up until 8:30 or 9:00... we usually just let you sleep unless it's a school day.
- You love to sleep on your stomach, sometimes on top of a pillow pet, with you arms wrapped around it, and your head down on the mattress... it sure leaves you with a serious rats nest in the morning!
- Around 14 months old, you dropped the morning nap. I know daddy was a little nervous about having just one nap, but you transitioned like a trooper! You now nap somewhere between 12 and 1, for between 2 and 4 hours. At daycare you nap at noon for usually no more than 2 hours.
EAT!
- When a meal is prepared we say "are you ready to eat?" and you say enthusiastically "EAT!". We say "Can you get in your chair?" and you walk over to your high chair and wait for one of us to put you in it.
- Your eating schedule consists of breakfast and milk when you wake up. Your morning favorites are adult oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, applesauce, and cereal. You are really good at feeding yourself with a spoon, espcially with things that aren't too runny.
- If you finish your morning milk, you come to us with your cup and say "juice" or "water"... if it's in the morning you get water until lunch.
- Lunch happens somewhere between 11 and noon. Anything goes for lunch: sandwiches, veggies, crackers, etc along with another cup of milk.
- You love to eat with your hands but are doing so good with eating with forks and spoons too.
- You usually take your nap after lunch, but when you wake up you get some juice diluted with water and a snack... usually fruit or snack crackers.
- You love juice, so if you finish it before dinner then you get water.
- Your dinner is usually whatever we eat. You love pasta, veggies, chicken, and just about anything!
- Around 15 months you were in a weird phase where you didn't really want much and would spit it out immediately. Everything I read said not to force you to eat, so we didn't. Thankfully you got over it quick and are now eating most everything we give you.
- You give us lots of clues when you are done eating... the worst is spitting out food, throwing it, or feeding it to Rascal. We've been working with you to say "done" or "down" whenever you have finished. Again, if you haven't eaten a lot, we don't force you, but you also can't get "snacks" later on.
- You are obsessed with bananas and call them "nanis". At first you loved them and would eat a whole one by yourself. Now you just love the idea of them or saying "nani" because when we give you one, you eat a couple of bites and leave it laying around somewhere. When we try to get you to finish it, you say "no."
- You know where certain things are in the kitchen like oatmeal, milk and juice, snack crackers, grapes, bananas, etc. If we ask you what you want for breakfast and say "oatmeal" you point to or walk to the cabinet where it's at.
- You've learned how to wash your hands after we eat, even rubbing the soap on your hands and washing it off. We still have to hold you up to the sink, but for the most part you do it all on your own.
SAY WHAT?
- You can say so many things now. When you turned one, I think you're vocabulary was about 5-10 words. Now I would say it's 50-100+ at least. I've tried to create a running list of them each month, but there are so many new words a day it's hard to keep up with you.
- Here's what I have so far on my list, but there are so many more I haven't kept up with. They kind of go in chronological order:
First Words: Ball, Dada, Mama, Uh-oh, Ducky, No, Boo, Boom, Puppy, Baby, Hi, Bye, Mine, More, Mommy, Daddy, Bubble, Please, Night night, Yeah, December, Woah, Water, Eat, Pee pee, Poo, Cheese, Two, Beep beep, Wow, Yucky, Thank you, Bye bye, Nani (banana), Juice
January: Down, Ty Ty, Pops, Walker, Yoey (Zoe), Poo poo, I, you, Grapes, Back, Stuck, Trash, Away, Cat, Outside, Color, Mimi, Pawpaw, Candace, Nan, Nate, Book, bath, Stop, Catch,
February: Watch, Keys, Up, Car, chair, bag, Aw man, Want this, turtle, want to watch, yes - You are great at saying new words. We will say to you "Can you say _____?" and you will try. Sometimes it sounds nothing like it, and other times you're right on. It's amazing!
- I've been working with you on putting words together, not just repeating sounds like bye bye. "Aw man" "want this" and "want to watch" are all relatively new terms for you and it took a little while to figure out what you were saying.
- I haven't heard you say your own name yet. We will look at a picture of the 3 of us and you'll point and say "daddy", point and say "mommy" and then I point to you and say "Sadie" and you'll say "daddy" or "mommy."
- As long as you're the first one to say "hi" then you're usually ok, but sometimes you get shy when people to speak to you first.
- You know how to use words and know what they mean. For example if the channel gets changed off of something you were watching you say "uh-oh"... if you drop something you say "aw man"... if you want something you say "mine" and if you don't want something you say "no".
- You are definitely a daddy's girl. He has you brainwashed, you trained, taught you to say "Daddy" anytime you hear a question start with "who"
- You love to talk on the phone... your pretend phones and adult phones. On nights that daddy works we call him and you get to hold the phone all by yourself. The conversation usually goes something like this:
"Hi Sadie." "Hi."
"Who loves you?" "Daddy!"
"That's Right! Who do you love?" "Daddy!"
"I Love..." "You!"
"That's right! Bye." "Bye!"
"Bye-Bye."
AROUND THE HOUSE
- You love to help us around the house. I think it's because you are trying to grow up a little too fast and be like an adult, which I don't like at all!
- You help us empty the dishwasher by handing us bowls and utensils that are on the lower racks.
- If something needs to be thrown away, you say "away" or "trash" and take it to put it in the trash.
- You are very good at picking up your toys before your nap or at the end of they day when we say "let's pick it up".
- You're also very good at taking stuff to people. If I have something for daddy, I can give it to you and say "take it to daddy" and you take it to him.
- You like to help let Rascal in and out and get excited when he comes back in from being outside.
- If I put dog food in Rascal's bowl and a couple of pieces spill out, you like to put them back in the bowl.
- If your milk spills on the floor we say "can you clean it up" and you get a paper towel and clean it up all by yourself.
- Yes, you are slightly OCD about cleaning up. :)
- You have the best manners of any 18 month old I've ever seen. You say "peas" (please) when you want something and "tank you" when we give it to you. At first it was hard teaching you when to you each of them, but after being very consistant and repetitive you're figured it out for the most part and say one and then the other.
LET'S HAVE FUN!
- You have so many toys!!! There is an entire area in our living room where you have a house tent, train table, kitchen, horse, bookcase full of books, two beanbags, a replica firetuck, baby stroller, shopping cart... and tons of little toys to fill in the gaps like jewelry case, school house, balls, tea set, groceries and food, shape sorter, stacking rings, bowling pins, stuffed animals, dolls, coloring books, cameras, microphones, musical instruments.
- Speaking of musical instruments you love to make noise with your kazoos, harmonica, drum sticks, and noisemakers.
- And you love to dance! If you hear music on the TV or in the car you'll start bouncing up and down with the beat.
- We have a piano and you love to sit on the stool and play it. You usually pat the seat next to you which means you want one of us to sit down and play with you.
- For the most part, you do pretty much play with everything, sometimes bringing it all out at once to play with. :)
- The shape sorter has always been a favorite of yours. We used to turn the ball to the correct shape you had in your hand and you would put it in. But this week, you started turning the ball yourself to find the right shape! If you try it out and it's the wrong one you say "no" and keep turning it. If you find the right one you say "yes" and rotate the piece until it fits.
- You have a Melissa and Doug wooden animal puzzle that you are great at.
- Just recently it's been warmer outside and you love to blow bubbles and play with sidewalk chalk.
- You love books. You'll go grab a book and bring it to us to look at. You're great at find the objects on the page, especially shapes, food, animals, and lots of other things. You have one Baby Einstein book that I think you can point out 50-100 things in on the first try.
- You also have a puppy book that you love. You like to make the puppies scratch, shake like a Rascal and pee on the tree. Then we have to find that cat that keeps hiding!
- You already know how to pretend play... you'll get the tea set out, set the cups on the saucers, pour the tea in the cups and "drink" the tea, and you expect us to drink it too.
- You have a couple of toy cameras that you link to take pictures with, but I think it's especially funny when I have my camera or phone and you automatically say "cheese!" and smile at me. Does that mean I take too many pictures of you?
- You have also learned that mommy's camera shows the picture on the back after I take it and now you insist on seeing each picture.
- And you love seeing pictures and videos of yourself. Sometimes we will just sit at the computer and watch videos from your first year... you get so engrossed and don't want to stop watching.
- Daddy set up a web cam on the home computer and now you guys call me at work on it. I love being able to see your smiling face when I'm busy at work. It makes my day so much better.
- Itsy Bitsy Spider is your favorite and you even act it out with your hands and mouth some of the words as we sing it. You always want to do it when you're on your changing table, but I'm not real sure what the connection is with that.
- Some of your favorite TV shows to watch (on occasion) are The Backyardigans, Pound Puppies, Fresh Beat Band, Yo Gabba Gabba and Wonder Pets. Your face lights up when you hear the theme songs for these shows come on.
- You love playing with your older cousins and their friends, and all the kids at school.
- This morning when I dropped you off at school, you started telling me "bye" at the gate outside. Are you already embarrassed of your mom? :)
- You also like stuffed animals that make noise and/or move. In particular there were Christmas penguins that sang "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," a Christmas dog that barks "Jingle Bells" and rolls around with his tale, and a dog that flaps his ears and sings "Do your ears hang low."
- You don't love to be in a stroller. You would much rather be walking around on your own... you're very independent like you mommy.
STATS
- Teething has been a big hurdle for you the past 6 months. There are times where you're just really cranky and I know it's your teeth that are hurting you. We've gotten a good break from it the last few weeks, but I imagine it's just a matter of time before more start poking through.
- I haven't been real good at keeping up which teeth came in when but here's where you stand now: You have the two top front teeth, the four front bottom teeth, and you have your four first molars. The upper lateral incisors, upper and lower canine and second molars have not started erupting yet.
- The last time you visited the doctor was for your 15 month well checkup. You were 32.75 inches tall, 25 lbs and 10.5 oz, and your head was 18.25".
- Now you are 28 lbs (based on our home scale), 33 inches tall (based on the height chart at home).
- Between November and January you grew 2 whole inches!
- You've been wearing a size 4 diaper for many many months now. We use the Pampers Dry Max and they work really well for you, even overnight.
- You take a gummy vitamin everyday and usually get your teeth brushed everyday as long as we don't forget.
- You get to take a bath or shower every other day. Daddy usually handles baths and showers, and it sounds like you guys have a lot of fun in there splashing around and getting "soapy." When you're done and it's time to dry off, he makes you "shake it like a Rascal" :)
- Daddy discovered your first mole... it's on your mid-back near your spine. It's so tiny and cute.
- You still have your white blonde hair and blue eyes... those dominant Hall genes strike again.
- Your hair is getting so long. The bangs are tough because you don't keep bows and clips in your hair but you can't see unless we keep them out of your eyes some how. One morning daddy suggested a braid... genius! I was able to do a french braid with your bangs that looks so cute and keeps your hair out of your eyes.
- For the most part you are true to size, wearing 18 month old clothing. Although in pants you can pull off 24 months because you are so tall.
- You are wearing a sice 5 shoe right now, but I think most of the size 5 shoes are about to be too small. I just bought you the cutest pair of pink Chucks that are a size 6 and they fit really well.
MEMORIES
- The last 6 months have been filled with so many good times and memories.
- For Labor Day weekend we headed to the beach to enjoy the beautiful weather and water. You weren't too sure about the sand, but loved playing with shells in your pool and lounging around in your float in te ocean. You even learned how to do Patty Cake.
- Before Halloween we went to Tate Farms where you played in the corn, hugged pumpkins, swang, got to go through the hay maze, and ran around and had fun. I love seeing your smiling face when you're having fun.
- For Halloween you dressed up like Snow White and we took a Halloween hayride to go trick-or-treating with all your friends. It was so much fun and you were great at holding your candy pail out to get candy.
- For Thanksgiving we had a pretty low key day at Grami and Grandpa's house. Daddy had to work (boo!) so we just had a nice lunch and took some family pictures.
- Christmas is always crazy with lots going on. We celebrated Daddy's family Christmas the second weekend of December. You love getting to see cousins Jamey and Lizzie, who you don't get to see very often and even Cousin Bryce was able to stay the night with us one night - you two shared a bath together! You got some great gifts like a ladybug pillow pet, bath toys, books, clothes, and money!
- Christmas for my side of the family is much more quiet and calm. Christmas even we had dinner at Outback with Brandon, Betsy, Grandpa and Grami. Then Christmas morning we woke up early to see what Santa brough before Daddy had to go to work... and lo and behold he brough snow, and lots of it! He also brought you a kitchen, a baby doll and stoller, and lots of other wonderful gifts! Mommy was not feeling well on Christmas so G&G came by and got you and took you to Pat and Jim's house. I met you over there a little later where we had a wonderful lunch and opened gifts together. You and cousin Zoe had a great time together and she even taught you how to do Ring Around the Rosy.
- We took at trip to the beach for New Year's weekend. The water was too cold to get in, but we had a great time relaxing, shopping, eating, and just havig a great time. None of us stayed awake to see the ball drop at midnight.
- For Valentine's Day, you had a big party at school where you took valentine bookmarks that mommy made for you to share with your friends. You had a great time and came home with lots of Valentines. We also shared the bookmarks with family too and they loved them.
I feel like I've forgotten a ton of stuff, so I may add to this list as I think of things. But just know how much we love you and love watching you grow everyday. And we can't wait for you to become a big sister this summer... you're going to be a great one!
pictures are in random order.

