18 months old!!

What?! A year and half already?! For some reason 18-months has been harder for me to accept than a year was. We can't possibly be half way to having a TWO-year-old! Craziness! However, what a fabulous age this is! Caroline is awesome. She is sweet, loving, cheerful, bubbly, challenging, strong-willed, brilliant, and beautiful- I could not love her more. As stated in previous posts- this blog is simply for bragging purposes so that it doesn't get too obnoxious on Facebook, but the child is so smart (spoken like a true mom). She seriously blows us away on a daily basis! She is constantly entertaining us with her crazy dance moves, loud singing, and constant talking. She is a total mess and I am totally in love =)


Stats-
Weight- 21.8 lbs (40%)
Height- 33.5 in  (84%)

Randoms:

• Caroline shocks us with how quickly she picks things up. Over the past month or two she has learned the following:
• Correctly identify 8 different shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval, star, heart and hexagon)
• Can somewhat count to 10 (She skips 1,3, and 7)
• Is working on colors but gets Blue, Yellow, Pink, and Black most consistently 
• Can correctly name and identify a few letters (A, B, E, O, S)
• Can name every body part (over 19)
• Is starting to sing some songs. Some you can understand by the tune and some she actually says the words too
•  She is fairly outgoing and LOVES being with other kids, especially her cousins and Reece
• Would spend all day outside if you let her
• Is super cuddly in the morning when she wakes up and when she gets up from her nap.
• Will put herself in time-out for things she does to her babies and stuffed animals...hmmm.
• SO FAR is fairly easy to discipline (famous last words). She can throw an awesome tantrum with the best of them, but is generally very well behaved and her typical sweet self. Some days are a doozy, but I honestly think it's probably not that bad, but because she really is so good most of the time it makes the bad times really stand out.
• She's simply the sweetest and has started randomly coming up to us to give us hugs and kisses and say "I luh loo" ...melts out hearts =)

I think that's it for now! As you can clearly see, I'm not at all biased =)


Here are a few videos over the past few months-

15 Months Old (almost 16)

Well...needless to say, it's been a while! My last post was her one year update, but I really don't want to forget anything, so I know I need to get back on the blogging train. Caroline has changed so much since her birthday and we are definitely living with a full blown toddler and loving it! She is so sweet, fun, serious, goofy, talkative, loving, and so much more! On more than one occasion in the past couple of months we've been told "she is just a magnet" or "something about her must be really sweet, because kids just gravitate towards her" and these words are so true. Every story time, music class, etc she finds a friend and I just love that! She is showing a bit more of her strong-willed personality lately and while I appreciate your determination and willpower, it can sometimes be a challenge. I have a feeling we may have our hands full in the coming months. Fortunately, for now, she is a great listener 99% of the time and really does try to follow directions and she rarely throws a fit, but man can she throw them when she does =) We are constantly blown away by how quickly she picks up on new things and how she seems to learn something new every day. We are super blessed by our sweet girl on a daily basis and are so happy to be her parents!

15-month stats:
           Weight- 20lbs (30%)
            Height- 32" _(85%)
          

Sleeping- We are currently battling a double ear infection that has been lingering for about a month (after a cold), so sleeping has been better. She is now going to bed a bit later because she was getting into a fun little habit of waking up around 4/4:30 and staying awake for the day. So  now she goes to bed around 7:30/8 and is up between 5:30/6:30. She is still taking 2 naps but some days only one, I'm sure we aren't going to hold on to the morning nap much longer.

Eating- The kid eats like a champ. I'm totally going to brag now because when she enters her picky phase, I'll look back on these healthy eating days with fondness. She will eat just about anything you put in front of her. Of course all the toddler favorites (macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, grilled cheese, pb &j, gold fish, etc), but she typically eats what we are having and some recent favorites off of the usual toddler menu have been grilled salmon, asparagus, baked eggplant, whole wheat turkey wrap with spinach and ranch, peppers, seawead, kale smoothies, black bean and quinoa burgers and more. I love that she is willing to try just about anything. The only things she still has no interest in are green beans and eggs- I can handle that. She is getting a bit less of an appetite and will sometimes skip a meal all together and may or may not make up for it at the next meal, but generally does the next day. I'm not really a fan of forcing the "clean plate club" so I figure if she is hungry she will eat and if not, then she won't starve. Another big one in this department is that she is completely weaned! We finished a few days before she turned 15-months. She really didn't care and only asked for it one day (while she was getting a cold) and I did not refuse her but she ended up not really caring about it and moving on and that was that. It was bittersweet for me, I felt like this was one last thing holding on to a true baby, but I am glad to be a bit more 'free'.

Milestones/New Tricks/Randoms-

• C's language is really starting to pick up. She has about 30-40 individual words that she uses regularly/can say when object is seen. 
• She knows a ton of body parts and really showed off during her 15-month-checkup. At this age they should know 1-3 and she knows 20!! (Head, hair, ear, eye, mouth, teeth, tongue, nose, chin, neck, back, leg, knee, tummy, belly button, hand, finger, thumb, foot, toes) ..the ped was impressed and so are we =)
• Knows the motions to about 5 different songs ("Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Glasses Song", "Happy and You Know It", "Wheels on the Bus", "Jellyfish song")   and will do them pretty much on time with the song...it's adorable.
• LOVES to play outside and cries when we have to come in.
• Can run like a mad woman
• Loves to feed the dogs and has taken this on as her new career in life lol
• Loves to run around naked before bath...although we did have a peeing incident haha
• CONSTANTLY plays with a baby and is really into feeding them and wrapping them up in blankets and singing to them...SO stinking cute! She talks in a very high sweet voice "Hi baby! HI!!!!"

A few things I hope to get on video and that I do not forget:

• She will say "Mama. Ma. MaaaaaaMaaaaa?" Me: Yes? C:"wjdsmvklse, skdfjksnefs?" (Always very serious, and she knows exactly what she is saying) Me: Really?! Thank you for telling me! C: "Otay"...seriosuly. I LOVE this.
• When she here the garage door open in the afternoon her face lights up and she gets  a huge smile and yells DAAADAAA!!!! Melts.my.heart.
• She gives the best hugs and kisses on the planet

Video and Pics-

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