So I am writing this a few days late, but such is life with an 18 month old. So sad to see the sweet babyness fly by so quickly. We have a full blown toddler on our hands. For anyone that reads this (my mom), here are Harper's stats at 18 months (I will update this with height and weight after our Dr's appointment on Friday):
Speech and language: we have lost count of the number of words this child says. It is literally in the 100's now. However, many of those are word approximations that Jason and I would probably have to translate or you'd need a context to figure out (i.e. /mok/ is milk, /Emo/ is Elmo, /dada/ is that that, meaning 'what is that?' or 'I want that', /dIt/ is sit, etc.). She also says many words really clearly, too, now, like Toby (she rarely says "TobyDog" any more or "dog dog"). We are thrilled that she is saying everyone's name in the family, now. Guhdaddy is grandaddy, mamama is grandmother, Poppa and Nonnie are just as they sound, Katie is Tatie, and Meghan is /DedIn/. She says something for Rusty but we can't figure it out. She also can say "I love you" now which is probably my favorite word/phrase that she has ever said besides 'Mommy'. She also wants to know who loves her so at night or in the car she will ask "Daddy" and I have to say "Daddy loves you" or else she repeats it until I say that. She will run through everyone in the family, even Toby, until she is told that everyone loves her. She also likes to talk about all the kids in her class and I can even tell the ones who get in trouble a lot because she'll say "No no Jojo!". She is putting lots of words together, now, like "Mama sit" or "Good dog" or "no no dog dog". She understands SO much, a lot more than we even give her credit for, and we have to remember to be so careful what we say around her. For instance, I was on the phone with mom mom today and I said "Jason" and Harper says "Daddy?" she knows that Jason=Daddy. She also knows that 'not' and 'don't' are words of negation because if I say "Daddy isn't coming home yet" or "We don't have any juice" she says 'no'. She also has difficulty understanding things like why we have to obey mommy and daddy the FIRST time and why we can't eat the ENTIRE box of cheerios, etc. etc.
Motor skills: In February we enrolled Harper in JumpBunch, a class for toddler's that teaches motor skills in a non-competitive environment. They work on throwing, balance, kicking, etc. Our favorites they have done so far are karate and golf! We have already seen improvement in her throwing and balance and love that she can participate while she is at daycare. Harper can run and jump and balance while walking on a curb (with a hand being held), and she can climb up the steps of her playset and go down the slide all by herself, even decaring "yaid!" . She can climb up onto almost anything and gets down off the couch or bed easily. Sometimes the climbing is a bit of an issue!
General development: Harper enjoys being where we are and doing what we do. She likes to 'help' and generally is 'helpful' if we give her a way to help (i.e. give her a broom while I sweep, etc.). She also is really getting into pretend play and likes to make her babies or animals do things like she would do (swing, slide, eat, walk, etc.). She tends to be fairly bossy with her play and directs everyone as to what to do! :-) I don't know anyone that was like that! ;-) She enjoys reading out of her Bible and often gets mad if you don't pick it to read (though she can't make it through a whole story, generally). She says "bible" with a really southern accent, which is so funny! She enjoys all of her other books as well and we often have to read several books at a time. She pretends to read some on her own, as well, and even has memorized parts of some books (usually just one word at a time). We are also working on praying, which she enjoys, but does not want to pause on the eating to pray!
As for 'doggle'...this is a word that she says frequently and we think it is hilarious but we have no clue what it means! Maybe one day we'll figure it out!!!
