OurLittleFamily: 18 Months

Savannah is a year and a half! Yikes!! She is such a different little girl than she was just six short months ago when she turned 1, and I'm sure she will change even more in the next six months by her second birthday. Before her first birthday I loved to take pause each month and record the new things she was doing and new milestones she was reaching. Lately, though, she learns new things every single day, and it's nearly impossible to write down every single new thing that she's doing. On this important milestone, though, I thought I would document some of the bigger things she's been doing lately.

- Savannah has a very large vocabulary now. I took time this weekend to write out a list of all of the words that she says, and I counted 75 words! Matt went over the list because he didn't believe that she is saying that many words, but when he took a look he had to agree that yes, she does have 75 words. :) Although she says a lot, she's not a very clear speaker at this point. There are some words that she says perfectly, like "Baby," "Apple," and "More," but there are many words on the list that most people would not be able to understand if they didn't know Savannah well. For example, highchair is "high-chin" and garbage is "gar-gin." In time, though, I'm sure she'll become a more clear speaker.

- She's working on her soccer skills. My side of the family (the men in particular) are very big into soccer. My dad taught her how to kick this little playground ball, and now she spends a good chunk of her day kicking it up and down the hallway. I have dreams for her to be a prima ballerina, but she just may choose to join a soccer team instead!

- She does not want to use the big girl potty! Although she is showing a lot of signs of readiness, she's just not ready yet. A few times I took her to the potty after breakfast when I could tell she was trying to go, and she refused to do her business on the potty. In fact, she kind of was so adamant about not going that she wound up giving herself some tummy troubles, if you know what I mean. So I'm not asking her to go on the potty anymore right now.

- We've entered into a pretty difficult toddler phase in the last month or two. Savannah has become very willful, and I've really had to implement some different discipline techniques to try and teach her that no, we don't stand up on the sofa and jump off, or no, we don't hit mommy when she is helping you with your applesauce or no, we don't scream angrily in the grocery store because Mommy took the pen out of your hands. I always thought Savannah would be fairly easy to discipline because she is so sensitive, but instead she has been pretty stubborn and defiant. I love her to pieces, but oh man, do I have my hands full with this one!

- My wonderful eater is no longer happy to just gobble up whatever I put on her tray. She is getting picky these days, and a lot of the time she just seems to busy to bother with eating. She is not into meat these days. She's getting pickier about her veggies; while she still loves peas, she won't touch green beans. She no longer will happily snack on lunch meat at lunch time, but instead prefers me to make her a grilled cheese sandwich (with soy cheese) or a PBJ, and then cut the sandwich up into bite-sized pieces for her. She also isn't that into her "milkie" anymore. She used to drain three cups a day, but now I have to push her to drink two full cups. However, I have been keeping an eye on her weight since learning that she had not gained any weight in nearly five months at her last well check, and she seems to now be up one pound since her one year weigh-in. Yay!

- Savannah has decided that clothes are overrated. She pulls on her shirt and pants saying "Shirt! Off! Pants! Off!" and wanting to run around in nothing but her diaper. And then she starts pulling on that, too, saying, "Diaper! Off!"

- She loves to give hugs and kisses now. My favorite is when I'm standing at the kitchen counter, busy working on something, and I feel two little arms squeeze my legs and then a sweet baby kiss lands on my knee. LOVE IT! It almost makes me forget about all the screaming and hitting and throwing she's been doing lately. Almost. :-)

Although this season is a bit of a challenging one right now, I love that sweet girl from the top of her blonde head to the tips of her adorable little toes that are always running around the house. She's my precious gift from God, and she's such a blessing!

I was feeling sentimental today and wanted to get another chair picture, for old times sake, but she wasn't too into it. She also isn't feeling well as she's trying to get over a cold. This was the best we could do: