Lucy at 18 Months

A year and a half! Has it really been 6 months since you turned one? In my head, you're "just over a year old", but in reality you're quickly on the path to two. Unreal!

This month has been a very trying month for all of us. While your health has been pretty good, your attitude has gone awry. While always easily frustrated and quick-tempered, you've soared to new heights lately. You have learned the words "no" and "don't" and "dop." Dop, of course, means stop. While I'm sad you only have learned negative words, at least you're learning words... I guess. Maybe since they're new words, you want to practice them a lot. At any rate, your temper has matched your words, and you've been trying our patience a lot. I'm hoping you're going through some big developmental milestone and that it passes. You're still able to laugh and have fun sometimes. You're just very stubborn and independent, but from what I hear, you're quite normal as far as 18 month olds go. You've had a lot of upheaval in daycare teachers, which is probably adding to your discontent and frustration.

You love steps! You also love running and trying to play ball. Your favorite everyday toy is your Fisher-Price Barn that is a shape sorter. You still don't like swings, but you love the slides and the steps of the playground.

While you had an unusually fussy month, I feel like things are on the upswing. You sleep great at night and now don't immediately wake up and cry. You can chill out in your crib for a few minutes until I get over there. Your naps on the weekends are pretty hit or miss, and you can only nap an hour and a half max compared to the two at daycare.

Your words are: goggie, hot, mama, dada, duck, doo (two), dop (stop), no, don't, Pappy, shoe... and some others I'm probably forgetting.

I can see you changing a lot -- I look over and you're like a big kid with big kid expressions. And you just LOOK different to me lately too. All legs and and many expressions. You're really understanding the words and tone I use, though you're too stubborn to repeat things back to me. Just a year ago you were a bald fat lump who couldn't even sit unassisted and now you're this bold, curious, emotive child. When you're happy, my heart wants to fly right out of my body. I still can't believe I'm your mama.

You're my heart, Buggy.