18 Months!!

Aubrey Claire, you are 18 months old today. This almost seems impossible! How can you already be a year & half?! You are growing into such a beautiful little girl. You are now 30 inches tall & 21 pounds 6 ounces! That's a weight gain of 1 pound 5 ounces from 15 months (There was a nurse error last time on your height, because at 15 months you measured 30.25 inches. We know you didn't shrink & we measured you twice today to make sure it was really 30 inches!) The biggest difference between 15 months & 18 months has definitely been your speech. You had surgery on October 30th to place tubes in your ears to help drain the fluid you constantly had on your ears & to prevent all of the ear infections you kept getting. Those little tubes have been miracle workers! It's now been almost 10 weeks since you've had the tubes & we have seen such an amazing improvement in your speech! Before you got the tubes, the only real words you could say were: Dada, Uh Oh, Hi, & Eye/I. Here is what you are saying now!

Dada
Mama
Hi
Uh Oh
Bye Bye
Baby
Papa
Down
Up
Ball
Touchdown!
DoggyKitty
Ouch/Ow
No
Go
Get
Eye/I
Me
Cheese
Bless You
Thank You
Beep Beep
Boo!

It seems like you add a new word to your vocabulary every day! You even said your first "sentence" on December 30th. "I go bye bye!" We love hearing your adorable little voice.

You now have 7 teeth, with an 8th & 9th already broken through the gums. You have your two bottom teeth. You have 5 teeth up top. You got your left eye tooth first. It looked like your right eye tooth would come in next, but then your left middle tooth beat that one! Next was the right eye tooth. Then while we have been patiently waiting on your right middle tooth to come in, you got two back teeth, one on each side!! That surprised Momma. She wasn't even checking for back teeth until one day she noticed something in the back when you yawned. That's when she found out you had two teeth in the back hiding out! Your right middle tooth has broken through the gums & now in the past day your bottom left tooth beside your bottom left middle tooth is coming in a little more everyday.

You are a social butterfly. You love being around other kids. Today you moved to the "toddler" class at daycare. This is where the children from 18 months- 3 years are. Mommy was very sad to see you in the room with all of the "big" kids. Instead of taking you to the nursery & putting you in your highchair to eat breakfast, you sat down at the big kids table in the cafeteria & started eating cereal with milk out of a bowl like a big girl! You loved it though. Even though you are definitely the smallest kid in there, you know how to stand up for yourself. Your favorite nun, Sister Julie, is now a teacher in the toddler class & you are happy to be back in her class again. We get compliments from your teachers all the time about how smart you are. You now know all of your body parts (eyes, nose, mouth, ears, head, belly, hands, arms, feet, legs, toes, fingers, & booty). You can "sing" the ABCs (you don't have the exact letter pronounciations down, but you hum & make up your "own" letters to the exact tune of ABCs). We can ask you where something is & you know exactly what we are talking about & point right to it. You are also very independent. You like to do things on your own. You are definitely strong willed with a little bit of a temper too. If we try to help you with something you are trying to do, you push us away because you want to do it on your own. If you are unable to do what you are trying, you get very mad. Not sure where that temper comes from... haha!

Some of your favorite things do to are:
1) Give kisses. You LOVE smacking your lips & going up to everyone who is in the room at that time (including Carson & Parker) giving big kisses!
2) Playing with your babies. You have become quite the little momma lately. It is so cute to watch you "feed" your baby. You always randomly give your babies hugs & kisses which is adorable to watch!
3) Play outside. You love playing outside & you're not too happy that it's been too cold out to play. We are all ready for spring to be here!
4) Sleep!! You LOVE your sleep. It's like having a little teenager already. You make Mommy & Daddy scared to give you a brother or sister. You have spoiled us so badly with being such a good baby that we are afraid a brother or sister would be bad, bad, bad!

Aubrey, it is so amazing to watch you continue to grow & learn every day. Not a day goes by that you don't put a HUGE smile on Mommy & Daddy's face. You are truly the light of our lives & we love you SOOOOO very much!!! Happy 18 Months, Aubrey Claire!