19 months

I of course intended this to be an 18 month post, but Christmas and traveling happened, so we’ll just do 19 months instead. She was definitely showing her “difficult” side when we took these pictures! I think we’ll stick to candid from now on…

I CAN NOT believe that my BABY is already a year and a half old. I think Collin described her best yesterday when he called her “the prissiest tom-boy he’s ever seen”. This girl is ROUGH and loves rough-housing with her big Bub-o and all of his friends. She is crazy-wild and goes non-stop. When the two of us are out in public without Makgill, people say all the time “she MUST have a big brother” because of the way she acts. More often than not, she will have a bruise on her head from running into something or falling down, but she never cries about the big bumps. She just comes up laughing! There is nothing that her big brother does that she thinks she can’t do, and she will try anything. I LOVE this about her. And speaking of her big brother, she ADORES him. He is the first thing she asks about when we pick her up out of her crib in the morning. And they are playing together now. I mean REALLY playing. Like they go off by themselves (generally she has a truck with a baby doll in it), and he tells her what to do and she does it. It’s the sweetest thing to watch.

But then there’s the other side. The PRISSY side. This girl LOVES dressing up and anything involved with it. Hairbows, “make-up,” shoes, dressing up…she loves it all. She has definite opinions about what she wants to wear, weather it’s pajamas or a dress. Anytime one of the rest of us gets dressed, she comes running in pulling at her clothes and shouting “me too, me too!” even if she’s already dressed for the day. She often wants to wear several outfits at a time. For Christmas she received a Disney Princess dress-up trunk from my brothers and their wives, and it has been a huge hit. I never have to fight her to do her hair or put lotion on. She calls any lotion “make-up” and asks for it after her bath. A favorite game of hers right now is to watch me while I fold laundry, and to announce who the article of clothing that I’m folding belongs to. She drops whatever she’s doing to stand there and do this when I bring the laundry out. She definitely has a love for clothes!

Her other favorite thing right now is BABY DOLLS. She received 8 new dolls for Christmas, and loves them all. The favorites are the ones with hey-ah (hair) that she can brush, and the one that goes in the bathtub with her. We spend tons of time doing baby hair, dressing babies, feeding babies, and putting them to bed. I’m having so much fun! She makes sure that her babies have a mimi (what we call loveys) before she puts them in the baby crib. She sleeps with no less than 5 dolls in her crib, as well as the “bundy” rabbit that Bub-o made her when she was born. Sometimes it’s difficult to see which one is her when I check on her at night!

Other than babies and dress-up, she loves to color and read. She can entertain herself for pretty long periods with a crayon. But frequently the masterpieces show up on furniture or walls. 🙁

Remember when I said that she can get a pretty big bump on the head and never shed a tear? That’s true, but the funny thing is, if she gets the slightest little “hurt” on her finger she can’t go on until it’s been kissed by Collin or me. The fake cry that goes along with it is great.

She climbed out of her pack-n-play for the first time last month in Disney. Then she climbed out of her crib at home that next week. This was SOOOOOO not cool for me, because I had plans of her staying in the crib for a loooong time. Thankfully, she hasn’t done it again.

We took the pacifier away during the day after we came home from Disney. She’s done really well with it, and only occasionally asks for “pappies”. But she NEEDS them DESPERATELY (or so she thinks) for nap-time and night-time. We plan to take them away at night sometime around age 2. We’ll see.

Her vocabulary astounds me. She can say complete sentences and comes up with new words every day. I LOVE talking to her! If you ask her what color something is, the answer will be pink. Sometimes purple, but mostly pink. We’re working on introducing other colors, but she’s resisting. She told her first “jokes” on the recent trip to Collin’s parents. She would take her sippy cup and hide it behind her head, then say “Wook (look), Mommy! Wook, Daddy!” and laugh hysterically. This went on and on and on. She thought she was hilarious, and that made it funny to us, too.

She is definitely ready to potty train. She goes on the potty many times a day, and sometimes even wakes up dry and asks to go on the potty. Anytime she goes, she gets a “bean” (Mike and Ike). She still seems young to me, but the thought of a diaper-free house is intriguing! I’ve been lazy about it, but hope to devote a few days to potty training sometime soon. The problem is, I can’t find little underpants to fit her!

She loves to “tiss” (kiss). When you kiss her on one cheek, she’ll turn her head to the other side and say “Now dat (that) face”. We can go back and forth between her cheeks for 5 minutes sometimes!

She’s a complete priss, and a complete wild child, all rolled up into the most beautiful girl I’ve ever had the pleasure of loving! To say we love you doesn’t even come close to describing our feelings, Baby CB! We ADORE you, Sweet Girl. You are more than we could have ever dreamed up. You amaze us daily! Happy 19 months!