Molly at 18 months!

Today is Molly's year and 1/2 birthday. 18 months has gone by so fast and in just 7 1/2 weeks we will have little Daniel here with us as well. Anyways, I thought you might be interested in an overview of Molly so here ya go!

Mobility- She started walking at 10 months but now she runs and even runs on her toes. She is in Tumble Tots which is basically a kids gymnastics/balance class. This has really helped her alot. She is able to walk on balance beams, climb towers, climb up monkey bars (not totally coordinating moving her hands and feet together but getting very close). She jumps on trampolines, climbs up on any chair by herself.

Eating- She is a great eater. Her favorites are pizza, yo baby yogurt, eggs, grapes, oatmeal, peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches and anything that we are eating. We have started introducing her to lots of different raw veggies lately which she has taken to pretty well, especially raw broccoli, she loves that. And she likes red peppers surprsingly well. I will probably do olives next. She likes almost any and all fruit. Everyday on the way to playgroup she eats an apple by herself. I don't even peel it, just give it to her and she goes to town. She is able to use her fork and spoon all by herself! She ate oatmeal squares cereal with milk this morning for breakfast and only spilled minimally on her bib. She eats her own yogurt cup each morning and an applesauce cup for snack. She doesn't like us to help her unless she is so hungry she can't get the food in fast enough. She even holds the sppon properly and sometimes sticks her pinky up like a little prissy thing.

Play- She is involved in two 'mum and tot' playgroups, a total of three days a week. One is on base(tuesday and thursday) and the other is at our church(monday). She is getting to know all of the children and moms really well and starting to explore. She was doing especially great my second trimester but has started to get really clingy to me again. I think she senses something is different and it makes her a little anxious. Her favorite things are books (especially the elmo ones from Becca), her little tikes car and balls. We have been working with her on flash cards and she can almost identify any animal you show her and lots of other stuff (clothing articles, transportation, etc). Cows and dogs are her favorite and we see them almost every day since so many of them live in our neighborhood :)

Verbal- She talks NONSTOP, however, most of it I cannot understand. She does have quite a good vocabulary though. Her favorite words are daddy, dog, duck, sticker, chip, cookie, dirty, bath, and NO!!!

Sleep- She sleeps 10-12 hours a night depending on when we get her down. Since Bryon's car went kaput last week, we have been taking him to work at 8am every day. So now we put her down around 7:30-8pm and she gets up around 6:30-8am. She takes about an hour nap during the day, on most days. It is usually in the car driving home from our daily activities. The newest sleeping development is her new cribmate. She now sleeps with a stuffed puppy dog. Mom and dad, this is the dog we accidently took from Scotland (and later paid for once we realized it was packed in our bag). She takes a bath, brushes her teeth, gets lotioned up and dressed, reads two books and goes to sleep snuggling her puppy. It is really cute. We see her chatting with the puppy and nuzzling him in our video monitor.

Physical- She has all but two teeth in. Horrah! Her hair is getting really curley and growing fast (finally). Poor little thing was bald for so long and now she has a good bit of cute curls. She even lets me put pony tails in and hairbows. She is a size 5 shoe, size 18month clothes and size 4 diaper.

Personality- She is a complete prissy girl. She hates being dirty, likes to carry around a purse, likes to wear my jewerly and my shoes, and eats with her pinky stuck out. I was planing seedlings the other day and she saw my hands, pointed at me and said "dada, dirty!!!" She wouldn't touch me until I washed my hands. She is a very affectionate and loving child. She would sit on my lap, give me wet kisses, and snuggle with me all day if I would let her. She is also empathetic and caring, if another child around her cries, she will cry too. She will usually go over to them and pat them on the back or give them a hug/kiss. If someone takes her toy away or is mean to her she just looks at them and blows them a kiss. If she is really tired or sick, she may scream "NO" and take it back but that is very rare. She usually will go find another toy or just come sit on my lap.

That's all I can think of for now! Have a great weekend everyone!