Sierra 18 months

Sierra is now officially 18 months old!  She is growing up so fast into a princess with a personality.  Here are some of what she is doing these days:

Language.  Her vocabulary is in the middle of exponentially expanding.  I think she says 2-3 new words every day.  She puts 2 words together to indicate her wants and needs ("help me, help me" and "more milk") and she often rambles in phrases that you can interpret but aren't necessarily separate words ("Guy, where-are-you-Guy?"and "I-wuv-you".)  She can even talk on the phone a little bit and occasionally people can understand her.  :)  She absolutely loves books.  Thayden was never so fascinated by books and would rarely sit through a whole book, Sierra will bring you pile after pile and ask you to "read book."  Within 24 hours of having the house clean this weekend Sierra had nearly ever book off her shelf and drug around the whole house (including on different levels). 

Gross motor.  Last week she started jumping with both feet off the ground, which she is quite proud of.  She of course can run all over, climb stairs, and tries to walk down stairs by herself holding on but she can't reach the railing so that's not such a good idea.  She climbs up on all the furniture and then either a) tries to jump or b) dances.  She loves doing flips off my legs while I'm sitting, and ends with her arms up in the air like she's landing a gymnastic move.  She loves to swim and thinks she can swim by herself so she very much resists you holding her and frequently leaps away from your arms whenever possible, and she jumps in off the edge by herself.  She can't reach the pedals on our trike yet, but she would very much like to. According to Troy she has "ant-like strength" and can carry large things above her head.

Fine motor.  She eats with a spoon and fork, can scribble and draw a horizontal line.  She can open and screw on water bottle caps.  She can dig raisins out of a granola bar (believe me, this actually quite a difficult task.)  She turns pages one at a time in a book.  She is now getting the hang of putting puzzles together (the ones with the pegs that have pictures on the board that match the piece.) 

Cognitive.  Sierra is a pretty smart little girl (bias, I know.)  She knows all of the major parts of her body (18) and other people's body parts.  She can occasionally point to pictures in a book when you say "where's the ____" but that is less consistent.  She can follow directions like "go get mommy up out of bed" was this morning, and "go find your baby doll." 

Self-help skills.  She can take her shoes off, and more importantly, tell Daddy the right ones to put on (they have to match her outfit, you see.)  She goes #2 on the potty probably about 80% of the time (the remaining 20% when she's at school or church child care) and potties on the potty ~3x a day.  Still not ready to go 100% diaper free but maybe in a few months.  Brushes her teeth (obviously needs a 2nd pass by mommy or daddy.)  She can buckle her carseat buckle and is very adamant she do it herself.  

Personality.  Sierra is a little drama queen.  Just like her brother when she doesn't get her way she has an insta-tantrum, but she gets over it quicker than Thayden.  She is also a fashion queen.  She will throw a fit getting dressed in the morning if it is not something she wants to wear (it's better to give her a couple options to help decide, then things go much smoother.)  She also needs to wear cute shoes.  She eats up the comments from her teachers and other people at school about looking so cute or having cute clothes/shoes.  Believe me, Daddy is learning a lot, but I imagine he has a long way to go if she keeps this up.   

So to sum it up she is a pretty special, talented 18 month old girl!  We are very lucky to have her!

A few other updates from the household.  Thayden is going to be moving up to Pre-K 2 tomorrow as the schools have started for the fall around here.  We have had some success with a reward chart with Thayden when he can earn stars for doing certain responsibilities and when he gets 10 stars he can get a small gift (20 gets him a big gift if he wants to wait.)  Getting dressed (promptly after Troy first asks) earns him a star as does eating all his dinner before the timer goes off.  However, it isn't a good method for changing negative behaviors like screaming and talking back.  Any suggestions for dealing with that, please send them my way.  In the pool, Thayden can swim all by himself but needs some refinement in his strokes.  Next year we're going to try to get him on a swim team.  Glad we still have a couple more weeks of pool time left!  :)  When the pools close for the fall we're going to need to find another past-time.