Carly is a joy to be with; day in and day out. She is totally my little buddy and a great side kick she is! She is becoming more and more eager to help, learn, explore and do what I'm doing...and teaching her is so fun! I'm already making of list of fun things we can do together over the next 6 months. But, before I get ahead of myself, I must share her interests at a year and a half old.
- Carly's favorite foods are turkey, cheese & eggs, and won't ever turn down oyster crackers or chocolate. She is not a picky eater in the least and still tries anything we place on her tray. She's happy to eat fruits and veggies as well as her fair share of dessert. Thankful for an easy eater!
- Carly enjoys being outside and wants to walk or RUN around the block. Her running is one of the cutest things I've ever seen.
- Girlie-girl! Carly loves to wear dresses, pretty shoes, frequently asks to wear a bow, loves putting on my jewelry, smelling good (she is always asking to rub herself down with lotion), having her toe nails painted and being clean. She was playing in mud the other day and when she realized her entire self was COVERED in dirt and sand, she actually cried. She can certainly be rough and tough...and obviously enjoys playing in the mud, but needs to return to being fresh and clean right when she's done.
- It astonishes me to see how observant she is and how she tracks with what we do. Everyday she sneaks into our bathroom and crawls up on my vanity stool to play with all of my cosmetics. I was watching her and saw her pretend to put my mascara on her eyes, brush her teeth and even lifted up her arm to put deodorant on!
- She was picking the neighbors flowers the other day and I told her "no, those are not Carly's flowers." She took the flower over to their dog statue that sits on their step and she showed the dog the flower and said, "no, no." Hey, at least she got the message! We'll plant some flowers she can pick soon!
- Her favorite books are "Oh the Wonderful Sounds Mr. Brown Can Do" & "Goodnight Chicago" (she requests this EVERY night before bed)
- Can do the motions to the songs, "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Wheels on the Bus," "Happy and You Know It" and "This Little Light of Mine." She sometimes attempts to sing but at this point has failed to do so. Brian sings with her ALL the time, I slack in that area.
- Has an OBSESSION with Minnie Mouse and the gang. She throws her arms in the air every time she sees one of the fab 5 (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto & Goofy). At first I wondered how she had developed such a love for these characters, but after further thought I realized I have pictures of them with us hanging in the house, she has books about them, has a game on the iPod featuring Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, toys, plush and...we go to Disney all the time. I didn't realize how many images of Mickey the child sees in a day until I really started to pay attention. If you want to her dance, just sing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song.
- She also loves to visit the characters when we're in the parks. She likes any and all of them, but gets most excited to see Mickey, Minnie & Jessie from Toy Story. She doesn't understand the waiting-in-line part or the leaving part, but is more than excited to give a hug and a kiss and pose on their laps for a photo!
- Can moo like a cow, neigh like a horse, quack like a duck, woof like a dog, meow like a cat, baa like a lamb, snort like a rhino, cherp like a bird, oo ah like a monkey, roar like a lion and snort like a pig.
- Her vocabulary of names include: mama, dada, carly (caca), nana, gma, gpa, mimi, trey, tiff, jess, cora & ty
- Other frequently spoken words that she initiates include: yes, no, baby, glasses, please, cheese, up, go, pretty, ut-oh, bubbles, hi, bu-bye, ouie, paci, bow, minnie, stop, night-night, book, ball, golf, toes, hat, poo poo, two, nine & ten and gibberish words, gula gula (I want), loca loca (being silly) and minga minga (hungry). I've been making a list the past few days...no way I would have remembered all these off the top of my head! She also attempts to say everything we ask her to say, and sometimes says them correctly, but the above words are ones she will volunteer without prompting.
- Snuggles with me every morning for approximately 90 seconds then plays on the iPod while I lay next to her with my eyes closed. ;) (I love the extra relaxation time but am also getting her used to starting the mornings slow since I may need some extra time nursing baby in the mornings)
- Loves being on the go. Her favorite place to be remains the Disney water parks, and we visit at least once a week. One of our favorite things about her right now is that she shows such gratitude when we're having fun. She will give us hugs and kisses til we are blue in the face as her way of showing excitement for what we're doing. She's even been known to give a kiss when we let her eat something super yummy! She loves to have fun, and we love to have fun with her!
- Is very interested in her babies, and is frequently seen taking them on stroller rides
- Enjoys throwing things from upstairs to downstairs
- Is showing MAJOR interest in the potty. Announces when she is going poo poo, wants to be in the bathroom observing us, desires to wipe herself and us, wants to sit on the potty (we let her pick out her own potty seat this week...of course she chose a Minnie Mouse one), and enjoys throwing toilet paper in, flushing, waving good bye and shutting the lid. Isn't 18 months too early to potty train?! We shall see...
Determined
I was actually going to title this section as, Demanding, but after further thought I decided it was too negative. Really, though, being demanding isn't always a negative thing, but I suppose most of the time it is. So, here we are talking about a little girl who is very determined to get what she wants (aka demanding). Carly's vocabulary doesn't yet allow her to communicate all of her needs through words, so therefore she finds herself frequently yelling for things. This has been going on quite a while, but a few weeks back Brian and I decided to put an end to the screaming. Our lesson from parenting that way was that a strong willed little girl only wants to do it more when you ask her not to. We were giving all sorts of timeouts, smacking her hand and speaking in a very stern tone, but all of it merely intensified her desire to scream. So...we gave up. We decided to just look at her confused and each and every time (having patience can be exhausting) we reminded her to use her words. This week all in all it has been so much better. She will always say please and mama or dada when prompted...she just can't seem to remember to do it on her own. I texted both my folks when we were going through this to ask why my child desires to do the exact things I request that she doesn't do. They both seemed to get a chuckle out of that. My Dad's advice was to send her to Iowa and Gpa would take care of it (that made us laugh out loud) and my Mom empathized with me as she had the same struggles. The encouragement that I took away, however, was that in many cases a child feels most comfortable with his or her mama, and therefore will push mama's limits the most (she misbehaves more for me than for Brian). She knows I love her, and she knows that love is unconditional. She feels completely secure and safe...so why not test my limits? Oh the journey of parenting as so begun! Here are the things she most demands:
- Paci. Carly LOVES her paci and is determined to have it with her as much as possible. Of course we only allow it when she is sleeping, in the car or in the stroller, but she thinks she needs it all the time. She is so determined that she tries to climb in her crib to get it out and will also climb in her stroller to retrieve her paci that she believes is in the top cup holder.
- Food. She's determined to eat anything and everything in sight. She yells most about wanting more and more and more food. It doesn't matter if you are a complete stranger; if you've got food, it's only a matter of minutes until Carly finds you and has her hands reaching out for your food. Ha.
- Fun. She is so delightful when we are on the go and having fun, but the minute we say it's time to go, she is bound and determined not to leave! She will kick and scream about having to leave something fun. I've seen this a thousand times with kiddos...and can you really blame them?! ;)
Carly is essentially fearless. She is a climber, a runner and is willing to explore, touch, eat and go just about anywhere. I frequently have other mamas tell me they wish their child was more adventurous like Carly. Even strangers will take note of and comment on how fearless my child is. It doesn't matter where we are, Carly will find whatever is most dangerous. Surprisingly enough, she rarely gets hurt...although I think falling/tripping/bumping into, etc would help her realize there is danger in the world. She is most daring when it comes to the swimming pool. Carly has gotten WAY too comfortable with water, and just doesn't understand the danger. She can hold her breath a good 5 seconds under water and loves to dunk herself. I've fallen short when it comes to finishing her swim lessons...so I need to really hone in on that to see if I can be successful in teaching her how to swim. This week she has started swimming short distances to me or the wall. She is strong enough to paddle to where she can get her head above water, but just barely. Here's a snapshot of her in our community pool:
I waited until today to post this because we just visited the doctor. Carly weighed in at just over 24 pounds and was 32 1/2 inches tall (8 inches away from being able to ride Splash Mountain!), coming in at the 50th percentile in height and 20th percentile in weight. She's on the bell curve she's been at all the time...although I was surprised she hadn't jumped up more than that because she seems so big to me!!
Her schedule has been just perfect the past month, finally transitioning to one nap/day. This week has been rough with some 6am or before wake up times (which also lead to two naps) but normalcy includes sleeping from 8:45pm-7:30am and taking a nap from 12:30pm-2pm. This schedule breaks up the day very nicely. Our general routine is to "snuggle" in bed (I snuggle her while she plays her games...which by the way she can unlock the iPod, swipe over to her page and click on the correct game), play upstairs, eat breakfast, go for a run, play outside/swim/playdate, eat lunch, take a nap, afternoon playdate, dinner, more outdoor time as a family, indoor playtime, bath and bed plus lots of other random activities in between!
And finally, I thought she posed rather nicely for her 18 month photos. Guess what got her to smile? I sang Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, of course! ;)
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Thanks for being the delightfully sweet, determined and daring little girl you are. We love your eagerness to learn, your energy and your capacity to love. Besides for God's grace and your wonderful daddy, you have been the absolute best gift in life. Happy 1 1/2, Carly!
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