Happy year-and-a-half birthday, Jovie Rae!
18 month stats:
Height: 32"
Weight: 26 lbs, 3 oz
Head Circumference: 18.75"
Jovie is amazing these days! She is figuring out all kinds of stuff, making some advanced associations, and I am totally a proud Mama. Some of the more notable things are:
She has really learned to, let's say..., "assert her opinion". A by-stander may call these moments "tantrums" ;). And they are more frequent than I like to admit these days. We are working on all those normal toddler things, like being gentle to the dog, sharing and being nice to friends, and using words instead of fussing to communicate.
Like a typical girl, she always asks for "bows" and "shoes". In fact, sometimes Jovie requests a bow first thing in the morning.
She has grown out of lots of baby things. She doesn't get a nighttime bottle anymore - she's down to just one bottle a day in the morning, and that is phasing out, too. Although she still really loves her milk. She does still snuggle with us right before putting her down, which is really nice. She is learning to feed herself, and often refuses to eat unless she is helping.
Speaking of helping, she LOVES to try to help. She periodically helps me clean up her toys, feed the dog and a dozen little things I ask her to "help" me with. When I praise her, I get a proud smile from her.
There are a few moments that sill stay in my mind forever, even though there was no camera to record them, simply because of how special they were. One of those happened just a few days ago. There is a "Jesus Loves Me" book that is one of Jovie's favorites. She grabbed it and said "Jesus". I was singing through it, and got to the "Yes, Jesus Loves Me" page, and hadn't said it yet, when softly she said "Yes, Jesus..." and continued to sing something along the lines of "Yes, Jesus Loves Me, Yes, Jesus Loves Me." It was the sweetest!
All of these things and a thousand more little changes make us realize how much she's growing up.
18 month stats:
Height: 32"
Weight: 26 lbs, 3 oz
Head Circumference: 18.75"
Jovie is amazing these days! She is figuring out all kinds of stuff, making some advanced associations, and I am totally a proud Mama. Some of the more notable things are:
- She is starting to learn her colors. She can point to a few when you ask her where the "blue" or "red" thing is, and she can say a few of them like "Bu" and "geen" and "wew-wo". Every now and then, she'll pick up one of her toys and spontaneously identify it's color - "Bu!" It makes us so proud!
- She can identify lots of animal noises. She can do the standard cow, doggy and kitty noises, but some of my favorites are a bit more obscure - like the "Whoo Whoo" for the owl and "Ah Ah Ah" for the monkey.
- Puzzles are becoming a favorite toy, and she can maneuver the pieces better. A few weeks ago, she got all four of her shapes into a little basket with heart, square, circle and triangle shaped holes. It was well done!
- The alphabet is pretty funny. Not exactly mastered, but totally cute. All the letters are "B's" until "F". I'll try to get her to repeat after me and all I get is "B", "B," "B" until I say "F" and then I get a very enthusiastic "F!"
- In her room, there is a "You are my Sunshine" sign. The other day she pointed to it and said "Happy". I was shocked! The word happy is in the sign and I read it to her, and it must have stuck!
- Every time she hears our building door open, or the floor creak above us, she says "Baw-bwa?" which is Barbara, the woman who lives above us.
- This one may seem like too much information, but it's a big deal to me! When she has pooped, she tells us, and even tells us "poop" right before she's about to go. Moving towards potty-training readiness.
She has really learned to, let's say..., "assert her opinion". A by-stander may call these moments "tantrums" ;). And they are more frequent than I like to admit these days. We are working on all those normal toddler things, like being gentle to the dog, sharing and being nice to friends, and using words instead of fussing to communicate.
Like a typical girl, she always asks for "bows" and "shoes". In fact, sometimes Jovie requests a bow first thing in the morning.
She has grown out of lots of baby things. She doesn't get a nighttime bottle anymore - she's down to just one bottle a day in the morning, and that is phasing out, too. Although she still really loves her milk. She does still snuggle with us right before putting her down, which is really nice. She is learning to feed herself, and often refuses to eat unless she is helping.
Speaking of helping, she LOVES to try to help. She periodically helps me clean up her toys, feed the dog and a dozen little things I ask her to "help" me with. When I praise her, I get a proud smile from her.
There are a few moments that sill stay in my mind forever, even though there was no camera to record them, simply because of how special they were. One of those happened just a few days ago. There is a "Jesus Loves Me" book that is one of Jovie's favorites. She grabbed it and said "Jesus". I was singing through it, and got to the "Yes, Jesus Loves Me" page, and hadn't said it yet, when softly she said "Yes, Jesus..." and continued to sing something along the lines of "Yes, Jesus Loves Me, Yes, Jesus Loves Me." It was the sweetest!
All of these things and a thousand more little changes make us realize how much she's growing up.
