18 Months

Last Sunday marked 18 months of life for our little girl, which is reason enough to celebrate, but we were especially excited about this day because it meant that Charly could finally attend nursery! Nursery is the toddler class at church. Before 18 months the babies stay with their parents the whole 3 hours of church. It was easy when she was less mobile and independent, but the last 6 months or so have been a challenge. Now she can play with other kids her age in a room filled with toys, and she even gets snack! She had a great time last week and didn't seem to miss us at all!

Here she is, ready for Nursery, in the cute dress her Aunt Nikki bought for her:

And her cute little french braids:

Aside from now going to nursery, we've noticed some other changes happening with Charly. About a week ago her speech seemed to change. She started pronouncing words better and trying out more difficult words. Saying Grandma changed from "Bwahma" to "Gwahma". She started requesting certain foods when I asked her what she wanted to eat, instead of just parroting back what I say. A sandwich and cheese is a regular request for lunch now, and just this morning (without even talking about breakfast) she asked for toast and yogurt. She has also started to string more words together. For example, we went to the Air and Space museum a few weeks ago (still need to post about that!) and we put her back in the stroller rather than letting her walk around because she wouldn't hold Matt's hand. She started whining and said "Hold. Hand. Dada. Pees." That is crazy close to a sentence, right?! She says things like that all the time. "New book. Read. Mama." It is great to have her express herself more clearly.

Charly is growing more independent each month. She loves to do things herself, and she loves to help me do things, like brush my teeth, help me clean, etc. If I ask her to help she'll do just about anything. She cleans up her toys really well when we ask. She loves to color- a lot.

Independent child at the Air and Space Museum

Coloring

She has also been really in to dressing herself lately. Her outfits usually progress throughout the day to look something like this:

 As always, this kid can't get enough of books. She has some that she'll sit and narrate herself, listing a key part of each page, or she'll go through and find an item on each page, like find the dog on each page of a Clifford book.

She has also started saying some really funny phrases. Oh dear, oh man, and no ma'am come to mind immediately. Here is a video to demonstrate: 

Her hair has been getting crazy long, as evidenced by the french braids above. I was even able to get her hair into a ponytail, although it didn't stay in very well.

As usual, we can't get enough of this kid!