I love that my birthday month is Violet’s half birthday month. My sweet, sassy little lady turned 18 months old this month, so I thought it was time for an update.
{Violet at 18 Months}
Sleep – Not too long after I wrote her 15 month post, she let us know pretty clearly that she was DONE with two naps. I figure one good nap is better than two non-naps, so, reluctantly, we made the transition. She now naps in the afternoon for 2-3 hours most days. She still goes to bed around 7:30 and sleeps until 7 on a good day, 6-ish on a normal day. For both naps and nighttime sleep she takes a pacifier and wears her beloved sleep sack. Please tell me that she won’t be taking a paci and sleep sack to college with her, right?
Eating – Violet’s appetite and food preferences vary from day to day. One day she loves chicken and can’t eat it fast enough, the next she won’t touch it and quarantines it to the side of her plate. There are a handful of veggies she likes (peas, tomatoes, corn, avocado) but otherwise they get the quarantine treatment as well. She loves pretty much any fruit, oatmeal, and “kid food” staples like mac and cheese and pizza (or “pizzu” as she calls it).
Talking – She is quite the little talker! She still says a lot of unidentifiable gibberish, which is especially entertaining when shouted (which happens frequently), but she’s added all kinds of words to her vocabulary as well. She can name most of the basic body parts, and especially loves to point them out using Ellie (our dog) as the model. Ellie loves it when she gets to “eye.” She knows that she can get her way more easily when she adds please “kleeees” to her requests, and when prompted she’ll say thank you as well. She loves to take her hair bow out and say “bow” and proudly hand it to me. Thanks, Violet. She still loves to say “I want down” which also means I want up, and has added “I want out” which she says when she’s in the shopping cart. She can name several animals and the sounds they make as well. Every day she makes more observations about the world around her, and it’s so fun to see her learn!
Songs – Violet loves it when we turn music on and she’ll dance around. She also loves to “sing” the ABCs (which mostly sounds like “B B B B B…”). She loves watching Barney at her daycare and she will take her stuffed Barney, hand it to me and sing a gibberish version of the “I love you” song which she insists that I sing to her. She’s suckered Jona into singing it to her as well.
Favorite things – playing on the couch and falling/face-planting into the cushions, the neighbor cat that comes into our yard (NOT Ellie’s favorite for sure), going “outshide”, opening up the pantry and shouting “cracker!”, playing with socks (no idea), laying stuffed animals, super heroes, and Little People down and saying “night night”.
Least favorite things – being told no, being told I can’t hold her right now, being strapped into a carseat/buckled into a shopping cart (girl wants to be FREE), when Jona gets his food first, when Jona is sitting with me or is doing anything she wants to do.
Jona and Violet – Getting to experience Jona and Violet’s relationship is my very favorite thing about being a mom right now. Violet, like a typical toddler, gets mad when Jona takes something she wants or sits with me before she can, but despite that it is clear that she adores her big brother. When she wakes up in the morning or from her nap, the first thing she usually says is “Jojo!” And when I go pick her up from daycare and tell her we’re going to go get Jona she shouts “Jojo!” and runs to the door. Jona sometimes gets annoyed when she destroys his racetrack or tries to take his legos, but otherwise he is an amazing big brother. He is so sweet to her and wants to find ways to play with her. It seems like he makes it his job to make her happy. When I’m cooking dinner and she’s upset, he tries to find things to cheer her up, like giving her Bongo, his favorite stuffed monkey, or helping her build a “how” (house) with magna-tiles. I know it won’t always be like this, but seeing them together, giving each other hugs and playing together so sweetly, melts my heart!!
Favorite books – Dear Zoo, Where’s Spot, The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s ABC, My First Book of Colors, But Not the Hippopotamus, Moo Baa La La La
Things I want to remember – She can be so sweet and affectionate when she wants to be. She’ll really squeeze when she’s giving a hug and is always going up to Ellie (who sits at perfect hug-height) and hugging her as well. Ellie tolerates it like a champ. She loves to help throw things away. If she finds a random piece of fuzz or paper on the floor she’ll say “want taah” which I finally figured out is “trash”–she wants me to open the trash bin for her so she can throw it away. She loves running in circles around our main floor, and will say “buh bye” and run out of the room and then “Hi!” when she comes back around. She gets excited every time.
She’s so much fun right now, it’s definitely never boring with her around!
