8teen Months of Crazy

Dear child of mine,

There have been many occasions over the past month where I've stopped and thought..."is everyone else's child as crazy as mine?" If we broke your personality down into percentages I think it would look something like this: 20% sweet, 80% crazy. Your cray cray ways usually leave me standing in your cloud of maniac dust shaking my head. And smiling of course.

Let's start with food, shall we? Eh, most of the time you can take it or leave it. Small appetite or not, one thing's for sure.....you do NOT like waiting for your dinner to be prepared. This is partially my fault. Even when food is not on your radar I will say something like "are ya ready for dinner?" which leaves you hanging on desperately to your high chair as you attempt to drag it closer to the refrigerator. You would think I'd learn to quickly prepare your meal and then ask if you are ready. Duh, mom! We have been working very diligently on improving your mealtime manners. For example, the begging and demanding does not get you very far anymore. I turn into mealtime mannering mommy now. Here is a moment I don't plan on ever forgetting....the other night your dad and I were getting your dinner served up and you were watching from your chair. The reaching and whining soon began as I was waiting for your meal to cool off. We had already gone through your usual "it's hot, we have to wait" routine where you blow on your tray with me. You were so over that by that point and had honestly begun to get on my nerves a little bit. Yes, that happens from time to time. ;) So anyways, I turned around and in the most stern voice I could muster up said to you "is that the way we act during dinnertime? I didn't think so." Your dad couldn't help but laugh as he watched your eyes pop out of your head and you immediately sat straight up in your chair and turned to face forward. He nudged me to look at you and I was surprised to find you looking like you were a soldier who'd just been reprimanded. Pretty funny stuff girl. I guess it's nice to know that you take well to some of my disciplining ways. You have starting saying "more" and sometimes "pease" when prompted to. Hopefully that will become a habit soon. We have just touched the tip of the "thank you" iceberg and you are much too impatient to even begin to fathom what that means let alone try to say it.

"Fine, I'll just use the art of the glare to get my point across."

"Will she ever feed me...."

My dear girl, there are some things you need no discipline on...you have the praying thing down pat. Nothing makes my heart soar more than to see you voluntarily bow your head and put your hands together to pray. You have been doing this for quite some time now but just recently you have taken to being a serial pray-er. You will repeatedly pray during a meal and I will just light up when I look over to see you mid pineapple gorging with your hands together mumbling something...wanna know how I know when you are praying? Because each prayer ends the same way. Like this.....

You are picky, picky, picky. Veggies are out of the question and I almost feel as if you are mad at me when I put them on your tray. It's worth a try baby girl....gotta get those good vitamins! I can't go wrong with giving you crackers, raspberries and cheese. They are always well received. I'd say that berries took the place of bananas as your favorite food. You love to snack on blueberries, raspberries and strawberries in your new Gyrobowl from Aunt Pauline....

"It's just like the commercial mom!"

NEWS ALERT!!!! You. Don't. Like. Baths. There, I said it. Shocking, I know. I still can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that you are not an avid bath toy enthusiast anymore. Even after you were gifted some pretty awesome bath toys for Christmas. I can't figure out if you dislike the guest bathroom setup as much as I do. I wouldn't imagine that an 18 month old would be bothered by the need for a new toilet, new cabinets and a new tub. You seemed to love the older than dirt tub you bathed in at the cave. My theory is that you can't leave your toys sitting that long without giving them the attention they are due. Makes sense to me, girl. Your baths have shrunk down to no more than five minutes. In and out. Sud up and rinse off. Lotion. Jammies. PLAY.

You are a dancer and a runner. Your little legs take after your momma and they run instead of walk. I have always moved fast from room to room and I laugh everytime I see you scuttle from through the house as fast as you can. I like to pretend that this is something you got from me but I know it's probably just your toddler nature to run. You will dance to any beat and you love to listen to music. Your cartoons mesmerize you....but not enough to sit still for more than five minutes of one. You're a girl on the go. Those toys aren't going to play with themselves, huh? ;)

Miss Chatty McChatterson. You are still spouting off your standard words with a few new words thrown in the mix. You can say "night night" when ready for bed. You are a pro at finishing off dad's famous phrase "ready, set....GOOOOO!" You have started to mimic words a lot more. While your vocabulary is about the same as last month, your ability to understand phrases, commands and words absolutely astounds me. My word girl, it's as if you understand everything coming out of my mouth. Which scares me a little bit. You can answer a ton of questions with a head nod or head shake. "No" is a word that you only share with the dogs. You tell them "no, no, no" very adamantly and aren't afraid to discipline our canines with a shake of your finger. Usually this is after they've stolen one of your snacks.

Confession time. Your dad and I like to sit back and give you commands to see if you will follow them. It's a great form of entertainment that you should try with your own kid someday. You are great at following commands (or should I say "requests"...that sounds better). Take for example: when we feel a little bit too lazy to get up from the living room floor during a play session we will send you on a diaper mission. You usually come back with at least three diapers but you are always good to return them to your room and throw your diaper in the trash while you're at it. We can always count on your to go to your room, open your bottom drawer and pick out a pair of jammies when asked to. You are able to take your diaper off but aren't really interested in it....thank goodness. You can retrieve just about anything within reach when prompted to. You know where to find anything and everything and often stand near what you want pointing to the cabinet or drawer that it's in. A method that usually gives us a good laugh. As if that isn't enough entertainment for us, this is what sometimes happens with the extra diapers you retrieve.....

"I hate to break this to you dad, but I think you are wearing the diaper mom just changed..."

That red head in you is a fiery little monster at times. I'm not complaining though.....after all, it's the dogs that have to pay the price. They've learned to be more than patient with you. It's not uncommon to see you chasing them and swinging a twirling baton at them, head butting them is a brand new favorite of yours, and finally crawling on top of them and smothering them.....

Emmi is currently taking applications for foster homes

Evenings are usually pretty fast and furious around our house. You are ready for dinner the minute we walk in the door after a day of work. I attempt to get dinner prepared while you are picking at your food. Bathtime, playtime, bedtime come way too soon. I always wonder how the nights fly by so quickly. We squeeze in as much fun as we can....

One of our favorite games to play is pointing out body parts. You can now go from head to toe and point to most of your parts when prompted.....hair, head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, hands, belly, bottom and feet. You will perform your animal noises for us when you feel like it. We can always count on getting a nice loud lion "raaaawwwwrrrr" but we consider ourselves lucky when you give us five noises in a row. Cat, lion, dog, cow and sheep are your favorite. You make certain faces when asked to. Our favorites are your "get excited" and "get mad" face.

Sleep. Just do it already, girl. Don't get me wrong....when you fall asleep you stay that way. But golly gee you sure don't like to go into your crib. Except for a handful of occasions where you actually walked to your crib when you were sleepy you can usually be found crying for a solid ten minutes before you give in and fall asleep of a night. Your bedtime remains around 7:00 and by the grace of God you have figured out that it's much better to sleep in until around 8:00. The extra 30 minutes or so makes a huge difference. Not only on Saturday mornings (which is magical by the way) but it also gives me extra time to get a headstart on getting ready of a morning before you start crowing. I do however miss our fun times playing around in the morning. You've been sleeping in so late recently that I've had to go pluck you from your crib, dress you and ship you out the door before your feet can even hit the floor. This you are not a big fan of. That means you have to skip your usual house roaming, dog petting, treat feeding and cracker stealing ways that a normal morning would bring. You haven't shown any signs of knowing how to escape from your crib but that's where mom's help comes in. I've been known to help you "escape" a lot recently. Bad habit, I know, but geez your cries break my heart. Sometimes I picture you in there devising a plan to jump out of your crib.

Tired zombie baby

Diva. Diva. Diva. x 1,000,000! Your divalicious wardrobe leaves me wanting to change your clothes three times a day just so you will be able to get some use out of your pretty outfits. You are a lot more tolerable when it comes to hats and bows lately. You love to put your shoes on but you are like your parents in that you want to kick your kicks off as soon as you walk in the door. The socks go too! You are wearing a variety of sizes when it comes to clothes. You are still squeezing into a 6 month jacket....I am afraid to see what would happen if you knew I was about to get rid of it. To say that you are a little attached would be an understatement. You are wearing some 2T dresses and outfits but mostly 18 months tops and bottoms. You wear a size 3 to 4 shoe.

Your independence amazes me everyday. You are a momma's baby through and through the past couple months and crave my attention 99% of the time....but that remaining 1% you can be found pouring tea for yourself, reading a book the floor, reclining on the couch with your snack bowl or laying on the floor with your feet up in the air watching cartoons. Those are the times I'm secretly standing back and watching you do your own thing.

I have found you on more than one occasion just sitting in your wagon in the living room quietly staring at the wall and waiting for me to notice that you want to take a ride. Use your vocals girl, I know you have some! Diva is not even the word to describe you. You are an accessory queen who can't leave the house without your hat, scarf and purse. We rarely leave the house without these staple items but this is due to lots of distraction. If you spot your coat rack before we leave your room it's all over from there. We must then take each of your accessories down one by one and pile them on you. After each one is placed on only then can we continue on to the car. I secretly love that you do this. It makes for a great laugh. And a great photo op....

"Being this stylish is exhausting...."

Here you are on a different day with your same insane amount of garb on...just a regular morning on your way to daycare. I'm starting to wonder what you are hiding in that purse of yours....

"What a lady carries in her purse is her own business..."

But when it's time to de-accessorize you look similar to a snake shedding its skin....

Listen here baby girl! You are amazingly amazing! Amazingly crazy. Amazingly loud. Amazingly sweet. Amazingly insightful. Amazingly silly. I live for the moments when you want to cuddle with me. It's a Hallie world and your dad and I are just living in it. You graciously let us be your play partners in life. You have me wrapped around your finger. I've traded The Bachelor for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. You are an entertainer at heart and my new favorite thing is to see you "perform" for us and wait to see our reaction. Your fake laugh gets me everytime. Your giddy little squeals and your bright as the sun smile leave me wanting nothing more in life than to see you happy. Happy half birthday baby Hallie! (yes, you are still my BABY!)

Love,

Mom