Eighteen Months

My little girl is getting so big. Her 18 month "birthday" was a couple weeks ago, and so, of course, we had a photo shoot. This was one of my favorites (though both grandmothers did not like it...). She is a very active toddler. A very physical child. While she definitely has her "girly" moments - she loves shoes and wants to play with my make up and get her hair brushed - she seems to me to be very boyish in many of her activities. She loves to wrestle with Moe, including playing tug of war with his sticks, she jumps and rolls all over me, she runs strollers into people, never cries when she gets hurt, climbs on everything, frequently tries to remover her shirt and is just ... rough. And I love it. While I have accepted more and more "girlness" in myself in my most recent years (I will now wear pink!), I spent a lot of my life being a tomboy. Playing sports, being outside, understanding football. One of my fears in having a girl was that I'd somehow end up with a really prissy "girly-girl." And who knows, N. could still go that route, and I hope I'll be able to deal with it if it happens. But for now I'm more than happy to be mothering a pretty "rough and tough" girl!
Other developmental notes: She still isn't talking. And even the few words that she used to say before, she stopped. But she can obviously understand me. I can give her pretty complicated directions and, if she's in the mood, she can follow them completely. She can walk down pretty big steps by herself, eats like a horse, loves meat, eats more fruit that seems possible (though she also has plenty of poopy diapers), seems to be starting to understand what the potty is and that she needs her diaper changed, still sleeps with us, but that's a long story, wears 2T clothes and size 6 1/2 shoes. I really don't even know how many teeth she has and I don't even know how many teeth toddlers get. But she's got tons and has for a long time. She likes to brush her teeth too. She's doing a lot of mimicing and just recently started getting really jealous if M. is home and we're together a distance away. If we're hugging or something, she gets mad and wants to get me away from him. Not sure what that's about... So, there's an update on my beautiful girl!