One and a Half Years Old and Then Some

A year and a half... wow!  I can see why people think that 18 months and beyond is a great age.  This is the age they start to do a whole pile of amazing things.  

Abby had her 18 month appointment, where she measured 31.5 in and 24 lbs (putting her in the 75th percentile for hight and still around the 25th for weight) - much like she has been since she was born.  She must be going through a growth spurt, because soon after her appointment, she started growing out of all of her clothes.  Her hair is also growing like crazy.  Every morning I have to put her bangs up so that it doesn't cover her eyes and blind her!  We are letting her hair grow out, she has such cute curls at the ends, I couldn't dare cut them off.  Besides, it's finally getting long enough to actually do something with it.

A glimpse into our future 12 years down the road?

These months has been all about language.  These past few months, Dustin and I have had to be careful what we say or do - Abby hears everything and she is repeating everything as well.  We are constantly surprised by what she can remember.  She's also become better able to communicate her wishes.  While in London this summer, Abby was having a difficult night.  She wasn't settling and it was nearing 10pm (3 hours after her bedtime and she still wasn't able to just go to sleep).  While cuddling her, she looks up at me and says "wa-wa" (water), she was thirsty!  That was the first time she communicated a desire independently of the circumstance (she had previously asked for water at meals while I'd be holding her cup, for instance).  This was amazing to me.  Since then, Abby's language skills have only improved.  I am constantly in awe of the complex concepts she's learning, and you can actually see her learning sometimes.  The look she gets on her face when she's trying to string two words together in an understandable sentence is quite hilarious.    

The light by our monthly photo chair in our new house isn't the best, so I think from now on, we'll have to do outside photos for Abby!

One of my favourite Abby sayings is "Ready, Go" and she'll use this a lot while on our daily walks.  It's more like "readiGo" all one word and adorable.  We like to race through the park, running and then stopping and running and stopping.  Sometimes, it's just "Mommy... readigo!"  Abby enjoys watching me run, apparently! Abby's started to count too.  For the most part, she's just remembering the order of the numbers, but it's pretty funny to hear her count with you.  She can tell you how old she is ("One" - while holding up one finger), and with some prompting she can count up to 6.

Abby (and the rest of us) loves our new house.  She loves her room and will gladly run right to it if you ask her to show you her room.  She's manoeuvring the stairs without difficulty (well, with only minor difficulty - she's fallen down the basement stairs once and the patio stairs another time, with only minor bumps!).  We love having an entire basement for her to play in and make a mess in.  Abby can still tell time - she knows when it's close to 10am because that's the time we go for walks around the neighbourhood.  Abby is loving the neighbourhood too.  We have lots of paths and forests to explore, as well as a number of parks.  We are also close enough to Toys R Us and Target so we can go on "play dates" in the stores and play with all the toys.  

Abby's personality is continuing to grow and differentiate.  She gives great hugs and is starting to show compassion towards her stuffed animals too.  She gets me to hug and kiss her monkey at night after we sing "Twinkle Twinkle."  It melts my heart every time she offers me monkey and sucky, in cause I need them to help me fall asleep.  Abby is getting pretty good at knowing when she wants to play and what she wants to play.  We sing a lot and also are starting to play pretend (she was gifted an amazing toy kitchen from Gramma and Grampa Cole, which she uses to make dinner and coffees for D and I).  One of her favourite toys is Lego Duplo (which she just calls Lego).  We build and destroy towers and dump Lego all over the basement.

Daddy's girl.

We are excited to have our new house and for this to become Abby's home.  Abby is filling our house with lots of energy and excitement.  We love hearing her excited voice when we come home as she runs down the hallway.  She may be a handful, but Abby is definitely one sweet, smart and caring little girl.  We'll keep her, I guess!

"Airplane... sky"  D loves that Abby has learned to identify the sound of airplanes