Quintessential G: 18 Month Version

Some very awesome things about my daughter at this age that I never want to forget:

• She babbles a lot now. She talks to herself while she plays. She answers some of my questions in babble. Her babbling is sounding more and more like English, too.
• She still has her favorite words that we hear all day long. Among them are: nooooo, yeah, YUCK!, uh-oh (sometimes followed by "spcccthpppppo"= "spaghettio"), oooh (said in a wide-eyed-wonder-of-discovery voice), muumma, mow (more), dada, dah (dog), ca(cat) or key-ee (kitty), pah-tee (potty), buk (book), boh (phone, remote), joooce, EAT!, buh (bubbles), SIDE! (outside and inside), slih (slide), wuf wuf, mooooo, cuk (cluck), yeow (meow), roar, grrrrr (bear sound), see-hee (silly), boat, SHOES!, shir (shirt), sock, toes, eye, nose, ear, hair, tee (teeth), down, SHOW!, boo (blue), CIR-CLE!!, chee-os (cheerios), rororo(Row, Row, Row), eyeyeyeye (E-I-E-I-O), HOT!, SPOO! (spoon), waah (walk)...(I know I'm forgetting so many!)
  
• She also understands just about anything you say to her. You can almost see her mind processing it for a second after you say something, then she does it. Or does the opposite of it...It is always the opposite when you say "come here." She runs away, laughing.
• She really does like the Little People I bought her.
  
• She has begun singing along to familiar tunes. She has always sort of sung to herself, her own little made up melodies. But lately she has started to really sing with the "Sesame Street" theme song, nonsense songs on some of her favorite shows, especially repetitive word/sound songs like falalala or badadada. She has surprisingly good pitch. However, if you start to sing with her she stops to listen to you!
• She is also beginning to do hand motions or actions as directed by a song, such as "clap your hands", "stomp your feet", "down came the rain and washed the spider out."
• She loves to color. For some reason she has fallen in love with circles. I don't even know where she learned the word. But she knows what a circle is, she tries (unsuccessfully) to draw them herself, and she will hand you a crayon or chalk and cry "Cir-Cle!" and yell it again when you draw one for her.
• She eats with a fork and a spoon, independently and does pretty well, I have to say. She is still learning to "stab" her food with the fork, and I don't recommend giving her soup yet with a spoon. Though she does eat cereal with milk with her spoon. We change her shirt after that.
  
• She still loves to dance. She also likes to try to jump, especially if you egg her on by yelling "Jump!" while she does it.
• She started doing downward-dog (yoga) all by herself. We say "upside-down" when she does it and she cracks up. She waits for you go get upside-down, too. This makes her giggle even more.
• She started going down her little slide all by herself. She climbs to the top, waits for you to say "1, 2, 3, GO!" and then she scoots down, and waits for you to clap and cheer. Yeah, she's an only child.
• She likes to play with the hose. But she doesn't like it to get her wet. She whines and tries to wipe the water off.

• Recently she began giving "eskimo kisses" or "noses." She comes in for a kiss, but instead rubs noses, and then promptly giggles herself silly.
• We started a new routine before bed. Just before we put her jammies on, after her diaper is changed, we give her belly-button a "goodnight kiss" (which is more like a tickle) and then say "goodnight, belly-button!" This also cracks her up.
• She giggles. A. Lot.
• She blows kisses.
• She gives high-fives.
• She loves to play any type of musical instrument, her drum set, piano, daddy's guitar, her little flute. She'll play the drums on anything she possibly can.

• She tries to blow bubbles, and has a few times, but mostly she puts the bubble wand up to her mouth and sucks in first, thus sucking in all the bubble juice, before she tries to blow. Then when we attempt to help her get it right, she giggles and just sticks the whole bubble wand directly in her mouth, which prompts a "yuck!" and more giggles.
• Anything that is "yuck!" is super-funny.
• She is very opinionated and will tell you something is "yuck!" while handing it to you, followed by a "noooooo" and a head-shake.
• She loves to brush her teeth.
• She gives great hugs.
• She will only allow Daddy to push her on the swing. He makes her go higher than I do. I can't even attempt to put her in the swing when he's around. It prompts this:
• She can throw an major league tantrum. Complete with yelling, foot-stomping, pouty-lip protruding, turning around in little circles...and will make you think you have destroyed her will to live! Also, though not necessarily something I want to remember, but worth documenting, she whines A. Lot. more lately (nails on chalkboard type whining. Lucky us) and has become defiant. She will purposefully do things she knows are wrong to see how far she can push it. She will look at you, shake her head and say "nooo," and then do it anyway. We have had to institute "discipline" by taking away whatever she is throwing, drawing on the walls with...
  
• She is sleeping through the night! Hallalujah!
• She doesn't always take naps, though. I cannot get this girl to put herself down for a nap. We've instituted "quiet time" where we leave her in her crib for about an hour, even if no nap occurs. So far she has only fallen asleep once. 1 for about 6 tries. We'll keep working on it.
  
• She loves books. She is constantly bringing books over to be read. Especially: The Big Elmo Lift-The-Flap Book, The Monster At The End Of This Book, The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Lost Socks, The Peek-A-Boo Series Books, any book that has Sesame St. characters in it, and her little foam puzzle book.
• Her favorite shows continue to be Blue's Clues, Jack's Big Music Show, and Sesame Street. However, SS seems to be edging out JBMS lately. Sometimes even BC!
• That said, she is more into BC than ever. She sings along with some of the songs, she does the mail-time motions, she gets excited when Steve finds clues...it's really fun to watch her get so excited!
• She is also very excited when Elmo's World begins.

Whew! That's quite a list! She just keeps growing and learning new things! I can't keep up!


Giuliana,

I am so proud of you! You are an amazing girl who makes everyone around you smile and laugh. You are so smart and quick to learn new things. You melt my heart every day with something new. I am constantly saying to Daddy "Did you see what she just did/said?" I am prouder than you will ever know to be your mama.

I love you,
Mommy