18 Months

Eliana is 18 months old! This post is just a list of things I want to remember about my daughter at 18 months.

At 18 months she:

Has a huge vocabulary! She is by far my biggest talker. She tries to imitate pretty much anything we say. I’ll say “Eliana can you say computer? And she’ll say “pooba”. What? That’s not close? Today she heard me tell Celo to put his backpack away and she started saying, “Ba Pa” for backpack. I’m writing out a list of how she says things (like I did for my boys) because my mom did this for us and I remember thinking that was so cool when I was little. So, the words Eliana uses regularly are: (writing it as she says it. If I write it normal it’s because she says it normal.)

No no no noooo
yaaaay
eat
pease – please
mommy
daddy
day-go – Diego
geh-go – Celo
nana – Eliana
juice
shoes
cah – car
puppy
bohd – bird
beh – bear
cat
uh-oh
ipps – oops
boo – book
wook – look
whoa
wow
Tata
Tato
Mama – Grandma
Papa – Grandpa
go
baby
moh – more
appo - apple
mehmo – elmo
oush –ouch
bah – bath
bah – ball
dis – this
yeah
yeahss – yes
bubbosh – bubbles
ahs – eyes
nose
mow – mouth
peet – feet
beh – belly
cack – quack
tee – tweet
pee-y – pretty
 

That’s all I can think of.

At 18 months she:
Loves to climb things. She climbs chairs, the couch, the shelves in the pantry, the beds, her crib, and her favorite: all over her brothers. Celo finds it hilarious and doesn’t care if she’s squishing his face or being rough. Diego likes it a little less, but still lets her most of the time. When we’re reading books at bedtime, Diego listens attentively and Eliana climbs all over Celo while he cracks up. It’s kind of a nightly thing. When she climbs something, she usually just stays there and starts screeching because she’s afraid to get down.

Did I already mention she’s a huge screecher? She is. It’s loud. She screams, screeches, whines, and throws herself on the floor like a 2 year old. And she’s only 18 months old so I like to think of her as advanced in that way. An advanced tantrum throwing diva, haha. She is well aware of what is expected of her, though, and responds pretty well to “gentle correction” most of the time. If she’s screaming and whining because she wants me to give her some food (this is what her tantrums are about 98% of the time), I say, “No screaming.” or “Be nice.” And she immediately stops and rubs her little chest and says, “Peeeeeaaaase.” When she does other naughty things like hit her brothers (daily basis), I say, “Do you want to go to bed?” That’s time out for my 18 month old. When I threaten this, she immediately stops hitting and starts softly caressing her brother’s head, arm, or wherever she was hitting him. On an especially defiant day, she hits again and then I put her in her crib for a minute and walk away. She haaates this, so we don’t have hitting episodes for awhile after that.

We use “do you want to go to bed” for dinner too. My daughter is contending for the title of Pickiest Eater on the Planet. It. is. infuriating. Not gonna lie. Allllll day long she begs for food. “Peeeeaaase. Peeeeaaase. Eat! Eat! Eeeeat!” She does the sign for please and just looks at me with the face of a sad little beggar. So I offer food. Fruit, crackers, cheese, bread, raisins, chips, meats  ….she wants none of it. The only healthy thing she will eat consistently is yogurt. Everything else is a battle. Well, unless it’s candy or sweets. When she begs for food, she pretty much just wants me to giver her junk. Sometimes I give in because I think, “At least she’s eating something.” Even if it’s gummy snacks. Or cookies. Seriously, I cannot express enough how frustrating the situation is. I’ve never had such a picky eater! So at dinnertime, when I look back on what she ate all day, (some crackers, a handful of cereal, and a bag of gummy snacks) I beg her to eat her dinner so I feel like she got some nutrition. Sometimes she surprises me and is all about her peas or carrots or chicken. But other times, she wants none of it and that’s where the “do you want to go to bed” comes in. I try to give her a bite of broccoli and noodles and she shakes her head and closes her eyes. Then I say, “Do you want to go to bed?” and she shakes her head again and opens her mouth. Then, the little faker chews the bite of food and exclaims, “Mmmmmmmmm!” Like, “Oh, that’s so yummy” even though she clearly hates it. She’s just trying to not get sent to bed. Then I try to give her another bite and again she refuses. We go through the cycle over and over all through dinner. “Do you want to go to bed? No. Mmmmmmmm”.  I should record it.

She has such a funny laugh. Also something I should record. It just sounds like a teenager’s or something. It totally sounds like she’s trying to do an evil laugh. You know, like “Bwah ha ha ha haaa” but without the bwah at the beginning. Especially when she’s begging for the aforementioned treats and I finally give in. She just does the little evil laugh and says, “Yay!” and it becomes clear that I have been worked.

She is a ham. She loves to make everyone laugh. If she notices that the boys are doing something that is making us laugh, she joins in to try to make us laugh, too. And she looooves when her brothers laugh at things she does. She’ll put one of my shoes on or something that she thinks will be funny and then starts saying, “Mommy. Daddy. WOOK!”

She just loves attention period. In the store, she’ll be crying and screaming and then a stranger looks at her and she stops, smiles, and waves. Then she turns back to me and starts crying again.

She still has no girly toys. She plays with the boys’ cars and construction vehicles and says, “rrrroooooooooooom” as she moves them across the floor. She doesn’t really have a favorite kind of toy. She just likes to get into whatever they’re doing or whatever I’m doing. If I’m cooking, she’s at my feet with tupperware. If I’m cleaning my room, she’s at my feet pulling stuff out of my purse. The only thing I can think of that she really loves is books. She asks me to read to her all the time. She brings me a book and climbs into my lap and says, “Pease.” Sometimes I’ll be kneeling doing laundry or cleaning up or whatever and she’ll come sit in my lap while I’m trying to do other things and I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing which makes her slip off my lap. Then she’ll say “Ipps!” and get back onto my lap until I stop what I’m doing and read to her.

She loves music as much as Diego does. She loves to dance. Her dance moves are hilarious. For real, I have GOT to get it on video. I’m such a slacker mom. She sticks her tongue out of the side of her mouth when she dances. I have no idea why but it’s funny.

She loves to give kisses. A lot. She is always kissing up on one of us. Whether it’s the back of my knees when I’m standing at the stove, or the top of her brothers’ heads when they’re laying on the floor, she just randomly comes up to us and smooches us.

Whenever anyone in our family needs to go potty, she follows them into the bathroom and points at the potty and says, “Pee pees.” Sometimes she’ll tug at her diaper and act like she wants to sit on the potty. I let her one time and she sat there and tried for awhile until she got bored. It was shocking to me that she even cared or wanted to do that. Makes me hopeful that when the time comes she’ll be easy to potty train. And now I’ve just jinxed it.

When the neighborhood kids come knocking and I go to the door to tell them my boys can’t play or whatever, she stands next to me and tries to tell them for me. She nods her head at them and babbles like she’s saying something super important. “DIS! Dis WA da nee dee ba. Yai?” Makes me laugh.

She is our funny, crazy haired little princess and we love her! And now for a picture overload.

She looks SO much like me as a kid in the pictures below.

My pupil-less girl. She has pupils. You just can’t see them.