18 months : Molly update

How is it that Molly is 18 months old?  A year and a half?  To me she is still my baby...but then I see babies and Molly looks so big.  Her face is not so round, her hair is getting longer, she has more teeth, she's (almost) walking...not such a baby anymore. 

saying:  She is not my talker like Emma was--but she's getting really good at repeating words after me when asked.  Off the top of my head, she can say:  mama, daddy, bubble, neck, duck (she says her "k's" really well), Mooma, sis (for Emma), Doodad, baby, nose, eye, boo boo (for when she poops), juice (we never give her juice--this is just what she calls water), nigh-nigh, more, all done, down, meow...
I know there is more but I'm drawing a blank.  All the words she does say, she says in context and correctly.  She mostly just does her baby babble, though.  She will tell us something with so much passion...but we have no idea what she's saying.  It's adorable.  Sometimes if I can't understand what she is trying to tell me, I will tell her, "I'm sorry but I don't understand, Molly." and she will just say "oh" and look away...it's pretty pitiful--but cute at the same time.  She signs "more", "thank you" and "all done".  She also says "thank you" when she signs it and it is adorable!  It sounds like nay-new...and very nasal-y.  It's cute!

doing:  She has taken a few steps, but prefers to crawl to get places.  She can stand up in the middle of a room unassisted and loves to do that "trick" for us.  She is quite the entertainer.  She LOVES babies and books.  She really enjoys her stacker toy and shape sorter.  If I show her where the shape goes in her sorter, she can get the piece in no problem!  She can get up the stairs in a flash and likes to play on them (we try to avoid that as much as possible).  Molly really likes music.  She dances when she hears any kind of music, plays the piano all the time and I will often hear her singing to herself while she is contently playing. There is this Nora Jones song that Tim always plays for her and they dance together--Molly will "sing" the chorus.  This will often calm her down if she's upset.  She can identify lots of her body parts.  She is very good at following directions--even multiple step directions, i.e. get the baby doll and put her in the rocking chair.  Molly loves animals.  Tim and I are hoping to take the girls to the zoo one day soon.  When Molly sees an animal anywhere, i.e. outside, on TV, in a book, on a poster...she will get so excited and do her "awwww" and her love-love hug motion.  She has such a sweet soft spot for anything fuzzy--just like her mama!

not doing:  Not walking :)  The doctor checked her out yesterday and assured me that it is not a gross motor delay but just her personality.  Ha...that made me giggle.
eating/drinking:  Molly's a good eater.  She loves carbs--don't all toddlers?  Mac&Cheese, spaghetti, if it's pasta, she's all over it!  She also loves fruit and cheese.  Not a huge fan of hot dogs but does like sliced turkey.  She also really enjoys peanut butter.  Some days she likes veggies and other days not so much.  She drinks water or milk.  Emma lived on juice when she was Molly's age--and we're paying for it at the dentist now--so no juice for Molly.  If she gets it, it's like a treat. 
wearing:  I pulled out Molly's winter clothes from last year and she can fit in all of it again.  This never happened with Emma until recently.  I'm pretty excited about that.  She's in 18-24 month in pretty much all brands.  I did pull down the 2t winter stuff and that is a little big, but fit's okay.  She's in 4/5 diapers--depending on which Daddy decides to bring home at the time. 
sleeping:  We could be doing better in this department.  She still really loves her mommy snuggles so she spends the first half of the night on her crib and the second half in my bed.  I don't mind it...but I know eventually we will need to work on her staying in her crib all night.  She actually slept in her crib until 6am the other day.  I woke up at 5:45am and ran in to her room to check on her.  Haha :)
teeth: She has 12 teeth now.  4 top front, 4 bottom front and 4 molars.  She is currently working on her eye teeth (I got a good look at them when she was screaming during her shot yesterday). 

As I mentioned above Molly had her 18 month appt. at the doctor yesterday.  Everything looks great!

stats: 

25.6 lbs and 31.5" tall

and to compare, Emma at 18 months:

27.7 lbs and 32" tall

Molly's sticking with the trend of being a little smaller than Emma at each check up. 

Molly is such a fun, sweet girl.  She is a hand full, don't get me wrong...but that's what makes her Molly!  She is spunky, sassy, strong-willed and spirited.  BUT...she is still my little snuggle bug and mama's girl.  She's cute...whenever we are around other people, she will always point to me and say "mama" to the other person as if to say, "see, I got my mama, don't take me away".  She is more of a people person than Emma was.  She will usually go to somebody else and hang out for a bit before wanting to come back to me.  If somebody would just look at Emma she would sometimes break down in tears--oh my sweet, shy Emma. 

We may call you lots of different names:

Moose

Mooskerator

Molly-bear

Molls (what Emma usually calls her)  

Skeezie or Weezie (Tim's name for her) 

but we love you all the same, my little Moose!